Thursday, July 31, 2008

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

The great St Ignatius!

(Who, BTW, should actually be called Enecus or Innicus in Latin - that's what Íñigo means - but he chose Ignatius as but a seeming variant of his own name that was recognizable throughout Christendom and not strange-sounding.)

Everyone knows that Jesuits are like the proverbial "little girl, who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead..." - when they're good, they're very, very good, but when they're bad, they're horrid!

(One fine Jesuit here in Australia, for example, is the formidable Fr Gregory Jordan, S.J., who looks after the Brisbane Latin Mass community; it was good to see him at Juventutem. I won't bore readers with a partial list of the bad ones!)

His proper Mass is excellent, and moving, with its magnificent Introit and Communion, and Epistle borrowed from one of the Common Masses of a Martyr... the three orations even survive (somewhat emasculated) in the Novus Ordo:

Deus, qui ad majórem tui nóminis glóriam propagándam, *novo per* [NO omits] beátum Ignátium *subsídio militantem* [NO: in] *Ecclésiam roborásti* [NO: Ecclesia suscitasti]: concéde; ut, ejus auxílio et imitatióne certántes in terris, coronári cum ipso mereámur in cælis. Per...

Adsint [NO: Placeant], Dómine Deus, *oblatiónibus nostris sancti Ignátii benígna suffrágia* [NO: oblationes in celebratione beati Ignatii tibi delatæ, et præsta]: ut sacrosáncta mystéria, in quibus omnis sanctitátis fontem constituísti, nos quoque in veritáte sanctíficent. Per...

Laudis hóstia, Dómine, quam pro sancto [NO: beato] Ignátio grátias agéntes obtúlimus: ad perpétuam nos majestatis tuæ laudatiónem, *ejus intercessióne* [NO omits], perdúcat. Per ...


In the Collect, the changes made remove reference to strengthening the Church militant with new assistance, and replace it with God's raising up of St Ignatius in the Church - so completely devaluing his establishment of the Society of Jesus. At least the Latin retained mention of fighting (certantes). The modifications to the secret and postcommunion delete all mention of the Saint's intercession; how Jansenistic.

In case you're wondering, I attended Novus Ordo Mass and Confession - Mass was said devoutly, and I was made perfectly welcome when I knelt for Communion (the server even held a communion plate!) - but still I prefer the old ways.

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