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

Here are links to a few posts that have something to do with the Triduum, one way or another.

• Question about singing Good Friday Passion in Extraordinary Form
• Pope Benedict may hear confessions on Good Friday
• Holy Thursday Mass – optional washing of feet – only MALES
• PCED: TLM celebration of St. Joseph on 15 March, Annunciation on 31 March
• PRAYERCAzT 21: Passion of St. Matthew (Palm Sunday – 1962 Missale Romanum)
• Send in your photos of veiled images in your churches!
• Can a Novus Ordo parish have a 1962 Triduum? Fr. Z’s opinion.
• The Remnant: a timely call to support Pope Benedict
• • 
• Empty holy water fonts during Lent… GRRRRRR!
• Fr. Z’s 20 Tips For Making A Good Confession – reprise
• Just to be clear, Confessions on Good Friday are NOT forbidden…. duh!
• New Good Friday prayer & “shelo asani goi”: the logic of monotheism and its eschatological hope
• Fr. Welzbacher’s Pastor’s Page on the Good Friday Prayer of Jews – excellent
• SSPX comment on Good Friday prayer for Jews: profound regret
• Why did Pope Benedict not replace the Novus Ordo Good Friday prayer for Jews?
• What version of Holy Week rites may be used by “trad” groups?
• USCCB statement on the new Good Friday prayer for Jews
• WDTPRS: The new Good Friday prayer for Jews in the 1962MR
  

This just in from the guys at St. John Cantius:

Father

Recently Sister Marcella, MC, the Regional Superior of the Missionaries of Charity in the North America, asked the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius to provide instruction in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite for the superiors of the houses of the Missionaries of Charity in the United States.

On March 12, 2008, these sisters visited the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius for a day of lectures and discussion. Fr. Scott Haynes, SJC, gave various talks throughout the day on the history, spirituality and mystical theology of the Mass in the Extraordinary Form.

A DVD presentation of the Low Mass was used to instruct the sisters in the ritual of the Traditional Latin Mass and its meanings.

Other lectures of the day included a presentation of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, the importance of the silence of the Mass, the history of ad orientem prayer, and means of external and internal participation in the Mass.

Last year I shot a photo of the beginning of Holy Mass beginning at S. Maria Nova, on the Roman Forum, where the mortal remains of S. Francesca Romana are venerated.

Nice vestments, no?

This year, my friend John Sonnen, formerly also of St. Agnes in St. Paul, got a closer view.

 

There is a translation point regarding the optional rite of washing feet (the “Mandatum” or “Command” – whence the word Maundy) on Holy Thursday.  

In many places women are invited to have their feet washed. 

This is against the Church’s laws which are based on divine revelation Scripture (cf. Matthew 20:28). 

This rite, optional in the Novus Ordo, was reintroduced by Pope Pius XII in 1955.

Two main excuses are offered in defense of the abuse of washing the feet of women.

The first excuse concerns a false sense of service and charity: “hospitality” suggests women must be “included”.  In the USA some might obtusely cite a note having no canonical authority from the (then) NCCB’s Committee on Liturgy in 1987 which uses this “hospitality” argument.

The second excuse stems from “inclusive” language: the English words in the ICEL Sacramentary, “men” and “man”, can’t possibly mean “males”.  That would be sexist!  Therefore women must be included. 

On the contrary, the Latin rubrics for the foot washing rite has words viri selecti, “chosen men”. 

Vir means “a male person”.   The mighty Lewis & Short Dictionary say vir is "a male person, a man (opp. femina; cf. mas)." 

If you have been properly informed about this, to insist that “men” (viri) means “men and women” is really to lie.   Homo or plural homines might be argued to be of both sexes, but absolutely not vir.

If you have been informed that vir means only "men" and that excludes boys or youths, then you were probably misinformed. 

Vir refers to a person’s sex, not his age.  There are specific Latin words to indicate categories of age in males, such as puer, adolescens, iuvenis and senex. 

The word vir can tempt a strict interpretaion of "man" in the sense of "adult male", but that would be too strict.  Also, while clearly the Apostles were men, not boys or youths, the point is that they were "male", not that they were this age or that age.  The Apostles were present in the Upper Room because they were chosen by Christ to be priests.  And there is only a juridical, not an ontological, limitation on the age a male can be ordained.

Also, keep in mind that the age of reason is around 7 and young people are bound to fasting and abstinence in their teens.

In any event, this whole debate has been cleared up more than once by the Holy See, especially in the 1988 document Paschales sollemnitatis of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments.   The rubrics of the 2002 Missale Romanum retain the viri selecti. 

I believe that no Conference of Bishops has ever received approval from the Holy See for a variation.

Legally, linguistically, and theologically the issue is clear.  

No conference of bishops, individual bishop, or pastor has the authority to change this.

Only the Holy See can grant particular exceptions.

 

Today during his Wednesday General Audience, the Holy Father spoke in Latin to a group of students from Sweden: 

Sueciam deinde ipsam longinquam consalutare Latino sermone cupimus cuius hodie "Schola Cathedralis Scarensis" adest cum linguae Latinae discipulis viginti septem ac magistro Ioanne Hjertén aliisque praeceptoribus. Volumus omnino eorum confirmare et incitare studia, dum hic Romae antiquitates degustant tum christianas tum etiam veterum Romanorum, ut inde magnopere augescat spiritalis illorum et humana haereditas.