Category Archives: WDTPRS

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):…
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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 →

EXCERPT:
Today in the Martyrologium Romanum there is an interesting entry about St. Walburga, which make me think of a now deceased friend, Fr. Michael McGlaughlin, who died young of cancer. I will give you the entry first, then an excursus on something vile, and finally a fun story about the late Fr. Mike. Read More →

EXCERPT:
To give you something of the character of St. Polycarp, when he ran into Marcion in Rome, Marcion asked Polycarp if he knew who he was. Polycarp responded: “I know you for the first-born of Satan.” Far from being a simple insult, these words were spoken in charity, to shock the man into repenting his sinful positions and actions. Read More →

EXCERPT:
Commercium is a loaded word. It means “exchange”. It has a theological, not a mercantile sense, of course. Bread and wine were chosen by God, from all gifts He gave us, to be transformed into His Body and Blood. We chose from among those gifts of bread and wine, those concrete gifts which we offered at this particular Mass. They were a symbol of something from to be offered ourselves, to be returned to the one who gave them. God accepted them, and transformed them through His Spirit into the Body and Blood of Christ. Then gave them back to us, so that we, through them might be transformed more and more into what they are. This is an amazing interchange of gifts, God always having logical prioroty over the giving and the given. Thus, in the process, we are united to God and each other in a marvelous sacred “exchange”. Read More →

EXCERPT:
“For he who sings praise, does not only praise, but also praises joyfully; he who sings praise, not only sings, but also loves Him whom he is singing about/to/for. There is a praise-filled public proclamation (praedicatio) in the praise of someone who is confessing/acknowledging (God), in the song of the lover (there is) love.” Read More →

EXCERPT:
The language of Latin prayers is quite different from our ordinary speech these days. One of the things you will notice right away is that it is “courtly”: the language immediately differentiates between the addressee and the speaker. The incomparable Lewis & Short Dictionary reveals that our term maiestas means “greatness, grandeur, dignity, majesty” and furthermore it is used “of the gods; also the condition of men in high station, as kings, consuls, senators, knights, etc., and, in republican states, especially frequently of the people”. One of the greatest crimes in ancient Rome was to harm or diminish the maiestas of the people, high treason: majestatem minuere or laedere… laesa maiestas. In English we use the French version, “lese-majesté”. Read More →

EXCERPT:
By our baptism and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we can be admitted to Holy Communion. It is by our baptism that we are enabled to participate at Mass with “full, conscious, and active” participation, with what I call “active receptivity”. “Active participation” reaches its perfection in a good Holy Communion. Communion, however, is never to be isolated from the rest of our lives. Read More →

EXCERPT:
We are living in very difficult times. In wealthy countries there is a pervasive undercurrent of selfishness and self-centeredness. We live in a time when “I… me… my… mine…” permeates the common worldview. Have we come to the point also in which we as comfortable Catholics are saying, “Gimme!” in reference to the Eucharist? Of course, you say, “I now take!” need not be “Gimme!” But observe. If anything were needed today, it seems to me, is a way of underscoring even to the extent of using even dramatic physical gestures, what we believe taking/reception of the Body and Blood of the Lord really is for us. In a time when to kneel is considered lowly, then kneeling is a dramatic gesture. It is counter-cultural. It is a “sign of contradiction” in the face of “I… me… my… mine….” By kneeling my body cries out: “You…. You… Your… Your….” Read More →

EXCERPT:
Depictions of things help to illuminate our minds. A picture is, as they say, worth a thousand words. The paintings of Beato Angelico are repleat with a luminuous radiance which help to illustrate for us the mysteries they depict. Thus, they illumine also our hearts and minds, given us a grasp of something that words fail to offer. Music and painting are similar in this respect: physical things (the medium of paint and surface, the sound waves and harmonics) bring a different part of our power to apprehend to bear on the object, the affective together with the intellective. So, in his holiness of life, Beato Angelico became God’s canvass, upon which He drew (and drew forth) His virtues, His beauty, so that it could radiate into the hearts and minds of those around him. By his intercession, we ask that God will do the same for us. Read More →