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

In another entry on this blog there are questions and comments about having the "Tridentine" Mass in the vernacular.   Apparently radio commentator Paul Harvey inaccurately launched some rumor about this.

"But Father!  But Father!", some of you are muttering.  "That sounds like a really good idea!" 

So, gentle readers … good idea?  Not good?  Latin only?  Could the vernacular be the best of both worlds?

One commentor in this blog said:

What would be so bad if the MP included the option for a priest to use the 1962 missal translated into the vernacular?

Wouldn’t such an option be a good way of introducing the post-Vatican II group to the Traditional Mass?

Another comment responded:

The oldies around here (like me) all remember “a translation” in the pages of some missal from some publishing house about 1962, but which version would we take?

No. It would be an unofficial translation if we did that. It’s not that all that simple. We’ve had our fill of ad hoc translations—that is precisely the point of doing Latin. We have to fix this shambles the liturgy is in.

That raises an interesting point.  It just so happens that for my WDTPRS article for this week’s 13th Sunday of Ordinary time, in which I scrutinize the Post Communion, I compared older version of the prayer.  It happens that this Post Communion was identical to a prayer in the 1962 Missale Romanum.   Here is an excerpt:

[T]oday’s Post Communion, which was in the 1962 Missale Romanum for the votive Mass of Our Lord Jesus Christ High and Eternal Priest. 

POST COMMUNIONEM (2002MR):
Vivificet nos, quaesumus, Domine,
divina quam obtulimus et sumpsimus hostia,
ut, perpetua tibi caritate coniuncti,
fructum qui semper maneat afferamus.

I like the chiasmus pattern.  A chiasmus is an “X” shaped figure of speech: AB-BA.  When the pairs are placed above each other, they form an X, like the Greek letter chi which looks like an “X”.  The AB-BA in divina quam obtulimus et sumpsimus hostia puts the feminine divina… hostia on the ends and then embeds the relative clause with two perfect verbs.  Elegant. 

Let’s dig at affero (or adfero) with our fabulous lexical shovel, the Lewis & Short Dictionary.  In its basic meaning, when applied to portable things affero is “to bring, take, carry or convey a thing to a place”.  Regarding news it is “to report, announce, inform, publish”.  Concerning reasons or excuses it means “to bring forwards, allege, assert, adduce”.  But in the Classical period it could, though rarely, mean “to bring forth as a product, to yield, bear, produce”.  Now we are getting somewhere.   The references provided in L&S are from the Vulgate and two of them pair affero with fructum (“an enjoying; proceeds, profit, income; fruit, consequence, result, return, reward, success”).  Coniugo means “to bind together, connect, join, unite; to unite, join in marriage or love”.  Think of English “conjunction” and “conjugal”.   The imagery of the prayer is nuptial.

Since this prayer remains as it appeared in the pre-Conciliar Missale Romanum, out of curiosity we can again consult those good old hand missals people carried to church stuffed with memorial and ordination cards.

The New Roman Missal (1945):
We beseech Thee O Lord that the divine victim
which has been our oblation and our food may give us life;
so that united with Thee in perpetual charity
we may bring fruit that remaineth forever.

The New Marian Missal (1958):
We beseech Thee, O Lord, may the divine hosts
which we have offered up and received, quicken us;
that, bound to Thee by an eternal love,
we may bear fruit that remains evermore.

I like that “quicken” for vivifico.  L&S likes it too, “to make alive, restore to life, quicken, vivify”.

Saint Andrew Daily Missal (1959):
We pray, Lord, let the offering and reception
of the divine victim vivify us,
that, united to You by perpetual charity,
we may bear an everlasting fruit.

Saint Joseph Daily Missal (1959 – New Edition 1961):
We beseech You, O Lord, that the Divine Victim
which we have offered and received, may give us life,
so that united with You in enduring bonds of love,
we may bring forth everlasting fruit.

And last, but least, the lame-duck version from

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Lord,
may this sacrifice and communion
give us a share in your life
and help us bring your love to the world.

That is what you will probably hear on Sunday at church.   On planet WDTPRS, however, it would be something like this

LITERAL VERSION:
May the divine sacrificial victim
which we have offered and received enliven us, O Lord, we entreat You,
so that joined to You by love everlasting,
we may bear the fruit which remains for ever.

If you are used to reading Sacred Scripture or liturgical texts in Latin your ears would have instantly perked up at the sound of “fructum qui semper maneat afferamus”, an allusion to John 15:16: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide (ut eatis et fructum adferatis et fructus vester maneat); so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”

Okay… look at those versions.  

One of the advantages to having those prayers in Latin is that people were free to participate fully, consciously and actively at Holy Mass with the aid of whatever approved hand missal they chose.  It might even be interesting over coffee and doughnuts after Mass to compare your different versions and figure out what the differences were.

So, "Tridentine" Mass in the vernacular: good idea?

HEBDOMADA SECUNDA IN QUADRAGESIMA - 2nd WEEK OF LENT

12) Dominica II in Quadragesima – 2nd Sunday of Lent
a) Collect (article from 2001)
b) Super oblata (article from 2002)
c) Post Communion (article from 2003)
d) Collect (article from 2005)
e) Super oblata (article 2006)

What Does the Prayer Really Say?  2nd Sunday of Lent – Roman Station: St. Mary in Domnica

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2007

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This Sunday’s “Prayer after Communion” was in the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary for Wednesday after the Third Sunday of Lent.  It was not in any pre-Conciliar edition of the Missale Romanum.

POST COMMUNION (2002 Missale Romanum):
Percipientes, Domine, gloriosa mysteria,
gratias tibi referre satagimus,
quod, in terra positos,
iam caelestium praestas esse participes.

To see what the prayer really says, we dash to the the Dictionary by Lewis & Short.  Search for satagimus under satis.  This is satis constructed with ago as sat ago, written often as one word satago, “to have enough to do, have one’s hands full; to be in trouble” and also “to bustle about, make a to-do, be full of business.”  In business language it is, “to satisfy, content, pay a creditor.” We have seen that gratia is not only “grace” but is also “thanks” when we construct it with a verb such as ago (again) and referro.  Here we have referro together with (sat)ago in a very elegant and courtly construction. 

Don’t automatically perceive percipio to mean “perceive”, though that is one of its meanings.  Words have contexts.  Percipio is also “to take wholly, to seize entirely” and then by extension “to perceive, feel” and “to learn, know, conceive, comprehend, understand.”  I think “grasp” is good, but not in the sense of “seize” (as some of the less perceptive do when they “grasp” Holy Communion in the hand).  In our prayer percipio appears as a present active participle.  By “present” we understand “contemporary” with the time of the main verb.  The terms sacramentum and mysterium are often interchangeable in liturgical prayers.  Our old friend gloria is not just “glory” but also a characteristic of God.  He will share gloria with us in the world to come and it will forever transform us.  The Eucharist is a foretaste of this gift.   Praesto means a range of things, from “to become surety for, to answer or vouch for, to warrant, be responsible for, to take upon one’s self”, and “to show, exhibit, to prove, evince, manifest”, and “to give, offer, furnish, present, expose”. 

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
We are busy offering thanks to You, O Lord,
as we are grasping the glorious sacraments,
for You are granting us placed here on earth
to be participants of heavenly things.

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Lord,
we give thanks for these holy mysteries
which bring to us here on earth
a share in the life to come.

Holy Church offers us glorious things in our sacred rites.  The lame-duck ICEL versions are not among them.  Our prayers, what our prayers really say, contain inestimable treasures if only we can get them open.  For most of us who don’t “grasp” in the content within the Latin itself, this means rendering the prayers in English.  These prayers, the whole sacred action of the Mass and its chief content, the Eucharist, are meant to transform us. 

During Lent we are looking at the Oratio super populum, an ancient custom now happily restored in the third edition of the Missale Romanum.  It is uttered by the priest after the Post Communion.  NB: in the lame-duck ICEL “Sacramentary” on Sundays of Lent you find a “Solemn blessing or prayer over the people”.   These are not in the Latin editions of the Missale.

ORATIO SUPER POPULUM (2002MR):
Benedic, Domine, fideles tuos benedictione perpetua,
et fac eos Unigeniti tui Evangelio sic adhaerere,
ut ad illam gloriam, cuius in se speciem Apostolis ostendit,
et suspirare iugiter et feliciter valeant pervenire.

MY LITERAL RENDERING:
Bless Your faithful, O Lord, with an everlasting benediction
and make them so to cling to the Gospel of Your Only-Begotten
that they may be able to long for always and happily to attain
unto that glory whose beauty He showed to the Apostles in Himself.

The verb suspiro means “to draw a deep breath, heave a sigh, to sigh” and thus “sighing after, longing for”.

How we long for good translations. 

HEBDOMADA PRIMA IN QUADRAGESIMA - 1st WEEK OF LENT

5) Dominica I in Quadragesima – 1st Sunday of Lent
a) Collect (article from 2001)
b) Super oblata (article from 2002)
c) Post Communion (article from 2003)
d) Collect (article from 2005)
e) Super oblata (article from 2006)

What Does the Prayer Really Say?  1st Sunday of Lent – Roman Station: Archbasilica of the Most Holy Savior “St. John Lateran”

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2007

The clock of life continues its incessant tick.  The liturgical cycle of Lent and Easter has returned. Penance and introspection are proper before a great feast.  Holy Church is decked in penitential purple.  The meaning of the season requires austerity.  In church, no flowers.  No instrumental music except on feasts or to support singing.   We shall fast and pray, give alms and examine our consciences in this liturgical desert.

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The season Lent (Quadragesima) is so important that each day has its own proper prayers for Mass and its own “station” church in Rome, a very ancient tradition. From time immemorial on 84 days of the Church’s year (including Ember Days, Sundays of Advent, pre-Lenten Sundays, Lent/Easter and its Octave and Pentecost) the clergy and Roman people “collected” at an appointed church (ecclesia collecta) for preliminary prayers, which was perhaps the origin of Collect, the opening prayer of Mass.  Then they would march in procession singing litanies and chants to meet the Bishop of Rome or his deputy for Mass at the “stopping” church (statio).  A confraternity in Rome dedicated to the cult of martyrs has maintained this beautiful tradition.  Seminarians and priests from the North American College have the custom of participating at Mass at every station during Lent. 

The names of the Roman Stations were printed in the pre-Conciliar Missal on all the appropriate days.  They are still printed on the calendars for offices of the Roman Curia.  Often the prayers and texts for a day’s Mass subtly referred to the patron saint of the church where they were said, or to some historical event associated with the place.  The station tradition was revered throughout the world and people could gain indulgences by visiting churches designated by the bishop of the place where they lived.  The little book published every year called the Ordo, containing practical information about what Mass is to be said each day, still cites the custom of stations and recommends its observance.  The post-Conciliar Missale Romanum strongly recommends (valde commendatur) that this Roman custom be fostered, at least in larger cities.  The manner of observance is described (2002MR, p. 396).  The 2002 Missale Romanum has revived the ancient “prayer over the people” or Oratio super populum after the Post Communion.  We looked at these prayers last year but we should see them again.

This week’s Post Communion is a new composition for the Novus Ordo containing echoes of Matthew 4:4 and John 6:51.

POST COMMUNION (2002 Missale Romanum):
Caelesti pane refecti,
quo fides alitur, spes provehitur et caritas roboratur,
quaesumus, Domine,
ut ipsum, qui est panis vivus et verus, esurire discamus,
et in omni verbo, quod procedit de ore tuo,
vivere valeamus.

Our The Lewis & Short Latin Dictionary, oozing with Latin learning, says reficio (whence derives refecti) means, “to make again, make anew, put in condition again; to remake, restore, renew, rebuild, repair, refit, recruit” and thence refectus , a, um, is “refreshed, recruited, invigorated”.   In an ecclesiastical institution a dining room is called a “refectory”.  The verb proveho signifies “to carry or conduct forwards, to carry or convey along, to conduct, convey, transport, etc., to a place”.  Alo is “to feed, to nourish, support, sustain, maintain” and esurio “to desire to eat, to suffer hunger, be hungry, to hunger.”

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Father,
you increase our faith and hope,
you deepen our love in this communion.
Help us to live by your words
and to seek Christ, our bread of life.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Having been renewed by heavenly bread,
by which faith is nourished, hope advanced and charity strengthened,
we entreat You, O Lord,
that we may learn to hunger for Him who is bread living and true,
and that we may be able to live
by every word which proceeds from Your mouth.

The ancient origins of the “prayer over the people”, the Oratio super populum, are quite complex, rooted in the Eastern liturgies of Syria and Egypt and also of the West.  In his monumental The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development (II, pp. 427ff) Joseph A. Jungmann emphasizes that we are at a “frontier” moment at this point of Holy Mass.  We are at the threshold of the sacred precinct, between the church and the world.  We want the influence of our intimate contact with the divine to carry over into the outside world. 

In a Post Communion the priest prays for the people, himself included.  In a “prayer over the people” he prays for the people, but does include himself in the prayer.  By the time of Pope Gregory the Great this prayer was used only during Lent, a time of greater spiritual combat requiring more blessings. Keep in mind that people doing public penance (ordo poenitentium) could not receive Holy Communion, but they urgently wanted blessings in their trial.   Thus, this prayer was very important to the Roman people.  In 545 Pope Vigilius was celebrating the station Mass at St. Cecilia in Trastevere (trans Tiberim – across the Tiber River).  The soldiers of the pro-Monophysite Byzantine Emperor Justinian arrived after Communion to arrest Vigilius and conduct him to Constantinople.  The people followed them to the ship demanding “ut orationem ab eo acciperent… that they should receive the blessing from him”.  The Pope prayed over them.  The people said “Amen”.  Away went Vigilius.  He returned to Rome only after his death. 

ORATIO SUPER POPULUM (2002MR):
Super populum tuum, Domine, quaesumus,
benedictio copiosa descendat,
ut spes in tribulatione succrescat,
virtus in tentatione firmetur,
aeterna redemptio tribuatur.

This Sunday’s prayer has roots in the first of three “thanksgiving” prayers of the so-called pre-Conciliar “Mass of the Pre-sanctified” on Good Friday: Super populum tuum, quaesumus, Domine, qui passionem et mortem Filii tui devota mente recoluit, benedictio copiosa descendat, indulgentia veniat, consolatio tribuatur, fides sancta succrescat, redemptio sempiterna firmetur.

When first I saw tentatione I assumed the influence of Italian had produced an error.  But we dig deep to learn what the prayer really says!  Latin tento is tempto, “to handle, touch, feel a thing”.  It also means “to try the strength of, make an attempt upon, i.e. to attack, assail” and then “to try; to prove, put to the test; to attempt, essay a course of action”.  The rare succresco signifies “to grow under or from under any thing; to grow up”.  In virtus, we have “manliness, manhood, i.e., the sum of all the corporeal or mental excellences of man, strength, vigor; bravery, courage; aptness, capacity; worth, excellence, virtue” which also means “moral perfection, virtuousness, virtue” and “military talents, courage, valor, bravery, gallantry, fortitude”.

MY LITERAL RENDERING:
Upon thy people, O Lord, we beg thee,
let a plentiful blessing descend,
so that hope in time of trouble may grow up,
valor in time of temptation may be strengthened,
and eternal redemption may be granted.

Vocabulary like tribulatio, te(mp)tatio, redemptio juxtaposed with virtus remind us that we depend on God’s grace for the virtuous strength and courageous fortitude befitting soldiers of Christ in this Church Militant.  Lent is spiritual combat. 

Be bold.  Be ready.

What Does the Prayer Really Say?  5th Sunday of Ordinary Time

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2007

We have seen in the last few weeks another call from “the Chair” of the USCCB’s BCL (Bishops Committee on Liturgy) to keep the new translation being prepared “unchallenging” enough that it would raise neither eyebrows nor interest in the content of the prayer.  Can’t we just avoid all the hard words?  Timely, therefore, was an e-mail from APS lampooning the passé ICEL approach of the bad old days.  What if the old ICEL team had gotten their hands on Shakespeare?  APS sent a letter of an expert of the International Commission for English in Shakespeare, Dr. Hannibal Bugatti, about the new version of Romeo and Juliet, renamed Juliet and Romeo for obvious reasons.  Here are few samples.  What to do, for example, with Romeo’s description of Juliet as he gazes at her on the balcony:

“O! she doth teach the torches to burn bright
It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear;
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear.”

This is a complex passage, presenting many problems: the implication that brightness is better than darkness, for example, the appallingly irrelevant mention of someone’s race, the use of rich as a term of admiration, when another guiding principle is “a preferential option for the poor,” and so on.

The ICES text reads:

“Look, everyone!
She is teaching the torches
to be more truly themselves,
like an affordable-by-everyone paste
costume jewel accessory kit, hung
on the ear of anyone (man or woman)
of any ethnic origin.”

There will even be a new ending for the play, more suited to cultural needs.  Surely there would be some resistance from traditionalists.  Dr. Bugatti has a response:

Again, we can predict howls of anguish from one or two extreme conservatives, and one has been rash enough to print and distribute a defamatory article which claims that these endings betray the text. It is important to emphasize a number of points. The first is that the original ending will remain available (in the new translation) though we suspect few animators will, in practice, choose to use it. The second is that this is a return to an older literary tradition, and therefore more authentic to the nature of drama in itself. The third is that the over-riding principle must be what the people demand, and the experts are agreed that these endings are the ones that the people will demand, once they have got used to them.

“The Chair” is constantly asserting that you are all now so used to the lame duck ICEL version of the Creed that can’t possibly handle hearing “for you and for many” in the consecration or “consubstantial” in the Creed.  You might even leave the Church if you have to endure that!

Moving along to this week’s “Prayer after Communion” let’s start with a quiz.  

Q: What do the following verses have in common?  Rom 12:5; 1 Cor 10:17; 1 Cor 11:28; John 15:16; John 17:11 and 21.

Do you recall my fictitious description of a liturgical expert at the time of the post-Conciliar reform of the Missale Romanum?  There he was, in his little room filled with books and papers, cutting and snipping bits and pieces together to form the new prayers of the Novus Ordo (cf. my piece last year on the Super Oblata for the 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time).  Today’s prayer is a perfect example of the scissors and paste method.  This and my identifying many of our Sunday prayers provoked questions among readers  about how many of the prayers from the older, pre-Conciliar Missale Romanum actually made it into the Novus Ordo.   I found a useful, if tendentious, booklet by Anthony Cekada, The Prayers of the Modern Mass (Rockford: TAN Books and Publishers, 1991).  This is what Cekada claims (p. 9):

Above we quoted a statement from Father Guy Oury that the Missal of Paul VI contains three-quarters of the Missal of St. Pius V.  Surely such a statement would be accurate if the revisers had – as advertised – merely “touched up” and “enriched” the orations here and there.
The statistics, however, tell a different story: The traditional Missal contains 1182 orations.  About 760 of those were dropped entirely.  Of the approximately 36% which remained, the revisers altered over half of them before introducing them into the new Missal.  Thus, only some 17% of the orations from the old Missal made it untouched into the new Missal.
Even this paltry percentage may be greatly reduced.  The first figure of 1182 orations reflects only individual texts in the traditional Missal – it does not take into account the many times these texts were repeated in toto in several different Masses celebrated at various points during the liturgical year.
    However one may compute it, the bulk of the traditional orations simply disappeared under the revisers’ busy blue pencils.  In terms of numbers and statistics alone, therefore, the contents of Paul VI’s Missal represent a radical break with the Church’s liturgical tradition.

Cekada calculated that “about 425 of the old orations were used in the 1970 Missal.  Of those 425, approximately 225 were changed in some way, and approximately 200 were left untouched” (p. 34 n. 15).

Without further ado let’s move directly to this week’s quilted

POST COMMUNION (2002 Missale Romanum):
Deus, qui nos de uno pane et de uno calice
participes esse voluisti,
da nobis, quaesumus, ita vivere, ut, unum in Christo effecti,
fructum afferamus pro mundi salute gaudentes.

This puts a whole new spin on the concept of a “prayer quilt”.  This prayer is, obviously, new to the Novus Ordo of 1970 and subsequent editions.  It is a patchwork of biblical phrases.  Here are the citations from the older form of the Vulgate.  I urge you to look them up in your Bible.

•    Rom 12:5: ita multi unum corpus sumus in Christo singuli autem alter alterius membra
•    1 Cor 10:17: quoniam unus panis unum corpus multi sumus omnes quidem de uno pane participamur
•    1 Cor 11:28: probet autem se ipsum homo et sic de pane illo edat et de calice bibat
•    John 15:16: non vos me elegistis sed ego elegi vos et posui vos ut eatis et fructum adferatis et fructus vester maneat ut quodcumque petieritis Patrem in nomine meo det vobis
•    John 17:11: et iam non sum in mundo et hii in mundo sunt et ego ad te venio Pater sancte serva eos in nomine tuo quos dedisti mihi ut sint unum sicut et nos
•    John 17:21: ut omnes unum sint sicut tu Pater in me et ego in te ut et ipsi in nobis unum sint ut mundus credat quia tu me misisti

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
God our Father,
you give us a share in the one bread and the one cup
and make us one in Christ.
Help us to bring your salvation and joy
to all the world.

In 2002 the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments harshly rejected ICEL’s translation of the second edition of the Missale Romanum.   One of the more stinging criticisms was that ICEL inelegantly referred to sacred vessels with language more befitting “kitchenware”, to wit “cup” rather than the more sacral (read: “hard word”) “chalice”.   

The meticulous The Lewis & Short Latin Dictionary helps with this affero, which is basically, “to bring, take, carry or convey a thing to a place (of portable things, while adducere denotes the leading or conducting of men, animals, etc.)”.  It also is used for “to bring, bear, or carry a thing, as news, to report, announce, inform, publish.  Thus, it signifies concepts such as “occasion, impart, allege, adduce” and (in classical Latin rarely) “to bring forth as a product, to yield, bear, produce” so as “to bear fruit” (cf. John 15:16, above).  Participo is “to share; viz., to cause to partake of, to impart; and also, to partake of, participate in” and it can be constructed with the preposition de.  L&S cites the Vulgate 1 Cor 10:15-17 (also cited above): “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ (communicatio sanguinis Christi)?  The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ (participatio corporis Domini)?  Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread (de uno pane participamur)” RSV.
 
LITERAL TRANSLATION:  
O God, who desired that we be participants
of the one bread and one chalice,
grant us, we beg, so to live that, having been made one in Christ,
we, rejoicing, may bear fruit for the salvation of the world.

Holy Communion is both an outward sign and an interior cause of our union with Christ, as members of His Mystical Body the Church.  During the Last Supper, Christ prayed to the Father before instituting the sacraments of the Eucharist and Holy Orders.  Then He went out to His Passion and Sacrifice.  He prayed: “…that they may all be one (ut omnes unum sint).  As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us (ut et ipsi in nobis unum sint)….  The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one (ut sint unum sicut nos unum sumus), I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one (ut sint consummati in unum), so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (cf. John 17:20-23 RSV).   This passage is vital to the Church’s efforts for a real dialog with non-Catholic Christians, an authentic ecumenism.  The late Holy Fa