Rorate Caeli

First alteration in the Traditional Missal after the Motu Proprio


Andrea Tornielli reports today in Il Giornale that the prayer for the conversion of the Jews in the 1962 edition of the Missale Romanum will likely be changed "in the next few days", by decision of Benedict XVI - the opposite of what the secretary of "Ecclesia Dei" said just one week ago ("not an urgent problem"), but somewhat confirming the words of Cardinal Bertone shortly after the publication of the motu proprio.

Main excerpts:

Benedict XVI has decided to reformulate the text of the prayer for the Jews contained in the Tridentine Missal liberalized by the recent Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum: the publication of the new text, entirely reformulated, should take place in a few days. The reference to the "blinding" of the Jewish people should disappear. The new version will enter into effect already in the celebrations of the faithful who follow the ancient rite in the next Holy Week.
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Benedict XVI has prepared a draft version of the new prayer, which should be published in the next few days by the Congregation for the Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments [sic]. According to some rumors, in the new version, though the passages considered offensive by the Jews have been omitted, the reference to the old aim of the prayer, that of conversion, would nevertheless remain.
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The prayer for the conversion of the Jews in the Great Intercessions in the liturgy of Good Friday in the 1962 Editio Typica of the Missale Romanum is the following.
Let us pray: and also for the Jews, may our God and Lord remove the veil from their hearts; so that they may acknowledge Jesus Christ, Our Lord.

Almighty and everlasting God, who drivest not away from Thy mercy even the Jews: hear our prayers, which we offer for the blindness of that people: that, acknowledging the light of Thy truth, which is Christ, they may be rescued from their darkness.
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The text of the Second Epistle of Saint Paul to the Corinthians (3:12-16), upon which the prayer is mostly based, is the following (Douay-Rheims):

Having therefore such hope, we use much confidence: And not as Moses put a veil upon his face, that the children of Israel might not steadfastly look on the face of that which is made void. But their senses were made dull. For, until this present day, the selfsame veil, in the reading of the old testament, remaineth not taken away (because in Christ it is made void). But even until this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. But when they shall be converted to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.