Here is the Collect for 19 December in the 2002MR, duing this period of intense preparation before Christmas:
COLLECT:
Deus, qui splendorem gloriae tuae
per sacrae Virginis partum mundo dignatus es revelare,
tribue, quaesumus, ut tantae incarnationis mysterium
et fidei integratate colamus,
et devotio semper obsequio frequentemus.
This is from Rotulus 2 published together with the Veronese Sacramentary. It is not in any previous edition of the Missale Romanum.
The vocabulary is loaded here. First, remember that mysterium is interchangable with sacramentum, and it stands not only for our salvation, but also the celebration of Holy Mass, the Eucharist. Frequento is used to describe the participation of Christians in the sacred mysteries.
LITERAL VERSION:
O God, who deigned to reveal to the world the splendor of Your glory,
through the holy Virgin’s giving birth,
grant, we entreat You, that we both may reverence the mystery of the great incarnation
with integrity of faith,
and we may attend it always with obedient devotion.
A PROPOSAL:
O God, who in the Offspring of the holy Virgin
graciously revealed to the world
the radiance of your glory,
grant, we pray,
that we may cherish with sound faith
and always celebrate with due reverence
the mystery of so wondrous an incarnation.
Do any of you have your own version?
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The proposed version deserves this kick in the face from, of all places, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offspring
“In biology, offspring are the product of reproduction, a new organism produced by one or more parents.
“Collective offspring may be known as a brood or progeny in a more general way. This can refer to a set of simultaneous offspring, such as the chicks hatched from one clutch of eggs, or to all the offspring, as with the honeybee.
“Human offspring (descendants) are referred to as children (without reference to age, thus one can refer to a parent’s “minor children” or “adult children”); male children are sons and female children are daughters. See kinship and descent.”
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I mean, Fr Z, is this proposed version rubbish really serious? Is this the work of his Excellency, the Most Reverend Donald Walter Trautman, I mean Trautperson, I mean Trautoffspring?
How does the proposer get offspring out of the One referred to as the Splendor of God’s glory?
The reason I ask about Trautroe is because it seems he’s played the double-double-reverse with Pope Bendict some months ago, sending the Bishop of Rome a ferocious letter of reprimand. His Holiness has often insisted that any development in the Sacred Liturgy is to be organic, with that organ being the Cross carrying us to the divine Liturgy. Instead, Trautbrood, who was always tauting discontinuity, has suddenly spun around, saying that we must, in fact, pay attention to the continuity of ‘tradition’ represented by the sensus fidelium, which he interprets as being everyone organically (read ‘democratically’) wanting so-called inclusive language. The trouble for Trautgaggle, of course, is that the cross is not democratic; it is the place from which we receive the Sacramentum. It is the place of the King of kings, the Lord of lords. Not very democratic that.
Dear Fr. Z,
Somewhere above you’ve a random italic tag left open.
“Partum” refers both to the “giving of birth” and to the “one who is given birth”. It is a challenge to translate. I also notice that the Latin original connects the two concepts of “partus” and “incarnatio” whereas the English Proposed Version separates them as far apart as possible with the “partus” (offspring) appearing at the very beginning of the prayer and the “incarnation” at the very end. Somehow the Latin succeeds to connect inseparably the mystery of the incarnation and the Virgin birth. I don’t get the same message from the English version. It somehow, in comparison to the Latin, diminishes Mary’s involvement; it sort of sets it apart and de-emphasizes it.
WDTPRS, Andrew? Fr Z has translated well. In this prayer, Christ IS the Splendor of God’s glory, which God the Father has deigned to reveal by way of the Sacred Virgin’s giving birth. Mary, in her cooperation with God the Father, is herself the greatest prophet in her manifesting the Mystery of the Incarnation, who IS the Sacramentum, the very Word of God. Christ is the fullness of revelation because He IS the Splendor of the Father’s glory. The Latin does succeed in connecting inseparably the Mystery of the Incarnation and the Virgin Birth, but not because of an imagined word-play with sacrae Virginis partum, which would actually diminish the true involvement of the Blessed Virgin.
Linguistic interpretation doesn’t depend on the possibilities of syntax devoid of content, nor is the most complicated linguistic feat necessarily pointing the way to the true prayer. If we want to know what the prayer really does say, a hermeneutic of continuity depending on Sacred Tradition, on faith, is necessary.
This prayer’s sublime mention of Mary’s graced cooperation with God the Father gives us great hope that the Liturgy on earth commingles with the Liturgy in heaven.