Our Lady of Fatima graces this coming Saturday. In my view, this is very much the sort of festivity the CDF had in mind when in 2020 it facilitated the observance of festivals from the Novus Ordo in the Authentic Form of the Roman Rite. It doesn't quite fit squarely into the new rules; but I wouldn't mind betting that it will be covered in the Novum Supplementum which the CDF promised. (Some delays occurring here??)
S Robert Bellarmine, on the Calendar for May 13, is not among the 'privileged' commemorations which we are forbidden to over-ride because the they are too important.
If we do find ourselves celebrating our Lady of Fatima on Satuday, the CDF rules enjoin us to use a commune. The common idea that, on such occasions, we can just use the Novus Ordo collect/propers is excluded: I think, wisely, because there are cultural and terminological differences between the two Forms of the Rite. (The most frequently occurring of these is the need felt in the NO continually to tell God that Saint X is [e.g.] a 'presbyter', instead of referring to him as 'confessor').
But, for those of us who do simply borrow Novus propers into the Authentic Form, here is the Novus collect for our Lady of Fatima: Deus, qui Genetricem Filii tui Matrem quoque nostram constituisti, concede nobis, ut, in paenitentia et oratione pro mundi salute perseverantes, in dies valeamus regnum Christi efficacius promovere.
I don't think there's much wrong with that, although, if pressed, I will offer this observation:
The traditional Euchology of the Roman Rite tends to steer clear of asking God that we may achieve high-level results in august absolutes; that is, in mega areas such as the Salvation of the World and the Promotion of the Kingdom. It prefers wisely to stick with asking for grace to achieve (what a critic, a cynic, or a Screwtape might consider) the small, everyday victories of the Christian life.
Please do disagree with that and dig up some counter-examples!
And I do rather like those first-millennium collects in the communia of our Lady. I'm not too fine a gentleman to employ them!
The NO reading is a nice piece of S Ephraim. Whither would Latin Rite devotees of our blessed Lady turn if they didn't have Syria? Swooping Eastwards from occidental Porugal they loot the Patristic literature of the Orient!!
4 comments:
Around here, the practice has been for a long time that which, in 2017, was officially granted by the Holy See if I remember correctly - but the Holy See did not then say there was no right to do so on other days -;
have, on occasion of Fatima Day, a Votive Mass of the II Class of the Immaculate Heart of our Lady, this being the obvious choice.
(Fun fact: The Holy See then said "just the same as on August 22". Taken litterally, this would mean to add a commemoration of the holy Martyrs Timothy, Hippolytus and Symphorianus; but I believe that was silently corrected as obviously not the intention...)
Why is the Mass of the II class? In 2017 because the Holy See said it was; otherwise because it is a res gravis et publica simul, probably. One might also argue (skimming through the rubrics for II class votives) that it is an extraordinary solemn celebration of a parish (provided it is rather solemn that the Mass is celebrated), or that it is a get-together of a pious association, particularly if there really is a procession and a public act of devotion, and the like, afterwards. In any case, it looks like "it's II class anyway, let's find some reason for it". Hagan lio, I believe, the Pope says.
You would need the 2020 allowances (which at least for the saints I am much in favor of) if you also want to say the Office, of course. Even here, though - and now I really do have to add the "I am neither a liturgist nor a canonist": there's probably something to be said to take the lessons, antiphons to Benedictus and Magnificat, versicle and oration from the feast of the Immaculate Heart (with the rest being the Office of a double-feast of our Lady in Eastertide), because Immaculate Heart is the obvious choice for Fatima. Bonus: the Gospel commentary then would be by none other than the saint of the day, St. Robert Bellarmine.
I think you're right about the Roman practice of not asking for big things in her orations but every now and then it would be nice to ask for the conversion of the nations or a return to sanity in the former lands of Christendom or something like that. After all you're never going to get it if you don't ask for it...
A comment on the Latinity:
'in paenitentia et oratione'
feels a little clunky; the bare ablative without 'in' would I think be more stylish. Indeed the TLL lists the bare ablative as more common with persevero; in+abl is possible, but the examples show that it tends to be used where the bare ablative would be awkward / unclear. Here the 'in' sounds a little pedantic. One suspects that the author of the collect was thinking in a modern European language.
Here's the proper Mass of Our Lady of Fatima in the usus authenticus of the Roman Rite: http://rinconliturgico.blogspot.com/2011/05/missa-propria-beata-virgo-maria-de.html
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