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

Perhaps this shot of the head of the representation of The Nile on G.L. Bernini’s Fountain of the Rivers in the Piazza Navona might stir you to think of a caption?

Andrew might like this one better than the last.

I often take my camera while on my appointed rounds and sometimes, just for kicks I snap a shot of something I have otherwise seen a zillion times.  All in all, Rome is a pretty photogenic place.  And to think… I have to walk around here all the time.

COLLECT:
Praesta, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus,
ut, qui paschalia festa peregimus,
haec, te largiente, moribus et vita teneamus.

Don’t miss the fact that peregimus is past tense.  This time of the verb drives home the fact that we have come to the end of Paschaltide in the Novus Ordo calendar. 

SUPER LITERAL VERSION:
Grant, we beg You, Almighty God,
that we who have carried through the paschal feasts
may, You bestowing it, hold to them in morals and in life.

OTHERWISE:
Almighty God, we beg You,
that we who have completed our observance of days of the paschal cycle,
may as You lavish this grace upon us, hold fast to them still in our life and outward conduct.

We are coming to that time of year again when we observe no special liturgical cycle concerning the mysteries of the Lord, such as Advent/Christmas or Lent/Easter.  I often mention to people that what we call the Tempus per annum or "Ordinary Time", is an "Orderly Time" in which we practice putting into practice what we have learned in the most specialized cycles of the calendar.  Today’s prayer carries with it a hint of this idea.  We are asking God to make it possible by His actual graces to continue even after the end of Paschaltide to remember and put into practice the dying and rising of the Lord.

Today perhaps there is rather too much emphasis in preaching and literature on the Resurrection aspect of our Christian lives to the detriment of the reality of the Cross.  Remembering that we are all destined for the Resurrection is of great importance in all we do, course, especially in the way we treat others.  It helps in our daily dealings with people to see them also as people destined for the Resurrection.  At the same time, there is no resurrection without the Cross.  We also have our daily crosses to bear, and so do those around us.  In our words and actions both the Resurrection and the Cross must be evident.  There will sometimes be more emphasis on the one than the other, depending on the circumstances.

Have you ever had one of those days when everything seems to conspire against you?