This week we use the second of the Advent Prefaces from the Roman Missal. I am puzzled by its third paragraph:<\/p>\n
It is by his gift that already we rejoice
\nat the mystery of his Nativity,
\nso that he may find us watchful in prayer
\nand exultant in his praise.<\/p>\n
What does \u2018already we rejoice\u2019 mean? Surely not that the joy of Christmas has already begun. The shops and streets may be full of decorations and carols, but the Church continues in purple vestments and without flowers, omitting the Gloria from the Mass until liturgical Christmas begins.<\/p>\n
The culprit is the Latin verb \u2018praevenio,\u2019 the use of which in the Prayer over the Offerings for December 8th (\u2018prevenient grace\u2019) has already occasioned comment. Ward and Johnson\u2019s book on the Prefaces gives no source for the use of this word here, so presumably we owe the phrase\u00a0 \u2018praevenire gaudentes\u2019 to an author of the 1960s. What was (s)he trying to say? Surely not that Christmas has come early this year, but rather that we find joy in looking forward to it. ‘Praevenio’ here must mean ‘anticipate,’ not in the sense of doing something early, but of looking forward. Since the same Preface occurs in the Ambrosian Missal, it has been translated by Alan Griffiths, who sheds light on the meaning of the Latin:<\/p>\n
Now for the feast of his Nativity
\nChrist fills us with the joy of expectation,
\nthat his coming may find us ready,
\neager and waiting with prayer and praise to greet him.<\/p>\n
–Msgr. Bruce Harbert is former executive director of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week we use the second of the Advent Prefaces from the Roman Missal. I am puzzled by its third paragraph. – Msgr. Bruce Harbert, former executive director of ICEL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[91,24],"tags":[464,47,209,1754],"class_list":["post-12774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liturgical-year","category-translation-new-missal","tag-advent","tag-icel","tag-bruce-harbert","tag-preface"],"yoast_head":"\n