MY
Here's a project I just picked up, a throwback from last summer. I found this copy of "Priest's New Ritual" while taking inventory of an old church building in Carrollton, OH that's preparing for demolition. The pastor let me keep it. It's in pretty rough condition, but what do you expect from an 80 year-old book surrounded by rubble and black mold?
I've been doing some primitive archival work on it. I have some archival and PH-neutral PVA glue, so I'm supporting the binding and gluing the cover back together. It was in pieces when I found it. My hope is that one day I'll be able to use it. It's perfectly pocket sized, but it contains every blessing a priest might need in Latin and English. If I can stabilize it, I might be able to carry it around in a cassock pocket as a priest. I've been reflecting a lot about the idea of the priest as custodian of the traditions and history of the Church. We live in a turbulent culture, both because technology seems to be changing faster than humans learn how to use it responsibly, and also because fallen humans make fallen decisions. The diocesan priest chooses a seemingly "unchanging" life. He celebrates the same mass celebrated by saints going back two thousand years, wears vestments that are the descendants of Aaron's wardrobe, and his most important work - the mass - is done by candlelight. In an era of screens, he turns to books. He will likely live and die in the same area - his diocese. A priest's "remote work" option is called missionary work, not working from home. In his book Orthodoxy, Chesterton calls tradition the "democracy of the dead." He says "tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about." Call me romantic, but I love the story. I love the idea of being one more link in the grand tapestry of church history, one more storyteller in the oral tradition testifying to God's work in Creation, one more Saint who sanctified his time with timeless words; words sanctified by saints upon saints praying them with tender devotion to God. I realize that there's something archaic and almost outdated about trying to restore this book. I could save space and have the whole thing on my phone. The prayers themselves, while not invalidated, have been replaced with newer, less redundant, more bare-bones editions. These older prayers read poetically, unconventionally, and anything but colloquially. Nonetheless, I'm captivated by the romanticism of uniting my prayers with the beauty of history and with the simplicity of one day being "just another priest" who got to use this little book of blessings.
2 Comments
Chug and Debbie
3/20/2023 08:38:54 am
Does that book have any Irish Blessings?
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