Undusted Texts

  Introduction The odd litany translated below is found in a collection of chants, songs, and hymns used by the Oratory of Jesus, founded by Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle (1575-1629).  This litany is provided in an appendix, and it is said to be the work of Charles de Condren (1588-1641), the second Superior General of the Oratory, following Bérulle's death.  He was also the confessor of Jean-Jacques Olier (1608-1657), founder of the Sulpicians (Society of the Priests of Saint-Sulpice).  The petitions in this litany are quite unwieldy, being mostly passages from St. Paul--predominantly the Letter to the Hebrews--awkwardly stuffed into the format of a litany.  The theme of the litany is still an interesting one, though, so I have translated it here.      Litany in Honor of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Priest and Victim   (Extracted from the Epistles of St. Paul by Charles de Condren)   Kyrie eleison. Christ eleison.  Kyrie eleison. Jesus, Pri...

A replica of the Chair of Moses found at the Synagogue in Chorazin "Upon Moses' chair sit the scribes and the Pharisees: all things whatsoever they tell you to keep, keep and do: but their works do not do, for they speak and do not do."--Mt 23:2-3 How great was Moses' authority, that even his chair continues to be reverenced millennia after his falling asleep!  God ordained him to be the lawgiver of the Israelites and to guide them in the commandments of the Lord, and his authority succeeded him throughout the ages.  First it passed to Joshua, the prototype of Christ in name, then to the many judges the Lord raised, then to the kings of Israel and Judah through the mediation of Samuel, and then to the elders and the teachers after the Exile.  Jesus Himself affirmed this succession of authority, for He affirmed that even the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees had an authority to be heeded.  If even they, successors of the prophet and lawgiver Moses, were to...

  Fr. Wissam Akiki greets his wife, Manal, following his ordination on February 27, 2014. "The Lord confirmed that marriage is something of value…because he attended a wedding," as St. Augustine remarked, yet St. Paul declares, "It is well for a man not to touch a woman," and he comments, "I wish that all were as I myself am," that is, without a wife. The value of both marriage and celibacy has always been a part of Christian teaching, since Jesus Himself, who both announced the indissolubility of marriage and proclaimed that marriage will not be in Heaven. The way these two vocations interact with the separate vocation to priesthood has changed over the centuries and is dependent on circumstances.  First, a basic teaching of the Church must be repeated: "Perfect and perpetual continence...is not demanded of the priesthood by its nature" (Second Vatican Council, Presbyterorum Ordinis §16). Just as the old priesthood of the order ...