We are all Americans now

(And not in a good way.)

From Vatican Insider:

She could have been Britain’s First Lady but she chose to become a Benedictine nun. 44 year old Laura Adshead dated British Prime Minister, David Cameron, from spring 1990 to summer 1991. In 2008, after seeing her life slip more and more deeply into a spiral of gossip, alcohol and drugs, the dazzling blond decided to take her vows as a Benedictine nun, becoming Sister John Mary.

Did anyone tell this "First Lady"?

I do not think it means what you think it means

(In case you don't know who Craig Thomson is.)

The statement:



The correction:

Returning

Why do I keep deleting the Safari icon from the dock? Perhaps my subsconscious is trying to tell me something. Or perhaps it is because it is directly below where I pinch the corner of excessively large windows to shrink them.

The Desire of all Nations

O Rex géntium et desiderátus eárum, lapísque anguláris, qui facis útraque unum: veni et salva hóminem, quem de limo formasti.

O King of nations, and their Desired, the Cornerstone Who dost make both one: come and save mankind whom Thou didst form out of clay.In the Authorised Version, Haggai 2:6-7 reads:

For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.

It is tempting to read this as the source for the exspectatio gentium of the O Emmanuel or the desideratum gentium of O Rex. Indeed the Vulgate (v. 8) reads et veniet desideratus cunctis gentibus. However the Neo-Vulgate reads et venient thesauri cunctarum gentium. Moreover the RSV reads so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, i.e. the wealth of the nations will bankroll the temple, this suggests that in the Hebrew it is not the pure longing of the nations that is being described but materialistic desires.

The Septuagint reads καὶ ἥξει τὰ ἐκλεκτὰ πάντων τῶν ἐθνῶν - transliterated (caps for long vowels) kai hExei ta eklekta pantOn tOn ethnOn - the choice things of all the nations.

The literal interlinear translation of the Old Testament edited by John R Kohlenberger III has: and they will come one desired of all of the nations. That suggests that thesauri (treasures) is correct and not desideratus (desire).

[Please don't ask me to untangle the differences between the Neo-Vulgate and its predecessors - is it simply a better edition of Jerome's single text, did Jerome produce many translations and this is another selection than the received text? is it merely an improved translation from the Hebrew?]

O Emmanuel - 23rd December

O Emmánuel, rex et légifer noster, exspectátio géntium et salvátor eárum: veni ad salvándum nos, Dómine Deus noster.

Monastic Diurnal:

O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Desire of all nations and their Saviour: come and save us, O Lord, our God.

Divine Office (UK, Ireland and Australia):

O Immanuel, you are our king and judge, the One whom the peoples await and their Saviour. O come and save us, Lord, our God.

J.M. Neale:

O come, o come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.

T.E. Lacey:

O come, o come Emmanuel!
Redeem thy captive Israel,
That into exile drear is gone
Far from the face of God's dear Son.

Scripture:

Therefore the LORD himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son. and shall call his name Immanuel. - Isaiah 7:14
For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our ruler, the LORD is our king; he will save us. - Isaiah 33:22

O Rex Gentium - O King of Nations - 22nd December

O Rex géntium et desiderátus eárum, lapísque anguláris, qui facis útraque unum: veni et salva hóminem, quem de limo formasti.

Monastic Diurnal:

O King of nations, and their Desired, the Cornerstone Who dost make both one: come and save mankind whom Thou didst form out of clay.

Divine Office (UK, Ireland and Australia):

O King whom all the peoples desire, you are the cornerstone which makes all one. O come and save man whom you made from clay.

J.M. Neale:

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid every strife and sorrow cease
And fill the world with heaven's peace.

T.E. Lacey:

O come, desire of nations! Show
thy kingly reign on earth below;
thou cornerstone, uniting all,
restore the ruin of our fall.

Scripture:

The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner. - Psalms 117 (118):22

He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. - Isaiah 2:4

Behold I am laying in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: "He who believes will not be in haste." - Isaiah 28:16

But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. - Ephesians 2:13-16.

O Thoma Didyme -O Thomas the Twin - 21st December

The following antiphon is found in some medieval breviaries, today being the traditional feast of St Thomas the Apostle.

O Thoma Didyme! qui Christum meruisti cernere; te precibus rogamus altisonis, succurre nobis miseris; ne damnemur cum impiis, in adventu Iudicis.
O Thomas the Twin, who didst merit to see Christ; we beseech thee with earnest prayers, help us miserable sinners; lest we be condemned with the wicked when the Judge comes.

Guéranger's discussion of the feast of St Thomas, including this antiphon is found here. Sources for the other Great Antiphons may be found here.