A Beautiful Illustration of the Prayer “Anima Christi”

Thanks to the Spanish-language Facebook page Poco y católico for sharing with us this very lovely image of part of the prayer Anima Christi written on Gothic script on scrolls around a cross. I was unable to find any information about the date or source of the image, so if anyone knows where it comes from, please be so kind as to leave a message in the combox.

The “Anima Christi” is traditionally ascribed to St Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Order, and in liturgical books, is printed under the title “Aspirationes Sancti Ignatii ad Sanctissimum Redemptorem – Aspirations of St Ignatius to the Most Holy Redeemer.” It is also traditionally included at the beginning of his Spiritual Exercises, as seen in the picture below, taken from an edition printed in 1920. However, it is found in manuscripts that predate Ignatius’ birth (1491) by over 100 years, and the true author is unknown.

The Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, Part 3: Jansenist Scrupulosity or Liturgical Stutter?

Lost in Translations #90

One peculiarity of the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar is their apparent redundancy and what it might mean theologically. The two Confiteors--first the priest's and then the server/congregation's--are followed by an absolution. Then, after a short series of versicles, the priest prays two prayers (one when is he is approaching the altar and one when he arrives), both of which ask for a forgiveness of sins. The worry, then, is that because these prayers are said so soon after the absolution, they bespeak a despair that the absolution was efficacious, that the priest thinks that he still has sins on his soul even after God has forgiven him. The repeated plea for forgiveness, therefore, may indicate a kind of Jansenist scrupulosity.

To address this worry, let us first examine the prayers more closely before offering an alternative interpretation.

The Misereatur and Indulgentiam

The two prayers said by the priest after he and the server/congregation have recited their Confiteors are:

Misereátur vestri omnípotens Deus, et dimíssis peccátis vestris, perdúcat vos ad vitam ætérnam.

Indulgéntiam, absolutiónem, et remissiónem peccatórum nostrórum, tríbuat nobis omnípotens et miséricors Dóminus.

Which I translate as:

May almighty God have mercy on you, and once He has forgiven your sins, bring you to everlasting life.

May the almighty and merciful Lord grant us pardon, absolution, and remission of our sins.

In the traditional Roman liturgy, both here and in the Sacrament of Penance, the prayer Misereatur is always followed by the prayer Indulgentiam. The Misereatur acts as a sort of overture or grand vision of our hope while the Indulgentiam makes good on that hope. In the Misereatur, we want God to have mercy on us and to lead us to eternal life, but first He will need to forgive us our sins. It is the Indulgentiam that then provides that forgiveness. The dimissis peccatis vestris in the Misereatur is an ablative absolute with a perfect passive participle: it imagines a world in which the action is completely finished. The Indulgentiam brings about the completion of that action. In the Sacrament of Penance, on the other hand, the absolvatory prayer is the Dominus noster Jesus Christus te absolvat, which includes the line ego te absólvo a peccátis tuis--"I absolve you from your sins." This is the moment in the sacrament when the priest absolves all sin, mortal and venial, by the authority of Jesus Christ. In the Mass, the absolvatory prayer is Indulgentiam, but it only has the power of a sacramental, something that can erase venial sin (but not mortal). Sacramentals differ from sacraments, as Fr. John Hardon, S.J. explains,

in not having been instituted by Christ to produce their effect in virtue of the ritual performed. Their efficacy depends not on the rite itself, as in the sacraments, but on the influence of prayerful petition; that of the person who uses them and of the Church in approving their practice. [1]

Sacramentals

In the new Mass, the Indulgentiam is omitted and instead the Misereatur is called in the rubrics the absolutio sacerdotis or "the absolution." Because the Misereatur now has the task of absolving sins, the 2011 English translation (like its predecessors) ignores the grammatical construction of the Latin prayer and inserts a direct request for forgiveness:

May almighty God have mercy on us,

forgive us our sins,

and bring us to everlasting life.[3]

But according to some, this new absolution should not be considered an absolution at all. Fr. Dennis C. Smolarski, S.J.'s How Not to Say Mass was written to awaken readers to "the authentic celebration of the renewed Eucharist in the Roman Rite.[4] Smolarski does not like the "quasi-sacramental" character of the Tridentine formula (why "quasi"? it is a sacramental), and so he advises celebrants not to do anything at this part of the Mass that "heightens the significance of the act of penitence" such as making the sign of the cross (which was omitted in the new Mass) because the real forgiveness of minor sins occurs when we "openheartedly [hear] the Word of God and [partake] in the eucharistic [sic] banquet."[5]

Finally, it is common to translate perducat as "bring," as do both I and the official 2011 translation. The prefix per, however, intensifies the action, and thus it might be better to think of the prayer as asking God to "thoroughly bring" us to eternal life, to really, really get us there good.

As for the Indulgentiam. In the Misereatur, we ask God to be merciful; in the Indulgentiam we are assured that God is not only merciful but omnipotent and therefore both willing and able to grant our request. And there are two ways to think about the petition for indulgentia, absolutio, and remissio. First, since all three words can mean the same thing in ecclesiastical Latin (forgiveness), we can see the words bestowing a lyrical power to the prayer that is encouraging to the petitioner, the threefold repetition emphasizing forgiveness while avoiding verbal redundancy. Second, we can reflect on the different connotations of each word. Indulgentia originally meant leniency and came to signify a remission of temporal punishment for sin; absolutio was originally an acquittal in court and later a dissolving or forgiving of the bonds of sin; and remissio was first a remitting of a penalty or a reduction in rent before it took on the Christian meaning of a remission of sins.[6] Putting these meanings together, we see a process of sanctification in reverse. First, sins are forgiven (remissio); then, the bonds of sin, that is, our attachment to them, are removed (absolutio); and finally, any temporal punishment brought on by our sins is remitted (indulgentia).

The Aufer a nobis and Oramus te

A dialogue of sorts then follows between the priest and the server/congregation through the voice of several Psalm verses that express hope. After greeting the server/congregation with Dominus vobiscum, the priest climbs the steps of the altar, saying:

Aufer a nobis, quǽsumus, Dómine, iniquitátes nostras: ut ad Sancta sanctórum puris mereámur méntibus introíre. Per Christum Dóminum nostrum. Amen.

Which I translate as:

Take away from us our iniquities, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that we may be worthy to enter into the Holy of Holies with pure minds. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The prayer fits nicely with Psalm 42 and its antiphon, which repeatedly declare Introibo ad altare Dei--"I will go unto the altar of God." Here, the priest announces that he is doing precisely that right now, entering into (introire) the Holy of Holies.

The prayer imagines that the altar and the space immediately in front of it are the Holy of Holies and the sanctuary is the Holy (Place). But these references to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem have a heavenly signification. The Epistle to the Hebrews refers to Jesus Christ the High Priest entering into the Holy of Holies (Heaven) after His Ascension with His own Blood, having obtained our eternal redemption. (see Heb. 9,11-13)

When the priest reaches the altar he says:

Orámus te, Dómine, per mérita Sanctórum tuórum (kissing the altar) quorum relíquiæ hic sunt, et ómnium Sanctórum: ut indulgére dignéris ómnia peccáta mea. Amen.

Which I translate as:

We pray Thee, O Lord, by the merits of Thy Saints (kissing the altar) whose relics are here, and of all the Saints, that Thou wouldst deign to forgive all my sins. Amen.

The prayer asks for the intercession of the Saints whose relics are beneath the altar stone, an erstwhile requirement for every Catholic altar. (Note to priests: hic with a short "i" means "this"; hic with a long "i" means "here." When you pray this prayer, use hic with a long "i".) The custom of placing the relics of a saint (specifically, a martyr) is tied to Revelation 6,9:

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.

Just as the Martyrs' souls are in Heaven under the altar that is Christ, so too are their bodies on earth under an altar that represents Christ. The priest is again thinking of Heaven, where he has mystically arrived. The Prayers at the Foot of the Altar may be plaintive, but they too eventually sound a note of arrival.

Gebhard Fugel, "Apocalypse," 1933

Significantly, these two prayers are in the first person plural voice, even though the priest is ascending the steps alone. The most obvious explanation is that the prayer is designed for a Solemn High Mass, in which the deacon and subdeacon approach the altar together with the priest, and thus the "we" refers to these three ministers. But there is another explanation. In the days of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies alone and only once a year. And as we learned from the Epistle to the Hebrews, Jesus Christ, entered Heaven in an analogous manner, alone and once for all. But there is a way in which Jesus is not alone, for the Elect are truly members of His Body. (see 1 Cor. 12,12) Therefore, when the priest acts in persona Christi, that persona somehow includes us. And so when the priest moves physically closer to the holy altar, we move spiritually with him. And when this movement is a symbolic entry into Heaven, we, the members of Christ's mystical Body, likewise symbolically enter into Heaven at this point of the Mass.

One final peculiarity about these two prayers. In the first, the priest prays that we may have our iniquities taken away so that we may be worthy to enter into the Holy of Holies. In the second, the priest declares that we pray that all my sins may be forgiven. The switch to the first person singular is curious. I am not certain, but I suspect that this personal plea on the part of the celebrant expresses his feelings of trepidation about his kissing the sacred altar and his entering physically into the Holy of Holies.

A Liturgical Stutter

The Aufer a nobis and Oramus te also provide the key to exonerating the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar from the charge of scrupulous redundancy. Both prayers identify the "destination" towards which all the Prayers of the Foot of the Altar are ordered as Heaven. The priest, of course, does not literally enter Heaven, but the liturgy that he is celebrating is a participation in the heavenly liturgy described in Hebrews and the Book of Revelation.[7] We can therefore conclude that the priest, ministers, and congregation are in a very real sense entering into what Rudolf Otto calls the numinous, which he defines as a mysterium tremendum et fascinans--a terrifying and enchanting mystery.[8]

  

And if we are entering into something as awesome as the numinous, it is understandable that we hem and haw. Catherine Pickstock speaks of a "stammer" in traditional liturgies that instantiates "the 'slow tongue' of Moses, the 'unclean lips' of Isaiah, the demur of Jeremiah, and the mutism of Ezekiel."[9] Rather than moving in a Cartesian, linear fashion from A to B to C (as does, Pickstock argues, the Novus Ordo), the traditional rite often takes two steps forward, one step back. This stammer or dance reflects the proper attitude that one should have in the face of the numinous, namely, a mixture of hope, fear, awe, personal unworthiness, gratitude, hesitancy, and perseverance. The repeated requests for purification during the Prayers of the Foot of the Altar do not bespeak a lack of confidence in God's power to forgive but the proper response to the prospect of participating in so great a mystery. They are a perfect enactment of Psalm 5,8--"I will come into (introibo) Thy house, I will worship towards Thy holy temple in Thy fear"--where "God's fear" can be taken to mean the correct reaction to being in the presence of the numinous. 

Conclusion

Further, the Prayers of the Foot of the Altar make clear the fact that this entry into the numinous is made possible by the action of the liturgy and not by a mere physical approach to the altar. An altar should always be treated with respect, but outside the liturgy it is not approached with the same fear and trembling. Outside the liturgy, for example, a simple bow is all that is needed when walking past it (or a genuflection if the Blessed Sacrament is reserved in a tabernacle on it). Outside the liturgy, the altar can be touched by lay persons, male and female, as when they are changing the linens in their duty as sacristan. Outside the liturgy, one does not need to pray and pray again before drawing near to an altar.

But in the liturgy, reverence towards the same altar is much greater, so much so that when a priest celebrates a Low Mass, immediately before the Mass begins, he ascends the altar without fanfare, sets up the chalice, and returns to the foot of the altar. But when he reaches the foot of the altar, makes the sign of the cross, and thus begins the Mass, his attitude changes completely. The same altar that he was touching a few seconds ago he now trembles before as he repeatedly asks God for forgiveness. The same altar that he did not greet or acknowledge when he was laying out the corporal he now kisses with trembling and affectionate lips as he pays honor to the Saints whose bones lie therein.

The implications are clear. Sacred liturgy is more than an act of worship or the fulfilment of an obligation or a way of giving thanks or a memorial or even a sacrifice; it is a portal through which we enter another dimension, the dimension of the numinous.

The Introductory Rites of the Novus Ordo are strikingly different. Whereas in the traditional rite, the kissing of the altar is the dramatic culmination of a pious stammer before a great mystery, in the new Mass it is the unceremonious and anticlimactic beginning of the rite. When the priest nears the altar after the procession, he bows, walks confidently into the sanctuary, and without hesitation kisses the altar. He then makes the sign of the cross and greets the people. Depending on which optional formulas he chooses, the priest can spend more time speaking to the congregation than he does to God. And he is advised by at least one commentator to "concentrate on divine mercy rather than human faults" when ad libbing during the Kyrie (the third form of the act of penitence),[10] further diminishing any sense of holy fear.

Notes

[1] John Hardon, S.J., Pocket Catholic Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1985), 380.

[2] 2011 Roman Missal, p. 515.

[4] Fr. Dennis C. Smolarski, S.J., How Not to Say Mass (Paulist Press, 2003), 1-2.

[5] Smolarski, 54-55.

[6] See Sr. Mary Pierre Ellebracht, Remarks on the Vocabulary of the Ancient Orations in the Missale Romanum (Nijmegen: Dekker & Van de Vegt, 1963), 155-56, 13.

[7] See Catechism of the Catholic Church 1090; Sacrosanctum Concilium 8; Lumen Gentium 50.

[8] See Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy, chapter 3.

[9] After Writing: On the Liturgical Consummation of Philosophy (Oxford: Blackwell, 1998), 215.

[10] Smolarski, 53.

A Litany of Subdeacon Saints

Ordination of a Roman subdeacon

As promised in my article “A Litany for Sacristans and Those Receiving Minor Orders,” published on October 7, 2019, today I publish a similar litany for those men about to receive the major order of subdiaconate, in accord with the theological and liturgical tradition of the Roman Catholic Church as maintained in certain institutes and communities (e.g., the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter; the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest; the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer or Transalpine Redemptorists; the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming; the Benedictine monks of Norcia).

The litany has been compiled from the last edition of the traditional Roman Martyrology (hardcover; paperback without front and back matter). Those who wish to incorporate this liturgical book into their daily prayer may find instructions here. As before, I have adopted the general format of the Litany of the Saints. After the litany are the corresponding entries from the Martyrology, with the dates.

Subdeacon fulfilling one of his liturgical roles

This litany is intended for private recitation by those who are either already subdeacons or who may soon be promoted to this office. What could be better than to call upon the intercession of the glorious martyrs and confessors of the Faith who, in their own lifetimes, died with the subdiaconal dignity and are forever remembered by Holy Mother Church in that manner? (There is one saint included who became a bishop, but since he is mentioned as subdeacon who was designated by heaven as the next bishop, it seemed appropriate to include him. Naturally, some other men listed in the Martyrology might have been subdeacons, too, but here we are relying on whether they are expressly identified as such.)

A Litany for Subdeacons and Those Receiving the Order of Subdiaconate

(For private recitation)

Lord, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us. 
Christ, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us. Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us. Christ, graciously hear us. 
God the Father of heaven, have mercy on us. 
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, pray for us.
Holy Mother of God, pray for us.
Holy Virgin of virgins, pray for us.

St Baldomer, devoted servant of God and worker of miracles, pray for us.
St Andeolus, beaten with thorns and cut asunder with a sword, pray for us.
St Leo, faithful companion of the priest St Caius, pray for us.
St Januarius, companion of SS. Felicissimus and Agapitus, pray for us.
St Magnus, great in the eyes of the Lord, pray for us.
St Vincent, conqueror over the fear of death, pray for us.
St Stephen, faithful imitator of the Protomartyr, pray for us.
St Servus, tortured, nailed, burnt, and smitten, pray for us.
St Rusticus, witness to Catholic truth against Arian heresy, pray for us.
St Evortius, elevated from subdeaconhood to the episcopacy, pray for us.
St Martyrius, slain by heretics, pray for us.
St. Quadragesimus, who raised a dead man to life, pray for us.

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord. 
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord. 
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. 

Let us pray. Grant, we beseech Thee, O almighty God, that the intercession of holy Mary, Mother of God, and of all the holy apostles, martyrs, confessors, and virgins, and of all Thine elect, may everywhere gladden us, that, while we commemorate their merits, we may experience their protection. Through our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son, who livest and reignest with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God for ever and ever. Amen.

Parallels between East & West: a Greek subdiaconal ordination

Source of the Litany: Entries from the Martyrology

– At Lyons, St Baldomer, a subdeacon, devoted servant of God, whose tomb is glorified with many miracles. (February 27/28)

– In France, in the Vivarais, blessed Andeolus, Subdeacon, whom with others St Polycarp sent from the East into France to preach the Word of God. He was beaten with thorny rods under the Emperor Severus, and at last suffered martyrdom, his head being cut crosswise into four parts with a wooden sword. (May 1)

– The holy martyrs Caius, Priest, and Leo, Subdeacon. (June 30)

– Likewise, at Rome, SS. Felicissimus and Agapitus, Martyrs, Deacons of the same blessed Sixtus, Januarius, Magnus, Vincent and Stephen, subdeacons, who were all beheaded together with him and buried in the cemetery of Praetextatus. There suffered also with them blessed Quartus, as St Cyprian relates. (August 6)

– At Carthage in Africa, the holy martyrs Liberatus (Abbot), Boniface (Deacon), Servus and Rusticus (Subdeacons), Rogatus and Septimus (monks) and Maximus, a boy; in the Vandal persecution under King Hunneric they were assailed by various unheard-of tortures for confessing the Catholic faith and defending the non-repetition of baptism. Last of all they were fastened with nails to pieces of wood wherewith they were to be burnt; but although the fire was kindled again and again, yet by the power of God it was each time extinguished, and by command of the king they were smitten with oars and their brains dashed out, so that they were slain, and thus, being crowned by the Lord, they fulfilled the splendid course of their battle. (August 17)

– At Orleans in France, the death of St Evortius, Bishop, who was at first a subdeacon of the Roman Church, and then by the divine grace was designated Bishop of Orleans by means of a dove. (September 7)

– At Constantinople, the passion of SS. Martyrius (Subdeacon) and Marcian (a chanter), who were slain by heretics under the Emperor Constantius. (October 25)

– Likewise, St. Quadragesimus, a Subdeacon, who raised a dead man to life. (October 26)

One of the duties of the Eastern subdeacon

The Prayers of Preparation and Thanksgiving for Mass

A reader from Slovenia, Mr Simon Kocjan, sent in this scan he made of a placard with the prayers of Preparation for Mass, and Thanksgiving after Mass. Once upon a time, these were very commonly kept in sacristies, although the prayers themselves were not mandatory. I have seen them printed out in various formats, large and small, framed and hung on the walls of sacristies all over the place. The same prayers are of course also traditionally included in the Missal, and for convenience, in the Breviary as well. Feel free to click on the image, download, print, as you will. The psalms and the canticle Benedicite are given in the version of the Bea Psalter; below it is another version from this website, with the Vulgate text, also available as a pdf. (This was the site’s last post, 4½ years ago, so I assume they also won’t mind what people do with it.)

Some of these prayers are included in the Missal of the Novus Ordo, but the antiphons Ne reminiscaris and Trium puerorum, and the psalms, versicles, and collects that go with them are omitted, only heaven knows why.

An Anglo-Catholic Prayer Card of the Angelus

This beautiful card with the Angelus on one side, and the Regina caeli on the other, was made in the 1910s or ’20s by the Society of Ss Peter and Paul, an Anglo-Catholic publishing company (now-defunct), which also produced the original Anglican Missal. The decorative border is obviously made from the same stamp on both sides, but the illustration accompanying the two prayers is different, the Annunciation with the Angelus, the appearance of Christ to the women at the tomb with Regina caeli. (Many thanks to Mr Richard Hawker for sharing this with us.)

It is really a pity that decorative elements of this sort have essentially disappeared from liturgical books; many medieval Missals and Breviaries have them on almost every page, a tradition which carried over into the early printed editions of the 15th century, and the first editions of the Tridentine period. Here, for example, is the first page of liturgical text in a Premonstratensian Missal printed in 1578, which has at least one such decoration, very often two or three, on almost every page.

Prayers for Norcia and Environs

By now, I am sure that majority of our readers have heard of the major earthquake that struck central Italy last night, registering 6.4 on the Richter scale, with its epicenter close to Norcia, the birthplace of St Benedict, and home of the famous Monks of Norcia. Two small towns in the area, Amatrice and Accumoli, have been very badly hit, with over 70 fatalities, and a great many more injuries. Norcia itself was shaken up, but the damage has been fairly light, and the monks are all safe; many of the decorations in their church and the bell-towers were damaged. However, there have been so many aftershocks, some of them quite notable, that the community have just posted on their Facebook page their intention to temporarily transfer to Rome, until the condition of their buildings can be fully assessed, and necessary repairs made.

The Patron Saint of nearby Ascoli Piceno, St Emygdius, a bishop and martyr of the persecution of Diocletian, has long been invoked by the Italians against earthquakes, and was so renowned for this devotion that his feast on August 9th was also adopted by several Californian dioceses. These prayers from First Vespers of his proper Office would be appropriate way to ask that Italy be spared any further harm from this event; I have added the prayer against earthquakes from the Roman Missal.

Aña : Emygdius spiritu oris sui idolorum cultum et templa subvertit; quos in Christo genuit filios, illos fideliter a ruinis terraemotus servavit.
V. Amavit eum Dominus et ornavit eum. R. Stolam gloriae induit eum.
Oremus. Oratio Deus, qui beátum Emygdium, Mártyrem tuum atque Pontíficem, idolórum victória et miraculórum glória decorásti: concéde propítius; ut, eo interveniénte, malórum spirítuum fraudes víncere et coruscáre virtútibus mereámur.
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, “qui respicis terram, et facis eam tremere”: parce metuentibus, propitiare supplicibus; ut, cujus iram terræ fundamenta concutientem expavimus, clementiam contritiones ejus sanantem jugiter sentiamus. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

Aña : Emygdius by the breath of his mouth overthrew the worship of idols and the temples; he faithfully kept the sons whom he had begotten in Christ from the ruin of the earthquake.
V. The Lord loved him and adorned him. R. He clothed him with a robe of glory.
Let us pray. Prayer O God, who didst honor the blessed Emygdius, Thy Martyr and Bishop, with victory over idols and the glory of miracles: grant in Thy mercy, that by his intervention, we may merit to overcome the deceits of wicked spirits, and shine forth with virtues.
Almighty and everlasting God, Who lookest down upon the earth and makest it tremble, spare those who are afraid, show Thy mercy to those who implore Thee; that we who fear Thine anger, which shaketh the foundations of the earth, may evermore enjoy Thy mercy, which healeth its commotions. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Office of Vespers as Sacrifice - Guest Article

Skyler Neberman is a student of Theology and Philosophy at Benedictine College, and hopes to continue on to graduate studies in Systematic Theology and the Liturgy. He is interested in the restoration of Gregorian chant, especially in the Divine Office, and the Mixolydian is his favorite mode. We are very pleased to be able to share with our readers this article which he has written on the Office of Vespers as a Sacrifice.

The Evening Sacrifice

A Historical Case for the Office of Vespers as Sacrifice

One of the first experiences that began my formation in and devotion to the Liturgy was attending Cathedral Vespers in my youth. Though I have since experienced much more solemn Vespers in many rites and forms, I was struck even in that office’s simplicity, which stirred a dormant sense that it was “right and just” to worship at eventide. Vilma Little says in The Sacrifice Of Praise, “Of the two original offices of praise the Evening Hour has always been the prime favorite. It was in the calm of evening that God walked with our first parents in the Garden.” That Evensong stirred something of the first homo adorans that awoke in the evening of Creation, when the evening star first arose upon the imagines Dei, who saw it and offered thanksgiving to God. In this essay I will attempt to trace the tradition of the early Church in an effort to discern the theology of the office of Vespers, especially the understanding of Vespers as the evening sacrifice of the Last Supper and of Christ on the Cross.

The Creation of the World; mosaic in one of the cupolas of the Basilica of St Mark in Venice, 1215-35.

The liturgy of the hours has its earliest roots in the Jewish Temple sacrifices and prayers. Exodus mandates “thou shalt sacrifice upon the altar: Two lambs of a year old every day continually. One lamb in the morning and another in the evening. … It is a sacrifice to the Lord, by perpetual oblation unto your generations” (Ex 29:38b-39, 42a). When the Divine Office comes into its own in the 4th century, the Church Dathers develop this connection, but as Fr Robert Taft says in The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West, the “raw material and symbols for what would later become the Liturgy of the Hours” are already present.

The earliest Church documents show little in the way of a Liturgy of the Hours beyond exhortations to pray at set hours of the day: St Clement of Rome, in his Letter to the Corinthians, encourages us to keep Christ’s commands by observing the “sacrifices and services … at the set times and seasons he fixed” (40.2-3). But Taft points to the greater importance of Clement’s comments, which develops the symbolic value of the times of day: “We see, beloved, that the resurrection was accomplished according to the time. Day and night make visible to us a resurrection. Night goes to sleep, the day rises; the day departs, the night follows.”

Among the most important of the earlier writings is the Apostolic Tradition of St. Hippolytus, from around the year 215. In chapter 25, Hippolytus covers what Taft calls the “evening agape.” The agape is a rather curious office, which begins with “The Lord be with you. … Let us give thanks to the Lord. … It is proper and just. Greatness and exultation and glory are due to him,” but doesn’t continue to the “Lift up your hearts … for this is only said at the oblation.” (25:2-6) This is a meal which is not the Eucharist, though bread and the cup are blessed, and the blessed bread is given to the faithful by the deacon or bishop, “Yet it is not the Eucharist, like the body of the Lord” (25:15-26:1). Still, the agape is very Eucharistic, in the sense that it is a thanksgiving; where the translation I have used says the bishop “shall bless the cup” (25:15), Taft’s translation says “give thanks over the cup.” The prayer over the lamp, a precursor to the lucernarium of Cathedral Vespers according to Taft, is also Eucharistic in nature:

We give thanks to you, O God, / through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, / because you have enlightened us / by revealing the incorruptible light. / Therefore, having finished the length of a day, … and since we now do not lack a light for the evening through your grace, / we sanctify you and glorify you. (25:7-8)

The Divine Office comes into its own in the 4th century Cathedral Office. In this period, Taft shows us St. Basil, who tells us that at the lucernarium “thanksgiving for the light” was made with the hymn Phos Hilaron. Later on, St. John Chrysostom makes another important contribution. Taft notes that in commenting on psalm 140 - which forms the fulcrum of cathedral Vespers (16) - Chrysostom applies the Old Testament sacrifices to Matins and Vespers (43); these sacrifices show that “it is necessary to be zealous in worshipping him at both the beginning and the end of the day.” (The Phos hilaron is still sung at Vespers every day in the Byzantine Rite; here is a version in Old Church Slavonic.)

The last ancient source we shall consider is the Institutes of St. John Cassian. In chapter 3, Cassian discourses on the theological significance of the canonical hours, connecting them to significant moments in Scripture. When he comes to evening prayer, he calls it the “evening sacrifice”, which even in the Old Testament we can see is offered in the morning and night,

although with figurative victims, from the fact that David sings: “Let my prayer come like incense in your presence, the raising of my hands like an evening sacrifice.” Here the true evening sacrifice can be understood in a more spiritual way as either that which the Lord, the Savior, delivered to his apostles as they supped in the evening, when he initiated the sacred mysteries of the Church, or as that evening sacrifice which he offered to the Father on the last day—namely, at the end of the ages—by the raising of his hands for the salvation of the whole world. (3, 3, 8-10)

Cassian is saying that Vespers is the Evening Sacrifice of Christ on the cross and the offering of the Last Supper, the fulfillment of the old Jewish Temple sacrifices wherein the Lamb of God is offered.

But how can it be the Evening Sacrifice without the Eucharist? The answer can be found in Psalm 115, 17, “I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and call on the name of the Lord,” as well as in Psalm 49, 23 “He who brings thanksgiving as his sacrifice honors me; to him who orders his way aright I will show the salvation of God!” The psalmist writes in Psalm 140 “Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice!” The offering of our selves in worship is a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews writes, “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God” (13, 15-16). At Vespers we offer up to God, not the Bread of Heaven which is the Body and Blood of Christ under the appearance of bread and wine, but rather the Bread of Heaven as the word that proceeds from the mouth of God (cf. Mt. 4:4).

The incensation of the altar during solemn Vespers in the Ordinariate Use. (Photo by Fr Lew.)

The General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours says this.

In the Liturgy of the Hours, the Church exercises the priestly office of its Head and offers to God ‘without ceasing’ a sacrifice of praise, that is, a tribute of lips acknowledging his name. … All who render this service are not only fulfilling a duty of the Church, but also are sharing in the greatest honor of Christ’s Bride for by offering these praises to God they are standing before God's throne. (I-III.15).

This is especially true of the character of Vespers, for as the Evening Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, it commemorates and offers the wedding feast of the lamb, for according to St. Chrysostom in his Catecheses, the Church is born and wedded to Christ when, in the sleep of death, His side is pierced and blood and water pour forth—the Sacraments of the Eucharist and Baptism—just as Eve is born from and wedded to Adam from the rib of his side after God places him in a deathlike sleep. Therefore, while Morning Prayer celebrates the Resurrection, Vespers celebrates the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, which is ratified in the offering of the last supper, and consummated upon the cross. In the modern office, we could posit too that this is expressed in the twofold nature of Vespers on Sundays and Feasts or Solemnities in the Roman Rite; First Vespers can be seen as the offering, and Second Vespers as the consummation, wherein in the Ordinary Form the New Testament canticle is taken from Revelation: “The wedding feast of the lamb has begun … and his bride is prepared to welcome him.”

Today, the Divine Office has to a large degree fallen by the wayside in terms of devotion, but given the incredible purpose that it fulfills—especially in Vespers—of bringing us into the eternal worship of God, we should strive to celebrate it in our Cathedrals, Parishes, religious communities, and even our families, and where possible, with the greater perfection of Gregorian Chant, as the music proper to the Roman Rite. Benedict XVI makes this very exhortation in Verbum Domini (62), asking that prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours, especially Lauds and Vespers be promulgated among the people of God: “Emphasis should also be placed on … First Vespers of Sundays and Solemnities … To this end I recommend that, wherever possible, parishes and religious communities promote this prayer with the participation of the lay faithful.” In the Church offering Vespers with greater frequency and devotion, we her members may better enter into the mystery of the eternal offering of Christ the eternal high priest and sacrificial lamb, and ultimately reach consummation in the vision of Divine light, to which humanity was first drawn when they looked upon the stars and gave thanks.

A Greek icon of the Second Coming of Christ, ca. 1700

The Value of Praying the Office - A Beautiful Meditation by Bl. Card. Schuster

I close my eyes, and while my lips murmur the words of the Breviary which I know by heart, I leave behind their literal meaning, and feel that I am in that endless land where the Church, militant and pilgrim, passes, walking towards the promised fatherland. I breathe with the Church in the same light by day, the same darkness by night; I see on every side of me the forces of evil that beset and assail Her; I find myself in the midst of Her battles and victories, Her prayers of anguish and Her songs of triumph, in the midst of the oppression of prisoners, the groans of the dying, the rejoicing of the armies and captains victorious. I find myself in their midst, but not as a passive spectator; nay rather, as one whose vigilance and skill, whose strength and courage can bear a decisive weight on the outcome of the struggle between good and evil, and upon the eternal destinies of individual men and of the multitude. (Blessed Card. Ildefonso Schuster, Archbishop of Milan, 1929-54)

At the time Bl. Schuster said this, he was close to death, and too weak to follow the Office very attentively as he prayed it; this in itself must have been a great burden to one whose devotion to the liturgy was so great that it was noted even by the communist newspapers. Despite his weakness in his final days, and his enormous pastoral duties, he never ceased to fulfill his obligation to recite the official prayer of the Church. I think these words may serve as a great consolation to anyone who, for whatever reason and in whatever circumstance, finds it difficult to concentrate when saying the Office, the Rosary, or some other prayer.

For those who know Italian, the passage is well worth reading in the original, as he was a man very skilled in the rich rhetorical language of his era.

“Chiudo gli occhi, e mentre le labbra mormorano le parole del breviario che conosco a memoria, io abbandono il loro significato letterale, per sentirmi nella landa sterminata per dove passa la Chiesa pellegrina e militante, in cammino verso la patria promessa. Respiro con la Chiesa nella stessa sua luce, di giorno, nelle sue stesse tenebre, di notte; scorgo da ogni parte le schiere del male che l'insidiano o l'assaltano; mi trovo in mezzo alle sue battaglie e alle sue vittorie, alle sue preghiere d'angoscia e ai suoi canti trionfali, all'oppressione dei prigionieri, ai gemiti dei moribondi, alle esultanze degli eserciti e dei capitani vittoriosi. Mi trovo in mezzo: ma non come spettatore passivo, bensì come attore la cui vigilanza, destrezza, forza e coraggio possono avere un peso decisivo sulle sorti della lotta tra il bene e il male e sui destini eterni dei singoli e della moltitudine.”

The New Evangelization and the Domestic Church - Pope Benedict XVI on the Connection between the Two

Why the beauty of the prayer corner in the family home is crucial to the New Evangelization

The New Evangelization has become a buzzword of the age. Used by Pope St John Paul II, it refers to the need to reach the faithless in the West whose parents and grandparents were Christian. But how do we reach these people who have no faith, but think they already know enough about Christianity to be hostile to it?

In a short and clear paper written in 2000, Benedict XVI outlined what he believes is the answer to this question. If people are to convert they must believe that the Church has the answer to the fundamental question: ‘Which is the path to happiness?’ We do not tell people the answer to this question, he says, so much as show them. By the example of our own happy lives and loving interactions we show Christ to others. And the only way we can do this is to strive to be walking icons of Christ supernaturally transformed so that we participate in the light of the Transfiguration.

There were two aspects of the Christian message that Pope Benedict felt would resonate today particularly when communicated in this way. First is that we demonstrate Christian joy that transcends human suffering, so that in our own small way (or sometimes not so small) we bear suffering joyfully and with dignity as the martyrs did.

Second is that we should communicate the fact of life after death and a just and merciful judgment by Christ. When we have joyful hope for a future that reaches beyond death, fear is dispelled and we are given a purpose in this present life (anticipating themes discussed later in Spe Salvi in much greater depth). Again this is more powerfully transmitted in the way we are than by us telling people directly that we are joyful and free of fear.

How can we possibly live up to this ideal? The answer is that left to our own devices we can’t, but with God's grace we can. The foundation of such a transformation, says Benedict, is prayer.
Benedict describes prayer life that is a balance of three different sorts of prayer, all ordered to the Eucharist. These are, first, the Sacred Liturgy - the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours; second, ‘para-liturgical’ prayers which are devotional prayers said in common such as the rosary; and third personal prayer which is said alone and in private.

Most of us do not know how to pray well without being taught. Even the Apostles asked Christ to teach them how to pray and Benedict tells us that we need ‘schools of prayer’ where we may learn to pray this transforming prayer.

The most powerful and ideal school of prayer is the domestic church - the family home - where children learn by seeing the example of their parents (and I would say, especially fathers) praying to God, visibly and audibly to the image corner. Benedict tells us that the domestic church is an essential aspect of the new evangelization:

‘The new evangelization depends largely on the Domestic Church. The Christian family, to the extent that it succeeds in living love as communion and service as a reciprocal gift open to all, as a journey of permanent conversion supported by the grace of God, reflects the splendor of Christ in the world and the beauty of the divine Trinity.’

So, he seems to be saying, if we did not learn to pray in our own home (perhaps because you are a convert like me), we have a responsibility to learn and then to pray at home so that we each create our own domestic churches.

Outside the family, a spiritual director is the best way to learn. These are hard to come by and so the next best thing is to look at books on prayer, Thomas Dubay’s for example are good, and of course one of the four sections of the Catechism is devoted to it.

The book The Little Oratory, A Beginner’s Guide to Praying in the Home was written by myself and Leila Lawler with this aim in mind. (The word ‘oratory’, incidentally, derived from the Latin orare - to pray - means literally ‘house of prayer’.) In this we pass on the guidance we were given when we asked of others that question, ‘teach us how to pray’. It describes how to order prayer in accordance with the hierarchy that Benedict describes, so that it lightens the load of daily living rather becoming a burden. It addresses directly how to arrange the images for the icon corner in the home and how to pray to visual imagery.

The traditional layout for the core imagery of the icon corner is as follows: in the center should be the suffering Christ, that is Christ on the cross; to the left should be an image of Our Lady; and to the right should be an image of the glorified Christ (perhaps a Veronica cloth or Christ Enthroned with angels).

It seems that nearly every aspect of the Faith is contained in some way in just these images and there simply isn’t room to talk about it all here. However, it is interesting to note that they speak directly to the concerns that Benedict brought out in regard to the new evangelization: Christ on the cross is the most poignant symbol of consolation in our suffering; and all images of Christ glorified communicate to us the glory of heaven and what is in store for us through deification. This is the transformation by which we participate in the divine nature through Christ. It happens by degrees in this life through participation in the sacramental life.

Iconographic images of the face of Christ are always painted with an expression of compassion tinged with a slight sternness. This enigmatic combination tells us that Christ is a judge (hence the sternness), but that he is a good and merciful judge.

Finally, the role of Mary is crucial in the new evangelization, I believe. All that the Mother of God does is directing us to her son. We see this portrayed directly in many images of Our Lady - she engages us with her eyes while gesturing towards her son.

How will the domestic church evangelize the un-churched? At first sight it is not clear - it is possible that the images of the domestic church might communicate these truths to the faithless directly, who are invited into our homes, for example, but it is unlikely. That is not the point.

Continue Reading this Article. . .

Start an Alpha and Omega Group!

Meet for Vespers and Compline; plus a meal and conversation...and if you have a Dominican from the Western Province to hand all the better! 

I remember that the Anglican Church in England designated the 1990s as the ‘decade of Evangelism’, with the goal of evangelizing the whole of the nation prior to the millennium. This seemed an absurdly optimistic goal to me, but I suppose if we remember that to evangelize means ‘to show’ people Christ, rather than to convert them ,then they might have come close, depending on what you believe showing people Christ means.

One thing that did come out of this energetic push to carry the gospel was the proliferation of  ‘alpha groups’. This was based upon a series of recorded talks about Christianity. Parishes set up groups in which people brought along food for a potluck meal, watched the video, and then had a discussion based upon it, perhaps guided by a series of questions that came with the video. I don’t know how successful it was in converting people, but it was certainly successful at reinforcing the faith of existing Christians, which is a very good thing too. It was good enough for many other churches, including the Catholic Church, to follow the format and add additional videos that filled the gaps in the presentation of Christianity of the protestant Evangelicals.

My father ran one at his local Methodist church, and I attended on the evenings he lead. It was popular enough that they repeated for several years; what was interesting was that quite a number of people came to the alpha groups each year that they took place, even though the materials were repeated. What they enjoyed I think went far beyond what they were learning intellectually; it was the fellowship with like-minded people.

As far as I recollect, the hub of this evangelical (and Evangelical) push was Holy Trinity church in Brompton (‘HTB’). In the minds of many, this is the epicenter of Evangelical Christianity in the UK. Readers in London will be aware that, ironically, it is situated immediately adjacent to a church which is at the other end of the spectrum, the traditional Catholic and very liturgically-minded Brompton Oratory. In fact, when I was living in London and attended the Oratory regularly, a group of us used to go and sit in the grounds of HTB on pleasant summer afternoons and have a picnic, after attending Solemn Mass at HMO (Holy Mother Oratory).

I do remember one of the Fathers at the Oratory joking that the name of the group - alpha - indicated that they had made a start but it was incomplete; he was referring to a verse from the Book of Revelations: ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.’ The Oratory even started a series of talks of their own, and they called it the ‘Alpha and Omega Group’. If there is one church in England that understands evangelization it is the Brompton Oratory, and they do not need to do it via organized talks or alpha-type sessions. Many, many converts have come to the Faith as a result of its mission of beautiful liturgy and spiritual direction from the Fathers. I am one of them.

I wanted to play my part in the evangelization of the Faith, and so all I had to do was invite people to attend Mass their with me - perhaps with the promise of beautifully sung polyphony, even if they didn’t like the rest of it. A number of those converted, including one who was his death bed a few months later at the age of 40, dying of cancer (may he rest in peace.) All I had to do, I reckoned, was get them in there and the Fathers of the Oratory and the Holy Spirit would do the rest.

A beautiful Mass is always going to be what draws most powerfully to the Faith, but I think that there are things on the line of the alpha group that we could do to support that. My brother and his wife have just started a regular group in Berkeley, California, that meets for Vespers, a potluck meal and then Compline. It involves minimal organization and runs at a relaxed pace from about 6:30 pm to 9 pm. They just invite friends, and because they and they are lucky enough to have a room in their home sufficiently large to accommodate perhaps 20 people, they encourage friends to bring others along. This is not an official parish event, it’s all done through their own networks. There is no need to have a priest involved, or to use church space if it is not available.

When Rob and Anna described the evenings to me, they said they were a great success. The great thing is that the liturgy gives the evening a purpose, inspires conversation if they need it, and engenders deep fellowship through the Holy Spirit. Also, there is enough repetition that people who are totally unused to what is going on will pick it up over the course of an evening and subsequent evenings (they meet fortnightly); and enough variation so that it distinguishes one evening from another and maintains interest. We have been encouraged in recent times by the popes since Pius XII (to my knowledge) to sing the Office in the domestic church, and here is a simple way that it is being done.

They sang in the vernacular, and were lucky enough on the first couple of occasions to have a local Dominican priest come along. The Western province of the Dominicans in the US has done a lot of good work in creating good and singable chant for the English language (apologies to other Provinces if I’m being unfair and you have contributed too!). Before he moved to where he is now, Rob used to live walking distance from St Albert’s Priory in nearby Oakland, and whenever I stayed with him we used to go down there and pray with them. I made use of much of what I heard either directly or indirectly in the singing of the Office at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts. It was one of the recently ordained priests, Fr Dominic David, whom we used to see there when he was a student, who came to this evening.

He helped people by explaining what the Liturgy of the Hours is, and taught people the tones. Some had never done anything like this before in their lives, but they happily joined in once things got going. They have some simple Anglican style, four-part harmonies, and there were one or two others present who were experienced choristers who could easily pick up the simple harmonies. Rob told me that it was a wonderful thing to be part of this, especially since all those praying were also chanting.

Benedict XVI told us that the domestic church, i.e., prayer in the home centered on families, is crucial to the new evangelization, both because of the effect that it has on those who pray, and because their participation in families and in society in general helps to establish a ‘culture of love.’ (cf. Address to Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Thursday, 1 December 2011).

Provided that the ultimate purpose is the worship of God, so that the liturgy isn’t instrumentalized, then fruits will ensue. Then, as Sacred Liturgy, our prayer is showing us the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end and, to quote Sacrosanctum Consilium, the source and the summit of all.

So perhaps you could think about this at home...start your own Alpha and Omega group.

Don't forget the Way of Beauty online courses www.Pontifex.University (go to the Catalog) for college credit, for continuing ed. units, or for audit. A formation through an encounter with a cultural heritage - for artists, architects, priests and seminarians, and all interested in contributing to the 'new epiphany of beauty'. 

Why the Numerical Structure of the Our Father is Intrinsically Liturgical

When I was speaking recently at St Patrick’s Church in Columbus, Ohio, I spoke about the Little Oratory, and in connection with that, the pattern of prayer that underlies the liturgy. Much of the information is in the appendix in the book called A Beautiful Pattern of Prayer. I spoke at length about how the pattern of 7 + 1 appears in the annual, the weekly and the daily cycle of the liturgy.

Seven is the number of the old covenant and eight is the number of the new, with Christ himself representing the ‘eighth day’. (You can read more about this here: the path to heaven is a triple helix...and it passes through an octagonal portal). I described how even the structure of the texts has this liturgical pattern - so St Thomas tells us that the book of Psalms is most appropriate for liturgy and praise of God because alone in the Bible it contains ‘all of theology’. He goes on to say that there are 150 psalms which can be broken up into 70 and 80 where ‘70 denotes 7, the number of the old covenant, and 8 denotes 8 the number of the new covenant.’

At the end of the talk the Dominican Friar, Fr Michael, told us how the Lord’s Prayer has this same liturgical structure. He directed us to St Thomas’s commentary on the Lord’s Prayer which ‘among all prayers holds chief place’. He described how St Thomas considered each petition as given in Matthew’s gospel into seven petitions.

The first three petitions are all related to God:

Hallowed Be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom Come
Thy Will Be Done on Earth as It Is in Heaven

and the last three relate to man and to earthly things:

And Forgive Us Our Trespasses
As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us.
And Lead Us Not Into Temptation. But Deliver Us from Evil. Amen

He then described how at the center of the prayer and at the conjunction of the two sections is the petition, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ This is both the seventh and the eighth petition and they meet where God and man meet, in Christ, in the Eucharist. So this petition refers to daily sustenance in both temporal and spiritual terms. The temporal is our need for daily food, and the spiritual sustenance is both the Sacramental bread which is consecrated daily in the Church and the nourishing Word of God.

“It must be noted that in the first three petitions of this prayer only things spiritual are asked for—those which indeed begin to be in this world but are only brought to fruition in the life eternal. Thus, when we pray that the name of God be hallowed, we really ask that the name of God be known; when we pray that the kingdom of God may come, we ask that we may participate in God’s kingdom; and when we pray that the will of God be done, we ask that His will be accomplished in us. All these things, however, although they have their beginning here on earth, cannot be had in their fullness except in heaven. Hence, it is necessary to pray for certain necessaries which can be completely had in this life. The Holy Spirit, then, taught us to ask for the requirements of this present life which are here obtainable in their fullness, and at the same time He shows that our temporal wants are provided us by God. It is this that is meant when we say: ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ ”

“One may also see in this bread another twofold meaning, viz., Sacramental Bread and the Bread of the Word of God. Thus, in the first meaning, we pray for our Sacramental Bread which is consecrated daily in the Church, so that we receive it in the Sacrament, and thus it profits us unto salvation: ‘I am the living bread which came down from heaven.’ ”

What is interesting is that this pattern of seven and eight is not just liturgical, it is cosmic and relates to musical harmony. This doesn’t prove it, but it does seem to me to be strong circumstantial evidence that emphasizes how closely tied in with the liturgy music is. As Pope Benedict describes in The Spirit of the Liturgy, and again in A New Song to the Lord, our worship is meant to be sung. Furthermore one can see how the modal form of chant, which follows this pattern of sevens and eights is the optimum for the liturgy.

The Liturgy of the Hours and the New Missal Translation

The closing prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours for Lauds and Vespers is generally the same as the collect of the Mass.  With the implementation of the new English translation of the Roman Missal, those who wish to pray the hours in English are left with two alternative versions of the same prayer: the new and improved translation as found in the missal, and the obsolete translation as appears in the breviary.  Eventually, a new English translation of an updated Liturgy of the Hours will be published and indeed is already in the works.  Until then, it is permissible to continue using the obsolete collects when concluding the hours.  It seems advantageous, however, to use the new translation, not only for the sake of fidelity to the official Latin prayers but also to reinforce the connection between the Liturgy of the Hours and the Liturgy of the Mass, which together form the basis of the Church's public worship.  Toward that end, Newman House Press (publisher of Bishop Athanasius Schneider's Dominus Est—It is the Lord!) has produced a 400-page volume containing the collects of the Roman Missal, in Latin and English on facing pages: Oremus—Let Us Pray sells for $25 (US) + $5 shipping and is available directly from the publisher.

Dominican Rite Libellus Precum Reprinted

Dominican Liturgy Publications is happy to announce that a reprint of the Dominican Rite Libellus Precum, published at Rome in 1952, is now available in paperback reprint. This edition is made from PDF scans of the original and is a pocket size paperback.

The booklet contains the Dominican Rite versions of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, the Office of the Dead, the Penitential Psalms, as well as many other prayers, litanies, devotions, and blessings. All are in the original Latin.

It may be ordered here

Dominican Libellus Precum Available On-Line

I have been asked many times about collections of Dominican prayers and devotions in Latin. So it may please readers to know that the Libellus Precum ad Usum Fratrum Ordinis Praedicatorum ["Booklet of Prayers for Use by the Friars of the Order of Preachers"], has been made available on-line in the left sidebar at Dominican Liturgy.

This small prayerbook contains the Latin texts of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin in its Dominican Rite form, the Daily Office of the Dead, and many other prayers and devotions popular in the Dominican Order. It also contains special Dominican forms for blessings, including that of the Rosary, as well as the daily Examination of Conscience and the Thanksgiving after Communion. The first edition was produced in 1911 and the last in 1957. This is the edition printed under the Master of the Order Fr. Emmanuel Suarez, O.P., in 1952.

A new version of the Libellus was created and published in 1983 as part of the Proprium Ordinis Praedicatorum, which adapted chants and texts of the traditional Dominican Rite for use with the new Roman Liturgia Horarum. Sadly this section of the Proprium was never published independently.

I know of no translation of the Libellus Precum. Should anyone do one, I would happy to post it for download. I think my collaborator Bro. Corwin Low, O.P., for providing this excellent quality scan.