It's now the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. My favourite term for this day is not the jovial terms of Pancake Day or Mardi Gras, but Shrove Tuesday. Why? Because to be shriven is a beautiful thing.

Based on yesterday's unexpected news, this Lent is set to be a particularly interesting one. The next Urbi et Orbi blessing that the faithful can receive at the end of Lent will be from a new Pope.

I think one of the best things we can do this Lent is to offer our penances and sacrifices for the cardinal electors and the new Pope, that he may be a faithful guardian of the Church's teaching and an image of Christ to the world. Naturally, we can offer our penances for other things, but the issue of the new Pope will be one that shapes the Church and the world. It will affect our daily lives in some way. Just think of what our current dear Pope has achieved within almost eight years. The Mass of Blessed John XIII is a lot more available. We have Youcat. The Year of Faith. Tighter rules on reporting child abuse. A Pontifical Academy for Latin.

On the other hand, Lent can help put things into perspective. Through prayer, we can gain reassurance that the Holy Spirit is in charge of all things and we should not be too afraid of what is to come. Even if the future is to bring great difficulties, if God is for us, who can be against?

Here is a good article on the importance of Lent.

And here is the collect from the Roman Missal for the election of a Pope. It might be a good idea to pray this in place of Pope Benedict's intentions for March (what happens with those and indulgences during sede vacante anyway??*):

O God, eternal shepherd, who govern your flock with unfailing care, grant in your boundless fatherly love a pastor for your Church who will please you by his holiness and to us show watchful care. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

*Update: Fr Zuhlsdorf has an answer to this and it seems as though we should continue to pray for the intentions in March. So pray the prayer above in addition to the intentions for March. Et sequitur that the normal conditions for indulgences apply too. 

Candle Offering

Lord Jesus, I offer you this candle as a prayer:
May my little light shine out like this little candle with your light.
May I radiate like the warmth of this little candle with your love.
May I be directed upwards like this little candle to heavenly things.
May I be an offering like this little candle in devotion to God, to the Church, and for the needs of my neighbours suffering in this world and in the next.
May my heart burn like this little candle with the fire of divine love.
May my life be consumed and sacrificed for the light like this little candle in service of divine love.
May I stand like this little candle shining in the heavenly liturgy with all the saints.
Amen.

Collect for the Grace of Compunction

Almighty and most gentle God,
who brought forth from the rock
a fountain of living water
for your thirsty people,
bring forth, we pray,
from the hardness of our heart
tears of sorrow,
that we may lament our sins
and merit forgiveness from your mercy.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God,

for ever and ever. Amen.

Prayer request

Please pray for Rev. Graham Turner, a deacon who is due to be ordained to the holy priesthood of Jesus Christ on 29th June this year. He has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukaemia. Cardinal O'Brien, the Archbishop of St Andrew's and Edinburgh, has requested that we ask for the intercession of Venerable Margaret Sinclair when praying for Deacon Turner.

Venerable Margaret Sinclair and St Peregrine, please pray for Rev Graham Turner.

Prayer meme

I've noticed this prayer meme travelling through the blogs I read and unbelievably it has reached my blog through Scottish Catholic Teuchtar and his great blog with its Scottish focus, something which obviously interests me greatly.
Anyway, my three favourite prayers are:

1. The Angelus. I try to say this everyday at noon and at 6 o'clock. Often I recite it and then just get on with my day, but very frequently the simple recitation of Bible verses recalling the Incarnation just overwhelm me. See my previous post on it.

2. The De Profundis. The psalm occurs each Wednesday for Compline in the Divine Office, and I look forward to it. (Indeed this week I was heartily disappointed and annoyed with myself when I recited Tuesday's Compline again instead of Wednesday's). It both reminds us of our sinfulness in the depths of the world, reminds us to always watch for the Lord and then recalls the fact that the Lord redeems.

3. And finally, like Scottish Catholic Teuchtar, the Anima Christi. I was definitely influenced by the fact that my confirmation saint, St Ignatius Loyola, included this prayer before his spiritual exercises.

Unfortunately, I have no one to tag, as everyone I would tag has received it already. Nevertheless, I recommend, along with Scottish Catholic Teuchtar above, Seraphic Spouse.

Pro seipso sacerdote

I read this great post by the incomparable Father Z today on the prayers that the priest said for himself on the anniversary of his ordination. The first mentioned are those of the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite. They emphasise the humility of the priest as a servant to all, above all to God, who in His mercy established the priesthood. The post speaks for itself so I'll just post it all here.

In the traditional, Extraordinary Form a priest can add orations for the anniversary of his ordination, Pro seipso sacerdote.

The 2002MR has three formularies Pro seipso sacerdote while the 1962MR has but one.

Since this is a time of year when new priests are being ordained, and many priests are observing their own anniversaries, let’s have a WDTPRS look at the prayers Pro seipso sacerdote from the traditional, Extraordinary Form.

COLLECT (1962MR):
Omnípotens et miséricors Deus,
humilitátis meae preces benígnus inténde:
et me fámulum tuum, quem,
nullis suffragántibus méritis,
sed imménsa cleméntiae tuae largitáte,
caeléstibus mystériis servíre tribuísti,
dignum sacris altáribus fac minístrum;
ut, quod mea voce deprómitur,
tua sanctificatióne firmétur.

SLAVISHLY LITERAL VERSION:
Almighty and merciful God,
kindly hark to the prayers of my humility:
and make me, Your servant, whom,
no merits of my own favoring me,
but by the immense largess of your indulgence,
You granted to serve the heavenly mysteries,
to be a worthy minister at the sacred altars;
so that, that which is called down by my voice,
may be made sure by Your sanctification.

The prayer focuses on priest’s self-awareness of his lowliness and that who he is and what he does is from God’s grace and choice and not his own. 

It also emphasis the relationship of the priest to the altar, that it, the bond of the priest and Holy Mass.  In the older form of Holy Mass, after the consecration during the Canon at the Suppplices te rogamus... the priest bends low over the altar, puts his hands on it… they were annointed, the altar was annointed… kisses the altar, makes the sign of the Cross over the consecrated Host on the corporal, over the Precious Blood in the chalice, over himself.  Christ is Victim.  Christ is Priest.  The priest is victim and priest as well.  This moment during Holy Mass reveals the mysterious bond of altar where the priest sacrifices the victim, the sacrificial victim and the sacrificing priest.  They are one. At the altar he is alter Christus, another Christ, offering and offered.

What also comes to mind as I look at this is the Augustinian reflection of the speaker of the Word and the Word spoken, and the message and reality of the Word and the Voice which speaks it.  The voice of the priest and the priest himself are merely the means God uses in the sacred action, the sacramental mysteries at the altar, to renew in that moment what He has wrought.  Finally, this is done through mercy.  The words misericors, clementia, largitas, benignus all point to the mercy of God.

The priest speaks and God makes what he speaks reality.  He takes the insubstantial words and makes them firm and real.  How important it is for the priest to get himself out of the way when he is at the altar, where the True Actor is in action, Christ the Eternal and High Priest.

SECRET (1962MR):
Huius, Dómine, virtúte sacraménti,
peccatórum meórum máculas abstérge:
et praesta;
ut ad exsequéndum injúncti offícii ministérium,
me tua grátia dignum effíciat.

SLAVISHLY LITERAL VERSION:
O Lord, by the power of this sacrament,
cleanse the stains of my sins:
and grant;
that it may make me worthy by Your grace
unto the performance of the ministry of the office that has been imposed.

Priests are sinner in need of a Savior just like everyone else.  They confess sins and receive absolution like everyone else.  They, to, must do penance for past sins like everyone else.  They come to the altar as sinners.  In the older form of Holy Mass, the texts of the ordinary constantly remind the priest of who he is and who he isn’t.  In this Secret, spoken quietly, the priest prays for what only God can do: remove the stains of sins from his soul.

The prayer brings also to mind the burden of the yoke of the priesthood, symbolized as by the priestly vestment, the chasuble.  As the priest vests he says as he puts on this vestment, "O Lord, Who said: My yoke is easy and My burden light: grant that I may bear it well and follow after You with thanksgiving. Amen."   The yoke is the ancient sign of subjugation.  The ancient Romans caused the conquered to pass under a yoke, iugum. 

POSTCOMMUNION (1962MR):
Omnípotens sempitérne Deus,
qui me peccatórem sacris altáribus astáre voluísti,
et sancti nóminis tui laudáre poténtiam:
concéde propítius, per hujus sacraménti mystérium,
meórum mihi véniam peccatórum;
ut tuae majestáti digne mérear famulári.

SLAVISHLY LITERAL VERSION:
Almighty eternal God,
who desired me, a sinner, to stand at the sacred altars,
and to praise the might of Your Holy Name:
propitiously grant, through the mystery of this sacrament,
the forgiveness of my sins for me;
so that I may merit to wait upon Your majesty.

On the day of ordination the priest lies down upon the floor.

He becomes the lowest thing in the church.

As I read this, I am struck by the two sets of contrasts.

First, there is the contrast of the low state of the servant sinner and the majesty of God.

Second, there is the present moment contrasted with the future to come.

Majestas is like gloria, Hebrew kabod or Greek doxa, a divine characteristic which – some day – we may encounter in heaven in such a way that we will be transformed by it forever and forever.  When Moses encountered God in the cloud on the mountain and in the tent, he came forth with a face shining so brightly that he had to wear a veil.  This is a foreshadowing of the transformative power of God’s majestas.

A priest waits on this majestas.  He awaits it and waits upon it.  He desires it for his own future, but in the present moment he waits upon it as a servent.  He is an attendent, in every sense, one who waits and one who waits.

May God have mercy on priests, sinner servants, attendent on the unmerited grace and gifts of the Victim Priest and Savior.

Consider the mercy of God in His gift of the priesthood during these last days of the year of the priest.

The feast of Corpus Christ this year falls on the first Thursday of June, the last day lay people can gain a plenary indulgence by praying for priests in this Year of the Priest.

Pray for priests!

Too often does my mind formulate criticisms of various priests, like in the previous post, but then my heart doesn't move an inch to pray for them. How can we expect good priests if we don't pray for them? In this Year of Priests, and especially with the media attack on the priesthood, they need our prayers more than ever. Praying that they conform themselves to Christ, and their hearts to His Sacred Heart should be enough, but anything - your rosary, divine mercy chaplet, divine office - offer it and pray it for our priests!

The Angelus

Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariæ
Et concepit de Spiritu Sancto
Ave, Maria, gratia plena,
Dominus tecum:
benedicta tu in mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus ventris tui,
Jesus
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,
ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
nunc, et in hora mortis nostræ.
Amen.

When praying the Angelus at midday and at 6pm (I'm never able to say the 6am one; I start it but fall asleep again after the first Hail Mary), I always end up matching each part to a part of the Hail Mary. For this first part, we hear of the angel Gabriel's greeting to Mary (Ave gratia plena - from where we can learn of Mary's immaculate conception, and her importance in salvation history by the angel's honorific Ave), and then immediately of the result of that greeting, the conception of the God-man, Jesus Christ (Dominus tecum - though the Lord was with her before His conception of course - indeed, He was with her since her immaculate conception - but after Mary's encounter with Gabriel, the Lord was physically with her in her womb).

Ecce ancilla Domini
Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum

Ave, Maria, gratia plena,
Dominus tecum:
benedicta tu in mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus ventris tui,
Jesus
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,
ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
nunc, et in hora mortis nostræ.
Amen.

Here we see why Mary is so blessed in mulieribus, notwithstanding her conception. Here she displays Christian perfection; she accepts God's will and fully cooperates in His plan for the redemption of the human race, including her own preemptive redemption.

Et Verbum caro factum est
Et habitavit in nobis

Ave, Maria, gratia plena,
Dominus tecum:
benedicta tu in mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus ventris tui,
Jesus
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,
ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
nunc, et in hora mortis nostræ.
Amen.

And in this final section we encounter in plain words the entire message of the Angelus, and indeed the message of the Gospels - God became man; Jesus walked among us, taught us, and died for us, and remains with us in the tabernacles around the world, and still teaches us through the Scriptures, and helps us to die to the world so that we can live with Him. There has never been a more fruitful womb than the womb of Mary.