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

Today during the Mass for the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, Benedict XVI and Bartholomew I recited the Creed together in Greek.

This is interesting for several reasons.

First, for so long it has been nearly obligatory to have the whole congregation sing the Creed alternating with the Sistine Chapel "Choir". 

Apparently it isn’t so obligatory as we thought that the whole congregation recite the Creed.

Second, the text of the Creed is that the 381 Council of Constantinople, and thus it is the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed:

The Patriarch and the Pope both use the singular "I believe", rather than "We believe" of the conciliar formula.  The conciliar form of the Creed was a group document, that needed a plural form.  The liturgical form is a personal declaration made together with everyone else gathered.

This brings the third point: It did not contain the so-called "Filioque" clause.  This is why they could recite it together easily.  The Filioque clause has been a source of division from the time when the Latin Church and the Greek Church were talking past each, with a lack of comprehension on both sides of the theology of the Holy Spirit and His relationship to the Father and the Son.  Now that there is greater comprehension about this relationship and what each side means when they talk about the Holy Spirit, there is far less reason to stress the differences that historically surround the Filioque clause.

Thus, the fourth point is notice how well the Holy Father reads the Greek text. 

Fifth, could your local priest, seminary instructor, or bishop do the same, even with the Creed in Latin?

I have received a few e-mails about this, but they are all very vague.

    Father:
  

    After the decree of suppression was read at the 9:00 TLM today at Holy Trinity Church in Boston, the parochial administrator (who is also the outgoing rector of Holy Cross Cathedral) announced that there will be a TLM at the Cathedral (in the downstairs chapel) next Sunday at 11:00.

And also,
  

    Accordingly the incoming Cathedral rector, "with the encouragement of Cardinal Sean", is starting a Gregorian-rite Mass next Sunday at 11 AM.The outgoing Cathedral rector also invited the congregation of the OF Mass to join the Cathedral’s principal English Mass at 11:30 AM.   The overlapping times will let the two congregations meet together.    

    The 11 AM EF Mass will use the lower church

I think this means that there will be a weekly Sunday Mass at the Cathedral.

One wonders about which factors were behind this decision.

Still, we can only rejoice at it!   Kudos to the Rector!

Summorum Pontificum is bearing fruit.

The Collect for the Novus Ordo today is in part inspired by that of the parallel prayer in the 1962 Missale Romanum.  However, it seems to be a rather new creation, if not entirely new.

COLLECT:
Deus, qui huius diei venerandam
sanctamque laetitiam in apostolorum
Petri et Pauli sollemnitate tribuisti,
da Ecclesiae tuae
eorum in omnibus sequi praeceptum,
per quos religionis sumpsit exordium.

There is a usage in late Latin of sumo and exordium, which is surely at work here: "to make a beginning". 

Since this seems to be a fairly new prayer we have a little flexibility with very complex religio.  Let’s refer to the great Lewis & Short Dictionary: "Reverence for God (the gods), the fear of God, connected with a careful pondering of divine things; piety, religion, both pure inward piety and that which is manifested in religious rites and ceremonies; hence the rites and ceremonies, as well as the entire system of religion and worship, the res divinae or sacrae, were frequently called religio or religiones".  On the other hand, the source for liturigcal Latin Blaise/Dumas suggests merely: "piete" and "religion".  Religio in our context needs a word or phrase that gets at the external express or our interior attitude.

VERY LITERAL VERSION:
O God, who for the solemnity of the
apostles Peter and Paul
bestowed the holy and venerable joy of this day,
grant to Your Church
to follow in all things their instruction
through whom she made a beginning of the life of faith.

There has been much buzz about the pallium this year.  Pope Benedict has shifted the the papal pallium away from the very ancient, drapy stole-like "archeological" form back (and forward) to one of the historical forms which can be seen as a "bridge" along the organic development into its modern form.

Here is the form Benedict started to use at the beginning of his pontificate.



Back in April 2005 I have a clear memory of thinking that this odd shift of the pallium was engineered by the former MC Archbp. Piero Marini and planned long before the death of John Paul II.   Marini also engineered all sorts of changes in the rites for the funeral and burial of the late Pope.  I was struck by the fact that the stole-like "archeological" pallium, which is still like the stole of deacons in the Eastern Churches, was a little too short, almost as if the maker had been certain that someone else was going to be elected… but I digress.  

Anyway, I am pleased with the shift this this pallium, which symbolically shows continuity between the "archeological" form and the "modern form" still imposed on Archbishops.



The pallium is a sign of the jurisdiction Metropolitan Archbishops have in their provinces as well as a sign of their closer bond with the Successor of Peter.  This is one of the reasons why before the pallia are conferred, they rest in a niche at Peter’s tomb.

Before they receive the pallium the Archbishops take an oath:

    Ego…
    Archiepiscopus [PLACE and NAME]
    beato Petro apostolo,
    Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae,
    ac tibi, Summo Pontifici,
    tuisque legitimis Successoribus
    semper fidelis ero et oboediens.
    Ita me Deus omnipotens adiuvet.

    I…
    Archbishop of the _ diocese (these are adjectives)
    will always be faithful and obedient to
    St. Peter the apostle,
    the Holy Roman Church,
    and to you, the Supreme Pontiff
    and to your legitimate Successors.
    So help me God Almighty.

In recent decades this oath is made also in the presence of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople or his delegate.

The Holy Father blessed the pallia today with these words (my close but not too literal translation):

    O God, eternal Pastor of souls, who committed to blessed Peter the Apostle those who are called "the flock" by Jesus Christ Your Son, that  they should be governed by him after the model of the Good Shepherd (boni Pastoris typo) , through our ministry pour forth the grace of Your blessing upon these Pallia, which as symbols You desired to be concrete signs (documenta) of pastoral care.

    Receive the our humble prayers and grant through the intercession and merits of the Apostles, that whoever will bear them, You generously making it so, may understand himself to be the Shepherd of Your flock, and will show forth in his work that which is signified by the name.

    Let him take up the evangelical yoke lain upon his neck, and let it be for him so light and sweet, that in running by example swiftly along the way of your commands, he may merit to be admitted into the everlasting pasture.

When the Pope places the pallium on the neck of the archbishop kneeling before him, he says:

    For the glory of Almighty God and the praise of the blessed Virgin Mary and of saints Peter and Paul, for the decorum of the Sees committed to you, unto a sign of the authority of a metropolitan, we bestow upon you the Pallium taken from the Confession of saint Peter, so that you may use it within the confines of your ecclesiastical provinces.

    May this Pallium be for your a symbol of unity and a token (tessera) of communion with the Apostolic See; may it be a bond of charity (vinculum caritatis) and a spur of fortitude, so that in the day of the Coming and the revelation of the great God and prince of shepherds Jesus Christ, you may together with the the flocks entrusted to you obtain (potiamini) the stole of immortality and glory.

There are some nice things here.  First, the image of a tessera is lovely.  A tessera is literally a small block or cube.  It is used to describe the little cubes that make up a mosaic.  It is still the Italian word for an officially issued pass or a ticket or i.d. card.  In this case it makes me think of how each of these archbishops, so different in themselves and in very different places through the world, are contributing in their individual way to the "big picture".

I received a tip via e-mail.

Before reading this, I am getting it second hand and also I have no way to get separate confirmation.  So, we have to take this for what it is worth.  It’s up to you.

Here is one sentence of the three sentence message  I edited it to fix the English:

I´m back from Econe. I spoke with some people. Rome has accepted a response and wrote back positively. All is going well … this was said by Castrillon.

Remember that Card. Castrillon Hoyos, President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei gave Five Conditions to Bp. Bernard Fellay, Superior General of the SSPX.

These five points were conditions for continuing dialogue about closer unity between the SSPX and Rome.

The conditions did not concern explicit doctrinal issues about Vatican II or the Novus Ordo of Mass.

They focused on the public attitude of the SSPX toward the person of the Roman Pontiff and about unity.

Important factors to keep in mind:

• Twenty years ago, 30 June 1988, the split took place with the illicit consecrations of bishops.
• Pope Benedict has been a key figure, history, in the dialogue of the SSPX and Rome.
• Pope Benedict is the Pope most favorable toward the goals of the SSPX the SSPX is like to see.
• The longer the split continues, the harder it will be to heal it.
• After all this time, ther