Catholic Word of the Day: SURSUM CORDA, 02-23-10

CatholicReference.net ^ | 02-23-10 | Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary

[Salvation]

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SURSUM CORDA

"Lift up your hearts", a phrase used by the priest when addressing the faithful at Mass during the preface. It is also used as a motto in Christian heraldry.

All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

[Salvation]

We all hear this at every Mass we attend.

[Salvation]

Catholic Word of the Day – links will be provided later by another FReeper.

 

Monogamy	Sanctoral Cycle/Proper of the Saints	Prinknash
Gift of Knowledge	Nine Offices	Imputability
Thesis	Hypapante	Evangelist of Mary
Grace of God	Morality of Dancing	Priest
Henotheism	Creationism	Incommunicable Attribute
Homoousios	Credence	Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament
Baptism	Darius	Papal Decoration
Secret Society	Laus	Humanae Personae Dignitatem
Station Days	Christian Marriage	Incarnation
Gabriel	Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes	Dead Sea
Redemptorists	Agony	Dispensation
Monism	Cathedral of Cologne	Sursum Corda

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[Salvation]

The full text in Latin is:

• Priest: Dominus vobiscum.
• People: Et cum spiritu tuo.
• Priest: Sursum corda.
• People: Habemus ad Dominum.
• Priest: Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro.
• People: Dignum et iustum est.

There are some minor deviations in English translations from the Latin. In contemporary English, the dialogue typically runs as follows. The words in square brackets are included in the Roman Catholic version but removed in most Anglican versions:

• Priest: The Lord be with you.
• People: And also with you.
• Priest: Lift up your hearts.
• People: We lift them [up] to the Lord.
• Priest: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
• People: It is right to give [him] thanks and praise.

[Salvation]

Thanks goodness this will be changing!

Priest: The Lord be with you.
People: And with your spirit.
Priest: Lift up your hearts.
People: We lift them [up] to the Lord.
Priest: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
People: It is right and just.

[frogjerk]

Thanks goodness this will be changing!

When, Advent later this year?

[Tax-chick]

The Spanish version is equivalent to the upcoming English version. We do a very sprightly Communion hymn, “Arriba los Corazones” that includes this text.

[AnAmericanMother]

The old 1928 BCP version:

Priest. Lift up your hearts.
Answer. We lift them up unto the Lord.
Priest. Let us give thanks unto our Lord God.
Answer. It is meet and right so to do.

[Salvation]

The bishops promised 2010, but I don’t know if it has been delayed.

I read somewhere yesterday that the new English translations for all English speaking countries were MANDATED by the Vatican.

Hooray for Pope Benedict!

[Salvation]

I saw that and I wondered if “meet” should have been “meek”??

[AnAmericanMother]

No, it's "meet". "Meet" is an archaic English word meaning "proper", "appropriate", "fitting". It's from the Old English gemæte, meaning "suitable" or "matching in size". It's related to the German word maß - measure.

You'll also find it in the old Sacred Harp hymn,

"Lord, what of all my sufferings here,
If thou wouldst count me meet
With the enraptured host appear
And worship at thy feet.
Give joy or grief, give ease or pain,
Take life or friends away,
But let me find them all again
At the eternal day."

Tune here

Sacred Harp ain't for everybody - and this is a gaggle of johnny-come-lately granola types in Oregon, so it doesn't have the real authentic Southern sound (for one thing they sing it WAY too slow), but I couldn't find a bunch of good old boys singing it.

[AnAmericanMother]

Well, I managed to find it.

Go here and click on the arrow on No. 7 ("Eternal Day").

That's the way it's supposed to be sung.

And by the way, that album is about as good an introduction to Sacred Harp as you're going to get (the soundtrack from the film "Awake My Soul - the Story of the Sacred Harp" is the other.) It strikes what I think is an ideal compromise between the scratchy amateur recordings of triple fortissimo raucousness that you often get in an all-day sing, and the overly precious renderings of most professional recordings. They have the correct nasal sound and the very forward tone production -- but with pitch and tempo correct. And there's not that little old lady soprano stuck up on one of the high notes . . . you get that in the wild, so to speak, but it always annoys me.