What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

"Where did that earring go??"

The USA gals lost a heartbreaker to the gals of Sweden.

5
4

At exactly the wrong moment a USA stone hit something (the missing earring?) on the sheet and went its own way or "picked", leaving Sweden with the win. The USA squad is in danger of elimination!

The trajectory of a stone can be deflected by the tiniest little piece of debris on the sheet of ice.

Hmmm…. consider this: if we can lose a curling match because of lack of respect for the tiniest particle that may have escaped our attention, how much MORE can we lose by not paying proper attention to even the tiniest particles of the Blessed Sacrament?? Each and everyday fragments of Hosts, whole Hosts themselves, are subjected to sacrilege because of inattentive distribution of Communion or, as is more likely, inattentive or careless reception of the Eucharistic Lord. It doesn’t take much for a person receiving Communion in the hand (brrrrrrrrr…..) for some particle of a Host to be lost upon the floor or on clothes or, who knows where else. Yet we Catholics believe that the price of the whole universe and the payment for every sin ever committed in the past or future is to be found even in the smallest droplet of the Precious Blood or the tiniest morsel of a consecrated Host. What on earth possesses people who know this… who know better… to receive Communion in the hand? It boggles the mind.

Today is the feast of St. Alessio Falconieri and the founders of the Servants of Mary, or "Servites" who are mendicants (e.g., Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, etc.).   The Servites were founded as a Confraternity in Florence in 1233.  Seven lay men first gathered in their project and then escaped the city to the top of Mount Senario which is where the HQ of the Servites still is.   They followed the Rule of Augustine. Bl. Pope Benedict XI granted the Order of Servites full approval in 1304.  The founders were canonized in 1888.  The patronal feast of the order is Our Lady of Sorrows (15 Sept). 

COLLECT
Beatorum fratrum, Domine,
pietatem nobis benignus infunde,
qua et Dei Genetricem sunt devotissime venerati,
et tuum ad te populum provexerunt.

There is nothing mysterious about the grammar of this prayer, nor most of the words.  One of the most difficult words we can encounter in Latin prayers is here, however.  Pietas. 

Pietas, which gives us the famous Italian pietà and English (through Norman French "pity"), has various meanings according to the period of Latin and the context.   The mighty Lewis & Short Latin Dictionary shows that pietas means "dutiful conduct towards the gods, one’s parents, relatives, benefactors, country, etc., sense of duty".  It never really loses that connotation.  However, it also comes to mean in the Vulgatee "love and duty towards God.   Logically it comes also to mean "gentleness, kindness, tenderness, pity, compassion".   The liturgical Latin dictionary by Blaise stresses goodness and mercy when applying the word and its derviatives to God.  There are times when we can translate it is "mercy".  I think it is good never to lose sight of the dimension of "duty".

LITERAL TRANSLATION
Kindly pour into us, O Lord,
the dutiful love of the blessed brethren,
by which they most devotedly venerated the Mother of God
and they guided to You Your people.

St. Alessio Falconieri, uncle of St. Giuliana Falconieri and a Guelph, one of the original founders, felt himself unworthy to be a priest and so remained a lay brother his whole life.  He was the only original founder alive when Benedict XI approved the Order in 1304.  Recompense?