New material, from the pen of Benedict XVI, has recently been published. One such piece is The Meaning of Communion. It would be a great kindness if somebody could provide an indication of where/how to find an English version of this on the Internet.
Here is a detail, which may surprise some readers, but does not surprise me.
Ratzinger deploys the notion of the Jewish Chaburah meal.
Our very own Dom Gregory Dix did just this in 1945. Vide especially The Shape pp 50 sqq and 76 sqq.
I once described Pope Benedict as "The first Anglican Pope".
10 comments:
Dear Father,
Are you perchance referring to this article? http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2023/02/07/the-catholic-mass-as-no-one-ever-explained-it-before-a-brand-new-work-from-pope-benedict/
What a lot of nonsense
I thought Nicholas Breakspeare was the first Anglican pope.
AvB.
If 'Anglican' means something other than the ecclesial community founded by King Henry with the specific purpose of breaking with Rome, I would welcome some explanation.
Pope Benedict stresses throughout his essay that intercommunion is 'a political act' and that the Eucharist is 'not a supper', and certainly not a repetition of the Jewish meal at which it was instituted. He stresses throughout the completely different conceptions the Catholic and Reformed churches have of Holy Communion, and the invalidity of any attempt to gloss over the differences.
There is a useful English digest here: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253583/benedict-xvi-describes-protestantization-of-the-eucharist-in-posthumous-publication
another résumé here, together with an overview of the whole posthumous published collection of essays:
https://ewtn.co.uk/article-benedict-xvi-describes-protestantization-of-the-eucharist-in-posthumous-publication/
also a substantial extract (Pt. I) of the relevant essay in English, published here: http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2023/02/07/the-catholic-mass-as-no-one-ever-explained-it-before-a-brand-new-work-from-pope-benedict/
I assume the whole book (collection of essays) will be speedily translated and published in English.
Dear Father. Some may be interested in some of the material I cited inanity email to Dr SCott Hahn after I went to hear his 4th cup (Last Supper is a seder)presentation at my then parish church.
I had been prepared to ask him this question public y - as I told him prior to his speech that day when I introduced myself to him. I think he was too bust to take questions and so I just emailed him.
"I was at your 08/31/13 series of talks in St. Therese de Lisieux Catholic Church in Wellington, Florida and because there was no Q & A I was unable to ask you this question but Jocelyne Carrigan was kind enough to agree to act as the conduit through which I might contact you.
Before registering my question, I want to begin by congratulating you on such a great and interesting series of talks. I know you have heard such praise before but it must never get old hearing about how enjoyable it is to hear you speak for several hours.
My questions are about the Fourth Cup and I begin by noting that it is fairly well conceded by authorities that the Seder was composed after Titus destroyed Jerusalem - 70 A.D. - and so it could not have been a Seder that Jesus and His Apostles were celebrating; and thus the question of a fourth cup seems superfluous.
The Seder (Order) Meal was developed by Rabbinical Judaism after Titus had destroyed the City of Deicide as this Jewish author states:
"Almost everyone doing serious work on the early history of Passover traditions, including Joseph Tabory, Israel Yuval, Lawrence Hoffman, and the father-son team of Shmuel and Ze’ev Safrai, has rejected Finkelstein’s claims for the great antiquity of the bulk of the Passover Haggadah. What is particularly significant about this consensus is that these scholars are not radical skeptics. These scholars believe that, generally speaking, we can extract historically reliable information from rabbinic sources. But as demonstrated by the late Baruch Bokser in his book The Origins of the Seder, practically everything preserved in the early rabbinic traditions concerning the Passover Seder brings us back to the time immediately following the Roman destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E.12 It’s not that rabbinic literature cannot be trusted to tell us about history in the first century of the Common Era. It’s that rabbinic literature—in the case of the Seder—does not even claim to be telling us how the Seder was performed before the destruction of the Temple."
http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/jesus-historical-jesus/was-jesus-last-supper-a-seder/#end02
Further background
http://tinyurl.com/kvtv5u6
http://judaism.about.com/od/passover/a/seder_golinkin.htm
What we do know from Catholic Tradition is that Jesus did not just lead His Apostles in the celebration of a meal but a passover meal followed by the Insititution of the Eucharistic Sacrificial Meal (to stay with the meal analogy for the moment).
Here is the great commentary of Cornelius a Lapide on that question:
"Council of Trent (Sess. 22, c. 1): “After Christ had celebrated the ancient Passover, which the multitude of the sons of Israel sacrificed in memory of their going out of Egypt, He instituted a new Passover, that He Himself should be immolated by the Church (ab ecclesia), by means of (per) the priests, under (sub) visible signs, in memory of His passage from this world to the Father, when He redeemed us by the shedding of His Blood, and delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us to His Kingdom.”
http://tinyurl.com/k34adv7
To shorten this response, I cite Catena Aurea in part as a way to dissuade Catholics from creating a seder meal in their parishes:
THEOPHYL. But how is our Lord said to sit down, whereas the Jews eat the Passover standing? They say, that when they had eaten the legal Passover, they sat down according to the common custom, to eat their other food. It follows, And he said to them, With desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you, &c.
This is a great question to be considered After. Thank you.
Dear Father. Prof Tighe on the recent practice of starting seder meals
https://tinyurl.com/2yfask2w
Maybe this? http://magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it/2023/02/07/the-catholic-mass-as-no-one-ever-explained-it-before-a-brand-new-work-from-pope-benedict/
Was the Last Supper one meal or was it three?
At supper, i.e., after the supper, as Luke and Paul have, it, of the paschal lamb, but whilst they were still reclining at the table as it was spread for the feast. Therefore Matthew says, whilst they were at supper. Here take notice that this supper of Christ was threefold. First, that of the paschal lamb, which Christ and His Apostles celebrated standing, according to the law in Exod. xii. Secondly, a common supper of other food after the lamb, which they ate reclining upon couches. For all the members of a family, especially if it were a numerous one, would not have sufficient food in the lamb alone. Thirdly, Christ added a most sacred, yea, a Divine Supper, that is to say, the institution of the Eucharist. For Christ before the Eucharist partook of the lamb and the ordinary supper, since it was fitting that the type of the lamb should precede the Eucharistic Verity; and that the Eucharist should be the final memorial of Him who was about to die, as it were the highest pledge of love
http://www.catholicapologetics.info/scripture/newtestament/26matth.htm
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