Tuesday, February 05, 2008

New Good Friday Prayers for the Extraordinary Form of the Mass

:: UPDATE :: Other coverage on this story:
Fr. Z isnot happy about this change..

Rocco Palmo

Ruth Gledhill, with lots of links, background, and some translations. I like mine below, thank you very much. :)]

As has been rumored, the Holy Father has authorized new prayers for the Jews to be used in the celebration of the extraordinary form of the Mass (according to the Missal of 1962) for Good Friday (Umm. Well, it's not Mass on Good Friday though!). According to the blog of Vaticanista Andrea Tornielli, the changes were published today in L'Osservatore Romano, in a note from Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Bertone. Here's the revised prayer from the Good Friday Liturgy
Oremus et pro Iudaeis. Ut Deus et Dominus noster illuminet corda eorum, ut agnoscant Iesum Christum salvatorem omnium hominum. Oremus. Flectamus genua. Levate. Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui vis ut omnes homines salvi fiant et ad agnitionem veritatis veniant, concede propitius, ut plenitudine gentium in Ecclesiam Tuam intrante omnis Israel salvus fiat. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
[My translation: "Let us also pray for the Jewish people. That the Lord our God might illuminate their hearts, that they might know Jesus Christ, the savior of all men. Let us pray. Let us kneel. Let us stand. Almighty and ever-living God, who wills that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, grant that with the coming of the full-number of the Gentiles into Your Church, all Israel might be saved." The last is a reference to Rom 11:25-26.]

This is actually quite fascinating: with this one change, the Holy Father has reformed the Mass as it existed just prior to the Council. So, does this mean that the TLM is no longer pre-Vatican II? :-)

[Fr. Z's comments on the rumors.]

5 comments:

masalai said...

Given what has happened since 1948 to their substantial numbers (with a few others who moved to Palestine as well over the years -- the Christian refugees from Yemen who established Ramallah, for example) who converted to Christianity in the first century it might be wise for them to give it careful thought.

St. Izzy said...

Very interesting. And nice translation, even if I would take that first et as adverbial:

"Let us also pray..."

Fr. Gaurav Shroff said...

@Mac: But if substantial numbers of them entered now, perhaps things would change for the descendants of their forbears who converted in the first century? :)

Or not. There are the followers of Mahomet to contend with ...

@St. Izzy: thanks! You're absolutely right. Adverbial it is! And ecclesiastical Latin is so much easier than classical! :)

Fr. Gaurav Shroff said...

PS: What exactly is "propitius" in "concede propitius"?

St. Izzy said...

English doesn't do this too much. propitius is a m. sg. nom. adjective modifying the understood subject of the verb. In English, we really want an adverb here, but that's a limitation of English; it is the actor and not the action that we want to describe here.

"You (who are) favorably-disposed grant..."


Laetus advenit. Happy, he arrived.

English now wants "He arrived happily."