Tuesday, July 22, 2014

"that persevering love with which Saint Mary Magdalene clung resolutely to Christ her master"

Martin Schongauer,
Noli me tangere, c. 1470/80.
"May the holy reception of your mysteries, Lord, instill in us that persevering love with which Saint Mary Magdalene clung resolutely to Christ her master."

"Mysteriorum tuorum, Domine, sancta perceptio perseverantem illum nobis amorem infundat, quo beata Maria Magdalena Christo magistro suo indesinenter adhæsit."

     Prayer after Communion, Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, 22 July, Roman missal.  In the Liturgy of the hours what appears is only the opening Collect, not this Post-Communion.  Lewis & Short gives "incessantly" (rather than "resolutely") for indesinenter, and the Dictionary of medieval Latin from British sources, "ceaselessly, without pause," "endlessly, perpetually."  (Lewis & Short's reference to an occurrence of et indeficienter inhaerere at Confessions XXII.xi seems to be mistaken, however, for there the verb is cohaerendo.)
     This prayer does not appear with the ancient prayers in the main body of Corpus orationum.  But it is no. 2987 in the online 2004 Concordantia et indices volume of Sources of the Missale Parisiense of 1738, by Gerard O’Connor.  Better yet, Corpus orationum 13 refers from no. 683 (1616?) of the Missale Romanum of 1970/1975 to no. 2987 of the Missale Parisiense of 1706 ed. Noailles () and no. 2987 of the Missale Parisiense of 1685 ed. Harlay ().
     Yet on the other hand, it does not appear in the four Bibliotheque Sainte Genevieve codices of the (?) Missale Parisiense in the Internet Archive dated 1481, 1489, 1490, and 1497.  There the Post-Communion is consistently "Sanctificet nos quaesumus domine et muniat intercedente beata Maria Magdalena", etc.
     So though a lot of work could still be done, I’m going to rest content for now with 1685.
Mysteriorum tuorum, Domine, sancta perceptio perseverantem illum nobis amorem infundat, quo beata Maria Magdalene tibi immobiliter adhæsit.
(There is a brief introduction to the Lyonese rite in the 2nd edition of the New Catholic encyclopedia, but I have not followed up on that.)
     Corpus orationum 13 traces this back to the "noli me tangere" ("Do not touch me") of John 20:17, read in the light of the "adherere" of Ps 73 (72):28 (from the Greek side, not the Hebrew): "it is good for me to adhere to my God".

No comments: