Friday, July 25, 2014

"from hosts consecrated at the same Mass"

"It is most desirable that the faithful, just as the priest himself is bound to do, receive the Lord’s Body from hosts consecrated at the same Mass and that, in the instances when it is permitted, they partake of the chalice (cf. no. 283), so that even by means of the signs Communion will stand out more clearly as a participation in the sacrifice actually being celebrated."

     General instruction of the Roman Missal (2002), par. 85.

"'So that even by means of the signs Communion may stand out more clearly as a participation in the Sacrifice being celebrated', it is preferable that the faithful be able to receive hosts consecrated in the same Mass."

     Redemptionis Sacramentum (2004), par. 89.

     I was put onto these passages by Robert F. Taft, "'Communion' from the tabernaclea liturgico-theological oxymoron," Worship 88, no 1 (January 2014):  16 (2-22).  But I don't see anything rising to the level of a flat-out reproof of the practice of "giving Communion from the tabernacle at Mass" in any of his examples (Mediator Dei (1947), pars. 118 and 121-122, which is inclusive of par. 3 of the mid-18th-century Certiores effecti).

Thursday, July 24, 2014

"The old roman Canon Missae has a weak pneumatology not because it is defective but because it is old, so old that it was composed before the divine personhood of the Holy Spirit became a problem to be resolved."

     Robert F. Taft, "'Communion' from the tabernaclea liturgico-theological oxymoron," Worship 88, no 1 (January 2014):  17 (2-22).

"from the hand of another"

     "In this pristine vision of the Eucharist, Holy Communion is not just the sacrament of personal communion with the Risen Lord of each of the baptized individually.  It is, rather, the sacrament of our communion with one another in the Body of that Risen Lord to form the one Mystical Body of Christ, a body at once ecclesial and eucharistic.  That this was the meaning of eucharistic koinonia in the early church has been shown beyond cavil.  The sense of this was so strong that in an earlier age none of the clergy concelebrating the Eucharist, not even the pope of Rome or the patriarch of Constantinople, served themselves Holy Communion.  Rather, they all received it from the hand of another, as I have shown in several studies.  This remained the general rule in most communion rites of East and West right up through the Middle Ages:  Holy Communion was not taken, not even by the higher clergy, but given and received.  For Communion is at once a ministry and a gift and a sharing.  As such, it was administered to each communicant by the hand of another as from Christ."

      Robert F. Taft, "'Communion' from the tabernaclea liturgico-theological oxymoron," Worship 88, no 1 (January 2014):  17 (2-22).

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

"that persevering love with which Saint Mary Magdalene clung resolutely to Christ her master"

Martin Schongauer,
Noli me tangere, c. 1470/80.
"May the holy reception of your mysteries, Lord, instill in us that persevering love with which Saint Mary Magdalene clung resolutely to Christ her master."

"Mysteriorum tuorum, Domine, sancta perceptio perseverantem illum nobis amorem infundat, quo beata Maria Magdalena Christo magistro suo indesinenter adhæsit."

     Prayer after Communion, Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, 22 July, Roman missal.  In the Liturgy of the hours what appears is only the opening Collect, not this Post-Communion.  Lewis & Short gives "incessantly" (rather than "resolutely") for indesinenter, and the Dictionary of medieval Latin from British sources, "ceaselessly, without pause," "endlessly, perpetually."  (Lewis & Short's reference to an occurrence of et indeficienter inhaerere at Confessions XXII.xi seems to be mistaken, however, for there the verb is cohaerendo.)
     This prayer does not appear with the ancient prayers in the main body of Corpus orationum.  But it is no. 2987 in the online 2004 Concordantia et indices volume of Sources of the Missale Parisiense of 1738, by Gerard O’Connor.  Better yet, Corpus orationum 13 refers from no. 683 (1616?) of the Missale Romanum of 1970/1975 to no. 2987 of the Missale Parisiense of 1706 ed. Noailles () and no. 2987 of the Missale Parisiense of 1685 ed. Harlay ().
     Yet on the other hand, it does not appear in the four Bibliotheque Sainte Genevieve codices of the (?) Missale Parisiense in the Internet Archive dated 1481, 1489, 1490, and 1497.  There the Post-Communion is consistently "Sanctificet nos quaesumus domine et muniat intercedente beata Maria Magdalena", etc.
     So though a lot of work could still be done, I’m going to rest content for now with 1685.
Mysteriorum tuorum, Domine, sancta perceptio perseverantem illum nobis amorem infundat, quo beata Maria Magdalene tibi immobiliter adhæsit.
(There is a brief introduction to the Lyonese rite in the 2nd edition of the New Catholic encyclopedia, but I have not followed up on that.)
     Corpus orationum 13 traces this back to the "noli me tangere" ("Do not touch me") of John 20:17, read in the light of the "adherere" of Ps 73 (72):28 (from the Greek side, not the Hebrew): "it is good for me to adhere to my God".