Tuesday, November 30, 2010

A Year of Lasts

We have entered into a year of lasts. Every Sunday, every Feast, we celebrate the Holy Mass in the English of the Ordinary Form, we use the lame-duck ICEL translation for those Proper Texts for the last time. Never again will we have to hear the prayer, for instance, of the First Sunday of Advent in the dumbed-down translation.
There are stories out that the CDW - Congregation of Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments - has "tweaked" the translation from the gray-book that was produced. Some say their changes are not improvements. Well, we have no where to go but up from the current translation. Fr Z has commentary and translations that are good -- see his blog for more.
Today is the Feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle. Traditionally the prayer in honor of the birth of Christ begins today (perhaps last night to make a total of 27 days, a triple-novena). The text of the prayer is:
Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. In that hour, vouchsafe, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires, (here mention specific intention of Novena) through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His Blessed Mother. Amen.
The St Andrew Novena is said fifteen times each night beginning on the Feast of St Andew (again, it probably began after First Vespers of the Feast, which was celebrated until the simplification of the Liturgy in 1960-61 by John XXIII). If one begins on the eve of St Andrew's Feast, through Christmas Night, it comprises 27 days of a triple-Novena.
Happy Advent!

3 comments:

Anthony N. Emmel said...

I started the Immaculate Conception novena today myself.

I like the idea of this one as well.

Now, if we could just convince the bishops that Latin should be the proper form for Masses with mixed (Anglo-Hispanic) communities in the border states. It's a start anyway. :)

Anthony N. Emmel said...

at least that's what I've said for a few years now. Ever since I kneelt through a (well-intentioned) priest go through the consecration twice (once in English, again in Spanish) at a midnight Christmas mass in 1992 or 93.

Lone Star PLU said...

Of course, you know that such an abuse is actually a Sacrilege. For the advantage of others, I'll say why. To pronounce the words of Consecration over already Consecrated Species, is a Sacrilege. Essentially, one is treating the Eucharistic Lord as though He were still bread.
There has been a serious problem in the last 40 years or so with Priests (and, yeah, verily, some Bishops) doing things on their own volition that are not in accord with the Church's teachings. They decide that they will do such a thing because they deem it "pastoral." The thing is, the Church is pastoral, and therefore, her wishes are always pastoral. When we start changing this and that because it seems more pastoral, we become wolves in shepherds clothing -- pastoring the Lord's flock right off the cliff.