For your Advent, pre-Christmas reflection… the text from Matins of Christmas.
Think about this for the next month, in the version by Lauridsen, sung about as well as you might hear it sung.
O magnum mysterium,
et admirabile sacramentum,
ut animalia viderent Dominum natum,
jacentem in praesepio!
Beata Virgo, cujus viscera
meruerunt portare
Dominum Christum.
Alleluia.
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Pat Archbold uses the opportunity of the implementation of the new translation to reflect on the three-fold “Domine non sum dignus” before Communion.
[…]
I have for years attended the Traditional Latin Mass when my schedule would permit and will admit that I am fond of it. I won’t get into the whys, but suffice it to say that certain elements appeal to me. One of the things that so grabbed my attention those years ago (back when we needed an indult? What’s that?) was the non sum dignus. What really got my attention was the fact that faithful said that prayer not once, not twice, but three times. When you say something three times in a row, you get the message, this is important.
Saying that prayer three times really focused me on the great gift I was about to receive and my complete unworthiness of it.
“Lord, I am not worthy…”
“Lord, I am not worthy…”
“Lord, I am not worthy…”
That recognition of my own unworthiness back then and the great gift bestowed upon me nevertheless stuck with me. Ever since then I have focused myself on saying it properly (in Latin) in the new mass as a way of keeping that focus. I am grateful that I can now say it properly in English.
But one thing I would really love to see restored in the mass is the triple repetition of this prayer as I am sure that it might then have the same effect on others as it had on me. Saying it just once seems like pauper’s gruel when there is really a great feast to be had.
[…]
Some time ago I posted about the three-fold Domine non sum dignus, saying:
From a sermon of Ronald Knox:
[W]hen the priest, just before communion, says the threefold Domine non sum dignus in your name, you should imagine our Lord himself as holding back, keeping you waiting for a little, so as to test your dispositions. He often did that, didn’t he, before consenting to perform a miracle; ….
But, when I speak of testing our dispositions, do I mean that he looks into our hearts and expects to find his own likeness already there? Must we already be humble with a humility like his, already be unwearied in his service, already be perfectly resigned to all the suffering which may befall us, or be told that we are not fit to receive him? If I meant that, if I meant that holy communion is a privilege reserved, at least commonly, for an élite of almost perfect souls, then I should be falling back into the error of the Jansenists, and I should be wronging the memory of that great Pope who has just been raised to the altars of the Church. For whatever else St Pius the Tenth is remembered, he will be remembered for having thrown open the gates of the sanctuary to hesitating and struggling soul; to the unworthy who know themselves to be unworthy.
No, the dispositions I am speaking of are not those which quality us to receive holy communion; we go to holy communion in order that those dispositions may be formed in us. Only, we must want them to be formed in us. The trouble, you know, about you and me is not that we aren’t saints, but that we don’t want to be saints. Lord, I am not worthy, because I am not humble; but I do want to be humble. Lord, I am not worthy because I am backward and slothful in your service; but I hate my backwardness, I hate my sloth. Lord, I am not worthy, because I am a bad sufferer; but how I wish it were otherwise! Let it be otherwise, Lord; speak the word only, and they servant shall be healed.
At the ultra-liberal Huffington Post there is a poll about preferences concerning the new, corrected translation or the obsolete, bad translation.
I ask readers to vote and I ask bloggers to pick this up as well.
Remember: This is about the translation not the Ordinary and Extraordinary Form. Whoever did this poll used bad terms. “New Mass” = “New Translation”, not Novus Ordo.
As of this writing, the results …
CLICK HERE to to go the poll.
UPDATE 28 Nov 1402 GMT:
We seem to be moving the poll a bit.
UPDATE 28 Nov 1824 GMT:
Progress.
UPDATE 28 Nov 2128 GMT:
I’m proud of you. And thanks to other bloggers, if any of you picked it up.
0
How about a nice coffee break?
You might try some
Jingle Bell Java or Christmas Blend 2011.
Prefer tea? Let It Snow!
And as we continue to grind out those good votes, get yourself a grinder, too.
It’s swell!
UPDATE 29 Nov 0220 GMT:
Press on!
UPDATE 29 Nov 1429 GMT:
It’s going very well!
UPDATE 29 Nov 2042 GMT:
Excellent.
I am getting some good feedback on the new translation. Here’s one item:
It was such an improvement that I might (just might) go to Novus Ordo Mass in English there once in a while!
High praise indeed!
UPDATE:
From a long-time reader and frequent donor:
I am surprised at the reaction I am feeling in myself after praying the mass in the new corrected translation. I was totally ready. Having been reading your blog for years and supplementing with other resources, I knew what to expect from the peoples responses. Although I had read some of the words in the preface and canon, it was there that the greatest impact was seen. And it surprised me and took me off guard.
Our priest was very careful and diligent and took his time and said all the black and you could see him taking note of the red. The Eucharistic Prayer taken as a whole built up a crescendo of prayer, much more meaningful and rich than any mass I had heard or prayed before. Where I was totally unprepared was the emotional impact. After the Lamb of God when the people’s response was said, the one from scripture about allowing Christ to come under my roof, into my bodily temple, I was moved to tears.
I think the context to this is important to understand. Our church in under renovation. Our masses are being held in a cafeteria, with folding chairs, no kneelers. It’s crowded and somewhat uncomfortable. However, despite this, it was clear to me that the Lord was speaking to me, and I assume everyone, In a new way, in a better more elevated language that elevated my thoughts In precisely the right direction- upward toward God and In Christ. It worked.
My wife commented last night something fairly astute; we were some of the first to pray the mass last night at the vigil mass, the way the fathers of the council likely intended it to be prayed, and after 40 odd years. It’s hard to argue that she was on to something there. Clearly we have some notion about what went wrong in those years, but what I can report from the ground is that something now has gone right, and it’s a great source of hope.
Some veteran readers here know about my annual rant about BLUE vestments during Advent. Lest all other Advent considerations be overshadowed by the implementation of the new, corrected translations, herebelow I rant.
I think this liturgical abuse is fading, but we may still see it here and there.
Blue is not an approved liturgical color of the Roman Rite (though some use it – on the claim of custom – for Marian feasts according to some old tradition in Spain and former Spanish territories). Yes, I know the previous Marini put blue on the Pope in Austria. That was bad, ugly, and now corrected.
For Advent purple or violet vestments are to be used, and rosacea for the 3rd Sunday as an option.
Of course there are distinctions to be made about purple and violet. Some say that a reddish purple is to be used for Lent while a bluer purple is to be used for Advent.
Fine. So long as the Advent color isn’t blue, I don’t care.
Mind you, as soon as blue is approved for use, I will be among the first to seek and obtain a set in the Roman stye! The day they are approved, I will take up a collection and get, if possible, a truly spiffing set, perhaps even a solemn set, replete with cope and humeral veil.
I think this illicit use of blue is trailing off.
Let’s have a little poll!
Chose the best answer and leave a comment in the combox, below.
For this 1st Sunday of Advent, 2011, the vestments I saw were
Total Voters: 2,100
In the meantime…
[CUE MUSIC]
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When you’ve had a hard time trying to figure out just what that color is Father is wearing this week, just what possessed him to put on a vestment that ugly, why not relax with a “New Roman Missal” special edition of the Say The Black – Do The Red coffee mug filled to its steaming brim with Mystic Monk Coffee?
Yes, folks, you may be unaware of this, but drinking Mystic Monk Coffee actually fights against liturgical abuse. The more Mystic Monk Coffee your priests drink, the fewer liturgical abuses they will commit. This is especially true when they are drinking if from Say The Black – Do The Red coffee mugs!
Do you want liturgical abuses on your conscience?
Mystic Monk Coffee.
It’s swell!
Sing along! Lemme help you out.
O come, o come liturgical blue;
out with the old, and in with the new.
Let’s banish purple vestments from here,
the color blue is very HOT this year.REFRAIN:
Gaudy, gaudy, gaudy chasubles,
in baby, navy, powder-puff and teal.Since Advent is the Blessed Virgin’s time,
we’ll wear blue, though it’s canonic crime,
and in the third week, we’ll wear white.
Although it’s wrong, we’ll say that it’s alright.R.
Around the wreath we’ll place blue candlelight,
and in one corner, we will place one white.
We’ll drape blue over our communion rail,
and use blue burses with blue chalice veils.R.
In this rapid PODCAzT I return to a hymn I dissected a few years ago in another of these audio projects, the hymn for Vespers during Advent, Conditor or Creator alme siderum, in the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms of the Roman Rite.
I give a rapid and brutally literal translation and sing the hymns so you can hear the differences.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Buy a Liber Hymnarius HERE. (UK HERE)
Buy a Liber Usualis HERE. (UK HERE)
The Holy Father delivered the following address to the bishops of the USA (regions I-II-III) during their ad limina visit.
Let’s have a glance with my emphases and comments.
Dear Brother Bishops,
I greet you all with affection in the Lord and, through you, the Bishops from the United States who in the course of the coming year will make their visits ad limina Apostolorum.
Our meetings are the first since my 2008 Pastoral Visit to your country, which was intended to encourage the Catholics of America in the wake of the scandal and disorientation caused by the sexual abuse crisis of recent decades. [Right off the bat, His Holiness is getting to a topic of serious concern.] I wished to acknowledge personally the suffering inflicted on the victims and the honest efforts made both to ensure the safety of our children and to deal appropriately and transparently with allegations as they arise. [Contrary to some, the US Church has made huge, sweeping changes.] It is my hope that the Church’s conscientious efforts to confront this reality will help the broader community [Virtually every sphere of life in which children off all ages are involved.] to recognize the causes, true extent and devastating consequences of sexual abuse, and to respond effectively to this scourge which affects every level of society. By the same token, just as the Church is rightly held to exacting standards in this regard, all other institutions, without exception, should be held to the same standards.
A second, equally important, [get that?] purpose of my Pastoral Visit was to summon the Church in America to recognize, in the light of a dramatically changing social and religious landscape, the urgency and demands of a new evangelization. In continuity with this aim, I plan in the coming months to present for your consideration a number of reflections which I trust you will find helpful for the discernment you are called to make in your task of leading the Church into the future which Christ is opening up for us.
At the same time, the seriousness of the challenges which the Church in America, under your leadership, is called to confront in the near future cannot be underestimated. [The Holy Father is not blowing happy gas at the bishops, is he.] The obstacles to Christian faith and practice raised by a secularized culture also affect the lives of believers, leading at times to that “quiet attrition” from the Church which you raised with me during my Pastoral Visit. Immersed in this culture, believers are daily beset by the objections, the troubling questions and the cynicism of a society which seems to have lost its roots, by a world in which the love of God has grown cold in so many hearts. [NB!] Evangelization thus appears not simply a task to be undertaken ad extra; [There it is, folks! This is the distinction I make here all the time about what I think is Pope Benedict’s “Marshall Plan”… ad extra and ad intra. These were also the categories presented to the Council Fathers as the First Session revved up, so they don’t originate with me, of course, or with Pope Benedict. They have been around for a loooong time. These are very useful distinctions as we consider where we are and what we have to do. ] we ourselves are the first to need re-evangelization. [ad intra] As with all spiritual crises, whether of individuals or communities, we know that the ultimate answer can only be born of a searching, critical and ongoing self-assessment and conversion in the light of Christ’s truth. Only through such interior renewal will we be able to discern and meet the spiritual needs of our age with the ageless truth of the Gospel.
Here I cannot fail to express my appreciation of the real progress which the American Bishops have made, individually and as a Conference, in responding to these issues and in working together to articulate a common pastoral vision, the fruits of which can be seen, for example, in your recent documents on faithful citizenship and on the institution of marriage. [Progress, people. There is more to do.] The importance of these authoritative expressions of your shared concern for the authenticity of the Church’s life and witness in your country should be evident to all.
[And now to a liturgical issue…] In these days, the Church in the United States is implementing the revised translation of the Roman Missal. I am grateful for your efforts to ensure that this new translation will inspire an ongoing catechesis which emphasizes the true nature of the liturgy and, above all, the unique value of Christ’s saving sacrifice for the redemption of the world. [NB:] A weakened sense of the meaning and importance of Christian worship can only lead to a weakened sense of the specific and essential vocation of the laity to imbue the temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel. [There can be NO REEVANGELIZATION without a true renewal of our LITURGICAL WORSHIP. Worship is the key, the “tip of the spear”.] America has a proud tradition of respect for the sabbath; this legacy needs to be consolidated as a summons to the service of God’s Kingdom and the renewal of the social fabric in accordance with its unchanging truth.
In the end, however, the renewal of the Church’s witness to the Gospel in your country is essentially linked to the recovery of a shared vision and sense of mission by the entire Catholic community. I know that this is a concern close to your own heart, as reflected in your efforts to encourage communication, [Another part of the reevangelization should include, in my opinion, a deeper “theology of communication”. I spoke about this at a conference in Houston and have written about it on this blog. Consider all that Vatican II’s document on communication and the document on liturgy were the first two documents approved and promulgated. Liturgy is also “communication”.] discussion and consistent witness at every level of the life of your local Churches. I think in particular of the importance of Catholic universities and the signs of a renewed sense of their ecclesial mission, [?!? Ha!] as attested by the discussions marking the tenth anniversary of the Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae, [riiiiight] and such inititiatives as the symposium recently held at Catholic University of America on the intellectual tasks of the new evangelization. Young people have a right to hear clearly the Church’s teaching and, most importantly, to be inspired by the coherence and beauty of the Christian message, [First and foremost experience in her worship, btw.] so that they in turn can instill in their peers a deep love of Christ and his Church.
Dear Brother Bishops, I am conscious of the many pressing and at times apparently insoluble problems which you face daily in the exercise of your ministry. With the confidence born of faith, and with great affection, I offer you these words of encouragement and willingly commend you and the clergy, religious and lay faithful of your Dioceses to the intercession of Mary Immaculate, Patroness of the United States. To all of you I impart my Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of wisdom, strength and peace in the Lord.
A good lead off speech to the bishops of the USA.
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BUY ME
We have waited a long time for this.
The clock has inexorably ticked away. The date for the implementation of the whole of the new, corrected translation – Order and Proper – has finally arrived for the UK and for the USA. In some places it waits a while longer, but most of the English speaking world will use it as of this evening, the vigil Mass for the 1st Sunday of Advent.
I invite your thoughts and initial reactions.
It is okay to have an “initial” reaction even if you have been hearing or using the new, corrected version since September. I think we are still in our “initial” reception phase.
I welcome your comments and discussion in the combox, below.
Was it, as some critics whine, tooo haaard for you to understand? Did you have an aneurysm or become confused when you heard “consubstantial”? Did anyone stage a nutty when they heard “for many” during the consecration? Did anyone faint from stress at the words “The Lord be with you”? Were you able to grasp the Collect and other orations? When the Preface and Sanctus came did you have a case of the vapors or break out in a sweat? When you were to say “enter under my roof” did you vow to join an evangelical mega-church?
There will be a new apostolic nuncio in Ireland, and his name is.. will be Archbishop Charles Brown.
A glance at his CV shows that he’s got real intellectual game.
Il Santo Padre ha nominato Nunzio Apostolico in Irlanda il Rev.do Mons. Charles John Brown, Officiale della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede, elevandolo in pari tempo alla sede titolare di Aquileia, con dignità di Arcivescovo.
Rev.do Mons. Charles John Brown Rev.do Mons. Charles John Brown
Il Rev.do Mons. Charles John Brown è nato a New York il 13 ottobre 1959.
Ha compiuto i seguenti studi accademici: B.A. (Storia), Università di Notre Dame, Indiana (USA); M.A. (Teologia), Università di Oxford (Inghilterra); M.A. (Studi Medievali), Università di Toronto (Canada); M. Div. Saint Joseph’s Seminary, Yonkers (USA); S.T.L. e S.T.D. (Teologia Sacramentale), Pontificio Ateneo S. Anselmo (Roma).
È stato ordinato sacerdote il 13 maggio 1989, nella Cattedrale di San Patrizio a New York, per l’Arcidiocesi di New York.
Dal 1989 al 1991 è stato Vicario parrocchiale presso la parrocchia di San Brendan nel quartiere del Bronx, New York.
Dal 1994 è Officiale della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede.
È stato nominato Cappellano di Sua Santità il 6 maggio 2000.
È stato nominato Segretario Aggiunto della Commissione Teologica Internazionale nel settembre 2009.
Apart from the brains, I know Msgr. Brown to be a prayerful, devout and dedicated priest, very close to Pope Benedict for whom he worked for many years at the CDF.
Msgr. Brown is not from the diplomatic corps crowd. He is an American. He is young. He has no diplomatic experience in the sense of having worked in nunciatures. There are a lot of reasons why his appointment is a departure from the norm. On the other hand, with his background in theology and his experience at the CDF, it will be nearly impossible successfully to lie to Msgr. Brown about the state of affairs in Ireland.
Perhaps it is time for less diplomacy and more Catholic identity?
One of the pressing tasks facing the future Archbishop Nuncio will be to help gather dossiers on new bishops for Irish dioceses. About a quarter of the dioceses are now vacant. It may also be necessary to determine whether all those dioceses are… well… necessary to maintain.
I ask WDTPRS readers to stop and, right now, say a decade of the Rosary for Msgr. Brown, also invoking Our Lady of Knock for him and for the reevangelization of Ireland.
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
A Daily Prayer for Priests
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Do you have an Advent Wreath?
Many of you have shared with me your concern about the grave challenges to a consistent Christian witness presented by an increasingly secularized society. I consider it significant, however, that there is also an increased sense of concern on the part of many men and women, whatever their religious or political views, for the future of our democratic societies. They see a troubling breakdown in the intellectual, cultural and moral foundations of social life, and a growing sense of dislocation and insecurity, especially among the young, in the face of wide-ranging societal changes. 