Vitanuova for 2007 July

My Doppelgänger

Kyle McMartin really does look an incredible amount like me (especially when I had a fuller beard).

Openness

I didn't get an iPhone, but I did order an OpenMoko.

The Conversion of the Jews

I should probably take this up on Wikipedia, but the current Wikipedia article on Summorum Pontificum translates

Pro Iudæis. Oremus et pro Iudæis, ut, ad quos prius locutus est Dominus Deus noster, eis tribuat in sui nominis amore et in sui fœderis fidelitate proficere. (Oratio in silentio. Deinde sacerdos:) Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui promissiones tuas Abrahæ eiusque semini contulisti, Ecclesiæ tuæ preces clementer exaudi, ut populus acquisitionis prioris ad redemptionis mereatur plenitudinem pervenire. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

by

For the Jews. Let us pray for the Jews, to whom our Lord God was first made known, he may grant to them to grow in the love of his name and in faithfulness to his covenant. (Prayer in silence. Then the priest says:) Almighty and eternal God, you who long ago gave your promises to Abraham and his seed, listen graciously to the prayers of your church, that the people you first made your own may deserve to come to the fullness of redemption.

(It's possible that this translation was taken directly the official Catholic liturgy in English, or that it was made by someone on Wikipedia; I don't know.)

This text is contrasted with an earlier text "pro conversione Iudaeorum" and, according to some people, is less missionary or conversion-oriented in its approach, although other people have suggested that "the fullness of redemption" ("redemptionis plenitudo") is a euphemism for conversion and so the text merely appears to be less missionary in intent.

The translation does have a conspicuous omission here: "Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen." is not translated at all. Now presumably "per Christum Dominum nostrum" is meant to modify "oremus" ("Let us pray [...] through Christ our Lord") rather than "pervenire" ("that they may deserve to come, through Christ our Lord, to the fullness of redemption"). However, the proximity of "per Christum Dominum nostrum" would make it likely that someone reading this text in isolation could read it as modifying "pervenire" -- just looking at "that they may deserve to come to the fullness of redemption. Through Christ our Lord." makes it appear that the two concepts are related.