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Last year, it was pointed out on this blog that there is a mini-season of Advent called Sapientiatide (analogous to Passiontide at the end of Lent) that runs from Dec. 17-23. “Sapientia” is Latin for “wisdom,” so “Wisdomtide” would be the English translation. At Vespers on those nights, the Church prays the “Great O Antiphons.” In order, these begin with the words:
O Sapientia (hence the name of the season)
O Adonai
O Radix Jesse
O Clavis David
O Oriens
O Rex Gentium
O Emmanuel
You may remember these titles of Our Lord from the English hymn, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” Well, the initial letters of these titles create a backwards acrostic: ERO CRAS. That’s Latin for “I’ll be tomorrow,” or, more loosely, “I’ll arrive tomorrow.” Of course, the night after the 23rd is the Vespers of Christmas Eve, so the “speaker” of the acrostic is Christ, the Incarnate Wisdom of the Father. It’s as though Christ, after being addressed in the antiphons by those seven titles over the past week, is answering the prayer Himself. So the folks who arranged the prayers for Sapientiatide must have been pretty “wise” themselves!
For some edifying reading on Divine Wisdom, that which the Three Wise Men came from the East seeking (see painting above), see St. Louis de Montfort’s work here at EWTN.
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort,
Pope St. Pius X,
St. Joseph,
St. Ambrose of Milan,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
St. Francis (and St. Clare),
St. Catherine of Siena,
St. Alphonsus Ligouri,
St. John Chrysostom,
What did the Holy Family do with all the precious goods given from the Three Kings?
You know, one of my professors here at Cornell, a lapsed Catholic, recently asked me the same thing. If the Three Wise Men gave them gold, then why was the Holy Family so poor? Why could they afford only turtledoves at the Presentation if they’d just received precious treasures?
I don’t know if there is any tradition on this. Maybe the myrrh was used to dress Our Lord’s body after the Crucifixion, which was a traditional use of myrrh? Maybe the Holy Family needed the gold for when the lived in Egypt — but then St. Joseph presumably was a carpenter there too.
Being many thousands of miles from a traditional priest, I cannot easily seek out the answer. But I’m sure there is one. These are the types of questions that the Novus Ordo is incapable of answering because they are cut off from the Sacred Traditions of the Church. If it isn’t in a post-Vatican II document they are almost ignorant of it. And also this is the type of question that probably has a perfectly sound and reasonable answer and adds to the completeness and sacredness of our Holy Faith.
Speaking of tradition or lack thereof, why do so many Novus Ordo priests feel it necessary to mention from the altar that Jesus was not born on December 25th; only that the Church decided to celebrate that day to symbolize the Light entering the world on the darkest day of the year.
This of course is complete Novus Ordo hogwash - which does nothing but make those Catholics who already have a weak faith more prone to questioning and doubting all sacred things.
Are we to presume that the Church knew better than God what day his birth should be?
Are we to presume that Our lady and Our Lord’s closest friends didn’t share this precious information with the Apostles and His other disciples?
Are we to presume that the Apostles and disciples didn’t pass this information on?
God save us from the Novus Ordo!
Merry Christmas!
Yes, Merry Christmas! Say, were you able to attend one of Pope Benedict’s Masses in Turkey?
Unfortunately, no.
It’s a shame too because the Mary’s House chapel has a capacity of about 100, and they actually had a problem finding 100 people to attend the Mass, so it would have been one of the most intimate of papal venues.
A delightful observation, Tobias. I hadn’t seen that remarked before. Where did you come across that? Or was it your native wisdom?
Joe,
Are all Novus Ordo hogwash by definition, or is it just your experience? My rxperience with N.O. has been great in 2 out of three parishes. The 2 promoted pro=life in homily after homily and condemned birth control, cafeteria Catholicism, same sex marriage, etc. They celebrated Mass with reverence.
But the other parish? Well, they were “Spirit of Vat II” all the way. One priest was loving and compassionate and caring and artistic, and all that. He was dedicated to God. I believe he was wrong the way a good Methodist is wrong.
Another priest there was guilty of every liturgical infraction I ever read about. He knew it, and didn’t appear to care. We left. The church was within walking distance, the people were friendly, but we left. We’d do the same if it were any other Catholic church.
I’m sorry your experience hasn’t been mine.
Iosephe, actually, I first came across it on the blog of a Lutheran minister who was teaching chant to his congregation (something interesting in itself). Then I typed “ero cras” into google, and many of the (relatively few) sites that mention Sapientiatide, the Great O Antiphons, etc., mention the backwards acrostic. Merry Christmas!
Cranky,
Definitely to have a good Novus Ordo priest is a blessing. But I’ve found often that being a “good” Novus Ordo priest means we are thankful that he is not an open heretic regarding at least one or more matters of the faith and that he celebrates Mass as if he actually believes in the gravity of what he’s doing. The bar is so low now that when we find a priest who actually seems to care for souls we are willing to overlook a half-dozen lesser faults.
While on the other hand among tradition priests we tend to find men who are 100% Catholic with no apologies.
Furthermore, even among the Novus Ordo priests who want to do the right thing, even among those whose hearts are in the right place, the sad fact remains that their formation is lacking in many areas. A traditional priest has at his disposal traditional moral manuals, the teachings of the doctors, the teachings of the sacred councils of the Church, and often a personal network of more experienced priests in such areas as moral theology, philosophy, and others. He threads all these together, when appropriate, in forming his sermons, and when giving advice in the confessional.
The debate over the birth of Christ may seem like a matter of relatively little importance given the major issues of today. But I’ve never ever heard a Novus Ordo priest defend December 25th as the actual birthday of Our Lord. When I first heard an FSSP priest make this declaration and give his supporting remarks (all in the form of a preface to his intended Christmas sermon) - I was stunned. It all made sense. It made perfect sense. It’s a greater leap of faith to believe that December 25th isn’t the actual date of Christ’s birth.
Furthermore, the questioning of birth date, does, I think, tend scandalize those already who are prone to skepticism regarding the faith. The prideful men of today who question December 25th as Christ’s birthday or who question the actual historical existence of saints such as Christopher or George believe falsely that a mature faith means being able to question the Church on these issues and still maintaining the faith.
First it’s a ridiculous approach because they are wrong and all those things from our Sacred Tradition are true. And second, because it doesn’t mature our faith, it merely protestantizes it and drives men prone to skepticism away.
In defense of JSP, I have found that even the good Novus Ordo priests tend to use altar girls. In two parishes I know of, they are so conservative that they even hold patens under the communicants’ hands or mouth. But half the time it is a female altar server doing it, so we get incongruous pairings of sound liturgical practices and revolutionary ones. I know of only one “conservative” NO parish that has evaded altar girls so far.
You all are very helpful. Altarboys may be something between me and being a traditionalist. One of my two conservative NO priests used altar girls. The other didn’t. I prefer altar boys. But what’s wrong with girls? They do better job of being reverent–usually. The boys are more prone to yawn and scratch until Fr melts them with a glance. Isn’t there only one bishop who forbids them?
Should the use of girls be a deal breaker on a parish? I’ve left a parish for liturgical improvisation and the use of eucharistic ministers while the priest sat out the distribution of the Body and Blood. Hard to go for reason of some reverent young woman taking the place of some irreverent young boy.
Also, I prefer male eucharistic ministers, but we lack the “man power” for three services a weekend.
Also, one of the NO priests connected me with John of Cross during the instruction he gave my wife and me for joining church. That’s right, no RCIA.
Altar girls are just one of the problems or compromises found even at “conservative” NO parishes. I think that the lack of priestly formation in traditional Catholic moral theology to be of bigger concern, but if you want to focus on altar girls, so be it.
Why are altar girls problematic?
God says they don’t belong up there.
2000 years of Christian history, 5000 years of Noahic/Ambrahamic pre-Christian history, the Old and the New Testament both — this all adds up to a fairly definitive form of the universal ordinary magisterium.
But today we know better than God.
Today we are more just and fair than God.
The modern mind says we cannot deprive good-hearted young ladies a chance to “actively participate” in the liturgy.
But regardless of our now modern grown-up sophisticated sensibilities, women in the sanctuary are an offense to Almighty God.
God commanded Levite priests to strike dead with a sword any women who would dare approach the sacred places of the temple.
Guess what that’s the same God we worship today.
The only thing holding back his anger over what is happening in his churches today is Jesus hanging on the Cross pleading for us.
“God commanded Levite priests to strike dead with a sword any women who would dare approach the sacred places of the temple.”
Yikes, where is that? I knew there was a Women’s Court in the Temple beyond which only male Israelites could pass.
You guys have been very helpful. I never had a really strong argument against girl altar boys until now. Before, I made allusions to it leading to fewer vocations when I was cornered in a discussion, but I had no real stats, so it was weak. So Joe and Tobias, thank you.
I agree that focusing on faulty formation of priests is more important than getting hung up on a minor issue. My problem is I am a very concrete kind of guy about these kinds of things. It is hard for me to conceptualize “formation” unless I break it down issue by issue. It’s one of my weaknesses. Forcing issues through this linear sequential thinking process has led me from being a Southern Baptist to being on an Assembly of God staff to being a conservative Catholic.
I’m not a fan of altar girls, and I wouldn’t allow a daughter of mine to be one, but I’d be hesitant about the implication that it’s an actual sacrilege. There were a lot of rules and customs observed by the Levites that we don’t take to be binding on us, so that in itself is inconclusive to say the least.
Referring to an earlier part of the thread, I thought I’d add that, as much as I love and respect the FSSP, I’ve never taken deep or extensive philosophical/theological knowledge to be one of their special strengths. Of course, they are orthodox, and I think their training in these subjects is generally quite adequate to prepare them to be excellent parish priests. But I have occasionally encountered priests who are just thoroughly impressive in their subtle theological understanding, and their extensive knowledge of the councils and the writings of the doctors. None of the dozen or so Fraternity priests I have known or heard seemed like that. It doesn’t strike me as their particular charism, just in general. They excel in other ways.
I can’t speak to other Latin Mass organizations because I don’t have much experience with any others. There certainly may be some very learned Latin Mass priests out there. But it would be a grave mistake to think that Novus priests don’t read the Fathers or familiarize themselves at all with the teachings of the Councils. Some certainly do.