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

What Does the Prayer Really Say?  5^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in February 2005 

A Correction: In last week’s column, a zealous copy editor changed the Latin title of the Sacramentarium Veronense (correct) to Veronese (incorrect), probably on the model of the English version of the title, Veronese Sacramentary.   This happens occasionally.

Feedback from readers: Commentary arrives from FJK via e-mail (edited): “Your words are devastating: We have to be realistic about the situation we face in the Church. Like it or not, the Novus Ordo is NOT going away. Neither is the vulgar vernacular. ...We must improve the state of the Church all around and foster improvements gradually. – Write kind letters to the men in the pointed hats, and pray. – But who can live so long, as already I am looking toward age 90?! … Why must we be forced on Sundays to bear such agony as the novel theology and banal translations? … Why have the bishops been seeking to destroy our liturgy and our Church? ... Thank you for all that I can read from you. ... Please continue to give us glimmers of hope and courage.”  I’ll try, FJK, for as long as I am allowed.  JR writes, via e-mail: “I carelessly tossed out The Wanderer from a few weeks ago when you had a story on the front page about using Latin in the liturgy or the study of Latin.  Is it possible for you to email me that column?  I look forward to your wonderful column each week and find it very inspirational.”  “Carelessly”?  I’ll say!  But never fear, JR.  There were enough requests for the column that it has been put on the website of The Wanderer:  (http://thewandererpress.com/a12-30-2004.htm).

Those of you who are internet savvy might use the search engine Google.  The fabled “Diogenes” of the internet site Catholic World News and the magazine Catholic World Report made an interesting observation online which I share with you here (edited): “You all know how Google Roulette works. You go to Google’s translation engine …, and type any English sentence into the text box (let’s use, ‘Beam me up, Scotty’). Then you select, say, English-to-French from the options menu and hit TRANSLATE. This gives you rayonnez-moi vers le haut de scotty. You copy this and paste rayonnez moi vers le haut de scotty back into the text box, and select French-to-English this time. You get back ‘Radiate me to the top of Scotty.’ I think that’s how ICEL got started.”  Thanks, Diogenes, for the chortle.

When we translate prayers, we must hold in gentle tension the obligation to translate the Latin pure and simple and, on the other hand, to find out what the contexts and sources were along with the actual meaning of the words in those contexts.  I am of the opinion that the Latin must be respected.  While we are obliged to consult the source texts the prayers are based on, we ought not go too far afield.  In these WDTPRS articles we can play around a bit, taking cues from dictionaries and Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church, Church documents, literature and even current events if we want.  But those who must translate the prayers for a new liturgical version must stick closely to the Latin translating what the prayers really say.  His Eminence Joseph Card. Ratzinger argues this also in his book in God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, The Heart of Life (Ignatius Press, 2003, cf. pp. 37-8, n. 10).  The language of the Latin Church’s liturgy is Latin, not some other language (i.e., Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek).  The Latin must be respected.  If the Church wants to say something other than what the Latin text says, she will change the Latin.  

COLLECT - LATIN TEXT (2002MR):
Familiam tuam, quaesumus, Domine, continua pietate custodi,
ut, quae in sola spe gratiae caelestis innititur,
tua semper protectione muniatur.

This Collect was in the pre-Conciliar 1962MR, the so-called “Tridentine” Missal, for the 5th Sunday after Epiphany.  Let us see the Google… er um… ICEL version we will hear on Sunday in our parish churches and then immediately our slavishly literal WDTPRS version.

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Father,
watch over your family
and keep us safe in your care,
for all our hope is in you.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Guard your family, we beseech you, O Lord, with continual mercy,
so that that (family) which is propping itself up upon the sole hope of heavenly grace
may always be defended by your protection.

Custodio means “to watch, protect, keep, defend, guard.”  It is common in military language.  Innitor, a deponent verb, means “to lean or rest upon, to support one’s self by any thing.”   Innitor also has military overtones. The thorough and replete Lewis & Short Dictionary provides examples from Caesar and Livy describing soldiers leaning on their spears and shields (e.g., scutis innixi ... “leaning upon their shields” cf. Caesar, De bello Gallico 2.27).   Munio is a similarly military term for walling up something up, putting in a state of defense, fortifying so as to guard.  Are you sensing a theme?  We need a closer look.

Pietas, which gives us the English word “piety”, we have seen before in the last few years but it bears review.  L&S says pietas is “dutiful conduct toward the gods, one’s parents, relatives, benefactors, country, etc., sense of duty.”  It furthermore describes pietas in Jerome’s Vulgate in both Old and New Testament as “conscientiousness, scrupulousness regarding love and duty toward God.”  The heart of pietas is “duty.”  Pietas is also one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit (cf. CCC 733-36; Isaiah 11:2), by which we are duly affectionate and grateful toward our parents, relatives and country, as well as to all men living insofar as they belong to God or are godly, and especially to the saints.  In loose or common parlance, “piety” indicates fulfilling the duties of religion.  Sometimes “pious” is used in a negative way, as when people take aim at external displays of religious dutifulness as opposed to what they is “genuine” practice (cf. Luke 18:9-14).  However, when we speak of the pietas of God, we are generally referring to His mercy toward us.

When we truly grasp the words in today’s prayer we find rich imagery of contrasting images.  On the one hand we see a family and on the other a group of dutiful soldiers leaning on their shields or spears, these being for us “the sole hope of heavenly grace”!  In fact, we Catholics are both a family, children of a common Father, and a Church Militant, the Body of Christ which is a corps (French for “body” from Latin corpus) marching in this vale of tears towards our heavenly fatherland.  Many of us were confirmed by bishops as “soldiers of Christ” and given a blow on the cheek as a reminder of what suffering we might face as Christians: not the first time we have suffered at the hands of bishops, perhaps, and maybe not the last.   

By our baptism we are integrated in Christ’s Mystical Body, indeed His Person, the Church. We are given the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit.  Through the sacramental graces that flow from baptism and confirmation, nourished by the Eucharist and healed and strengthened with the other sacraments, we are capable of facing the challenges of daily life and face down the attacks of hell.  We ought rather desire to die like soldiers rather than sin in the manner of those who have no gratitude toward God or sense of duty toward Him.  In today’s prayer we beg the protection and provisions Christ our King and commander can give us soldiers while on the march.  We need a proper attitude of obedience toward God, our ultimate superior, dutifulness our earthly parents, our heavenly home and our earthly country, our heavenly brothers and sisters the saints and our earthly siblings and relatives, our heavenly patrons and worldly benefactors, and so forth.  

This is also what it means to belong to a family: there is both a profound interconnection between the members but also an inequality – children are no less members of the family than parents, but they are dependent they are not the equals of their parents. Our prayer gives us an image that runs very much contrary to the prevailing values of the last few decades, a period in which the military has been denigrated and the family as a coherent recognizable unit has been systematically broken down.  The Latin prayers often reflect the Church’s profound awareness of our lack of equality with God.  The prayers are radically hierarchical, just as God’s design reveals hierarchy and order.  Compare this with prevailing societal norms.  Nowadays individual soldiers might be praised but the military is still being looked at by the intelligentsia with suspicion.  Rights of individual people are validated, but the family as a unit is under severe attack.   

In both the military and in a family (and the Church) there must be order.  Yet, children today can take their parents to court for disciplining them.  In some places parents are forbidden their rights to protect children who can obtain contraception or even abortions through schools without parental notification.  Discipline is dissolving.  And yet that very discipline is precisely the protection needed by troops on the march, children in growing up, the flocks of the Church from their pastors, from their commanders so they can attain their goal.   Parents, officers and shepherds must fulfill their own roles with pietas also, religious and sacred duty.  Holy Mother Church has maintained this Collect for centuries now in this exact period of the year (5thSunday after Pentecost and 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time).  She holds these petitions up to God because the concern constituent elements of who we are.  The Church is not afraid to combine images of family and soldiering, the symbiotic exchange of duty, obedience and protection.

Please keep something in mind: the prayer suggests to me a meaning which is founded on the possible military nuances of the vocabulary.  It is also possible to emphasize the familial dimension and say, “Watch over your family, …with continual religious dutifulness,…” invoking more something like the image of a father or mother checking into the bedrooms of their children while they sleep, listening in the night for sounds of distress or need.  Perhaps putting the military element in relief helps us to claim both sets of images.  These choices are not easy friends.  Every time you make a choice in translating, you are going to lose something.  Therefore, pray daily for our bishops and those in charge of translating the Latin texts.  It is not an easy job.   They must make truly difficult decisions, knowing full well that with every choice something important will be lost for someone.  However, lest we be smug about the “olden days”, this applied equally to translations in pre-Conciliar hand missals used now by those attending Holy Mass celebrated according to the older books.  Something is always lost in translation.

What Does the Prayer Really Say?  3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2005

ER writes via e-mail (Latin cleaned up): “I am not sure whether I heard it correctly. When watching the Papal Mass at the Vatican for Christmas, on TV, I was jolted when I thought I heard the Pontiff recite ‘pro OMNIBUS’ in the consecration.”    No, ER, you did not hear him say in Latin “pro omnibus” (literally “for all”, the equivalent of “pro universis” which the Catechism of the Council of Trent of 1566 explains would be improper (Part II, ch. 4).   He said “pro multis”.  The Holy Father, poor man, is rather hard to understand in any language right now.  Nevertheless, this is another example of why it is so vital that we have an accurate English translation of pro multis.  We must move away from the execrable and misleading “for all”.  Perhaps this is the single most important of the theologically controversial points in any new draft translation in English.  You readers can help to secure one by writing kind letters to those involved.  I provide addresses on the WDTPRS website or you can write to The Wanderer to obtain them.  

Via e-mail GJ takes me to task for my comments about the quality of an ancient Collect not previously in the Missale Romanum but is now in the Novus Ordo (edited): “You will spend your life helping us get something that (is) sub par though better than what we have now.”  Well, GJ, that sounds like a step in the right direction.  The problem with some Catholics who are attached strongly to the older, venerable way of celebrating Mass is that they think the Novus Ordo should or could be abandoned and the older Mass restored across the board overnight.  GJ stays on the attack: “But the real thing is in a whole different category and a good Catholic will go to the true Mass whether it is "allowed" or not.  Why don’t you compare the Olde Mass to the new and tell us what you think about that?  Would that make you somehow disloyal to VII and this pope?”  You are making my point for me: some people think the Missale Romanum of 1962 and its predecessors back to Trent are the be all and end all of prayer without regard for what the prayers (and rubrics) of the post-Conciliar missals really say!  They consider only the banal ICEL translations they have heard and the liturgical abuses they have seen.  I do enjoy the “olde” spelling of old, GJ, but perhaps thou art not aware that I have spent a good share of my priesthood promoting the celebration of Ye Olde Mass and I have suffered seriously as a result.  I have often compared the olde with the new, usually pointing out how much was have lost to our great detriment.  I was not ordained a priest for the sake of a book: I was ordained for people.  Thus, I have to consider the well-being of everyone in the Church and not just the people I agree with the most.  Patience is needed as well as incremental gains.  

Friends, I know quite well that many readers of The Wanderer don’t like the Novus Ordo.  Some, probably, have been tempted to stop reading because it is hard core enough.  But we have to be realistic about the situation we face in the Church.  Like it or not, the Novus Ordo is not going away.  Neither is the vernacular.  Dear traditional Catholics, I share many legitimate aspirations with you.  The promotion of sound and beautiful translations is of benefit to everyone in the Church, even to the most dedicated adherent of the “Traditional Latin Mass”, because we are all in this together.   We must improve the state of the Church all around and foster improvements gradually.  So avoid this siege mentality.  The traditional Catholics ought to be the first to write kind letters of encouragement to those who are preparing the new translations!  Consider it this way: if once people start getting more of the “real thing” (as GJ puts it), perhaps they will then want even more and become far more interested in traditional expressions.  I have seen this pattern again and again with individuals.  Let’s see if it works with the whole English speaking Church.  Why do you think the liberal progressivists are trying to sidetrack the present draft of the translation being prepared?  I am grateful, GJ, that you read WDTPRS with attention and I hope you will continue.  Give some gift subscriptions of The Wanderer and see if you can get others to take me to task too.  Have at!  

Speaking of those trying to axe a better translation, I will decline to share some of the e-mail feedback you have sent about the election of His Excellency Donald W. Trautman, the Erie Bishop in Pennsylvania to the chairmanship of the USCCB’s liturgy committee (BCL).  I am trying to maintain a positive tone in this WDTPRS series.  The BCL will be involved in the review of the draft translation of the Missal now in preparation.  With the Vox Clara committee on the watch and the CDWDS standing firm on the norms they issued in the document Liturgiam authenticam the most the BCL can do is slow the process.  This is not nothing, of course.  There is an adage in the Church: “cunctando regitur mundus … the world is ruled by delaying.”  Oddly, while doing an internet search on my own articles to find when I had quoted that adage in the past, I discovered that WDTPRS is cited in a June 25, 2004 entry in fun blog-site called The Inn At The End Of The World (http://thesixbells.blogspot.com/) run by some liturgically long-suffering soul in Los Angeles who obviously is an aficionado of bagpipes.  I have often been associated with bags of hot air, but this is a new one.  The blogger wisely and perspicaciously called WDTPRS “indispensable”, which rouses in me the hope that he gave some gift subscriptions to The Wanderer to friends.   And now, ad ramos!

COLLECT - LATIN TEXT (2002MR):
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus,
dirige actus nostros in beneplacito tuo,
ut in nomine dilecti Filii tui
mereamur bonis operibus abundare.

GJ will be glad that this was in the 1962MR as the Collect for the Sunday in the Octave of Christmas. In the functionally superior Lewis & Short Latin Dictionary we learn that beneplacitum means “good pleasure, gracious purpose”.  The preposition in using the ablative case indicates a condition, situation or relation rather than a reference to space where or time when something was occurring.  In the Vulgate beneplacitum translates the original Greek eudokia in, e.g., Eph 1:9; 1 Cor 10:5.  Other phrases are used for eudokia too (e.g., bona voluntas in Luke 2:14, the famous “peace on earth to men of good will” or “peace on earth good will toward men”).  Paul wrote eudokia at the beginning of 2 Thessalonians (1:11-12), rendered as voluntas bonitatis in the Vulgate:

...oramus semper pro vobis ut dignetur vos vocatione sua Deus et impleat omnem voluntatem bonitatis et opus fidei in virtute ut clarificetur nomen Domini nostri Iesu Christi in vobis et vos in illo secundum gratiam Dei nostri et Domini Iesu Christi… we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his call, and may fulfill every good resolve (omnem voluntatem bonitatis) and work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ (RSV).

We can find connections between 2 Thessalonians and our Collect at several points: mereamur in the Collect with dignetur in Paul (both having to do with meriting or being worth of), beneplacitum with voluntas bonitatis, bona opera with opus fidei (good works flowing from lived faith), nomen Filii with nomen Domini Iesu Christi.   Taken in the sense of “gracious purpose” we can make a connection to Paul’s vocatio too, our “calling” or the purpose for which God placed us on this earth with a part of His plan to fulfill.

Abundo means, “to overflow with any thing, to have an abundance or superabundance of, to abound in.”  If we go back to the idea of the preposition in and the ablative indicating place or location in space, (in beneplacito tuo) we have an image of our good works originating in God and, coming from Him, overflowing out from us.  Some Protestants are under the false impression that Catholics think we can “earn” our way to heaven by our own good works, as if our good works had their own merit apart from God. Catholics believe, however, that true good works always have their origin in God, but the works are truly our works as well since we cooperate with God in performing them.  Therefore, having their origin and purpose in God, they merit the reward of God’s promises.  Whenever we find a reference to works in these liturgical prayers, do not forget the Catholic understanding of good works.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Almighty eternal God,
direct our actions in your gracious purpose,
so that in the name of Thy beloved Son,
we may merit to abound with good works.

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
All-powerful and ever-living God,
direct your love that is within us,
that our efforts in the name of your Son
may bring mankind to unity and peace.

The lame-duck ICEL version’s “All-powerful and ever-living God” for omnipotens sempiterne Deus is not so bad.  Quite bad, on the other hand, is their “direct your love that is within us”.  The Latin clearly connects God’s own purpose for us and the actions that flow from that purpose.  In the ICEL version we have a vague term “love”, rather than the indication of God’s eternal plan.  Perhaps this is a bit picky, but when I hear “we may merit to abound with good works”, I think we are abounding because of God’s action within us through the good works He makes meritorious.  They overflow from us because of His generosity.  In the ICEL version God’s “love” is in us, but this leads to “our efforts”.  Yes, this can be reconciled with a Catholic theology of works, but it just doesn’t sound right.  Also, I don’t think that “efforts” to “bring mankind to unity and peace” means the same as us “meriting” by God’s grace to “abound with good works”.     Please understand: I don’t object to praying for unity and peace, but I think we ought to pray the prayer as the Church gave it to us, what the prayer really says.  When we feed the hungry and console those who mourn, visit the shut-in and imprisoned and pray for the dead, sure we are building “unity and peace”, but that phrase is so vague as to mean very little to someone in the pew.  The Latin does not say “conatus nostri genus humanum ad unitatem et pacem inducant”.  Is it possible that the guitar strumming and all those kumbayas of the 1960’s affected the ICEL translators choice of words?  I suppose we could all stand outside the headquarters of the USCCB and sing, “All we are saying, is give Latin a chance!” while swaying back and forth holding our lighters in the air.

What Does the Prayer Really Say?  2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2005

I am glad to have received a note via snail-mail from Fr. VY, OFM who has corrected an error I made about the pre-Conciliar liturgical calendar.  I had said that in the 1962MR 1 January was the Feast of the Circumcision when, as Fr. VY points out, by 1962 it was simply Sunday in the Octave Christmas.   While 1 January had been still the Feast of the Circumcision in 1959 I gratefully stand corrected about the 1962MR.   I received an undated letter from Fr. BF, OSB who included some a copy of an article in The Tablet (22 May 2004) called “The Draft Order of the Mass”.  Apparently he shared his thoughts about the draft with Fr. Bruce Harbert, the Executive Secretary of ICEL but didn’t hear back from him at the time of his writing.  I note that The Tablet’s article says of the new draft that some people may be “alarmed” at the “hieratic, archaic nature of God’s relationship with humanity implicit in some of the prayers”.  I respond saying, “Goodie!” and “It’s not implicit in the Latin so why should it be in the English?  Let’s just make it all explicit for the sake of accuracy and honesty.”  I want to acknowledge also kind written notes from CC of IL and EL of AZ and others.  Your feedback is valuable.

We have into the Sundays “Ordinary Time” (once called the Season of Epiphany) during which we wear the green vestments that some say symbolize of hope.  Even though these Sundays are not part of a sacral cycle such as Advent/Christmas with a focus on specific mysteries of Our Lord’s life and saving work, each Sunday is always an echo of Easter.  Pre-Conciliar liturgical books called the Sundays after Epiphany and the Sundays after Pentecost the tempus per annum… “the time through the year” and this terminology has remained in the Novus Ordo.   We are entering the liturgical span stretching from the adoration of kings and shepherds at the feet of the infant King to the end of the year and the solemn feast of Christ the King, the King of fearful majesty who will come as judge and will separate the goats from the sheep and usher in the unending reign of peace.

COLLECT - LATIN TEXT (2002MR):
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus,
qui caelestia simul et terrena moderaris,
supplicationibus populi tui clementer exaudi,
et pacem tuam nostris concede temporibus.

This prayer was the Collect for the Second Sunday after Epiphany in the 1962MR.    We should look at some words before getting at what the prayer really says.  The unrivaled Lewis & Short Dictionary says that simul et connects two or more co-ordinate terms or facts and represents them as simultaneous and is the equivalent of simul etiam meaning “and at the same time, and also”.  The deponent verb moderor means “to manage, regulate, rule, guide, govern, direct”.  The word moderator is what we use in Latin for people like the state governor or the president of the United States: governing officials.  A gubernator was the steersman or pilot of a sailing ship.  

When we pray in Latin we often ask God to pay attention in some way, usually by “hearing” us.  Exaudio signifies “listen to” in the sense of “harken, perceive clearly.”  The imperative exaudi is more urgent than a simple audi (the imperative from audio, not the car).   I like “harken.”  Different words are used for this in Latin and though they mean subtly different things, they are all pretty much the same thing.  A good example is the beginning of one of the Litanies in Latin: Christe audi nos… Christe exaudi nos... which is often translated as “Christ hear us… Christ graciously hear us.”  

Clementer is an adverb from clemens, means among other things, “mild in respect to the faults and failures of others, i.e. forbearing, indulgent, compassionate, merciful.”  We have seen this many times in the last four years.  In the religious language of the ancient Romans a supplicatio was a public prayer or supplication, a solemn religious ceremony in consequence of certain public events, good or ill.  So, what we have here is a phrase something like, “in an indulgent manner graciously pay close attention to the humble petitions of your people, bent down in prayer.”  Tempus means many things but primarily, “time in general, or a season of time; the state of the times, position, state, condition; circumstances.”  It can also be “the appointed time, the right season, an opportunity (Greek kairos)”.   In the plural tempora gives us the word for the “temples” of the sides of your head.  The word “temporal” ultimately derives from tempus and it often indicates worldly or earthly things, material things, as opposed to sacred, eternal or spiritual.   

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Almighty eternal God,
who at the same time does govern things heavenly and earthly,
mercifully harken to the supplications of Your people,
and grant Your peace in our temporal affairs.

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Father of heaven and earth,
hear our prayers, and show us the way
to peace in the world.

In the past we discovered in the course of this WDTPRS series that the ICEL versions of the prayers for the festal seasons of Advent/Christmas and Lent/Easter were marginally better than those of Ordinary Time.  Now that we are in Ordinary Time again you will see a change in the quality of the “translations”.  They must have had a different committee work on the prayers of Ordinary Time.  First take note that the ICEL prayer is shorter than the Latin version, which set off flares and rings claxons.  Normally when you render a Latin text in English, the English will be considerably longer than the Latin.  This is a superficial but solid clue that not all is well.

To my mind the ICEL prayer is sterile, not just terse.  We can all agree that God is the “Father of heaven and earth”, but the Latin addresses “Almighty eternal God.”  “Father of heaven and earth” makes God smaller than He is, it seems to me, and is not what the Latin prayer really says.  “Hear our prayers”, indicates little of our humble posture before God which the Latin clearly proposes with “mercifully give ear to the supplications of your people”.  I suppose this is what The Tablet article mentioned above was referring to, namely, the “hieratic, archaic nature of God’s relationship with humanity implicit in some of the prayers”.  In the Latin, we are cast down, bent in prayer, asking the almighty God, indulgently to spare us a little attention.  I am perfectly content to grovel with penitentially confident joy before God even if the translators of the lame-duck ICEL version were not.   From what I have seen of the draft of the Ordinary we will be pleased in the future when a new translations finally comes forth.

The old ICEL version of the first Collect we see in Ordinary Time isn’t terribly successful when compared to the Latin, is it?  The bishops’ conferences, the Vox Clara Committee, the restructured, restaffed ICEL and the Holy See have their work cut out for them.  If the draft of the Ordinary of Mass is well under way, where are we with the Proper (i.e., the prayers which change according to the day).  Translating prayers is a daunting task and thus these people need our prayerful support and, may I say it, incessant positive urging and input.  I have provided addresses for the major figures involved on the internet (http://www.wdtprs.com/blog) or you can write e-mail to me for or snail-mail to The Wanderer.  Never forget when reading this column to say a prayer for our bishops and ask the Holy Spirit to guide them in their challenging mandate.  Also, be kind and respectful when writing.  Bishops are peculiar creatures to be sure, but they are still human beings.  They have more than enough to do in their busy days to deal with all the negative things which besiege them without getting some snippy letter from a disgruntled critic.  You can make your points and observations without being rude or demanding.  Look at it this way: if you want a cardinal or bishop or priest to read your thoughts and take them to heart, be nice, otherwise your note will probably wind up in the garbage can.

Getting back to our Collect we are begging God as omnipotent disposer of all things for peace in our temporal affairs now, not just later in heaven.  And we want not just any peace man can cobble together, but rather the peace which comes from Him.  During Holy Mass (before the entirely optional “sign of peace”) the priest repeats Christ’s words in John 14:27: “Pacem relinquo vobis, pacem meam do vobis... Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”  Catholic Christians are confident.  Christ said He was going to give it to us.  

There is a great difference between the peace the world can offer and the peace that God offers.  This world of temporal goods (and ills) is passing and fragile, always susceptible to loss.  The goods of heaven are lasting, enduring, solid and dependable.   We must never fall into the sin of putting any created thing or person in the place which only eternal God may properly have.  No infinite and passing thing can provide lasting joy or eternal peace.  Any created thing can be lost through theft, wear and time.  The vicissitudes of this passing world roar over us like an inexorable wave and can sweep away any material thing to which we have clung, perhaps even in idolatry.  Our wealth, our family, our health, our appearance and our reputation can be taken in the blink of an eye.  God alone endures.

God knew each one of us outside of time, before the creation of both the visible and invisible universe.  He called us into existence at a precise moment in His eternal plan.  We have something to do in God’s plan.  He gives us work to fulfill and the talents and graces to fulfill it.  We must cooperate with Him, making His plan for us our own so that He can then make us strong enough to carry it out.  God knows our needs and in turn we confidently come to Him in prayer asking humbly in our trials during this earthly journey for peace only He can give, the peace which alone can make sense of what we experience in life.  Our sins lost this peace for us but it has been restored through the merits of Christ’s Sacrifice which we renewal and remember with each Holy Mass.  We ask God to bless us in this new year of salvation.  We beseech Him to give aid to all who suffer.  With bended knee and foreheads to the ground, bodies and wills both bent in supplication, we beg His patient indulgence and His peace.

Here are links to my articles on Epiphany which I posted last year.

COLLECT (1)

SUPER OBLATA (1)

POST COMMUNION (1)

Here are some other pieces of the puzzle:

What Does the Prayer Really Say? Epiphany and Mary, Mother of God

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2005

Epiphany is from the Greek word for a divine “manifestation” or “revelation”. The Church’s liturgy for the feast, especially in its antiphons for Vespers, reflect the tradition that Epiphany was thought to be the day not only when the Magi came to adore Christ, but also the same day years later when Jesus changed water into wine at Cana, and also when He was baptized by St. John at the Jordan.

Images of these three mysteries has been maintained in the 2002 edition of the Missale Romanum in the artwork on the facing page for the texts, artwork as I have said in the past that is every bit as good as that which Mommy might proudly display on the refrigerator fixed on with magnets of plastic fruit.

The “art” for the Missale is based on the mosaics of a new chapel of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace built during the Jubilee. In any event, in each of these three mysteries Jesus is revealed to be more than a mere man. He is man and God. The are many “epiphanies” of God in the Scripture, for example, the burning bush seen by Moses, the Transfiguration, and the abovementioned. The history of the modern feast of Epiphany is ancient and complicated history. In the East Epiphany was an extremely important feast far more important than the relative latecomer Christmas. In the West, the Nativity developed first and the celebration of Epiphany came later. In many places in the world, Epiphany, and not Christmas, is the day to exchange gifts, in imitation of the Magi. Epiphany truly really falls on the 6th of January, the twelfth day after Christmas (as in “On the Twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…” – which some think comes from Ireland during the time when Catholicism was illegal). Twelfth Night as in Shakespeare’s play, refers to Epiphany. In the post-Conciliar calendar, it can be transferred to Sunday and perhaps this is good: the ancient and mysterious feast now gets more attention than it did when it was observed strictly on January 6th. Today’s “Opening Prayer” for Mass, or more properly Collect, was in the 1962MR and in other ancient sacramentaries. Enjoy the sound of the Latin by reading it aloud, with the fine rhythmic clausula at the end (celsitúdinis perducámur).

COLLECT - LATIN TEXT (2002MR):
Deus, qui hodierna die Unigenitum tuum stella duce revelasti,
concede propitius,
ut qui iam te ex fide cognovimus,
usque ad contemplandam speciem tuae celsitudinis perducamur.

ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Father,
you revealed you Son to the nations
by the guidance of a star.
Lead us to your glory in heaven
by the light of faith.

Well that is what ICEL gave us. But is that what the prayer really says? I suspect not. We are justifiably suspicious when the translation is shorter than the Latin original (which just doesn’t happen, friends). In case you are trying to figure out the ending of revelasti it is a syncopated (shortened) form of revelavisti. Stella duce is an ablative absolute (duce is from dux). Don’t fall into the trap of translating an ablative absolute beginning with “with” (e.g., “with a star as leader”). “With” gives an impression of accompaniment rather than the existing circumstance at the time of the action of the main verb. The adjective hodiernus, a, um, is “of this day, today’s”, so hodierna dies literally is “today’s day”, stronger than a simple “today”. Perhaps we could say, “this day of day’s” or “this of all days”. To my Latin ear this emphasizes the weight of the feast of Epiphany with its three events that are traditionally associated with it. Celsitudo, in your revelatory Lewis & Short Dictionary, indicates in older Latin a loftiness of carriage while in later Latin it points to majesty, as in the title “Highness”.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
O God, who today revealed your Only-begotten, a s