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Saturday 26 April 2008

Life with no boundaries!

http://liturgicalnotes.blogspot.com/2008/04/o-grant-us-life-that-shall-not-end.html

Fr Hunwicke has a pithy little post on a phrase from the text of O Salutaris. (And a loopy analogy, a real gem, Grace as a "shucker.")
And it seems very apt right now, between planning Corpus Christi festivities and thinking about the recent papal visit with the theme, Christ, our Hope -- what a hope that is: a life with no boundaries, life of such abundance that death is immaterial, irrelevant, a minor incident to be brushed aside with debonairite.


O grant us life that shall not end
I am glad we use Latin texts for Benediction here at S Thomas's. To sing Aquinas' original text of the O Salutaris reminds one that what he actually wrote was vitam sine termino. Literally this means 'life without a boundary mark'. Perhaps this means more than just 'bodily death won't be the end of everything'. Our life even in this present age itself has no boundary stones if we are in Christ so that our life is hidden with him in the Father. Everything is ours; there are no oysters we cannot open and enjoy provided we possess God's grace to use as a shucker.

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