On Eating One's Own
I have been following the increasing infighting between various parties about Michael Rose's Goodbye, Good Men. I've met Mchael in person, and I participated on his Church Renovations list. He also helped and supported Milwaukee's CUF Chapter, which tried to stop the Cathedral Rearrangement. He's done quite a bit of good work in rallying faithful Catholics against those who wish to turn churches into barren "worship spaces". He also did me a good turn when I attended Fr. Richard Vosko's talk at Sacred Heart School of Theology. Don't be confrontational, Michael said. Ask some positive questions. Show interest in his work.
I followed his advice, and I learned more than if I had taken the in-your-face approach.
I also know Steve Hand thru cyberspace. I admire his love for both traditional liturgy and social justice -- the two are not incompatible. And I agree with him about schismatic traditionalism, and where that leads. I read his website daily, and have corresponded with him on a semiregular basis.
Now all sorts of things are flying through cyberspace and landing on the printed page regarding Goodbye, Good Men and the author's methodology and tactics. Especially mentioned has been Steve Hand, who brings up Mike's association with groups which dance on the Integrist edge in his article in his website.
I can't comment on the book, not having read it yet, but I'm getting more than a little annoyed with the simian poo-flinging contest. Cut it out, guys. I happen to like you both for different reasons. You shouldn't be fighting. We all shouldn't be fighting. Let's not eat our own here.
More On Today's Happy Event
I listened to today's press conference, and was very impressed with what I heard. Abp-des. Dolan seems to be a very direct, matter-of-fact man -- just what we need at this time.
As far as what he'll do here, I think Fr. Rob Johansen says it best. Don't expect an Attila-the-Hun approach. The healing will be gradual, but it will come. There will be grumblers on both sides -- the Usual Dissenters will object to any incursion on their power, and some on the Traditionalist side will wonder why change isn't happening right now. But we will have to be patient, for rebuilding almost always takes longer than tearing down.
A Belated Welcome
A man after my own heart has started his own blog. Welcome, David L. Alexander!
On This Morning's Happy News
Well, he's not Fabian Bruskewitz, but the choice of Timothy Dolan as Milwaukee's new Archbishop is a sign of hope. He got the North American College in Rome back into working order, and has been doing a good job in St. Louis. He does have a Milwaukee connection -- his brother works for a radio station here.
Bishop Dolan has a lot of work to do here -- it won't be easy, to say the least. Please pray for him, and for my archdiocese.
On the Frustration of Installing Things by Oneself
I got my DSL stuff last Thursday. After spending a considerable amount of time untangling cords (you wouldn't believe what it looked like --- like a nest of worms), I was just about ready to connect the new modem when I noticed that the jack was too big for my computer's Ethernet port. Aargh. So now I'm waiting for the necessary part from Ameritech, and have bribed my roommate into putting it in for me. You see, if I take apart my computer, I won't be able to put it back together again. My roomie has done this before, and beer and dinner is a reasonable price, I'd say.
So-- instead of zipping along on DSL, I 'm still plodding through 56K. C'est la vie.
More on Summer Camp and Murder
I was a bit tired and depressed when I wrote Tuesday's post, and I gave a bit more thought to the matter, prompted by the response of my good friend Keith Boucher, who told me that I was not responsible for Peter Kiss' actions. Here is my response to Keith (which he said made more sense):
I'm not letting him off that easily. He did what he did out of his own
free will, as far as anyone can tell. But ill treatment can help create a
monster, and those who create the monster share some resposibility for its
actions. To answer Cain's question: yes, we are our brother's keeper.
But -- you still bear responsibility for your own actions. How you react
to ill trearment is, in some measure, your choice. It can become an
opportunity for grace, or it can become fuel for anger, jealousy, and
misplaced pride. And either path can happen for both the man who learns
to stand up and fight back, and for someone who is unable to do that for
whatever reason.
So do I have a part in the horror perpetrated by Peter Kiss? A very small
part, but large enough to wonder if I could have made a difference.
<
On Summer Camp and Murder
Came across this story. A local towing operator, his jealousy out of control, travels from Milwaukee to a small town in Ontario to kill his girlfriend and her family, and then himself. Just another bit of insanity to most people.
But not to me.
I knew Peter Kiss very briefly, at a summer day camp run by Opus Dei. He was a short and pudgy, with a bowl haircut and wide eyes. A mama's boy, he was socially stunted, very easily given to tears, and rather whiny. And he was no good at sports. Ralph from The Simpsons always reminded me of him.
You can imagine how he was treated by the other boys. Even I, who was not exactly Mr. Popular, got my licks in. And the counsellors didn't care much for him, either. Peter didn't last the entire run of the camp. He was pulled out early by his mother. Good riddance, we boys thought.
I was never able to forget him, though. As I grew older and somewhat wiser, I realized that here was someone who hurt a lot. I knew that he had no father living at home with him (strange how little details like that come back), and that has a big impact on how a child --especially a boy-- is raised. I wondered how he was treated at school -- I'm almost certain it was worse for him there than at that summer camp. Names. Beatings. Vicious pranks. Coming home in tears. Sleepless nights of dread for the coming day.
I've been there myself. I was bullied as a child, and it was hell. Some of it affects me to this day. But by the grace of God, it largely stopped for me as I learned more social skills, found myself able to make friends, and started to find my niche. I don't know how Peter coped with things. He found some ways to to it, I'm sure -- finding something he was good at, working hard at it and becoming successful....making some friends along the way...and even finding romance.........
Growing up lonely and rejected can do some strange things to a relationship. You've found someone who might be willing to take you as you are, and you don't want to lose that. When it ends, those feelings of rejection come back. Some get over it, and move on. Others turn inwards and become emotional recluses. And a few try to reclaim what has been lost, and if they can't get it (never her, because she's now become a possession) back, terrible things can happen, especially when you've gone through rejection and loss too many times before....
And so it happened with Peter Kiss. Burnt by at least two previous relationships, unable to handle rejection another time, he decided to take a calculated revenge on those who rejected him. The decision was ultimately his -- the consequence of his free will. But I wonder -- did he hear the voices of the bullies in his madness? Did he see them as he gunned down a young woman, her young daughter, and her parents?
Our actions have consequences, however minor they seem to be at the time. A kind word or a casual smile may help pull a distraught soul out of his abyss of misery. And a nasty remark or a dirty look may be the coup de grace to a spiritually wounded man.
And I ask myself: Could I have saved him by a kind word, by coming to his defense at the cost of my already-low reputation, by trying to love a near-unlovable boy twenty years ago? Could I have made a difference by treating him oh so slightly differently?
Do I have blood on my hands for what I did in a summer camp twenty years ago?
On Yesterday
I'm feeling slightly guilty that I'm not offering my 2-cents worth on the Bishop's Meeting. But most of St. Blog's agree: our shepherds didn't do what they needed to do to take care of things. I was out on a Guys' Day Out with my Dad -- my Fathers' Day gift to him. We headed out to Cave of the Mounds near Dodgeville, the Mustard Museum in Mt. Horeb, then to Madison for lunch at a Nepali restaurant. Really interesting stuff there, and delicious. We walked around State Street (the main artery between the Capitol and the University) and the University campus for a while, then decided to go back to Milwaukee.
The day changed for us around 3:30 on a crowded freeway. One moment we were singing along to a Clancy Bros. CD, next moment Dad was swerving to avoid a car, which clipped us on the right rearview mirror. I didn't see everything that happened, but according to one of the other people involved, a van in front of her stopped suddenly. She bumped into the van in her effort to stop, and was rearended by another car in turn. The third vehicle caused us to swerve as it was trying to get into a nearby offramp. Fortunately, an off-duty sheriff's deputy was right there. He got us all off the freeway, made sure we weren't injured, and contacted his department.
After Dad and I were allowed to go, neither of us felt like going back on the freeway. So after a few minutes' driving, we pulled into a handy parking lot to consult a map. That delay probably saved our lives, for when we drove down that highway, we came across a much worse accident which had just happened. The cars were in a grassy divide, and one was smashed up completely. As we continued driving, we saw several emergency vehicles heading towards the scene.
After we got back into town, I waited a little while for Dad to get home so that he could tell Mom himself. I called them, and found out that Mom had offered two prayers to St. Michael and the angels --at the time of the accident and when we pulled off the road to look at the map.
Lessons re-learned from yesterday:
1) Prayer works.
2) There is no such thing as coincidence.
3) Things could be worse.
On the Meetings in Dallas
Greg Popcak says it well. So does Bill Cork.
Watch this site for on-site updates.
Above all, pray that they act like shepherds -- not CEOs, not PR men, not a focus group or therapy group -- but as worthy successors to the Apostles.
Now Just Where Did I Leave My Security Blanket?
On Sporadic Blogging
This is turning out to be an online version of Tristram Shandy. Long ramblings interrupted here and there, inactivity followed by burst of activity, no rhyme or reason.....I'll try to be more consistent.....
On the Senselessness at Conception Abbey
By now, everyone knows what happened a few days ago. No one is exactly sure why Lloyd Robert Jeffress shot those monks, and then himself. God have mercy on him......
I heard about it shortly after it happened, from a friend of mine who was a postulant there some years ago. He knew all four monks. Like everyone else, I was shocked and horrified. But what I felt is nothing compared to what my friend must be going through right now; and his do not compare to what the monks, seminarians, workers, and neighbors of the Abbey are feeling.
Pray for all concerned......pray for healing and mercy for those whose lives were suddenly taken away, and for the madman who took their lives and his own as well.
On a No-Blog Weekend
Blogger was down yesterday when I had time. Otherwise, I was kept busy for much of the weekend.
Went to Grecian Festival, which was run by SS. Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church. Great food. The church is only a few blocks away from me; unfortunately, they are trying to move into another Milwaukee suburb. But they'll be around for a while longer, since that suburb's board rejected the church's rezoning proposal. Evidently, property tax dollars are more important than a house of worship.
My friend Sue's father, who is suffering from pancreatic cancer, had surgery Friday. The tumor has hardened, and has surrounded the arteries. Nothing more can be done for him, aside from palliative care and a lot of prayer. Today, they found that the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes. Keep praying.
Hear thunder. Going to sign off now. Don't need a power surge.
On Liturgical Music
Kairos has a rather flattering opinion of my taste in liturgical music. He seems to think that I was raised in a parish which believed in using halfway decent hymnody. Truth is, I had to learn a lot on my own about the matter, after years of singing in various folk and contemporary ensembles. Here's the full story...
The parish I grew up in --a small Croatian congregation in an industrial suburb of Milwaukee-- was considered reasonably "conservative" in the 70's and 80's. We had no clown Masses, pudgy middle-aged women in leotards dancing round the altar, or any of the worst excesses of that time. Still, there were some quirky things: cheap felt banners, opening processions and offertory processions with "meaningful" things in them, cute things for the kiddies to do -- and bad liturgical music.
The songbooks we used were the We Celebratemissalette/softcover hymnals series from World Library Publications, which also published the People's Mass Book hardcover.
Much of the musical selections in We Celebrate was very good. Some of the better Protestant hymns were in there, as well as a plainchant setting of the Magnificat which I have not seen for many years. And there were some hit-and-miss composers in there as well, such as Lucien Deiss, Willard Jabusch, and Omar Westendorf.
However.....
.....most of the "folk" songs in We Celebrate were truly awful. And I heard them a lot on Sundays and in school Masses.
Does anybody remember Receive in Your Heart, He Said, or Lord, We Pray for Golden Peace? Or any of Lou Fortunate's songs? Or most of Joe Wise's oeuvre? The stuff from Glory and Praise seemed like celestial melodies in comparison.
Speaking of G&P, we got those songbooks in the early 80's (we were always a few years behind the other parishes in "progress"), and soon were singing almost exclusively from them. Now, there are quite a few songs by the St. Louis Jesuits which I still like, and which helped me memorize much Scripture. And some of them are excellent for prayer (Jesus, the Lord and Take, Lord, Receive come to mind). But a lot of their songs, and the songs of other contemporary liturgical sogwriters, are meant to have the stanzas sung by a soloist or choir, with the congregation singing the refrain. On Eagle's Wings, for example. Great refrain, but the verses are meant for a capable soloist.
More on this tomorrow. I can see the Sandman coming for me with a sand-filled blackjack.......
How Jedi Are You?
Turns out I'm like a Jedi Master. Interesting...... Normally I'd post the graphic result from the site, but the one that turned up has an indecent and Oedipal word in it. If you want to check it out, go here. Warning: has some potty language in it.
A belated welcome to another Milwaukee Blogger
Karen Marie Knapp has her own blog. She and I likely disagree on many things, which is exactly why you should add her to your regular reading list. For one thing, she's certainly not pompous -- very humble and forthright. And I may be wrong on an issue, and she may be right (not that I'm planning on arguing with her, mind you!). Finally, we might agree on a few things, and she may be able to talk about them far better than I can. So -- check her out!
On "Peace and Justice" and the Tridentine Mass
An excerpt from Thomas Day's Where Have You Gone, Michelangelo? , which sticks it to those who want to make liturgies more relevant to "peace and justice" (whatever they mean by that):
(during a discussion of the Latin Mass)
Interruption from an angry reader: "You evil people and your Latin Mass and your beautiful Gregorian Chant in Latin and all that. Can't you see that it's escapist nonsense? It promotes the illusion that Christ/God is out there, something remote, and not part of our lives. Well, I tell you that God is here -now, today- alive in our own time. Service to others is what Christianity is all about. The arcane, the unintelligible, and the exotic -phony metaphors for God- distract us from the staving peasants in Guatemala, from the beggars dying in the streets of India...."
Two quite different reactions come to mind: (1) "Oh, feel the lash of righteousness!" and (2) "Oh, get off it!"
For hundreds and hundreds of years, Catholics attended the Latin Mass. They heard the charming, sweet Gregorian chant in Latin; maybe they even sang it. Then many of the same people went out into the world and did something. Some struggled to live Christian lives and raise families. Some left home forever, in order to bring the faith to the pagans. Some started labor unions and marched in picket lines. Some educated ungrateful children in the parochial schools or cared for the poor and sick. The families, churches, seminaries, hospitals, schools, orphanages, missions, and charities were all made possible because of incalculable personal sacrifices. Maybe such things were not considered "social justice", but they were examples of doing good, and these heroic doers of good felt a "presence" of Christ in their lives, especially when they attended the Latin Mass.
Footnote [It is interesting to note that Dorothy Day (no relation to the author) devoted most of her adult life to the poor and she lived among them, yet when it came to liturgy this Catholic socialist called herself a "traditionalist" and a "romantic". She wholeheartedly supported the change to the vernacular but she had no sympathy for experimental or nontraditional forms of liturgy.]
....Hearing or singing liturgical texts, in the vernacular, about social justice will not automatically motivate someone to work for equality or help the poor. A Latin Mass in one parish -celebrated fervently and with conviction- could be associated with as much social justice, hospitality, and service to the poor as the most up-to-date, "contemporary" liturgical environment (with up-to-date-relevant words) in another parish down the street. Human beings are not predictable; they are not puppets.
On Yesterday's Celebrations and Long-winded Sermons
Thanks to everyone who wrote me about their Corpus Christi celebrations. It's good to know that there are still some places which give the feast the treatment it deserves.
As I mentioned before, I attended the Indult Mass yesterday. Mass was packed as usual, with great music. Fr. Skeris does a great job with the choir. About 100 or so showed up for the closing service, again with beautiful music, a top-notch sermon by Fr. Skeris, several priests in attendance, and an outdoor procession.
However.......
The priest who celebrated the Mass -- a good man who takes his priesthood seriously, I must say -- preached for half an hour. And we're not talking Fulton Sheen-caliber stuff, either. Long, rambling, disjointed, repetitive. In a speaking style more suited for auctioneering than preaching. Good material in it, but lost in the presentation and lack of organization.
How many of you (regardless of rite or denomination) have had to put up with atrocious preaching? Not in the way of content (if heard some well-spoken heretics in my time), but delivery and other things which could have been done better. Please tell me about your experiences. Also, I'd like to hear from priests, deacons and seminarians about the art of preaching and its pitfalls, and what your homiletics teachers had to say about the matter. Moreover, I'd like to be able to share these with all my readers (unless otherwise asked). Thanks! I'm looking forward to them.
More on Tridentine & Pauline Masses
To see the previous installment, please follow this link
Today I went to the Tridentine Mass, where they celebrated Corpus Christi (transferred from Thursday). Afterwards, I had a chance to speak to a 20something couple about why they attend this particular Mass. One of the reasons they cited was the unadulterated Deposit of Faith. What you get in the Old Mass is Catholicism, pure and simple. Is Catholicism found in the current Liturgy? Yes, but there are some problematic things which can get in the way:
1) The tendency to treat the General Instruction as suggestions -- in a word, disobedience. Many (if not most) parishes in the USA not only not follow the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, they disregard it with impunity. Any attempt to bring this up to professional liturgists is met with disdain and arrogance, because they know better, and to disagree with them (even if you match or exceed their academic credentials) means that you are an ignoramus who must be crushed into submission. This disobedience is the gateway to worse things. It means that anything is negotiable, up to and including the necessity of the Real Presence, since some places still insist on using questionable matter for the Eucharist, or finagling with the Eucharistic Prayer. It means that you can say what you want, and do what you want to further your own ends.
2) A poor translation. I am no Latinist, but I am able to tell sometimes that the ICEL rendition of the text is more of a gloss or a paraphrase than a translation. Some things are left out entirely -- the word quaesemus (we beg/beseech) always seems to be omitted. These things can obscure what a text really says, and even completely change its meaning. Not to mention that most of the text has the poetry of an accounting manual.
3) More room for tooting one's horn. With the Tridentine Mass, there is no room whatsoever to improvise one's own texts. The Propers (changeable parts) are strictly prescribed, or very limited in options. In the current Mass, one can create one's own Penitential Rite (Third Form) and Prayer of the Faithful. Also, hymns play a more important role. Invariably, one's own agendas and ideas come creeping in. The invocations in the Penitential Rite sound like admittances of lowered self-esteem (altho' this trend seems to have lessened in recent years). The Prayers of the Faithful become political manifestos instead of supplications. And the songs are either celebrations of self, screeds on "justice and peace", or some unholy combination of the two.
4) Lack of respect for the Eucharist. While I disagree with those who think that the New Mass in and of itself de-emphasizes the sacrificial aspect of the Sacrament, it does happen in practice -- which is why a good number of Catholics don't know what the Real Presence is. For one thing, the ICEL translation plays down the sacrificial emphasis in many places. And the songs emphasize certain aspects of the Eucharist which are true, but don't present the complete picture: tokens of love, sign of unity, community meal, remembrance of Christ's death. Your typical generic Protestant sings about these things at his Communion Service. Often, the songs confuse the Presence of Christ in the Eucharist with His presence in the assembly, and confuse the congregation in turn.
Now, this isn't to say that you couldn't get weirdness at the Old Mass. But the only time this would become apparent to the faithful would be when the priest is preaching, because only the servers and a few keen observers would catch any variances at the altar. And while a prayerbook might contain some questionable items(mostly bordering on either Jansenism or Mariolatry) these would not be made obvious to anyone else.
How to improve the situation in the current liturgy?
1) Obey the rubrics and instructions. This solves half the problems right there. The GIRM is there to guarantee that the Mass is celebrated as it ought to be.
2) A faithful translation. Credo and Adoremus have been pushing for this for years. And Rome seems to have lost patience with ICEL.
3) No politicizing or propagandizing I would use the texts from the Byzantine Divine Liturgy as a model for the Prayer of the Faithful. Pray for the Church, the Pope and his bishops, civil authorities, and other good things. Leave the agendas out. And for those things that matter (abortion, for instance), state the intention simply and directly. The same goes for hymnody. While social justice is an important thing, and the community gathered together is important as well, sing some unabashed praise to God. Make the emphasis vertical, rather than horizontal.
4) Better emphasis on the Real Presence. Much of this can be taken care of in the pulpit and in the selection of hymns. Also, minimizing the use of Eucharistic Ministers and teaching the faithful a gesture of reverence before receiving will go a long way.
Remember: the law of prayer is the law of belief.
On the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ
Today is one of my favorite feast days, in which we celebrate the Thing Which keeps us going. Of course, we do that at every Mass, but here we have an emphasis with the Scripture and prayers, and the procession and adoration of the Sacrament.
Sadly, most parishes don't give this day the emphasis it deserves, and haven't done so for decades. I remember going to Mass some years ago at a parish named Blessed Sacrament. You'd think that they'd do something special, but it was treated like any other Sunday.
OTOH, there has been a revival in some spots. I know one priest who brought back the Procession to his parish, and I've heard of others which have celebrated this day with at least some degree of solemnity, if not the "whole package".
I'd like to know how your parish celebrated this day. Was it so matter-of-fact that they might as well have worn green vestments? Or did they do things like use incense, recite or chant the optional Sequence, have a Procession or at least a period of Adoration? Please let me know.
Here are the Latin and English renditions of the Lauda Sion, written by St. Thomas Aquinas for this day. Its use is optional now, but it beautifully explains what the Eucharist is about. English translation follows the Latin.
LAUDA Sion Salvatorem,
lauda ducem et pastorem,
in hymnis et canticis.
Quantum potes, tantum aude:
quia maior omni laude,
nec laudare sufficis.
ZION, to Thy Savior sing,
to Thy Shepherd and Thy King!
Let the air with praises ring!
All thou canst, proclaim with mirth,
far higher is His worth
than the glory words may wing.
Laudis thema specialis,
panis vivus et vitalis
hodie proponitur.
Quem in sacrae mensa coenae,
turbae fratrum duodenae
datum non ambigitur.
Lo! before our eyes and living
is the Sacred Bread life-giving,
theme of canticle and hymn.
We profess this Bread from heaven
to the Twelve by Christ was given,
for our faith rest firm in Him.
Sit laus plena, sit sonora,
sit iucunda, sit decora
mentis iubilatio.
Dies enim solemnis agitur,
in qua mensae prima recolitur
huius institutio.
Let us form a joyful chorus,
may our lauds ascend sonorous,
bursting from each loving breast.
For we solemnly record
how the Table of the Lord
with the Lamb's own gift was blest.
In hac mensa novi Regis,
novum Pascha novae legis,
phase vetus terminat.
Vetustatem novitas,
umbram fugat veritas,
noctem lux eliminat.
On this altar of the King
this new Paschal Offering
brings an end to ancient rite.
Shadows flee that truth may stay,
oldness to the new gives way,
and the night's darkness to the light.
Quod in coena Christus gessit,
faciendum hoc expressit
in sui memoriam.
Docti sacris institutis,
panem, vinum in salutis
consecramus hostiam.
What at Supper Christ completed
He ordained to be repeated,
in His memory Divine.
Wherefore now, with adoration,
we, the Host of our salvation,
consecrate from bread and wine.
Dogma datur christianis,
quod in carnem transit panis,
et vinum in sanguinem.
Quod non capis, quod non vides,
animosa firmat fides,
praeter rerum ordinem.
Words a nature's course derange,
that in Flesh the bread may change
and the wine in Christ's own Blood.
Does it pass thy comprehending?
Faith, the law of light transcending,
leaps to things not understood.
Sub diversis speciebus,
signis tantum, et non rebus,
latent res eximiae.
Caro cibus, sanguis potus:
manet tamen Christus totus
sub utraque specie.
Here beneath these signs are hidden
priceless things, to sense forbidden;
signs, not things, are all we see.
Flesh from bread, and Blood from wine,
yet is Christ in either sign,
all entire confessed to be.
A sumente non concisus,
non confractus, non divisus:
integer accipitur.
Sumit unus, sumunt mille:
quantum isti, tantum ille:
nec sumptus consumitur.
And whoe'er of Him partakes,
severs not, nor rends, nor breaks:
all entire, their Lord receive.
Whether one or thousand eat,
all receive the selfsame meat,
nor do less for others leave.
Sumunt boni, sumunt mali:
sorte tamen inaequali,
vitae vel interitus.
Mors est malis, vita bonis:
vide paris sumptionis
quam sit dispar exitus.
Both the wicked and the good
eat of this celestial Food:
but with ends how opposite!
With this most substantial Bread,
unto life or death they're fed,
in a difference infinite.
Fracto demum sacramento,
ne vacilles, sed memento
tantum esse sub fragmento,
quantum toto tegitur.
Nulla rei fit scissura:
signi tantum fit fractura,
qua nec status, nec statura
signati minuitur.
Nor a single doubt retain,
when they break the Host in twain,
but that in each part remain
what was in the whole before;
For the outward sign alone
may some change have undergone,
while the Signified stays one,
and the same forevermore.
Ecce Panis Angelorum,
factus cibus viatorum:
vere panis filiorum,
non mittendus canibus.
In figuris praesignatur,
cum Isaac immolatur,
agnus Paschae deputatur,
datur manna patribus.
Hail! Bread of the Angels, broken,
for us pilgrims food, and token
of the promise by Christ spoken,
children's meat, to dogs denied!
Shown in Isaac's dedication,
in the Manna's preparation,
in the Paschal immolation,
in old types pre-signified.
Bone pastor, panis vere,
Iesu, nostri miserere:
Tu nos pasce, nos tuere,
Tu nos bona fac videre
in terra viventium.
Tui qui cuncta scis et vales,
qui nos pascis hic mortales:
tuos ibi commensales,
coheredes et sodales
fac sanctorum civium.
Amen. Alleluia.
Jesus, Shepherd mild and meek,
shield the poor, support the weak;
help all who Thy pardon sue,
placing all their trust in You:
fill them with Your healing grace!
Source of all we have or know,
feed and lead us here below.
grant that with Your Saints above,
sitting at the feast of love
we may see You face to face.
Amen. Alleluia.
