Propitiare, Domine, famulis tuis, et clementer gratiae tuae super eos dona multiplica, ut, spe, fide et caritate ferventes, semper in mandatis tuis vigili custodia perseverent.
Decades ago your pastors slammed shut the gates of your Latin liturgical treasury, your patrimony of music and prayer, and snuffed out the light of learning. You have been cheated of the riches of your Catholic worship in Latin, our common inheritance. Custodia is “a watching, guard, protection”. It has the military overtone of “guard, sentinel”. Vigil is “wakeful, watchful”, and, like custodia, can also be “a watchman, sentinel”. Liturgically, a “vigil” is the evening and night before a great feast day. In ancient times vigils were times of fasting, examination of conscience and penance in order to be pure for something awesome about to take place. Current ICEL translation (2011): “Show favour, O Lord, to your servants and mercifully increase the gifts of your grace, that, made fervent in hope, faith and charity, they may be ever watchful in keeping your commands.” Scripture often provides images of vigilance. Jesus said: “Watch (vigilate) therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the householder had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched (vigilaret) and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:42-44). Servants should keep watch in order to open the door for the master of the house even if he returns in the dead of the night (cf Luke 12:37-39). The foolish virgins didn’t take care to have enough oil for their lamps. When the Bridegroom arrived, they weren’t ready. They hammered the door and cried but from the other side they heard: “I do not know you.” “Vigilate… Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” (Matthew 25:13). In 1 Peter 5:8 we read the harrowing, “Be sober, be watchful (vigilate). Your adversary the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour”. You, dear friends, are described as chow for hell. When life’s reckoning arrives, will you be locked outside with the roaring lion? Visit fatherzonline.com
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