The Divine Praises – II

Following some thought, it strikes me that the late lamented Fr Bouyer was correct in suggesting that further additions to the Divine Praises would be fitting. I make bold to suggest – for private devotion only – that the following four additions are desirable:

After mention of the Blessed Sacrament:

• Blessed be Jesus Christ the King.

After mention of the Holy Ghost:

• Blessed be the Most Holy Trinity.

After mention of St Joseph:

• Blessed be the Holy Family.
• Blessed be the Holy Catholic Church.

All these four are tied together: Christ ought reign as King, not merely over hearts but over societies, so every state acknowledge his social reign, as Pius XI taught; and the pre-existent community in unity that is the Trinity has, as reflections and images on earth, both the Holy Family, itself the model of all true families – including a father, a mother and a child – and also the Holy Catholic Church, that marvellous divine gathering back into one of all the scattered sheep.

In this age, when the Church in her immaculate holiness is mocked and despised for the sins, real and imagined, of her members, when the family is attacked under the guise of promoting a so-called love that is but a cloak for sinful lusts opposed alike to the natural order and to divine justice, when the Trinity is unacknowledged and unworshipped, and Christ, Second Person thereof, Redeemer and Lawgiver and Judge, is more and more flagrantly rejected, disobeyed and mocked, so much the more ought the faithful remnant praise, bless and honour these sacred mysteries of our holy religion.

The Divine Praises were originally composed in Italian, and are often recited in Latin, so here are the four proposed extra blessings in those tongues:

Benedetto Gesù Cristo Re.

Benedetta la santissima Trinità.

Benedetta la santa Famiglia.

Benedetta la santa Chiesa cattolica.

Benedictus Jesus Christus Rex.

Benedicta sanctissima Trinitas.

Benedicta sancta Familia.

Benedicta sancta Ecclesia Catholica.

The Divine Praises

A quick internet search turns up the well-known text of the Divine Praises, along with a note attributing its origins to Fr Luigi (Louis? or Aloysius?) Felici, S.J. in 1797, as a form of reparation for blasphemy. (I found a copy on Google Books of the oration preached at his funeral, which indicates he died in 1818; and another search turned up the fact that he was born in 1736.) It was written in Italian, and the Latin is a later translation (as is the form in English, of course). The original form had but eight lines, to which successive additions have been made. Pius VII granted an indulgence for its recitation on 23 July 1801; I haven't found a copy of Felici's original, so I do not know if Pius VII changed or enlarged it, as some sources seem to suggest.

Succeeding Popes have added ever more indulgences and blessings to it (though those indulgences have since been watered down); but it turned out to be quite hard to discover exactly when. Recourse had to be had to the Acta Apostolicæ Sedis, and other sources, to find the official decrees adding each blessing, and I have found a puzzling reference to the date when Bl Pius IX made the first addition in honour of the Immaculate Conception, suggesting that it was added, not in the year 1856 as other sources claim, but on 27 April 1851, some years prior to the dogmatic definition of 1854. Herewith, the Divine Praises, with the dates of each addition noted:

Blessed be God.
Blessed be his Holy Name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true man.
Blessed be the name of Jesus.
Blessed be his Most Sacred Heart. (Leo XIII, 2 February 1897)
Blessed be his Most Precious Blood. (St John XXIII, 12 October 1960)
Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit the Paraclete. (Bl Paul VI, 27 April 1964)
Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary Most Holy.
Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception. (Bl Pius IX, 25 April 1851)
Blessed be her glorious Assumption. (Pius XII, 23 December 1952, 8 April 1953)
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
Blessed be St Joseph, her most chaste spouse. (Benedict XV, 23 February 1921)
Blessed be God in his Angels and in his Saints.

There are two dates given for the insertion of blessing of the Assumption, since by an embarrassing error it was first commanded to be illogically inserted before that of the Immaculate Conception, so a correction had to be published a few months later.

I recall reading somewhere, in a book on the Eucharist by Louis Bouyer I think, that two desirable additions to these praises would be "Blessed be the holy Apostles" (those pillars of the Church founded by their Master) and "Blessed be the holy Catholic Church" - the latter, being the Bride of Christ, oft reviled by the world's attacks (all too often deservedly attracted, sad to say, by the outrageous crimes of her sinful members), yet remaining holy and spotless in her essential nature despite every attempted besmirching: she is, after all, casta meretrix.

A Prayer before Mass

Since this evening I will be assisting at the monthly Missa cantata in Launceston, here is a short prayer (dating from at least 1745), which I found in an eighteenth century book available online, and which I have rendered into English with the aid of online resources:

PRIÈRE AVANT LA MESSE.

Prosterné au pied de votre saint Autel, je vous adore, Dieu tout-puissant: je crois fermement que la Messe à laquelle je vais assister, est le sacrifice du Corps et du Sang de Jésus-Christ votre Fils: faites que j’y assiste avec l’attention, le respect et la frayeur que demandent de si redoutables Mystères; et que par les mérites de la Victime qui s’immole pour moi, immolé moi-même avec elle, je ne vive plus que pour vous, qui vivez et régnez dans la suite de tous les siècles. Ainsi soit-il.

PRAYER BEFORE MASS.

Prostrate at the foot of thy holy Altar, I adore thee, O God almighty: I firmly believe that the Mass, at which I am going to assist, is the sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ thy Son: cause that I may assist thereat with the attention, the respect and the fear that such formidable Mysteries demand; and that by the merits of the Victim who sacrifices himself for me, I may sacrifice myself with him, and live no longer for myself but for thee, who livest and reignest world without end. Amen.