2/21/21

Dear St. Joseph Parish Family,

We've now embarked upon Lent! May it be a season of blessings for all of us!

Two notes. First, a question I get asked frequently about our restored baptismal font is why is it divided into two parts? During the 19th century, it was the custom to use the holy water blessed at the Easter Vigil for all the baptisms during the year. In order to facilitate that practice, half the font held the Easter Vigil holy water, and the other half was used to catch the water running off the person's head during the baptismal rite. The font originally had a cover to prevent evaporation, but we don't know what the cover looked like. In its original state, the font did not have a drain, but we included a drain in the restoration because although we are happy to use our historic baptismal font again, we have no intention of using the same water for an entire year (we live post-germ-theory after all!). 

Second, you may have noticed a change in translation: during the collect at Mass the priest no longer ends with "one God" but just "God." To explain this change, first some background. The collect is the prayer at the end of the introductory rites at Mass, after the Gloria, and just before the first reading. The priest says "Let Us Pray" and then there is a prayer that changes every Sunday or holy day. The prayer ends with a doxology, or a short statement of praise to God. The doxology usually goes "Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever." Rome has asked English-speaking countries to change the "one God" to simply "God." The English translations are the only ones to say "one God;" the Latin just has "Deus," like all the other vernacular translations around the world. The doxology was added to collects in the 4th century in order to combat the heresy of Arianism, which denied the full divinity of Christ – the 'God' at the end of the doxology refers back to 'Jesus Christ' and does not refer to the whole Trinity. For more on the history and theology behind this translation change see this article from the National Catholic Register.