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

Today for the First Reading for Mass we have a pericope from the Book of Amos, the prophet (3:1-8, 4:11-12).  There is an image of a lion.

Augustine expands on Amos’s lion (s. 55.3): 

”Lord, You have been our refuge.”  Therefore we have recourse to You.  Our healing shall be from You, for our evil is from ourselves.  Because we have abandoned You, You have abandoned us to ourselves.  May we therefore be found in You, for in ourselves we had been lost.  “Lord, You have been our refuge.”  Why, my brethren, should we doubt that the Lord will make us gentle if we submit ourselves to be tamed by him?  You have tamed the lion, which you did not create.   Will your Creator be unable to tame you?  What is the source of your power to tame such savage beasts?  Are you their equal in bodily strength?  By what power then have you been able to tame such huge beasts?  The so-called beasts of burden are wild by nature, for it untamed they could not be endured.  But because you are not accustomed to see them except when handled by men and under the curb and control of men, you might think that they were born tame.  At any rate, consider the savage beasts.  The lion roars; who does not fear?  And yet, whence your knowledge of the fact that you are more powerful?  Not in bodily strength but in the inner reason of your mind.  You are more powerful than a lion, because you have been made the image of God.  The image of God tames a wild beast.  Is God unable to tame His own image?

I put out my flag and everything!

In the 2002 Missale Romanum there is a Mass Pro christianis persecutione vexatis… For Christians harassed with persecution.  Given the manifold liberties we enjoy in the United States, I thought it good to share this prayer with you.

COLLECT:
Deus, qui inscrutabili providentia
passionibus Filii tui vis Ecclesiam sociari,
praesta fidelibus tuis,
in tribulatione propter nomen tuum versantibus,
spiritum patientiae et caritatis,
ut promissionum tuarum
fidi inveniantur testes atque veraces.

LITERAL VERSION:
O God, who with inscrutable providence
desire the Church to be united to the sufferings of Your Son,
grant a spirit of endurance and of charity to Your faithful
experiencing tribulations on account of Your Name,
so that they may be found to be the true and faithful witnesses
of Your promises.