Latin Hymn at Vatican Liturgy?

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I saw an anti-Catholic video on youtube showing a clip of a hymn? being sung at what I believe to be a Mass which I believe took place somewhat recently. The hymn mentions “lucifer” and etc., and the uploader was saying how it was preaching the message of the Devil. Standard anti-Catholic material.
But it does use the term in ways that would refer to Jesus? Someone in the comments said he/she studied latin and that the word has nothing to do with Satan but is a term for Morningstar, which is also used for Jesus. However, isn’t this a term that has also been applied to Satan (before his turning away from God) as Lucifer Morningstar???
 
Lucifer just means bringer of light. Which he was before his fall. And which the Lord and his saints still are. In fact there’s a Saint Lucifer. The same word is used in the Latin Vulgate Bible in places where it does not refer to the devil, e.g. 2 Peter 1:19 and Ps. 110:3 (Douay 109:3) – look for “day star” or “morning star”. There are also ancient Latin hymns which apply the title to Christ as bringer of light. It appears in the Easter Proclamation to the same effect. And fittingly so.

It is true that the name has a sort of stigma attached to it, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be used for other purposes. It’s sort of like the name Judas. There’s Judas Iscariot, and then there’s Judas the brother of James. There’s nothing wrong with the name itself.
 
From the second strophe of today’s hymn for Lauds:

“Tu verus mundi lucifer”

Translated (via French): “It is you the true morning star”.

Nothing to see here folks, move on!

It would be nice to have the youtube link so we could post a comment or three…
 
Wikipedia has an article on Lucifer which I think is a decent introduction to the history of the name and its usage:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer
It seems to me that the name Lucifer has been hijacked, but quite some time ago.

Don’t worry about the video or other anti-catholic material that mentions lucifer.
 
Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but a candle bearer in the liturgy is also called a lucifer (light bringer/bearer).
 
In the hymn extract I posted, lucifer was written with a lower case “L”. It is therefore just a noun and I think it’s that way in other hymns where I have seen it used.

It most certainly doesn’t mean “Satan”.
 
Kmon, I have a suggestion for you. Stop watching anti-Catholic things. Why waste time on them when there is so much good Catholic stuff to watch?
 
ProVobis said:
Exactly. Any Latin scholar could easily see “lucifer” has “lux, lucis” (light) as its root and has absolutely no negative connotations.
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You don’t even have to be a Latin scholar, even this poor hick that I am could see that! 😛
 
Jesus is the morning star.

"I Jesus have sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star." (Revelation 22:16)

This is opposed to the “day star” in Isaiah 14.

"How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
You said in your heart,
`I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will make myself like the Most High.'
(Isaiah 14:12-14)

This is why studying scripture is so vitally important. People throw this stuff out there about the day star and morning star and lucifer and it sounds good, but they don’t have a clue what they are talking about and those who don’t study scripture are dragged into their errors.

-Tim-
 
Usige said:
Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but a candle bearer in the liturgy is also called a lucifer (light bringer/bearer).
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No, he is called an acolyte (in Latin, Acolythus), from the Greek word meaning the same thing. But I have seen the long instrument used to light the candles referred to as a lucifer.
 
I just remembered the chorus to the World War I era song “Pack All Your Troubles In Your Ol’ Kit Bag”…

Pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag,
And smile, smile, smile,
While you’ve a lucifer to light your fag,
Smile, boys, that’s the style.

Here is a picture of an old box of matches.



How times have changed.

-Tim-
 
I definitely understand that the video is meant to just misrepresent the Catholic Church, but I was still was curious to know the further context of how the term was used since I am unfamiliar with the use of the word outside of the fallen angel, let alone Latin.
Thanks for answering. You guys are awesome. 👍
 
Kmon23 said:
I definitely understand that the video is meant to just misrepresent the Catholic Church, but I was still was curious to know the further context of how the term was used since I am unfamiliar with the use of the word outside of the fallen angel, let alone Latin.
Thanks for answering. You guys are awesome. 👍
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The text that was being sung in the video in question was the Exsultet at the Easter Vigil. It sings the praises of the Risen Christ, symbolized by the Easter Candle. As already mentioned, “lucifer” (lowercase) simply means morning star (lit. “light-bearer”) and as such , is a common noun, not a name.
 
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