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

Possible new blog style:



UPDATE: 11 May 20:40GMT

Based on some of your feedback and my own desires, I adjusted the theme.

How about this.

I got a question via e-mail:

I have recently noticed that when maniples are in use at my church, they are fastened to the alb by binder clips.  I assume that there is a more appropriate device for accomplishing this task, perhaps originating before the days of Office Depot.  Do you know of such a device?  What do you use?  Does it have a technical name?  Where could I find some for my pastor?

Binder clip?

I am fond of blinder clips.  As a matter of fact in my Roman house, in the refectory, I would sometimes use one for my napkin, depending on what we were eating.

I don’t think I would use one for a maniple.

Sometimes maniples have little cloth tabs sewn into the center, where it folds over the forearm.



This one has a safety pin, because the fabric is precious.  When you use a straight pin, be sure to tuck the point under somewhere, so you don’t snag something.

Otherwise, the "classic" way, is to tie them on, which the way I prefer.

Here, by the way, is a shot of a "normal" maniple, more in the French style, together with a maniple of the taglio filipino, to show you a difference in size.

But I digress.  Behold the tie, method.



It helps to have a server help you with this. 

I have gotten pretty good at tying one by myself, but sometimes I just leave it tied.



Some people find the tying to be trying. 

Thus, they opt for the less "classic" elastic band.

It ain’t elegant, but hey, it works. 

This one I made a knot in to shorten it a bit.  It was slipping around.



There is a brief foray into maniplology.

I encourage priests and deacons to use the maniple whenever one is available with the set of vestments you are using, regardless of which Missale Romanum you are using.   The maniple is not obligatory in the Novus Ordo, but neither is it forbidden.  

My practice is simple.  If the maniple is available, I put it on.  If it isn’t, no big deal.  But if they are available, I really think they ought to be used.  First, that completes the set as the set was intended to be used.  Second, it provides continuity.  Third, it is thought provoking.  Maniples took on their own meaning, apart from the rather practical aetiology. 

When the priest puts on the mainple, he would recite the prayer:

Merear, Domine, portare manipulum fletus et doloris; ut cum exsultatione recipiam mercedem laboris.  Grant, O Lord, that I may bear the maniple of weeping and sorrow, so that I may receive the reward for my labors with rejoicing.

If someone should think that the priesthood is a bed of roses, he might reflect on this prayer.

So, in regard to maniples, if you are in Holy Orders…

In Rome on Pentecost, in the Pantheon, now a minor basilica called S. Maria ad martyres there is a beautiful custom.

Rose petals are dropped through the circular oculus opening at the top of the dome, which is the widest is all of Rome, for all its antiquity.  The petals fall to the crowds below, reminiscent of the coming of the Holy Spirit like tongues of flame.

I posted photos taken over two different years here.  Some show the event from the inside of the Pantheon, and some show the mechanics from the outside.  My room in room is perfectly situated to see the dome of the Pantheon.

Here is how they get it done!  Notice the fire truck parked in fron of the Pantheon.

The firemen, waiting on top of the dome, for the signal to drop the flower petals…

The moment arrives!



From within…

This is one of those lovely customs which we have only in Rome. 

Pentecost (1732)
by Jean Restout

Musée du Louvre, Paris

Since the Ascension, the disciples had been hiding in fear.

Despite the feeling of exhilaration they experienced on their way home from the great event, they were somewhat enervated by the absence of Jesus, who had been with them, teaching, for many days after the Resurrection.

All off a sudden, with a tremendous and terrifying sound of wind that rushed through the room, though the windows and doors were closed, tongues of flame come lancing towards them, as if from nowhere, as if there were no physical barriers shutting out the threatening world.

The Holy Spirit descends upon the Church and gives the Body life.

It is the day of the Church’s birth.

The once timid disciples now rush into the streets, proclaiming the Gospel that Christ had commanded them to preach to all nations.

This is the ultimate "anti-Bable".

Whereas the human pride left man divided by language after the Flood, the event of Pentecost and the comprehension of tongues shows where real human unity is to be found.

By our Confirmation we have the inward strengthening of the Holy Spirit unto the proper living of our God-given vocations.

Learn to call on the Holy Spirit and see His workings in the Church at every level.

Be conscious of yourself as confirmed, sealed, imbued, branded with the "character".

In time of trial, as an indelibly confirmed Catholic, invoke this powerful sacrament.

"Almighty God, Holy Spirit, I call upon the sacrament of my confirmation.  Help me in this moment of need.  Strengthen me.  Give me the actual graces I must have to do Your will.

Papa was once again in the taglio filipino vestments for the Holy Mass in the Basilica this morning.



What in Italian is called the "taglio filipino" is so named after St. Philip Neri, who is depicted in paintings in this type of vestments. 

This is the style of vestment in use around the time of the Council of Trent, worn by figures such as St. Ignatius of Loyola. 



It is emblematic of a age in the Church’s life, a period of Counter-Reformation, when there was an explosion of lay confraternities seeing to spiritual and corporal works of mercy at every level of society, simply and noble.  It is a period of tremendous deepening of our understanding of the Blessed Sacrament and subsequent development of devotions, such as Exposition, Benediction, and increase in observance of 40 Hours, devotion to the Sacred Heart.   This was an era of change in architecture, when the Roman baroque came into its own as an outward, concrete, plastic expression of the Church’s own self-understanding, her ecclesiology. 

It was a time when the humanities were in harmony with theology.

This style of vestment is the first stage of development between the fuller "cloak" style chasuble of the Medieval period and the later Roman vestment, which is smaller and more squared in the back and front.  for example, not only is the "Philip" style longer in front and back, and curved at the bottom, but it also comes farther down the shouders than the modern Roman vestment. 

Thus it is a concrete symbol of continuity between two great Catholic eras.

WDTPRS has asserted again and again that Papa Ratzinger is saying something through his vestments.  He mixes them up a bit, but he keeps coming back to this important taglio filipino.  Some will try to brush this off, or relegate his choice to a matter of mere personal taste.

I say that the very vestment is an icon of what Benedict is proposing: a hermeneutic of reform rather than of rupture.  Benedict is signaling the great value of the period of the style vestment as well as the fact that it is a harmonious bridge between two fantastic periods of Catholicity.  Benedict is healing the rupture that occurred in liturgy in many ways, with Summorum Pontificum, certainly, but also in the accoutrement of celebration, such as the placement of candles and the altar Cross. 

The other day the Pope’s MC, Msgr. Guido Marini, gave an interview to Andrea Tornielli of Il Giornale.  In that interview he said:

"The vestments chosen, as also other particulars of the Rite," the Master of Ceremonies explained, "are intended to underscore the continuity of the present liturgical celebration with that which characterized in the past the life of the Church.  Continuity is the interpretive key, always the exact criteria for reading the Church’s journey through time.  This is valid also for liturgy."  "As one Pope cites in his documents the Pontiffs who preceed him, so as to indicate the continutiy of the Magisterium of the Church," Marini continues, "so in the ambient of liturgy a Pope uses also the vestments and sacred accoutrement of his precedessors to show the same continuity also in his celebratations. ...