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

A Bedtime Prayer
Of A Catholic Marine Corps Officer

- Luke 18:17-

Now I lay me down to sleep.
I pray Thee Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray Thee Lord my soul to take.

For ‘ere the daystar rises high
Upon the morrow we must fly
To face again death’s dire hand
And free a distant people’s land.

Upon a shore, on mountain steep,
In desert, snow, or jungle deep,
Through heat, on ice, by land or sea
Marines will ever faithful be.

Our purpose true and mission clear
Will help us face all pain and fear.
Since one we are in heart and mind,
Marines leave none of theirs behind.

For some of us must surely fall,
Tenacious in hard duty’s call.
According to God’s timeless ken
We live, then serve, then die as men.

Our Rosaries and Michael’s sword
Will Anchor, Globe and Eagle guard.
Warm prayers of dear ones, Masses said,
Support our living and our dead.

O Queen of Martyrs! Christ, my Light!
O Guardian angels! Joseph bright!
O Trinity Three Persons One!
For us and foe Thy will be done.

And now I lie on Adam’s clay.
Grim weapons crack and shatter day.
Throughout cold night hot blood must flow.
This hour shall I God’s Judgments know?

Or will wounds heal? Will terror scar?
Will grief my trust in heaven mar?
Youth was shortened, young men lost.
Will what I’ve done merit this cost?

Ash to ash and dust to dust.
Thundering armaments will rust.
Bone and flesh must go to ground,
But none of us by death are bound.

Not ‘till heaven shall I see,
The men who offered up this fee.
Marines long taken from our eyes
At long last glorious will rise.

All the tears that I will shed
Make sense as I behold the Head
Of Him whose Sacrifice was free,
For all, for sinners, on the Tree.

Some losses do merit the cost.
Our loss is great. We mourn our lost.
But I and neighbor must be free.
Paid is the price of liberty.

So, brothers now we lay to rest,
And fix their medals on their chest.
Their mothers I will gently tell
Sons loved them, God, and country well.

We smooth the lines in pale brow,
Then close their final bed and bow
To express gratitude and love
With folded flag, priest’s hand above.

Parents, wives, and children know
From me that we did love them so.
They’re clear in memory and my dreams.
Christ Jesus save my brave Marines.

In safety now my loved ones sleep.
Let Mighty God our nation keep!
And should I die before I wake,
My soul I offer Christ to take.

In honor of all those who served perhaps just one example of valor will serve to express gratitude:

Father Vince Capodanno was Maryknoll missionary priest.  He was sent first to the missions in Taiwan and later joined the US Navy and served with the 7th Marines in Vietnam and then, after working at the naval hosptial, with the 5th Marines. 

On 4 September 1967 there was a terrible battle in Que-Son Valley.  As the battle developed Fr. Capodanno heard over the radio that things were getting dicey and  so he requested to go out with M company.  

As they approached the small village of Chau Lam, they were caught under fire on a knoll.  There was terrible fighting, even hand to hand, and they were almost over run.  Father Capodanno was wounded in the face and his hand was almost severed by a mortar round but he continued to giving last rites and take care of his Marines.  He was killed trying to get to a wounded marine only 15 yards away from an enemy machine gun. 

In January 1969, Lieutenant Vincent R. Capodanno, MM, became the second chaplain in United States history to receive our nation’s highest military honor. "For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty …", he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

In addition, he was also awarded the National Defense Service Medal and the Vietnam Service Medal. The government of Vietnam awarded him the Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Silver Star and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal with device.

These men served in hell armed with love of God and love of country.  We should remember chaplains.

I want to add a word of thanks to a priest friend of mine, Fr. Tim Vakoc, with whom I was in seminary.  He is now in the VA hospital in Minneapolis after suffering serious wounds in Iraq.

COLLECT:
Adveniat nobis, quaesumus, Domine,
virtus Spiritus Sancti,
qua voluntatem tuam fideli mente retinere,
et pie conversatione depromere valeamus.

The first part of this is based on a phrase in a prayer during the Octave of Pentecost in the ancient Gelasian Sacramentary and another prayer in the Veronese Sacramentary in the month of July: Omnipotens sempiterne deus da nobis uoluntatem tuam et fideli mente retinere. et pia conuersatione depromere. ut aecclesia [sic] tua a profanis uanitatibus expiata. non aliud profiteatur uerbis, aliud exerceat actione.  Notice that what we have going on here is underscoring of the contrast between mere words or actions and interior disposition.

If you are working these prayers out yourself, and don’t happen to have at hand (quod Deus avertat!) a copy of the excellent Lewis & Short Dictionary you may want to know that depromo means in the first place "to draw out, draw forth; to bring, to fetch from anywhere, esp. out of any place".  The dictionary and commentary by Blaise/Dumas (in French) says that depromo is “formuler (voeux, priers)”.  Okay… not too easy to work with this, right?  Let’s look at Blaise/Chirat for some extra help: “mettre au jour, communiquer, publier, render public”.  That’s more like it!  Pius is a complicated adjective.  Valeo means in a simple way, “be able” but it means that because it fundamentally has to do with strength and power.  We are able to do things because we are strong enough to do them.  It has to do with being “dutiful”, as when pius Aeneas carried his old father upon his back from out the ruin of burning Troy.  It also has to do with being holy and devout and, in especially in reference God, merciful.  I think today I will simply dump these concepts into your skulls and say “pious” in our WDTPRS … 

LITERAL VERSION:
Let the might of the Holy Ghost
come to us, we beseech You, O Lord,
by which with faithful mind we may be strong to maintain Your will
and demonstrate it outwardly by a pious manner of life.

Life is filled with labors and cares and burdens to bear.  We have heavy loads to carry.  Even if our lives are relatively care free, the weight of years press Brother Ass down and become over time harder and harder.  The Holy Spirit charges us.  It “charges” us with interior power and it charges is in the sense of duty and responsibility.  Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we are made strong to bear anything.  When the Holy Spirit comes with the Father and the Son to make us Their living temples and fill us with the seven Gifts and the twelve Fruits, we outwardly manifest their presence.  Manifestation of the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit are a sign that a person is in the state of grace, and habitually so.

What you do outwardly can have an enormous impact on the faith of others.  You can jump start a dormant faith life, strengthen another, or perhaps spark someone else into seeking answers to the questions they have.  On the other hand, you can damage people too. 

Today’s prayer aims at putting ourselves interiorly and exteriorly in harmony with the will of God in our lives.

Shouts in the Piazza and Roman Miscellany have posted about Benedict XVI (now gloriously reigning) conferring the Golden Rose as a gift at the Shrine of the Black Madonna, Jasna Gora at Czestochowa.   In the WDTPRS series I have written about the Golden Rose on articles for the 4th Sunday of Lent, Laetare Sunday.  Here is an excerpt about the Golden Rose from one of those articles.

What Does the Prayer Really Say? Fourth Sunday of Lent “Laetare” Sunday – Station: Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2001

There is a Latin dictum: repetita iuvant… repeated things help.  That is to say, repetition helps us to learn and remember.  Today we have a “nickname Sunday” (like Gaudete in Advent, Cantate in Eastertide, etc) This nicknaming tradition goes back at least to John of Salisbury (12th c.), and derives from the first word of the Introit chant for the Mass.  Today, there is a relaxation of the stark penitential aspect of Lent, during which season traditionally (and still present in the rubrics) there should be no flowers and decorations and no instrumental music (including organ unless used only to sustain congregational singing).  This Sunday we have a glimpse of the joy that is coming, which is why the first word sung is “Rejoice”!  We have rose colored vestments and instrumental music.

Some ink can be given to rose vestments. This custom is tied to the station churches in Rome.  For centuries in Rome there have been celebrations of Mass during the great seasons of Lent/Easter and Advent/Christmas at "station" churches. The station Mass for Laetare Sunday is the Basilica of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem in Rome, where the relics of Cross and Passion are kept.  It was the custom on Laetare for the Pope to bless roses made of gold that were then sent to Catholic kings and queens. Thus Laetare was also called Dominica de rosa…. Sunday of the Rose. Rose vestments developed naturally from this occasion. So, rose came to be used on Laetare Sunday in the Basilica of the Holy Cross when the Pope came for the station Mass. The use of rose (the technical term for the color is rosacea) spread to the rest of the City on this day. As a Roman custom it became part and parcel of the Roman Missal promulgated through the world by Pius V.  The custom is, thanks be to God, coming back into vogue again.

One might ask why roses were given to Catholic rulers and other figures.  The papal letters and documents that came with the rose hint at the meaning attached to it. Innocent III wrote about the significance of the rose and Laetare Sunday: "As Lætare Sunday, the day set apart for the function, represents love after hate, joy after sorrow, and fullness after hunger, so does the rose designate by its color, odor, and taste, love, joy, and satiety respectively."  Innocent also says that the rose is the flower spoken of in Isaiah 11, 1: "there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root".  Centuries later Pope Leo XIII wrote that the beautiful golden flower signifies Christ in His majesty, spoken of by the prophet as "the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys"; the flower’s fragrance shows the sweet odor of Christ which should be diffused through the whole world by His faithful followers.  The thorns and red color symbolize His Passion, harkening to both the real event of the Crucifixion and its foretelling by the prophet Isaiah 43,2: "Why then is thy apparel red, and thy garments like theirs that tread in the winepress?"   These themes are in the prayer that was used to bless the golden roses:

"O God! by Whose word and power all things have been created, by Whose will all things are directed, we humbly beseech Thy Majesty, Who art the joy and gladness of all the faithful, that Thou wouldst deign in Thy fatherly love to bless and sanctify this rose, most delightful in odor and appearance, which we this day carry in sign of spiritual joy, in order that the people consecrated by Thee and delivered from the yoke of Babylonian slavery through the favor of Thine only-begotten Son, Who is the glory and exultation of the people of Israel and of that Jerusalem which is our Heavenly mother, may with sincere hearts show forth their joy. Wherefore, O Lord, on this day, when the Church exults in Thy name and manifests her joy by this sign (= the rose), confer upon us through her true and perfect joy and accepting her devotion of today; do Thou remit sin, strengthen faith, increase piety, protect her in Thy mercy, drive away all things adverse to her and make her ways safe and prosperous, so that Thy Church, as the fruit of good works, may unite in giving forth the perfume of the ointment of that flower sprung from the root of Jesse and which is the mystical flower of the field and lily of the valleys, and remain happy without end in eternal glory together with all the saints."

The rose, then, connects not only the penance we do in honor of the Passion (Lent) but also the joy of the resurrection (Easter). It points to Christ who reigns as King, but from a wooden Cross.  Note also the reference to “devotion.”