Category Archives: WDTPRS

EXCERPT:
Note the balancing of ideas: timor/amor (fear and love) and instituo/destituo (establish and abandon). In instituo I hear a “setting down” in the sense of how God made us and by that making He takes us upon Himself. He has our care and our governance. God sets us down next to Himself, under His watchful eye, so that we don’t go wrong. In destituo I hear a “setting down” in the sense of a setting to one side away from Himself, an abandonment of interest. In gubernatio God is our pilot, our steersman, keeping his hand on the wheel of our lives. We are solid because His loving hand is firm. Were He to abandon us, our ship would wreck and we would be “destitute”. Amidst the vicissitudes of this world we depend in fear and love on His Holy Name. We stand planted in the proper place before God’s fearful glance and under His guiding hand of love only through both love and fear His Name which points to His Person. Read More →

Today is the Feast of the one whom the Lord called the greatest man ever born of woman. COLLECT: Deus, qui beatum Ioannem Baptistam suscitasti, ut perfectam plebem Christo Domino praepararet, da populis tuis spiritalium gratiam gaudiorum, et omnium fidelium … Read More →

In case you were looking, I posted a synthesis of my articles on Corpus Christi last Thursday. Here is a LINK. Read More →

Someone asked me about the Latin phrase from the Roman Canon (1st Eucharistic Prayer) "omnium circumstantium".  This is one of the points surely to be addressed in the meeting of the bishops as they prepare to vote on the draft … Read More →

Today I used the Missa in tempore belli COLLECT:Deus, qui conteris bella,et impugnatores in te sperantiumpotentia tuae defensionis expugnas:auxiliare famulis tuis, implorantibus misericordiam tuam;ut, inimcorum suorum feritate depressa,incessabili te gratiarum actione laudemus. LITERAL VERSION:O God, who obliterates wars,and who by … Read More →

COLLECT:Omnipotens sempiterne Deus,qui populo tuo beatum Antoniumpraedicatorem insignem dedisti,eumque in necessitatibus intercessorem,concede, ut, eius auxilio, christianae vitae documenta sectantes,in omnibus adversitatibus te subvenientem sentiamus.This prayer was of new composition for the 1970MR.  Whoever worked on it, however, knew his stuff.  … Read More →

EXCERPT: What do we believe about the Trinity? I cannot do better than to quote great Creeds. You know the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed from Mass. Taste now the so-called Athanasian Creed (or Symbolum Quicumque), which probably came from 5th century Latin Gaul and was attributed to the Greek speaking St. Athanasius of Alexandria (+373). Read this aloud and savor the lack of ambiguity!

Whoever wants to be saved should above all cling to the Catholic faith. Whoever does not guard it whole and inviolable will doubtless perish eternally. Now this is the Catholic faith:…
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EXCERPT:
In this Collect there is a reference to those moments in Scripture when God granted a manifestation, an epiphany of the Trinity and of the glory of God. At Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan the Holy Spirit was seen in the form of a dove descending and the voice of the Father was heard (cf. Luke 3). Before going to His death in Jerusalem Jesus was transfigured before the eyes of Peter, John and James (cf. Matthew 17) and God again revealed the wondrous mystery (admirabile mysterium) that He is Three in One, a Trinity of divine Persons. In our confession of true faith (vera fides) in the Creed we recognize (agnoscere) God to be Three and One. The Triune God is God the Father, God the Word of Truth, God the Spirit of sanctification, One God in three eternal divine Persons. In the articles about prayers used during the Conclave we learned the difference between cognosco and agnosco. The L&S says for agnosco, “as if to know a person or thing well, as having known it before, to recognize: agnoscere always denotes a subjective knowledge or recognition; while cognoscere designates an objective perception.” Man can reason toward this on his own, as did the pagan Neoplatonic theologians, but only by the gift of faith, of grace, and of divine revelation enable us to profess (confiteor) the Trinitarian mystery fully, in an authentic way. Read More →