What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

WHAT: Some of you know I will be in Kansas City, MO, this weekend.  A few of you from the area expressed interest in a blognic.

My kind host for my time in KC told arranged a good meeting place and time. 

WHERE: LatteLand at Briarcliff Village, 5 minutes north of downtown KC at 169 & Briarcliff Parkway.  Here is a map.

WHEN: 8:30 Saturday morning onward would be a good time for anyone who reads WDTPRS to coagulate there for some chat and some coffee.

HOW: Very informal!

WHO: If some people come, great! 

WHY: I would be pleased to meet you.

Welcome to another installment of What Does the Prayer Really Sound Like? 

In this project we will study the Last Gospel, the beginning of the Gospel of John, used at the end of Mass with the 1962 Missale Romanum.  With a few exceptions, this is the last Gospel for almost all the days of the liturgucal year.  I will first read the Gospel at a deliberate pace.  Then we will hear a few of the harder words and phrases with time for you to repeat them.  Finally the whole gospel will be read at a more normal speed, as one would say it during Mass.

http://www.wdtprs.com/prayercazt/080123_lastgospel.mp3

If priests who are learning to say the older form of Holy Mass can get these prayers in their ears, they will be able to pray them with more confidence. So, priests are my very first concern. 

However, these audio projects can be of great help to lay people who attend Holy Mass in the Traditional, or extraordinary form: by listening to them ahead of time, and becoming familiar with the sound of the before attending Mass, they will be more receptive to the content of the prayers and be aided in their full, conscious and active participation.

My pronunciation of Latin is going to betray something of my nationality, of course. Men who have as their mother tongue something other than English will sound a little different.  However, we are told that the standard for the pronunciation of Latin in church is the way it is spoken in Rome.  Since I have spent a lot of time in Rome, you can be pretty sure my accent will not be too far off the mark.

I deliver these readings at a slower pace than I would ordinarily during Mass.  But hopefully the pace will help you hear the words a little more clearly.

If this was useful to you, let your priest friends know this resource is available.  And kindly make a little donation using the donation button on the left side bar of the blog or or by clicking here.  This is a labor of love, but those donations really help.  And don’t forget to check out the PODCAzTs!

Pray for me, listen carefully, and practice practice practice.

UPDATED 23 Jan 07 – 22:05 GMT:

In his Wednesday audience address, focused mostly on Christian unity, the Holy Father subtly reinforced what he has been doing about reorienting the focus of liturgy, both the positioning of the Crucifix in relation to the altar and by celebrating Mass ad orientemi.  Remember: the Pope has a plan to reinvigorate the identity of the Church and liturgy is the tip of the spear.  Therefore, it should not be a surprise that he will bring liturgical references into talks on many subjects.

Here is what he said at the audience in my translation corrected from the released text by listening to the audio.  The important corrections from the recording I indicate in green:

Behold, the meaning of prayer: to open our hearts, to create in us a willingness which opens the path to Christ.  In the liturgy of the ancient Church, after the sermon, the bishop or president of the celebration, the principal celebrant, said: "Conversi ad Dominum…Turn (around) toward the Lord".   Then he himself and all there rise [text: rose] up and turn [text: turned] themselves toward the East.  They all want [text: wanted] to gaze toward Christ.  Only if we have been converted, only in this turning toward Christ, in this common gaze at Christ, can we find the gift of unity.

What I find interesting here is that, in this quotation, in the official text released by the Holy See, the Holy Father uses the past tense, as if he is speaking of a historical reality.  In his actual talk, he changed the tenses to present, not past.  People ARE turning, etc. 

This is a subtle change, to be sure, but I think the Holy Father has something in mind in doing this.  He is talking about a liturgical turning to the Lord TODAY, as a tool of Christian unity. 

In one of my recent PODCAzTs I spoke about worship ad orientem.

"Yes, for the hundreth time… they found the ring, already!

I got a question by e-mail from a retired priest military chaplain (edited):

Can you tell me why the number of the signs of the cross over the sacred species after the consecration [in the TLM]?  After all, we are not "blessing" Jesus.

 

It is good to know why we do things in the older form of Mass.  An image flashed through my mind of some priest being "tested" by his somewhat unfriendly bishop to see if he was "qualified" to celebrate the older form, turning the tables and asking his somewhat hostile bishop, "Why all the signs of the Cross after the consecration?"