Category Archives: WDTPRS

Here is today’s entry in the 2005 Martyrologium Romanum for the feast of Sts. Timothy and Titus: Memoria sanctorum Timothei et Titi, episcoporum, qui, discipuli santi Pauli Apostoli et adiutores eius in apostolatu, alter Ecclesiae Ephesinae, alter vero Cretensi praefuit; … Read More →

EXCERPT:
The lame-duck ICEL version’s “All-powerful and ever-living God” for omnipotens sempiterne Deus is not so bad. Quite bad, on the other hand, is their “direct your love that is within us”. The Latin clearly connects God’s own purpose for us and the actions that flow from that purpose. In the ICEL version we have a vague term “love”, rather than the indication of God’s eternal plan. Perhaps this is a bit picky, but when I hear “we may merit to abound with good works”, I think we are abounding because of God’s action within us through the good works He makes meritorious. They overflow from us because of His generosity. In the ICEL version God’s “love” is in us, but this leads to “our efforts”. Yes, this can be reconciled with a Catholic theology of works, but it just doesn’t sound right. Also, I don’t think that “efforts” to “bring mankind to unity and peace” means the same as us “meriting” by God’s grace to “abound with good works”. Please understand: I don’t object to praying for unity and peace, but I think we ought to pray the prayer as the Church gave it to us, what the prayer really says. When we feed the hungry and console those who mourn, visit the shut-in and imprisoned and pray for the dead, sure we are building “unity and peace”, but that phrase is so vague as to mean very little to someone in the pew. The Latin does not say “conatus nostri genus humanum ad unitatem et pacem inducant”. Is it possible that the guitar strumming and all those kumbayas of the 1960’s affected the ICEL translators choice of words? I suppose we could all stand outside the headquarters of the USCCB and sing, “All we are saying, is give Latin a chance!” while swaying back and forth holding our lighters in the air.
Read More →

EXCERPT:
Without this bidirectional love of charity, our “prayer after communion” is just a still life rather than a living landscape. It is like a painting of a glorious bowl of fruit beginning to rot, rather than a vista in which life thrives. The Italian term for a still life is “natura morta”, a “dead nature”. It is a beautiful, but dead. All our prayers can have a lovely ring to them, but without charity and the proper sense of order the ring is that of the struck brass of St. Paul’s gong in 1 Cor 13: “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” Charity calls us to act outwardly as we ought according to our interior disposition and vocation. Read More →

EXCERPT:
There is a great difference between the peace the world can offer and the peace that God offers. This world of temporal goods (and ills) is passing and fragile, always susceptible to loss. The goods of heaven are lasting, enduring, solid and dependable. We must never fall into the sin of putting any created thing or person in the place which only eternal God may properly have. No infinite and passing thing can provide lasting joy or eternal peace. Any created thing can be lost through theft, wear and time. The vicissitudes of this passing world roar over us like an inexorable wave and can sweep away any material thing to which we have clung, perhaps even in idolatry. Our wealth, our family, our health, our appearance and our reputation can be taken in the blink of an eye. God alone endures. Read More →

Here are links to my articles on Epiphany which I posted last year. COLLECT (1) SUPER OBLATA (1) POST COMMUNION (1) Here are some other pieces of the puzzle: What Does the Prayer Really Say? Epiphany and Mary, Mother of … Read More →

Shall we have a look at the prayers for the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God in the 2002MR? COLLECT (2002MR)Deus, qui salutis aeternae, beatae Mariae virginitate fecunda,humano generi praemia praestitisti,tribue, quaesumus, ut ipsam pro nobis intercedere sentiamus,per quam meruimus … Read More →

What Does the Prayer Really Say? Holy Family – Sunday in the Octave of Christmas ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2004 A liturgical “octave” is an eight day period following and including the feast. In a way, the Church … Read More →

What Does the Prayer Really Say? Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph – Sunday in the Octave of Christmas ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2006 Today is simultaneously the Sunday in the Octave of Christmas, Holy Family, and, … Read More →

EXCERPT:
How often do we hear about something or learn a new thing and then rush to know more, to have personal experience, to see? This is a paradigm for our life of faith. There is an interlocking cycle of hearing a proclamation (such as the Gospel at Mass, a homily, or a teaching of the Church) or observing the living testimony of a holy person’s life, and by this experience coming to know and then love the content of that proclamation or living testimony. The content is the Man God Jesus Christ. By knowing Him we come all the better to love Him and in loving Him we desire better to know Him. An act of faith, acceptance of the authority of the content of what we receive, opens unto previously unknown territory, a vast depth otherwise closed to us. For the non-believer, on the other hand, a miracle is simply something inexplicable having nothing of the supernatural. For a non-believer being nice or hard working can never ascend to true virtue or holiness. For him, the content of the Faith itself (both Jesus as well as what we learn and assent to) appears to be pleasant or interesting, but in the end remains naïve or foolish.
Read More →

EXCERPT:
Here is a thought for your participation at Mass. During most of the Mass you are called upon to participate actively by receptivity: you receive the Gospel rather than reading it aloud; you receive forgiveness for venial sins in the penitential rite; you receive (not take) Holy Communion. When today’s prayer “over the gifts” or Super oblata is spoken by the priest, you participate actively by giving, by uniting your own sacrifices to those of the priest at the altar who is alter Christus. The priest (Christ the Head) invites and you (Christ the Body) respond. Pour forth your sacrifices. Put them on the paten and into the chalice, so that you, like our model Mary, can be “refilled, made complete” by what they are transformed into, the Body and Blood of the living and true God, the Christ Child who is Coming. Read More →