Category Archives: WDTPRS

What Does the Prayer Really Say? Holy Family – Sunday in the Octave of Christmas ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2004 A liturgical “octave” is an eight day period following and including the feast. In a way, the Church … Read More →

What Does the Prayer Really Say? Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph – Sunday in the Octave of Christmas ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2006 Today is simultaneously the Sunday in the Octave of Christmas, Holy Family, and, … Read More →

EXCERPT:
How often do we hear about something or learn a new thing and then rush to know more, to have personal experience, to see? This is a paradigm for our life of faith. There is an interlocking cycle of hearing a proclamation (such as the Gospel at Mass, a homily, or a teaching of the Church) or observing the living testimony of a holy person’s life, and by this experience coming to know and then love the content of that proclamation or living testimony. The content is the Man God Jesus Christ. By knowing Him we come all the better to love Him and in loving Him we desire better to know Him. An act of faith, acceptance of the authority of the content of what we receive, opens unto previously unknown territory, a vast depth otherwise closed to us. For the non-believer, on the other hand, a miracle is simply something inexplicable having nothing of the supernatural. For a non-believer being nice or hard working can never ascend to true virtue or holiness. For him, the content of the Faith itself (both Jesus as well as what we learn and assent to) appears to be pleasant or interesting, but in the end remains naïve or foolish.
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EXCERPT:
Here is a thought for your participation at Mass. During most of the Mass you are called upon to participate actively by receptivity: you receive the Gospel rather than reading it aloud; you receive forgiveness for venial sins in the penitential rite; you receive (not take) Holy Communion. When today’s prayer “over the gifts” or Super oblata is spoken by the priest, you participate actively by giving, by uniting your own sacrifices to those of the priest at the altar who is alter Christus. The priest (Christ the Head) invites and you (Christ the Body) respond. Pour forth your sacrifices. Put them on the paten and into the chalice, so that you, like our model Mary, can be “refilled, made complete” by what they are transformed into, the Body and Blood of the living and true God, the Christ Child who is Coming. Read More →

EXCERPT:
Advent’s final days have come. The first candles on our Advent wreaths are now very small. From 17 December to Christmas Eve the haunting “O Antiphons” are sung for Vespers. They express our longing for the Coming of the Lord: “O come! O come!.. to teach us… redeem us… deliver us… ransom us… free us… enlighten us… save us… save us….” While we enjoy the season of preparation, let us not forget also to do some penance so that our Christmas joy is that much sweeter. Please accept my prayerful best wishes to you and yours for a very Merry Christmas.
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Here is the Collect for 20 December, during this period of intense prayer and longing for the Lord’s Coming. COLLECT:Deus, cuius ineffabile Verbum,Angelo nuntiante, Virgo immaculata suscepit,et, domus divinitatis effecta,Sancti Spiritus luce repletur,quaesumus, ut nos, eius exemplo,voluntati tuae humiliter adhaerere … Read More →

Here is the Collect for 19 December, duing this period of intense preparation before Christmas:COLLECT:Deus, qui splendorem gloriae tuaeper sacrae Virginis partum mundo dignatus es revelare,tribue, quaesumus, ut tantae incarnationis mysteriumet fidei integratate colamus,et devotio semper obsequio frequentemus. This is … Read More →

Here is the Collect for Tuesday of the 3rd Week of Advent: COLLECT:Deus, qui novam creaturamper Unigenitum tuum nos esse fecisti,in opera misericordiae tuae propitius intuere,et in adventu Filii tuiab omnibus nos maculis vetustatis emunda.This was in the Gelasian Sacramentary, … Read More →

Here is the Collect for the Monday of the 3rd week of Advent. COLLECT:Voci nostrae, quaesumus, Domine,aures tuae pietati accomoda,et cordis nostri tenebrasgratia Filii tui nos visitantis illustra. This was in the 1962MR on the 3rd Sunday of Advent.  It … Read More →

EXCERPT:
This offertory embodies a word pair describing the attitude of Advent: joyful penance… penitential joy. With the last two week’s of “rushing” in our prayers and doing good works, we have now the added image of eager and unrestrained joy, an almost childlike dash towards a long-desired thing. Have earthly fathers watched this scene all of a Christmas morning? Even so should we be in our eager joy to perform good works under the gaze of a Father who watches us, a Father with a plan. This lame duck ICEL version captures little of the impact of the Latin prayer, that is, God the Father is patiently watching his people as we go about the Advent business of doing penance and just works in joyful anticipation Christ’s coming. But perhaps you will be good enough to respond with an eager and joyfully penitential “Amen” when you hear it pronounced even as you long for a better translation in the future. Read More →