INTERNET PRAYER: LATVIAN

10 Comments

1. Julie says:

   11 January 2009 at 4:13 PM

   +

   Sounds like the work of a Mr. A.L. ? :)
2. Andrew says:

   11 January 2009 at 5:38 PM

   paldies!
3. Franzjosf says:

   11 January 2009 at 6:00 PM

   I love Latvia! I’ve had the good fortune to visit Riga twice. As a people, the Latvians are the nicest, most hospitable of any place I’ve been in Europe. Both times I stayed in Old Town. A young man named Dainis, who owned the gym attached to my hotel, volunteered to be my guide. Soon the policemen on the streets were greeting me, remembering me when I returned the second time. A young man with a power drill taking up concrete noticed that I seemed lost, turned off his drill and walked me the two blocks to my destination. I could go on and on with stories. (And of course, in Latvia, the Catholic Church celebrates ad orientem. I’ll never forget entering the Cathedral and there was no sign of an ironing board anywhere. Wonderful.)
4. depeccatoradvitam says:

   11 January 2009 at 8:06 PM

   Sveiki!

   My +Grandmother, +Grandfather and Mother and dear Uncle and several +others were all immigrants from Latvia following the Soviet and German overruns of WWII. All but my Grandfather ran to the family farm and then on the road away from Soviet Russian expansion and were in Chemnitz for the carpet bombing and later Bavaria in displaced persons until emmigration to the USA. Grandpa was a part of the free Latvian Aircorps and an elite group of officers that were to protect the mother country and remain in contact to protect the heritage. He broke occupation orders to fly all planes to Soviet teritory, and ditched an SV-5 much to Russian chagrin. He was a part of the Latvian Legion fighting to hold back Soviet Red invasion further into Europe. Though many of their ranks were murdered, they kept in touch until their dying days across the globe.

   Latvia was devastatingly Russified by tenants and deportations were harsh and there were many Latvian martyrs for the nation and the faith (nearly all priests were murdered and deported to Siberia and other work camps)and against Soviet communist expansion during World War II and the Cold War. Grandpa fought his whole life from the outside for Latvians around the world to free them, support them and to retain the truth around the fallen Government and his beloved Latvian aviators.

   Though the language has since been simplified under Soviet occupation and uses more traditional latin alphabet (think of what happened to German words moving to Anglicized ae oe or ue from their single high language letters), the heritage is of a diacriticals-markeded (and thus expanded 33-character alphabet from common English 26-letters) alphabet.

   The carons soften the sounds.
   ? = “ch” like Spanish che
   š = “sh”
   ž = “dz: like the “J” in judge

   The macrons, create an emphasis and long sound
   ? = “ai” as in faith
   ? = “ay” as in The Way
   ? = “ee” as in free as opposed to “ih” like in it
   ? = “yoo” as in Mule

   The cedillas make a y-like sound
   ? = “lya”
   ? = “kya”
   ? and ? = “gya”
   ? = “nya”

   Other notes are:
   c = ts
   o = “oh” as in Go

   An interesting note (thanks http://www.omniglot.com)
   The first publication to be printed in Latvian was a Catechism which appeared in 1585. The first Latvian dictionary, Lettus, was compiled by Georg Mancelius in 1638. The German monks who wrote these texts used a version of the the Fractur alphabet adapted from German which was ill suited to the Latvian language. This alphabet was used until the mid 1930s, when it was replaced with a modified version of the Latin alphabet devised by Dr. J. Endzelins and K. Mühlenbach (both who originally had diacriticals in their names).

   Historically, Christianity approached from now German Teutonic Knights. The Nothern Crusades traversed Latvia. Some similarities to the issues with Ukrainian and Russian Churches pervaded way back in the late 1100’s and 1200’s as Christianity converged from both the East and the West. These issues pervade to this today, especially noting the latest issues with the Estonian Orthodox Church (approved even recently by “Constantinople”) of which the Russified version was berothed the Russian Orthodox Church and home of the recently late Metropolitan Alexii. Nation and state and Russian hegemony go a long ways back.

   The Archbishop of Riga, J?nis Pujats, is strong and has stood up in the public eye for the faith and especially the catholic teaching on marriage and family. He condemmed activist homosexuality and called for Catholic demonstartions many magnitudes higher to the PRIDE marches being planned at one time.

   Under a freed Latvia, our family was able to reclaim farm properties under privatization and regain contact with family members inside Latvia. My Grandfather died just 6-months before the freedom. No doubt he had a better seat to pray for this. My Uncle went back and visited family and the farm.

   Br?vi Latvija!
5. little gal says:

   11 January 2009 at 8:57 PM

   Can you folks clarify something for me? I always thought the Latvians were primarily Lutherans. FYI, I am Lithuanian and if my memory is correct, my former dentist, a Latvian, told me this.
6. Franzjosf says:

   11 January 2009 at 10:00 PM

   little gal: I’ve been to all three Baltic countries. Beginning in the north, Estonia is almost entirely Lutheran; Latvia has both strong Lutheran and Catholic followings, although the Lutherans may have higher numbers; and Lithuania is almost entirely Catholic. Of course, for historical reasons, the Russian Orthodox have a presence in all three.

   One more Latvian Story: If you go to Riga, be sure to go to the Oppression Museum. There you will see, on display, hundreds of little pieces of paper with notes to loved ones. Sometime during the 50’s Stalin deported clerics and intellectuals–anyone who could organize resistance–all in one night! It was all orchestrated. Trains came in at the borders and took thousands out of the country in one night, never to be heard from again. Parents left notes to their children, and many threw notes out the windows as the trains were pulling out. Patriots kept the notes, put them in those old-fashioned huge silver milk cans and buried them in the countryside and passed on their whereabouts for a couple of generations. When the Latvians gained independence from the USSR, they dug them up and then put them in the Museum. I spent about an hour with tears in my eyes reading the last words of parents to their children.

   Notes like:

   ‘Be a good boy, say your prayers, don’t forget to water the plants, Mommy and Daddy love you.’

   Can you imagine?

   Another Latvian told me: The average Latvian farmer has many, many books. We could still be free in our minds!
7. Julie says:

   11 January 2009 at 11:01 PM

   +

   Andrew! I miss you! Facebook! ! ! ! ! ! ! (Fr. Z is on!)
8. Janis Ginters says:

   12 January 2009 at 1:59 AM

   I do not think that it is a good translation. “Before logging to internet” has been translated “before start up a web”; “which is pleasing to Thee” – “which is according to Thy will”; “all those whom we encounter” – “all those whom we meet”; “intercession” – “mediation”. At least two grammar errors…
9. Janis Ginters says:

   12 January 2009 at 2:19 AM

   Saint Isidore – “doctor” has been translated as “?rsts” it means – “medical doctor”
10. ifeanyi says:

    12 January 2009 at 5:44 AM

    PLEASE PRAY FOR ME IFEANYI, I WANT GOD TO HELP ME GET A GOOD AND PERMANENT JOB AND THINGS TO BE EASY FOR ME. I NEED GOD PROTECTION,BLESSING AND FAVOUR UPON MY LIFE.

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