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

Right now there is the most incredible variation of blue in the sky.  It is amazing.



Meanwhile the view at the desk remains serene, especially with its snow cover.



At the feeder we are seeing now a variety of birds.

First, before the last snowfall I was getting zillions of these.  I am not sure what they are.





I think they are a kind of starling.  They flock very closely and noisily chatter a lot.  They are a nervous lot, forever flying up into the trees and then back down to the ground to browse.  They behave like starlings I saw in Rome, the storni who flock so densely.

Meanwhile the chickdee is ever present as is the nuthatch with whom they hang out in the winter.



Since I started mixing in some thistle seed with the black sunflower seeds I am getting lots of finches again.  Small groups of house finches, about four or five together are around.





And the gold finch eating team is still about in good numbers.  I wonder if I should put out the thistle sock again.



I think this would be a "yes" vote. 

I’ll take up a collection.  These guys are going to eat me out of house and home soon!  The feed for these feathered beggars ain’t exactly tuppence a bag.



They have all kept me company today as I hammered out another article for the paper and my coffee got colder and colder.

Nota bene:

There are 15 spots remaining for the Winter Chant Intensive, January 5-9, 2009, to be held on the gorgeous (and warm) campus of the University of San Diego. This is not a demonstration program or a seminar of lectures. This is a hands-on conference in which you will be practicing and singing–under the direction of Scott Turkington–from morning to night.

Go to our friends at Musica Sacra for more information.

We need chant in our parishes.  For that to happen, more people need to know how to deal with it in theory and practice. 

After all… nihil dat quod non "got".

We continue with our glance at the Super oblata or "Prayer over the gifts" for Masses during Advent.

SUPER OBLATA
Devotionis nostrae tibi, Domine, quaesumus,
hostia iugiter immoletur,
quae et sacri peragat instituta mysterii,
et salutare tuum nobis potenter operetur.

I wrote at length about this prayer in an article for The Wanderer.  An ancient predecessor of today’s “prayer over the gifts” (as ICEL calls it) is in the Gelasian Sacramentary among the Advent prayers and also in the Veronese Sacramentary during the month of September amidst prayers for the fast of the seventh month (Latin septem “seven”).  It survived the centuries and is in the 1962 Missale Romanum as the Secret for the 3rd Sunday of Advent, "Gaudete".  The version in the Novus Ordo is slightly different, substituting potenter for the more ancient mirabiliter.  

From your own copy of the L&S you will learn that immolo means, first and foremost, “to sprinkle a victim with sacrificial meal” (as in grain or cereal) and also “to bring as an offering, to offer, sacrifice, immolate.”    There is more in the article I wrote.  This is just a taste

All Catholics need to know about mysterium.   Early Christian writers lacked vocabulary to express the new spiritual realities they were pondering.  As they struggled to explain to others what they believed both the Greeks and Latins recycled existing words giving them new meanings.  The Greeks (who had a longer philosophical traditional and therefore a ready mine of good vocabulary) came up with some theological terms which early Latin writers later simply borrowed, transliterating them into Latin.  Such is the case with Latin mysterium, which reduplicates Greek mysterion.

Tertullian (+ second quarter of the 3rd century) translated Greek mysterion by means of the Latin sacramentum.  Sacramentum has its root in sacer, which has a religious overtone (like sacerdos “priest” and English “sacred”, etc.).  Sacramentum, in juridical language, was a bond or initiation confirmed by an oath.  That kind of sacramentum referred to initiation into military service and the oath taken by the soldier. 

Sacramentum came to have two streams of connotation.  First, it had baptismal overtones as the pledge and profession of faith made by catechumens when they were baptized and initiated in the Church.  Second, it referred to the content of the faith that had been pledged in regard to the “mysteries” of our salvation, the meaning of the words and deeds of Christ explained in a liturgical context, the liturgical feasts themselves, and the rites of initiation (baptism, confirmation, Eucharist).  St. Augustine (+430) used sacramentum also for marriage, the laying on of hands at ordination, anointing of the sick and reconciliation of penitent sinners.  In ancient liturgical prayer, sacramentum refers not only to the sacrament of the Eucharist, but also to penitential seasons like Lent with their disciplines of penance and fasting.  Penitential practices, when performed by a believer with the proper attitude, are a mysterious affirmation of the sacred bond between us and Christ. 

Let’s us not forget what I wrote about devotio yesterday.  This is an important concept for Advent, it seems.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
We now beg, O Lord, let there be offered up to You continuously
the sacrificial victim of our devotion,
which may both carry through the actions of the sacred mystery that was instituted,
and mightily effect for us Your salvation.

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Lord,
may the gift we offer in faith and love
be a continual sacrifice in your honor
and truly become our eucharist and our salvation.

I guess, you can’t object to what the ICEL prayer says all in all, except for the fact that it doesn’t translate what the Latin really says.

Notice that ICEL made Latin devotio, that single-minded dedication, into “faith and love.”  They ought to have simply said “devotion”, but that probably sounded too pious and old-fashioned at the time.   It might be that “in your honor” was an attempt to pick up on some aspect of “devotion”.   In the Latin we see nothing resembling in or pro tuo honore.  I could go on, but why bother?  This ICEL prayer is a good example of why we need new liturgical translations prepared according to the mind of the Church as expressed in the guidelines found in the CDWDS’ document Liturgiam authenticam. 

We need to know and hear what the Church wants us to pray and meditate on just like we need air to breathe and food to eat.

Today’s prayer was, as we read above, among those used to admonish people to fast during the seventh month.  We have ancient sermons about this September fast time as well as the Advent fast of the “tenth month” (time was calculated a little differently then because the calendar had little by little drifted and months were inserted.).  For example, we have the wisdom of Pope St. Leo I (+461), nicknamed “the Great”, about the Advent fast:

“What can be more salutary for us than fasting, by the practice of which we draw nearer to God, and, standing fast against the devil, defeat the vices that lead us astray.  For fasting was ever the food of virtue.  From abstinence there arise chaste thoughts, just decisions, salutary counsels.  And through voluntary suffering the flesh dies to the concupiscences, and the spirit waxes strong in virtue.  But as the salvation of our souls is not gained solely by fasting, let us fill up what is wanting in our fasting with almsgiving to the poor.  Let us give to virtue what we take from pleasure.  Let abstinence of those who fast be the dinner of the poor.” 

Another great saint with the nickname “the Great”, St. Basil of Caesarea (+379) hammered home the urgency of Advent almsgiving:

“The command is clear: the hungry person is dying now, the naked person is freezing now, the person in debt is beaten now – and you want to wait until tomorrow?”  

In the ancient Church fasting from good things was closely connected to good works of mercy for the poor, especially almsgiving.

Do not forget this, O Catholic reader.

The gentlemanly Sandro Magister has hit a grand slam with his recent piece on Chiesa.

Let’s have a look with my emphases and comments.

Great Music in the Churches of Rome. But in the Vatican, They’re Deaf

The Wiener Philarmoniker and other illustrious performers have played in the Roman basilicas, in one case with the pope present. But there’s paralysis in the curia. The musical accompaniment of the papal Masses continues to be of appalling mediocrity  [Absolutely correct.  The other day I was watching the papal Vespers for Advent and noted that, while somewhat improved, the Sistine choir is still living up to their old nickname "the Sistine Screamers".  Not only, the present director has taken it upon himself, as have others, to substitute the Church’s great patrimony of sacred music with their own cloying ditties.]

by Sandro Magister

ROMA, December 3, 2008 – The International Festival of Sacred Music and Art, held every fall in the papal basilicas of Rome, concluded last Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent.

Organized by the Fondazione Pro Musica e Arte Sacra, the festival is intended to restore great sacred music to its authentic context, the churches: a context that may not be as acoustically perfect as a concert hall, but is the right one for revitalizing music originally created for the liturgy.  [Yes.  Hearing music in the proper context changes everything.]

"My dream," says Hans-Albert Courtial, president of the foundation, "is that on each Sunday of the year, in one of the churches of Rome, there would be a Mass accompanied by the masterpieces of sacred music, Gregorian and polyphonic, with performers of the first rank."

In effect, this is what happened last November 26. In the basilica of St. Peter, Cardinal Angelo Comastri celebrated the Mass, and maestro Helmuth Rilling magnificently conducted the Harmoniemesse in B flat major by Franz Joseph Haydn. [Yes… those Masses should be used for Masses!]

But the festival did not present only liturgical music. The first and last days of the program were centered, respectively, on the Art of the Fugue and the Musical Offering by Johann Sebastian Bach, ingeniously rediscovered and reinterpreted in their metaphysical profundity, of sublime cosmic harmony, by Hans-Eberhard Dentler.

Another high point of the festival this year was the performance in the basilica of St. Mary Major (see photo) of the German Requiem by Johannes Brahms, a work that is not liturgical or Catholic, but is intensely spiritual, masterfully conducted by Marek Janowski, with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Rundfunkchor Berlin.

Also memorable was the Sixth Symphony by Anton Bruckner, performed by the Wiener Philarmoniker and conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, at the basilica of Saint Paul’s Outside the Walls, on October 13, with Benedict XVI in the front row.

* * *

The presence of pope Joseph Ratzinger [Don’t fret about this turn of phrase.  This is common to Italian writing and is not disrespectful.] at a concert was not the only novelty of the festival this year.

Together with Benedict XVI, that evening at St. Paul’s Outside the Walls were also the 250 cardinals and bishops who had participated that same day in the worldwide synod on the Word of God. For many of them, Bruckner is not an easy composer, but the pope’s example – at least for once – brought them there  [You know.. I love this!  Usually we have to endure a certain measure of condescension from our pastors and prelates who, clearly, make the assumption that their flocks are neither well-educated or very bright.  Here the implication is that the Bruckner, definitely long-hair stuff, would be too challenging for their Reverences.  Had Benedict XVI not set the example, they wouldn’t have gone.] to attend a great concert. Because musical sensibility is not exactly at home in the ecclesiastical sphere: [In other words, most clerics are musical rubes.  We need to have sound training even in music appreciation in our seminaries, so that priests of the future do not perpetuate this lamentable tradition.] the high-ranking prelates who went to other concerts of the festival could be counted on the fingers of one hand. 

Another novelty was the emphasis given to the organ. For four evenings in a row, from November 17-20, the main instrument of liturgical music dominated the program of the festival, with both ancient and contemporary works played by famous organists in various Roman churches. And not only that. The performances in Rome were the crowning moment of a more extensive schedule of organ concerts in nine European countries, which began in June in Bavaria: a "Euro Via Festival" that has been held every year since 2005, under the artistic direction of Johannes Skudlik.

During those same days, in Rome, restoration was completed on two magnificent organs: that of the Academic Hall of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, [Which is in the other side of my house in Rome.] and that of the church of Sant’Antonio dei Portoghesi. Another of the most splendid organs in Rome, that of the church of St. Ignatius, will be restored in the months to come, sponsored by the Fondazione pro Musica e Arte Sacra, and will be played again at the festival in 2009.

Brutally supplanted by guitars [and we might say "brutishly"] in many churches around the world, the organ has recently shown small signs of revival. The Italian bishops’ conference, for example, organized a study seminar last month for organists and liturgists, entitled: "The pipe organ. A journey of centuries in service of the liturgy."

But the road has been cut off. Not only is the sound of the organ largely absent from liturgical services, but its use is even overlooked for situations that are perfectly suited for it. One bad example is given by the basilica of St. Peter itself. Every time there is a liturgical celebration with the pope, the basilica is filled with faithful, long before the scheduled time. This would be an ideal moment for the sound of the organ. It would create an atmosphere of greater recollection, of preparation for the liturgical celebration. And instead, nothing. The organ is there, the organists are there, there are thousands of faithful who would enjoy listening to good music that would raise their spirits. The only thing missing is the will to decide to do something so basic.  [And the organist for the papal ceremonies is exceptionally gifted!  He is an American who has really got game.]

There is a sort of musical paralysis, in Rome, around the celebrations of the pope. Benedict XVI’s thought on liturgical music is very well known, it has been presented in his writings, very critical of the decline that has taken place. But almost nothing has changed, in more than three years of pontificate. The Vatican still has no office with authority on sacred music. The Sistine Choir, conducted by Monsignor Giuseppe Liberto, is a shadow of its glorious former self. And when the Sistine Choir is not singing at the papal Masses, what dominates is the theatrical style of Monsignor Marco Frisina, director of the choir at the Lateran, the cathedral basilica of Rome. [In whose tunes one feels as if one is drowning in Lyle’s Golden Syrup.  It is reason nunbing audio treacle and paradigmatic of what has happened with Church music in the last 40 years.]

In this sense, too, the International Festival of Sacred Music and Art taught a lesson. To perform the Masses and motets of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Tomás Luis de Victoria, Luca Marenzio, Claudio Monteverdi – in short, the illustrious choir directors at the cathedrals of Rome and of Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries – the choir of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, conducted by Peter Latona, came from the United States, and from Germany the choir of the cathedral of Speyer, conducted by Leo Krämer.

It is not that Rome and Italy lack valid performers of this great polyphonic music. On the contrary, the most ingenious performer of Palestrina in the world is certainly Monsignor Domenico Bartolucci. But Bartolucci conducts Palestrina in the concert halls, and no longer at the papal Masses with the Sistine Choir, which he conducted until he was rudely removed in 1997. It is difficult to find a church choir in Rome and in Italy today that could perform the works of these composers in the live setting of liturgical action.

If it takes a festival to permit such marvels to be savored again, it’s a sign that there’s still a long road ahead.

Well done, Sandro!

Meanwhile, back in Rome, my friend Greg Burke of Fox News is making some little videos and writing about interesting elements of Roman life.

Here is a short piece on climbing to the top of the dome or cupola of St. Peter’s Basilica.

December 2nd, 2008 6:10 PM Eastern
Thank You, Michelangelo — That Cupola is Cool
by Greg Burke

The best thing for kids to do in Rome is visit the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, known as the cupola. It was designed by Michelangelo, and finished in 1590.

It’s fun for kids because you can climb all the way up, even inside the dome itself. Not bad for adults either, if you’re in pretty good shape. But it’s 551 steps if you hoof it all the way. ...