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

I got this from a reader (edited):

Dear Father Z,

I’ve recently gotten our pastor to start the TLM, and we had our second  monthly mass this Sunday.  (Trinity Sunday)  We’re now getting grief from the bishop, but that’s another story.

I was contacted by a woman in the parish that wanted to learn more about the Latin and what it sounds like.  I recall you had several posts where you went through the prayers at the foot of the altar, etc. but after hours of searching, I cannot find them.

Would you please direct me to the proper place on your site where I can find these and help this dear lady.

I’ve commented under _ and also __.  I didn’t want to ID myself, since I was working with the pastor to start this mass and he wanted to keep it a secret until we were ready and got it underway.  We’ve done that and are now getting the grief.

God bless you for all the wonderful work you are doing for the TLM and the church.

The audio PRAYERCAzT projects are all listed on this page, and there is a link to this page on the left side bar (at least as long I we have this template for the blog, that is)

You might let us know what sort of grief you are getting from the bishop.  Remember: keep copies of every piece of correspondence and notes of your conversations.

About the PRAYERCAzTs: I stopped doing them because there seems to have been too little interest in them to merit my effort to make them.  They were originally intended to help priests get the Latin into their ears, and therefore their tongues, but they could also have been useful to help lay people in the congregation prepare to participate more fully at Holy Mass.

I would make them again if there was enough support, but I didn’t have enough evidence that many people were actually using them.

This is superb.

“At this moment I can only thank you for your love of the Church
and Our Lord, and for the love which you show to the poor
Successor of Saint Peter. I will try to do all that is possible
to be a worthy successor of the great Apostle, who also was a man
with faults and sins, but remained in the end the rock for the
Church. And so I too, with all my spiritual poverty, can be for
this time, in virtue of the Lord’s grace, the Successor of Peter.

It is also your prayers and your love which give me the certainty
that the Lord will help me in this my ministry. I am therefore
deeply grateful for your love and for your prayers. My response
now for all that you have given to me during this visit is my
blessing, which I impart to you at the conclusion of this beautiful
Celebration.”

In italiano

«Posso solo rendervi grazie per il vostro amore per la Chiesa, per l’amore a Nostro Signore, e per l’amore che date anche al povero successore di Pietro. Io farò tutto il possibile per essere un vero successore del grande san Pietro che era anche un uomo con i suoi difetti e alcuni peccati, ma alla fine rimase la roccia della Chiesa e così anch’io, con tutta la mia povertà spirituale possa essere con la grazia di Dio in questi tempi il successore di Pietro». Parole che fanno tornare alla mente un appunto nei diari di Paolo VI, che parlava della propria «inadeguatezza» al compito ricevuto, o l’espressione di Papa Luciani che davanti ai cardinali, chiedendo preghiere per la sua missione, aveva definito se stesso un «poverocristo vicario di Cristo».

 

I had the honor of being celebrant for the Vigil of Easter, with the 1962 Missale Romanum, at St. Augustine’s Church in S. St. Paul, Minnesota.

Here is my sermon.

http://www.wdtprs.com/prayercazt/080323_Vigil_sermon.mp3 

If any of you out there must sing the Exsultet in Latin, there is a PODCAzT available with a recording of me doing it, in the Novus Ordo version, a couple years ago and explaining some things about it.

UPDATE: I made a rapid recording of the Exsultet with the 1962 Missale Romanum.  No frills! And I am a little stuffed up, ... but it should help anyone who needs to practice it.

________

ORIGINAL POST: 

For forty days we have done penance. We participated at the anniversary of Holy Mass and the Priesthood on Holy Thursday with the mandatum and the procession to the altar of repose, Christ in agony in Gethsemane. On Good Friday, the day with no Mass, after our humble prostration before the Crucified Lord we stood for the singing of the Passion. Now we are in a dark church. The fire was kindled and the “Light of Christ” was thrice announced. The faithful have little candles sparked to life from the single flame of the Paschal candle, the “Christ candle”, now lighted as the symbol of His resurrection.

The candle is incensed and then the deacon sings:

    Exult now O ye angelic throngs of the heavens:
    Exult O ye divine mysteries:
    and let the saving trumpet resound for the victory of so great a King.
    Let the earthly realm also be joyful, made radiant by such flashings like lightning:
    and, made bright with the splendor of the eternal King,
    let it perceive that it has dismissed the entire world’s gloom.
    Let Mother Church rejoice as well,
    adorned with the blazes of so great a light:
    and let this royal hall ring with the great voices of the peoples.
    Wherefore, most beloved brothers and sisters,
    you here present to such a wondrous brightness of this holy light,
    I beseech you, together with me
    invoke the mercy of Almighty God.
    Let Him who deigned to gather me in among the number of the Levites,
    by no merits of mine,
    while pouring forth the glory of His own light
    enable me to bring to fullness the praise of this waxen candle.

    Deacon: The Lord be with you!
    Response: And with your spirit!
    D: Raise your hearts on high!
    R: We now have them present to the Lord!
    D: Let us then give thanks to the Lord our God!
    R: This is worthy and just!

    Truly it is worthy and just
    to resound forth with the whole of the heart,
    disposition of mind,
    and by the ministry of the voice,
    the invisible God the Father Almighty,
    and His Only-begotten Son
    our Lord Jesus Christ,
    Who, on our behalf, resolved Adam’s debt to the Eternal Father
    and cleansed with dutiful bloodshed the bond of the ancient crime.
    For these are the Paschal holy days,
    in which that true Lamb is slain,
    by Whose Blood the doorposts of the faithful are consecrated.
    This is the night
    in which first of all You caused our forefathers,
    the children of Israel brought forth from Egypt,
    to pass dry shod through the Red Sea.
    This is the night
    which purged the darkness of sins by the illumination of the pillar.
    This is the night
    which today restores to grace and unites in sanctity throughout the world Christ’s believers,
    separated from the vices of the world and the darkness of sins.
    This is the night
    in which, once the chains of death were undone,
    Christ the victor arose from the nether realm.
    For it would have profited us nothing to have been born,
    unless it had been fitting for us to be redeemed.
    O wondrous condescension of Your dutiful concern for us!
    O inestimable affection of sacrificial love:
    You delivered up Your Son that You might redeem the slave!
    O truly needful sin of Adam,
    that was blotted out by the death of Christ!
    O happy fault,
    that merited to have such and so great a Redeemer!
    O truly blessed night,
    that alone deserved to know the time and hour
    in which Christ rose again from the nether world!
    This is the night about which it was written:
    And night shall be made as bright as day:
    and night is as my brightness for me.
    Therefore the sanctification of this night puts to flight all wickedness, cleanses sins,
    and restores innocence to the fallen and gladness to the sorrowful.
    It drives away hatreds, procures concord, and makes dominions bend.
    Therefore, in this night of grace,
    accept, O Holy Father, the evening sacrifice of this praise,
    which Holy Church renders to You
    in the solemn offering of this waxen candle
    by the hands of Your ministers from the work of bees.
    We are knowing now the proclamations of this column,
    which glowing fire kindles in honor of God.
    Which fire, although it is divided into parts,
    is knowing no loss from its light being lent out.
    For it is nourished by the melting streams of wax,
    which the mother of bees produced for the substance of this precious torch.
    O truly blessed night,
    in which heavenly things are joined to those of earth,
    the divine to the human!
    Therefore, we beseech You, O Lord,
    that this waxen candle, consecrated in honor of Your name,
    may continue unfailing to dispel the darkness of this night.
    And once it is accepted as a placating sacrifice,
    may it be mingled with the heavenly lights.
    Let the morning star meet with its flame:
    that very star, I say, which knows no setting:
    Who, having returned from the nether realm,
    broke serene like the dawn upon the human race,
    and now lives and reigns forever and ever.

 

 

http://www.wdtprs.com/podcazt/07_04_07.mp3
http://www.wdtprs.com/prayercazt/080320_1962MR_exsultet.mp3

Here is a reading of the Via Crucis, the Way of the Cross, composed by Joseph Card. Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, for the 2005 Good Friday observance at the Colosseum in Rome.

The text is English, though I use Latin responses and prayers between the Stations.

http://www.wdtprs.com/prayercazt/080318_stations_ratzinger.mp3

Welcome to another installment of What Does the Prayer Really Sound Like? 

Today we will hear the Passion of St. John, to be sung on Good Friday using the 1962 Missale Romanum.   We hear it sung according to the traditional passion tone from the book called the Passionale. 

The Passionale is often divided into three books for each of the three parts, the voice for the words spoken by Christ (Christus), the voice of the narrator (Chronista), and all the voices of speakers in the Gospel narrative other than Christ (Synagoga).  The three parts are sung in different registers to differentiate them more easily.  In this recording I sing all three parts.

Often if a Passionale or set of Passionalia are available, they are older editions and some adaptations must be made to be usable with the Novus Ordo.  There are also now available new editions of a Passionale with Gregorian notation based on these old tones for use with the Novus Ordo.  In this recording, we hear the version used in the Extraordinary use of the Roman rite.

My main purpose in making this PRAYERCAzT is to help men who must prepare to sing the Passion in Latin on Good Friday get the words, these tones and the relationship between them into their ears.

http://www.wdtprs.com/prayercazt/080318_passion_john.mp3



However, these audio projects can be of great help to lay people who attend Holy Mass in the Traditional, or extraordinary form: by listening to them ahead of time, and becoming familiar with the sound of the before attending Mass, they will be more receptive to the content of the prayers and be aided in their full, conscious and active participation.

My pronunciation of Latin is going to betray something of my nationality, of course. Men who have as their mother tongue something other than English will sound a little different.  However, we are told that the standard for the pronunciation of Latin in church is the way it is spoken in Rome.  Since I have spent a lot of time in Rome, you can be pretty sure my accent will not be too far off the mark.

If this was useful to you, let your priest friends know this resource is available.  And kindly make a little donation using the donation button on the left side bar of the blog or or by clicking here.  This is a labor of love, but those donations really help.  And don’t forget to check out the PODCAzTs!

Pray for me, listen carefully, and practice practice practice.

I have a little present for you kind readers… and listeners

This seemed appropriate today, for the Friday before Palm Sunday when the Seven Sorrows of Mary are commemorated at Holy Mass with the traditional Roman calendar.

Here are the Stations of the Cross by St. Alphonsus Liguori as a PRAYERCAzT.

I have two versions.

One version is plain, just my voice.  The other is the same voice recording, but with the Gregorian chant Sequence Stabat Mater interlaced between the stations.

I may add a version entirely in Latin.

 

 http://www.wdtprs.com/prayercazt/080314_stations_liguori_chant.mp3
http://www.wdtprs.com/prayercazt/080314_stations_liguori.mp3

I appreciate the support you have given to me and to WDTPRS. 

This is a token of my esteem. 

Welcome to another installment of What Does the Prayer Really Sound Like? 

Today we will hear the Passion of St. Matthew, to be sung on Palm Sunday using the 1962 Missale Romanum.   We hear it sung according to the traditional passion tone from the book called the Passionale. 

The Passionale is often divided into three books for each of the three parts, the voice for the words spoken by Christ (Christus), the voice of the narrator (Chronista), and all the voices of speakers in the Gospel narrative other than Christ (Synagoga).  The three parts are sung in different registers to differentiate them more easily.  In this recording I sing all three parts.

Often if a Passionale or set of Passionalia are available, they are older editions and some adaptations must be made for the 1962 Missale Romanum.  The older editions have parts that were removed at the time of the reform of Holy Week by Pope Pius XII.

However, at the end I include the very last section of the Passion as it was sung before the reforms of Pius XII.  This part is not to be done in the 1962 Missale.  However, it is a beautiful tone and I include it here, lest it be forgotten.  Perhaps there would be a way in which this tone could be recaptured for the last part of the gospel sung after the moment of silence for the death of the Lord.

http://www.wdtprs.com/prayercazt/080311_passion_matthew_palm.mp3

If priests who are learning to say the older form of Holy Mass can get these prayers in their ears, they will be able to pray them with more confidence. So, priests are my very first concern. 

However, these audio projects can be of great help to lay people who attend Holy Mass in the Traditional, or extraordinary form: by listening to them ahead of time, and becoming familiar with the sound of the before attending Mass, they will be more receptive to the content of the prayers and be aided in their full, conscious and active participation.

My pronunciation of Latin is going to betray something of my nationality, of course. Men who have as their mother tongue something other than English will sound a little different.  However, we are told that the standard for the pronunciation of Latin in church is the way it is spoken in Rome.  Since I have spent a lot of time in Rome, you can be pretty sure my accent will not be too far off the mark.

If this was useful to you, let your priest friends know this resource is available.  And kindly make a little donation using the donation button on the left side bar of the blog or or by clicking here.  This is a labor of love, but those donations really help.  And don’t forget to check out the PODCAzTs!

Pray for me, listen carefully, and practice practice practice.

Welcome to another installment of What Does the Prayer Really Sound Like? 

Today we will hear the prayers for the 4th Sunday of Lent (Laetare) in the 1962 Missale Romanum.  I speak all the prayers and readings and also sing the Collect and Post Communion in the festal tone.  The Preface is spoken and sung in another installment.  

http://www.wdtprs.com/prayercazt/080228_04_lent.mp3

If priests who are learning to say the older form of Holy Mass can get these prayers in their ears, they will be able to pray them with more confidence. So, priests are my very first concern. 

However, these audio projects can be of great help to lay people who attend Holy Mass in the Traditional, or extraordinary form: by listening to them ahead of time, and becoming familiar with the sound of the before attending Mass, they will be more receptive to the content of the prayers and be aided in their full, conscious and active participation.

My pronunciation of Latin is going to betray something of my nationality, of course. Men who have as their mother tongue something other than English will sound a little different.  However, we are told that the standard for the pronunciation of Latin in church is the way it is spoken in Rome.  Since I have spent a lot of time in Rome, you can be pretty sure my accent will not be too far off the mark.

  I deliver them at a slower pace than I would ordinarily during Mass.  But hopefully the pace will help you hear the words a little more clearly.

If this was useful to you, let your priest friends know this resource is available.  And kindly make a little donation using the donation button on the left side bar of the blog or or by clicking here.  This is a labor of love, but those donations really help.  And don’t forget to check out the PODCAzTs!

Pray for me, listen carefully, and practice practice practice.

Welcome to another installment of What Does the Prayer Really Sound Like? 

Today we will hear the prayers for the 3rd Sunday of Lent in the 1962 Missale Romanum.  I speak all the prayers and readings and sing the Preface for Lent in the solemn tone, and also sing the Collect and Post Communion in the solemn tone.  

http://www.wdtprs.com/prayercazt/080223_03_lent.mp3

If priests who are learning to say the older form of Holy Mass can get these prayers in their ears, they will be able to pray them with more confidence. So, priests are my very first concern. 

However, these audio projects can be of great help to lay people who attend Holy Mass in the Traditional, or extraordinary form: by listening to them ahead of time, and becoming familiar with the sound of the before attending Mass, they will be more receptive to the content of the prayers and be aided in their full, conscious and active participation.

My pronunciation of Latin is going to betray something of my nationality, of course. Men who have as their mother tongue something other than English will sound a little different.  However, we are told that the standard for the pronunciation of Latin in church is the way it is spoken in Rome.  Since I have spent a lot of time in Rome, you can be pretty sure my accent will not be too far off the mark.

  I deliver them at a slower pace than I would ordinarily during Mass.  But hopefully the pace will help you hear the words a little more clearly.

If this was useful to you, let your priest friends know this resource is available.  And kindly make a little donation using the donation button on the left side bar of the blog or or by clicking here.  This is a labor of love, but those donations really help.  And don’t forget to check out the PODCAzTs!

Pray for me, listen carefully, and practice practice practice.