Friday in the 4th Week of Easter
COLLECT:
Deus, qui et libertatis nostrae auctor es et salutis,
exaudi supplicantium voces,
et, quos sanguinis Filii tui effusione redemisti,
fac, ut per te vivere
et perpetua in te valeant incolumitate gaudere.
Incolumnitas is, according to the mighty Lewis & Short Dictionary, "good condition, soundness, safety". However, Blaise/Dumas indicates its liturgical force as "salut (materiél et spirit.)". Incolumitas, used heavily by classical authors by Livy, Cicero, Caesar, etc. especially in political contexts, is paried at time in classical writings by Livy and Cicero with libertas which we find in the first line. The Fathers too, and medieval writers, make frequent use of this word. In this prayer, incolumitas describes the state of being of a person who is enjoying the bliss of heaven, so I don’t think a one to one word rendering is fair to its content. This prayer has an antecedent in the Missale Gothicum.
LITERAL:
O God, who are the author of our freedom and salvation,
graciously listen to the voices of those humbly praying,
and, cause it to be that
those whom You redeemed by the sheding of the Blood of Your Son
may be able to live by means of You
and to rejoice in You in the state of perpetual heavenly wellbeing.
All good things and human initiatives come from God and have God as their best end. He was the creator of the liberty of our will, written into our nature as His images, the first liberty of our innocence and sinless state, and the second liberty as members of His People enjoying the benefits of the protective covenants He grants us. In heaven, we will have another kind of liberty, one untrammeled by the wounds inflicted on our human nature by our first parents. We will enjoy perfection and agility of body and mind, ease of will, all informed by our sight of God, the highest good.
The freedom we enjoy now as sons and daughters of God still in this vale of tears comes from the willingness of the God made man to be a “slave” for our sins. Our freedom, present and future, was bought at the price of the shedding of His Blood, a Sacrifice made by Him with perfect freedom.
Though Christ freely shed His Blood for all who have ever lived or ever will live, in the end not all will accept the benefits Christ won by His Sacrifice. Many will accept them, but not all… not all.
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ICEL 1973 version:
Father of our freedom and salvation,
hear the prayers of those redeemed by your Son’s suffering.
Through you may we have life;
with you may we have eternal joy.
One of the old ICEL’s more faithful ferial efforts?
My own rendering of the text is:
O God, who are the author of our liberty and salvation,
hear the voices of those who implore you,
and grant that those whom you have redeemed
by the shedding of the blood of your Son,
may have life through you,
and in you be able to rejoice in everlasting safety