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

I was alerted that my friend "Diogenes" of Off The Record posted the following grand tidbit:

ineffable

Posted Dec. 9, 2008 4:53 PM  by Diogenes

 According to the official Vatican translation, in a message about the Christian heritage of European culture, Pope Benedict XVI encouraged reflection upon "the ancient roots in which abundant lymph has flowed over the course of the centuries."

Lymph?

Hey, look: I know it was a long weekend. Let’s cut the poor translators a bit of slack.

But if you have "ancient roots" through which "abundant lymph" is flowing, please see a doctor, quickly.

 

Thanks be to God the Holy Father didn’t talk about the "dew" of the Holy Spirit… especially so close to Rorate Sunday in Advent.

After all, these words are way tooo haaard!

From Engadget:

As you’ve no doubt noticed, the deadline for the Windows XP downgrade option keeps getting pushed back and back, and it looks like it’s now also getting more and more expensive, as Dell has now tripled the cost of the option on its consumer laptops and desktops to $150. As TG Daily notes, this latest move follows a similar increase to $99 on Dell’s more business-minded Vostro laptops and desktops which, for the time being at least, seem to be remaining as is. Of course, you can always put that $150 towards a Windows XP-equipped netbook instead, which seems to be fast becoming the primary home for the venerable OS.

 

And you Apple users don’t need to state the obvious.

ONE OF THESE DAYS….. ONE OF THESE DAYS….!

grrrrrr

From a reader:

Reverend Canon Olivier Meney of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest will celebrate a Low Mass at the Basilica of Holy Hill, National Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians, at 2:00 P.M. on Wednesday, December 10th.  It is my understanding this will be the first Traditional Latin Mass celebrated inside of the Basilica in many, many years.  The Basilica of Holy Hill is a well-known shrine and place of pilgrimage. 
 
The Basilica of Holy Hill is located at 1525 Carmel Road Hubertus, Wisconsin, 53033.
(262) 628-1838

We continue to look at our prayers for Mass during Advent.

SUPER OBLATA - (2002MR):
Deus, qui salutare tuum cunctis terrae finibus declarasti,
tribue, quaesumus,
ut nativitatis eius gloriam laetanter praestolemur.

This is and ancient prayer, found in the Rotulus 14 included with the Veronese Sacramentary.  It was not in any pre-Conciliar edition of the Missale Romanum.

The verb declarasti is a syncopated form, shortened from declaravisti.  The wonderfully apt verb praestolor, deponent (passive in form but active in meaning), is "to stand ready for, to wait for, expect a person or thing".

LITERAL VERSION:
O God, who made known Your salvation to all the ends of the earth,
grant, we entreat You,
that we may in joyful expectation await the glory of His Nativity.

A DRAFT VERSION:
O God,
who have shown forth your salvation
to all the ends of the earth,
grant, we pray,
that we may await in joy
the glory of his birth.

God found ways through the history of salvation to make His salvation known through signs and revelation and even in the workings of the human mind. 

Before the Nativity of the Lord, He showed signs to the Jews and, in the persons of the Magi, to all the nations.  There were even, perhaps, prophecies of the event among Roman writers, if some are to be believed.  For example, Virgil wrote something quite interesting in Eclogue IV.

Ever since, Holy Church has been announcing the Good News to the ends of the earth.  

This Collect reminds us to prepare ourselves well for the coming of the Lord as Judge, and not just as the Infant of Bethlehem. 

We also, as baptized Christians, have the obligation in our words and deeds to make known the fact that the Good News of salvation has had more than a merely superficial impact on our lives. 

Remember: God gives everyone sufficient means for salvation. But not all will be saved. 

Help those who struggle with an incomplete understanding of God’s gifts to know more about His plan. 

From a  reader:

I travel a lot for work, so have obviously been to Mass at several parishes, both EF and OF, very reverent to not-so-much.  I’m currently in NW Missouri and experienced a new variation today for the Immaculate Conception.  When I walked in, I noticed every entrance had a glass bowl with unconsecrated hosts and a set of tongs as well a ciborium.  I was confused by this so kept walking to a pew.  As more people walked in I heard clinking behind me and noticed that each person was putting a host into the ciborium.  I can’t imagine that this practice is specified anywhere, but is it allowable?  I am however thankful for the lady sitting in front of me who I can only imagine attends the EF that is 40 minutes away on Sundays because she veiled her head, bringing me back to my senses.  Thank you Father.

 

Yes…. this sort of thing is allowed.

Of course, before Mass, those hosts are not consecrated, right?

This is done in some places where it is desired to consecrate the right number of hosts for distribution at Holy Communion.  So, if people who intend to communicate put a host in as they enter the church, and that ciborium is taken up at the offertory, then there is a good chance that the number will be about right.  For Masses with a small number of people, where the Blessed Sacrament is not reserved, this could be a good practice.

I note on this photo, posted over at the Papist’s place….



As if they weren’t already a sad punch line,...

A couple photos of the new Prefect!





You like?

Biretta tip to Daily Peeps.   o{]:¬)

There is some discussion going on in the Catholic blogosphere about the obligation, or lack thereof, for women to cover their heads in church with a mantilla or hat, etc.

On St. Louis Catholic there was stark statement about my position:

The first author, Rev. Zuhlsdorf, summarily dismisses the obligation of head-covering for women in church, stating, “[A]ccording to Church law you are not obliged.” He bases his conclusion on an apparent reductionist equating of the Code of Canon Law of 1983 with any other Church law.

 

Reductionist?  Summarily?

Well… as my late pastor, Msgr. Richard Schuler used to say: "When you’re right you can’t be wrong."

I’m right.

What bugs me about St. Louis Catholic blog entry is the way the entirety of position was ignored.

In fairness, they ought to have clarified that whenever I state that there is no obligation under the Church’s law at this time, I nevertheless think this is a very good tradition.  I think woman and girls should use mantillas.  I have always made sure to include that when stating that there is no obligation.

I have written about the head covering issue many times, here and elsewhere.  I also dealt with it in PODCAzT 45 in response to a question.
 

More about Card. Cañizares Llovera, the new Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship

From Palazzo Apostolico of Paolo Rodari:

The nickname "little Ratzinger" was born in the Roman Curia.  From 1985 to 1992 Canizares played the same role in the Spanish bishops conference that Ratzinger played in the Vatican: he took care of the "doctrine of the faith" sector for the bishops conference.  It was this role, together with the special friendship he had with Ratzinger, that prompted the men of the former Holy Office good-naturely to start nicknaming him that way.

The friendship with the present Pope had not secondary role in his arrival in Rome.  Benedict XVI trusts him.  It is known that liturgy is a determining domain at the heart of his pontificate, and he wants to be certain that, in the face of the future farewell of Malcolm Ranjith, the present secretary of the same Congregation (who will become the Archbishop of Colombo and later cardinal), there will be in the dicastery a man who will guarantee the continuation of a very clear liturgical line: the liturgy is at the apex of the life of faith and, at the same time, it lives from continuity.  And so: the Church, in the name of a illuminated progress, proceeds renews herself without losing sight of her own roots and her own living tradition.

And so the fact that there arrives at Liturgy a man who in the past has thoroughly digested theology is not irrelevant.  Theological understand is useful and "Little Ratzinger" has it.  A great scholar of Teresa of Avila, having been bishop of Avila from 1992-96 (it was his first, and for him unforgettable, bishop’s see), he demonstrated love for the study of theology founding, at Avila, the Catholic University "Saint Teresa of Jesus".  In the balance, in his curriculum there is only one fault: he speaks only Spanish.

Immediately after the arrival of Canizares Benedict XVI will touch up other crucial sectors of the Roman Curia: Cardinal Walter Kasper, after the funeral of Alexis II (today) and the octve of prayer for unity of Christians (starting in 2009) will leave his dicastery which deals with ecumenism.  Farther down the line the prefects of other dicasteries will also leave, all near to 75 years of age, Claudi Hummes, Giovanni Battista Re, Ivan Dias, Dario Castrillon Hoyos, Javier Lozano Barragan e Franc Rodé.  The example could be given with Re: next January he turns 75 and he could do what in the past his predecessor Lucas Neves Moreira did.  He could step down exactly on the day of 75th birthday: it was 16 September 2000.

There’s more, but that’s what I have the energy to do right now.

Apparently, and sadly, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus editor of First Things, has been diagnosed with cancer.

He put this on his site:

Fr. Neuhaus wrote this note on First Things:

I cannot begin to respond to the deluge of assurances of prayer and concern about my health. Please be assured that I am grateful and count mightily on being remembered by you before the Throne of Grace. Or, as Catholics are wont to say, on your storming the gates of heaven. The nature of the cancer is beginning to come into clearer focus, and I hope to have more details in short order. Meanwhile, I will, please God, continue to be as engaged as possible in the work of First Things and other apostolates, even as I am compelled by grace to know more deeply our solidarity within the Body of Christ.

May I ask you all to say a prayer, right now, for Fr. Neuhaus?

From a reader:

Can you explain the construction, "Benedicite Deus"?  First, is it actually the equivalent for "God bless," as several websites suggest?  If so, how does the grammar work there—is "benedicite" some sort of majestic plural, with "Deus" in the nominative? 

As you know, near the end of Prime is also found "V./ Benedicite.  R./ Deus," and there is a similar construction in the EF Mass, I think when incense is used, when a Priest is addressed, "Benedicite, reverende Pater." 

This has been bugging me, and now several friends, for a while now.

Interesting.  I haven’t thought about this.

Benedicite is a 2nd person plural imperative.  And Deus is obviously a singular form.  Pater Reverende is also a singular.

Benedicite is also common in the liturgy in the recitation of the Canticle in Morning Prayer, "Benedicite, omnia opera Domini, Domino; laudate et superexaltate eum in saecula."  But the plural form is clear in that context.

In Prime I am not entirely sure that this is Benedicite, Deus. Notice the comma.  I think this is more along the lines of two separate concepts, Benedicite, being a complete sentence, "Let you all speak [i.e. "ask for"] a blessing!" and the response everyone says is "God!", in other words, "May God bless us!"  And then in Prime there is a blessing spoken by the one who says Benedicite.

In the case of the blessing of incense, I suppose the same thing is going on.  The Benedicite is mainly spoken to everyone present, and the priest blesses.   It could therefore be the echo of courtly forms, the courtesy and greater formality of earlier epochs. 

I found that Jungmann has a note on Benedicite.  In The Mass of the Roman Rite, Vol. I, p. 309, n. 75 we find a discussion of a custom of saying "Adiutorium nostrum in nomine Domini" as the priest leaves the sacristy.

"In some churches the servers offer the priest the holy water for a blessing as he pronounces these words.  In some places (e.g., in Tyrol) the servers use the formula for asking a blessing: Benedicite! and receive the answer: Deus [sc. benedicat]."

Anyway… there’s my shot at it.

Don’t forget these recent PODCAzTs on the Advent hymns in the Church’s official prayer, the Liturgia Horarum.

076 08-12-07 An Advent hymn dissected "Verbum supernum prodiens", with digressions
075 08-12-04 An Advent hymn dissected "Conditor alme siderum"; Fr. Z digresses far afield

From a reader:

Seven Days of Musical Heaven”

June 22-28, 2009 (Monday noon through Sunday morning)
Loyola University, Chicago, Illinois
Sponsored by the Church Music Association of America

You are invited to sing with and experience the Sacred Music Colloquium, the largest and most in-depth teaching conference and retreat on sacred music in the world.

Gregorian Chant has been called the most beautiful music this side of Heaven. But as Pope Benedict XVI and the Second Vatican Council have emphasized, it is also integral to Catholic liturgical life and should be heard and experienced with wide participation in every parish. The Church Music Association of America is working to bring about this ideal with its Sacred Music Colloquium.

The primary focus of the Colloquium is instruction and experience in chant and the Catholic sacred music tradition, participation in chant and polyphonic choirs, nightly lectures and performances and daily celebrations of liturgies in both English and Latin. You are there not merely as an attendee but as a singer in some of the greatest choirs you will ever experience, singing music that will touch your heart and thrill your artistic imagination — music that is integral to the Catholic faith.

Attendance is open to anyone interested in improving the quality of music in Catholic worship. Professional musicians will appreciate the rigor, while enthusiastic volunteer singers and beginners new to the chant tradition will enjoy the opportunity to study under an expert faculty.

On the blog Rinascimento Sacro there is an story I didn’t expect to be reading.

Following the precepts of Summorum Pontificum in the Archdiocese of Ferrara-Comacchio and the Abbey of Pomposa, the archbishop, His Excellency Most Rev. Paolo Rabitti on 8 December, happy day that it always is and now happier still, released a notification about the introduction of Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form in Ferrara. He has designated a church of the Theatines, Santa Maria della Pietà e san Gaetano, and its rector Fr. Riccardo Linares, to have Mass in the older form every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation at 5 pm.  

The bishop also issued a fine letter for the diocese.

Mattone su mattone, amici!