Category Archives: WDTPRS

We have come to the last days of the Church’s preparation for the feast of the Nativity of the Lord. COLLECT: Deus, humanae conditor et redemptor naturae, qui Verbum tuum in utero perpetuae virginitatis carnem assumere voluisti, respice propitius ad … Read More →

EXCERPT:
Today’s prayer was, as we read above, among those used to admonish people to fast during the seventh month. We have ancient sermons about this September fast time as well as the Advent fast of the “tenth month” (time was calculated a little differently then because the calendar had little by little drifted). For example, we have the wisdom of Pope St. Leo I (+461), nicknamed “the Great”, about the Advent fast: “What can be more salutary for us than fasting, by the practice of which we draw nearer to God, and, standing fast against the devil, defeat the vices that lead us astray. For fasting was ever the food of virtue. From abstinence there arise chaste thoughts, just decisions, salutary counsels. And through voluntary suffering the flesh dies to the concupiscences, and the spirit waxes strong in virtue. But as the salvation of our souls is not gained solely by fasting, let us fill up what is wanting in our fasting with almsgiving to the poor. Let us give to virtue what we take from pleasure. Let abstinence of those who fast be the dinner of the poor.” Another great saint with the nickname “the Great”, St. Basil of Caesarea (+379) hammered home the urgency of Advent almsgiving: “The command is clear: the hungry person is dying now, the naked person is freezing now, the person in debt is beaten now – and you want to wait until tomorrow?” In the ancient Church fasting from good things was closely connected to good works of mercy for the poor, especially almsgiving. Do not forget this, O Catholic reader. Read More →

What Does the Prayer Really Say?  3rd Sunday of Advent “Gaudete” – Station: St. Peter in the Vatican ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2006 I have had interesting correspondence with a scholar of Latin, Claudia Wick, who works for … Read More →

Here is the Collect for the 2nd Week of Advent. This prayer was in the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary but not in any edition of the Missale Romanum before the Novus Ordo. COLLECT:Concede, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus, plebi tuaeadventum Unigeniti tui cum … Read More →

Here is the Collect for Thursday of the 2nd Week of AdventCOLLECT:Excita, Domine, corda nostraad praeparandas Unigeniti tui vias,ut, per eius adventum,purificatis tibi mentibus servire mereamur.This was in the 1962 Missale for the 2nd Sunday of Advent. Centuries before, the … Read More →

Here is the Collect of Tuesday of the 2nd Week of Advent: COLLECT:Deus, qui salutare tuum cunctis terrae finibus declarasti,tribue, quaesumus,ut nativitatis eius gloriam laetanter praesolemur. The wonderfully apt verb praestolor, deponent (passive in form but active in meaning), is … Read More →

Here is the Collect for Monday of the 2nd Week of Advent COLLECT:Dirigatur, quaesumus, Domine,in conspectu tuo nostrae petitionis oratio,ut ad magnum incarnationis Unigeniti tui mysteriumnostrae vota servitutis illibata puritate perveniant. This prayer is in Rotulus 13 which is published … Read More →

EXCERPT:
St. Augustine of Hippo (+430) beat up some Donatist heretics and dismantled their argument that all clerics ordained by a sinful bishop would be automatically stained in the same guilt. He used imagery like that of our prayer today (Ad Donatistas post collationem in CSEL 53:19.25, p. 123 my translation): “The sludge (lutum) their feet are stuck in is so thick and dense that, trying in vain to tear themselves out of it, they get their hands and head stuck in it too, and lingering in that sticky mess they get more tightly enveloped.” The Donatist argument was based in worldly, not heavenly, wisdom.

Sticky lutum is a metaphor of worldly life. Neglecting God, who speaks in the Church and our conscience, we weak sinners can convince ourselves of anything, over time: down becomes up, back is made front, black turns into white, and wrong is really right. We justify what we know, or knew, to be sinful. Once this becomes a habit, it is a vice in more than one sense of that word. Occasionally our consciences will struggle against the grip of self-deception, but quite often the proverbial “Struggle”, Novocain for the conscience, supplies permission: “I really ‘struggled’ with this, … before I did it!” If we go off the true path into the murky twisted woods, thoroughly mired in sticky error we will not escape the Enemy, the roaring lion seeking whom he might devour (1 Peter 5:8). Nor will we elude Christ the Judge, who will come through dark woods by straight paths. Advent reminds us to prepare for the coming of both the Enemy lion and the Lion of Judah who will open the seals and read forth the Book of Life (Rev 5:5). Read More →

EXCERPT:
Salvation is a gift freely given by God through the merits of Christ’s Sacrifice, but salvation is not a free gift in the sense that we don’t have to do anything to obtain it. We must cooperate. Christ died “for all”. “Many” will be saved, thanks be to God. We have through Christ the free opportunity of salvation. Good works cannot merit salvation in themselves, but we are required to perform good works to merit salvation. In today’s translation I used the phrase “favorable points of merits” but never imagine God as a celestial accountant “up there” keeping books on what we do or haven’t done. Salvation is not based on a ledger’s bottom line. How God disposes all things is mysterious, though He has revealed something of His plan through the Catholic Church. Until our final judgment God alone knows what our good works merit and how they balance against our sins. In fact, the Church hazards to offer indications of only “partial” or “plenary” indulgences for works we perform. The only thing we can be sure of is that we must not become lax or presumptuous. If we want salvation, God must be appeased by our prayers, sacrifices and works, which all must be joined to Christ’s Sacrifice. At Holy Mass we join all we do and are to the Sacrifice being renewed in God’s sight by the priest. The priest raises the paten with host and then the chalice with water tinged wine. He prays: “In a spirit of humility and with a contrite heart may we be accepted by Thee, O Lord; and may this sacrifice today be of such a kind in Thy sight as to please Thee.” Place yourselves and your needs in that chalice, on that paten, to be transformed. Read More →