Category Archives: Vesting Prayers

2011/11/15 · 16:11

7 – On the vesting prayers for priests in preparation for Holy Mass

“The chasuble, the grace of our Lord, is able to shine out from even the otherwise most unworthy, most inept, most horrific sinners such as yours truly.”

AD CASULAM

Domine, qui dixisti: Iugum meum suave est et onus meum leve: fac, ut istud portare sic valeam, quod consequar tuam gratiam. Amen.

O Lord, who has said – “My crossbeam is easy and my burden light” – grant that I may be so enabled to carry it as to follow after your grace. Amen.

This, of course, is from Matthew 11, 30. ζυγός, correctly translated as iugum, which is correctly translated as crossbeam.

Imagine that, gentlemen! A crossbeam, an instrument of torture and death, carried in torture to one’s death, is here called easy, a burden that is light. If we take  a look at the Shroud of Turin, one might get the idea that such a crossbeam was heavy enough to mash our Lord’s face right into the pavement. So, what’s going on here?

The syntax of the prayer has it that we are enabled by our Lord’s providence to carry such an instrument of torture and death inasmuch as we follow after His grace, Himself, the indwelling of the Most Holy Trinity. How many, many times our Lord commanded us not only to take up the cross, but to follow Him!

And that makes all the difference, following Him instead of looking to ourselves, instead of looking to the cross. We were not created to carry a cross. And if we must now carry it, we are still not to look to it, appraise our strength before it, fall away in depression and despair as we recognize our weakness and the impossibility of carrying it under our own power. No.

We are, instead, to notice the cross, that is, our weakness in every way, then take up that cross, shouldering it just barely within range of periferal vision, never, ever looking over to it, casting a glance at it, but, knowing it is there, and knowing our ineptitude in carrying this weakness of ours, looking instead to our Lord and His grace, following Him. It’s a matter not of our determination, nor even a matter of our own weak love for Him, but rather a matter of His grace, His love having us look to Him, having us follow Him

It is He who is important, not us, not our weakness. When we see by that cross just how weak we are, we are to notice, immediately, just how good our Lord was to shoulder vicariously our cross, so that we rejoice immediately in His goodness and kindness, and never dwell on ourselves. Any weakness of our own only points out His goodness and kindness in coming among us. He has the right in justice to have mercy on us.

So, yes, that crossbeam of His is easy, and His burden is light. It’s the love He provides, the grace He provides, the friendship, our solidarity with Him in this way while He sacrifices Himself for us that is our joy. This is the joy of the Holy Spirit. Our weakness, our cross, now only magnifies the glory of His love.

The chasuble, the grace of our Lord, is able to shine out from even the otherwise most unworthy, most inept, most horrific sinners such as yours truly. It’s our Lord’s goodness and kindness which does that, making us worthy to act in the Person of Christ, to pronounce His words of spousal love for the Church, His words of sacrificial love: This is my Body given for you in sacrifice… The Chalice of my Blood shed for you in sacrifice…

Is this a most worthwhile prayer preparing us for the Holy Sacrifice? I think it is.

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2011/11/13 · 11:26

6 – On the vesting prayers for priests in preparation for Holy Mass

AD STOLAM

Redde mihi, Domine, stolam immortalitatis, quam perdidi in prævaricatione primi parentis: et, quamvis indignus accedo ad tuum sacrum mysterium, merear tamen gaudium sempiternum.

Restore to me, O Lord, the robe of immortality, which was lost in the transgression of our first parents, and, inasmuch as I approach your Sacred Mysteries in an unworthy manner, nevertheless, may I be made deserving of eternal blessedness.

We read about this stole in Luke 15,22:

Ταχὺ ἐξενέγκατε στολὴν τὴν πρώτην καὶ ἐνδύσατε αὐτόν.
Cito proferte stolam primam, et induite illum.
Quickly, bring out the first robe and clothe him.

This verse was first of all my the topic for my paper for the final exam for Augustinian Father Prosper Grech, who was teaching a course back in the day on the historical critical method when I was enrolled for the licentiate at the Pontifical Bibilical Insitute. He gave me full marks for that, and I turned that into the thesis for the licentiate under Father Stock, the Rector of the time and then the Secretary for the Pontifical Biblical Commission.

In short: When our Lord spoke these words, the phrase “first robe” was understood by all hearers, with some three hundred years of rabbinic tradition behind this already, as the first robe of Adam before the fall. Adam, you see, was not “naked” in the spiritual sense, but was clothed with the grace of God.

The extremist HCM commentators proclaimed their embarrassment with the Fathers of the Church for saying as much. But they were closer to the time, were they not, historically? They knew the tradition behind the phrase. We “moderns” have to grow up a bit by paying attention to the history of the past, the tradition from which we can learn to be in awe of our Lord and His goodness and kindness.

The syntax of this vesting prayer is such that it is to be understood that it is the Lord alone who makes one worthy of eternal blessedness by restoring to us the first innocence, that robe of immortality, with which Adam had been clothed until his original sin provoked by the woman and Satan.

Note that despite this clothing with innocence in sanctifying grace, the priest nevertheless approaches precisely the Sacred Mysteries in an unworthy manner. Why? After original sin, we perceive with an intellect which has been weakened, to that we are knowing good with evil, knowing in an insufficient manner. The tree is NOT the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, BUT RATHER the tree of knowing good with evil. In other words, one of the consequences of original sin is such a weakened intellect. That consequence brings death, as our intellect no longer has the power to be an agent keeping matter to spirit, that bit about immortality in this prayer. We are like the animals, dropping to the ground from the moment of this sin for Adam, and from the moment of our conception for us. How can we approach the Sacred Mysteries in an adequate manner? We cannot. However, the grace provided by our Lord will have us see God face to Face in heaven, where all weakness will be removed.

This prayer proclaimes that we have absolutely no idea what we are doing, that we would be crushed to death by the weight of the glory of the Lord’s crucified and risen love for us should we be able to see it while yet in this world.

This prayer proclaimes the patience of the Lord with us! How much He loves us to put up with the likes of us. He is so happy to do it. Enthusiastically. He is just so good and so kind. What a great way to prepare for Holy Mass! A prayer about the Sacred Mysteries!

By the way: The picture above is not the German Bishops’ “erotica”, nor is it “porn.” JPII has a great teaching on this in his Wednesday audiences. Such images raise the mind to the glory of the Lord’s love in having created us for His Son. Erotica and porn, instead, simply turns a person in on him or herself.

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2011/11/06 · 16:01

5 – On the vesting prayers for priests in preparation for Holy Mass

AD MANIPULUM

Merear, Domine, portare manipulum fletus et doloris; ut cum exsultatione recipiam mercedem laboris.

May I be made deserving, O Lord, to bear the maniple of weeping and sorrow, so that I might receive with exaltation labor’s reward.

The point of the syntax here is that one is made to be deserving by the Lord, not by any action on our part, and this not so as to escape the maniple of weeping and sorrow, as one might think, but rather so as to have the unmerited joy of having such an office in the vineyard of Holy Mother Church, thus receiving with exaltation, again however much in an unmerited manner, labor’s own reward.

Rather catches one off guard, no? It is the Lord who is working for us in the supreme work of His passion and death, now having us work with Him, having us march up to the tabernacle of God, to the Cross at the Holy Sacrifice. What was a vocation, a joy, to be a co-worker with God in creation, became, as a punishment, agonizing labor of tears and sorrow. These prayers have everything to do with original sin and redemption as recounted in Genesis 2,4–3,24. This prayer is lifted right out of Genesis.

It is, ironically, a great joy to be able to have the unmerited grace to willingly take up the just punishment/consequences of original sin, including the morphing of work into labor, so that we might know something of the labors of our Lord in working for us while we were yet sinners, yet the enemies of God. And now He has us working with Him, acting in His Person, during His Sacrifice, His work for us? That’s how good and kind He is to us, His priests, His bishops, gentlemen.

The maniple, of course, is the symbol of labor, being a work towel. It’s usually embroidered and quite magnificent, demonstrating the joy we have in the irony of ourselves working with the Lord as He works for us to have us work with Him. How great is that! And to think that some think the maniple is useless! No! What a great preparation for Holy Mass to remember that this Sacrifice is the work of the Lord for us, and now, with us, who act in His Person.

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2011/10/30 · 14:21

4 – On the vesting prayers for priests in preparation for Holy Mass

AD CINGULUM

Præcinge me, Domine, cingulo puritatis, et exstingue in lumbis meis humorem libidinis; ut maneat in me virtus continentiæ et castitatis.

Gird me about, O Lord, with the cincture of purity, and extinguish in my loins the inclinations of wanton desires, that the virtue of continence and chastity may abide in me.

When I was a chaplain in Lourdes, I remember a gentleman coming into the little sacristy of the chapel of Saint Gabriel (in the crypt of the Immaculate Conception Basilica above the grotto) just before Mass, just when I was wrapping a cincture around my waist, very quietly mumbling this prayer, “Praecinge me, Domine…” He mockingly looked at me and said that we’ve moved beyond all that. We don’t do that kind of thing anymore.” I think he was an ex-priest. I quietly responded that with all the sexual stupidity of some priests, if he didn’t think that such a prayer was appropriate for all priests to say. No response to that, of course. Another chaplain, one who would never have even known such a prayer existed as far as I know, was speechless as such an exchange, not knowing whose side to take.

The syntax of this prayer has it that it is the Lord Himself who places this spiritual cincture of purity about oneself in such manner that any sexual untowardness might be extinguished in such manner that the singular virtue, mind you, of continence and chastity might abide within oneself.

Wow. Lots to comment on there, gentlemen!

I mean, repression of anything sexual is absolute idiocy (the link from the series on priestly celibacy). And no rope tied about the waist, either by oneself or spiritually by the Lord, is going to do anything if it is seen in this fashion by the priest or bishop. Zero. If you think that, you’ll be filled with wanton desires. The same goes for extinguishing anything. If one thinks that one can guide oneself by sheer determination, well… hell!

It’s interesting that this prayer refers to a singular virtue for both continence (the link from the series on priestly celibacy) and chastity (the link from the series on priestly celibacy), with continence referring to being contained in God, and chastity referring to being cut off from the lusty ways of the world. The use the singular virtue for both of these virtues makes for a definition of purity, a cincture of purity, so to speak, so that the extinguishing of any untoward desires is not wrought by way of repression, but by way of positive containment in God (which of itself means that one is cut off from the lusty ways of the world). The strength of being contained in God (which is positive) is what keeps one away from the ways of the world (a result of what is positive). Again, this is not about repression. The Church never pushed repression, ever.

Remember the words of our Lord? –

Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them (Luke 12,35-37 of NAB).

The Master’s wedding was the Last Supper and Calvary. At the Last Supper, the Lord girt himself and washed the cursed dirt, Satan’s home (see Genesis 3,14), from the Apostles feet, for they were unclean inasmuch as Judas, possessed by Satan, was with them. The apostles, at the Last Supper, were bidden to do the same washing as time went on. The apostles, mind you, were not there for the entire wedding, which included Calvary, which all fled, until John alone returned. Nevertheless, we are now to be ready for Him. Vigilant, girt round about by the cincture of purity, ready to recline at table, to be waited on by our Lord. This is exactly what happens at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. This prayer is a wonderful preparation for Holy Mass. The prayer refers to this very passage in Scripture. He serves us first of all by providing the virtue of purity, and then, with that agility of spirit, He provides to us Himself in the Most Blessed Sacrament, entering within where He might speak Heart to heart with us in all goodness and kindness.

But there is more to this prayer.

About the Passover, the forerunner of the Last Supper:

This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you shall eat like those who are in flight. It is the Passover of the LORD. For on this same night I will go through Egypt, striking down every first– born of the land, both man and beast, and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt– I, the LORD! But the blood will mark the houses where you are. Seeing the blood, I will pass over you; thus, when I strike the land of Egypt, no destructive blow will come upon you. This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution (Exo 12:11-14 NAB).

And remember John? the greatest prophet, whose words we repeat at every Mass with the “Ecce, Agnus Dei! Ecce, qui tollit peccata mundi! –

John was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He fed on locusts and wild honey (Mark 1,6 NAB // Matthew 3,4).

This comes, of course, from Genesis 3,21, where we see that the Lord had the man and his wife be clothed in leather garments. They had tried to cover their own untoward inclinations with a few fig leaves: repression. Not good. Our Lord did cover them, but this time with an indication of the violence of vicarious sacrifice. Of course, this was only pointing to the violence of another vicarious sacrifice in the future, that of our Lord, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which we read about a few verses earlier, in Genesis 3,15. Our Lord takes the initiative to place enmity within us by reaching out His heel to crush the power of Satan while Himself being crushed, He taking on the death we deserve and having the right, therefore, in justice, to have mercy on us.

Then they crucified him and divided his garments by casting lots for them to see what each should take (Mar 15:24 NAB).

We are clothed in the vicarious death of Christ that we might manifest His resurrection in our lives of continence and chastity, of agility of soul, of holy purity, girded about by the goodness and kindness of our Lord.

By the way, the cincture, or whatever it is called by so many, that is worn with religious habits and with the Roman Cassock, hearkens back to the leather garments of Genesis, of John the Baptist… The Carmelites insist, for example on a belt of leather which is as long as the longest stretch on a bull, signifying the death of the beast…

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2011/10/28 · 15:35

3 – On the vesting prayers for priests in preparation for Holy Mass

AD ALBAM

Dealba me, Domine, et munda cor meum; ut, in Sanguine Agni dealbatus, gaudiis perfruar sempiternis.

Make me white, O Lord, and cleanse my heart, that being made white in the Blood of the Lamb, I may thoroughly rejoice in eternal joy.

The syntax here has it that the Lord’s action of sanctifying grace wrought in heart and soul by the Blood of the Lamb will bring us to rejoice exceedly forever in heaven.

One thinks immediately of the transfiguration of our Lord, and His discussion with Moses and Elijah about His Exodus, His death and Resurrection in Jerusalem. No fuller on earth could make that “alb” that our Lord wore more resplendant, more glorious, manifesting as it did, the glory of that greatest of all acts of love coming up for Him in Jerusalem, on the Cross.

One also thinks of the burning ember carried by the angels to the lips of Elijah, that he might be rendered worthy of his most awesome mission of in-your-face prophesying. But I digress.

The “alb” is the priestly linen worn from the time of Aaron until today. It is worn by our Lord. It is the corporal used at Mass.

This is the baptismal robe of the newly baptised, from the early days of the Church until today.

Again, it is about our Lord Jesus, with His face set on going to the cross, on going to the mountain of God, to the Last Supper, to Calvary. What a great preparation for Mass to recite this little prayer while vesting!

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2011/10/25 · 10:20

2 – On the vesting prayers for priests in preparation for Holy Mass

AD AMICTUM

Impone Domine, capiti meo galeam salutis, ad expugnandos diabolicos incursus.

Place upon my head, O Lord, the helmet of salvation, for conquering diabolical assaults.

The idea of the syntax here is not that we, of ourselves, have the power to beat down whatever future diabolical assaults there may be during the ultimate religious battle during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, but that, knowing that we cannot do that, we humbly ask the Lord that He Himself cover us with the grace of salvation, which, of itself, conquers the assaults of the Evil One.

We are reminded of Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (6,12-17 of the old NAB):

For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. Therefore, put on the armor of God, that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground. So stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, and your feet shod in readiness for the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield, to quench all (the) flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

A helmet, obviously, protects the head, with a spiritual helmet fending off untoward assaults of a spiritual nature. Such spiritual assaults are usually mind games the devil puts before us, about which Saint Paul instructs and reprimands us: “For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the [...] evil spirits in the heavens.”

The temptation is for us to dumb-down the battle to that of flesh and blood, a sheer idiocy on our part, laying ourselves wide open to diabolical assaults, having us be filled with rancor and discord and, to justify ourselves, disobedience to the faith. And one can offer Holy Mass with that kind of attitude, which is horrific, but it happens with so very many of us.

Saint Paul here speaks of obedience to the truth of the faith, which frees one to be an apostle of the Gospel, to be the edge of that sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. In one’s preaching, with all clarity of mind and agility of spirit, one helps others to understand that we do not battle with flesh and blood, but with the evil spirits, and that we are to pray and help each other to be the best of friends with our Lord Jesus, to be His humble servants.

Remember that original sin came about because of the deception, the mind games of Satan, who tried to get flesh and blood to battle with flesh and blood, with rancor and discord all around. This prayer is an in-your-face mockery of Satan’s assault on Adam, and therefore on mankind, from the very beginning. This prayer points to the promised Redeemer of Genesis 3,15. Having taken the initiative to crush the head of Satan and be crushed – what is happening at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass we prepare to offer with this prayer – only our Lord Jesus can provide us with the helmet of salvation so as to repel the deceit, the mind games, of the Evil One.

When our Lord Himself was especially assaulted by the mind games of the devil during those forty days in the desert after He made the waters of baptism holy by His own Baptism, the temptation was about things of flesh and blood, about egoism and rancor and discord. The response of the Lord to each temptation was about His bond of union in all charity with His, with our heavenly Father. Love conquers all mind games. The helmut of salvation means to have a mind and a judgment of things based on love of God and love of neighbor with one and the same act of love.

“Place upon my head, O Lord, the helmet of salvation…” Yes! A prayer we would surely want to say before offering the Holy Sacrifice.

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2011/10/24 · 14:35

1 – On the vesting prayers for priests in preparation for Holy Mass

CUM LAVAT MANUS / Washing of hands

Da, Domine, virtutem manibus meis ad abstergendam omnem maculam; ut sine pollutione mentis et corporis valeam tibi servire.

[Give strength to my hands, Lord, to wipe away all stain, so that I may be able to serve Thee in purity of mind and body.]

Comment: This prayer is not asking the Lord for strength that we priests might wipe away any stain! The intent of the syntax here is that it is the Lord, in giving strength, Himself wipes away all stain, which action of the Lord is what enables the priest to serve the Lord in purity of mind and body.

Of ourselves, in all our sin and impurity of intention or any other kind of stain of sin, we are utterly unworthy to offer the Most Holy Sacrifice in Persona Christi, in the Person of Christ. He is all holy, all good.

This prayer is a confession of sin, offered with running water. This should immediately bring one’s baptism to mind, which should bring to mind what baptism is all about, and what the Lord’s own baptism was about.

Our baptism is much like the baptism of John. The baptism of John was unto the remission of sin. People went down under the waters confessing their sins, telling God that they deserved death for having enslaved each other in sin, deserved death by drowning more than the horsemen and charioteers of Pharaoh deserved death in the Red Sea at the Exodus for having enslaved the children of Abraham in physical labor. Such humble repentance would be met with the grace of the Lord, who called them to this repentance.

Our own baptisms were a sacrament. They proclaim the same as John’s baptism, but call on the grace of the Lord Jesus, of the Most Holy Trinity directly.

When Jesus submitted to the baptism of John, he wasn’t saying that He was a sinner, that He perceived Himself as a sinner, that He wanted to be perceived as a sinner, that He just did this because everyone else was doing this (the reason for the Pharisees and scribes to be baptised, only to be condemned by John).

Rather, Jesus went down into the waters to say to His heavenly Father that He wanted to be treated as the worst sinner ever, the one who enslaved all in sin, from the beginning of time to the end, though He was innocent. Jesus was begging His Father that He might take on the death we deserve because of sin, thus having the vicarious right in all justice to have mercy on us from the cross: Father, forgive them!

This is what the priest reminds himself of during this prayer. What a great way to prepare for the offering of the Sacred Mysteries. The Lord’s grace makes us, who are otherwise bad and evil, worthy to act in His Person, saying: Hoc est enim Corpus meum… Hic est eneim Calix Sanguinis mei…

Padre Pio’s vision comes to mind. As he was exiting the sacrisity and entering the sanctuary to offer Holy Mass, the Lord showed him all the priests who at that moment were offering Holy Mass and were unworthy to do so. He turned white as a ghost and stopped dead in his tracks. Would that we would have the purity of soul, the agility of soul, to see such as what our Lord Himself saw from the cross in drawing us to Himself. Would that we bishops and priests would help each other, prayer for each other, in all our horrific fragility, so that we might know the majestic gift that we’ve been given with our ordination!

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