Category Archives: WDTPRS

EXCERPT:
In this Collect there is a reference to those moments in Scripture when God granted a manifestation, an epiphany of the Trinity and of the glory of God. At Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan the Holy Spirit was seen in the form of a dove descending and the voice of the Father was heard (cf. Luke 3). Before going to His death in Jerusalem Jesus was transfigured before the eyes of Peter, John and James (cf. Matthew 17) and God again revealed the wondrous mystery (admirabile mysterium) that He is Three in One, a Trinity of divine Persons. In our confession of true faith (vera fides) in the Creed we recognize (agnoscere) God to be Three and One. The Triune God is God the Father, God the Word of Truth, God the Spirit of sanctification, One God in three eternal divine Persons. In the articles about prayers used during the Conclave we learned the difference between cognosco and agnosco. The L&S says for agnosco, “as if to know a person or thing well, as having known it before, to recognize: agnoscere always denotes a subjective knowledge or recognition; while cognoscere designates an objective perception.” Man can reason toward this on his own, as did the pagan Neoplatonic theologians, but only by the gift of faith, of grace, and of divine revelation enable us to profess (confiteor) the Trinitarian mystery fully, in an authentic way. Read More →

EXCERPT:
In the mystery of the Unity and Trinity of God we believe that, from all eternity and before material creation and even time itself, the One God who desired a perfect communion of love expressed Himself in a perfect Word, containing all that He is. The Word God uttered was and is a perfect self-expression, also perfectly possessing every characteristic of the Speaker: being, omniscience, omnipotence, truth, beauty, and even personhood. So, from all eternity there were always two divine Persons, the God who spoke and the Word who was spoken, the God who Generates and the God who is Generated, true God with and from true God, Begetter and Begotten, Father and Son. There was never a time when this was not so. These two Persons eternally regard and contemplate each other. From all eternity they knew and loved each other, each embracing the other in a perfect gift of self-giving. And since the self-gift of these perfect and divine Persons, distinct by sharing one divine nature, is a perfect self-gift perfectly given and perfectly received, the very Gift between them also contains all that each of the Persons have: being, omniscience, omnipotence, truth, beauty, and even personhood. Thus, from all eternity there exist three distinct divine Persons yet having one indivisible divine nature, Father, Son and the perfect self-gift of love between them, the Holy Spirit. This is the foundational saving doctrine we believe in as Christians. At the core of everything else we believe in and hope for, we will find this mysterious doctrine of divine relationship, the Triune God. Read More →

EXCERPT:
In the mystery of the Unity and Trinity of God we believe that, from all eternity and before material creation and even time itself, the One God who desired a perfect communion of love expressed Himself in a perfect Word, containing all that He is. The Word God uttered was and is a perfect self-expression, also perfectly possessing every characteristic of the Speaker: being, omniscience, omnipotence, truth, beauty, and even personhood. So, from all eternity there were always two divine Persons, the God who spoke and the Word who was spoken, the God who Generates and the God who is Generated, true God with and from true God, Begetter and Begotten, Father and Son. There was never a time when this was not so. These two Persons eternally regard and contemplate each other. From all eternity they knew and loved each other, each embracing the other in a perfect gift of self-giving. And since the self-gift of these perfect and divine Persons, distinct by sharing one divine nature, is a perfect self-gift perfectly given and perfectly received, the very Gift between them also contains all that each of the Persons have: being, omniscience, omnipotence, truth, beauty, and even personhood. Thus, from all eternity there exist three distinct divine Persons yet having one indivisible divine nature, Father, Son and the perfect self-gift of love between them, the Holy Spirit. This is the foundational saving doctrine we believe in as Christians. At the core of everything else we believe in and hope for, we will find this mysterious doctrine of divine relationship, the Triune God. Read More →

EXCERPT:
For some time I have been of the opinion, that we need an ever greater emphasis on beauty in all we do in our public worship. It does not seem unreasonable to suggest that with the rise of post-modernist tendencies together with the decline in excellence in the system of education in the last decades, people today are less and less inclined to rational argument. As a matter of fact, it happens that you can lead a person through a series of propositions until you finally arrive at a conclusion with which they will agree. Then you will stunned to hear him say, “That might be true for you, but not for me.” The Church has for centuries taught doctrine and catechism in a very rational and linear fashion. But that is not how many people think today. It is getting harder to draw people to the truth with that kind of presentation. People are much more inclined to their “feelings” about things. That is why we must reclaim beauty. Beauty is a reflection of the Truth. People can be lead to Truth through their apprehension of the beauty of a thing. We must do all we can to enhance and make beautiful every aspect of our public worship so that we have that much more opportunity to shape, form, and give hope to God’s people. Liturgiam authenticam is very much about inculturation. This is why the issues of beauty and dignity, together with doctrinal precision, are so often emphasised in the document. We must do all we can to enhance and make beautiful every aspect of our public worship so that we have that much more opportunity to shape, form, and give hope to God’s people together with an open door to the true beauty of the Beatific Vision of the Most Blessed Trinity. Read More →

COLLECT: Deus, cuius providentia in sui dispositione non fallitur te supplices exoramus, ut noxia cuncta submoveas, et omnia nobis profutura concedas. Blaise/Chirat indicates that dispositio is “disposition providentialle”.  It has to do God’s plan for salvation.  Fallo is an interesting … Read More →

EXCERPT:
One thing kept secret from catechumens was the Symbolum, the Creed. In the time of St. Augustine and St. Ambrose (+397) they were taught the Creed only two weeks before Easter. They were tested on it by the bishop in the baptistery the week before Easter. Here is Augustine in a sermon:

The creed is learned by listening; it is written, not on tablets nor on any material, but on the heart. He who has called you to his Kingdom and glory will grant that, when you have been reborn by his grace and by the Holy Spirit, it will be written in your hearts, so that you may love what you believe and that, through love, faith may work in you and that you – no longer fearing punishment like slaves, but loving justice like the freeborn – may become pleasing to the Lord God, the giver of all good things (s. 212, 2 and cf. symb. cat. 1.1). Read More →

EXCERPT:

Unity and continuity are keys to this Collect. The Holy Spirit wove the early Church together through the preaching of the Apostles and their successors. In the Church the Holy Spirit extends to our own time the preaching of the Apostles. The Church’s unity has continuity, both diachronic as well as transnational.

The presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church guarantees our unity and continuity across every border and century. The Holy Spirit gives the Church her life’s principle, pouring spiritual life into the Body of Christ. The Spirit imbues and infuses, virtually tints and dyes the fabric of the Church as He flows through it. Our hearts, which in our Collect we pray to be imbued by the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, are in a certain way microcosms of the Church. The phrase cor ad cor loquitur, the motto on the coat-of-arms of Venerable John Henry Card. Newman, pertains to us in the Church: by the working of the Holy Spirit the Church’s heart speaks to our hearts, and vice versa, for in the Holy Spirit the faithful are of one heart. Read More →

EXCERPT:
Sometimes we think we know what words mean. As I considered how to render that ad aeternae redemptionis augmentum I decided to check out the massy L&S, since I was catching a hint of something interesting in the choice of the word. (Aside for you critics of anything “new” like the “new Mass”: Clearly it was no slouch who wrote this prayer for the 1970MR, for it is obvious that he did his homework, checked his sources, and chose these words with great care.) The substantive augmentum means, as you might guess, “an increase, growth, augmentation”. It also means, in the language of religion “a kind of sacrificial cake”. Augmentum is from augeo which means “to increase, to nourish”. It is related to our friend vigeo, by the way. By extension it also indicates, “to magnify, to exalt, to extol, embellish, to praise” and therefore (this is fun) “to honor, reverence, worship by offerings.” Think of the concept of Mary “magnifying” the Lord. Different word, same concept. So, augmentum would by a thing that “augments” in the sense of worship. Still, lest we push our prayer a little too far, augmentum, or “increase”, is found in different contexts in Scripture, such as in Eph 4:15-16: “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth (augmentum corporis) and upbuilds itself in love” (cf. also Col 2:19). Read More →

EXCERPT:
Confirmation, one of the sacraments of initiation, is rightly associated with Pentecost. Just as the sacred mysteries of the Lord’s life from the Passion, Resurrection, Ascension and Decent of the Holy Ghost and all interrelated, so too are the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and Eucharist. In the ancient Church when catechumens were brought into the Church, they were baptized, confirmed and given the Eucharist on the same night of Easter. During the time that followed, especially the octave but also after, they were given further instruction concerning many things that had been kept secret from them as catechumens aspiring to membership in the Church. This bond of secrecy and the post-baptismal instruction of newly initiated Christians was called the disciplina arcani. This was correctly thought to sharpen and peak the catechumen’s interest, curiosity and longing for what was sacred. As St. Augustine says, “The sacraments of the faithful are not divulged to (catechumens)…; that they may be more passionately desired by them, they are honorably concealed from their view” (Io. eu. tr. 96, 3). This partly explains why the “orientation” of the altar and silent canon in the West and the iconostasis in the East were and are still so effective. Recall that the super oblata was once called the “secret” prayer and that at this point in the Mass, in the older, traditional Roman rite, the priest would have just called down the Holy Spirit on the offerings: Veni, Sanctificator omnipotens aeternae Deus: et bene+dic hoc sacrificium tuo santo nomini praeparatum…Come, O Sanctifier, Almighty and eternal God, and bless + this sacrifice prepared for the glory of Thy holy name. Read More →