Some time ago, I put out an invitation for you to compose a prayer for translators working on the new English version of the Missale Romanum.
I finally took the bull by the horns and wrote one. Transatlantic flights are good for something! Many thanks to my friend GW, a great scholar, who offered some helpful suggestions. It is subject to some revision, but here it is! This is the Latin version (which you probably knew already).
Since the mandate from the Holy See was to revise translations world wide, I figured it was best to compose and publish in Latin. We can have our own WDTPRS versions along the way!
Oratio pro liturgicis interpretibus
Omnipotens et misericors Deus,
qui super Unigeniti Filii tui apostolos
et coram eis Ecclesiam et Ecclesiae Matrem,
linguis flammarum rutilantibus,
Sanctum Spiritum misisti abundanter,
concede, propitius,
ut qui reddendis ritibus eiusdem sanctae Ecclesiae
variis in orbis terrarum linguis
nunc magno cum studio certant,
ita recte intellegant ac conversentur decore
ut nos post diluvium dissociati
et concorditer a te accipere salutifera
et te laudare possimus unanimiter.
Per Christum Dominum nostrum.
Father,
What is the significance of the skull with Saint Jerome?
Thanks.
Stu
Martin: Thanks for the comments. They are very interesting and I will give them a second reading, and a third.
They do not, however, present very much that is constructive. You can pick. Can you compose? If memory does not fail me, you might have jotted something a while back. How about taking another stab at your own, while making some constructive observations as well.
Yes I did indeed compose and post here a short prayer some time ago. That was my constructive contribution. Short and to the point, I hoped, although it elicited no comments, so its faults (which it does not lack) remain to be elucidated.
As for Stu’s question:-
(1) skull as “memento mori”, reflecting Caravaggio’s generally morbid mentality;
(2) skull as seat of the brain reflecting St. Jerome’s intellectual pursuits as well as the primacy of mind over body (he lived as an ascetic in the Syrian desert before moving to Bethlehem);
(3) skull as alluding to his life in the Holy Land (Golgotha/ Calvary, although he lived in Bethlehem, not Jerusalem).
Martin: Thanks again for the comments. I believe you may be a minimalist, but thanks!
Oratio pro interpretibus.
Deus, qui populum tuum
Spiritus Sancti effusione
ex omni natione sub caelo
perpetuo favore coadunare et tueri non desinis,
subveni propitius, gratia tua,
interpretibus nostris
quibus Ecclesia Mater, ex officio,
codices liturgicos transferendos commiserit
ut mentibus fidei luce collustratis
caritatisque igne in cordibus accenso
et digna intelligentia textus Latinos comprehendant
et nullo sensu celato fideliter eos interpretentur
sermonumque varietas, spiritus concordet unitate
ad aedificandos fideles cunctos
ut tamquam lapides vivi, pio fervore
salutis aeternae mysteria celebrare valeant semper
per …
vel (paulo magis popularis “politice recta” versio)
ut tamquam lapides vivi, actioni liturgicae
scienter, fructuose et actuose participare valeant semper
Andrew, you are not a minimalist.
Fr. Z:
I often feel that more is better, which might just make me a “minimalist”. Here I tried to follow a simple pattern of “invocatio, gratulatio, rogatio”. It is way too wordy and puffed up to take seriously, but I enjoy this sort of a “ludus”.
I meant to say: “I often feel that less is more” – how I got to “more is better” I surely don’t know. Must have been a Freudian slip of the keyboard.
Thanks for the info Martin.