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Latin is not dead. Here are Latin phrases that persist
like list of q words quoque (also) quattuor (four) quinque (five) neque (nor)  Our schools will not graduate an Aristotle, the student of Plato, the student of Socrates. Our schools manufacture assembly line Fords, Toyotas, and MINI Coopers.
We need different people to tutor our boys and girls throughout their lives, so they can pass on what they know, not mentors, a shopworn word. Patrimonia and matrimonia of intellectual assets, step forward! Our youngest and smallest altar boy served at Mass today. He was paired with the Blond Redwood, our tallest priest. This little saint shifted from knee to knee on the hardwood floor. He struggled holding the large Burse, a square container for the Corporal, which is a square linen that is spread out on the altar for the chalice. The Sacred Host rests there for a time. I stifled my laughter.
The Introit changes daily. Fainteth has lovely connotations. I think of a swooning lover when a literary romance blooms. I think of a soft flower when it buds. We think of budding as the beginning stage, but actually it is the stage right before ripening, before full maturity. Fainteth also imparts an overwhelming force in action, more than mere physical sensation. The New Roman Missal (1962) translates Latin beautifully. For example, the English word deficit comes from the Latin deficit, meaning “it is wanting”. How much more powerful and fragile is the substitution - fainteth. The language lover who avoids the 1962 Mass is missing hidden linguistic treasure.  The ubiquitous occurrence of the exponential function in pure and applied mathematics has led mathematician W. Rudin to opine that the exponential function is "the most important function in mathematics". In applied settings, exponential functions model a relationship in which a constant change in the independent variable gives the same proportional change [that is, percentage increase or decrease] in the dependent variable. Courtesy of Wikipedia
When applied to Catholicism, the independent variable, we might say, is God's call, the percentage increase or decrease of which, however, might or might not be proportional to the change in the dependent variable. Here is a list of surprising dependent variables. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Converts_to_Roman_Catholicism This Mass is taught in university music classes. Wikipedia has a good explanation, and I use this resource often because the entry on the Catholic Church is accurate. I spoke by email with Father Gabet, who says Mass felicitously. In the old footage you will see three priests vested in white at the altar. Two are biological brothers. According to The Times of India, the following are the most beautiful sounding words in English; you be the judge: serendipity, hiraeth, sonorous, petrichor, iridescent, luminous, phoenix, lullaby, rendezvous, ancient, reverie, elixir, evanescent, mellifluous, sumptuous, and willow. Now, guess how many come from Latin.
Here is classical Latin. I spoke to McNamara by email. He teaches university-level Latin now, but in 2007 he did some Latin updating. For fun, Alexander, my youngest student, and I greet each other classically, saying Salve and Vale, Hail and Goodbye. McNamara uses Salvete because he is addressing a multitude. Here is an excellent recording of the Passion in Latin. The singers have perfect diction and trill their r’s beautifully. Every Sunday I get to listen to Latin, which has inherent rhyme and stateliness. Over 60 percent of English words have Greek or Latin roots, and in the sciences and technology the figure rises to over 90 percent. Some test prep books for national exams list the roots, which is why I ask students to memorize them. As of 2016, English vocabulary is 29% French, 29% Latin, 26% Germanic, 6% Greek, and the remaining 10% is either other languages or proper names. Two Latin words frequently sung in this recording are dixit (he said) and respondit (he responded). The singer who sings the role of Pontius Pilate has a slightly higher voice than the narrator. Listen long enough to hear them all: narrator, Pontius Pilate, Jesus [bass voice], and crowd. My favorite Latin phrase is, Quod scripsi, scripsi. In English, What I have written, I have written. Pilate said that in response to the objection to the sign that he ordered to be nailed on the cross above Jesus's head: Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews). It was written in three languages: Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. We see it abbreviated to INRI. For the Passion libretto in Latin and English, copy and paste the following into your search engine... https://www.scribd.com/document/258090504/Arvo-Pa-rt-Passio-Texts-and-Translations  Charles Laughton, second favorite actor. In June, I posted a picture of my favorite actor.
favorite actresses: Anya Taylor-Joy The Miniaturist Barbara Stanwyck Sorry, Wrong Number Meryl Streep Doubt Rita Hayworth Separate Tables Emily Blunt The Young Victoria Joan Crawford Strait-Jacket I spoke to Diane Baker about her performance in Strait-Jacket. She shrugged it off. When I told Miss Baker I was writing a novel and was listening to dialog from movies, she asked me if it was a screenplay. Over the course of several tutoring sessions, my brilliant student, Alexander, wrote a screenplay with characters, plot, and some dialog. It is titled, You Only Live Ten Times, and it is full of dangerous action near Area 51. An FBI agent chases an alien who is trying to obtain plans for a new nuclear weapon. The agent kills the alien ten times, but he miraculously returns to life each time. Father Joshua Curtis, FSSP, a 38-year-old convert, wrote a piece in today's Sunday bulletin titled, "Microchimerism: Our Lady & Our Lord."
"Microchimerism is defined as the presence of two or more genetically distinct cell populations in one individual. During pregnancy, a two-way transfer of cells takes place between the mother and her baby in utero. "During the first few weeks after conception, cells from both mother and baby pass back and forth across the placenta. During pregnancy, up to 10 percent of the DNA of the mother's bloodstream comes from her baby. "After the baby is born, the percentage of the baby's DNA in the mother drops, but some cells remain functional for the rest of the mother's life. Also, as a result of this wonderful exchange of life, children will have cells from their mother that will likewise live in them. "For both mother and child, the cells from the other are actively involved in their health over their lifetime." Father Curtis referenced http://www.catholicmessenger.net/2019/01/the-eternal-mother-child-connection/ An alternate resource dated Jan 11, 2018 is https://aeon.co/essays/microchimerism-how-pregnancy-changes-the-mothers-very-dna This is stunning news when you consider Our Lord and His mother. Because she was assumed into heaven body and soul, she carries some of her son's cells in her body, and His resurrected body carries some of her cells. Father Curtis sermonized that the current era of scientific research has provided us with information never known before, and he marveled that we know, what we know, in this time. Robert Southwell, SJ, (1561-1595), English Roman Catholic priest, poet, hymnodist, and clandestine missionary in Elizabethan England. After being arrested and imprisoned in 1592 and intermittently tortured and questioned by Richard Topcliffe, Southwell was eventually tried and convicted of high treason. On Feb 21, 1595, Father Southwell was hanged at Tyburn, age 34. [Wikipedia]  The psychedelic light show on Chartres was so good (8-17), I thought you might like to see its on-going interior restoration. An older gentleman friend who is Catholic and served in the military and law enforcement told me America is finished. What he means is that we are falling out of our number one position. Am I ready to accept that? It has happened before to great empires - Greek, Roman, British. Is it our turn? The Dear Lord lets us suffer individually and as a group. He tells us to take up the cross. We will find out when we are dead and He reveals why this must be. Whichever way it turns out, the Man on the cross has my allegiance. Here is a small music video tribute to my old friend. Picture taken on August 20, 2021. Sent to me by a dear friend from her house in Sebastopol, CA, 125 highway miles from me - a not-evanescing-yet Sun turned red by forest fires. The background trees reveal the amount of smoke.  Sometimes, I wonder if the American Experiment will ever work. I might have been born in the wrong place and the wrong era. I wish I lived in a society where I did not have to muzzle myself over religion. The first day of school for one of my students attending Catholic school is Aug 25, 2021. His heritage is Muslim Tatar, and he is a fine young man. I kidded him that he has warrior status. Yikes! You, the reader, might misunderstand. He has an Apollonian nature and loving parents.
The grammatical error "no more" got me laughing, and there are some other errors in the narration - no matter, it is filled with ardor. My young students spurred an interest in Greek mythology I never had before. Now I know why ancient Greek was so favored in Catholic schools until the 1960s and Renaissance sculptors and painters chose the gods. The tales are about love and loss, youth and wisdom, virtue and vice, heroism and cowardice, and, ultimately, death and immortality. A man may smile and bid you hail, yet wish you to the devil, but when a good dog wags his tail, you know he's on the level.
Michael Jiroch did an excellent job editing his own video. I visited Chartres in 1997 before restoration began.
"scrubbing away of 750+ years of soot" Music and discipline magnify beauty at Vaganova, my favorite comprehensive school in Russia. The pedagogue can be heard keeping time with a clacker. |
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