Secret
SECRET
See MYSTERY
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
secret
(Latin: secernere, to set apart)
Occult knowledge which must not be revealed. It may be a natural, promised, or official secret. One who sees a respectable person accidentally commit a misdemeanor, by the nature of the fact, cannot reveal it. Promised secrecy is what the word implies. An official secret binds the professional person because of an implicit pact between him and his client. In the tribunal of Penance, the confessor is obliged by the so-called Sigillum Sacramentale, not to divulge anything directly or indirectly under any circumstance. History cites Saint John Nepomucene as a martyr to the sacramental secret.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Secret
The Secret (Lat. Secreta, sc. oratio secreta) is the prayer said in a low voice by the celebrant at the end of the Offertory in the Roman Liturgy. It is the original and for a long time was the only offertory prayer. It is said in a low voice merely because at the same time the choir sings the Offertory, and it has inherited the special name of Secret as being the only prayer said in that way at the beginning. The silent recital of the Canon (which is sometimes called “Secreta”, as by Durandus, “Rat. div. off.”, IV, xxxv), did not begin earlier than the sixth or seventh century, Cardinal Bona thinks not till the tenth (Rer. liturg., II, 13, §1). Moreover all our present offertory prayers are late additions, not made in Rome till the fourteenth century (see OFFERTORY). Till then the offertory act was made in silence, the corresponding prayer that followed it was our Secret. Already in “Apostolic Const.”, VIII, XII, 4, the celebrant receiving the bread and wine, prays “silently” (Brightman “Eastern Liturgies”, p. 14), doubtless for the same reason, because a psalm was being sung. Since it is said silently the Secret is not introduced by the invitation to the people: “Oremus”. It is part of the Proper of the Mass, changing for each feast or occasion, and is built up in the same way as the Collect (q. v.). The Secret too alludes to the saint or occasion of the day. But it keeps its special character inasmuch as it nearly always (always in the case of the old ones) asks God to receive these present gifts, to sanctify them, etc. All this is found exactly as now in the earliest Secrets we know, those of the Leonine Sacramentary. Already there the Collect, Secret, Postcommunion, and “Oratio ad populum” form a connected and homogeneous group of prayers. So the multiplication of Collects in one Mass (see COLLECT) entailed a corresponding multiplication of Secrets. For every Collect the corresponding Secret is said.
The name “Secreta” is used in the “Gelasian Sacramentary”; in the Gregorian book these prayers have the title “Super oblata”. Both names occur frequently in the early Middle Ages. In “Ordo Rom. II” they are: “Oratio super oblationes secreta” (P.L., LXXVIII, 973). In the Gallican Rite there was also a variable offertory prayer introduced by an invitation to the people (Duchesne, “Origines du culte”, Paris, 1898, pp. 197-8). It has no special name. At Milan the prayer called “Oratio super sindonem” (Sindon for the veil that covers the oblata) is said while the Offertory is being made and another “Oratio super oblata” follows after the Creed, just before the Preface. In the Mozarabic Rite after an invitation to the people, to which they answer: “Præsta æterne omnipotens Deus”, the celebrant says a prayer that corresponds to our Secret and continues at once to the memory of the saints and intercession prayer. It has no special name (P.L., LXXXV, 540-1). But in these other Western rites this prayer is said aloud. All the Eastern rites have prayers, now said silently, after the Great Entrance, when the gifts are brought to the altar and offered to God, but they are invariable all the year round and no one of them can be exactly compared to our Secret. Only in general can one say that the Eastern rites have prayers, corresponding more or less to our offertory idea, repeated when the bread and wine are brought to the altar.
At either high or low Mass the celebrant, having answered “Amen” to the prayer “Suscipiat Dominus sacrificium”, says in a low voice the Secret or Secrets in the same order as he said the Collects, finding each at its place in the proper Mass. He ends the first and last only with the form “Per Dominum nostrum” (as the Collects). The last clause of the last Secret: “Per omnia sæcula sæculorum” is said or sung aloud, forming the “ekphonesis” before the Preface.
———————————–
DURANDUS, Rationale divinorum officiorum, IV, xxxii: GIHR, The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (tr. St. Louis, 1908), 547-9.
ADRIAN FORTESCUE Transcribed by Tony de Melo
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIIICopyright © 1912 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Secret
SEE MYSTERY.
Secret Discipline (Lat. arcani disciplina), a term used to signify a practice of the early Christian Church of performing the rites of religion with secrecy. It was founded upon the words of Christ, “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs,” etc. (Mat 7:6), and began to be common shortly after the middle of the 2d century. The first reason for its adoption was to guard the more sacred and mysterious doctrines from popular misconception and blasphemy among the pagans. The discipline of the secret appears in several forms:
(1.) Both unbelievers and catechumens were dismissed from the church, when the ordinary service was closed, by one of the deacons, who said, “Ire, missa est” ” Go, the assembly is dismissed.” After this the sacrament was administered.
(2.) The lectures addressed by the presiding teacher to the body of catechumens in general were confined to the general doctrines of Christianity. The more mysterious doctrines, those which regarded the sacraments of baptism and the eucharist, called “Mystagogie,” were only communicated at the close, and to those only who had undergone the preliminary probation.
(3.) The eucharist, if referred to at all in the presence of the uninitiated, was spoken of in words so conceived as to conceal its nature. Some very curious examples of this concealment might be cited e, g. Epiphanius, referring to the formula “this is my. body,” writes, “This is my that thing” ( ). The mysteries thus specially guarded were baptism, the unction, or chrism ordination of priests, the Lord’s supper, liturgy, the knowledge of the Holy Trinity, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. See Coleman, Christ. Antiq. p. 85. SEE ARCANI DISCIPLINIA.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Secret
sekret: In Eze 7:22, English Versions of the Bible has secret place for (, caphan), hide, treasure. A correct translation is, They shall profane my cherished place (Jerusalem), and there is no reference to the Holy of Holies. The other uses of secret in the Revised Version (British and American) are obvious, but Revised Version’s corrections of the King James Version in Jdg 13:18; 1Sa 5:9; Job 15:11 should be noted.
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Secret
Alms to be given in
Mat 6:4
Prayer to be offered in
Mat 6:6
Of others not to be divulged
Pro 25:9; Mat 18:15
Unclassified scriptures relating to
Deu 29:29; Deu 31:21; 1Sa 16:7; 2Sa 7:20; 2Ki 19:27; Psa 25:14; Psa 44:21; Psa 90:8; Ecc 12:14; Dan 2:28; Dan 2:47; Amo 3:7; Mar 4:22; Luk 8:16-17; Rom 2:16; 1Co 4:5; Heb 4:12-13 Mysteries