The main purpose & mission of this site is to share a very special prayer book, Officia Pietatis and to begin translating the work, in order to share it with a broad audience.

I thought that perhaps once the site was established and it starts to attract traffic, that some fluent Latinists – amateur or professional – might assist me in the work of translation. Much like in the way  crowdsourcing, or open source coding occurs. Wikipedia might serve as model to some extent. But then again, it is more likely that I will be laboring in the fields alone with little help – which if this is the case, I will accept the burden with joy, nonetheless.

Ever since spending time in a traditional Benedictine monastery, I saw first hand the power and joy of a group of men working together, sharing the work, quietly with vigor.  It was this particular attribute that I had missed, outside of the spirituality that compelled me to start a men’s group and join the Knights of Columbus.  The fellowship and sharing of work among men was very attractive and still remains with me.  In the men’s group I host in my home, I do all the cooking & serving – which I enjoy immensely.  I look forward to it every week.

It is in the spirit of work & sharing the gifts the good Lord has afforded me, that has driven much of my recent actions over the past couple of years.  When I reverted back to my faith, ten years ago, I dove into the intellectual aspects to learn as much as I could about my new found Faith and focused on my personal spirituality almost exclusively.  But after eight years,  I felt called to start being an active servant of the Lord and focus less on myself.

†Non nobis nati | Not born for ourselves

Not only is the aim to share and translate Officia Pietatis, but also to advocate and foster the learning of Latin.  Although, I would NOT  call myself a Latinist, per se – I am certainly a strong advocate and lobbyist to be sure. Just ask my friends.  I believe strongly that ALL Faithful Catholics should learn Ecclesiastical Latin. I have bought multiple copies of Ørberg’s Lingua Latina and when I sense a sincere desire to learn Latin from someone, I offer them a copy.

In this light, I will always do what I can to promote and support the learning of Latin.  In the future, I plan to provide links to resources and tools to assist those interested in learning the language.  This is an idea and mission in it’s infancy.  And at this moment, my spare time is dedicated mostly to formatting the rest of the Officia Pietatis that I have uploaded to the site, and began the early process of translating the work.  I finished writing an Exhortation on learning Latin – which was published as a Blog Post, here.

My hope and prayer for this site is that is bares fruit and offers a hub of sorts that attracts Catholics far and wide.

†The motto from my family crest.  Before leaning Latin, I thought it meant “not of noble birth.”