The Wonder of Being Finite

Dr. Jennifer Wagner, a good friend of mine from grad school, is now a new postulant with the Franciscan Sisters of the Martyr St. George. Postulate away, Jennifer! God be with you!

Courtesy of Archdale King's book Liturgies of the Past (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Co., 1959), here are some communion prayers from the Rite of Nidaros. I have not altered the orthography from King's edition.

Domine sancte Pater omnipotens eterne Deus: da mihi hoc corpus et sanguinem Filii tui Domini nostri Jesu Christi ita digne sumere, ut merear per hoc remissionem omnium peccatorum meorum accipere, et tuo sancto Spiritu repleri, quia tu es Deus solus et praeter te non est alius, cujus regnum et imperium sine fine permanet in secula seculorum. Amen.

Concede, Domine Ihesu Christe, ut sicut hec sacramenta corporis et sanguinis tui, tuis fidelibus contulisti, ita mihi indigno famulo tuo et omnibus per me sumentibus hec ipsa misteria obsint ad reatum, sed prosint ad veniam omnium peccatorum meorum. Per Christum.

Accipiat [sacerdos] patenam inter manus in qua locatum est Corpus Domini.
Panem celestem accipiam et nomen Domini invocabo.

Domine Jesu Christe non sum dignus propter multitudinem peccatorum meorum ut intres sub tectum meum, sed tantum dic verbo et sanabitur anima mea.

Corpus et sanguis Domini nostri Jhesu Christi prosit mihi in remissionem peccatorum meorum et in vitan eternam. Amen.

And here is a post-communion prayer Archdale cites which, although not particularly Norwegian--it's also part of today's extraordinary usage--is too pretty for me not to include:

Corpus tuum, Domine, quod sumpsi et sanguis quem potavi adhereat semper in visceribus meis: et presta ut in me non remaneat scelerum macula quem pura et sancta refecerunt sacramenta. Qui vivis et regnas cum Deo Patri in unitate Spiritus Sancti. Per omnia secula seculorum. Amen.

It only comes once every four years...just about. For the record, here is the bull Inter Gravissimas of 1581 by which Pope Gregory XIII reformed the Julian calendar. (And here is an English translation.)

Particularly charming bits:

• Number 7 explains "ut de mense octobris anni MDLXXXII decem dies inclusive a tertia nonarum usque ad pridie idus eximantur"--that ten days will be removed from October 1582, from October 5th through October 14th inclusive. "But wait," you ask, "Won't St. Denis of Paris be upset, since his feast day is omitted?" No, Pope Gregory has thought of that too. Not only St. Denis and companions, but also Pope St. Mark and the martyrs Sergius, Bacchus, Marcellus and Apuleius (whose normal feast days won't exist either) will all crowd onto October 15th that year, and Pope St. Callistus will go to October 16th. (Presumably there wasn't room for two popes on the 15th.)


• In number 8, Pope Gregory commands judges to ensure that anyone who paid a full month's rent in October 1582 gets his full 31 days' worth, despite that month's having only 21 days.


• Remember that in 1582, the Christian world extended from New Spain in the far west all the way to Japan, where Nagasaki was a flourishing Catholic city. Naturally the papal bull could not arrive everywhere by October 1582, so Gregory provides in no. 14 that those regions skip October 5th through 14th in whatever year they do receive Inter Gravissimas.


• Finally, I love no. 12, which bases Gregory's authority over the calendar not on his being St. Peter's successor, not on the imperial pretensions of the now-discredited Donation of Constantine, not even on the mandate of the Council of Trent to reform the breviary, but on the office of Pontifex Maximus which he inherited from Julius Caesar, the last pontifex to reform the calendar.

Papa Gregorius requiescat in pace.

Although Monty Python can be quite offensive at times, as a Latin teacher I must love this. The context is first century Jerusalem under Roman occupation:



Although the bit about the locative isn't quite accurate, I still like it.

The Newman Center asked me to write an article in their series of meditations on the Sunday readings, and my lot fell upon yesterday, Sunday October 1st. I kept wanting to address the whole "He who is not against me is for me" issue, arguing against syncretism or a "false irenicism," but I didn't think I had enough space to argue why the face value of these readings isn't an excuse for a "right" to ordination.

Instead, just before the paper's deadline I was struck by the basic fact that Eldad and Medad, despite not coming to their ordination ceremony, nevertheless did not lose their vocation. For one who has gone through plenty of discernment angst, that was enough inspiration to write this reflection.

From last night's pleasure reading:

A few years ago, Call to Action announced that it was embarking on a one-year drive to get a million signatures in support of the changes we have been discussing. In this "mobilization," all stops were pulled in the network of leftward Catholic publications and organizations. At the end of the year, the organizers announced that they would need another year to reach their goal. It was pointed out by some that 1 million signatures from a community of 65 million Catholics fell somewhat short of a credible expression of the voice of the faithful. As it happened, the organizers ended up with about 34,000 signatures, which is 0.0005 percent of the Catholics in the country and about 0.0015 percent of regular Mass-goers.

--Richard John Neuhaus, Catholic Matters (New York: Basic Books, 2006) p. 87.

In his recent interview with Deutsche Welle, the Holy Father quoted Chesterton:

Welche Rolle spielen eigentlich Humor und die Leichtigkeit des Seins im Leben eines Papstes?

(Papst lacht) Ich bin nicht ein Mensch, dem dauernd viele Witze einfallen. Aber sozusagen das Lustige im Leben zu sehen, und die fröhliche Seite daran und alles nicht ganz so tragisch zu nehmen, das ist mir schon sehr wichtig, und ich würde sagen: für mein Amt auch notwendig. Irgendein Schriftsteller hatte gesagt, die Engel können fliegen, weil sie sich leicht nehmen. Und wir könnten auch ein bisschen mehr fliegen, sozusagen, wenn wir uns nicht ganz so schwergewichtig nehmen würden.

In English (my adaptation from the surprisingly inaccurate official translation):

What role does humor and lightheartedness play in the life of a pope?

(The Pope laughs.) I'm not a man who constantly thinks up jokes. But I think it's very important to be able to see the funny side of life and its joyful dimension and not to take everything too tragically. I'd also say it's necessary for my ministry. A writer once said that angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. And we could also fly a bit more, so to speak, if we didn't take ourselves so seriously.