Category Archives: WDTPRS

EXCERPT:
Will this be hard? Of course! Will priests face some people who are irritated or confused? When don’t they? Are priests are going to bear the main burden of this challenge in a parish. When have they not? And if that isn’t enough, when did the role of the Catholic lay faithful in the Church become easy? Catholics trying to live their lives well in this world as it is today are often faced with challenges that would make most priests curl up in a ball and suck their thumbs. Do parents of children simply flop down and whine about how hard it is going to be to educate their children, feed them, shelter them, see to their needs? “*sniff*… It’s soooooo harrrrrrrrrd!” I am tempted to put this in terms more suited to Tony Soprano, but “Boo hoo!” You want a real challenge? How about the state of life of a mother in a military family with several children and her Marine husband in Iraq? Can we please get some perspective here?
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EXCERPT:
Note the balancing of ideas: timor/amor (fear and love) and instituo/destituo (establish and abandon). In instituo I hear a “setting down” in the sense of how God made us and by that making He takes us upon Himself. He has our care and our governance. God sets us down next to Himself, under His watchful eye, so that we don’t go wrong. In destituo I hear a “setting down” in the sense of a setting to one side away from Himself, an abandonment of interest. In gubernatio God is our pilot, our steersman, keeping his hand on the wheel of our lives. We are solid because His loving hand is firm. Were He to abandon us, our ship would wreck and we would be “destitute”. Amidst the vicissitudes of this world we depend in fear and love on His Holy Name. We stand planted in the proper place before God’s fearful glance and under His guiding hand of love only through both love and fear His Name which points to His Person. Read More →

Today is the Feast of the one whom the Lord called the greatest man ever born of woman. COLLECT: Deus, qui beatum Ioannem Baptistam suscitasti, ut perfectam plebem Christo Domino praepararet, da populis tuis spiritalium gratiam gaudiorum, et omnium fidelium … Read More →

In case you were looking, I posted a synthesis of my articles on Corpus Christi last Thursday. Here is a LINK. Read More →

Someone asked me about the Latin phrase from the Roman Canon (1st Eucharistic Prayer) "omnium circumstantium".  This is one of the points surely to be addressed in the meeting of the bishops as they prepare to vote on the draft … Read More →

Today I used the Missa in tempore belli COLLECT:Deus, qui conteris bella,et impugnatores in te sperantiumpotentia tuae defensionis expugnas:auxiliare famulis tuis, implorantibus misericordiam tuam;ut, inimcorum suorum feritate depressa,incessabili te gratiarum actione laudemus. LITERAL VERSION:O God, who obliterates wars,and who by … Read More →

COLLECT:Omnipotens sempiterne Deus,qui populo tuo beatum Antoniumpraedicatorem insignem dedisti,eumque in necessitatibus intercessorem,concede, ut, eius auxilio, christianae vitae documenta sectantes,in omnibus adversitatibus te subvenientem sentiamus.This prayer was of new composition for the 1970MR.  Whoever worked on it, however, knew his stuff.  … Read More →

EXCERPT: What do we believe about the Trinity? I cannot do better than to quote great Creeds. You know the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed from Mass. Taste now the so-called Athanasian Creed (or Symbolum Quicumque), which probably came from 5th century Latin Gaul and was attributed to the Greek speaking St. Athanasius of Alexandria (+373). Read this aloud and savor the lack of ambiguity!

Whoever wants to be saved should above all cling to the Catholic faith. Whoever does not guard it whole and inviolable will doubtless perish eternally. Now this is the Catholic faith:…
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