Wednesday, December 12, 2007

My Critique of the Collect of Our Lady of Gaudalupe

After some searching, I've found the modern collect in honour of Our Lady of Guadalupe:


Deus, Pater misericordiarum, qui sub sanctissimæ Matris Filii tui singulari patrocinio plebem tuam constituisti, tribue cunctis, qui beatam Virginem Guadalupensem invocant, ut, alacriori fide, populorum progressionem in viis justitiæ quæreant et pacis.  Per...


(My rough translation:


(God, the Father of mercies, who hast constituted thy people under the singular patronage of the most holy Mother of thy Son, grant unto all who invoke the blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, that, with a faith more eager, they may seek the progress of peoples in the ways of justice and peace.  Through...)


I must say, I find the "social justice" theme attached to the collect rather narrow (when I hear the words "social justice" I want to reach for a revolver, such is the interminable way this is talked about by too many, as if to substitute for sound doctrine and the quest for, not a social utopia, but God's heaven): surely those "who invoke the blessed Virgin of Guadalupe" may be seeking, not merely "the progress of peoples in the ways of justice and peace" – good, tho' merely temporal concerns – but spiritual goods, above all the salvation of their souls?  And as for "with a faith more eager"!  


It is all to easy to tell that whoever in the Curia approved this gem still thinks that Paul VI is on the throne.  

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