Please fast and pray every Thursday for the renewal of the Catholic Church in America. Please note: The Cybersociety will fast on Fridays beginning January 2013, in accordance with ancient custom.

This is not a photoblog; this is not a Catholic trivia blog. The story of our origins.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Dewfall






Haec ergo dona, quaesumus,
        Spìritus tui rore sanctìfica.

Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray,
     by sending down your Spirit like the dewfall.







The Eucharistic Prayer II of the 1969 Paul VI Mass in Latin was either adapted from the prayer of St. Hippolytus, or was inspired by the prayer of St. Hippolytus, or was concocted by a sinister committee at the instigation of Cardinal Bugnini. No one is really sure, as it happened in the mists of the last century. But no matter what you think of it, the word rore ("like the dewfall") was in there all along. The old ICEL chose to ignore it, although, as one wag gently put it, both Caesar and Vergil seemed to like the word just fine. I like the touch of poetry. I also like the more potent phrasing of the new translation: "Make holy...by sending down your Spirit," rather than the more passive-sounding "Let your Spirit come upon..." I mean, we're talking God the Father here, right?

Let's give St. Hippolytus himself a say: "Certainly it is not necessary for [the bishop] to recite the exact words we have set down....Rather, let each one pray according to his ability. Indeed, if he is able to pray in an accomplished manner and with a lofty style of prayer, it is well. But even if he has only a moderate ability in praying and in giving praise, let no one forbid it, so long as his prayer is of sound faith."


Hath the rain a father?...
                                                                                          Who hath begotten the dew?--Job 38:28

Friday, July 19, 2013


 





...and the seed should sprout and grow without his knowing it. For of itself the earth bears the crop, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the fruit is ripe, immediately he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come. (Mark 4:27-29)

Friday, July 12, 2013

Introibo

                      

Introibo ad altare Dei./Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.

I go unto the altar of God/To God Who gives joy to my youth.
                                                                 --Opening of the traditional Latin Mass.









"...the torrent of pleasure, the richness of the house of God..."
                 --Prayer of Saint Bonaventure. His feast day is July 15th.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Purgatorio


If while you twist upon your bed of pain
   you recall no flower blooms on mountaintop
   that is not seen by God within its rocky nook,

Nor sawgrass blade bent by salted wind can mark
    the sand without the eye of heaven's notice,

Perhaps you too will find surcease,
   and feel the bands of time withdraw,

As purgatory--the Poet says--does shake
    the very threshold of eternity with joyous spasm
    at just one soul's release...
                                                --r. scssrs