THE LAW OF PRAYER IS THE LAW OF BELIEF AND IT IS ALSO THE LAW OF GOOD OR BAD, ORTHODOX OR HETERODOX, CATHOLIC SANCTUARY DESIGN

The following is the Latin Opening Collect for today's Mass which has been in our revised Ordinary Form Missal since 1973 and unchanged all these years:

Deus, qui fidelium mentes unius efficis voluntatis, da populis tuis id amare quod praecipis, id desiderare quod promittis, ut, inter mundanas varietates, ibi nostra fixa sint corda, ubi vera sunt gaudia.

The following is the former Opening Collect (Prayer) for this Sunday's Mass, a loose equivalent translation into English of the Latin prayer above for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time from the 1973 Roman Missal. The last time we heard this was two years ago:

Father, help us to seek the values that will bring us lasting joy in this changing world. In our desire for what you promise make us one in mind and heart.

It is quite fitting for the prayer above to be associated with this kind of church interior architecture:

This is the revision of this prayer using the more literal method of translating the original Latin into English which we heard for the first time last year and will also pray today (21st Sunday in Ordinary Time):

O God, who cause the minds of the faithful to unite in a single purpose, grant your people to love what you command and to desire what you promise, that, amid the uncertainties of this world, our hearts may be fixed on that place where true gladness is found.

The renovation of this English translation of the original Latin fits quite well with the renovation of the same Church above into this:


In other words, this is to the old English translation of the Mass:

To what this is to the new and glorious English translation of the Mass done right:

But the most dramatic example of how the dumbed down equivalent translation of the Mass from Latin into English fits in well with the most dumbed down Catholic sanctuary that was most common in the 1970's is this before photo:

But in anticipation of and because of the new glorious Literal English translation of the Roman Mass, the Church was renovated to reflect the actual theology of the Ordinary Form of the Mass, which was always present in the Latin version of it, but made clear in the new and glorious translation that we now experience by the grace of God and because of Pope John Paul II and his good buddy, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and also by God's grace. For without them, we would have had an even worse revised English translation of the Mass that would be better suited to the immediate photo above rather than the reformed sanctuary below, which is the photo of the after the renovation of the same church, believe it or not:

MY FINAL COMMENT: We can see in pictures worth a thousand words that the law of prayer is the law of belief.

The dumbed down English translation of the Mass and its corresponding sanctuary design leads to the Pelagian/gnostic heresies revival and the new and glorious English translation of the same Mass and its corresponding sanctuary design leads to the orthodox/orthopraxy revival. So this really is about heterodoxy and orthodoxy, heteropraxis and orthopraxis isn't it?

Thank God for giving us Pope John Paul II, and the good triplets, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and his other good triplet, Pope Benedict the XVI and his other good triplet, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI!