Today is the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. I sometimes think of the Transfiguration as the reverse of transubstantiation: the appearance of Christ changed, but he didn’t.

You can listen to a beautiful recording of the Exsultet from Father Z’s blog. There is an introduction, but the singing itself begins about 10:49 into the file.

Exultet iam angelica turba caelorum:
exultent divina mysteria:
et pro tanti Regis victoria tuba insonet salutaris.

Gaudeat et tellus tantis irradiata fulgoribus:
et, aeterni Regis splendore illustrata,
totius orbis se sentiat amisisse caliginem.

Laetetur et mater Ecclesia,
tanti luminis adornata fulgoribus:
et magnis populorum vocibus haec aula resultet.

Quapropter astantes vos, fratres carissimi,
ad tam miram huius sancti luminis claritatem,
una mecum, quaeso,
Dei omnipotentis misericordiam invocate.
Ut, qui me non meis meritis
intra Levitarum numerum dignatus est aggregare,
luminis sui claritatem infundens,
cerei huius laudem implere perficiat.

Vers. Dominus vobiscum.
Resp. Et cum spiritu tuo.
Vers. Sursum corda.
Resp. Habemus ad Dominum.
Vers. Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro.
Resp. Dignum et iustum est.

Vere dignum et iustum est,
invisibilem Deum Patrem omnipotentem
Filiumque eius unigenitum,
Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum,
toto cordis ac mentis affectu et vocis ministerio personare.

Qui pro nobis aeterno Patri Adae debitum solvit,
et veteris piaculi cautionem pio cruore detersit.

Haec sunt enim festa paschalia,
in quibus verus ille Agnus occiditur,
cuius sanguine postes fidelium consecrantur.

Haec nox est,
in qua primum patres nostros, filios Israel
eductos de Aegypto,
Mare Rubrum sicco vestigio transire fecisti.

Haec igitur nox est,
quae peccatorum tenebras columnae illuminatione purgavit.

Haec nox est,
quae hodie per universum mundum in Christo credentes,
a vitiis saeculi et caligine peccatorum segregatos,
reddit gratiae, sociat sanctitati.

Haec nox est,
in qua, destructis vinculis mortis,
Christus ab inferis victor ascendit.

Nihil enim nobis nasci profuit,
nisi redimi profuisset.
O mira circa nos tuae pietatis dignatio!
O inaestimabilis dilectio caritatis:
ut servum redimeres, Filium tradidisti!

O certe necessarium Adae peccatum,
quod Christi morte deletum est!
O felix culpa,
quae talem ac tantum meruit habere Redemptorem!

O vere beata nox,
quae sola meruit scire tempus et horam,
in qua Christus ab inferis resurrexit!

Haec nox est, de qua scriptum est:
Et nox sicut dies illuminabitur:
et nox illuminatio mea in deliciis meis.

Huius igitur sanctificatio noctis fugat scelera, culpas lavat:
et reddit innocentiam lapsis
et maestis laetitiam.
Fugat odia, concordiam parat
et curvat imperia.

O vere beata nox,
in qua terrenis caelestia, humanis divina iunguntur!

In huius igitur noctis gratia, suscipe, sancte Pater,
laudis huius sacrificium vespertinum,
quod tibi in hac cerei oblatione sollemni,
per ministrorum manus
de operibus apum, sacrosancta reddit Ecclesia.

Sed iam columnae huius praeconia novimus,
quam in honorem Dei rutilans ignis accendit.
Qui, licet sit divisus in partes,
mutuati tamen luminis detrimenta non novit.

Alitur enim liquantibus ceris,
quas in substantiam pretiosae huius lampadis
apis mater eduxit.

Oramus ergo te, Domine,
ut cereus iste in honorem tui nominis consecratus,
ad noctis huius caliginem destruendam,
indeficiens perseveret.
Et in odorem suavitatis acceptus,
supernis luminaribus misceatur.

Flammas eius lucifer matutinus inveniat:
Ille, inquam, lucifer, qui nescit occasum:
Christus Filius tuus,
qui, regressus ab inferis, humano generi serenus illuxit,
et vivit et regnat in saecula saeculorum.

Amen.

My translation:

Now let the angelic multitude of Heaven exult:
exult, divine mysteries:
and let sound the trumpet of salvation for the victory of so great a King.

Let rejoice the earth, irradiated with such flashes of lightning:
and, illumined with the splendor of the eternal King,
may it see clearly that it has dispelled that cloud from the whole world.

And let mother Church rejoice,
adorned with the shimmers of such great light:
and may this hall resound with the peoples’ loud voices.

Wherefore, you dearest brethren who are present,
for such wonderful clarity of this holy light,
together with me, I ask,
invoke the mercy of God almighty.
So that he, who not by my merits
has deigned to count me among the number of the Levites,
as he pours out the clarity of his own light,
may cause me to fulfill the praise of this candle.

Vers. The Lord be with you.
Resp. And with your spirit.
Vers. Our hearts on high.
Resp. We hold to the Lord.
Vers. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
Resp. It is worthy and just.

Truly it is worthy and just,
with the whole affect of heart and mind and with the ministry of the voice
to sound forth
to the invisible God and Father almighty
and his Only-begotten Son,
Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Who for us loosed Adam’s debt to the eternal Father,
and cleansed with pious bloodshed the bond of that ancient offense.

For this is our paschal feast,
on which he the true Lamb is slain,
by whose blood the posts of the faithful are consecrated.

This is the night,
on which first our fathers, the sons of Israel
led forth from Egypt,
you made to cross dry-shod across the Red Sea.

Therefore this is the night,
which purged the darkness of sins by the enlightening of a column.

This is the night,
which today throughout the whole world restores to grace those who believe in Christ,
separated from the vices of the world and the cloud of sins,
and gathers them in holiness.

This is the night,
on which, the chains of death destroyed,
Christ ascends from Hell the victor.

For it would have profited us nothing to be born,
unless it had profited us to be redeemed.
O wonderful grant of your piety on our behalf!
O inestimable love of charity:
to redeem a slave, you handed over the Son!

O certainly necessary sin of Adam,
which by the death of Christ was destroyed!
O happy fault,
which merited to gain such and so great a Redeemer!

O truly blessed night,
which alone merited to know the time and the hour,
on which Christ rose from Hell!

This is the night, about which it is written:
And the night will be enlightened like the day:
and the night will be enlightenment in my beloved.

Therefore the sanctification of this night puts sins to flight, cleanses faults:
and returns innocence to the fallen
and joy to the mourning.
It banishes hates, prepares agreement
and bends empires.

O truly blessed night,
on which the heavenly to the earthly and the divine to the human are joined!

Therefore in the grace of this night, take, holy Father,
the evening sacrifice of this praise,
which unto you in this oblation of a solemn candle by the work of bees,
the most holy Church renders,
through the hands of your ministers.

But already we know the proclamations of this column,
which the reddening fire lights for the honor of God.
Which, though it be divided into parts,
nevertheless knows no lack in its borrowed light.

For it is nourished by the melting portions of wax,
which the mother of bees
produced for the substance of this precious lamp.

Therefore we pray to you, Lord,
that that candle consecrated for the honor of your name,
to destroy the cloud of this night,
might persevere unfaltering.
And accepted for an odor of sweetness,
it might be mixed with the heavenly lamps.

May the morning star find its burning flames:
That morning star, indeed, who knows no setting:
Christ your Son,
who bright and clear, having returned from Hell, has enlightened the human race,
and lives and reigns forever and ever.

Amen.

The collect for Ash Wednesday was this:

Concede nobis, Domine, praesidia militiae christianae sanctis inchoare ieiuniis, ut, contra spiritales nequitias pugnaturi, continentiae muniamur auxiliis. Per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum Filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus per omnia saecula saeculorum.

If you went to Mass in English, you heard:

Lord, protect us in our struggle against evil. As we begin the discipline of Lent, make this day holy by our self-denial. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.

The English–like many of the collects–is completely different. Now, I’ll admit that the Latin is hard to translate for a number of reasons. Like all collects, it is one sentence containing several clauses. Also, this particular prayer uses extensive military imagery, which really sets the tone for Lent.

A more reasonable English translation might be (though it sounds clumsy):

Grant, O Lord, that we might begin the defense of the Christian army by holy fasting, so that, we who will fight against spiritual evils, might be safeguarded by the reinforcements of continence. Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever.

Let’s look at the Latin again, with the military terms bolded:

Concede nobis, Domine, praesidia militiae christianae sanctis inchoare ieiuniis, ut, contra spiritales nequitias pugnaturi, continentiae muniamur auxiliis. Per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum Filium tuum, qui Tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus per omnia saecula saeculorum.

praesidium = defense, protection, garrison, detachment, support
militia = army, host, campaign
pugnaturus = about to fight
munire = to fortify, to strengthen, to defend (with a wall)
auxilia = auxiliary troops

This Solemnity really marks the heart of Christianity, what is most appealing, most incredible, terrible, and terrifying to us: the startling Personality of God. How often are we afraid to think of God? Do we treat God as–God forbid–abstract? Nothing could be further from the essence of the Gospel!

We don’t live in a world where we’re all grasping for some Truth about which we never have a real certainty. We don’t live in a world where God sits back and lets history play out on its own. We don’t live in a world where our spiritual lives are on some kind of transcendental level which need not and should not have anything to do with “the real world” (or “the less-real world.” Both are heresies.).

No. We live in a world where the Truth has a face, where men have literally had supper with God (and had God for supper!), where God has a mother. That’s Christianity. Our Redemption, Christ’s death and Resurrection are concrete. That’s the truth, and it’s terrifying. Who wouldn’t rather believe in a God who is too remote to concern us seriously or who is oppressive and undeserving of our obedience? Why don’t we want to believe in the truth: that God is more humble than we are? That God is better at being human than we are?

Yesterday, on All Souls’ Day, Father Keller celebrated Mass in the extraordinary form. It was crowded with that catafalque in the nave, but it turned out pretty well. The music was beautifully chanted as well.

There are photos on kenrickparish.com.

Revelation 12:4:

Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky and hurled them down to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth.

Today is the feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael. At the Planned Parenthood facility this morning, it seemed very appropriate to reflect on the angels and their role in the world.

Christ calls Satan “the prince of this world” (John 16:11) and tells us that he came “to defeat the powers of darkness.” There is, indeed, a certain type of dominion which Satan has over the world because of original sin. This dominion, of course, is by no means absolute, but it does mean that God permits the apostate angels to interact with human beings to some degree.

The fallen angels hate man. They regard a creature who is both spiritual (like them) and material (like the animals) as grotesque. Of course, they hate very much the Incarnation when God took as his own a created human nature, and they hate Christ and Mary, whom they could never induce to sin. They hate especially that man is in the image of God and this, not only in his spiritual faculties but even in his body. Most of all, they hate man because he is in the image of Christ, who is true God and true man.

They know that their time is limited and that they can have no final victory (Matthew 8:29), but they enjoy causing human suffering and causing men to sin. They enjoy causing death out of hatred for Christ, who is the life (cf. John 8:44). Indeed, the Gospel is a “Gospel of Life.”

Abortion–especially in its magnitude–must be seen as having diabolical roots. Certainly, we human beings are responsible for abortion and it comes from the hardness of our hearts, but I have no doubt that the demons promote abortion very actively. While we may commit abortion out of fear, or ignorance, or selfishness, the demons have a much more perverse agenda.

Not only is abortion always a grave sin, but it is a sin of parents against children and of society against the family. In this way, abortion defaces the image of the Blessed Trinity which exists in the human family through marriage and sexual reproduction, and man begins to regard himself as nothing more than an animal–beyond any possibility of love. Abortion, too, is often sold to us as a lie (cf. John 8:44): it does not tell the truth about what man is. Abortion may tell us that an embryo is not a human being–which lies about human nature–, or it may tell us that some human beings have more value than others, which tells us that the source of our value is not God.

The good angels, however, work to tell us the truth and to protect man. Let us not frustrate their efforts. Indeed, the Incarnation of Christ was made known “by the message of an angel” and we know that the angels participate in Christ’s victory over the apostate angels.

Revelation 12:7-8:

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.

It’s very fitting that the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows follows the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross immediately in the calendar. When I reflect on our Lord’s passion and death, I am always drawn to the love between Christ and our Lady. The fourth station of the cross, for instance, I find to be perhaps the most sorrowful.

When we think of the love which our Lady had for Christ her Son, we cannot really begin to understand. Our notions of love are often corrupted and mixed with selfishness due to sin and imperfection. Even when our souls are infused with divine Charity, we often interfere with the exercise of that gift.

Mary, however, was free from every stain of sin as was Christ her Son. Therefore, she loved him perfectly and realized more than any other creature the great love which Christ was showing for sinners on the cross. The Holy Spirit, who is himself Charity, was given to Mary at the Annuntiation to make her the mother of the Son of God. This Holy Spirit, then, is not only the love between the Father and the Son, but he is now the love between Mary and her Son.

Christ in his divine nature, certainly loves Mary infinitely. In his human nature, of course, he loves perfectly God and every creature. In his human nature, however, perhaps there is the perfection of the special love of a son for his mother. In this way, Christ–who created motherhood and created his own mother–loves Mary more than any son could ever love his mother, and Mary loves God more than any other creature ever could and in a way that no one else could–as God’s own mother.

I often wonder whether Christ suffered more at the torment he endured or at seeing his mother suffering at the foot of his cross.

tui Nati vulnerati
tam dignati pro me pati
poenas mecum divide

Share with me the pains
of your wounded Son
who so deigned to suffer for me

Confessions II.xi.20:

Moreover, what was the source of the fact that when she had recounted the vision to me, I tried to twist its meaning to signify that she should not despair of becoming what I was? But she instantly replied without a moment’s hesitation: ‘The word spoken to me was not “Where he is, there will you be also,” but “Where you are, there will he be also.”

How great must have been St. Monica’s faith! In fact, the greatness that St. Augustine attained served to bring him to “where she was.”

Today is a good day to pray for all in our families who do not practice the Catholic faith, that God might bring them into full communion with his Church.

There are many deficient interpretations of the significance of the Mandatum rite, that is, the ceremony on Holy Thursday wherein the priest washes the feet of twelve men recollecting what Christ did at the Last Supper. Often this ritual is explained as being a generic lesson in charity and is applied to all Christians–and it can be to some degree. The fuller meaning, however, has to do with the priesthood and doesn’t forget about the fact that it is at the Last Supper, when the priesthood was instituted, when the Eucharist was instituted, that Christ washed the apostles’ feet.

Perhaps the loss of this understanding is part of the reason that the rite is carried out in ways divergent from the rubrics in many parishes.

Anyway, for a good explanation of the significance of the Mandatum, see this post on Old Oligarch’s Painted Stoa.

Saint Thomas Aquinas’s memorial got skipped this year in the new calendar because it fell on a Sunday … BUT in the old calendar his feast was on 7 March (the day he actually died as opposed to the day his body was transferred).

The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest had a Solemn High Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis since St. Thomas Aquinas is a co-patron of theirs.

Rome of the West has some beautiful photographs of the Mass.