Category Archives: WDTPRS

EXCERPT: [Someone asked about “astare” in the 2nd Eucharistic Prayer and wanted a clarification for those who want to say that this means that people must stand during the Eucharistic Prayer.]

To your question about astare: I wrote about this in the series on the Eucharistic Prayers in June 2004. The Preface of the 4th Eucharistic Prayer uses similar vocabulary. I wrote in these WDTPRS pages last year but, Fr. RF, you made me dig a little more. Some might not immediately recognize asto as adsto, which the precious Lewis & Short Dictionary says means, “to stand at or near a person or thing, to stand by”. The L&S will also make clear 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. Also, during the Roman Canon the priest describes the people as circumstantes, literally “standing around”. This doesn’t mean ought to be physically standing around the altar with their hands in their pockets (though I must confess I have seen precisely that). Rather, they are morally and spiritually “around” the altar, participating each according to their vocation and capacity. In his supplement to L&S, A. Souter says that adsto is the equivalent of sum. A. Blaise, on the other hand, says liturgical adsto is “to be nearby; to serve”. The same goes for adsisto. I think anyone who would try to use this as a defense of standing during the consecration would be using a terribly superficial argument. Moreover, whatever the translation says, the Church’s clear liturgical law says that at that moment, unless they are impeded, everyone must be kneeling at the time of the consecration in most of the world’s dioceses. In the USA people must kneel from the end of the Sanctus, through the whole of the Eucharistic Prayer, to the end of the great “Amen” (GIRM 23). This adaptation was purposely sought by the bishops of the USA and it was approved by Rome. Are people kneeling? Read More →

In the 1962 Missale Romanum there are texts available for the feast "B. Mariae Virginis Divini Pastoris Matris" in the section toward the back of Masses for certain places. Here is the nice… COLLECT:Domine Iesu Christe, Pastor bone,qui pro ovibus … Read More →

EXCERPT:
I think it is important to emphasize that when the Vatican or most decent priests make distinctions about what lay people can or cannot do, say in the context of Mass or in the realm of moral theology, they are not simply being mean or oppressive. The principle at work is this. Lay people have a great dignity of their own. To uphold that dignity, sometimes it is necessary to say “no”, and it is not “clericalism” to say it. When the inherent dignity of lay people is underappreciated the mistake is often made of imposing on them a false dignity by “clericalizing” them. Much of the clericalization of lay people has come from a truly “clericalistic” attitude. It is a common error to think that priests (and religious) are the “real” members of the Church and therefore, in order to bring lay people up the ladder of dignity, they need to be made be act like ordained priests and do the things priests do. Some priests have shuffled off their own proper roles onto the shoulders good-hearted willing volunteers whom Father is seeking to actualize. This does untold damage to both lay people and priests alike, since by this process neither of them are able properly to attend to their true vocations. At the same time it must be recognized that many of the things that priests are being required to do today are often best handled by lay people. The extremes of Father doing everything and Father abandoning even his own roles must both be avoided. And if people make the mistake sometimes of thinking that priests, etc., are the real Church, similarly we must avoid the error of thinking that priests don’t belong to the Church. The Church is both lay and ordained, each complementing and building the other. Read More →

EXCERPT:
All of the above notwithstanding, let Powers That Be today pay close attention to what Joseph Ratzinger (now gloriously reigning as the sovereign Pontiff) wrote in God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, The Heart of Life (Ignatius Press, 2003) on a related topic, the “pro multis” issue: “The fact that in Hebrew the expression ‘many’ would mean the same thing as ‘all’ is not relevant to the question under consideration inasmuch as it is a question of translating, not a Hebrew text here, but a Latin text (from the Roman Liturgy), which is directly related to a Greek text (the New Testament). The institution narratives in the New Testament are by no means simply a translation (still less, a mistaken translation) of Isaiah; rather, they constitute an independent source” (emphasis added – cf. pp. 37-8, n. 10). Read More →

EXCERPT:
Let me ask you. What would the last thirty some years have been like if we had had better translations all along? What would our Church be like today had the mandate of the Council to maintain Latin been obeyed? Would we have a different sense of our identity as Catholics? Would those things have helped us better influence the society we live in? Would we be better prepared to handle the pressures of daily life? Would so many people, including clergy, have been acquiescent in the face of popular cultural trends and the destruction of our education system? I think much of what we see going on today could have been averted. We can’t know anything for sure, but I have little doubt that things would have been very different indeed. This is because I believe that the true Actor at Mass is Christ Jesus the High Priest. Mass is effective and nourishing. Had things been in better shape, Catholics would be different today. Lex orandi, lex credendi! The way we pray has a reciprocal relationship with what we believe. Read More →

EXCERPT:
One of the driving principles of Liturgiam authenticam (LA) is a proper understanding of inculturation. LA is the fifth instruction on how the liturgical mandates of the Council were to be implemented. The fourth instruction Varietates legitimae concerned precisely inculturation. Inculturation must be properly understood. There is a dynamic interchange and influencing process going on constantly between the “world” and the Church. Every different people of the globe has something of value to contribute to the Church at the same time that the Church, at least historically, forms and shapes whole peoples. This dynamic interchange means that the Church influences the world and the world in turn influences the Church. The Church gains many gifts from the world: music, art, architecture, languages and their literature, etc. These are taken in by the Church and made her own. However, and this is the key, everything the Church gives in this exchange must always be logically prior. This commercium goes on back and forth simultaneously with respect to the passage of time, but the Church… as the Church… gives and shapes first and then receives back what the world has done with her formation. That is to say, this is what happened when the Church carried out her role rightly. Read More →

What Does the Prayer Really Say? 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2003 Some feedback is coming in about the possibility of having a Roman WDTPRS pilgrimage of which I spoke last week. HE of … Read More →

What Does the Prayer Really Say? 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2006 Those who have been resisting the norms laid down in Liturgiam authenticam appeal to a theory of translation that would peg our … Read More →

EXCERPT:
Our Latin prayer for today conveys a deep sense of total reliance on Almighty God. We need His protection as we face the vicissitudes of life. We know that the Enemy prowls, seeking to devour us (cf. 1 Peter 5:8). If we are honest, we see our present defects and remember our past delicts. With the knowledge that only the pure will see God in His heavenly City, of which our Church is a shadow (cf. Rev 21:27). We are shaped and readied for this reward through grace and elbow grease. God prepares us in His own ways. He also makes us capable of fulfilling our own part, according to our will and intellect by which we shape our words, deeds and that dimension of our spiritual landscape that we command. Through all the challenges this earthly journey brings, the Eucharist is the concrete demonstration that, while there is breath in our bodies, God never ceases to cherish each one of us. Read More →

EXCERPT:
Perhaps we can hear our prayer now and hear some new things. First, given our current contemporary context wherein we are awaiting the preparation of new and better liturgical translations, we Catholics yearn for good and rich nourishment so that we, as individuals and as a Church, can deepen our relationship with Christ and thereby make our proper contributions to the world around us. In the liturgy we receive “pure, spiritual milk” and more. Personally, I want more than the non-fat or 2% we have been given so far in our translations. Second, no matter what we think of the translations, we are still receiving an inestimable gift in Holy Mass. We ought to strive to live up to what Christ Himself imposes on us all: “So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled and then come offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24) Read More →