It is a long-standing custom in most types of Anglican churches for those in the congregation not qualified to receive the Blessed Sacrament to be welcomed at the altar rail (yes, vast numbers of Anglican churches still have these) and blessed by the priest either putting his hand on their heads, or making the sign of the cross over them with the Sacred Host, while saying some brief formula of blessing.
Last November the CDW in Rome banned this custom.
The reasons given included:
(1) Lay "extraordinary ministers" may not bless;
(2) ceremonies of any kind for remarried divorcees are forbidden;
(3) the laying-on-of hands has its own sacramental signification which is inappropriate here.
I suggest that in Anglican churches this custom is of an antiquity which brings it into the category of a custom which has acquired liceity. As to the the points above:
(1) Indeed, layfolk should not purport to bless. I have never seen this in the C o E, where the blessing is given by the priest who is administering the ciborium, and the layperson with the chalice simply passes the persons concerned.
(2) A separate blessing given to each of two individuals would not be a blessing of the couple;
(3) OK, so the blessing should be given by making the sign of the cross with the Sacred Host. After all, nobody seems to be suggesting that those disqualified from communion should not be allowed to enter a church and be present during Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Which is the same thing more solemnly done. (How does the observation that the laying-on-of-hands has its own sacramental signification impinge upon the custom of the neo-ordinatus using it to give blessings?)
Incidentally, I have long wondered why the Peace is shared indiscriminately and promiscuously. See my earlier posts on the significance of the Peace in the Roman Rite. And if this rite is an intimate expression of unity between those who are about to share together the Lord's Body, should it not be confined to those who are going to communicate? But at the papal Inauguration, it seemed to be shared even with the unbaptised.
28 February 2009
27 February 2009
CATHEDRA PETRI
The Feast of the Chair of S Peter was, this year, superseded and obliterated, according to the modern rubrics, by Mass and Office of last Sunday. Yet the Holy Father alluded to it in his address. Laurence Hemming's book Worship as a Revelation suggested that the modern fashion of permitting on each day one unitary celebration (instead of commemorations, Vespers a capitulo .... etc.) is an impoverishment in both diachronic and synchronic terms.
Perhaps the Sovereign Pontiff agrees with that.
Perhaps the Sovereign Pontiff agrees with that.
26 February 2009
Rood Restoration
This morning, Mass at an altar in Thomas's which I do not think has been used for decades. It is at the west end and has over it a very large crucifix - two thirds of life size, I think - which comes from the long demolished chapel of our convent (now amalgamated with Wantage). It is very striking, when the rubrics order the celebrant to raise his eyes, to lift them up and meet the Lord's gaze. Among clergy who have done this are Mgr Ronnie Knox, who used to come to the convent chapel, on days when he was not on the rota to say Dr Cranmer's service in Trinity chapel, so that he could say a Latin Tridentine. Nearby, is a stone carving of the badge our S Thomas's Sisters wore: the Sacred Heart and the words Crux in corde et cor in Cruce. I will use this altar during Lent for the early Masses, and not least this Saturday, when I will say a votive of the Holy Cross on Foundation Day of the Societas Sanctae Crucis.
Those words "our sisters"! How I wish we could still use them. How I envy Fr Gilles Wach every time I read those proud words in the publications of his Institute!
Those words "our sisters"! How I wish we could still use them. How I envy Fr Gilles Wach every time I read those proud words in the publications of his Institute!
24 February 2009
SEEDY
There ought to be a convention in the blogosphere that when a blogger is imparting information which will enrage his readers, he puts some sort of warning at the top of his post for the benefit of those who have to watch their bloodpressure. I felt that very acutely this morning when I read how the Tablet, having amused itself by doing its best to stir up trouble in his parish, came all serious and heavy about the infrigement of its copyright as soon as Fr Finigan took apart and exposed the squalid little article concerned.
You might have thought they would by now be rather ashamed of the cheap and nasty innuendoes in their article. You would certainly think that, as 'liberals', they would boast about a policy of free speech and a welcomed right to reply. Not a bit of it. Their true colours are now flying high enough for all to behold. And they are so b****y pompous.
For decades I declined to read the Tablet, since I found it just made me cross. It made me waste time drafting in my mind letters correcting what I judged to be errors. I still have a policy of never spending money on this deeply unpleasant publication. But I did read it online recently when they put it all on the internet because of the snow; I do sometimes have a quick look through if I see it at the back of a church; I do sometimes read the "free" items on their website. And I have been surprised by the mean tone of some recent pieces on the Roman Pontiff. Perhaps Fr Finigan should console himself by the reflection that, while they have been attacking him, energies have been taken up that might otherwise have been devoted to a campaign against the Holy Father.
Fr Finigan is well known among both Anglicans and members of his own Church for his quiet good manners and gentlemanly courtesy. His writings are distinguished by his accurate and careful scholarship. If the Tablet staff were not so mired in their own prejudices, I would invite them to take him as an example of how sensible people should write about their fellow Christians.
You might have thought they would by now be rather ashamed of the cheap and nasty innuendoes in their article. You would certainly think that, as 'liberals', they would boast about a policy of free speech and a welcomed right to reply. Not a bit of it. Their true colours are now flying high enough for all to behold. And they are so b****y pompous.
For decades I declined to read the Tablet, since I found it just made me cross. It made me waste time drafting in my mind letters correcting what I judged to be errors. I still have a policy of never spending money on this deeply unpleasant publication. But I did read it online recently when they put it all on the internet because of the snow; I do sometimes have a quick look through if I see it at the back of a church; I do sometimes read the "free" items on their website. And I have been surprised by the mean tone of some recent pieces on the Roman Pontiff. Perhaps Fr Finigan should console himself by the reflection that, while they have been attacking him, energies have been taken up that might otherwise have been devoted to a campaign against the Holy Father.
Fr Finigan is well known among both Anglicans and members of his own Church for his quiet good manners and gentlemanly courtesy. His writings are distinguished by his accurate and careful scholarship. If the Tablet staff were not so mired in their own prejudices, I would invite them to take him as an example of how sensible people should write about their fellow Christians.
Problems of "Utraquism" and what did M l'Abbe Gilles Wach think?
A treat to see the great Fr Gilles Wach, Prior General of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, in choir at Saint Alyoggers at Vespers on Sunday. I am sure he will have admired the competence and naturalness with which the Oxford Oratorians do Vespers according to the pre-Conciliar Breviary. All right-minded people appreciate it, and I think a survey of how many Anglicans habitually turn up might yield interesting results. But there were some technical oddities for the M. le Prieur Generale to puzzle over.
We had Old Rite Vespers of Quinquagesima Sunday; but the liturgical colour was green as ordered by the New Rite. We omitted, of course, the Alleluia at the beginning, because in the old usage we say farewell to Alleluia on the eve of Septuagesima. But, between the Office and Benediction, we sang Chatterton Dix's great Anglican Eucharistic hymn "Alleluia, sing to Jesus" in which Alleluia re-echoes throughout every stanza.
In ecclesiis in quibus Ritus Romanus in utraque forma de more celebratur, quid agendum? In churches where the Ordinary Form is always or nearly always used, there are no Calendar problems. Ditto in those happy places where the EF is the standard. But what about churches which have a foot in both camps? Is Septuagesima time done in purple or green? Is Alleluia sung? Is the Paschal Candle extinguished and put away on Ascesion Day? Do we continue to use Paschal conventions through the Octave of Pentecost? And which dates for the memoriae of Saints does a priest observe who, like me, says the EF Mass perhaps as many as five times some weeks on weekdays but follows the OF for Sunday Mass and some weekday Masses? Switching from the one calendar to the other on a more or less daily basis would yield considerable confusion.
I suggest we could recover from the Hussites (who gave it a quite different meaning) the term Utraquist for such churches. And I think that, as the number of Utraquist churches grows, some guidance is called for. I expect many readers could suggest intelligent ideas. And, as the Pontifical Commission Ecclesis Dei is merged with the CDW, perhaps we could expect from the combined body some practical and sensible guidlines. (Incidentally. the same problems entangle those C of E churches in which some services are Common Worship and some are Book of Common Prayer.)
I wish I'd known Fr Wach was in Oxford. I would have invited him to preach in S Thomas's.
We had Old Rite Vespers of Quinquagesima Sunday; but the liturgical colour was green as ordered by the New Rite. We omitted, of course, the Alleluia at the beginning, because in the old usage we say farewell to Alleluia on the eve of Septuagesima. But, between the Office and Benediction, we sang Chatterton Dix's great Anglican Eucharistic hymn "Alleluia, sing to Jesus" in which Alleluia re-echoes throughout every stanza.
In ecclesiis in quibus Ritus Romanus in utraque forma de more celebratur, quid agendum? In churches where the Ordinary Form is always or nearly always used, there are no Calendar problems. Ditto in those happy places where the EF is the standard. But what about churches which have a foot in both camps? Is Septuagesima time done in purple or green? Is Alleluia sung? Is the Paschal Candle extinguished and put away on Ascesion Day? Do we continue to use Paschal conventions through the Octave of Pentecost? And which dates for the memoriae of Saints does a priest observe who, like me, says the EF Mass perhaps as many as five times some weeks on weekdays but follows the OF for Sunday Mass and some weekday Masses? Switching from the one calendar to the other on a more or less daily basis would yield considerable confusion.
I suggest we could recover from the Hussites (who gave it a quite different meaning) the term Utraquist for such churches. And I think that, as the number of Utraquist churches grows, some guidance is called for. I expect many readers could suggest intelligent ideas. And, as the Pontifical Commission Ecclesis Dei is merged with the CDW, perhaps we could expect from the combined body some practical and sensible guidlines. (Incidentally. the same problems entangle those C of E churches in which some services are Common Worship and some are Book of Common Prayer.)
I wish I'd known Fr Wach was in Oxford. I would have invited him to preach in S Thomas's.
23 February 2009
Durham and the Roman Rite
A splendid few days in Durham; I went up to talk to the local Chapters of the Societas Sanctae Crucis, our Anglican Catholic priestly Society. (It resembles in organisation the SSPX, the FSSP, and particularly that Brazilian Priestly Society of S John Mary Vianney which was corporately eased into full communion with the Holy See a few years ago. Except that SSC is a bit older, dating from 1854.) They wanted to hear about the new English translation of the Roman Rite; quite apart from the fact that it is always rather splendid to meet brother priests who live according to the same Rule of Priestly Life and bear witness to the same Catholic Faith, it was a joy to experience their keen and intelligent interest and appreciation. A first-rate lot!
I was given the warmest possible hospitality by fellow-blogger Fr Jeff Steele, his beautiful wife Rhea, and their six children ... who never seem to stop smiling; Senior Daughter Hannah had nobly sacrificed her room to me, but she made sure that I didn't feel a cad about occupying it! Members of the sterile culture of death tendency don't realise what a wonderful community a big family is in the richness of its relationships and fertility of its multifaceted shared life. And, of course, it was good to have long talks with Father about our shared concerns at this time of great oppression of Anglican Catholics ... and about his research interest, Bishop Lancelot Andrewes, one of the first of our seventeenth century Anglican Fathers to recover the doctrine of the Eucharist as a propitiatory sacrifice after the negations and heterodoxies of the 'Reformation'. (Is it really true that our Holy Father keeps the Preces privatae beside his bed?)
And Durham must be one of the great cities of the world, with its castle and the romanesque cathedral, restored for Catholic worship in the 1660s after being smashed up by the Calvinists after the regicide, looming over the gorge carved out by the river Wear. S Cuthbert and S Bede, although the wealth of their shrines was robbed by Henry 'Syphilis' Tudor, still have their relics intact in the cathedral. The treasuries contain remarkable artefacts from the period of the Anglo-Saxon Church of England; an embroidered maniple showing Pope S Gregory the Great and his deacon Peter, with Pope S 'Syxtus' and his deacon Laurence, joined in maryrdom no less than in liturgy (see the Communicantes). And the fragments of the original coffin of S Cuthbert, adorned with carvings of the Lord; and of the Apostles listed in the same order as in the Communicantes of the Roman Rite, the ancient authentic liturgy of the Church of England from 596 onwards; and of the Great Mother of God Mary Most Holy - the earliest English image of her.
The Church of England claims to be the same Church as that founded by S Gregory and graced by SS Cuthbert and Bede. No literate person could look at the Durham treasures without realising that, of all the 'parties' in the C of E, the Papalist 'party' is the original, ancient, and authentic one. Yet Johnny-come-lately heretics purport to have the right to steer our provinces yet further from the Navis Petri and condescendingly behave as though it is at their discretion whether, and on what terms, we might be allowed to continue in our inheritance... we, whose faith is that sent to England by Pope Gregory and taught by S Bede and S Cuthbert. The monstrous impertinence of it.
Henry 'Syphilis' Tudor has a lot to answer for.
I was given the warmest possible hospitality by fellow-blogger Fr Jeff Steele, his beautiful wife Rhea, and their six children ... who never seem to stop smiling; Senior Daughter Hannah had nobly sacrificed her room to me, but she made sure that I didn't feel a cad about occupying it! Members of the sterile culture of death tendency don't realise what a wonderful community a big family is in the richness of its relationships and fertility of its multifaceted shared life. And, of course, it was good to have long talks with Father about our shared concerns at this time of great oppression of Anglican Catholics ... and about his research interest, Bishop Lancelot Andrewes, one of the first of our seventeenth century Anglican Fathers to recover the doctrine of the Eucharist as a propitiatory sacrifice after the negations and heterodoxies of the 'Reformation'. (Is it really true that our Holy Father keeps the Preces privatae beside his bed?)
And Durham must be one of the great cities of the world, with its castle and the romanesque cathedral, restored for Catholic worship in the 1660s after being smashed up by the Calvinists after the regicide, looming over the gorge carved out by the river Wear. S Cuthbert and S Bede, although the wealth of their shrines was robbed by Henry 'Syphilis' Tudor, still have their relics intact in the cathedral. The treasuries contain remarkable artefacts from the period of the Anglo-Saxon Church of England; an embroidered maniple showing Pope S Gregory the Great and his deacon Peter, with Pope S 'Syxtus' and his deacon Laurence, joined in maryrdom no less than in liturgy (see the Communicantes). And the fragments of the original coffin of S Cuthbert, adorned with carvings of the Lord; and of the Apostles listed in the same order as in the Communicantes of the Roman Rite, the ancient authentic liturgy of the Church of England from 596 onwards; and of the Great Mother of God Mary Most Holy - the earliest English image of her.
The Church of England claims to be the same Church as that founded by S Gregory and graced by SS Cuthbert and Bede. No literate person could look at the Durham treasures without realising that, of all the 'parties' in the C of E, the Papalist 'party' is the original, ancient, and authentic one. Yet Johnny-come-lately heretics purport to have the right to steer our provinces yet further from the Navis Petri and condescendingly behave as though it is at their discretion whether, and on what terms, we might be allowed to continue in our inheritance... we, whose faith is that sent to England by Pope Gregory and taught by S Bede and S Cuthbert. The monstrous impertinence of it.
Henry 'Syphilis' Tudor has a lot to answer for.
21 February 2009
Don't Bin it
Clerical cispontine readers who receive copies of the catalogues of church suppliers should not discard unread the offering from DM Hays. It contains a hilarious paragraph clearly dictated at the point of a gun by the lawyers of "the market leaders", Hayes and Finch. DMH had compared the prices they charge for the substance called British Wine, which is not reckoned to be valid matter for the Holy Eucharist, with H&F's prices for canon-compliant 'real' altar wine. The latter, as I understand it, is guaranteed pure fermented fruit of the grape, in which the 15% or so alcoholic content needed to keep the wine in an opened bottle from going "off" is secured by adding alcohol itself distilled from wine, so that the entire product is truly fermented grape juice.
I have been disquieted to see bottles of 'British wine' in some quite respectable sacristies ..."British Ruby wine" and that sort of thing. Fathers: if it is called "British Wine" it SHOULD NOT BE USED AT THE ALTAR. "English Wine" is a quite different substance, made in English vineyards, and is true wine. But, to be absolutely sure that what you are using is wine without invalidating additives, ALWAYS use wine which states on the label that it is certified by church authorities to confom to the Code of Canons of 1983.
It's dearer but it's valid matter.
I have been disquieted to see bottles of 'British wine' in some quite respectable sacristies ..."British Ruby wine" and that sort of thing. Fathers: if it is called "British Wine" it SHOULD NOT BE USED AT THE ALTAR. "English Wine" is a quite different substance, made in English vineyards, and is true wine. But, to be absolutely sure that what you are using is wine without invalidating additives, ALWAYS use wine which states on the label that it is certified by church authorities to confom to the Code of Canons of 1983.
It's dearer but it's valid matter.
20 February 2009
Easter
Lent is upon us; preparing us for Easter. Can I briefly seek help on something that is perplexing me about the liturgical structure and meaning of Eastertide.
The New Missal considered all the Eastertide Sunday collects in the Old Missal as utterly inappropriate for Eastertide, let alone for Sundays within Eastertide; it transferred them all to Sundays in Ordinary Time.
The New Missal had trouble finding replacement Sunday collects which it deemed adequately "Paschal" elsewhere in the Roman sacramentaries. It ended up having to manufacture some from shreds and tatters elsewhere.
The collect which used to occur on the Saturday of Easter Week reads " ... festa paschalia peregimus ..." [we have finished the paschal feasts]. The New Missal transferred this to the Saturday before Pentecost.
I know that throughout the whole Fifty Days, we add alleluias to chants and things. I know the patristic citations which support the decision of the post-Vatican II revisers to enhance the Paschal emphasis of the whole Fifty Days.
But what the Old Rite suggests to me is that Easter, the real festivity, lasts for a week, and the remaining six weeks before Pentecost are AFTER Easter rather than "within the Easter Season".
In other words, that the 'Reform' created a new kind of Easter season previously unknown in Western Liturgical books.
Is this right? Can those more learned than I am suggest refences in primary or secondary literature?
The New Missal considered all the Eastertide Sunday collects in the Old Missal as utterly inappropriate for Eastertide, let alone for Sundays within Eastertide; it transferred them all to Sundays in Ordinary Time.
The New Missal had trouble finding replacement Sunday collects which it deemed adequately "Paschal" elsewhere in the Roman sacramentaries. It ended up having to manufacture some from shreds and tatters elsewhere.
The collect which used to occur on the Saturday of Easter Week reads " ... festa paschalia peregimus ..." [we have finished the paschal feasts]. The New Missal transferred this to the Saturday before Pentecost.
I know that throughout the whole Fifty Days, we add alleluias to chants and things. I know the patristic citations which support the decision of the post-Vatican II revisers to enhance the Paschal emphasis of the whole Fifty Days.
But what the Old Rite suggests to me is that Easter, the real festivity, lasts for a week, and the remaining six weeks before Pentecost are AFTER Easter rather than "within the Easter Season".
In other words, that the 'Reform' created a new kind of Easter season previously unknown in Western Liturgical books.
Is this right? Can those more learned than I am suggest refences in primary or secondary literature?
19 February 2009
Bampton lectures
Again, I wonder why Professor Richard Parish's Bampton Lectures are not packed out with Catholics both Anglican and Roman. The distinguished RC expert on seventeenth century French spirituality this week dealt with the questions of the discernment of true and false spirits in the matter of visions and other supernatural occurrences. I was struck by how relevant it all was to the recently reported Vatican moves to put in place a normative document on such discenment, which, of course, is relevant to the question of the continuing phenomena at Medjugorje. The evidence adduced today suggested that humility on the part of the 'recipient' to the discerning role of church authorities is very important; and that a mark of true visionaries is their submission in these matters to authority. The Vatican rumours indicated that these points would indeed be at the heart of the new regulations.
Next week, Jansenism; the Tuesday after, 5.00 in the University Church, Quietism.
Next week, Jansenism; the Tuesday after, 5.00 in the University Church, Quietism.
18 February 2009
Discernment and Inculturation
The F in F meeting last Saturday showed some signs of a division into two tendencies. There were those who set their sights on fighting the legislation for women bishops all the way to success; those who felt that the game was up and that Plan B should come into play. There floated before my eyes a draft Liturgy of Ecclesial Realignment:
Anglican priest Morning, Bishop. Having believed the whole Faith for 55 years as an Anglican priest, I have discerned that this is the moment humbly to seek full communion.
RC Bishop We don't accept single issue converts. If you're one of these troublemakers who have been so noisy about women bishops ...
Priest I don't believe that women can be bishops, but I'm not single issue. For all my life I've accepted all the defined doctrines of the Church including those of Vatican One ...
Bishop Did you say Vatican One?
Priest, failing to notice the thunderous brow Yup. Pastor aeternus and all that. First rate stuff.
Bishop That's as may be. I don't say it is and I don't say it isn't. But you sound a prickly sort of chap to me.
Priest Bishop, I just thought that, now your diocesan establishment is down to nine priests with an average age of 81, I might be of some use to you.
Bishop It's far too early to think about the possibility of ordination. You'll have to spend many, many years acclimatising yourself as a layman to our Catholic culture, before the question even arises.
Priest Well, I think I do know fairly well ...
Bishop Let me test you. What is the first thing that a priest says at the start of Mass after crossing himself in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit?
Priest Introibo ad altare Dei, ad Deum qui ...
Bishop (the veins in his firehead bulging dangerously) In fact, I think I have already discerned that God is not calling you to priesthood. You are clearly too young/old, you are under/over qualified, you are encumbered with a wife/unmarried and therefore presumably homosexual, in fact I think I recall my chum Jim/Jack/Bob/Bill, the bishop of Barchester, talking about you only the other day. He said that you were a pain in ... that you were not well adapted to modern models of collaborative ministry.
I think we need something supervised closely by Rome herself, a group reconciliation with in-built very fast tracks, with transfer of property to an Anglican Catholic entity in full communion but retaining its native culture. I do not yet feel called to abandon the unreformed baroque ambience of S Thomas's and my Tridentine Missal in order to spend my declining years in the lay state enduring whatever parodies of Christian worship go on in some RC parish churches. Not to mention the sermons. Yes, I know what conclusions some will draw from that.
Anglican priest Morning, Bishop. Having believed the whole Faith for 55 years as an Anglican priest, I have discerned that this is the moment humbly to seek full communion.
RC Bishop We don't accept single issue converts. If you're one of these troublemakers who have been so noisy about women bishops ...
Priest I don't believe that women can be bishops, but I'm not single issue. For all my life I've accepted all the defined doctrines of the Church including those of Vatican One ...
Bishop Did you say Vatican One?
Priest, failing to notice the thunderous brow Yup. Pastor aeternus and all that. First rate stuff.
Bishop That's as may be. I don't say it is and I don't say it isn't. But you sound a prickly sort of chap to me.
Priest Bishop, I just thought that, now your diocesan establishment is down to nine priests with an average age of 81, I might be of some use to you.
Bishop It's far too early to think about the possibility of ordination. You'll have to spend many, many years acclimatising yourself as a layman to our Catholic culture, before the question even arises.
Priest Well, I think I do know fairly well ...
Bishop Let me test you. What is the first thing that a priest says at the start of Mass after crossing himself in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit?
Priest Introibo ad altare Dei, ad Deum qui ...
Bishop (the veins in his firehead bulging dangerously) In fact, I think I have already discerned that God is not calling you to priesthood. You are clearly too young/old, you are under/over qualified, you are encumbered with a wife/unmarried and therefore presumably homosexual, in fact I think I recall my chum Jim/Jack/Bob/Bill, the bishop of Barchester, talking about you only the other day. He said that you were a pain in ... that you were not well adapted to modern models of collaborative ministry.
I think we need something supervised closely by Rome herself, a group reconciliation with in-built very fast tracks, with transfer of property to an Anglican Catholic entity in full communion but retaining its native culture. I do not yet feel called to abandon the unreformed baroque ambience of S Thomas's and my Tridentine Missal in order to spend my declining years in the lay state enduring whatever parodies of Christian worship go on in some RC parish churches. Not to mention the sermons. Yes, I know what conclusions some will draw from that.
16 February 2009
Bishopesses and Bishops
Fr Giles, on his blog onetimothyfour uses this term. I am told that it is regarded as politically incorrect. I suggest as an alternative which can offend no-one the word episcopussies.
So Linz is not to get Mgr Wagner as assistant bishop. The RC Church is getting increasingly autocratic and paranoid about dissent. Just like when the Inquisition was in operation. Except that it's now the heretics who appear to hold the whip.
I had wondered whether The auxiliary Bishop of Linz might do nicely in a Limerick competition. (Older readers will recall Mgr Ronnie Knox and Vermont).
So Linz is not to get Mgr Wagner as assistant bishop. The RC Church is getting increasingly autocratic and paranoid about dissent. Just like when the Inquisition was in operation. Except that it's now the heretics who appear to hold the whip.
I had wondered whether The auxiliary Bishop of Linz might do nicely in a Limerick competition. (Older readers will recall Mgr Ronnie Knox and Vermont).
15 February 2009
PHILOLOGIA
You remember how actors used to be told that if they were acting a crowd scene, they all had to murmur "Rhubarb Rhubarb"? On the train last Saturday for London and the Forward in Faith meeting, perforce I had to hear the extraordinary chatter of a group of young women. Rendering them on stage would be a matter, I reflected, of "like like like" ("I'm like on the train ...", confided one of them into her mobile). My senior churchwarden, the lexicographer, tells me that "like" is called a "filler" and is of North American origin, coming probably from somewhere called "California". Oxford is full of North American girls whose fathers appear to see Oxford as a sort of finishing school. Not that I have anything against North Americans; a former colleague and friend, educated at Harvard, Tuebingen, and Wadham (at least two of which are reputable academic institutions), was an American, as is a current friend, an academic who is as at home with the denizens of the Tudor court as if he had been chatting with them all yesterday. But neither of them says "like" at all. Neither would the bimbos if they had been properly educated through the means of Latin Prose Composition. Which reminds me: I noticed on my computer the other day a course for teaching yourself liturgical Latin. It is called Simplicissimus, is sponsored by the Latin Mass Society, and looks a very good way of getting fast into exactly what you need for saying (parts at least of) the Mass and the Office in Latin. Talking about which: the Westminster Cathedral Bookshop and the nearby CTS bookshop have both acquired new stocks of the Liturgia Horarum in Latin; an update of the Second Typical Edition with, as far as I could see, none of the innumerable misprints removed. Ah, and by the way, there appeared to be significant disparities of price between the two shops. OOOh yes and did you see that bit in the papers about how discursiveness and forgetfulness are among the earliest signs of Dementia? Now, how did I mean to end this post ...
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