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“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z
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- Fr. John Zuhlsdorf on ASK FATHER: Priest says the consecration of the chalice over the host: “Darby: 1) Yes 2) No”
- on ASK FATHER: Priest says the consecration of the chalice over the host: “It’s been so many years at this point that my memory is fuzzy, but I do remember once being at…”
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- on ASK FATHER: Priest says the consecration of the chalice over the host: “Father, 1. Am I correct in saying that the sacrifice of the mass was not effected since only the wine…”
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- on From “The Private Diary of Bishop F. Atticus McButterpants” – 26-06-15 – Ordination?: “Fr Z, you really should write a novel based on these characters. I would be happy to buy and read…”
- on ASK FATHER: Priest says the consecration of the chalice over the host: “While I am outraged at genuine liturgical abuse, having seen a couple of seriously egregious examples that went so far…”
- on ASK FATHER: Priest says the consecration of the chalice over the host: “This reminds me of what happened when Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass at the Sistine Chapel for the Feast of…”
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Category Archives: WDTPRS
CWN reports on the “pro multis” victory
You have read the news from CWN about the pro multis decision. I reported this a long while back, but it is nice to have additional confirmation… this time from His Eminence Card. Arinze himself. I have no words to … Read More
33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time: POST COMMUNION (2)
What Does the Prayer Really Say? 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2003 DW of CA writes via snail-mail: “Thank you for your weekly column which gives any would-be Latinist a brisk turn around the … Read More
33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time: SUPER OBLATA (2)
EXCERPT:
Step into the Twilight Zone for a moment and picture, if you will, someone being admitted to, say, graduate school for a Ph.D in French Literature without knowing how to read any French. Make sense? Imagine a medical school admitting someone who never studied biology. Crazy, right? This is going on everywhere in the Church’s institutions of higher learning today, and the missing indispensable key is Latin. Personal anecdote: years ago a doctoral student in theology paid me to translate sermons of a mediaeval theologian found only in a volume of the Patrologia Latina. Why? He was writing his doctoral dissertation on the fellow’s theology but couldn’t read Latin. Get it? He was writing his thesis on something he couldn’t read. How does that work? Read More
33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time: COLLECT (2)
What Does the Prayer Really Say? 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2005 WDTPRS wishes His Eminence Francis Card. Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and titular Cardinal Bishop of (my) Suburbicarian Diocese … Read More
32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: COLLECT (2)
EXCERPT:
Some years ago I had an experience which confirmed for me the value of the old-fashioned methods of catechism: long and hard practice, memorization, and repetition. I was called to a hospital to assist in a patient’s difficult death. I gave the man Last Rites and talked with the family as they struggled with the reality of the end of the earthly life of a loved one. A daughter of the dying man had been estranged from her faith and her family for a long time. She was beyond her life’s middle years, which clearly had been pretty rough. She was bitter and cursed life, fate and God for the cruelty of such an end as her father was experiencing. She shouted at me, “Why did God make us if this is all there is?†I responded asking, “Why did God make you?†She became very still and stared at me. Then she said, “God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.†I continued, “What must we do to save our souls?†On cue she responded with something that she hadn’t perhaps thought of for decades, “To save our souls, we must worship God by faith, hope, and charity. We must believe in Him, hope in Him, and love Him with all our heart.†“Did your father do that?â€Â, I asked. “Oh, yes…. oh yes.†She had obviously been taught very well as a child. One can imagine that she was at times forced to study and to learn, to repeat over and over what at the time seemed boring and pointless. She had been drilled at school by the Sisters, whom these days we see mocked and abused in the media by ungrateful cads who benefited from their dedication. More importantly, she had parents who fulfilled their obligations to see that she learned her faith. I imagine they had to work hard to make her work hard. Her father had done his duty to give her what she needed when the battle was joined. Whatever they all did worked. In the moment of truth, by the grace of God and the help of her guardian angel, the gift her dying father had given her years before was rediscovered and put to its proper use. Read More
31st Sunday of Ordinary Time: POST COMMUNION (1)
What Does the Prayer Really Say? 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2003 JR writes via e-mail: “Some time ago, you wrote in WDTPRS about the ordo, and its notation of the daily "station churches," … Read More
Articles on “pro multis”
In 2004 I wrote several articles in The Wanderer about the "pro multis" controversy. I have posted them for your convenience. The Roman Canon / 1st Eucharistic Prayer – 8: “Simili modo” The Roman Canon / 1st Eucharistic Prayer – … Read More
The Roman Canon / 1st Eucharistic Prayer – 8: “Simili modo”
EXCERPT:
What has the liturgy of the Mass actually had in the past? We get “pro vobis et pro multis … for you and for many†in the formula of consecration from a blending of the accounts in Mark 14:24 (translated from Greek: “this is my blood of the covenant (diatheke) shed for many (tò peri pollôn)â€Â) and Matthew 26:28 also says “for many†together with Luke 22:20 (translated from Greek: “Likewise also the cup, after the supper, saying ‘This cup is the new covenant (diatheke) in my Blood which will be poured out for you.’†The choice to do this had theological significance. Our patristic sources, such as the writings of the 4th c Doctor of the Church St. Ambrose of Milan when describing the words of consecration in the Eucharistic liturgy, have pro multis and not pro omnibus, etc. The liturgical formulas were from Scripture.
The 4th c. Doctor of the Church St. Jerome, who translated from Greek and Hebrew texts into Latin giving us a Bible translation called the Vulgata, chose to use pro multis when translating the Greek tò peri pollôn (genitive plural of polus) in describing Jesus’ words at the Last Supper. In Greek polus means “many†or “much†or even “most†as in the majority: it does not mean “allâ€Â. In the ancient Church, no one said “for all†instead of “for manyâ€Â. In the Greek Gospel accounts of the Last Supper, Jesus uses a form polus “manyâ€Â. The liturgical rites of the East retained a form of polus. The rites of the Latin West have ever used pro multis. Read More
The Roman Canon / 1st Eucharistic Prayer – 10: “Simili modo” part 2
EXCERPT:
Looking at the same verses mentioned in the Catechism of the Council of Trent Jeremias, clearly having an axe to grind against someone, says of the “exclusive†use of polloÃÂ:
“This is the question whether the broad interpretation of polloàcorresponds to the original sense of Mk. 10:45; 14:24 or whether we have here a secondary and more comprehensive understanding designed to avoid the offence of a restriction of the scope of the atoning work of Jesus to ‘many’†(pp. 543-44).
The foundation for our present translation was Jeremias’ rereading of Scripture so as to avoid the offense in Catholic doctrine. Also, since Catholics know what the Church teaches, it will be okay adopt “for allâ€Â. We will have to continue with Jeremias’ argument next week. And yes, readers, the WDTPRS version of the consecration of the chalice will be coming soon. Read More
The Roman Canon / 1st Eucharistic Prayer – 10: “Simili modo” part 3
EXCERPT:
Was this obscuring compromise worth it for ecumenical reasons? I have no idea and I will leave that to my betters. However, to my mind this is an age when we need greater clarity not more nuances, a stronger sense of our Catholic faith and not something fuzzy. I do not think that ecumenical dialogue, as desirable as it can be when it is authentic, benefits from Catholics blurring their own teaching about how the fruits of the Lord Jesus’ Sacrifice will only be accepted by many even though He gave Himself up for all. By saying “for many†the Church does not teach that God cannot and does not save non-Catholics through the merits of the Lord’s Sacrifice! But, even if the number of the many who accept the fruits is beyond the reckoning of man, it is not going to be the “totalityâ€Â, all of mankind, everyone who ever lived. If counting the elect is impossible for us, that mysterious number will not be beyond God who knew it before Creation. The Church taught clearly what this meant in a time of great upheaval and theological revolution. This teaching has been formally upheld in recent years. It is not in our best interests as a “Church in the modern world†to leave “for all†as the translation for pro multis. We must return to “for many†and then teach, teach, teach…and embrace in charitable dialog all who will wonder what we mean or will seek to say we are wrong. Read More
Fr. John Zuhlsdorf on ASK FATHER: Priest says the consecration of the chalice over the host: “Darby: 1) Yes 2) No”
