(1) The pre-Conciliar Preface which has been most disastrously impacted by the 1960s fetich "NO-PETITIONS" is that for Apostles.
Before the 'reforms', this Preface petitioned the Almighty: "Te Domine suppliciter exorare". Readers, I hope, willl remember the host of supplicatory clauses I gathered together in my first part of this piece. This preface stands squarely in that ancient tradition. And what it seeks from the Almighty is that he will not desert his flock, but continue to to govern it by the same Apostolic Rulers.
The post-Conciliar version of this preface does something quite different: something quite opposite. It thanks the Almighty that he does continue so to govern his flock.
That is purest Bergogliaity; the assurance that, as one crazed Bergoglianical fanatic put it recently, "When the Pope thinks, it is God who is thinking."
It is unadulterated Stalinism.
It is nothing to do with the Catholic Faith; nothing to do with the definition given in 1870 by Vatican I of the Papal Ministry.
The Papacy of Pius XII, with its flabella and the lordly conveying of the Roman Bishop like a demigod on a lofty chair as he blessed his 'subjects' ... that culture, with all its cringe-making exaggerations, did not have a patch on the intellectual tyranny to which we are now subjected.
(2) Other prefaces which have been eliminated because of the NO-PETITIONS rule include those granted to particular Churches, Orders, or Congregations.
Here is the second half of the Preface granted to the Oratorian Congregations for their Founder S Philip Neri ... it is now, of course, suppressed.
"Wherefore we beseech thy mercy that thou wouldst give us joy in his festivity, train us by the example of his devout life, instruct us by the word of his preaching, and wouldst protect us by the pleasing supplication which he makes to thee."
I wonder when it was granted ... is this (part of) the preface with which Newman, Faber, and their associates would have been familiar?
3 comments:
I recently became aware of a change to the end of the second verse of the hymn "Hail Queen of Heaven", in our church' hymnal, where "Remind thy Son that He has paid / The price of our iniquity" has been replaced with "Remind thy Son that we are saved / In spite of our iniquities". So I cranked up the volume and... etc, etc...
There were once a number of prayers in preface form, such as those for Palm Sunday, of paschal candle and paschal water, at ordinations of deacons and of priests, which were not only laudatory but also intercessional, of which it would appear only the Exsultet survives?
It all has to do with arrogance, and a lack of faith. Why ask God to do something, if you do not think he is the one doing anything? If you are very proud, and know what you would do if you ran the universe, why make supplication, when you can use the opportunity to educate the audience? I mean congregation.
Two examples come to mind. My father's old missal, that he bought in Westminster Cathedral in 1953, renders the Opening of the Judica Me as "Judge Me God" I think that is correct, but the St. Joseph's Missal from around the same time makes it something like "Give Judgment for me God". That means something completely different. I barely passed Latin, and that was over 40 years ago, so I am open to correction. Yet it seems to me that the St. Joseph's translation was the product of a certain breed of Catholicism that flourished during the Cold War. We already knew what God should do, so to speak, and our cause was certainly just (I think that it was, but that is another matter.) The other example is secular, not religious. The fourth stanza of the U.S. National Anthem once stated "Then conquer we must when our cause it is just, let this be our motto: In God is our trust" That was changed to "Conquer we must for our cause it is just........ Again, the meaning is totally different. We go from being dependent on God's mercy, to being assured of his protection- because we are always right.
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