Bees and Liturgy

Bees are back in Catholic Liturgy, on the most important celebration of all, the Easter exsultet. This is from an article from New Liturgical Movement. I have posted on Easter and bees here, and here.

Soon I will post on Pope Pius XII message to beekeepers, though if you want a sneak peak see the full NLM article here. Below the text and photos in honor of bees. Thanks to Fr. Daniel who is a nature lover and sent me this link.

the absence of the references to the bees in the former English translation of the Exsultet in the previous English edition of the OF Missal. They are back — though they never left the Latin text itself of course. Here are the relevant parts of the newly revised and corrected English translation:

This is the night of which it is written:
The night shall be as bright as day, dazzling is the night for me, 
and full of gladness.
The sanctifying power of this night dispels all wickedness,
washes faults away, restores innocence to the fallen, and joy to mourners,
drives out hatred, fosters concord, and brings down the mighty.
On this, your night of grace, O holy Father,
accept this candle, a solemn offering,
the work of bees and of your servants’ hands,
an evening sacrifice of praise, this gift from your most holy Church.

But now we know the praises of this pillar,
which glowing fire ignites for God’s honour,
a fire into many flames divided,
yet never dimmed by sharing of its light,
for it is fed by melting wax,
drawn out by mother bees to build a torch so precious.