So far we have looked in detail at the Creed, because it is grammatically the easiest text in the Mass, and the Eucharistic Prayer (Preface, Sanctus and Canon), because it is the most important. Before going further however I need to say something in rather more detail about the Latin verb.
There is no doubt about it, Latin verbs are difficult. The difficulty arises from the fact that Latin, as we have already seen, is an inflected language and therefore the person, number, tense and mood of a verb are expressed by changes in the word endings. There are also four different types of verb in Latin (known to the grammarians as conjugations) and the word endings can vary considerably depending on which conjugation the verb in question belongs to. For example, the future of the verb “laváre” (“to wash”) is “lavábo”, which is the first word in the prayer which the priest says as he washes his hands. Similarly, the future of the verb “circumdáre” (“to go round”) is “circumdábo”, which you will find a little later in the same prayer. However, if you look at the end of the prayer you will find the word “benedícam”, which is the future of the verb “benedícere”, not, as we might have expected, “benedicébo”. The reason for this kind of variation, which has caused untold grief to countless generations of unfortunate schoolboys, is because “laváre” and “circumdáre” belong to the first conjugation and “benedícere” to the third.
Yes, Latin verbs are difficult. That’s the bad news. The good news is that I have included in the Vocabulary all the forms occurring in the text of the Mass which are likely to present a problem. So if you are not sure to what tense, number, person or mood of the verb a particular word belongs, the vocabulary should tell you (but if you really want to learn, try to work it out yourself first). I could leave it at that, but I would like to say a little more about the Latin verb, because there are one or two rules which should help you to identify which part of the verb you are faced with.
Firstly, then, the four conjugations are expressed in terms of their infinitives, which end in
“-áre”, “-ére”, “-ere” and “-íre” (the difference between the second and third is that in the former the accent falls on the penultimate syllable of the word and in the latter on the pre-penultimate). Examples of each are “adunáre” (“to unite”), “habére” (“to hold”), “régere” (“to rule”) and “custodíre” (“to guard”). All of these words you will find in the Canon. In the vocabulary I have included the infinitives of all the verbs which figure in the Ordinary of the Mass, even if the infinitive itself does not appear. The passive infinitive is like the active but the final “-e” becomes “-i”, except for verbs like “régere”, which becomes “regi”, not “régeri”.
Secondly, the imperative of each verb is just the infinitive with the final “-re” lopped off. So in Psalm 42 which the priest recites at the foot of the altar before the commencement of Mass proper, we find “Iúdica” (from “iudicáre”), “discérne” (from “discérnere”), “érue” (from “erúere”), “emítte” (from “emíttere”) and “spera” (from “speráre”). There are however one or two irregular forms which occur in the Mass; “meménto” meaning “remember”, and “aufer” meaning “take away”.
Thirdly, in the active voice the third person singular always ends in “-t” and the third person plural in “-nt”, no matter what the tense or conjugation. Moreover, there are hardly any other words in Latin which end in “-t” and no other words at all which end in “-nt” except a verb in the third person singular and plural respectively. So if you find a word which ends in “-t” you have almost certainly got an active verb in the third person singular, and if you find a word which ends in “-nt” you have definitely got an active verb in the third person plural.
Fourthly, in the passive voice the third person singular always (except in the compound past tenses) ends in “-tur” and the third person plural in “-ntur”, so if you find a word which ends in one or other of these ways you will have a passive verb in the third person singular or plural, as the case may be.
Fifthly, in the active voice the first person plural ends in “-mus” and in the passive in
“-mur”. So in the Gloria we find “Laudámus te, benedícimus te, adorámus te, glorificámus te, grátias ágimus tibi...”, and of course the word “offérimus” which occurs over and over again in the Mass. But there are other words in Latin which end in “-mus” (see for example “altíssimus” towards the end of the Gloria) so this is a good guide rather than a foolproof method of identifying a first person plural.
Next, a word about the subjunctive mood. This has various uses in Latin, but the principal one (and in the Mass almost the only one) is to express a hope or a wish. So when the priest wishes to say “We pray” he says “Orámus”, but when he wants to say “Let us pray” he says “Orémus”. Since our hopes and wishes figure very frequently in the prayers of the Mass, the subjunctive occurs very often in its texts. I can give only a few examples by way of illustration. Before reading the gospel the priest or deacon prays “Dóminus sit in corde meo et in lábiis meis, ut digne et competénter annúntiem Evangélium suum” (“May the Lord be in my heart and on my lips, so that I may worthily and competently proclaim His Gospel”). There are two wishes expressed here; “may the Lord be in my heart” and “that I may worthily proclaim...His Gospel”, so both verbs (“sit” and “annúntiem”) are in the subjunctive. In a passage which we have already considered, from the first commemoration of saints in the Canon, the priest prays “quorum méritis precibúsque concédas, ut in ómnibus protectiónis tuae muniámur auxílio” (“to whose merits and prayers grant that in all [things] we may be defended by the help of Thy protection”). Here again both verbs asking that God may grant something (“concédas”) and specifying what we want him to grant (“muniámur”) are in the subjunctive. And after the Confiteor the server says “Misereátur tui omnípotens Deus et, dimíssis peccátis tuis, perdúcat te in vitam aetérnam” (“May God have mercy on you and, having forgiven your sins, bring you to life eternal”). Both verbs (“misereátur” and “perdúcat”) are naturally in the subjunctive.
The phrase “dimíssis peccátis tuis” introduces another point which we have met briefly before when talking about the Words of Consecration (remember “elevátis óculis in caelum”?) I mentioned then that the Romans never got round to inventing an active past participle and so they had to use a passive one in its place. So instead of saying “having lifted up His eyes to heaven” they have to say “His eyes having been lifted up to heaven”. We have here another example of the same thing. We would say “having forgiven your sins”, but since we can’t do that in Latin, we have to say “your sins having been forgiven”. The other point to note is that since “peccátis” is neither the subject nor the object of any verb, and does not come after any preposition, there is no obvious case that it can go into. But it has to go into one or another, so as a matter of convention it goes into the ablative, and “dimíssis” and “tuis” follow suit. This type of construcion is known to grammarians as the “ablative absolute”, i.e. the ablative which is grammatically on its own and not attached to any other part of the sentence.
Latin does have an active present participle, which is also found in the ablative absolute where it is neither the subject or the object of a verb. A good example is in the Preface for the Ascension, where it says that after His Resurrection Christ appeared to His disciples “et, ipsis cernéntibus, est elevátus in caelum” (literally, “and, them looking on, He was raised to heaven” – we would say of course “while they looked on”). There is another in the Preface for feasts of Our Lady, “virginitátis glória permanénte”. Present participles are formed from the infinitive by substituting “-ns” for the final “-re”. Cases other than the nominative can be identified by looking out for the letters “-nt-” before the word ending (e.g. the foregoing examples and “Communicántes et memóriam venerántes”, which we have already met in the Canon).
One final, but important, point about the Latin verb. There are a whole series of verbs in Latin which are passive in form but active in meaning (they are known as deponent verbs, though the name is not important). I would like to be able to say that they are rare and that you will not meet them very often, but in fact they are common and you will. Confitéri (to confess), dignári (to condescend), ingredíri (to enter), laetári (to rejoice), loqui (to speak), mereári (to deserve), miseréri (to have mercy), pati (to suffer), precári (to pray) and sequi (to follow) are all deponent verbs which figure in the text of the Mass. The main thing however is to remember that they are active in meaning, and not be puzzled because they are translated by active verbs in English.
What I would suggest that you do at this stage, as an exercise, is to go very carefully through the whole text of the Canon, trying to work out not only what each word means but what part it plays in the sentence in which it is found. If you get stuck the vocabulary will help. I expect that this will be a fairly difficult, and lengthy, exercise, but a rewarding one, and, if you persevere to the end, you will have learned a great deal about the language of the Mass and be in an excellent position to go on to the rest of the Mass texts. You will find words in the latter which you have not met before, certainly, but you should not find any more grammatical complexities than you have already met with and mastered.