Category Archives: WDTPRS

What Does The Prayer Really Say?  4th Sunday In Ordinary Time ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2007     I had a lovely experience. I went for supper with a priest and 13 sisters visiting Rome. The Sister Servants of … Read More →

What Does the Prayer Really Say? Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2001 This prayer comes in a time when we see in the newsworthy activities being covered by the media that love of God … Read More →

Today the great Sts. Timothy and Titus overshadow all others who are listed in the Roman Martyrology. 2. Hippone Regio in Numidia, sancti Theogenis, martyris, de quo sanctus Augustinus sermonem habuit. .. At Hippo Regius in Numidia (N. Africa), [the … Read More →

Here is today’s entry in the 2005 Martyrologium Romanum for the feast of Sts. Timothy and Titus: Memoria sanctorum Timothei et Titi, episcoporum, qui, discipuli santi Pauli Apostoli et adiutores eius in apostolatu, alter Ecclesiae Ephesinae, alter vero Cretensi praefuit; … Read More →

EXCERPT:
The lame-duck ICEL version’s “All-powerful and ever-living God” for omnipotens sempiterne Deus is not so bad. Quite bad, on the other hand, is their “direct your love that is within us”. The Latin clearly connects God’s own purpose for us and the actions that flow from that purpose. In the ICEL version we have a vague term “love”, rather than the indication of God’s eternal plan. Perhaps this is a bit picky, but when I hear “we may merit to abound with good works”, I think we are abounding because of God’s action within us through the good works He makes meritorious. They overflow from us because of His generosity. In the ICEL version God’s “love” is in us, but this leads to “our efforts”. Yes, this can be reconciled with a Catholic theology of works, but it just doesn’t sound right. Also, I don’t think that “efforts” to “bring mankind to unity and peace” means the same as us “meriting” by God’s grace to “abound with good works”. Please understand: I don’t object to praying for unity and peace, but I think we ought to pray the prayer as the Church gave it to us, what the prayer really says. When we feed the hungry and console those who mourn, visit the shut-in and imprisoned and pray for the dead, sure we are building “unity and peace”, but that phrase is so vague as to mean very little to someone in the pew. The Latin does not say “conatus nostri genus humanum ad unitatem et pacem inducant”. Is it possible that the guitar strumming and all those kumbayas of the 1960’s affected the ICEL translators choice of words? I suppose we could all stand outside the headquarters of the USCCB and sing, “All we are saying, is give Latin a chance!” while swaying back and forth holding our lighters in the air.
Read More →

EXCERPT:
Without this bidirectional love of charity, our “prayer after communion” is just a still life rather than a living landscape. It is like a painting of a glorious bowl of fruit beginning to rot, rather than a vista in which life thrives. The Italian term for a still life is “natura morta”, a “dead nature”. It is a beautiful, but dead. All our prayers can have a lovely ring to them, but without charity and the proper sense of order the ring is that of the struck brass of St. Paul’s gong in 1 Cor 13: “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” Charity calls us to act outwardly as we ought according to our interior disposition and vocation. Read More →

EXCERPT:
There is a great difference between the peace the world can offer and the peace that God offers. This world of temporal goods (and ills) is passing and fragile, always susceptible to loss. The goods of heaven are lasting, enduring, solid and dependable. We must never fall into the sin of putting any created thing or person in the place which only eternal God may properly have. No infinite and passing thing can provide lasting joy or eternal peace. Any created thing can be lost through theft, wear and time. The vicissitudes of this passing world roar over us like an inexorable wave and can sweep away any material thing to which we have clung, perhaps even in idolatry. Our wealth, our family, our health, our appearance and our reputation can be taken in the blink of an eye. God alone endures. Read More →

Here are links to my articles on Epiphany which I posted last year. COLLECT (1) SUPER OBLATA (1) POST COMMUNION (1) Here are some other pieces of the puzzle: What Does the Prayer Really Say? Epiphany and Mary, Mother of … Read More →

Shall we have a look at the prayers for the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God in the 2002MR? COLLECT (2002MR)Deus, qui salutis aeternae, beatae Mariae virginitate fecunda,humano generi praemia praestitisti,tribue, quaesumus, ut ipsam pro nobis intercedere sentiamus,per quam meruimus … Read More →