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

Do you remember when guys like me were being called "ultraconservative Tridentine Rite spin doctors"? (Brush up on that here.)
Well the disk can spin the other direction too.
As a good example of the sort of dopey stuff we will read I offer this for your consideration (my emphases and comments):

What’s Latin for ‘No one is happy?’ [I guess he’s really qualified to write about this…  One way to say it is Nemo quisquam contentus.]

Pope Benedict XVI’s revival of the old Latin Mass on Saturday doesn’t seem to make anyone happy. [I’m happy…. but in their eyes, I am no one.]

The pontiff is not trying to replace the New Mass (which is over 40 years old, but "new" in Roman Catholic Church years), [got that right] but is making the Latin Mass available to priests who have a "stable group of faithful" who wish to go old school.  [Lot’s of us consider it new school.]

Italian bishop Luca Brandolini [Bishop of Sora-Aquino-Pontecorvo ] was quite unhappy about the Pope’s announcement.

    "It’s a day of mourning, not just for me but for the many people who worked for the Second Vatican Council.  [Like, for example… Joseph Ratzinger, who probably was weeping on 7-7-07] A reform for which many people worked, [Hmmm… so how’s Mass attendance these days?  Lot’s of confessions?  How ‘bout those seminarians… numerous?] with great sacrifice and only inspired by the desire to renew the Church, has now been cancelled."  [Always with the drama…]

It’s not just members of the Roman Catholic community who are criticizing the move. The Anti-Defamation League called the move a "body blow to Catholic-Jewish relations." The League is concerned about a prayer from the Good Friday Tridentine (Latin) Mass for the conversion of Jews.  [Well!  That’s settles it!]

The old prayer goes like this:

    For the conversion of Jews. Let us pray also for the Jews that the Lord our God may take the veil from their hearts and that they also may acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray: Almighty and everlasting God, you do not refuse your mercy even to the Jews; hear the prayers which we offer for the blindness of that people so that they may acknowledge the light of your truth, which is Christ, and be delivered from their darkness.

The New Mass for Good Friday has the following prayer:

    Let us pray for the Jewish people, the first to hear the word of God, that they may continue to grow in the love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant. Almighty and eternal God, long ago you gave your promise to Abraham and his posterity. Listen to your church as we pray that the people you first made your own may arrive at the fullness of redemption.

The move to make the Latin Mass available is aimed at appeasing [Yep….just a bunch of recalictrant brats who want to derail the wondrous renewal we have experienced over the last 40 years.] more conservative members of the Catholic Church, such as the one-million-member strong Society of Saint Pius X. But the group still needs to work out some doctrinal differences with the Vatican before everyone in the flock is satisfied.
What a dopey article.
So, no one is happy, huh?

According the law of the universal Church, crystal clear in the rubrics, clarified with official statments from the Holy See, when there is a footwashing rite during the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday, only males may be chosen to participate (viri selecti).

On the other hand, in very many places this specific and serious requirement is ignored. 

Keeping in mind that the footwashing rite is an option in that Mass, and it may be left out for a good reason, what was the practice in your parish THIS YEAR.  

Thus, you will probably have to wait to answer this until you see it happen… and no doubt you will because you are going to go.  

I went to the Mass tonight at St. John Lateran and was seated in choro just a few scant meters from the Sovreign Pontiff.  The sermon was fabulous.

I can assure you that the Bishop of Rome washed the feet of men.  

o{]:¬)

Last Saturday at 1st Vespers was the time to veil statues and images in your churches (1st Passion Sunday, the 5th Sunday of Lent).

Here is an informal poll about how you receive Holy Communion.

Of course, there may be those occasions when you do something somewhat differently than your usual way of receiving so, but make your best answer.

If you want to explain what happens at your parishes, be factual and respectful. Feel free to add your reasons why you do what you do.

Holy Communion on the tongue remains the norm for the Catholic Church. However, the Holy See permitted conferences of bishops to make exceptions to this norm and allow Communion in the hand under certain circumstances.

Keep in mind that Eastern Catholics receive on the tongue under both species from a small spoon. Also, include Communion by intinction as "on the tongue", since that is the only licit way to receive. And if you are self-intinging (and you are not a priest celebrating Mass) then knock it off because it is forbidden.

{democracy:2}

I need to throw a question to the crowd. [UPDATE: POLL ADDED]

If you look at a reference work such as A Manual for Writers, you will find that the plurals of prepositional-phrase compounds follow the rule governing the first noun of the compound:

brothers-in-law commanders-in-chief men-of-war

Ok… here is one for everyone. What do you do (oh, is this a straight line) with …

gin and tonic

Some contend that the plural ought to be

gins and tonic

and some say

gin and tonics

The idea here is that a) the gin is the most important element, so important in fact that it must receive the emphasis – ubi maior after all – or that b) the gin and the tonic together form such a perfect synergy that the general rule must apply.

Let’s get to the bottom of our gin and tonic question.

{democracy:1}