On Sunday, July 8th, His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke celebrated a Solemn Pontifical Mass from the Throne at the church of Ss Peter and Paul in Cork, Ireland, as part of the 11th Fota International Liturgical Conference. The Mass was sung by the wonderful Lassus Scholars, conducted by Dr Ite O’Donovan; here are the Gloria and Creed of Orlando de Lassus’ Missa Entre Vous Filles.
In the afternoon, a paper by Fr Joseph Briody was presented, entitled “The Imprecatory Passages of the Psalms and their use in the Divine Office.” Here is the abstract. - The revised Liturgy of the Hours omitted some difficult passages from the Psalms in order to facilitate the public and vernacular praying of the Divine Office. These passages are sometimes called the “curses” or imprecatory passages. In recent years some scholars – including non-Catholic scholars – have argued that the praying of these difficult passages can be beneficial, especially in certain circumstances or in personal prayer. These passages express the deepest pain of the human heart and cry out to the Lord for deliverance. This paper examines some of these passages and their literal, theological, spiritual and theological senses. Interestingly, even the most difficult passages do not envisage the author himself taking revenge on enemies. This is left to the Lord: vindication and restoration belong to the Lord. The passages express a cry for justice, while leaving the outcome to the Lord. The passages recognize the movements of the heart and channel these movements away from destruction to resolution, trust and peace. The praying of the Psalms is therefore both therapeutic and transformative. These difficult passages candidly bring human suffering before the living God who speaks and heals.
Fr Briody was unable to be present for the conference this year, and so his paper was read by Fr Dennis McManus, who will begin teaching at Mount St Mary Seminary in the fall. Even though the paper which he presented was not his own work, Fr McManus nevertheless fielded questions on the topic, and I have to say that the discussion which resulted was one of the most interesting I have ever attended at any kind of conference.
Afterwards, Cardinal Burke presented the printed volume of the paper delivered at last year’s Fota Conference, which is entitled “Resourcing the Prayers of the Roman Liturgy: Patristic Sources”, edited by Fr Joseph Briody, and soon to be available from Smenos Publications.
Fr Briody was unable to be present for the conference this year, and so his paper was read by Fr Dennis McManus, who will begin teaching at Mount St Mary Seminary in the fall. Even though the paper which he presented was not his own work, Fr McManus nevertheless fielded questions on the topic, and I have to say that the discussion which resulted was one of the most interesting I have ever attended at any kind of conference.
Afterwards, Cardinal Burke presented the printed volume of the paper delivered at last year’s Fota Conference, which is entitled “Resourcing the Prayers of the Roman Liturgy: Patristic Sources”, edited by Fr Joseph Briody, and soon to be available from Smenos Publications.
