Monthly Archives: November 2009

Applied Liturgical Linguistics

Ok—we’ve got enough accomplished Latinists who read this site and who fall on different points of the theological/liturgical spectrum that this should lead to an interesting conversation… (And non-Latinists are quite welcome to play along too, of course!)

Here’s the question. Given this as a base text:

Supra quae propitio ac sereno vultu respicere digneris: et  accepta habere, sicuti accepta habere dignatus es munera pueri tui iusti Abel, et sacrificium Patriarchae nostri Abrahae, et quod tibi obtulit summus sacerdos tuus Melchisedech, sanctum sacrificium, immaculatam hostiam.

Supplices te rogamus, omnipotens Deus: iube haec perferri per manus sancti Angeli tui in sublime altare tuum, in conspectu divinae maiestatis tuae; ut, quotquot ex hac altaris participatione sacrosanctum Filii tui Corpus et Sanguinem sumpserimus, omni benedictione caelesti et gratia repleamur. (Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.)

please consider these three translations:

Option 1

Look with favour on these offerings and accept them as once you accepted the gifts of your servant Abel, the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith, and the bread and wine offered by your priest Melchisedech.

Almighty God, we pray that your angel may take this sacrifice to  your altar in heaven. Then, as we receive from this altar the  sacred body and blood of your Son, let us be filled with every grace and blessing. (Through Christ our Lord. Amen.)

Option 2

Be pleased to look upon them with serene and kindly countenance, and to accept them, as you were pleased to accept the gifts of your servant Abel the just, the sacrifice of Abraham, our father in faith, and the offering of your high priest Melchizedek, a holy sacrifice, a spotless victim.

In humble prayer we ask you, almighty God: command that these gifts be borne by the hands of your holy Angel to your altar on high in the sight of your divine majesty, so that all of us who through this participation at the altar receive the most holy Body and Blood of your Son may be filled with every grace and heavenly blessing.
[Through Christ our Lord. Amen.]

Option 3

Vouchsafe thou also, with a merciful and pleasant countenance, to have respect hereunto : and to accept the same, as thou didst vouchsafe to accept the gifts of thy righteous servant Abel, and the sacrifice of our patriarch Abraham, and the holy sacrifice, the undefiled host, that the high priest Melchisedek did offer unto thee.

We humbly beseech thee, O Almighty God, command thou these to be brought by the hands of thy holy Angel unto thy high Altar in the presence of thy Divine Majesty, that as many of us as of this partaking of the Altar shall receive thy Son’s holy Body and Blood may be replenished with all heavenly benediction and grace. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

1. Which of the three best communicates the base text? Why?

2. Which of the three is the best form for English language liturgy? Why?

3. To what degree does being “literal” or “faithful” to a base text help or hurt a composition intended as a modern vernacular liturgy?

(And please note—nobody says your selections for questions 1 and 2 need be the same…)

Allez!

Public Service Announcement: Automotive Safety

Having a jack and a spare tire in your trunk are really handy when you get a flat. Not having a tire iron to remove the bolts, however, reduces the other items to rather useless bits of metal.

This would be a really good time to check and make sure that in your trunk(s) you’ve got:

  1. a jack
  2. a tire iron
  3. the handle thingie to raise the jack if it’s not the tire iron
  4. flares or reflective triangles
  5. a fully inflated spare tire (sure you’ve got a spare—but is there sufficient AIR in it?)

Luckily when I hit some large, low, metal object in the road and blew out my tire, I was less than a mile away from my sister-in-law’s house and could jog there to get some assistance from my awesome brother-in-law.

Of course, it had to be the one night I didn’t have my phone on me—which made me wonder… Can’t you now get some little cheapie pay-as-you-go cellphones for not too much? And wouldn’t they be a good thing to have tucked into your emergency car kit?

And while we’re in public service announcement mode: Don’t forget to back up your data!

On Kalendars

I’ve been putting my own kalendar together. I just can’t swallow “Holy Women, Holy Men” because I have some fundamental disagreements with its criteria, premises, and theology. Neither can I use the current Roman kalendar as it contains far too many who—I’m sure are quite wonderful and holy people but—aren’t part of my heritage and theological landscape being post-Reformation. (We won’t even get started on John of Capistrano being venerated as a saint…)

As the BCP gives perfect freedom in identifying and celebrating Days of Optional Observance and the Roman documents on the kalendar discuss celebrating those with whom you have an affinity, I figure I’m well within my rights as a Prayer Book Catholic to do just that…

My particular kalendar can be characterized as the 3M kalendar as, in looking over it, it seems to be dominated by mystics, martyrs, and Mary. (Well, ok, it could be the 4M because there are an awful lot of medievals too.)

The mystics (most of whom are also monastics) and Mary are fairly self-explanatory. Martyrs, though, are a key category for me. There are two main reasons for this.

1. It reminds me that the faith is something worth dying for and that there are those who have exemplified this in their flesh. Sometimes we treat the faith, theology, “church matters” like some kind of game. As we do so we dishonor the martyrs who took this stuff seriously enough to make the ultimate witness. (That having been said, I think there were some martyrs who were rather careless or heedless in their martyrdom, but I wasn’t there either…)

2. It gives me a healthy historical perspective on our own time. I was reminded of this by Anastasia’s post on Republicans for Jesus. I honestly have no patience for Americans who proclaim how Christianity is under persecution here. There are places in the world now—let alone historically—where you can be pulled from your house in the night and shot or have your church and house bombed simply for being a Christian. That’s persecution. Having your parents turn you in to the government for execution—that’s persecution. Kerfuffles about mangers on public property or crucifixes in classrooms are not even on my persecution radar.

Changes

As (quite) long-time readers may recall, this blog was originally started as a place to discuss my dissertation progress as well as mentioning odd bits of church practice and politics.

Over its four years, it’s gone in some different directions than I first envisioned—some logical and predictable, others less so.

I’m not ending the blog, but the time has come to make some changes as I think about how it fits into my available time (which has diminished and will continue to do so) and my future goals.

One of the things I enjoy about this blog, though, is that it doesn’t seem entirely mine… That is, I think there’s an interesting community here. My observation is that a number of sites—especially those that advocate certain positions—tend to fall into the trap of becoming “echo chambers” where like-minded people go to agree with other like-minded people and have their positions and prejudices reinforced. While there is no doubt that certain common affinities draw some readers and repel others (honestly, how many Haas & Haugen enthusiasts are regular readers here?), I think this group has evaded a simplistic “echo chamber” mentality. I treasure that and would like it to continue no matter what the site looks like going forward.

All that’s to say, I’m quite open to your thoughts about what kinds of things you’d like to see here and what directions you’d like us to head in.

Posting will likely diminish for the near future, but I hope to have something solidified by Advent.