COLLECT:
Deus, qui per beatos fratres Cyrillum et Methodium
Slavoniae gentes illuminasti,
da cordibus nostris tuae doctrinae verba percipere,
nosque perfice populum
in vera fide et recta confessione concordem.
LITERAL TRANSLATION:
O God, who through the blessed brothers Cyril and Methodius
brought light to the peoples of the slavic lands,
grant to our hearts to understand the words of Your doctrine
and perfect us as a people
harmonious in the true Faith and in the orthodox profession of the Faith.
I think we have to take the word confessio to be "profession of faith" and recta must therefore have an overtone of orthodoxy.
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UK & Ireland Breviary…
Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius were your instruments, Lord
in bringing the light of the gospel to the Slavonic peoples.
May we take your word into our hearts
and be at one in professing the true faith.
ICEL version:
Father,
you brought the light of the Gospel to the Slavic nations
through Saint Cyril and his brother Saint Methodius,
Open our hearts to understand your teaching
and help us to become one in faith and praise.
Although this is hardly one of ICEL’s worst efforts, I doubt that its lack of the “true faith” (fide recta) retained in the other two translations was solely the result of the ICEL translator being unable to find recta in his pocket Cassell’s.
Sent this yesterday, but here is it for anyone who is interested. My rendering of today’s Collect:
O God, who through the blessed brothers Cyril and Methodius,
illumined the Slavic peoples,
open our hearts to receive the words of your teaching,
and make of us a people
at one in the true faith and in praising you rightly.
It is not easy to translate “da cordibus nostris tuae doctrinae verba percipere† I also thought of “make our hearts receptive to the words of your teaching,†but in the end chose the above. It’s not literal but is, I think, faithful. More intriguing is the “recta confessione†in the last line. I suppose that “orthodoxy†would be a perfectly legitimate translation of it, but settled on “praising you rightly.â€Â
Why is it so important to get the Collect right? The Collect prescribed by the liturgy on any given day is a pure distillation of the Church’s prayer. The Collect of the day is nothing less than the Holy Spirit “helping us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought†(Rom 8:26). The Collect of the day is the Church articulating for us those “sighs too deep for words†(Rom 8:26) by which the Holy Spirit himself intercedes for us, filling us with the prayer of Christ.
>>Why is it so important to get the Collect right? The Collect prescribed by the liturgy on any given day is a pure distillation of the Church’s prayer.
Today’s Prayer Over the Oblations is magnificent. That last line, “in dilectione caritatis tibi reconciliatae” resonates nicely with the encyclical, DCE! Yes, “priceless love” may be stretching it a bit, but I would argue that in this context it might be a fittting translation of dilectio, “the love that chooses, the love of great price.”
Turn your gaze, O Lord,
to the gifts we offer to your majesty
in commemoration of Saints Cyril and Methodius,
and grant that they may become for us
the sign of a new humanity
reconciled to you in the priceless love of charity.
The Postcommunion is lacking in sobrietas, one might say. That being said, here it is:
O God, the Father of all nations,
who have made us partakers of one Bread and of one Spirit,
and heirs of the eternal banquet;
grant, of your kindness,
on this feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius,
that the multitude of your children, persevering in the same faith,
may, with one mind, build up your kingdom of justice and peace.