In his crucial writing on the Latin Mass of 1532, Dr. Luther gives his "amen" to certain prayers that the celebrant may pray, all with the altering of the first person singular to plural (thus ruling out of bounds the private mass). It seems to me a crying shame that these have largely been lost to our typical Lutheran practice. They include the following:
Before communing:
O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who through the will of the Father and the co-operation of the Holy Ghost, didst through thy death give life to the world: deliver us by this thy most sacred body and blood from all our iniquities, and from all evils: and make us ever to cleave to thy commandments; nor ever suffer us to be separated from thee: who with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest and reignest with God, world without end. Amen.
And after communing:
What we have taken with our lips, O Lord, may we with pure minds receive; and from a temporal gift, may it become to us an everlasting remedy.
May Thy body [and Thy blood] which we have received cleave to our inmost parts: and grant that no stain of sin may remain in us whom this pure and holy sacrament hath refreshed, O thou who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost world without end. Amen.
Take heart, Brother Weedon! Thanks to Vatican II and the novus ordo, these prayers are now largely lost to typical Catholic practice too!
ReplyDeleteHere is what is left of the before communion prayer after being hacked by the liturgical chain saw murderers of Babylon II:
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, by the will of the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit your death brought life to the world. By your holy body and blood free me from all my sins, and from every evil. Keep me faithful to your teaching, and never let me be parted from you.
OR, God bless us sideways if there are not always A, B or C, do this or do that, you may also say:
Lord Jesus Christ, with faith in your love and mercy I eat your body and drink your blood. Let it not bring me condemnation, but health in mind and body.
And after communion, here is what the butchers left:
Lord, may I receive these gifts in purity of heart. May they bring me healing and strength, now and for ever.
And if anyone, reeling in intoxication from the toxic fumes of the main brothel of the Whore of Babylon, staggers forward to say "Oh that's just a post Vatican II excess, the wonderful Benedict has seen to it that better translations are coming", I will return and post, in Latin, the texts before and after the carnage of the "liturgical movement", a movement not of mind, heart, or spirit, let alone the Holy Spirit, but confined to the bowels.