. . . Not reading them, of course, but if I had “the book,” not “the bells,” sure enough enabled the priest to read (a) the epistle in its side and then (b) the gospel on the other side . . .
When I was a lad, I say, and served a term — as office boy to an Attorney’s firm, where I cleaned the windows and swept the floor, and polished up the handle of the big front door?
Please. When I was a lad, yes, but none of that Gilbert & Sullivan stuff, if you don’t mind. No, I was an altar boy in the early 40’s at (now closed!) St. Catherine of Siena church in dear old Oak Park, Illinois.
Why return to years of old? For sentimental reasons? Nope, for very good devotional reasons. I mean I find in those old mass readings — Epistle and Gospel passages — stuff that rings a bell with me and I’m betting with more than a few readers of these pages.
In short, gimme that old time religion . . .
It’s good enough for me. . . .
1. It was good for Paul and Silas . . .
. . . It’s good enough for me.
2. It was good for the Hebrew children . . ;
. . . It’s good enough for me.
3. It was good for our mothers . . .
. . . It’s good enough for me.
4. Makes me love ev’rybody . . .
. . . It’s good enough for me.
Etc. . . .
How about that? Captures the spirit of the matter, right?
And so, we Romans of the pre-Vatican 2 liturgy have our old time readings day in and day out, available at various online places, best of which I have found, TRADITIONAL LATIN MASS PROPERS IN ENGLISH, where we old-time religionists can find good stuff!
Like this, by way of introduction to what most altar boys probably never heard of, beginning with the saint of the day, Saint Pantaleon, Martyr (305 A.D.), whose name, we are told,
. . . means “the all-compassionate.” He is said to have been a physician at Nicomedia [a major Greek city]. Mindful of the opportunities of charity which his profession afforded him, he treated the needy sick without payment.
When Diocletian’s persecution reached Nicomedia, the Christlike doctor prepared himself for martyrdom by distributing all his goods to the poor. He was urged to apostatize, but steadfastly confessed Jesus. He was beheaded about A.D. 305.
So. The day’s commentary reminds us of long ago days when it did not pay to be Catholic. Those early days, that is, still with us in various ways, of course.
On to the INTROIT and this from the 53rd Psalm, a serviceable reminder:
Behold, God is my helper, and the Lord is the support of my soul. Turn back the evils upon my enemies, and in Your faithfulness to us disperse them, O Lord my protector.
The priest said this, in Latin, of course, not looking at you the mass-goer, who could join him, the two of you looking toward God. Few did, in my recollection, but nothing to stop today’s mass-goer, silently.
Another prayer follows, equally rich in meaning, also for us today:
O Lord, let mercy attune Your ear to the prayers of Your people calling upon You. May they ask only what is pleasing to You, so that their requests may always be heard.
Worth giving a second thought.
A third?
O Almighty God, through the intercession of Your blessed martyr Pantaleon, shield us from bodily harm and purify our minds from evil thoughts.
Yes.
The epistle, I Cor. 10:6-13, a lot to swallow. Allow me to depart from the usual version and offer the Knox version, including his brief commentary and explanations:
1
Let me remind you, brethren, of this. Our fathers were hidden, all of them, under the cloud, and found a path, all of them, through the sea;
2
all alike, in the cloud and in the sea, were baptized into Moses’ fellowship.
3
They all ate the same prophetic food,✻
‘Prophetic’; literally, ‘spiritual’. The sense may be merely that of ‘supernatural’, but it seems more likely that St Paul is regarding the manna, the water, and the rock as types of things to come; cf. Apoc. 11.8.
4
and all drank the same prophetic drink, watered by the same prophetic rock which bore them company, the rock that was Christ.✻
St Paul is no doubt alluding to a Jewish legend, according to which the rock from which the water came was enabled, by a miracle, to accompany the wanderings of the Israelites; he means, perhaps, to attribute this abiding presence to the thing signified rather than to the rock itself.
5
And for all that, God was ill pleased with most of them; see how they were laid low in the wilderness.
6
It is we that were foreshadowed in these events. We were not to set our hearts, as some of them set their hearts, on forbidden things.
7
You were not to turn idolatrous, as some of them did; so we read, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to take their pleasure.✻
Ex. 32.6.
8
We were not to commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, when twenty-three thousand of them were killed in one day.✻
9
We were not to try the patience of Christ, as some of them tried it, the men who were slain by the serpents;✻
Num. 21.6. The Greek manuscripts read ‘the Lord’, not ‘Christ’.
10
nor were you to complain, as some of them complained, till the destroying angel slew them.✻
11
When all this happened to them, it was a symbol; the record of it was written as a warning to us, in whom history has reached its fulfilment;
12
and it means that he who thinks he stands firmly should beware of a fall.✻
vv. 1-12: The Jews, St Paul argues, were figuratively baptized when they were hidden by the fiery cloud (Ex. 14.20) and passed through the Red Sea, as we are mystically associated by baptism with the passage of Christ through the tomb (Rom. 6.2-4; Col. 3.3). They became, figuratively, communicants when they ate the bread of angels, the manna, and were nourished from the riven rock (Ex. 17.6), as we are sacramentally nourished from the riven side of Christ (Jn. 19.34). Baptized communicants, in this figurative sense, they nevertheless fell away from God and incurred his anger. The Corinthians, then, must not think that they, as baptized communicants, are proof against every temptation; they must avoid the occasions of sin, especially that of idolatry.
13
I pray that no temptation may come upon you that is beyond man’s strength.✻ Not that God will play you false; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond your powers. With the temptation itself, he will ordain the issue of it, and enable you to hold your own.
According to St Basil, St Paul here looks forward to the persecutions which were soon to bring Christians into grave danger of consenting to idolatry. ‘I pray that no temptation may befall you’; the Greek here has, ‘So far, no temptation has befallen you’.
Lots here, more than you had in mind, I’m sure. 2 things’ however: you see Paul citing Scripture he took for granted. It’s what he as a Jew inherited.
The other thing is that this old-time, pre-Vatican 2, religion is more New Testament looking to Old, whereas post-Vatican 2 readings deliver the Old Testament passages time and again in this part of the mass, which I find odd, much preferring the New Testament with its rich references to the Old, which is where we are in our overall grasping of the word of God.
Blithe Spirit 