Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Panis Angelicus

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

In what sense "Panis"? What you've got there is a brazier full of live coals.

TTC said...

LOL.

Say what?

Doesn't he have a thurible in his hand? Isn't he incensing the Sacrifice?

Anonymous said...

The Pope's thurible has just been filled with coals and incense from the brazier on the altar. He will use it presently to incense the altar (as is done at every solemn Mass).
Watching this video will make clear what was going on here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbY-rUe7tKg
You will even see them carrying the brazier to the altar and adding the live coals to the unlit charcoals already placed inside of it.

TTC said...

Yes, I've seen one of these before.

Do I understand your comment to mean you disassociate what he is doing with the Bread of Angels?

Anonymous said...

Of course, in the sense that the Eucharist is at the heart of the Catholic cultus, every cultic act is connected to it. But such a system of connections is not the way in which people read titles and captions. In any case, what is going on in the picture is not the celebration of Mass, but the consecration of the altar -- a separate service. Later, the brazier will be removed, the altar wiped down (his Holiness used a lot of oil at the annointing), and the altar dressed for Mass.

TTC said...

I'm sorry to read that you see the practice of the worshiping Christ and the Sacraments He died to give us for our salvation as something derogatory and strange.

I agree that some of the dynamics of protecting corruption and sweeping it under the carpet and the codes of silence are 'cult' in that they are imagined religious practices belonging to the Catholic religion.

My Jesus died to leave the institution that distributes the Sacraments and tools for my salvation, chief among them is the Bread of Angels.

Jerry said...

Carol,

I think there is a misunderstanding. Anonymous is using "cultus" in its Catholic, i.e. Latin, sense: "care, labor; cultivation, culture; worship, reverence," originally "tended, cultivated." The care for the alter, its consecration to service in the Holy Sacrifice, is a beautiful act.

TTC said...

oopsies.

My bad. Mea culpa. I apologize profusely!

Not enough attention to detail on this thread.

You know I almost posted the youtube with Placido Domingo singing Panis Angelicus -- you should see how young he looks! It is very moving. But I wanted to get something with Pope Benedict The picture was tiny when I grabbed it.

Some priests still thankfully consecrate the Altar before the Sacrifice in the Novus Ordo but I am not sure I have seen it done as so described.

I will go to the youtube posted this evening and get back to the thread.

Thank you for educating me on it and I apologize for my misunderstanding.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Jerry, for the clarification. That is exactly the intended sense, just as Catholics also speak of the "cultus" of saints. Interestingly, the word is also used in this sense as a term of art in the modern social sciences that deal with religion.