Is This the Party to Whom I Am Speaking?
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@Contra Mundum@ Volume XIII, Issue 3 October 2010 The Congregation of St. Athanasius A Congregation of the Pastoral Provision of Pope John Paul II for the Anglican Usage of the Roman Rite http://www.locutor.net IS THIS THE PARTY TO WHOM I AM SPEAKING? FFECTIVE prayer requires secret shall reward thee openly. Eof us, among other traits, (Matt 6:6). attentiveness. Formulaic language But then consider prayers like the can assist our prayer by providing a Veni Creator, addressed to the Holy linguistic framework for that which Ghost, or the number of hymns and ultimately beckons to us from devotions addressed to God the beyond language, and by consoling Son, for example the Agnus Dei, or us with words of familiarity and the Christe eleison, or that beautiful beauty. Indeed the great appeal of act of spiritual communion: O Anglican and Anglican-use Catholic come into my heart, Lord Jesus, worship lies in the rolling cadences and remain with me forever, or the of the Prayerbook and its occupying sacerdotal pre-communion prayer a sheltering space between a dense Lord Jesus Christ, who hath said language “not understanden of the unto Thine apostles, My peace I people” on the one side and, on leave with you, my peace I give unto the other, the trite and sub-trivial you… and so on. blathering that has infected so much of modern worship. And, of course, we cannot neglect the innumerable prayers addressed Yet with the incorporation of and in Trinitarian Christianity we to Mary and to the Saints in the prayer formulas, the anchor points traditionally direct prayers to one universal practice of the Catholic of our ‘prayer talk’, we run the of the three Persons of the Holy and Orthodox churches, East and danger that all familiarity breeds, Trinity. The Our Father obviously, West. namely of something short of and that highest and most extensive contempt but firmly in the camp of In traditional prayer formulæ liturgical prayer, the Canon of the the addressee appears at the carelessness, of an inattentiveness Mass, along with the most likely which ultimately also detracts from very beginning of the prayer, majority of formal prayers, all usually followed by a phrase of the other traits which our prayer address God the Father, as our should have, namely devotion and characteristic, Almighty God, Blessed Lord did in His prayers and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, dignity. Unconsidered language as He taught us to pray: leads to inconsiderate language. who desireth not the death of a But thou, when thou prayest, sinner…. But in other formulae the When you are praying, it might enter into thy closet, and when prayer begins with an imperative- help first to ask yourself to whom thou hast shut thy door, pray to form request followed by the are you praying. Yes, of course, thy Father which is in secret; addressee usually without an to God. But God is three Persons, and thy Father, which seeth in additional qualifying phrase: Stir Page 18 Contra Mundum up, O Lord, we beseech Thee… speech might appear as a.b, a.b, where secret delivery trick here (try So in nearly every case we the a’s have some structural similarity following this from now on) lies have a way to establish which and the b’s also resemble one another. For in taking the stress off the word Person of the Most Holy Trinity poetic reasons a chiasm turns this natural thanks and placing it on the be, we are invoking for our prayer, order into a.b, b.a, so for example, stout so that we get: Thanks bé to and we should attend to this as hearts and bold warriors (adjective + Gód, which puts the emphasis the very first step of any prayer noun, adjective + noun) would appear where it properly belongs in the discourse. chiastically as stout hearts and warriors first place. But now ask yourself the bold. And so in our Gloria we find: Examples like this abound, of following: When we recite, as we • --Praise to God the Father places where, just like attending do at practically every offering • --Address to God the Father to who the addressee of a prayer of the Sacrifice of the Mass, • --Address to God the Son may be, we must also engage in the major doxology or Glory • --Petition to God the Son the careful consideration of the be to God on high…, whom are actual import of a prayer phrase, and usually with nary a beat skipped we addressing? Interestingly such as, for a final example, between the two addresses, first to what enough this acclamation of praise the minor doxology, Glory (be) has just preceded it: represents a composite of several to the Father, and to the Son… …O Lord God, Heavenly King, God the Father very distinct segments, as does Almighty. which demands but seldom its correspondent in the Eastern receives a strong emphasis on church. The Western Gloria then immediately, as the address to all Glory (be), the whole theme shows at least three components: that will follow: of the exclamation, and then the song of the heavenly choirs at O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, O a pregnant pause before the the Nativity of our Blessed Lord Lord God, Lamb of God… enumeration of the Persons of (Glory be to God on high…good Well, thanks, you might say for the the Most Holy Trinity: linguistics and stylistics lesson, but what will towards men) as we hear Glóry (bé) ! <pause> it reported in Luke 2:14; then does this actually have to do with our a tribute of praise to God the sense of devotion or attentiveness, apart to the Father Father (we praise Thee…for Thy from the welcome lesson of “recognize and to the Son great glory); finally, a petition to whom you are talking to”? and to the Holy Ghost/Spirit… God the Son (O Lord, the only- Just as much of the value of a well-told To whom be all honor and glory, begotten Son…have mercy upon joke lies in the timing of its delivery, forever and ever. Amen. us…receive our prayer). Few of so also the subtleties of timing and --M.J. Connolly us realize this dichotomy, the intonation can affect our understanding transition between which gets ¶ The Revd. Dcn. Michael Connolly of a prayer formula and even distort it to teaches linguistics in Boston College obscured in our traditional way the point of blasphemy: we can intone and serves primarily as Archdeacon at of reading or chanting the Gloria (and indeed some skeptical souls have Holy Cross Armenian Catholic Church in excelsis, and we neglect an spoken) a seemingly innocent phrase in Belmont. He assists frequently in the Anglican Use. His most recent important pause, a shifting of like …according to the Scriptures or gears, between the two parts and contribution to Contra Mundum was in …the Holy Gospel according to Luke March 2010. thus we neglect the movement to suddenly imply ‘Yeah, sure, that’s from praise to petition, from what the scriptures (or Luke) say, but Father to Son. The primary we know better than that’. Or, to take reason for this oversight comes an even more common example, how from the poetical ordering of the often, especially after a particularly long addressees, a rhetorical device reading, has the congregation’s response called a chiasm. Chiasms re- Thanks be to God sounded more like a order elements which in normal ‘Thank God that’s finally over!’? The Contra Mundum Page 19 IN HONOR OF tolic grace and truth, are inherently and intimately of the very fabric of SAINT THERESE Christianity…not as ornaments and trimming, but foundational. AZEL is a lovely lady, very de- To acknowledge Jesus as Lord is Hvout, a member of our parish, not automatically to think rightly of on the Family Mass planning com- Him. Many people think wrongly mittee and other parish activities. I about Christ, and therefore about got to know her from attending her His Church. To them, the Apostles during her recuperation from a hys- are only the first Christians. They terectomy; she lives about twelve will be acknowledged as (mostly) blocks from the church. Hazel is a good men because Jesus chose them, nurse. Very practical lady, as are all but who differ from other Christians nurses. mainly because they are named in Father Steven decided that this the Bible! No wonder non-Catholic year we’d have a Novena to Saint Christians give no official place to Therese, the Little Flower. I do the Apostles in their public services. not think this had ever happened Now, my Pastor heard the story This view shows a fundamentally before. It was a good thing to do. and asked, “But what about the different conception of Christianity The Novena Prayers he decided on rose? Did you get the rose?” A than St. Paul had when he wrote that were good, contemporary, printed lot of folk who receive blessings the Church is “built upon the founda- in a folder and said at all Masses through Therese’s intercession get tion of the Apostles.” for nine days before Saint Therese’s roses or smell roses or whatever. Catholics, on the other hand, are feast on October 2 (including the Hazel returned home, having not even content to commemorate Saturday evening/Sunday Masses). been sent home by the puzzled Saints Simon and Jude and the other People were happy to assist at the doctor because she no longer need- Apostles under the great Festival of Novena.