Monday, April 18, 2005

Veni Creator Spiritus

Cardinals during Mass today at St. Peter's 'pro eligendo Romano Pontifice'
Veni Creator Spiritus
Mentes tuorum visita,
Imple superna gratia,
Quae tu creasti, pectora.

Qui diceris Paraclitus,
Altissimi donum Dei,
Fons vivus, ignis, caritas,
Et spiritalis unctio.

Tu septiformis munere,
Digitus Paternae dexterae,
Tu rite promissum Patris,
Sermone ditans guttura.

Accende lumen sensibus,
Infunde amorem cordibus,
Infirma nostri corpis
Virtute firmans perpeti.

Hostem repellas longius,
Pacemque dones protinus;
Ductore sic te praevio,
Vitemus omne noxium.

Per te sciamus da Patrem
Noscamus atque Filium;
Teque utri usque Spiritum
Credamus omni tempore.

Deo Patri sit gloria,
Et Filio, qui a mortuis
Surrexit, ac Paraclito
In sacculorum saecula.
Amen.


Come, Creator, Spirit,
Visit the minds that are Yours.
Fill with heavenly grace
The hearts You created.

You who are called the Paraclete,
Gift of God Most High,
Living Spring, Fire, Love,
And Spiritual Anointing.

You sevenfold gifts give,
Finger of God's right hand;
You, clear promise of the Father,
The tongue empower.

Kindle a light in our minds.
Pour love in our hearts.
Our weak bodies
Make firm with Your unfailing strength.

Drive our foe far away.
And give us peace always
Lead in such a way that
We may avoid all things despicable.

Through You, may we know the Father
And know also the Son,
And You, the Spirit of them both
May we believe at all times.

To God the Father be glory
And to the Son, who from death
Rose, and to the Paraclete
For Ages of Ages.
Amen.

Christ the Good Shepherd

I am the good shepherd. I know my own
- by which I mean, I love them -
and my own know me.

In plain words:
those who love me are willing to follow me,
for anyone who does not love the truth
has not yet come to know it.

My dear brethren,
you have heard the test we pastors have to undergo.
Turn now to consider
how these words of our Lord imply a test for yourselves also.
Ask yourselves whether you belong to his flock,
whether you know him,
whether the light of his truth shines in your minds.

I assure you
that it is not by faith that you will come to know him,
but by love;
not by mere conviction,
but by action.

John the evangelist is my authority for this statement.
He tells us that
anyone who claims to know God
without keeping his commandments
is a liar.

Consequently, the Lord immediately adds:
As the Father knows me and I know the Father;
and I lay down my life for my sheep.

Clearly he means
that laying down his life for his sheep
gives evidence of his knowledge of the Father
and the Father’s knowledge of him.
In other words,
by the love with which he dies for his sheep
he shows how greatly he loves his Father.

Again he says:
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them;
they follow me, and I give them eternal life.

Shortly before this he had declared:
If anyone enters the sheepfold through me
he shall be saved;
he shall go freely in and out
and shall find good pasture.

He will enter into a life of faith;
from faith he will go out to vision,
from belief to contemplation,
and will graze in the good pastures of everlasting life.

So our Lord’s sheep will finally reach their grazing ground
where all who follow him in simplicity of heart
will feed on the green pastures of eternity.

These pastures are the spiritual joys of heaven.
There the elect look upon the face of God
with unclouded vision
and feast at the banquet of life for ever more.

Beloved brothers,
let us set out for these pastures
where we shall keep joyful festival
with so many of our fellow citizens.
May the thought of their happiness urge us on!

Let us stir up our hearts, rekindle our faith,
and long eagerly for what heaven has in store for us.
To love thus is to be already on our way.

No matter what obstacles we encounter,
we must not allow them to turn us aside
from the joy of that heavenly feast.
Anyone who is determined to reach his destination
is not deterred
by the roughness of the road that leads to it.

Nor must we allow the charm of success to seduce us,
or we shall be like a foolish traveller who is so distracted
by the pleasant meadows through which he is passing
that he forgets where he is going.
From a homily on the Gospels
by Saint Gregory the Great, pope

(from yesterday's Office of the Readings)

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Catholic Carnival

This week's collection of posts from various Catholic blogs is now online at Dunmoose the Ageless, Protomonk.

Monday, April 04, 2005

Lauds - Office for the Dead

Miserere mei, Deus

Have mercy upon me, O God,
according to thy lovingkindness:
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies
blot out my transgressions.

Wash me throughly from mine iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.


For I acknowledge my transgressions:
and my sin is ever before me.
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,
and done this evil in thy sight:
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest,
and be clear when thou judgest.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity;
and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts:
and in the hidden part
thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Make me to hear joy and gladness;
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
Hide thy face from my sins,
and blot out all mine iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God;
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence;
and take not thy holy spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Then will I teach transgressors thy ways;
and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
thou God of my salvation:
and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
O Lord, open thou my lips;
and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
For thou desirest not sacrifice;
else would I give it:
thou delightest not in burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit:
a broken and a contrite heart, O God,
thou wilt not despise.

Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion:
build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
Then shalt thou be pleased
with the sacrifices of righteousness,
with burnt offering and whole burnt offering:
then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

Psalm 51


Once I said...

"In the noontime of life I must depart!
To the gates of the nether world
I shall be consigned
For the rest of my years."
I said, "I shall see the Lord no more
In the land of the living.
No longer shall I behold my fellow people
Among those who dwell in the world".

My dwelling, like a shepherd's tent,
Is struck down and borne away from me:
You have folded up my life, like a weaver-
Who serves the last thread.

Day and night you give me over to torment;
I cry out until the dawn,
Like a lion God breaks all my bones;
Day and night you give me over to torment.

Like a swallow I utter shrill cries;
I moan like a dove.
My eyes grow weak, gazing heavenward:
O Lord, I am in Straits; be my bond!

You have preserved my life
From the pit of destruction.
When you cast behind your back all my sins.

For it is not the nether world
That gives you thanks,
Nor death that praises you;
Neither do those who go down into the pit
Await your kindness.

The living, the living gives you thanks,
As I do today,
Parents declare to their children,
O God your faithfulness.

The Lord is our savior:
We shall sing stringed instruments
In the house of the Lord
All the days of our life.
Isaiah 38:10-14,17b-20


Praise ye the LORD

Praise the LORD, O my soul.
While I live will I praise the LORD:
I will sing praises unto my God
while I have any being.

Put not your trust in princes,
nor in the son of man,
in whom there is no help.
His breath goeth forth,
he returneth to his earth;
in that very day his thoughts perish.

Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help,
whose hope is in the LORD his God:
Which made heaven, and earth,
the sea, and all that therein is:
which keepeth truth for ever:
Which executeth judgment for the oppressed:
which giveth food to the hungry.

The LORD looseth the prisoners:
The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind:
the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down:
the LORD loveth the righteous:
The LORD preserveth the strangers;
he relieveth the fatherless and widow:
but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.

The LORD shall reign for ever,
even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations.

Praise ye the LORD.

Psalm 146


Office for the Dead

Sunday, April 03, 2005

Vespers - Office for the Dead

De Profundis


Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.
Lord, hear my voice:
let thine ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications.

If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities,
O Lord, who shall stand?
But there is forgiveness with thee,
that thou mayest be feared.

I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait,
and in his word do I hope.
My soul waiteth for the Lord
more than they that watch for the morning:
I say, more than they that watch for the morning.

Let Israel hope in the LORD:
for with the LORD there is mercy,
and with him is plenteous redemption.
And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

Psalm 130

* * * * * * *

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills


from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the LORD,
which made heaven and earth.

He will not suffer thy foot to be moved:
he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD is thy keeper:
the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.

The sun shall not smite thee by day,
nor the moon by night.

The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil:
he shall preserve thy soul.

The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in
from this time forth, and even for evermore.

Psalm 121

* * * * * * *


Though he was in the form of God,
(Jesus) did not deem equality with God
something to be grasped at.
Rather, he emptied himself
and took the form of a slave,
Being born in the likeness of men.

He was known to be of human estate,
And it was thus that he humbled himself,
Obediently accepting even death,
death on a cross!

Because of this,
God highly exalted him
And bestowed on him the name
above every other name,

So that at the Name of Jesus
every knee must bend
In the heavens,
on the earth,
and under the earth,
And every tongue confess
to the glory of God the Father
Jesus Christ is Lord!

Phillipians 2:6-11


Office for the Dead