Fr. Z's Blog | Formerly entitled: "What Does The Prayer Really Say?" – Clear, straight commentary on Catholic issues, liturgy and life by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf o{]:¬)

ROME 23/04 – Day 08: Holy Saturday – Friday Sights, Sounds, & Plumbing

Posted on 8 April 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

On this Holy Saturday, the Station should be at St. John Lateran, where centuries in and centuries out the aspiring catechumens were brought into the fold in the mysterious rites of the Vigil.

Roman sunrise was at 6:40 and the sunset will be at 19:45.

I will participate in the Vigil tonight at my adoptive parish of Ss. Trinità dei Pellegrini, which begins at 2000.

The Ave Maria bell is still ringing at 2000. The Moon has entered into its 3rd quarter.

Yesterday was astounding from the point of view of the participation of the faithful in the Via Crucis, the Solemn Liturgy of the “Mass of the Pre-Sanctified” and then Tenebrae.

I have very few photos of the rites. I’ll try to get some from others.

Meanwhile, a few sights and sounds.

Here are a couple of sound clips.

From Holy Thursday, the beginning of the Gloria.

Here is the end of the singing – alas polyphonic – the Miserere at the end of Tenebrae last night, followed by the “earthquake”. You hear drunk kids outside the church in the background.

Meanwhile,…

Black to move. Black is down, so you better force!

There are several lines here, some of them leading to disaster for black. Get it right, and black will have the advantage. Not the easiest puzzle.

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

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Chess news. I’ve been behind in watching what’s up in chess and other news, what with the Triduum. However, Magnus lost to Hikaru the other day via a mouse-slip. He was unhappy.

In happier news, one of you readers sent a story about a High School chess team in Detroit. HERE

And, news from my house sitter back home. Apparently there was a leak of water (happily clean) that wound up flooding the Two Trinities Chapel. A plumber was called and various investigations were were undertaken to see where the water originated.

An amusing bit from my house sitter.

Plumber guys are here. – I think they’ve seen it all. Squirrel in toilets – they have a lot of stories.

…

They don’t seem completely alarmed, so that’s good. They are going to do an ” outside clean out”.

…

A largish lizard jumped on Eric from the roof.

…

Happily, two things… there was someone more than competent at the house who found it and, importantly, it had not been raining.

This means… plumber bills. I don’t yet know the damage. I will hold my biretta upturned as I take my leave. [UPDATE: Several of you dropped some cash in the biretta for this plumbing bill. Thanks! Hopefully, those donations were enough to cover this particular expense. On the other hand… if you want to feed a few priests in Rome during the Easter Octave….]

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
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Note from a reader about CONFESSION

Posted on 8 April 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I received this note today:

Let me share something with you as a note of appreciation on this Holy Vigil.

You always write: GO TO CONFESSION! And I did. After thirteen years…

When the session ended, my confessor, Father J, said the following: “that was a good confession, you made my evening, Today, I got a big fish!”

I found his comment very funny.

Thank you Father Z for hitting my soul regularly to go to Confession. Thank you for your guidelines to confess my sins. Above all, for explaining and insisting on why do we need to go to Confession.

Continue to enjoy Rome, we enjoy it together.

Great note. Made my day.

I’d like to say, “My work here is done!”, but it clearly is not.

To the rest of you, I will remind you…

GO TO CONFESSION!

Confess all the mortal sins of which you are aware in both kind (what you did) and number (even if just general guess). Don’t hold anything back. Just say it, briefly. At the end, make a note of your penance so you understand and won’t forget it. Thank Father before leaving.

Posted in GO TO CONFESSION, Reader Feedback |
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Good Friday 3 April AD 33 – Eclipses as Christ died on the Cross

Posted on 7 April 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

This is definitely worth reposting.

The fellow who made the video about the Star of Bethlehem (a compelling argument, I might add), also did some research about what happened in the heavens on Good Friday.

Let’s break it down.

Passover begins on the 14th day of the Jewish lunar month of Nisan. Moreover, Passover begins at twilight, dividing 14 Nisan and 15 Nissan. The Gospels say the Lord was crucified on Preparation Day, a Friday. 14 Nisan 14 fell on a Friday Preparation Day, twice: 7 April AD 30 and 3 April AD 33. Daniel in 444 BC prophesied (Daniel 9:21–26) that the Anointed one would be cut off in 476 years after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem: AD 33.

The Bible records that, at the time of the crucifixion and death of the Lord, there were signs, including a “blood moon” or lunar eclipse.

Only one Passover lunar eclipse was visible from Jerusalem while Pilate was in office. It occurred on 3 April 33.

On 3 April the Moon rose already in eclipse. It rose the color of blood. That means that the eclipse began before it rose, in the constellation of the Virgin (at the time of Christ’s birth there was a New Moon, in the constellation of the Virgin).

The eclipse started at 3 pm when Christ was breathing His last.

But remember that a lunar eclipse is a syzygy!

If there is an eclipse in one direction there is an eclipse in the other direction too.

If you were standing on the Moon during that syzygy of 3 April 33, you would see a total eclipse of the Sun.

The blotted Sun would be in the heart of the constellation of the Ram (cf. “the Lamb who was slain”).

You can try this out for yourselves. Go to the online astronomy aid Starry Night. HERE

Move your location to Jerusalem and then plug in the time of about 7 pm and date 3 April 33 and adjust your view to ESE. You will see the Moon has just risen and there is a label for your Earth’s shadow. The Moon had risen at about 6:30 pm in the totality of the eclipse. HERE

Click

With the daylight turned off, and the horizon removed, and then looking at an angle down through the Earth below the horizon, at 3 pm, you see the Moon and Earth’s shadow converging in Virgo.

Then you can switch to the view from the Moon!

You must adjust your view a little and turn yourself right with a few clicks. But you will find it. In the screenshot, below, you can see where Earth and Sun are in Aries. Since the Earth would be larger in the Moon’s sky than in this screenshot, the Sun would be in total eclipse. Adjust for UTC + 3 hours to the right time in Jerusalem from 1500 to 1800. HERE

Click

In reading around the question a little more, I find that, using different date calculators, there are some problems of the day of the week. Also, there are arguments for dating the Crucifixion to 1 April 33. If that is the case, then the phenomena described above occur on Easter Sunday. Much hinges on which calendar the Lord and His disciples were using for their own Passover meal, if the last Supper was a Passover meal (Joseph Ratzinger argued that it was a related sacrificial meal but not a seder.)

[Subsequently, I’ve found more and convincing arguments about calendar debate. This debate revolves around a seeming contradiction between John and the synoptics. Some say that Christ anticipated a meal so that He would die at the same time as the paschal lambs. That is attractive. But it is also not true. His Last Supper was indeed the supper of the Passover, with the paschal lamb. The argument hinges on the fact that it was not only Passover time (and all the days that followed were also called “Passover”, as we say “Happy Easter” for days after Easter), it was going to be the sabbath, and so, in the time of Passover, was the “day of Preparation of the Passover” was really preparation for SABBATH that fell in that Passover “umbra”, if you will permit the pun.]

Definitive? Not quite. But it is not to be discounted that God, from all Eternity knowing exactly what would happen, set the heaven’s in motion in so precise a way that its signs would help us to understand the mysteries taking place, which were in other ways foreshadowed. In the sacraments (a term interchangable with “mystery” in many contexts), visible signs help us to understand that insensible graces and transformations are taking place. If in the signs of the sacraments, why not too signs in the heavens?

Posted in SESSIUNCULA | Tagged eclipse, Good Friday
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Good Friday FASTING and ABSTINENCE explained, links to recipes, notes about what breaks the fast, what doesn’t

Posted on 7 April 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

To aid me in keeping my online time down today, here is something from a couple years back.

It’s Good Friday! Here are a couple of recipes for good food for this day of fasting and abstinence. Since I made the lentils, by the way, I now have celery and I won’t have to improvise.

Fr. Z’s Kitchen: Lentils from the Benedictine Monks of Norcia. IMPROVISE – ADAPT – OVERCOME

Fr. Z’s Kitchen: Pasta e ceci alla Romana

On only two days of the year we modern Latin Church Catholics are asked both to fast and to abstain from meat.

According to the 1983 Code of Canon Law for the Latin Church, Latin Church Catholics are bound to observe fasting and abstinence on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Here are some details. I have posted them before, and I am sure you know them already, but they are good to review.

FASTING: Catholics who are 18 year old and up, until their 59th birthday (when you begin your 60th year), are bound to fast (1 full meal and perhaps some food at a couple points during the day, call it 2 “snacks”, according to local custom or law – two snacks that don’t add up to a full meal) on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

Since we are Unreconstructed Ossified Manualists, we pay attention to old manuals. Prümmer suggests that for the morning snack a piece of bread and 2 ounces of nourishing food is sufficient, and that for the afternoon or evening snack, 8 ounces of nourishing food is permitted to all. “Sufficient” for what is not entirely clear. There is a difference between working construction and working at a computer. This is greatly simplified by taking Good Friday off… if possible.

There is no scientific formula for this. Figure it out.

ABSTINENCE: Catholics who are 14 years old and older are abound to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and on all Fridays of Lent… and Good Friday in the Triduum.

In general, when you have a medical condition of some kind, or you are pregnant, etc., these requirements can be relaxed.

For Eastern Catholics there are differences concerning dates and practices. Our Eastern friends can fill us Latins in. As I understand, the Byzantine (Ruthenian) Catholic Church in these USA has followed the Latin rite to a certain extent. Abstinence from meat is required on all Wednesdays and Fridays of Great Lent, with the the strict fast (abstinence from meat and dairy) on Clean Monday and Good Friday.

The question always comes up….

How about in between?

The other day I had a question via email about vaping. Vaping! One can, indeed, “vape”. However, wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing to give it up for a day?

Click!

The old axiom, for the Lenten fast, is “Liquidum non frangit ieiunium … liquid does not break the fast”, provided you are drinking for the sake of thirst, rather than for eating. Common sense suggests that chocolate banana shakes or “smoothies”, etc., are not permissible, even though they are pretty much liquid in form. They are not what you would drink because you are thirsty, as you might more commonly do with water, coffee, tea, wine in some cases, lemonade, even some of these sports drinks such as “Gatorade”, etc.

Again, common sense applies, so figure it out.

Drinks such as coffee and tea do not break the Lenten fast even if they have a little milk added, or a bit of sugar, or fruit juice, which in the case of tea might be lemon.

Coffee would break the Eucharistic fast (one hour before Communion), since – pace fallentes – coffee is no longer water, but it does not break the Lenten fast on Ash Wednesday or Good Friday.

You will be happy to know that chewing tobacco does not break the fast (unless you eat the quid, I guess), nor does using mouthwash (gargarisatio in one manual I checked) or brushing your teeth (pulverisatio – because tooth powder was in use back in the day).

If you want to drink your coffee and tea with true merit I suggest drinking it from one of my coffee mugs. I’d like to offer an indulgence for doing so, but that’s above my pay grade.

There’s always the Liquidum non frangit ieiunium mug.

Posted in Linking Back, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000 |
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ROME 23/04 – Day 07: Good Friday – Bad food and shadows

Posted on 7 April 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

It’s Good Friday. The sun rose at 6:42 and will set at 19:44. The Ave Maria is at 20:00. The Roman Station is, of course, at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. It is the Feast of St. John Baptist de la Salle.

It is a 1st Friday.

Today, being Good Friday, is a day of both fasting and abstinence.

A couple of the sights from yesterday.

This one is especially for a friend of mine, who introduced me to the fascinating and deeply amusing autobiography: A Papal Chamberlain: the Personal Chronicle of Francis Augustus McNutt

I often show photos of food that is pretty good. Here’s a shot of something that was simply dreadful. It was an embarrassment for an other reliable place and I am amazed that a cook allowed this to leave the kitchen. This is supposed to be rigatoni all’amaticiana. Because this was so awful, I’ll speak the name of the restaurant: Maccheroni on the Via della Coppelle. There was no excuse for this.

First hint that not all is right… look at that nasty watery edge to the “sauce”. Grrrr. An insult to all our ancestors.

Other things on the table were pretty good, though the waitress screwed up the order of delivery. All in all not a good performance for the place.

Out the door of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.

I understand that the great hotel across the way has been purchased by the new Orient Express company. It is being completely renovated.

The crowds here are massive. Not a surprise for Easter season.

Yesterday we had the Mass of the Last Supper and then Tenebrae.

The necessities are readied for the Mandatum with members of the Archconfraternity in the sacristy. Note the small bag. Inside are 12 coins, one of them different from the others. When each man has had his feet washed, he takes out a coin. The one who draws the odd one is thereafter “Judas” for the rest of the year.

The guys are getting the canopy ready for later.

Behold of the use of the housling cloth for Communion.

The sacred ministers participate in the stripping of the altar.

If you were wondering, the church was jammed. 45 minutes beforehand people were in the street outside.

Tenebrae was sung after the sacred action. Here is the undersigned signing the 7th Lesson.

Tenebrae has been great. I first sang Tenebrae in, I think, 1981. They are using here some polyphonic responsories, which I don’t care for. The Gregorian chant responsories are by far superior in their expression of the texts. They are, frankly, among the most beautiful chants of the year.

Meanwhile,

Black to move. Look at that passer. How to bring white down without losing your threats and leaving white in a better position?

NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

Action shot.

Posted in What Fr. Z is up to |
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From “The Private Diary of Bishop F. Atticus McButterpants” – 23-04-06 – Foot or hand washing

Posted on 6 April 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

April 6th 2023

Dear Diary,

Holy Thursday. Monday Thursday as Tommy keeps saying for some reason. I suppose it kind of feels like the beginning of the week. Whatever.

They are really nagging this year so there are last minute decisions to make. Debating about the whole “washing of the feet” thing. I really hate doing it with all that crawling around on my hands and knees, plus dirty feet! And I get flak from the traddies if I throw a few women in the mix. The other side is that people think about how humble their bishop is, which is a plus. It make people happy to think their bishop is humble, so we’ll do it. I do kinda like that song they sing while I do it, something like the “Semper ubi sub ubi” we joked around about when we took that one Latin semester freshman year in the seminary.

A couple years ago one of the priests came up with the idea of washing everybody’s hands instead. That was a great idea! Keeps you off the floor and for me that’s no small thing. Then Tommy pointed out that the only one who washed hands was Pontius Pilate. That was it.

I hope it goes quick tonight. I want a good steak after Mass. Get stuff ready in the kitchen before hand just to make sure I get it in before midnight.

Whatever happened to those great old clerical suppers we would have on Holy Thursday, with lamb and wine to celebrate the priesthood together? It’s like that whole world is gone now. Maybe that’s for the best. The other bishops and the nuns are always going on about how bad clericalism is. But back in the day we were – I dunno – happier about things. That’s the big project now: gotta make people happy.

Posted in Diary of Bp. McButterpants | Tagged Bp. Fatty McButterpants, Mandatum
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WDTPRS – Holy “Maundy” Thursday (2002MR):

Posted on 6 April 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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 of “wiggle room”. This “shere” was, according to the OED the difference or error permissible in a measure of something, such as the deviation from the standard in minting a coin.

COLLECT (2002MR):

Sacratissimam, Deus, frequentantibus Cenam,
in qua Unigenitus tuus, morti se traditurus,
novum in saecula sacrificium
dilectionisque suae convivium Ecclesiae commendavit,
da nobis, quaesumus, ut ex tanto mysterio
plenitudinem caritatis hauriamus et vitae.

This prayer is a new composition for the Novus Ordo. It has nothing of the characteristic Roman concision.

It might have a thin tendril reaching back into the ancient Veronese Sacramentary #96: Uere dignum: qui se ipsum tibi pro nobis offerens immolandum idem sacerdos et sacer agnus exhibuit.

In our Lewis & Short Dictionary we find that frequento is “to visit or resort to frequently, to frequent; to do or make use of frequently, to repeat” and thence more suitably for our purposes, “to celebrate or keep in great numbers, especially a festival”. Haurio is “to tear up, pluck out, draw out, to take to one’s self, take; to swallow, devour, consume, exhaust”.

Commendo is “to commit to one for preservation, protection, etc., to entrust to one’s charge, commit to one’s care, commend to” and “implying a physical delivery, to deposit with, entrust to; constructed with aliquem or aliquid alicui, or absolutely”. Moreover, it is “to commend or recommend, i. e. to procure favor for, to make agreeable, to set off with advantage, to grace”. I was also intrigued by the possibilities in this definition: “Especially, of the dying, to commend children, parents, etc., to the care of others”. You all know about the final commendation of a dying person.

As you work on your own to put this into English, Deus is the subject of the main verb da, and those to whom it is to be granted are found in frequentantibus. Frequentantibus has as its object the Cenam. The whole phrase in qua… commendavit is embedded within that structure.

This prayer, it seems to me, is seriously overworked. It is so self-consciously elegant that it is a challenge to sort out at a single hearing. It becomes a tangled mass, just as when you try to twist up a forkful of spaghetti. If you twist the fork with too many strands at the beginning, after a couple twists you have too much going on and the whole plate starts to move.

LITERAL TRANSLATION
O God, we beg, grant to us attending the most holy Supper
in which Your Only-begotten, about to hand Himself over to death,
commended to Church a new sacrifice unto the ages
and a banquet of His love,
that we may from so great a mystery
drink deeply the fullness of charity and life.

The word haurio gives us the image of Christ’s bitter struggle on Thursday in the garden when faced with the chalice from which He would need to drink.

His bitter draught was our drink of new life. This was the consequence of Christ’s sacrificial love, His perfect charity.

CURRENT ICEL VERSION:
O God, who have called us to participate
in this most sacred Supper,
in which your Only Begotten Son,
when about to hand himself over to death,
entrusted to the Church a sacrifice new for all eternity,
the banquet of his love,
grant, we pray,
that we may draw from so great a mystery,
the fullness of charity and of life.

Posted in LENT, WDTPRS | Tagged Mandatum, Maundy Thursday
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ROME 23/04 – Day 06: Holy Thursday – Ravioli and Habit

Posted on 6 April 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

On this anniversary of the Eucharist and Priesthood, the Roman sunrise was at 6:43. The sunset will be at 19:43, when we will be deep into our solemn rites and then Tenebrae. The Ave Maria should ring at 20:00. The Moon is full. The Roman Station is St. John Lateran. It is, among others, the feast of St Galla.

In a proper Church, the Chrism Mass would be celebrated today during the day and then the Mass of the Lord’s Supper in the Evening at St. John Lateran. I think concelebration should be safe, legal and rare, but I did avail myself of concelebrating with Benedict XVI on one Holy Thursday in the apse of the Lateran Basilica. It seemed the right thing to do.

Yesterday was blustery and cold and intermittently rainy, everything one doesn’t like about Rome at this transitional time of year. We managed nonetheless to survive and not entirely starve, though I skipped my evening meal.

Lunch. Lovely ravioli with a filling of bollito.

My view during Tenebrae as this lesson was being sung by a member of the Archconfraternity founded by St. Philip Neri at Ss. Trinità.

You will recognize the habit from the figures in the wonderful presepio which was displayed during the Christmas season. HERE

The confraternity has been revived. Its membership is growing and they are undertaking wonderful corporal works of mercy along with liturgical participation.

Meanwhile,…

White to move. NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.

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In other chess news… Fabiano Caruana defeated Hikaru Nakamura in the Winners division of the Chessable Masters 2023 Champions Chess Tour. Meanwhile in the the Losers Quarterfinals, Magnus Carlsen eliminated Wesley So (too bad) and Levon Aronian beat Vladislav Artemiev. The winner of the “loser” bracket rises from the dead to play the winner of the winner bracket. Hence, now Nakamura will face the winner of Carlsen v. Aronian today and the winner of that match will play Caruana in Grand Final on Friday. They are not observing the Sacred Triduum, so I will have to catch up on the final on Saturday via YouTube replay.

I am now an affiliate of chess.com powered by Staunton House. Great service! Do your kids have nice chess sets?

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Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
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WDTPRS – Spy Wednesday: The final prayers

Posted on 5 April 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The term “Spy” Wednesday is probably an allusion to Christ’s betrayal by Judas.

In the ancient Roman Church at the time of St. Pope Leo I, “the Great” (+461), there was no Mass during the day. Instead, many of the feria days were without Mass. There would be gatherings at “station” churches, however, where there would be vigils with preaching. We have sermons of Leo the Great preached on several of these Wednesdays of the 6th Week, the day before the Triduum. Mass would be offered at St. Mary Major in the evening, as if to entrust all that had been brought from Lent as well as everything upcoming to the Mother of God for its perfection.

This prayer was the Collect for this same day in the 1962 Missale Romanum. It was also in the ancient Gregorian Sacramentary in both the Hadrianum and Paduense manuscripts.

This is the final Collect before the Triduum. It serves as a summation and a starting point.

COLLECT

Deus, qui pro nobis Filium tuum crucis patibulum subire voluisti, ut inimici a nobis expelleres potestatem, concede nobis famulis tuis, ut resurrectionis gratiam consequamur.

This is an austere prayer, a razor, cutting to the heart of the matter.

The impressive and informative Lewis & Short Dictionary informs us that patibulum (deriving from pateo, “to open, stretch out, extend”) is “a fork-shaped yoke, placed on the necks of criminals, and to which their hands were tied; also, a fork-shaped gibbet”. In turn, English “gibbet” means “an upright post with a projecting arm for hanging the bodies of executed criminals as a warning”.

The patibulum is “the stretcher”, and not in the carrying sense.

The verb subeo in its basic meaning is “to come or go under any thing” and by logical extension “to subject one’s self to, take upon one’s self an evil; to undergo, submit to, sustain, endure, suffer”. The L&S explains that “The figure taken from stooping under a load, under blows, etc.)” There are other shades of meaning, including “to come on secretly, to advance or approach stealthily, to steal upon, steal into”. Keep this one in mind.

Consequor is interesting. It signifies “to follow, follow up, press upon, go after, attend, accompany, pursue any person or thing” and then it extends to concepts like “to follow a model, copy, an authority, example, opinion, etc.; to imitate, adopt, obey, etc.” and “to reach, overtake, obtain”. Going beyond even these definitions, there is this: “to become like or equal to a person or thing in any property or quality, to attain, come up to, to equal (cf. adsequor).” I know, I know – mentio non fit expositio. Still it is helpful to make connections in the words, which often have subtle overlaps.

Remember that meaning of subeo, above? There are shades of “pursuit” and “imitation” in the prayer’s vocabulary.

Finally, a gratia is a “favor” or “reward”, but we Christians hear in it God’s freely given gift to us which we don’t on our own merits deserve.

WDTPRS LITERAL TRANSLATION:

O God, who desired Your Son to undergo on our behalf the yoke of the Cross so that You might drive away from us the power of the enemy, grant to us Your servants, that we may attain the grace of the resurrection.

CURRENT ICEL:

O God, who willed your Son to submit for our sake
to the yoke of the Cross,
so that you might drive from us the power of the enemy,
grant us, your servants, to attain the grace of the resurrection.

By our sins we are in the clutches of the enemy, who mercilessly attacks us.

Christ freed us from dire consequences of slavery to sin by His Passion.

The ancient Romans forced their conquered foes pass under a yoke (iugum), to show that they were now subjugated.

Their juridical status changed by that “going under”.

Christ went under the Cross in its carrying and then underwent the Cross in its hideous torments.

In his liberating act of salvation, we passed from the servitude of the enemy to the service of the Lord, not as slaves, but as members of a family.

We are not merely household servants (famuli), we are accorded the status of children of the master of the house, able to inherit what He already has.

So, there’s that Collect.

However, at the end of the ferial Masses during Lent and Passiontide we have also had a final final Collect in the guise of the Oratio super populum, the Prayer over the People. This is the last oration of the Mass before the Triduum begins. It lines up well with the Collect we looked at, above.

Réspice, quaésumus, Dómine, super hanc famíliam tuam, pro qua Dóminus noster Iesus Christus non dubitávit mánibus tradi nocéntium, et Crucis subíre torméntum:

Even more than the 2nd Collect from the Spy Wednesday Mass, above, this oration serves as a summing up of all of Passiontide as well as the stepping off point for the whole of the Triduum. This oration will be repeated throughout the Triduum at the end of Tenebrae and in other moments such as in the much abbreviated, austere prayers at table for meals during the Triduum.

You already the vocabulary notes for subeo, above.

Bl. Ildefonso Schuster writes of this terse prayer…

The Blessing over the people is so beautiful that the Church uses this collect during the three following days at the conclusion of each hour of the divine office: “Look down, we beseech thee, upon this thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ hesitated not to be delivered up into the hands of wicked men and to undergo the torment of the cross.” There is no better way of moving our heavenly Father to pity for us than by reminding him of the Passion of his only-begotten Son, and more especially of the immense love with which he loved us.

Posted in LENT, WDTPRS |
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ROME 23/04 – Day 05: Spy Wednesday

Posted on 5 April 2023 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Roman sunrise, had it been seen through the clouds, was at 6:45, about the time I left for church. The sunset is slated for 19:42. The Ave Maria bell should ring at 20:00.

Welcome new registrants:

Jamuku
St PadrePio PFU

The full moon is tomorrow, as one would expect.

The Roman station is Santa Maria Maggiore.

It is the Feast of St. Irene, virgin and martyr (+304).

It has been cold and rainy here, which has brought a measure of discomfort to my knees. One perseveres.

Caccio e pepe, somewhat spiffed up.

A street in Trastevere.

Meanwhile,… in the Chessable Masters, Magnus had his hat handed to him by Vladislaw Artemiev. He falls to the “losers” bracket. Meanwhile, Hikaru and Fabiano will face off for the big prize. Alas, my favorite, Wesley was defeated.

Meanwhile, black to move.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.