from the Olavus Petri Order from 1531 forms the basis of the invariable Preface found in Divine Service 4. It's ironic, in some ways, that the German-heritage LCMS would be the preserver of a text that the old Augustana Synod folk would immediately recognize. I've very glad that we still have it. BUT.
But I truly wish that we had left all of it intact. If we had, we'd have a prayer like this:
It is truly good, right, and salutary that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to You, O Lord, holy Father, almighty and everlasting God, for the countless blessings You so freely bestow upon us and all creation. Above all, we give thanks for Your boundless love, that when we were in so bad a state that naught but death and eternal damnation awaited us, and no creature in heaven or on earth could help us, then You did send forth Your only-begotten Son, who is of the same divine nature as Yourself, and suffered Him to become flesh, being born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and did lay on Him our sin, giving Him into death that we might not die eternally....
Sad thing is, I think it's largely Maxwell's and my fault that those bolded goodies were lost, for the preface as it appears in LSB DS IV is clearly a slight revision of the proposed Eucharistia that Maxwell and I suggested (and which Quill chronicles in *The Impact of the Liturgical Movement on American Lutheranism* - see p. 209,210) - and in that Eucharistia the phrases bolded above were not included. I don't know about you, but I think it a sad oops. It would have been that much stronger a prayer had we not "downsized" it in our paper and subsequently had it not been downsized in the Hymnal.
When you work on the next hymnal you can work to get them included. Don't beat yourself up. ;-)
ReplyDeleteJeremy
Kyrie eleison! May another hymnal not be on the horizon for many years. So far to go yet in learning to appropriate everything in the good one we have!!!
ReplyDeleteFr. Weedon,
ReplyDeleteAre old service books like the Magdeburg Hymnal and such considered "approved" by the LCMS commission on worship? Has there been a case when an LCMS pastor has used those (in English translation, of course) for worship? If not, why not? Instead, why the constant cut and paste jobs?
Chris,
ReplyDeleteAn interesting query. The old Magdeburg book is neither approved nor disapproved by Synod. If it were in the Saxon line, I think you could consider it approved, but it's actually not. I don't think, though, you'd get any flack from a congregation that chose to use the liturgy as in Magdeburg Book in Synod. It's wholly Lutheran, fully in accord with the BOC, and thus it would fall under the Synod's insistence on "doctrinally pure Agenda and Hymnbooks." The "why not" is because, I suspect, it is still mostly locked up in Latin...
Pr. Weedon,
ReplyDeleteWould it not benefit the whole church if scholars like yourself 'translate' it for the benefit of the church? This would be a wonderful addition for liturgical use.
I would personally enjoy using it if translated.
YIC,
Pr. Darian L. Hybl
Better if scholars like Christopher who have actually STUDIED Latin did it! All my Latin is home-learned, and as Christopher will tell you, apt to stray...
ReplyDeleteFr. Weedon,
ReplyDeleteIf I had time to translate it, I would, but I'm locked into several translation projects right now (and not making much headway in any of them). There's got to be some Latin scholars in the LCMS. You're telling me that neither one of the seminaries had a classics major attend? And unless I am mistaken, the seminary in St. Louis offers a joint program with Wash U for seminarians to also earn an MA in classics along with the M.Div.
Or you could just use it and leave it in Latin AS GOD INTENDED! :)
Plus, Fr. Weedon, though your Latin may not be as polished as mine (and that's only because I've been studying it for a great deal longer), you learn by doing. So, tonight, give one of the proper prefaces a shot. If you want to run it by me, I'd be happy to help.
Eucharistica? As an English word, code for canon. We don't need no canons.
ReplyDeleteAs to the constant cut and paste jobs, that's all the rage. Pastiche Mass, I call em. Like the programmes you sometimes hear performed by collegia musica (though not the one I was in).
Have Daenzer tackle Magdeburg after he finishes Lossius.
ReplyDelete