Roman Proverb

Bis das, si cito das.

You give twice if you give quickly.

Now there's two possible meanings of this Roman saying.  1 is the real meaning and 1 is the meaning I came up with.

The real meaning is that if you give someone help quickly it's twice as valuable.

I thought it meant if you're haggling for something if you make your offer quickly you'll overpay for it.  According to my professor, I'm a cynical capitalist!

Latin translating and Math!

How many ways are there to translate "laudat" into English?  Well, there's 3 (2 really) genders and 3 different present tenses.  3*3 = 9.  So it could be he/she/it praises, or does praise, or am is praising.

I have great sympathy for Latin-English translators.

On a side note, I've now started with the infamous declensions!  The 1st one is almost all female nouns.  Whoever decided the order must have been very chivalrous.  Ladies first! :)

Edit: four posts in and I already post a grammatical error.  Oops!

Emotional Latin!

To me Latin is a very solemn language, in part no doubt because I would prefer to read ancient Roman authors like Virgil or Marcus Aurelius over someone like Ovid.  But the language itself is emotional!

There are two Latin phrases I just learned that are... rather histrionic.

In Latin, please is "amabo te".  That's literally translated as "I will love you".  So when you ask your acquaintance to "please pass the salt" in Latin.  You are really saying, "I will love you if you pass the salt".

And then, there's a common commencement of a letter, "Si vales, valeo"--- "If you are well I am well".

Clearly, the Romans were in need of some austere influence on their language!

Say the Black, do the Red

Absolutely no other person, not even a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in liturgy on his own authority.  [This authority is reserved to the Pope]

SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM, III, 22 §3

So whenever Father X changes, neglects, and/or adds words or gestures to Mass he is being disobedient to the 2nd Vatican Council.  It's easy though, all he has to do is say the Black, and do the Red.  (The rubrics are for the priest are written in black and red.  The black is what the celebrant should say.  The red is what the celebrant should do).

This doesn't just apply to priests!  If a lector, deacon, or Extraordinary minister of Communion adds, removes, or changes something then they too are disobedient to the 2nd Vatican Council.

Age Quod Agis

So, the very first blog post.  I'll tell the story of Age Quod Agis and why I'm making this blog.

The purpose of this blog is to record my thoughts leading up to my D-Term Rome trip and what I experience while I'm there.  I got the idea for this by shamelessly copying two of friends who are doing the same thing.

Mary and Laura over at Canterbury Postcard are doing the same thing during Fall Term when they study abroad at Canterbury.  At least I managed to come up with an original name for the blog.

Now for Age Quod Agis:

It all starts back last school year when I was browsing the Catholic/Religion section of my local library.  I saw this book called Journal of a Soul by Pope John XXIII.  I looked at the inside cover and I decided to use this book for spiritual reading.  After all, he is Blessed John XXIII so I thought it might be good.  (Plus, I could see for myself how 'modernist' he was.  He wasn't).

Well, it was very good spiritual reading and I've been reading little bits of it every night since then.  In his spiritual diaries-for that's what the book is- this Latin phrase popped up. It was... Age Quod Agis!

The translator's footnote said that it appeared to be a misquotation of Plautus (whoever that is) and it may be translated as 'Pay attention to what you are doing.'  For some ineffable reason I was struck by that phrase and it kept bouncing around in my head.

When I was creating this blog, I was racking by brain for a good name.  Then I thought, 'hey!  Let's make it a Latin phrase!'  I immediately thought of Age Quod Agis and the rest is obvious.