COLLECT (1962MR):
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus,
da nobis fidei, spei et caritatis augmentum:
et, ut mereamur assequi quod promittis,
fac nos amare quod praecipis.
This prayer, found in the Veronese and the Gelasian Sacramentary, survived the machetes of the Consilium, to live on in the Novus Ordo as the Collect for the 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time.
LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Almighty everlasting God,
grant us an increase of faith, hope and charity,
and cause us to love what You command
so that we may merit to obtain what You promise.
LAME-DUCK ICEL (1973 – 30th Sunday):
Almighty and ever-living God,
strengthen our faith, hope, and love.
May we do with loving hearts
what you ask of us
and come to share the life you promise.
NEW CORRECTED ICEL (2011 – 30th Sunday):
Almighty ever-living God,
increase our faith, hope and charity,
and make us love what you command,
so that we may merit what you promise.
Bare bones.
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Cranmer retained the order of the last two clauses (14th after Trinity):
Almighty and everlasting God,
give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity;
and, that we may obtain that which thou dost promise,
make us to love that which thou dost command.
Yes, Cranmer did preserve the order of the lines, and I don’t think his ear went wrong. There is a kind of sober crescendo here: The address to God, mentioning two of his attributes; a general request for the [sic] increase of christian virtues; then a sort of softening of the tone as we dare to adduce a reason for what we are about to ask; and then the climactic last clause asking not merely that we obey what we are commanded but that we love what is commanded. When the order of the last two lines is switched then it seems to me the emphasis moves to what we want to get out of the deal. With the original order the deal is mentioned but only in passing; the final chord asks not what one might have expected, help in obeying the commands, but rather that we may love the commands, from which love obedience will naturally flow.
What I hear between the lame-duck and the accurate translation is the absence of causality. God forbid we should ever have to DO anything to receive eternal life. The power of the word “and” rather than “so that” pops me right off any hook I might not want to be on. That was not accidental. That is a different religion than ours.