Saturday, December 12, 2009

Catechism, Chapters II to XXIX: Online already?

My old catechism is dog-eared. When I was confirmed, I could answer all the questions by heart. Now, no, but looking through it I am moved by all that certainty, expressed in simple language. The preliminary section gives the most important prayers, devotions, and lists. Then Part I, Chapters I-XIV, deals with the Apostle's Creed. Part II, Ch. XV-XXI, elaborates on the commandments. Part III, Ch. XXII-XXIX, explains the sacraments. A final appendix gives the Latin responses for Mass.

Is this online somewhere? A quick search just turns up the modern Catechism issued in the reign of John Paul II. This is a very big and wordy document, and not at all suited to practical catechetics, despite the name.

I served as an altar-boy for a couple of years, without any of the horrible incidents one hears about. The worst thing that happened was that once I upended a thurible and spilt a lot of incense on the altar. I inadvertently put it down on the fringe of my surplice, while kneeling, and when I got to my feet it went flying. The priest was evidently furious. He said nothing, just turned stony-faced. I felt so bad, that I took the first opportunity to join the choir, and get out of the public gaze.
The training of an altar-boy involved committing the Latin responses to memory. This we did in a couple of short sessions after school. We just learned our bits, not the priest's, and it was not considered necessary to instruct us about their meaning (although this information was provided by grown-ups' missals). For instance, the ceremony began:
Priest: Introibo ad altare Dei. (I shall go unto the altar of God.)
Server: Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam. (To God who gladdens my youth.)
So this was my first latin sentence.
The actual study of Latin began when I was 12, and started secondary school. We used a Latin grammar written in Irish, written by the Christian Brothers, which I appear to have lost. Later, I noticed that most grammars in the world used amo
(I love) as the first model for first conjugation verbs, and puella (girl) as the first model for first declension nouns. However, this must have seemed too near the bone for near-adolescent Irish boys, so our grammar used laudo (I praise) and mensa (table). That kept us pure.
One learned to chant off the conjugations, such as laudo, laudas, laudat, laudamus, laudatis, laudant. I was caught out neatly by an impish brother who asked me to recite the present of I'm-ano.

1 comment:

Tony said...

I'm putting the rest of the Catechism in a separate blog.