Category Archives: WDTPRS

EXCERPT:
For a true revival of any of these great liturgical arts to take place, the first great “art” that must be resurrected is the language of the Mass. We need far more Latin in the Latin Rite and we need truly beautiful and accurate translations. If we want new and grand forms of artistry for use in the liturgy, then we need language that reflects the reality of what the Church believes about the Mass. If we want vestments that look better than horse blankets or 1960 couch covers, buildings that don’t instantly remind you of juvenile detention centers, movie houses or bomb shelters, music that doesn’t cause you instantly to crave Campbell’s Soup or reruns of Gilligan’s Island, then the most fundamental element – the language – must change. Read More →

EXCERPT:
Another thing that might be worth mentioning is a possible connection between the theme of restored “youth” and the Psalm that the priest would say always at the beginning of Mass: Introibo ad altare Dei, ad Deum qui laetificat iuventutem meam…. “I will go unto the altar of God, of God who makes my youth joyful.” In baptism we are made members of Christ’s own mystical Person. While there is a clear qualitative distinction between the priesthood of the ordained priest and that of the baptized laity, this idea of youthful and renewed priesthood is part of our Easter joy. All of us, ordained and lay, each in our own way must in the manner of a priest offer our spiritual sacrifices to the Father, uniting them to those of Jesus our High Priest. In Him, we therefore already share that eternally youthful life that will never age. We will one day be risen and glorious, with glorified bodies that will not know age or deficiency and will reflect the beauty of the purified soul. Easter and indeed our own baptism anticipate this glory. I do not think I would have eliminated the concept of glory from the English translation. Read More →

EXCERPT:
Concerning the title of lay people who help the priest and deacons distribute, I could write reams of material. Suffice to say that the proper term is “Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion”. The bishop, priest and deacon are the only “Ministers of the Eucharist”. Lay people are never “Ministers of the Eucharist”, but they can be, in case of genuine necessity, a great help in distribution of Communion, either in church or to the homebound, and so forth. It is helpful to review what the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments wrote in its document Redemptionis Sacramentum about the participation of lay people involving the Eucharist (my emphasis):…
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EXCERPT:
In our prayer today we recognize the “renewal” that we as a Church have experienced. Like grains of wheat we fell and died during Lent. We rise now to life and bear fruit. Just as we prune flowering bushes and certain trees and they then burst into even more abundant blossoms and fruit, we too are pruned back in Lent. And not only in Lent, but constantly during the year. Each Friday is a little Lent when we are all required by law to do penance. Each Sunday is a little Easter when we rise to new life. Each week is a chance for us to bear great fruit because of the ongoing cycle of dying and rising.
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EXCERPT:
The Church is being forced into a new kind of fast through the scandals caused by wicked clergy. It is bad enough that the people of God have been cheated of their heritage for decades through a poor or even maliciously false implementation of the liturgical reforms mandated by the Second Vatican Council. It is bad enough that catechetics have been neglected or subverted. It is bad enough that seminaries were hijacked by ideologically driven dissenters. Now we are being brought as a Church to pay for the sins of bishops and priests who commit the abomination of sexual abuse of children and minors. While I loathe the way the media exaggerates the charges and inflates the numbers of men involved, I cannot help but be grateful in a reserved way. Jackals clean the land of rotting flesh, after all. They cull the sick of the herd. I think that we have at last now the chance to clean our house with a real spring cleaning. Just as Lent (which means “spring”) is our spiritual preparation through penance and mortifications and Easter is our Resurrection, so too as a Church we must now go into the desert and fast and suffer and pray. The enemy of the soul will tear at us, tempting us to vainglory, pride, desire for material comfort. Read More →

EXCERPT:
Here is my rendering of the 1970 Missale Romanum version of the Exultet. Alas, there is no space to give you the Latin also. The Exultet is also called the Praeconium Paschale. Paschale is an adjective of a Latinized Hebrew word pascha, for the Passover meal of the lamb. The sure and certain Lewis & Short Dictionary says the adjective praeconius, -a, -um is “of or belonging to a praeco or public crier” while the substantive praeconium is “a crying out in public; a proclaiming, spreading abroad, publishing.” In a Christian context this of course also infers the Good News! A praeconium is simultaneously a profession of faith and a call to faith extended to all who hear. Read More →

ORATIOReminiscere miserationum tuarum, Domine,et famulos tuos aeterna protectione sanctifica,pro quibus Christus, Filius tuus,per suum cruorem instituit paschale mysterium. The rich and enlightening Lewis & Short Dictionary shows that cruor has a precise meaning: "Blood (which flows from a wound), a … Read More →

The term “Maunday” or “Maundy” Thursday refers to Christ’s mandate (mandatum) in John 13:34 to His apostles in the service of the Church.  It is also called sometimes “Shere” Thursday, perhaps from “shere” indicating “tolerance” and “remedy”, in the sense … Read More →

EXCERPT:
The words peragere and percipere underscore the intensity with which we ought to participate in the sacred mysteries especially during this Holy Week. The per prefix suggests to us a thoroughness of our participation, the one per leading to the other per through the connect of the ita… ut. The peragere is an invitation to us to participate in the mysteries of Holy Week in a way that is “full, conscious and active”, especially in the interior sense. In this way we can more completely grasp in all senses of that word what the Lord has to offer to us. Read More →

EXCERPT:
Readers of WDTPRS well remember my explanation of how the document of the Bishop’s Committee on Liturgy called Built of Living Stones intentionally distorted the meaning of the GIRM 299. In spite of the fact that the Congregation for Divine Worship has previously explained to the world how to translate the Latin and clarified that that paragraph did not mean that it was preferable in any way for Mass to be celebrated “facing the people”, but rather concerned only the position of the altar in the sanctuary. I just looked at 299 in the newly released translation. They did not correct their flawed approach. They wrote: “The altar should be built apart from the wall, in such a way that it is possible to walk around it easily and that Mass can be celebrated at it facing the people, which is desirable wherever possible.” This sounds as if the GIRM is saying that it is preferable that Mass is celebrated “facing the people”. The Latin: Altare maius exstruatur a pariete seiunctum, ut facile circumiri et in eo celebratio versus populum peragi possit, quod expedit ubicumque possibile sit. What the Latin really says is something like: “The main altar should be built separated from the wall, which is useful/desirable wherever it is possible, so that it can be easily walked around and a celebration toward the people can be carried out.” The quod expedit refers to the main clause describing the position of the altar, and not Mass must be said. Now thousands of people will have to listen to liturgists and bishops use that paragraph to argue against celebrations ad orientem when the text says nothing of the kind. I suspect that more problems of this kind will emerge. Read More →