{"id":3518,"date":"2009-02-03T14:27:54","date_gmt":"2009-02-03T14:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2009\/02\/a-church-with-face-and-garment\/"},"modified":"2009-02-03T14:27:54","modified_gmt":"2009-02-03T14:27:54","slug":"a-church-with-face-and-garment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/2009\/02\/a-church-with-face-and-garment\/","title":{"rendered":"A Church with Face and Garments Soiled"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cristo<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Good Friday 2005: A Prayer by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lord, your Church often seems like a boat about to sink, a boat taking in water on every side. In your field we see more weeds than wheat. The soiled garments and face of your Church throw us into confusion. Yet it is we ourselves who have soiled them! It is we who betray you time and time again, after all our lofty words and grand gestures. Have mercy on your Church; within her too, Adam continues to fall. When we fall, we drag you down to earth, and Satan laughs, for he hopes that you will not be able to rise from that fall; he hopes that being dragged down in the fall of your Church, you will remain prostrate and overpowered. But you will rise again. You stood up, you arose and you can also raise us up. Save and sanctify your Church. Save and sanctify us all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When I chanted the Canticle from the Book of Daniel (3:3, 4, 6, 11-18) at Lauds this morning, it became, by the grace of the Holy Ghost, a prayer for the Church, a supplication for her purification and healing. This happens so often in the Divine Office. In the prayer of the Church, nothing is stale, nothing old, nothing removed from the Passion of Christ prolonged in His members until the end of time.<\/em>
\nBlessed art thou, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
\nand thy name is worthy of praise, and glorious for ever:
\nFor thou art just in all that thou hast done to us,
\nand all thy works are true, and thy ways right, and all thy judgments true.
\nFor thou hast executed true judgments
\nin all the things that thou hast brought upon us,
\nand upon Jerusalem the holy city of our fathers:
\nfor according to truth and judgment,
\nthou hast brought all these things upon us for our sins.
\nFor we have sinned, and committed iniquity, departing from thee:
\nand we have trespassed in all things:
\nAnd we have not hearkened to thy commandments,
\nnor have we observed nor done as thou hadst commanded us,
\nthat it might go well with us.
\nAnd now we cannot open our mouths:
\nwe are become a shame and reproach to thy servants,
\nand to them that worship thee.
\nDeliver us not up for ever, we beseech thee, for thy name’s sake,
\nand abolish not thy covenant.
\nAnd take not away thy mercy from us
\nfor the sake of Abraham thy beloved, and Isaac thy servant, and Israel thy holy one:
\nFor we, O Lord, are diminished more than any nation,
\nand are brought low in all the earth this day for our sins.
\nNeither is there at this time prince, or leader, or prophet,
\nor holocaust, or sacrifice, or oblation, or incense,
\nor place of firstfruits before thee, that we may find thy mercy:
\nnevertheless in a contrite heart and humble spirit let us be accepted.
\nSo let our sacrifice be made in thy sight this day, that it may please thee:
\nfor there is no confusion to them that trust in thee.
\nAnd now we follow thee with all our heart,
\nand we fear thee, and seek thy face.
\n<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good Friday 2005: A Prayer by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger Lord, your Church often seems like a boat about to sink, a boat taking in water on every side. In your field we see more weeds than wheat. The soiled garments and face of your Church throw us into confusion. Yet it is we ourselves who <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,30,65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-life","category-passion-of-christ","category-the-church-in-distress"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paVypq-UK","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3518"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vultuschristi.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}