As we are in Passiontide, according to our traditional Roman calendar, and as I think about the reactions to a certain talk given by a certain Dominican sister, it occurred to me to review John 6.
As I reviewed John 6, it occurred to me that some of you might want to review it even by listening to it, or even hear it in its entirety for the first time.
So, as a little offering, here is John 6 in the Douay-Rheims translation. I chose the archaic language version, which rings a little oddly in our modern ears, so that you would have to work a little harder to attend and grasp.
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The teachings of the Lord and the teachings of the church are so perfect in every way. Thank you for this beautiful rendition of John 6 Father Z.
It was good to hear this – it was the translation of the Bible I grew up with. Instead of telling me to read it, my father used to leave it on the mantelpiece, knowing my ten-years’ old curiosity would lead me to it. He was also fond of the Ronald Knox New Testament, also left casually lying around.
Father, I hope you will be emboldened to read a Chapter from the Latin Vulgate soon. I’ve been re-reading the Psalms in the Vulgate this Lent, and practice has made me see so much more power and expressiveness in the Latin than I used to. There is an authentic meaning of the heart that goes well beyond literal translation.
I’m with the “Old Man of London” in this. It’s the version I grew up with too….and I have a complete Knox version of the Bible! I agree with him also on reading in Latin. I often go to the old Breviary for Matins. It is freely available on the Internet under Divinum Officium if anyone is interested.
I was struck too in Fr Z’s link to the text by the excellence of Bishop Challoner’s notes in this edition of the Douai-Rheims Bible that he prepared ca. 1750-52, revising and updating the original late 16th century English translation.
What a tireless man Challoner was: returning from Douai to London, (the English College oath bound every priest to return to England and work there, although the penal laws were still in force, and priests still had to disguise themselves as laymen and go under false identities). He celebrated Mass in taverns and cock-fighting cellars, spent his life mainly among the poor and visiting prisons, wrote the first published account of the Catholic martyrs in the Elizabethan and Stuart reigns, the first lives of the British saints, an English edition of The Imitation of Christ, St Augustine’s Confessions, and the Catechism; when consecrated Challoner insisted on making a visitation of all the ten home counties of southern England in his see (a see that included the West Indies, Maryland and Pennsylvania, which understandably he couldn’t get round to visiting!)
He also opened two schools for boys and a school for poor girls, founded a “Benevolent Society for the Relief of the Aged and Infirm Poor” and gave away large amounts to charity. He died at the age of 89, a year after the Gordon Riots (the rioters had literally threatened the Bishop’s life, and he had to escape from London.)
He also wrote several books of meditations, some of which can be found online (‘The Thirty Days’ Prayer’, the much-read ‘Garden of Souls’, and ‘Considerations upon Christian Truths…’)
All this active work building up English Catholicism to a flourishing state from probably its lowest point, was carried out during a life spent in hiding, constantly avoiding arrest. Bishop Challoner’s tomb is now in Westminster Cathedral.
The cause of his beatification was invoked a few times, but has never really taken off – there are so many martyrs of the earlier, harsher times. But he is deserving.
I agree with the “old Man of London” even more.
Many thanks indeed. Most interesting….at least, to me!