We are coming to the 3rd Sunday of Advent, also nicknamed Gaudete…. the plural imperative of gaudeo, “Rejoice!”. This Sunday there is a relaxation of the penitential aspect of Advent. Yes, Advent is a penitential time, though not so much as Lent.
Remember: Real priests wear rosacea.
In the first week of Advent we begged God for the grace of the proper approach and will for our preparation. In the second week, we ask God for help and protection in facing the obstacles the world raises against us. This Sunday we have a glimpse of the joy that is coming in our rose colored (rosacea) vestments, some use of the organ, flowers. Christmas is near at hand.
COLLECT – (2002MR)
Deus, qui conspicis populum tuum nativitatis dominicae
festivitatem fideliter exspectare,
praesta, quaesumus,
ut valeamus ad tantae salutis gaudia pervenire,
et ea votis sollemnibus alacri laetitia celebrare.
The infinitives in our Collect (expectare… pervenire… celebrare) give it a grand sound and also sum up what we are doing in Advent. L&S informs us that conspicio means, “to look at attentively, to get sight of, to descry, perceive, observe.” Alacer is, “lively, brisk, quick, eager, active; glad, happy, cheerful” and it is put in an unlikely combination with laetitia, “joy, especially unrestrained joyfulness”. At the same time we also have votis sollemnibus. Votum signifies first of all, “a solemn promise made to some deity” (we have all made baptismal vows!) and also “wish, desire, longing, prayer”. There is a powerful sentiment of longing in this prayer, God’s as well as ours. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that expecto is from ex- + pecto (pecto, “to comb”). You won’t find exspecto “look forward to”, in your L&S, but the etymological dictionary of Latin by Ernout and Meillet says it is from ex- + *specio, spexi, spectum or ex- + spicio. Therefore, it is a cousin of conspicio: God “watches” over us and we “look” back at… er um… forward to Him. This word play is clever.
Furthermore, sollemnis, related to sollus, i.e. “totus-annus“, points to something that takes place every year. So, it basically means “yearly, annual”. Thus, by extension it means something that takes place at appointed times, such as rites of a religious character and that which is does by custom.
LITERAL TRANSLATION:
O God, who attentively watch Your people
look forward faithfully to the feast of the Lord’s birth,
grant, we entreat,
that we may be able to attain the to joys of so great a salvation
and celebrate them with eager jubilation in solemn annual festive rites.
OBSOLETE ICEL (1973):
Lord God,
may we, your people,
who look forward to the birthday of Christ
experience the joy of salvation
and celebrate that feast with love and thanksgiving.
You decide.
With the last two week’s of “rushing” in our prayers and doing good works, we have now the added image of eager and unrestrained joy, an almost childlike dash towards a long-desired thing.
Have earthly fathers watched this scene all of a Christmas morning?
Even so should we be in our eager joy to perform good works under the gaze of a Father who watches us, a Father with a plan.
The obsolete ICEL version captures little of the impact of the Latin prayer, that is, God the Father is patiently watching his people as we go about the Advent business of doing penance and just works in joyful anticipation Christ’s coming.
NEW CORRECTED ICEL (2011):
O God, who see how your people
faithfully await the feast of the Lord’s Nativity,
enable us, we pray,
to attain the joys of so great a salvation,
land to celebrate them always
with solemn worship and glad rejoicing.
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The last line of the Corrected ICEL collect is
with solemn worship and glad rejoicing.
(Lest the folks at PT go into orbit with glee over having caught the Vatican omitting a preposition.)
Yesterday, for Immaculate Conception, I went to NO Mass for the first time since the new translation was fully implemented. (I generally go to EF Mass, but our parish just has it on Sundays.) All I can say is, WOW.
There were a few scattered “And also with you’s” and “one in being’s”, but most of the congregation seemed to be getting the hang of things. I could tell that the celebrant was struggling a bit with learning an unfamiliar part, after years of familiarity with the older translation, but he spoke with deliberation, and in good faith, and made only a few inadvertent slip-ups. I was really impressed by the … majesty of the revised translation, in comparison with what we had before. It made Mass seem more … special.
Now if can only do something about the music …
albinus1,
Ditto, with regard to both first NO attendance since implementation yesterday (and reason why) and the comparative majesty of the new translation. Except that our celebrant at Holy Ghost Church in Knoxville–also our TLM celebrant, Fr. John Arthur Orr–chanted the dialogues, propers, and preface beautifully (obviously having practiced them) and used the Roman Canon (as always on a solemnity), including the half-dozen optional (and therefore seldom heard) Through Christ Our Lord. Amen‘s at the ends of the principal sections of the canon.
It occurred to me that even some TLM hard-liners might agree that such an OF Mass exhibits some continuity with the EF and is recognizable as a Mass of the same Roman rite.
Father Z,
Will you please publish a book of all the years of your comments on the collects? These thoughts are truly inspiring and help with prayer. Thank you again for these translations and insights.
However we say it, or think it, or do it, it is “pure gala” to know Our Lord is coming very soon!
Have a Blessed Advent!
Well, obviously it’s a bit late now… but I wonder why the translators went with “who see” instead of “who do see”. It might help with clarity.
Of course, not doing it that way through the whole book probably saves a lot of ink, which isn’t a bad thing.
I do like the new rendition of the final line (“et ea votis sollemnibus alacri laetitia celebrare”) as “celebrate them always with solemn worship and glad rejoicing”. I think “glad rejoicing” is a good and fitting translation of “alacri laetitia”. And on that point (and o.k. I know it’s now thankfully in its grave) but Lord, didn’t the ’73 version just have to bring in the ubiquitous “lurve” which of course is nowhere to be found in the actual Latin? *Shudder*
And as for “with solemn worship” (for “votis sollemnibus”) well: just beautiful. Hasn’t this been the whole raison d’etre of the new translations from the beginning, not to mention Pope Benedict’s whole liturgical mission? Those three words should appear in gold letters!
Our priests have begun to implement the “Benedictine” arrangement for Masses, God bless them, and lately have started regularly using the old Roman-style chasubles, which must have been in store since the 60s. Sadly, there isn’t a rose one among them. I asked one of them after Mass (while complimenting him on the beautiful violet one) and he told me there’s no rose, which he said he regretted.