Easy Pentecost Novena

How best to make the Pentecost Novena?

I.  It was Our Lady and the Apostles (plus the holy women and Our Lord's near relations) who made the first Novena: they and the rest of the believers (whom we trust joined with them in petition), to the number of about 120 persons, were the whole Church of God on earth in those days, and it was their united supplication that won from the Father through the risen and ascended Christ – as He commanded them to ask – the uncreated Gift of the Holy Ghost.

Therefore, believing in the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church and the communion of saints, no less than in Father, Son and Holy Ghost, it seems most reasonable to ask Our Lady and the Apostles, being the pillars and foundations of the Church, to once again join us in prayer for the descent of the Spirit, the Sanctifier, the Lord and Vivifier, that He may hallow and bless us, infusing us with grace whereby we may be supernaturalized and made perfect men.

One should thus invoke the Blessed Virgin and the Apostles, that they may pray with and for us:

Sancta Maria, Mater Jesu, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Petre, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Joannes, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Jacobe, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Andrea, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Philippe, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Thoma, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Bartholomæe, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Matthæe, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Jacobe, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Simon, ora pro nobis.

Sancte Juda, ora pro nobis.

Omnes sancti Apostoli, orate pro nobis.

Omnes sancti Discipuli Domini, orate pro nobis.

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II. Since Our Lady is Queen of the Apostles and Queen of All Saints, and is of all creatures the closest to her Divine Son, it is only most rightful to especially call upon her loving maternal intercession.  

To this end, the Regina cæli, as sung by the Dominicans, having the Ascensiontide variant Jam ascendit, sicut dixit, is perfectly suitable, if it have subjoined the usual versicle, suitably adapted, with the Collect for Friday after the Octave of the Ascension from the 1738 Paris Missal (with per Dei Genitricem Mariam supplied):

Regina cæli, lætare, alleluja:

Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluja,

Jam ascendit, sicut dixit, alleluja.

Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluja.

V/. Gaude et lætare Virgo Maria, alleluja.

R/. Quia ascendit Dominus vere, alleluja.

Oremus.

Deus, qui nos Resurrectionis et Ascensionis Dominicæ solemnia celebrare fecisti: da famulis tuis, ut (per Dei Genitricem Mariam) et advenientis Spiritus sancti gratiam purificatis mentibus suscipere mereamur. Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum. R/. Amen.

(This Collect is especially good, and in itself sums up all we wish for: "O God, Who hast made us to celebrate the solemnities of the Lord's Resurrection and Ascension, grant unto Thy servants, that, by Mary the Mother of God, we likewise may deserve to receive the grace of the Holy Ghost with purified minds. Through the same Christ our Lord.  Amen.")

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III. It ought go without saying that fundamentally and primarily we should adore and beseech God the Holy Ghost Himself, with the well-known Veni Sancte Spiritus, its versicle Emitte and the Pentecost Collect Deus qui corda fidelium (as it were thus anticipating the feast); and append the Magnificat antiphon of Ascension Day:

O Rex gloriæ, Domine virtutum, qui triumphator hodie super omnes cælos ascendisti: ne derelinquas nos orphanos, sed mitte promissum Patris in nos, Spiritum veritatis, alleluja.

As the versicle and the Collect address God the Father, while the O Rex gloriæ addresses God the Son, thus all Three Persons of the Adorable Trinity are properly worshipped, and the Gift of the Holy Ghost rightly besought.

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I think that these three elements – asking those first pray-ers to pray with and for us, praying in especial to Our Lady, and calling upon the Holy Spirit direct – are eminently suitable and easy ways to make a good Pentecost Novena.  And as I noted above, even alone the Collect from the Missale Parisiense would do as a super-succinct Novena prayer.

A Latin Sequence for Nuptial Mass

Something amusing I've found, for Latinists to look at: a sequence for use at Nuptial Masses, according to the Neo-Gallican Paris Missal of 1738. The opening stanza (cf. Tobit viii, 5) would not be very acceptable in English these days!

[PROSA] DE SPONSALIBUS

Sub cantu Pentecostes [i.e. Veni Sancte Spiritus]

Instar infidelium

Deum nescientium

Nefas sanctos nubere.

Dæmoni subjaceat,

Brutus cujus audeat

Mens Deum excludere.

Huc ades, et fortibus

Hostem liga funibus,

Sacræ dux militiæ.

Deus, ipse venias;

Has ades ad nuptias,

Fons, o Christe, gratiæ.

Magnum o mysterium!

O Dei consortium

In Christo cum homine!

O sacra commercia

Christi cum Ecclesia,

Virginis cum virgine!

Vir uxorem diligat,

Sociam dux dirigat,

Christus ut Ecclesiam.

Christo crux, opprobria;

Puram ut Ecclesia

Consequatur gloriam.

Christum ut Ecclesia;

Docilis ad omnia,

Uxor virum timeat.

Metum amor pariat;

Læta mens obediat;

Cor apertum pateat.

Jam duo non eritis;

Unum corpus stabitis:

Sit et unus spiritus.

Purus omni macula,

Casta servet vincula

Thorus Deo cognitus.

Quidquid hic est carneum,

Et e terra terreum,

Tollet mors propinquior.

Sacramenti pietas,

Spiritus societas

Mortem vincet fortior.

Hic, si præsis, prospera;

Si recedis, aspera

Erunt, Deus, omnia.

Quod sacrat oblatio,

Firmet benedictio

Et mansura gratia. Amen.

St Irenæus

One of my favourite saints had his annual feast day yesterday, according to the 1962 Missal and Breviary: having had his feast on the 28th of June for long years, sharing it with the Vigil of the Apostles, St Irenæus was moved to the 3rd of July, only to be returned to the 28th in the Novus Ordo! So I kept his feast with the Office from my Breviary.

His name Εἰρηναίος means "peaceful", and by a delightful play on words the Church down the ages has sought to emphasise in her prayers how he, by his combatting of Gnostic error and defence of Gospel truth, brought peace to the Church. The orations of the Traditional Rite, taking up phrases from the Mass for Peace, ask for peace as the fruit of deliverance from foes. Interestingly, the OF Missal has derived its Collect alone from the EF, while it has taken up its "prayer over the gifts [lege "oblations"]" and "prayer after communion" from the Neo-Gallican 1738 Paris Missal, as follows:

MISSALE ROMANUM 1962

Deus, qui beato Irenaeo Martyri tuo atque Pontifici tribuisti, ut et veritate doctrinae expugnaret haereses, et pacem Ecclesiae feliciter confirmaret: da, quaesumus, plebi tuae in sancta religione constantiam; et pacem tuam nostris concede temporibus.


Deus, qui credentes in te populos nullis sinis concuti terroribus: dignare preces et hostias dicatae tibi plebis suscipere; ut pax a tua pietate concessa, christianorum fines ab omni hoste faciat esse securos.


Deus, auctor pacis et amator, quem nosse, vivere, cui servire, regnare est: protege ab omnibus impugnationibus supplices tuos; ut, qui in defensione tua confidimus, beati Irenaei Martyris tui atque Pontificis intercessione, nullius hostilitatis arma timeamus.

MISSALE PARISIENSE 1738

Deus, invisibilis fortitudo certantium, adesto, quaesumus, nobis supplicantibus: ut qui hodierna die sanctorum Martyrum tuorum Irenaei et sociorum gloriosum triumphum recolimus, eorum meritis et precibus, contra spiritualia nequitiae muniamur.

Per hanc, quam offerimus hostiam in beati Irenaei et Sociorum Martyrum Solemnitate, da nobis, Domine, veritatem et pacem diligere; ut et inviolatam teneamus Ecclesiae fidem; et indivisam servemus unitatem.

Per haec sacra mysteria, quaesumus Domine, da nobis fidei miseratus augmentum; ut quae sanctos Martyres tuos Irenaeum et socios usque ad sanguinem retenta glorificat, nos etiam iustificet veraciter hanc sequentes.

MISSALE ROMANUM 2004

Deus, qui beato Irenaeo episcopo tribuisti, ut veritatem doctrinae pacemque Ecclesiae feliciter confirmaret, concede, quaesumus, eius intercessione, ut nos, fide et caritate renovati, ad unitatem concordiamque fovendam semper simus intenti.



Gloriam tibi, Domine, conferat sacrificium, quod in natali beati Irenaei tibi laetanter offerimus, et praebeat nobis diligere veritatem, ut et inviolatam Ecclesiae fidem teneamus, et stabilem unitatem.



Per haec sacra mysteria, quaesumus, Domine, da nobis fidei miseratus augmentum, ut, quae beatum Irenaeum episcopum usque ad mortem retenta glorificat, nos etiam iustificet veraciter hanc sequentes.

Donation #25

I've been a blood donor on and off over the last seven years or so, and have in the last year switched from making whole blood donations (which can be done quarterly) to plasma (which can be done as often as every fortnight). That said, this evening's was my first donation since the 19th of December!

Anyhow, at the price of some discomfort from the needle (I have a very low pain threshold, how wimpy), tonight's was number twenty-five, and the Australian Red Cross Blood Service therefore gave me a nice new ballpoint pen, to match the keyring earnt by five or so bleedings.

Give blood today! (Surely it is one of the corporeal works of mercy...)

To refortify myself, upon returning home I had steak and ale (as Bad Queen Bess had for breakfast): a ⅓kg slab of meat with the juices still running red, and a Grimbergen... a man's meal, to put hairs on the chest (no wonder Eliz. I never married). While I did feel lightheaded after the beer, didn't the doctor used to recommend that expectant mothers drink stout for nourishment? That's my theory and I'm sticking to it.

Then I did the washing-up (when you share with two other blokes, it can really pile up), and have just had a cuppa.

Greatly to my delight, as I came in the kitchen door I espied a package for me on the table: the facsimile edition of the 1738 Missale Parisiense that I bought from Shawn Tribe of NLM fame has finally arrived - after 79 days in transit - from British North America. In the heyday of Empire, a gentleman of leisure could have circumnavigated the globe at the same speed, as Verne tells it, and as a brave Yankee lady journalist proved.

Oh well. At least, now I again have access to a copy, I can blog with reference to its very interesting contents, liturgical and euchological in particular.