Once again I apologize to Pray Tell readers. I’ve been down with the flu for the last week and a half and have only recently arisen to tend to a plethora of correspondence and other tasks. Thus today’s late posting on article 12 of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy.
Vatican website translation:
12. The spiritual life, however, is not limited solely to participation in the liturgy. The Christian is indeed called to pray with his brethren, but he must also enter into his chamber to pray to the Father, in secret [29]; yet more, according to the teaching of the Apostle, he should pray without ceasing [30]. We learn from the same Apostle that we must always bear about in our body the dying of Jesus, so that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodily frame [31]. This is why we ask the Lord in the sacrifice of the Mass that, “receiving the offering of the spiritual victim,” he may fashion us for himself “as an eternal gift” [32].
Latin text:
12. Vita tamen spiritualis non unius sacrae Liturgiae participatione continetur. Christianus enim ad communiter orandum vocatus, nihilominus debet etiam intrare in cubiculum suum ut Patrem in abscondito oret(29), immo, docente Apostolo, sine intermissione orare(30). Et ab eodem Apostolo docemur mortificationem Iesu semper circumferre in corpore nostro, ut et vita Iesu manifestetur in carne nostra mortali(31). Quapropter Dominum in Missae Sacrificio precamur ut, “hostiae spiritualis oblatione suscepta, nosmetipsos” sibi perficiat “munus aeternum”(32).
Slavishly literal translation:
12. However the spiritual life does not consist of participation in the sacred Liturgy alone. For the Christian, called to praying in community, no less ought also to enter into his/her chamber to pray to the Father in secret [cf. Matthew 6:6], even more, with the Apostle teaching [so], to pray without ceasing [cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:17]. And from the same Apostle we are taught always to carry about Jesus’ suffering-unto-death in our body, so that Jesus’ life might also be manifest is our mortal flesh [cf. 2 Corinthians 4:10-11]. On account of this we beseech the Lord in the Sacrifice of the Mass that, “with the offering of the spiritual victim having been accepted,” he might perfect “us [as] an eternal gift” for himself [Roman Missal in use at the time of the Council: Prayer over the Offerings of Monday within the Octave of Pentecost].
While article 11 affirmed that proper dispositions were needed in the minds of participants for the liturgy to have its intended fruitfulness and efficacy, article 12 affirms that participating in other forms of prayer and asceticism are not only not opposed to participation in the liturgy, but are needed for its true celebration. Thus the article stands against what some Council Fathers feared was a kind of “pan-liturgism,” already spoken against in article 9.
It may be of interest to reflect together on the past fifty years experience to see whether or not the balance of private, group, para-liturgical/devotional, and liturgical prayer has been maintained in our individual, domestic and worshiping community lives, what militates against such balance, and what can promote it. Similarly we might want to explore what ascetical practices have been proposed to and embraced by our communities. (A test case: fifty years ago, “meatless Fridays” were a clear marker of Catholic identity, at least in my part of the American Midwest. That ascetic practice was critiqued for its rigidity – violating Friday abstinence by eating a hot dog but maintaining it by consuming lobster thermidor hardly seemed a way of disciplining one’s diet or showing solidarity with the poor – and was lifted by our bishops, although they encouraged Catholics to undertake equivalent ascetic practices. Have any other such practices arisen that serve as markers of identity and genuinely promote healthy asceticism? If so, how can they be strengthened? If not, why not? Can or should the earlier practice be re-established?)
Please leave a reply.