A Modern Lamentation for the Present Plight of the Rudderless Church

It is impossible that scandals should not come: but woe to him through whom they come. It were better for him, that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should scandalize one of these little ones. (Luke 17:1-2, from today's Mass)

MÄNTYJÄRVI, Jaakko (1963 - *)
Canticum Calamitatis Maritimae

Text in latin :

Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis
Miserere Domine

Plus octingenti homines vitam
amiserunt calamitate
navali in Mari Baltico septentrionali facta.
Navis traiectoria nomine Estonia,
cum Tallinno Stockholmiam
vesus navigaret, saeva tempestate
orta eversa et submersa est.
In navi circiter mille vectores erant.
Calamitate Estoniae nongenti decem homines perierunt,
centum undequadraginta sunt servati
(Nunti Latini)

Qui descendunt mare in navibus
facientes operationem in aquis multis
ipsi viderunt opera Domini
et mirabilia eius in profundo.
Dixit et stetit spiritus procellae
et exaltati sunt fluctus eius;
ascendunt usque ad caelos
et descendunt usque ad abyssos.
Anima eorum in malis tabescebat;
turbati sunt et moti sunt sicut ebrius
et omnis sapientia eorum devorata est.
Et clamaverunt ad Dominum
cum tribularentur
et de necessitatibus eorum eduxit eos
et statuit procellam eius;
in auram et siluerunt fluctus eius
et laetati sunt quia siluerunt
et deduxit eos in protum voluntatis eorum.
(Psalm 106, 23-30)

Requiem aeternam ...
English translation :

May the eternal light shine upon them,
O Lord,
an may perpetual light shine upon them.
Have mery, O Lord.

Over eight hundred people perished
in a shipwreck in the northern Baltic Sea.
The car ferry Estonia,
en route from Tallinn to Stockholm,
was overturned in a severe storm and sank.
There were about 1000 passengers on board
910 people lost their lives
in the wreck of the Estonia;
139 were saved.
(Nuntii Latin)

They that go down to the sea in ships,
that do business in great waters;
These see the works of the Lord,
and his wonders in the deep.
For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind,
which lifteth up the waves thereof.
They mount up to the heaven,
they go down again to the depths;
their soul is melted because of trouble.
They reel to and fro,
and stagger like a drunken man,
and are at their wit’s end.
Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble,
and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
He maketh the storm a calm,
so that the waves thereof are still.
Then are they glad because they be quiet;
so he bringeth them
unto their desired haven.
(Psalm 107, 23-30)

Eternal peace ...