New Liturgical Movement recently posted a translation that I did of O Redemptor, sume carmen, the hymn for the procession of the holy oils at the Chrism Mass, at the request of Father Samuel Weber. The Latin of the hymn has some wonderful wordplay that I found impossible to capture, but it didn’t turn out too bad.
If you’re interested in reading a short slice-of-life story about a seminarian and his unlikely roommate, check out A Gryphon at St John’s?
Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. (C in V, #3)
Seems similar to a post of Father Powell’s, in which he said:
Charity without Truth is not love; it’s merely lazy toleration.
So, I was reading the Aeneid last night, and I came across these lines in Book IV (ll. 515-516):
quaeritur et nascentis equi de fronte revulsus
et matri praereptus amor …
My translation:
The love [charm] also sought that was plucked away from the forehead of a foal before the mother could seize it first.
Wait a minute, I thought. This idea that horses are born with something on their foreheads that their mothers eat or lick away sounded familiar. Did I read that in the Etymologies the other day? Hmmm… A quick check in the Medieval Bestiary online indicates that I had recently read it in Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis historia:
in hoc genere gravida stans parit praeterque ceteras fetum diligit. et sane equis amoris innasci veneficium, hippomanes appellatum, in fronte, caricae magnitudine, colore nigro, quod statim edito partu devorat feta aut partum ad ubera non admittit.
My translation:
The pregnant [mare] gives birth, in general, standing and above others loves her child. For it is characteristic of horses, also, to be born with a love potion, called hippomanes, on their forehead, the size of a fig and black in color, that the mother immediately devours after giving birth or else she does not allow her offspring to approach her breasts.
What do you think of when you think of Ipsissima Verba?
Here are the top ten searches according to Alexa.com that lead people to my website:
Some strike me as a bit … strange. By far (according to the server logs for years now) most people who come to this blog are searching for a translation of the phrase “Quid est veritas?” Maybe I should make a special page for them. I could have the main page see what people searched for, and then have it conditionally redirect to an explanation that this is a blog but that “Quid est veritas?” means “What is truth?”
St Joan of Arc was beatified on 11 April, 1909. I have translated the decree of her beatification from Pope St Pius X for someone who has a devotion to her. It was edifying to see what the Holy Father said about her.
I have just posted The Fox Tear online. It is hosted on the new Writing section of Ipsissima Verba.
The Fox Tear is a children’s novel that I’ve been working on off and on for awhile. My brother has done a lot of work in editing it. The motivation behind the book for me was to write something that I would have enjoyed as a child. Yes, it contains a lot of melodrama.
I’m working on having the book on-demand printed so that it will also show up on Amazon.com at some point. I don’t foresee making any money, but I am glad to have written this story, and it will be fun to see it listed in case there are people with similar tastes out there.
Here’s the text from the back cover:
When eighth-grader Jonathan Scott, who dreams of being an artist, finds himself in a strange land, he befriends a young fox. It’s a difficult time for Jonathan so soon after the death of his mother, but his new friend offers him a chance to take part in his search for an ancient relic. Will Jonathan be able to help this fox, and will those he meets in this new world be true friends?
I’ve posted online Nothing to Attract our Eyes, a little reflection I did on the beauty of our Lord’s passion and its connection with the priesthood.
I wrote this some time ago but never really did anything with it.
I recently came upon a blog post by Kate Childs Graham, I am a prochoice Catholic.
We could go into the usual arguments about the proper definition of conscience. I could bring up Veritatis splendor, which tells us what the Church means when she says that we must follow our consciences. We’ve talked about such things many times.
What stood out to me this time was the following quote:
I am adhering to the central tenet of Catholic teaching — the primacy of conscience.
I don’t know if I’ve ever heard anyone claim that the primacy of conscience is the “central tenet” of Catholic teaching. The center of the Catholic faith is not a tenet at all but the mystery of the Triune God revealed in the Person of Jesus Christ. The central tenet would be a codification of that as found in the great creeds: I believe in one God: The Father … and the Son … and the Holy Spirit.
