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

From last year, 2007, on Holy Monday:

Today’s Office of Readings has an excerpt of a sermon by St. Augustine of Hippo (+430 – s. Guelf. 3 otherwise called s. 218C) preached in 412 about the Lord’s Passion.  I give you the whole sermon, since it is short.  Also, if you are paying attention, you might hear Augustine refer to the "wonderful bargain" (mirum commercium) and a "mutual give and take" (mutua participatio). 

The mighty The Lewis & Short Latin Dictionary, says that commercium means “trade, traffic, commerce” but also “intercourse, communication, correspondence, fellowship.”  Every student of Latin knows that epistolarum commercium is an exchange of letters, correspondence back and forth.  Perhaps you will recall the phrase O admirabile commercium - “O wonderous exchange!”, the famous antiphon of Vespers and Lauds of the octave day of Christmas which has been set to glorious sacred music by composers of every age.  And of course, Christmas celebrates the Incarnation which is at the heart of the sermon from Augustine I read in the PODCAzT.

Commercium has many levels of meaning.  In the Old Testament it could be a reference to the way in which man entered with God into a covenant, a contract and exchange (though between unequal partners).  Our new covenant with God is a commercium, the mysterious participation of the divine Second Person of the Trinity in our humanity, the way that the Son of God became the Son of Man so that we might be made the sons of God.  This is like a mutua participatio, the phrase Augustine uses in the sermon.

There is also a strong juridical/legal overtone to the word commercium.  Ancient Romans classified people in roughly three different categories, cives (citizens), latini (those closely tied to Rome but without full status), and peregrini (foreign residents).  A civis had the rights, among other things, of connubium et commercium, the right to contract legal marriage and to conduct business and commerce (Latini had commercium and the peregrini had neither).  This also included inheritance rights.  Eventually in the dissolution of the Republic into the Empire these were the only truly valuable rights in the civitas (the body-politic, the body of the citizens united in a community including all the integrated cities, etc. – think of St. Augustine’s City of God…De civitate Dei).   

The words mirum commercium and mutua participatio are loaded with layers. 

 

 07-04-02 Augustine on the Passion; the Sign of the Cross [28:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Passio Domini et salvatoris nostri Iesu Christi fiducia gloriae est, et doctrina patientiae.
Quid enim non sibi de Dei gratia promittant corda fidelium, pro quibus Dei Filius unicus et Patri coaeternus parum fuit ut homo ex homine nasceretur, nisi etiam manibus hominum, quos creavit, moreretur ipse ab eis?
Magnum est quod futurum a Domino promittitur nobis sed multo est maius quod recolimus iam factum esse pro nobis. Ubi erant aut quid erant, quando pro impiis mortuus est Christus? Quis dubitet eum donaturum sanctis vitam suam, qui eisdem donavit adhuc mortem suam? Quid cunctatur humana fragilitas credere futurum esse, ut vivant homines aliquando cum Deo?
Multo incredibilius iam factum est, quod mortuus est propter homines Deus.
Quis enim est Christus, nisi illud quod in principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum? Hoc Verbum Dei caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis: Non enim habebat in semetipso unde moreretur pro nobis, nisi mortalem carnem sumpsisset ex nobis. Sic immortalis mori potuit, sic vitam donare mortalibus voluit: particepes sui postea facturus, quorum esset prior particeps factus. Nam nec unde viveremus nos habebamus de nostro, nec unde moreretur ille de suo.
Mirum proinde nobiscum egit mutua participatione commercium: nostrum erat, unde mortuus est; illius erit, unde vivamus.
Non solum ergo erubescere non debemus de morte Domini Dei nostri, verum etiam maxime in ea fidere maximeque gloriari: suscipiendo quippe a nobis mortem, quam invenit in nobis, fidelissime spopondit nobis in se vitam daturum, quam habere non possumus ex nobis.
Nam qui tantum nos dilexit, ut, quod peccato meruimus, sine peccato pro peccatoribus pateretur, quomodo nobis non dabit quod iustitia, qui iustificat? Quomodo non reddet, qui pollicetur in veritate, praemia sanctorum, qui sine iniquitate poenam pertulit iniquorum?
Confiteamur itaque, fratres, intrepidi, vel etiam profiteamur Christum pro nobis esse crucifixum: non paventes sed gaudentes, non verecundantes sed gloriantes dicamus.
Vidit hunc apostolus Paulus, et commendavit titulum gloriae. Qui cum haberet multa magna atque divina, quae de Christo commemoraret, non dixit gloriari se in mirabilibus Christi, quia, cum esset apud Patrem Deus, mundum creavit, cum esset etiam quod nos homo, mundo imperavit; sed: Mihi autem, inquit, absit gloriari, nisi in cruce Domini nostri Iesu Christi.

Here is a glimpse at the last few minutes.  This is a rough estimation of where many of you are when coming to visit:

Houston, Texas
Austin, Texas
Calgary, Alberta
Birmingham, Alabama
Brooklyn, New York
Villanova, Pennsylvania
Campolongo Maggiore, Ve…
Nepean, Ontario
Summit, New Jersey
Sheffield
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Easley, South Carolina
Gliwice, Katowice
Woodbridge, Virginia
Berkeley, California
Raleigh, North Carolina
Alexander, Arkansas
Naples, Campania
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Chigwell, Essex
London, London, City of
Rutherford, New Jersey
Wellesley, Massachusetts
Schoten, Antwerpen
Lodz, Lodzkie
Philadelphia, Pennsylva…
Boston, Massachusetts
Dayton, Ohio
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Arlington, Virginia
Holy See (Vatican City State)
Seattle, Washington
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
San Francisco, California
Manassas, Virginia
Capitol Heights, Maryland
Vancouver, Washington
Washington, District of…
Fort Myers, Florida
Watertown, Massachusetts
Saint Louis, Missouri
Balloch, West Dunbarton…
Santiago, Region Metrop…
Lexington, Kentucky
Denham Springs, Louisiana
San Francisco, California
Lafayette, Louisiana
Baltimore, Maryland
Saint Louis, Missouri
Toledo, Ohio
London, London, City of
Liverpool, New York
Wichita, Kansas
Saint Louis, Missouri
Toledo, Ohio
London, London, City of
Liverpool, New York
Wichita, Kansas
Dartford, Kent
Austin, Texas
Madison, Wisconsin
Prior Lake, Minnesota
Naperville, Illinois
Conception, Missouri
Tup, Sao Paulo
Dallas, Texas
Madison, Wisconsin
Prior Lake, Minnesota
Naperville, Illinois
Newport, Vermont
San Antonio, Texas
Arlington Heights, Illi…
Wausau, Wisconsin
Annapolis, Maryland
New Orleans, Louisiana
Lebanon, Illinois
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
San Antonio, Texas
Reigate, Surrey
Drums, Pennsylvania
Concord, New Hampshire
Woodstock, Georgia
Lafayette, Louisiana
Ramat HaSharon, Tel Aviv
Des Moines, Iowa
Lake Arrowhead, Califor…
Palmer, Alaska
Oakland, California
Milford, Ohio
Brussels, Brussels Hoof…
Clementon, New Jersey
Oakland, California
Milford, Ohio
Brussels, Brussels Hoof…
Clementon, New Jersey
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Dayton, Ohio
Utrecht
Richmond, Virginia
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Morbach, Rheinland-Pfalz
Madrid
Emmitsburg, Maryland
Prague, Hlavni Mesto Pr…
New Orleans, Louisiana
Dublin
Grand Rapids, Michigan

I get lots of mail, hundreds of messages a day.   Some are informative, some inquisitive, some complimentary, some censorious.

This one rather tickled me. 

The writer is sad that I liked and wrote positively of H.E. Arthur Serratelli, Bishop of Patterson’s, letter to priests (not to lay people) about the importance of obeying the Church’s rubrics for Holy Mass. 

Here is the e-mail I got, with my emphases added and comments:

Father Z,
It is with great sadness that I read your positive review of Bishop Serratelli’s letter to the diocese of Paterson’s priests regarding liturgy. As a life long committed Christian in the Catholic tradition, [Everyonce in a while I mix things up by saying "Catholic Christians", but this person is doing something very different with his turn of phrase.] it is becoming more apparent to me that our clergy is moving away from Christ’s true message [NB: this guy knows Christ’s "true message".] and moving towards "self-rightious" pomposity. [LOL! But he knows Christ’s "true message"!] When "rules" become more important than substance, then we are no better than Pharisees of the second millennium.   [Apparently anarchy is love.  The writer has not the slightest clue about the role of structure, ritual, consistency as part and parcel of what it is to be Catholic.]
 
Having lived through the years in which the creaking doors of our Church have been opened through the graces of Vatican II, [He knows Christ’s "true message" too!] I am  now beginning to see those doors begin to close once again. It saddens me .

• It is my fervent prayer, that this movement back into the dark ages [ROFL!] of Christendom by our Church leaders not continue.
• It is my great hope, that the leadership of  our Church listen to whisper of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, and stop listening to the loud voice of power, prestige and pompous ego that motivates them today.  [Because anything contrary to this guy’s wishes is obviously not a whisper of the Holy Spirit, nor anything like Christ’s "true message"]

Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self. St. Francis of Assisi
 
May the blessings of this Easter season bring you peace, hope and a clearer [!] understanding of truth,

Great stuff!

I am guessing that this person was one of those innumerable and unnecessary distributors of Communion who has recently lost his place in the sanctuary because his parish priest has, at the urgency of his bishop, made some changes.

There is a youtube video available of Fr. Reginald Foster speaking in Latin to some German media outlet.  There are helpful subtitles in Portugese.

Fr. Foster is talking about the problem of the loss of Latin, which leads to the closing off of thousands of years of thought.   We have to recover Latin. 

Biretta tip  o{]:¬)   to I see a light.

Voting ended today for the 2008 Catholic Blog Awards. 

WDTPRS is in most of the categories and, when there was a midweek progress report, we were doing fairly well.

These awards are little benchmarks, and as such have their purpose.  Among other things, they raise consciousness about the effectiveness of Catholic blogs.  Over the last couple years I think the Catholic blogosphere has made an impact in some rather important ways.  This is in large part to the way you readers and commenters use them. 

Many thanks to those of you who voted, for whichever Catholic blog you chose in each category!

South Ashford Priest has some photos of a demonstration outside their cathedral as the priests entered for the Chrism Mass.

Just look at these rabble rousers!

Nice gesture! 

His Hermeneuticalness, the great Fr. Tim Finigan – perhaps the future Archbishop of Westminster (have the odds changed, btw?) has a bit more on this. 

The gentlemanly Sandro Magister has some pointed observations about the television coverage of papal Masses.

I must say I share his well-expressed views.

Let’s have a look at what he writes on his worthy blog, Settimo cielo, in my translation and with my emphases and comments.

Papal Masses on TV: An Entirely Failed Production

With the procession and the Mass for Palm Sunday, on 16 March in St. Peter’s Square, Benedict XVI initiated the rites of Holy Week.

As we have now seen for some months already, at the center of the altar there were a Cross and a 7th lighted candle.  The Pope celebrated the Eucharist turned to the Cross.  And the faithful, whether they knew it or not, did the same, thus reviving an element of tradition that in the last few decades had been lost.

As always, the celebration was broadcast live on television.  The direction of the program, however, showed its usual lack of sensibility for they exigencies of the rite.

Elementary logic would have it that a television broadcast of a papal celebration would make visible to the public the actual celebration.  Even on the large screens in St. Peter’s Square should serve for this purpose: to show to the faithful in a closer format what was going on at the distant altar.

Instead, no.  There was an out of proportion quantity of closeups of the faithful.  As if someone who wanted to assist at a televised Mass needed that.  [Hear hear!  I was watching the direct internet feed from CTV, so I didn’t have the incessant chatter from the guys at RAI or CTV, but the video portion inflicted constant closeups of people in the square, sometimes praying or watching intently, often eyes wandering around or aping at the camera when they saw themselves on the screen.  You expect that sort of thing at ball games on the jumbotron, but… at Mass?]

Other television programs rightly do not suffer from a similar violation.  For example, someone who watches an opera on TV sees and hears the opera, not the faces of the spectators present in the theater, nor even less the chatter of some announcer superimposed on the music.  In the same way, the viewer of a live brodcast of a papal Mass would expect to see and hear, simply, the Mass, and not something else.  [About the audio.   This is a problem with the English language on EWTN too.  I believe they get their audio from the English section of Vatican Radio.  However, radio people tend to talk more, so they don’t have dead air.  That is a problem for those who have video and not just audio.  Also, the "color commentator" got things wrong.  Pretty distracting.  However, when I did review a bit of the Mass coverage from EWTN, I noted to myself at the time that they were in fact talking less than I remember in the past.  So, maybe they are trying to make adjustments.  I don’t know.  I will try to find out.]

What is instead dished up to him is a bunch of images which for the most part are out of place.  Let’s not even talk about the audio.  [I didn’t hear the audio from CTV or RAI this time, but I have in the past.  They just can’t shut up.  Perhaps they are using the feed from Vatican Radio?]

To make the disaster worse they also add dreadful mistakes of framing the shot. In the Mass for Palm Sunday, at the beginning of his sermon, the Pope was not in the picture, as would be a logical: the sermon began which the picture was wandering around here and there.  And during the singing of the Passion by three deacons, every time one of them was framed in the picture, there was almost always some mistake, that is, he wasn’t the one singing.  It’s as if, at a concert, they showed the tenor when the soprano was singing, or they show the flautists during a violin solo.

The TV coverage of papal Masses is handled by the Centro Televisivo Vaticano [CTV] in collaboration with the RAI.  The details are well explained in an article by Fr. Virgilio Fantuzzi in La Civiltà Cattolica of 19 July 2003 reproduced at www.chiesa: “Liturgia papale, radio e televisione"

Five years after the article, the woes which were denounced persist intact.  If not worse yet.

I always check each day the fun site rogue classicism for interesting trivia.

Let’s look at today’s entry there.

This Day in Ancient History

ante diem xvi kalendas apriles

Festival of Mars continues (day 17)

Liberalia—a festival of general merriment and wine drinking in honour of Liber Pater (another name for Bacchus)

Agonalia—the rex sacrificulus would offer a ram to various deities

45 B.C.—Julius Caesar defeats Pompey’s sons and Labienus at Munda

136 A.D.—the future emperor Marcus Aurelius dons the toga virilis

180 A.D.—death of Marcus Aurelius at Bononia

461 A.D.—death of Saint Patrick (traditional)

Do you like the movie Gladiator?  There are some great moments in that film.  While the film makers did some absolutely absurd things to Marcus Aurelius… after all, the idea that Marcus Aurelius would have wanted to restore the Republic is pure fantasy … Gladiator does include the day Marcus Aurelius died at Bononia.

Okay… enough of that.

Happy Feast Day!

Yes, folks, once again the calendar has brought us around to the feast of St. John Sarkander, priest and martyr (+1620).

Here is the enrty in the Martyrologium Romanum.

7.  Olomucii in Moravia, sancti Ioannis Sarkander, presbyteri et martyris, qui parochus Holesoviensis, cum arcana confessionum tradere renuisset, rotae supplicio datus est et adhuc spirans in carcerem deiectus post mensem obiit.

Hmm…. forgetting anyone?

Oh yes… and a very happy Name Day to any of you named Patrice or Patrick!

If you send me good and useable photos of your churches and chapels with the images and statues veiled (as they may be as of 1st Passion Sunday (1962MR) or 5th Sunday of Lent (2002MR), I will try to post them.

I don’t promise to post eveything sent to me, but I will do my best!

I’ll start things off.

This is the chapel of the Sabine Farm.

I am often asked if I am on Facebook.  Also, I know that some people I highly respect are using Facebook in interesting ways.

Perhaps we could have a little discussion of Facebook here.

What is it all about?

How do you use it?

Over at Te Deum laudamus there are some fine photos of the Palm Sunday Mass at Assumption Grotto Church in Detroit where the great Fr. Perrone is pastor.  They had Holy Mass with the older, extraordinary use.

Here are a couple of the photos I picked up from Te Deum laudamus.  You can see more over there.

Note the red antependium.  The liturgy starts with red but changes to violet for Mass.