Monthly Archives: March 2006

The WDTPRS series intends to help you enter more fully and love more deeply the prayers Holy Church has given us.  As a result I must constantly attempt the tight-wire of writing too much and too little, of including huge … Read More →

EXCERPT:
This prayer is an excellent example of the mysterious effects of the Eucharist for the properly disposed baptized man, woman and child, and the responsibilities that derive from our daring to approach so great a gift. First, please note that that word pignus, “pledge, token” indicates that what we have just “taken” is merely a foretaste of what is to be offered to us in heaven. Our prayer today says that we here on earth are “already” filled. At the same time it clearly points to the fact that we do “not yet” have the complete fulfillment of mystery, which will be found only in the celestial banquet of heaven in the sight of God. We have here, as it were, a kind of manna dropping to us from heaven, crumbs from the Father’s feast, though the slightest and tiniest crumb might suffice as the ransom, token, pledge, down payment for every sin committed by every person who has ever lived or ever will live. If this is not enough to make you kneel and beseech God in thanksgiving, then I can’t imagine what will. Read More →

EXCERPT:
Hearken, O Lord, and have mercy, for we have sinned against Thee.
Weeping, we lift our eyes to Thee, king most high, redeemer of all. Listen, O Christ, to the prayers of the supplicants.
Thou right Hand of the Father, the keystone, the way of salvation, gate of heaven, cleanse the stains of our sin. Read More →

EXCERPT:
Here we have a prayer which might aptly describe many of us at this point in Lent: we started out with good resolutions and they are getting hard to keep. If it is not hard to keep to our plan, then perhaps we are not getting the point of Lent. We at times struggle not to fall down and flag in our resolve to gain mastery of sinful habits and tendencies. The powerful threefold Christ-recommended discipline is arduous indeed and our wounded nature rebels against the restraints, seeking the false freedom of license. Maybe we have already slipped and violated our private resolution for Lent. As a people united before Christ’s altar of sacrifice, humble and cast down low, we raise our eyes upwards to the Father who tenderly sees our efforts. Since we are kneeling and cast down (inclimamur) we beg Him to pick us back up, dust us off, and help us stay upright for the rest of the journey (sublevemur). In pleading for help from Him in this way we are acknowledge our helplessness in a way that does not violate our own role and free will. We are also giving witness (confessio) to others of our faith in Him. Read More →

EXCERPT:
Our life as pilgrims extends beyond the land to the mysteries of the sea as well. On our passage we are guided for and marveling at heavenly things on our voyage. If there are clouds we cannot see the heavens and thus can lose our way. If the winds are too strong or adverse, the voyage is perilous. Light is a key to our sailing properly. We have the lesser lights of the stars, moon and sun in this life. In the life to come we will have Light Itself. I am reminded of Ps 35:10-1: Quoniam apud te est fons vitae, et in tuo lumine videbimus lumen… For in Your presence is the source of life, and in Your light we shall see Light. Read More →

COLLECTDa, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus,ut, sacro nos purificante paenitentiae studio,sinceris mentibus ad sancta venturafacias pervenire.In the so-called "Tridentine" Missale Romanum until the Novus Ordo issued forth, this prayer on Friday of the 2nd Week of Lent said sacro nos purificante ieiunio.  … Read More →

EXCERPT:
There are may things in this changing and shifting world which can erode the steadfastness of a human heart. This world by its very nature is passing. If we give our hearts to these passing things, or set them in the place that belongs to the One who is eternal and ever faithful, we will be lost forever. When we are attached overly to the passing things of this world we cannot be effective in our work, in the vocation God conceived for us from before the creation of the universe. Read More →

EXCERPT:
The prayer brings to mind several images. Ut brevis sim, we can hear in it the abovementioned theme of the household of servants which has been prepared and trained both for and by good works. Think of someone who has been brought in to a new environment and needs training. In the ancient world perhaps some rough bumpkin brought to the villa and then taught many things so that he or she might serve properly in the house, as opposed to the field hands. On the other hand, those same field hands has a lot to learn. Read More →

COLLECTCustodi, Domine, quaesumus,Ecclesiam tuam propitiatione perpetua,et quia sine te labitur humana mortalitas,tuis semper auxiliis et abstrahatur a noxis,et ad salutaria dirigatur.Propitiatio in its fundamental meaning meanings and "an appeasing, atonement,  propitiation".  The dictionary of liturgical Latin Blaise also gives us … Read More →

EXCERPT:
Today’s prayer introduces the concept of healing in medela. Also we have command vocabulary in praecepisti and mandata. The mandata refer more than likely to the two-fold command of love of God and neighbor, which must lead us to forgiveness of our neighbor when we are wronged and also spiritual and corporal works of mercy. Remember that a meaning of pietas is “dutifulness”. This ties together with the command vocabulary. At the same time we gain from pietas God’s manifold mercies, which is is faithful in giving when we ask for them. In an Augustinian sense, we could render pietas as “knowledge and love of the true God”. Read More →

EXCERPT:
Sure, it happens all the time that the priest’s all too human flaws make it difficult to see in him what God has placed upon his soul. I get complaints about priests constantly via e-mail and snail-mail. Sometimes they are about me! Regardless of how inadequate some of you might think Father is, his blessings are effective. His consecrations and absolutions are valid. And rarely, rarely, despite how it might seem in the moment, or how ignorant or thick or lazy or given to less than edifying things you think he may be, does he act in such a way that his blessings or celebrations of sacraments are not guaranteed by the Church’s authority and God’s own promises. As spotless as Holy Mother Church is, we do not belong to a Church of the pure only. The priest, however inadequate you might think yours to be, is mysteriously alter Christus. He remains the fundamental figure in the formation of the Christian faithful. Read More →

EXCERPT:
The Word of God, from all eternity, is the perfect image of the invisible Father. We are made according to that image. In the Incarnation the Word became the perfect visible image of the invisible God. This perfect image, Jesus, came into the world to save us from our sins and to reveal us more fully to ourselves. He gives us the ultimate “view” or “insight” of who we are and what we are to do. In the Transfiguration the three apostles see something more of Jesus’ perfect image and it is a sight that transforms them. Remembers how Moses was transformed by and how his face shown with light after his encounters with God in the cloud of His glory (Heb. shekina) when it descended on Mt. Sinai or the tent/tabernacle (cf. Exodus 33:7ff; 34:29ff). A symbolic shekina remains in our churches even now: more than a red presence lamp a baldachin or a veil covering the tabernacle is the true sign of the Real Presence! Read More →

EXCERPT:
Paul admonishes us in 2 Timothy 4:6-8:

For I am already on the point of being sacrificed; the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. Read More →