Category Archives: WDTPRS

EXCERPT:
We are asked to participate actively and fully in the whole liturgical year. Our lives must take on the qualities of the entire presentation of the mysteries of our salvation, from Creation to Second Coming. In other words, we are not to be active participants at Sunday Mass only. At the end of Mass the priest or deacon commands, Ite, Missa est… “GO! You are dismissed!” This is stern sounding compared to the warm and fuzzy end of Mass we sometimes experience. But the starkness and force of the Latin indicates we are being sent out with urgency into the world, back to our Christian work. Read More →

EXCERPT:
When the hand of the priest is extended over us in the confessional, we are sheltered from the attacks of hell, the hideous heat that would consume us, the eternal bondage to the enemy which would for ever separate us from God’s sight. When was the last time you sought out the right hand of God in the context of the confessional? How long has it been since, after confession all your mortal sins in both number and kind, you have heard the words, “Deus Pater misericordiarum… God the Father of mercies…” Read More →

EXCERPT:
Whew! This is like doing Latin crunches: One is a piece of cake, but do enough of them and you really start feeling which muscles are getting the work.

What would ICEL do? I don’t have the ICEL text with me right, so I will guess:

EXTREME LAME DUCK ICELese
God,
you are very nice.
Keep up the good work.
Be a friend and help us
to think and do nice things too. Read More →

EXCERPT:
The highest form of active participation is the reception of Holy Communion in the state of grace following a willed, active receptivity to what has been carried out in the sacred action of the Mass. Christ is the ACTOR par excellence in the Mass. In the actions of the priest, Christ is acting as the Head of the Body. In the actions and receptivity of the congregation, Christ is in action as the Body, responding to and being directed by the Head. Both together form Christ, Christus Totus, raising sacrifice on high to the Father. Our participation then must be first and foremost active receptivity so that we have what is good to give back to God. Read More →

Today’s Collect is an ancient prayer and it is in the Gelasian Sacramentary for the Vigil of Pentecost and also among the prayers for the 4th day of the 4th month, which more than likely involved the traditional fast of … Read More →

EXCERPT:
Each day during Lent has its proper Collect. I will do my best to keep up with these. I promise, this is not what I consider my lenten penance, though it might be for your to read them. Read More →

EXCERPT:
While still young was contracted tuberculosis. He remained always in good spirits, never quitting hisShrine harsh mortifications however. Before he could be ordained a priest, he died embracing an image of Our Lady of Sorrows. Read More →

EXCERPT:
Pope Benedict himself wrote some years ago (and we have given this to you a couple times before):

“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 – God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, The Heart of Life (Ignatius Press, 2003, pp. 37-8, n. 10). Read More →

EXCERPT:
Having gone through this examination and exploration of vocabulary, and having made some associations with Scripture and with other literature, that version above is more or less what I hear in my head now when I read aloud our sonorous Latin. Never let it be said that the new compositions for the Novus Ordo are lacking in depth and dignity. I find this Latin prayer deeply satisfying indeed. It does not leave me wishing for more. Then I read the version we still, alas, hear in our churches on Sunday and I am brutally snapped back into these hard times of ours as if by the cold damp thwack of the twist in a kitchen towel:

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):…
Read More →

EXCERPT:
Try reading this prayer with the mental image of a ship. Its great Captain sets its course upon the sea. So great is the Captain that He can command calm waters and a favorable wind as well. The ship can be seen as the word. In this case I see the ship as the Church in the world, the Church Militant, which is not an unfamiliar image to those familiar with the Barque of Peter. The sea it sails upon is the deep and turbulent world we live in. The Captain is our Lord Jesus Christ, who calmed the stormy waters and commanded Peter to walk to Him upon them. He entrusted His ship to Peter, to steer it in His stead. Once all has been put into proper order, made “ship-shape and Bristol fashion”, our own sense of loyal zeal, our devotion, is the wind that the Captain uses to steer the ship upon the course He sets, carrying us its crew to the port and safe haven. Read More →