Missale Romanum 1970
Vere dignum et iustum est, aequum et salutare, nos tibi, sancte Pater, semper et ubique gratias agere per Filium dilectionis tuae Iesum Christum, Verbum tuum per quod cuncta fecisti: quem misisti nobis Salvatorem et Redemptorem, incarnatum de Spiritu Sancto et ex Virgine natum. Qui voluntatem tuam adimplens et populum tibi sanctum acquirens extendit manus cum pateretur, ut mortem solveret et resurrectionem manifestaret. Et ideo cum Angelis et omnibus Sanctis gloriam tuam praedicamus, una voce dicentes:1
ICEL translation:
Father, it is our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks through your beloved Son, Jesus Christ. He is your Word through whom you made the universe, the Savior you sent to redeem us. By the power of the Holy Spirit he took flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary. For our sake he opened his arms on the cross; he put an end to death and revealed the resurrection. In this he fulfilled your will and won for you a holy people. And so we join the angels and the saints in proclaiming your glory as we say: 2
Literal translation:
Truly it is fitting and just, right and helpful unto salvation, for us always and everywhere to give you thanks, O Holy Father, through Your beloved Son Jesus Christ, Your Word through Whom You made all things: Whom You sent to us as Savior and Redeemer, incarnate from the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin. It is He who, fulfilling Your will and securing a holy people for You, extended His hands when He was to suffer, so that He could loosen the death bond and show forth the resurrection. And therefore with the Angels and all the Saints we proclaim Your glory, saying with one voice:3
In the past I have focused somewhat on the ICEL translations attempting both to show the inadequacies of their translations as well as providing for how to understand the sacred texts in light of the original. I will no longer make this a focus of my primary endeavors. First, the series of articles by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf which can be found either at his website or published in the Wanderer have done more than I could possibly do in this regard. The literal translations of the remaining Eucharistic Prayers shall be from his series (used with his kind permission). Therefore I leave to the reader to compare the literal translation so provided with the ICEL translations. If at times I return to explaining, comparing or noticing the problematic ICEL translation it is only because the difficulties that it introduces into what is otherwise in the original a wonderful collection of prayers worthy of our highest regard and contemplation is so glaring that I frequently find myself annoyed. Secondly, after having given thought at the provoking of an email from a reader I have decided that I wish my contributions here to be positive by means of exposition rather than a negative critique of the ICEL translations. I think that such a positive exposition in itself will show where and how the ICEL translation misses the mark in so many ways. I have attempted in the following to use the limited resources available to myself in order to provide a commentary on EPII, the one that we so regularly hear in our parishes. I apologize in advance for the sparse offerings and invite comments, corrections and further resources as we begin to build a repository for information concerning these liturgical prayers.
Vere dignum et iustum est, aequum et salutare, nos tibi, sancte Pater, semper et ubique gratias agere - This formula differs from that of the general use of the Latin Rite: Domine sancte, Pater omnipotens, aeterne Deus (Holy Lord, Father almighty, eternal God). The former missal uses this formula for all its prefaces. So also do the Dominican Rite, Mozarabic Rite4, Ambrosian Rite, and Carthusian Rite. It is also found in the Leonine and Gelasian Sacramentaries. Additionally the formula comes after agere in other prefaces rather than interpolated after tibi. The source of this Eucharistic Prayer is the anaphora of St. Hippolytus of Rome.5 It has here simply Gratias tibi referimus, Deus (We give Thee thanks, O God). The decision of the Concilium to here place only part of the usual Latin Rite formula has left me baffled. Such a modification to the Hippolytan prayer makes sense to bring it into conformity with general useage but seems superfluous if a particular uniqueness is retained anyway. Neither does it conform to Eastern Rite formula for the prefaces.6 However, there are a great variety of liturgical forms for addressing God the Father in other prayers as well as variegated formula between the different Eastern Rites.
Sancte Pater translates into English as Holy Father, which though certainly is theologically sound has an odd ring to English ears because this is the same address we use for the Pope. Scripturally the only verse that holy and father appear next to each other is John 17:11 (Pater sancte).7 In various liturgical prayers, God the Father is addressed as supreme Father of the faithful, Father of mercies, Father almighty, God, Father almighty,8 almighty Father, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, God Father, supreme Father, most affectionate Father,9 eternal Father, glorious Father, and good Father.10 This list is certainly not comprehensive but it does give one a feel for the varied expressions of liturgy. Sancte pater is found in the Liber Sacramentorum Engolismensis11 and in some other collections such as the XVI century German Premonstratensian Hours12 and a 1557 French book of devotions.13
The intended meaning is made clear in the next line: through Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ (per Filium dilectionis tuae Iesum Christum). The Father is holy, the source of all holiness. It is to the person of the Father that the Eucharistic Prayer is addressed. Some fruit may be drawn from this unique instance by reflection upon the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who uses this very phrase (Holy Father) in His prayer for the unity of the Church. It’s use here in the Eucharistic Prayer reminds us not only that it is through the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar that the Mystical Body of Christ is perfected in unity but also reminds us of the seamless connection between the Institution of the Holy Eucharist on Maundy Thursday, the prayer for the unity of His Church,14 His Agony at Gethsemane, His unjust trial and conviction, His brutal beatings, His death upon the Cross and His resurrection and glorious ascension into heaven.
Vere dignum et iustum est, aequum et salutare, nos tibi, sancte Pater, semper et ubique gratias agere per Filium dilectionis tuae Iesum Christum, Verbum tuum per quod cuncta fecisti: quem misisti nobis Salvatorem et Redemptorem, incarnatum de Spiritu Sancto et ex Virgine natum. Qui voluntatem tuam adimplens et populum tibi sanctum acquirens extendit manus cum pateretur, ut mortem solveret et resurrectionem manifestaret. Et ideo cum Angelis et omnibus Sanctis gloriam tuam praedicamus, una voce dicentes:1
ICEL translation:
Father, it is our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks through your beloved Son, Jesus Christ. He is your Word through whom you made the universe, the Savior you sent to redeem us. By the power of the Holy Spirit he took flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary. For our sake he opened his arms on the cross; he put an end to death and revealed the resurrection. In this he fulfilled your will and won for you a holy people. And so we join the angels and the saints in proclaiming your glory as we say: 2
Literal translation:
Truly it is fitting and just, right and helpful unto salvation, for us always and everywhere to give you thanks, O Holy Father, through Your beloved Son Jesus Christ, Your Word through Whom You made all things: Whom You sent to us as Savior and Redeemer, incarnate from the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin. It is He who, fulfilling Your will and securing a holy people for You, extended His hands when He was to suffer, so that He could loosen the death bond and show forth the resurrection. And therefore with the Angels and all the Saints we proclaim Your glory, saying with one voice:3
In the past I have focused somewhat on the ICEL translations attempting both to show the inadequacies of their translations as well as providing for how to understand the sacred texts in light of the original. I will no longer make this a focus of my primary endeavors. First, the series of articles by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf which can be found either at his website or published in the Wanderer have done more than I could possibly do in this regard. The literal translations of the remaining Eucharistic Prayers shall be from his series (used with his kind permission). Therefore I leave to the reader to compare the literal translation so provided with the ICEL translations. If at times I return to explaining, comparing or noticing the problematic ICEL translation it is only because the difficulties that it introduces into what is otherwise in the original a wonderful collection of prayers worthy of our highest regard and contemplation is so glaring that I frequently find myself annoyed. Secondly, after having given thought at the provoking of an email from a reader I have decided that I wish my contributions here to be positive by means of exposition rather than a negative critique of the ICEL translations. I think that such a positive exposition in itself will show where and how the ICEL translation misses the mark in so many ways. I have attempted in the following to use the limited resources available to myself in order to provide a commentary on EPII, the one that we so regularly hear in our parishes. I apologize in advance for the sparse offerings and invite comments, corrections and further resources as we begin to build a repository for information concerning these liturgical prayers.
Vere dignum et iustum est, aequum et salutare, nos tibi, sancte Pater, semper et ubique gratias agere - This formula differs from that of the general use of the Latin Rite: Domine sancte, Pater omnipotens, aeterne Deus (Holy Lord, Father almighty, eternal God). The former missal uses this formula for all its prefaces. So also do the Dominican Rite, Mozarabic Rite4, Ambrosian Rite, and Carthusian Rite. It is also found in the Leonine and Gelasian Sacramentaries. Additionally the formula comes after agere in other prefaces rather than interpolated after tibi. The source of this Eucharistic Prayer is the anaphora of St. Hippolytus of Rome.5 It has here simply Gratias tibi referimus, Deus (We give Thee thanks, O God). The decision of the Concilium to here place only part of the usual Latin Rite formula has left me baffled. Such a modification to the Hippolytan prayer makes sense to bring it into conformity with general useage but seems superfluous if a particular uniqueness is retained anyway. Neither does it conform to Eastern Rite formula for the prefaces.6 However, there are a great variety of liturgical forms for addressing God the Father in other prayers as well as variegated formula between the different Eastern Rites.
Sancte Pater translates into English as Holy Father, which though certainly is theologically sound has an odd ring to English ears because this is the same address we use for the Pope. Scripturally the only verse that holy and father appear next to each other is John 17:11 (Pater sancte).7 In various liturgical prayers, God the Father is addressed as supreme Father of the faithful, Father of mercies, Father almighty, God, Father almighty,8 almighty Father, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, God Father, supreme Father, most affectionate Father,9 eternal Father, glorious Father, and good Father.10 This list is certainly not comprehensive but it does give one a feel for the varied expressions of liturgy. Sancte pater is found in the Liber Sacramentorum Engolismensis11 and in some other collections such as the XVI century German Premonstratensian Hours12 and a 1557 French book of devotions.13
The intended meaning is made clear in the next line: through Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ (per Filium dilectionis tuae Iesum Christum). The Father is holy, the source of all holiness. It is to the person of the Father that the Eucharistic Prayer is addressed. Some fruit may be drawn from this unique instance by reflection upon the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who uses this very phrase (Holy Father) in His prayer for the unity of the Church. It’s use here in the Eucharistic Prayer reminds us not only that it is through the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar that the Mystical Body of Christ is perfected in unity but also reminds us of the seamless connection between the Institution of the Holy Eucharist on Maundy Thursday, the prayer for the unity of His Church,14 His Agony at Gethsemane, His unjust trial and conviction, His brutal beatings, His death upon the Cross and His resurrection and glorious ascension into heaven.
St. John the Evangelist tells us that it is after His prayer for unity that Jesus goes forth with His disciples into a garden. St. Matthew records for us that the garden they went to was Gethsemane where our Lord begins His Agony that is contemplated in the first Sorrowful Mystery of the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. St. Luke records that being in earnest prayer He sheds His blood at this place. St. Mark and St. Matthew give us a subtle treasure that goes unnoticed by Catholics who are not familiar with the ceremonies of the Jewish passover that Scott Hahn delves into deeply in his talk entitled “The Forth Cup.”15 In short, the celebration of the Passover calls for the hymns, which St. Matthew and St. Mark record that our Lord and the Apostles sang before going to Gethsemane, to be followed by another cup of wine. Hence the institution of the Eucharist is consummated on the Cross when Christ drinks from the sponge soaked in soured wine. Therefore we should recall when we hear these words at Holy Mass how it is that our Lord intended the Blessed Sacrament to show forth His inestimable love and the intimate connection between its institution, His death, resurrection and ascension and His prayer to the Father for the unity of His Church.
per Filium dilectionis tuae Iesum Christum, - It is through Christ that we are reconciled to the Father. In the Eucharistic Prayer the Church prays in the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ to the Father. These words are found also in the wonderful devotion called the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, which our Lord through St. Faustina has given us and much desires us to pray. In Latin the prayer on the single beads is: Pater aeterne, offero tibi, Corpus et Sanguinem, animam et Divinitatem, dilectissimi Filii tui Domini nostri Jesu Christi, in propitipatione pro peccatis nostris et totius mundi.
Jesus is the Son of the Father’s love through whom we are redeemed and find remission of our sins.16 The Father tells us so at Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan and again at His Transfiguration on the Mount when the Father says to us, “This is My beloved Son.”17 For as St. John the Evangelist writes, “For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by him.”18
Verbum tuum per quod cuncta fecisti: - The Logos (Word) was in the beginning with God and the Word was God and through Him all things were made. Nothing that was made was made without Him. So St. John the Evangelist19 tells us in the first verses of the Gospel written by him just as the writer of Wisdom20 tells us also. Not only were all things made by Him and in Him but that everything that was made continues to exist only by virtue of Him.21 “All things that were made were made not for the increase of God’s glory but to show it forth and communicate it. The First Vatican Council explains: This one, true God, of his own goodness and “almighty power,” not for increasing his own beatitude, nor for attaining his perfection, but in order to manifest this perfection through the benefits which he bestows on creatures, with absolute freedom of counsel “and from the beginning of time, made out of nothing both orders of creatures, the spiritual and the corporeal…” 22
quem misisti nobis Salvatorem et Redemptorem, - “Now this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” 23 “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.”24 “It is in Christ, Redeemer and Savior, that the diving image, disfigured in man by the first sin, has been restored to its original beauty and ennobled by the grace of God.”25
In the whole of Denzinger’s “The Sources of Catholic Dogma,” the use of these two titles for Christ are found together in only one passage. It is a passage that I find most significant given the context in which these words appear here. The Council of Trent “teaches and openly and simply professes that in the nourishing sacrament of the Holy Eucharist after the consecration of the bread and wine our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and man, is truly, really and substantially contained under the species of those sensible things. For these things are not mutually contradictory, that our Savior Himself is always seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven according to the natural mode of existing, and yet that in many other places sacramentally He is present to us in His own substance by that manner of existence which, although we can scarcely express it in words, yet we can, however, by our understanding illuminated by faith, conceive to be possible to God, and which we ought most steadfastly believe. For thus all our forefathers, as many as were in the true Church of Christ, who have discussed this holy sacrament, have most openly professed that our Redeemer instituted this so wonderful a sacrament at the Last Supper, when after the blessing of the bread and wine He testified in clear and definite words that He gave them His own body and His own blood…”26
incarnatum de Spiritu Sancto et ex Virgine natum. - “Oh how great was the joy of the heavenly Father in that night when He beheld His well-beloved Son, begotten from all eternity, born of the pure Virgin, whom He vouchsafed to call by the endearing name of daughter! How great the gladness of the Son of God when He beheld Himself clad in the vesture of our humanity, possessing now not only a Father in Heaven, but a Mother on earth besides! How great the satisfaction of the Holy Spirit on beholding Him whom He had united to the Father from all eternity in the closest bond of a perfect love now, by His operation, joined so intimately to human nature that the two natures, so infinitely distinct and diverse, were united together in the one person of the God-Man! How great the sweetness which filled the soul of the Blessed Virgin when, gazing on her new-born Babe, she told herself that the Infant she held in her arms was not her Son alone, but also the Son of the Eternal Father, the Most High God!”27
“It is certain that all God’s works, styled by theologians opera ad extra, or external works, are the works of all the three divine Persons. And why, therefore, should the Incarnation be attributed solely to the Person of the Holy Ghost? The chief reason which the Angelic Doctor assigns for it is because all the works of divine love are attributed to the Holy Ghost, who is the substantial love of the Father and of the Son; and the work of the Incarnation was purely the effect of the surpassing love which God bears to man: “But this proceeded from the very great love of God, that the Son of God should assume flesh to himself in the womb of the Virgin.”28 “St. Gregory of Naziansen adds, moreover, that God, for the love he bears to men, seems beside himself: “we are bold to say it, God is out of himself by reason of his immense love.”29 “God had conferred so many blessings on men, thereby to draw them to love him; but these ungrateful men not only did not love him, but they would not even acknowledge him as their Lord. … He, however, who wished to be more loved than feared by us, became man like us, chose a poor, suffering, and obscure life, and a painful and ignominious death; and why? To draw our hearts to himself. If Jesus Christ had not redeemed us, he would not have been less great or less happy than he has always been; but he determined to procure our salvation at the cost of many labors and sufferings, as if his happiness depended on ours. He might have redeemed us without suffering; but no, - he willed to free us from eternal death by his own death; and though he was able to save us in a thousand ways, he chose the most humiliating and painful way of dying on the cross of pure suffering, to purchase the love of us, ungrateful worms of the earth. And what indeed was the cause of his miserable birth and his most sorrowful death, if not the love he had for us?”30
Qui voluntatem tuam adimplens et populum tibi sanctum acquirens extendit manus cum pateretur, - “He gave us not a servant, not an Angel, but his own Son,” says St. John Chrysostom. Wherefore Holy Church exultingly exclaims, “O wondrous condescension of Thy mercy in our regard! O unappreciable love of charity! That Thou mightest redeem a slave, Thou deliveredst up Thy Son.”31 “The gift which the Eternal Father made us of his Son was a true gift, perfectly voluntary, and without any merit of ours…” 32“Who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.”33 “And the Lord willed to bruise Him in infirmity. He willed to make him die consumed by torments and sufferings.”34
“It is of faith that Jesus loved us, and for love of us has given himself over unto death: Christ hath loved us, and hath delivered himself up for us.” 35 “I give my life … no one taketh it from Me; but I lay it down of Myself.’ Wherefore St. John observes that Jesus, by his death, gave us the uttermost proof that he could have given us of his love: Having loved His own, He loved them to the end.” 36 “It was for this end, says the Apostle, that he, our beloved Redeemer died for us, that, by the love he displayed towards us in his death, he might become the possessor of our hearts: To this end Christ died, and rose again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and of the living; therefore, whether we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord’s Whether, then we die or live, it is but just that we belong wholly to Jesus, who has saved us at so great a cost.” 37
ut mortem solveret et resurrectionem manifestaret. - It is at this juncture that some detractors 38 of this Eucharistic Prayer attempt to show a Protestant bias of the liturgical reformers by the suppression of the formula of St. Hippolytus in his original anaphora. They claim to show that the original “that He might destroy death and break the bonds of the devil and trample under foot hell and illumine the just (ut mortem solvat at vincula diaboli dirumpat, et infernum calcet, et justos illuminet)” was reduced to “ut mortem solveret” for reasons coinciding with Protestant or at least non-Catholic ethos. I’m not quite sure how the one is more Catholic than the other but I do think that we can take a cue from Dom Cabrol’s study of the Roman Mass to see a more suitable reason for this suppression. The liturgical reformers who re-wrote this prayer did so in a manner that emulates the genius of the Roman Canon. Here as in the Roman Canon the reformers followed a similar pattern of pairing terms: dignum et justum; aequum et salutare; semper et ubique, nos tibi – sancte Pater, Salvatorem et Redemptorem, incarnatum de Spiritu Sancto et ex Virgine natum, voluntatem tuam adimplens et populum tibi sanctum acquirens, mortem solveret et resurrectionem manifestaret, cum Angelis et omnibus Sanctis.39
Venerable Bede, Priest and Doctor, in a homily given on the Vigil of Easter tells us, “The Gentiles are wont in this place to lay snares of deception before the simple trustfulness of our faith, by saying: Are you not rash to trust that the Christ Whom you worship can bring back your bodies imperishable from the dust: He Who did not conceal the signs of death that were upon that body which you say was raised from the dead; and who could not heal the scars of the wounds He received upon the Cross?” “To whom we answer, that Christ, since He is the Omnipotent God, and as He promised, has both recalled to life, as He willed, His own body, Which by dying He had put off, and raised our bodies from corruption to incorruption, from death to life, from the dust of the earth to everlasting glory. He could have shown It to His Disciples with the wounds of His Passion healed, yet, because of the divine purpose of the Incarnation, He chose to retain upon it these tokens of His Passion.” “So it was necessary that Christ suffer, and rise again; because it was impossible for the world to be saved unless God came as man, Who, appearing in the nature of man, would teach men how to serve God, and Who, submitting to death, as man would triumph over it by divine power; and thus awaken in those who believed in Him a contempt for death, and kindle in them a certain hope of resurrection and of life everlasting.”40
Et ideo cum Angelis et omnibus Sanctis gloriam tuam praedicamus, una voce dicentes: - Therefore the Church, having recalled in brief the story of our salvation not for God’s benefit but that we might contemplate the Holy Mysteries and understand in them the infinite graces there contained, proclaims with all the Angels and Saints the glory of God in the words Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus!
per Filium dilectionis tuae Iesum Christum, - It is through Christ that we are reconciled to the Father. In the Eucharistic Prayer the Church prays in the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ to the Father. These words are found also in the wonderful devotion called the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, which our Lord through St. Faustina has given us and much desires us to pray. In Latin the prayer on the single beads is: Pater aeterne, offero tibi, Corpus et Sanguinem, animam et Divinitatem, dilectissimi Filii tui Domini nostri Jesu Christi, in propitipatione pro peccatis nostris et totius mundi.
Jesus is the Son of the Father’s love through whom we are redeemed and find remission of our sins.16 The Father tells us so at Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan and again at His Transfiguration on the Mount when the Father says to us, “This is My beloved Son.”17 For as St. John the Evangelist writes, “For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by him.”18
Verbum tuum per quod cuncta fecisti: - The Logos (Word) was in the beginning with God and the Word was God and through Him all things were made. Nothing that was made was made without Him. So St. John the Evangelist19 tells us in the first verses of the Gospel written by him just as the writer of Wisdom20 tells us also. Not only were all things made by Him and in Him but that everything that was made continues to exist only by virtue of Him.21 “All things that were made were made not for the increase of God’s glory but to show it forth and communicate it. The First Vatican Council explains: This one, true God, of his own goodness and “almighty power,” not for increasing his own beatitude, nor for attaining his perfection, but in order to manifest this perfection through the benefits which he bestows on creatures, with absolute freedom of counsel “and from the beginning of time, made out of nothing both orders of creatures, the spiritual and the corporeal…” 22
quem misisti nobis Salvatorem et Redemptorem, - “Now this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” 23 “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.”24 “It is in Christ, Redeemer and Savior, that the diving image, disfigured in man by the first sin, has been restored to its original beauty and ennobled by the grace of God.”25
In the whole of Denzinger’s “The Sources of Catholic Dogma,” the use of these two titles for Christ are found together in only one passage. It is a passage that I find most significant given the context in which these words appear here. The Council of Trent “teaches and openly and simply professes that in the nourishing sacrament of the Holy Eucharist after the consecration of the bread and wine our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and man, is truly, really and substantially contained under the species of those sensible things. For these things are not mutually contradictory, that our Savior Himself is always seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven according to the natural mode of existing, and yet that in many other places sacramentally He is present to us in His own substance by that manner of existence which, although we can scarcely express it in words, yet we can, however, by our understanding illuminated by faith, conceive to be possible to God, and which we ought most steadfastly believe. For thus all our forefathers, as many as were in the true Church of Christ, who have discussed this holy sacrament, have most openly professed that our Redeemer instituted this so wonderful a sacrament at the Last Supper, when after the blessing of the bread and wine He testified in clear and definite words that He gave them His own body and His own blood…”26
incarnatum de Spiritu Sancto et ex Virgine natum. - “Oh how great was the joy of the heavenly Father in that night when He beheld His well-beloved Son, begotten from all eternity, born of the pure Virgin, whom He vouchsafed to call by the endearing name of daughter! How great the gladness of the Son of God when He beheld Himself clad in the vesture of our humanity, possessing now not only a Father in Heaven, but a Mother on earth besides! How great the satisfaction of the Holy Spirit on beholding Him whom He had united to the Father from all eternity in the closest bond of a perfect love now, by His operation, joined so intimately to human nature that the two natures, so infinitely distinct and diverse, were united together in the one person of the God-Man! How great the sweetness which filled the soul of the Blessed Virgin when, gazing on her new-born Babe, she told herself that the Infant she held in her arms was not her Son alone, but also the Son of the Eternal Father, the Most High God!”27
“It is certain that all God’s works, styled by theologians opera ad extra, or external works, are the works of all the three divine Persons. And why, therefore, should the Incarnation be attributed solely to the Person of the Holy Ghost? The chief reason which the Angelic Doctor assigns for it is because all the works of divine love are attributed to the Holy Ghost, who is the substantial love of the Father and of the Son; and the work of the Incarnation was purely the effect of the surpassing love which God bears to man: “But this proceeded from the very great love of God, that the Son of God should assume flesh to himself in the womb of the Virgin.”28 “St. Gregory of Naziansen adds, moreover, that God, for the love he bears to men, seems beside himself: “we are bold to say it, God is out of himself by reason of his immense love.”29 “God had conferred so many blessings on men, thereby to draw them to love him; but these ungrateful men not only did not love him, but they would not even acknowledge him as their Lord. … He, however, who wished to be more loved than feared by us, became man like us, chose a poor, suffering, and obscure life, and a painful and ignominious death; and why? To draw our hearts to himself. If Jesus Christ had not redeemed us, he would not have been less great or less happy than he has always been; but he determined to procure our salvation at the cost of many labors and sufferings, as if his happiness depended on ours. He might have redeemed us without suffering; but no, - he willed to free us from eternal death by his own death; and though he was able to save us in a thousand ways, he chose the most humiliating and painful way of dying on the cross of pure suffering, to purchase the love of us, ungrateful worms of the earth. And what indeed was the cause of his miserable birth and his most sorrowful death, if not the love he had for us?”30
Qui voluntatem tuam adimplens et populum tibi sanctum acquirens extendit manus cum pateretur, - “He gave us not a servant, not an Angel, but his own Son,” says St. John Chrysostom. Wherefore Holy Church exultingly exclaims, “O wondrous condescension of Thy mercy in our regard! O unappreciable love of charity! That Thou mightest redeem a slave, Thou deliveredst up Thy Son.”31 “The gift which the Eternal Father made us of his Son was a true gift, perfectly voluntary, and without any merit of ours…” 32“Who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.”33 “And the Lord willed to bruise Him in infirmity. He willed to make him die consumed by torments and sufferings.”34
“It is of faith that Jesus loved us, and for love of us has given himself over unto death: Christ hath loved us, and hath delivered himself up for us.” 35 “I give my life … no one taketh it from Me; but I lay it down of Myself.’ Wherefore St. John observes that Jesus, by his death, gave us the uttermost proof that he could have given us of his love: Having loved His own, He loved them to the end.” 36 “It was for this end, says the Apostle, that he, our beloved Redeemer died for us, that, by the love he displayed towards us in his death, he might become the possessor of our hearts: To this end Christ died, and rose again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and of the living; therefore, whether we live, or whether we die, we are the Lord’s Whether, then we die or live, it is but just that we belong wholly to Jesus, who has saved us at so great a cost.” 37
ut mortem solveret et resurrectionem manifestaret. - It is at this juncture that some detractors 38 of this Eucharistic Prayer attempt to show a Protestant bias of the liturgical reformers by the suppression of the formula of St. Hippolytus in his original anaphora. They claim to show that the original “that He might destroy death and break the bonds of the devil and trample under foot hell and illumine the just (ut mortem solvat at vincula diaboli dirumpat, et infernum calcet, et justos illuminet)” was reduced to “ut mortem solveret” for reasons coinciding with Protestant or at least non-Catholic ethos. I’m not quite sure how the one is more Catholic than the other but I do think that we can take a cue from Dom Cabrol’s study of the Roman Mass to see a more suitable reason for this suppression. The liturgical reformers who re-wrote this prayer did so in a manner that emulates the genius of the Roman Canon. Here as in the Roman Canon the reformers followed a similar pattern of pairing terms: dignum et justum; aequum et salutare; semper et ubique, nos tibi – sancte Pater, Salvatorem et Redemptorem, incarnatum de Spiritu Sancto et ex Virgine natum, voluntatem tuam adimplens et populum tibi sanctum acquirens, mortem solveret et resurrectionem manifestaret, cum Angelis et omnibus Sanctis.39
Venerable Bede, Priest and Doctor, in a homily given on the Vigil of Easter tells us, “The Gentiles are wont in this place to lay snares of deception before the simple trustfulness of our faith, by saying: Are you not rash to trust that the Christ Whom you worship can bring back your bodies imperishable from the dust: He Who did not conceal the signs of death that were upon that body which you say was raised from the dead; and who could not heal the scars of the wounds He received upon the Cross?” “To whom we answer, that Christ, since He is the Omnipotent God, and as He promised, has both recalled to life, as He willed, His own body, Which by dying He had put off, and raised our bodies from corruption to incorruption, from death to life, from the dust of the earth to everlasting glory. He could have shown It to His Disciples with the wounds of His Passion healed, yet, because of the divine purpose of the Incarnation, He chose to retain upon it these tokens of His Passion.” “So it was necessary that Christ suffer, and rise again; because it was impossible for the world to be saved unless God came as man, Who, appearing in the nature of man, would teach men how to serve God, and Who, submitting to death, as man would triumph over it by divine power; and thus awaken in those who believed in Him a contempt for death, and kindle in them a certain hope of resurrection and of life everlasting.”40
Et ideo cum Angelis et omnibus Sanctis gloriam tuam praedicamus, una voce dicentes: - Therefore the Church, having recalled in brief the story of our salvation not for God’s benefit but that we might contemplate the Holy Mysteries and understand in them the infinite graces there contained, proclaims with all the Angels and Saints the glory of God in the words Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus!
1 Daily Roman Missal, Rev. James Socias, Midwest Theological Forum, 2003, p. 764.
2 Ibid., p. 765
3 Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, What Do The Prayers Really Say?, Site: WDTPRS; Blog: WDTPRS .
4 The Mozarabic Rite has it (the usual Latin rite formula) for the First Sunday of Advent as found in Patrologia Latina, Migne Volume 85. This is the only copy of the Mozarabic Ordo Missae that I have available for comparison. Given the consistency of the formula across various rites it seems safe to assume that the other proper prefaces follow the same.
5 Anaphora of St. Hippolytus, Canonum Reliquiae.
6 O Master, Lord, Father, invisible King, Eternal Father, etc.
7 John 17:11 And now I am not in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name whom thou has given me; that they may be one, as we also are. (Et jam non sum in mundo, et hi in mundo sunt, et ego ad te vénio. Pater sancte, serva eos in nómine tuo, quos dedísti mihi : ut sint unum, sicut et nos.)
8 Missale Romanum ex decreto Sacrosancti Concilii Tridentini restitutum (num.Bruylants): Deus, fidelium Pater summe..., Oratio post Prophetia Tertia, Sabbato Sancto[224]; Deus, misericordiam pater..., Oratio (collecta), Die 20 Iulii S. Hieronymi Aemiliani, Confessoris[238]; ...Pater omnipotens..., Orationis DNIC (postcommunio), Missae pro aliquibus locis: Feria III post Dominicam Septuagesimae[960]; ...Deus, Pater omnipotens..., Secreta, Missae pro aliquibus locis: Die 4 Iulii In commemoratione Omnium Ss. Summorum Pontificum[1166].
9 Cod. Vat. Reg. lat. 316/Paris B.N. 7193, 41-56(Sacramentarium Gelasianum Vetus): ...imperat tibi deus pater..., Exorcismus contra inerguminos, [1716]; ...sume pater..., Secreta, Orationes et praecis in Dominica Octavorum Pentecosten, Liber I. LXXXIIII[679]; ...piissime pater..., Reconciliatio paenitentis ad mortem Liber I. XXXVIIII[364].
10 Cod. Bibl. Capit. Veron. LXXXV (80) Sacramentarium Veronese (Leonianum): ...pater aeternae..., VIII Mense Aprile/XXVII item alia[101]; ...pater gloriae..., Mense Maio XI in Dominicum Pentecosten[217]; ...pater bone..., Mense Iunio XVI Coniunctio oblationis Virginum Sacratarum XIII item alia[316].
11 Liber Sacramentorum Engolismensis (Gel. VIII sec.): ...haec tibi sancte pater..., No title [1765]; ...per te sancte pater..., LXXV Item alia Missa Post Communionem[2185]; ...sancte pater..., LXXVIII Orationes votivas quas sacerdos pro se orare debeat[2197].
12 MS 9 (olim Z109.32) Germany, s. XVI, Hours, Premonstratensian use, 16. ff. 201v-209v: Misericordiam tuam domine sancte pater, Ps. 113 (cue only) with antiphon.
13 MS 314 France, 1557 Devotions (in Latin and French) 5. ff. 42r-67v[Prayers]: O Amantissime domine sancte pater ego offero tibi...
14 The Fourth Cup by Scott Hahn
15 Chronology of events: Hymns: (Mt 26:30; Mk 14:26), Peter’s denial foretold: (Mt 26:31-35; Mk 14:27-31; Lk 22:31-34; Jn 13:36-38), the Prayer for Unity: (Jn 17:1-26), they enter into Gethsemane: (Mt 26:36; Mk 14:32; Lk 22:39-40; Jn 18:1).
16 Col 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, 14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the remission of sins; 15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature (Col 1:13 qui erípuit nos de potestáte tenebrárum, et tránstulit in regnum fílii dilectiónis suæ, 14 in quo habémus redemptiónem per sánguinem ejus, remissiónem peccatórum : 15 qui est imágo Dei invisíbilis, primogénitus omnis creatúræ)
17 The Baptism “Hic est Filius meus dilectus” (Mt 3:17) and the Transfiguration of the Lord “Hic est Filius meus dilectus” (Mt 17:5).
18 John 3:16 Sic enim Deus diléxit mundum, ut Fílium suum unigénitum daret : ut omnis qui credit in eum, non péreat, sed hábeat vitam ætérnam. 17 Non enim misit Deus Fílium suum in mundum, ut júdicet mundum, sed ut salvétur mundus per ipsum.
19 John 1:1-3: 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made. (1 In princípio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum. 2 Hoc erat in princípio apud Deum. 3 Ómnia per ipsum facta sunt : et sine ipso factum est nihil, quod factum est.)
20 Wisdom 9: 1 God of my fathers, and Lord of mercy, who hast made all things with thy word (Deus patrum meórum, et Dómine misericórdiæ, qui fecísti ómnia verbo tuo).
21 Col 1:16-17: 16 For in him were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him and in him. 17 And he is before all, and by him all things consist. (16 quóniam in ipso cóndita sunt univérsa in cælis, et in terra, visibília, et invisibília, sive throni, sive dominatiónes, sive principátus, sive potestátes : ómnia per ipsum et in ipso creáta sunt : 17 et ipse est ante omnes, et ómnia in ipso constant).
22 CCC 293 St. Bonaventure, In II Sent. I,2,2,1. Dei Filius, 1: DS 3002; cf. Lateran Council IV (1215): DS 800.
23 John 17:3 Hæc est autem vita ætérna : ut cognóscant te, solum Deum verum, et quem misísti Jesum Christum.
24 CCC Prooemium 1. Deus, in Se Ipso infinite perfectus atque beatus, secundum purae bonitatis propositum, hominem libere creavit, ut illum vitae Suae beatae efficeret participem. Quare Ipse omni tempore et in omni loco homini fit propinquus. Hominem Deus vocat et adiuvat ut Eum quaerat, cognoscat atque totis viribus diligat. Omnes homines, peccato dispersos, in unitatem convocat familiae Suae, quae est Ecclesia. Ad id efficiendum, Suum misit Filium tamquam Redemptorem et Salvatorem, cum tempora sunt impleta. In Ipso et per Ipsum homines Deus vocat ut in Spiritu Sancto filii Eius fiant adoptivi atque ideo heredes Eius vitae beatae.
25 CCC 1701: In Christo, Redemptore et Salvatore, imago divina, in homine deformata primo peccato, in sua originali pulchritudine est restaurata et gratia Dei nobilitata.24 (24) Cf Concilium Vaticanum II, Const. past. Gaudium et spes, 22: AAS 58 (1966) 1042.
26 Council of Trent, Session XIII, Ch 1: DS 874.
27 Fr. Martin von Cochem, The Incredible Catholic Mass, Tan Books, 1997, pp. 88-89.
28 St. Alphonsus de Ligouri, The Incarnation, Birth and Infancy of Jesus Christ, Redemptorist Fathers, p. 21, St. Thomas Aquinas, P. 3,q. 32.a. I: Hoc autem ex maximo Dei amore provenit, ut Filius Dei carnem sibi assumeret in utero Virginis.
29 Ibid., p. 25, St. Gregory Nazianzen: "Audemus dicere quod Deus, prae magnitudine amoris, extra se sit." De Div. Nom. C. 4.
30 Ibid., p. 360.
31 St. Alphonsus de Ligouri, The Passion and the Death of Jesus Christ, Redemptorist Fathers, p. 142; Non servum, non Angelum, sed Filium suum donavit – in Jo. Hom 26. O mira circa nos tuae pietatis dignatio! O inaestimabilis dilectio charitatis! Ut servum redimeres, Filium tradidisti.”
32 Ibid., p.143
33 Ibid., p. 144; “Qui etiam proprio Filio suo non percepit, sed pro nobis omnibus tradidit illum,” Rom. 8:32.
34 Ibid., p.144; “Et Dominus voluit conterere eum in infirmitate,” Isa. 53:10.
35 Ibid., p. 149; “Christus dilexit nos et tradidit semetipsum pro nobis,” Eph 5:2.
36 Ibid., p.150; “Ego pono animam meam …; nemo tollit eam a me, sed ego pono eam a meipso,” John 10:17; “Cum dilexisset suos, qui errant in mundo, in finem dilexit eos,” John 13:1.
37 Ibid., p. 152; “ In hoc enim Christus mortuus est et resurrexit, ut et mortuorum et vivorum dominetur. Sive ergo morimur, sive vivimus, Domini sumus,” Rom. 14:9.
38 Ecclesia Militans, Wandea, Rama Coomaraswamy.
39 Rt. Rev. Dom Fernand Cabrol, The Mass of the Western Rites, Ch V, The Roman Canon.
40 Fr. M. F. Toal, D.D., The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, Volume II,Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2000, pp. 204-210; Venerable Bede, PL 54, Sermon 71, For the Vigil of Easter: the Giving of Peace.
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