Same Collect, Different Collect

Having read the Collect of Advent Sunday quite a number of times in the Breviary this week, I was intrigued to hear it read in English at morning Mass at Carmel today, Friday the 6th (since sadly St Nicholas was not commemorated, his being but an optional celebration in the modern West):

Stir up your power, we pray, O Lord, and come, that with you to protect us, we may find rescue from the pressing dangers of our sins, and with you to set us free, we may be found worthy of salvation. Who live and reign…

This struck me as a very able rendering of the Latin:

Excita, quæsumus, Domine, potentiam tuam, et veni: ut ab imminentibus peccatorum periculis, te mereamur protegente eripi, te liberante salvari: Qui vivis et regnas…

However, the traditional Collect of St Nicholas – not reproduced in the Novus Ordo – was evidently a little too strongly worded for sensitive moderns, despite the great need the sinners of this age have of it:

Deus, qui beatum Nicolaum Pontificem innumeris decorasti miraculis: tribue, quæsumus; ut, ejus meritis et precibus, a gehennæ incendiis liberemur. Per…

That is, 

O God, Who didst adorn the blessed pontiff Nicholas with miracles uncountable, grant, we beg, that, by his merits and prayers, we may be delivered from the fires of hell. Through…

It saddens me to find that what our wicked and sinful age stands most in need of – above all, to be spared Hell, and at the intercession of the saints to be saved through Christ at the last – to have been by overly contented "experts" judged too controversial, when, given the slaughters and every vile crime of the past century, one would think there to be abundant motivation to utter such a plea daily.

As usual, Vetus melius est, "The old is better" – and we have the authority of Pope Francis for calling the traditional Roman Rite the Vetus Ordo, and hence my referring this text of the Gospels to the same.

May I extend to the Russian Catholic parish of Holy Trinity – St Nicholas in Melbourne, every good wish for their patronal feast: though, of course, as they keep to the Julian calendar, they will not serve the Divine Liturgy in his honour until the 19th of December according to the Gregorian.

I note that their services contains a similar prayer to St Nicholas (the 2nd troparion after the heirmos of the 2nd Canon of the 4th Ode at Matins):

Standing before the throne of God, cease thou never to make earnest supplication in behalf of all of us, thy faithful servants, O wise and wondrous Nicholas, that we may be delivered from everlasting fire, from the enemy, from the wicked tongue, and from affliction.

May St Nicholas intercede for us with Christ God, that He save our souls.

Mass for Advent Sunday

Our monthly Missa cantata at St Canice, in Hobart, went well. I was delighted that the choir chose to sing two most appropriate chants as motets: the Advent Prose Rorate cæli at the Offertory, and the hymn-version of the O Antiphons, Veni, veni, Emmanuel, at Communion. We concluded with the Salve.

Father preached on the great spiritual benefit provided by the sacrament of confession (or reconciliation, or penance - the three names commonly applied to this sacrament). After all, there are two sacraments that we can receive frequently – Penance and the Eucharist – and it stands to reason that, while we are only bound to confess and communicate once a year (and in the case of confession, only if we have fallen into serious sin), yet, given that both sacraments effect a real increase of grace and progress in holiness ex opere operato, it is but logical to make a serious effort to receive them both a good deal more often.  When we receive Communion, what stands in the way of us receiving every grace? Only our selves – sins and the effects of sin can oft be obstacles. If we regularly confess, our souls are better prepared to receive so great a Host, and profit from His blessings.

I find it amusing, by the by, that just before the end of Mass everyone genuflects toward the M.C. – me! (Of course, it is because I hold the Last Gospel altar card for Father, since the print is small, and it would be ridiculous for me to genuflect at the Et Verbum caro factum est while doing so.)

Our next Mass will be held, not on the first, but on the last Sunday of January (the 27th), since Fr Quinn will be away for the first several weeks of next month).  Hence, we will have the rare pleasure of two EF Masses in a row, since the very next week is of course the first Sunday of February.

Cognovit bos possessorem suum, et asinus præsepe Domini sui

Coming to church for Advent Sunday Mass this morning, I took the opportunity to pray Matins (only three psalms, however) and Lauds (with Pretiosa); I was struck by verse 3 in the prophecy of Isaias, chapter i, the first nine verses of which are read as the first two lessons at Matins, each time ending with the special Dominican formula, Hæc dicit Dominus, for a reading from the prophets, taken from Is. xlv, 22a and other passages of Holy Writ; this verse, Isaias i, 3, is the last read in the first Lesson of Advent Sunday Matins:

Cognovit bos possessorem suum, et asinus præsepe Domini sui: Israël autem me non cognovit, et populus meus non intellexit. – Hæc dicit Dominus Deus: Convertimini ad me, et salvi eritis.  R/.  Deo gratias.

(The ox hath known his owner, and the ass the manger of his Lord: but Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not understood. – Thus saith the Lord God: Be ye turned back to Me, and ye shall be saved.  R/.  Thanks be to God.)

Is this not the Christmas story?  The ox and the ass indeed shall recognize their Master, when, as the Septuagint puts it, "Lord... in the midst of two animals thou shalt be known" (Κύριε... ἐν μέσῳ δύο ζῴων γνωσθήσῃ) – Hab. iii, 2 (LXX) – whenas Christ having taken flesh, being born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the city of David, of David's house and line (St Luke ii, 4), "born to you a Saviour, Who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David... laid in a manger" (St Luke ii, 11, 12b), in a manger "where oxen feed on hay", signifying by this that He is the Bread of Life, born for us in Bethlehem, the "house of bread",  – again, why in a manger laid? "because there was no room... in the inn" (St Luke ii, 7), that is, because "the world knew Him not: He came unto His own, and His own received Him not" (St John i, 10b-11).  "For Israel hath not known me" (Is. i, 3), even though the chief priests and scribes knew by the prophets that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem of Juda (cf. St Matthew ii, 4-6).  

Rather, "the ox hath known his owner, and the ass the manger of his Lord" (Is. i, 3): imaged by these lowly beasts, the lowly shepherds and the gentile magi came unto His crib and bent their knees in homage: "falling down they adored Him" (St Matthew ii, 11).  But to as many as shall receive Him, shall turn to Him (moved by His grace, which He mercifully imparts), salvation shall be granted: truly, "Thus saith the Lord God: Be ye converted (or turned back) to Me, and ye shall be saved".

The second verse to catch my attention is one that St Paul himself quotes (Rom. ix, 29) when agonizing over the unbelief of Israel; it is Isaias i, 9, and is likewise, not accidentally, the last verse of the second Lesson at Matins of Advent Sunday, concluded by the same Hæc dicit Dominus:

Nisi Dominus exercituum relinquisset nobis semen, quasi Sodoma fuissemus, et quasi Gomorrha similes essemus. – Hæc dicit Dominus Deus: Convertimini ad me, et salvi eritis.  R/.  Deo gratias.

(Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a Seed, we would have been as Sodom, and we would be like unto Gomorrha. – Thus saith the Lord God: Be ye turned back to Me, and ye shall be saved.  R/.  Thanks be to God.)

What happened to Sodom? what to Gomorrha? "the smoke of their torment goeth up for ever and ever" (Apoc. xiv, 11): they dwell among everlasting burnings (cf. Isaias xxxiii, 14).  Unless the Lord had left Israel a Seed, that is, the Son of David, the Son of God, "His Son, Who was made to Him of the seed of David, according to the flesh, Who was predestinated the Son of God" (Rom. i, 3-4a), this fate – eternal hell – would have befallen not Israel only, but all men.

In three whole chapters of his Epistle to the Romans (ix-xi), the Apostle lamented the blindness of his people, yet regarded this as mysteriously providential, that it has led to the ongoing conversion of the the Gentiles, till their fulness be gathered in (Rom. xi, 26), for that they did not recognize their Saviour Christ when He came, He Who is of their stock, "according to the flesh, over all things God blessed for ever" (Rom. ix, 5): but he recalls that in the end all Israel should be saved (Rom. xi, 27): for to the ancient chosen people of God, the Jews, "the gifts and the calling of God are without [His] repenting of them" (Rom. xi, 29), and likewise to the Gentiles called in this the last age, "have obtained mercy", in a strange manner, as it were "through their unbelief" (Rom. ix, 30): so that, to "as many as received Him, He gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in His name" (St John i, 12), whether Jew or Greek, slave or free.  

As the hallowed phrase puts it, "Thus saith the Lord God: Be ye converted (or turned back) to Me, and ye shall be saved".  God's plan is so infinitely deep and wise: all being in unbelief, He has mercy on all (cf. Rom. xi, 32): "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God!" (Rom. xi, 33a).

Blessed be God for opening unto us the treasures of His word.

Collect for Advent Sunday

I have previously blogged on the Traditional Roman Collect for Advent Sunday, which is as follows:

Excita, quæsumus, Domine, potentiam tuam, et veni: ut ab imminentibus peccatorum nostrorum periculis, te mereamur protegente eripi, te liberante salvari: Qui vivis...

Stir up, we beseech, Lord, Thy power, and come: that from the impending dangers of our sins, Thou protecting, we may deserve to be freed, and Thee delivering, we may be saved. Who livest...

But, in a spirit of respect toward the legitimate patrimony of Anglicanism, now being brought into the unity of Holy Church, here is the B.C.P. Collect for Advent Sunday, which is ordered to be repeated daily until Christmas Eve:

ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that "we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light" (Rom. xiii, 12b), now in the time of this mortal life in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

This is a really splendid eschatological prayer, and worthy of serious consideration: God grant its petition.