Here is something I wrote a loooong time ago – 2006 – for an WDTPRS article in the print version of The Wanderer. I had a column there for 11 years.
The Wanderer… they have been faithful warriors for a long time. You could give them some encouragement. With a subscription. Help them out.
…(I)n some places the Feast of the Ascension, which falls always on a Thursday, has been transferred to this Sunday. That would make it “Ascension Thursday Sunday”, I suppose. (Eye roll)
The third edition of the Missale Romanum issued in 2002 now provides a Mass for the Vigil of Ascension, which wasn’t in previous editions of the Novus Ordo. Moreover, the prayers for the new Vigil of Ascension are not the same as those found in the pre-Conciliar Missale for the Vigil.
Also, there are now proper Masses for the days after Ascension, most having alternative collects depending on whether or not in that region Ascension is transferred to Sunday.
What a mess.
And some people wonder why it isn’t perfectly okay to just to celebrate the Novus Ordo in Latin with some lace and stuff. These ignoramuses do not have an even partial clue.
Since many people do not have access to the prayers for the Vigil of Ascension, let’s look at them this week.
First, here are the antiphons. Ant. ad introitum: Regna terrae cantata Deo, psallite Domino, qui ascendit super caelum caeli; magnificentia et virtus eius in nubibus, alleluia. (Ps 67:33,35) Ant. ad communionem: Christus, unam pro peccatis offerens hostiam, in sempiterum sedet in dextera Dei, alleluia. (Cf. Heb 10:12)
COLLECT:
Deus, cuius Filus hodie in caelos,
Apostolis astantibus, ascendit,
concede nobis, quaesumus,
ut secundum eius promissionem
et ille nobiscum semper in terris
et nos cum eo in caelo vivere mereamur.
This was modified from a prayer in ancient sacramentaries such as the Liber Sacramentorum when it was used on Ascension Thursday having its Station Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica. Here is some liturgical education for you. The eucological formulas (the prayers), for the Ascension found in what is sometimes called the Leonine Sacramentary surviving in one 7th century manuscript in Verona (the Veronese Sacramentary) are the oldest prayers we have in the Roman liturgy! The Missale Romanum and those ancient collections consist principally in prayers for Masses which in fancy liturgist talk are called “eucological formulas”.
You might not immediately recognize astantibus as being from asto or adsto, which that ascendant lexicon of Latin lemmata, the Lewis & Short Dictionary, says means, “to stand at or near a person or thing, to stand by” The L&S will also inform you that asto has the synonym adsisto.
If you have ever heard the phrase “to assist (adsisto) at Holy Mass” this is the concept: you are present and actively participating. Of course what many say “active participation” is is dead WRONG… but I digress.
During the Roman Canon, the priest describes the people as circumstantes, “standing around”. This doesn’t mean they there around the altar with their hands in the their pockets (though I have seen that happen, not rarely). Rather, they are there morally and spiritually “around” the altar, participating each according to their vocation and capacity.
So, circumstantes is used to identify the baptized who are present.
SUPER LITERAL VERSION:
O God, whose Son today ascended
into the heavens as the Apostles were standing close by,
grant us, we beseech You,
that, according to His promise,
we may be worthy both that He lives with us on earth,
and that we live with Him in heaven.
The Apostles, who were adstantes, actively participating in the Lord’s Ascension before, during and after the actual moment if the Ascension, both listened to the Lord and watched the Lord. Similarly, at Holy Mass we actively participate before, during and after the consecration, both by listening to the Lord speak through the texts and watching what the Lord does in the liturgical action.
LATER ADDITION in 2011:
NEW CORRECTED ICEL (2011):
O God, whose Son today ascended to the heavens
as the Apostles looked on,
grant, we pray, that, in accordance with his promise,
we may be worthy for him to live with us always on earth,
and we with him in heaven.
When the Second Person took up our human nature into an indestructible bond with His divinity, indestructible, we were thereby destined to sit at God’s right hand, first in Christ and then on our own. Christ makes us worthy, no one else.
Christ alone. It’s all His. And because it’s His, it’s ours.
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“And some people wonder why it isn’t perfectly okay to just to celebrate the Novus Ordo in Latin with some lace and stuff. ”
I sometimes wonder if we should stop using the term “Latin Mass” for the Vetus Ordo because it causes people to think that the use of Latin is the main difference with the Novus Ordo, where in fact it is only one of many differences to the point where they seem to be different rites. As Dr. Kwasnewski has pointed out, you cannot fix the NO by changing its language and throwing in a few prayers, incense, etc.
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I started reading The Wanderer while in college (decades ago). I do remember reading your column. I still faithfully subscribe.
JonPatrick: I agree, and I made an effort to stop calling it the “Latin Mass” after I went to a beautiful parish, St. Agnes in Minneapolis, for what was described as a “Latin Mass” with my 1962 missal in hand ready for a reverent Vetus Ordo in this beautiful church home to the Remnant magazine. Imagine my disappointment when the priest skips the prayers at the foot of the cross and he and the deacon start facing the people and begin saying the Novus Ordo in Latin…
JonPatrick: I agree. I’m not a fan of the slang term “Traditional Latin Mass”. I call it was it was called for centuries, the Roman Mass. It’s a fitting name that includes the heritage of the rite along with the tradition.
A theory I have: Technically speaking, the Novus Ordo Missal is called “Roman”. To me, this doesn’t make sense when I look at the classifications and development of Western Liturgies. For example, look at the Rite of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem (aka the Carmelite Rite). This old liturgy draws traditions from the Roman Rite and the Gallican Rite, and it is therefore classified under the Roman-Gallic Rite. If we look at the Novus Ordo in the same light (that it drew its “traditions” from two sources), I think we can fairly easily conclude that it should be classified in like manner. I don’t know what it would be called as such a classification has never been made and they simply call it the “reformed” “Roman Missal”. Maybe call this classification Roman-Concilium or something.