WDTPRS: 6th Sunday of Easter – COLLECT (2002MR)

The 6th Sunday of Easter – COLLECT – 2002MR  (adapted from a 2001 article)

COLLECT: (2002MR):
Fac nos, omnipotens Deus, hos laetitiae dies,
quos in honorem Domini resurgentis exsequimur,
affectu sedulo celebrare,
ut quod recordatione percurrimus
semper in opere teneamus
.

Let’s do an autopsy.

This seems to be pasted together from prayers in the ancient Veronese and the Gelasian Sacramentary. It is as if the composer found some nice bits here and there and then glued them together to form one text.  Here are the passages which formed the basis of the prayer.

Veronese 229 (end of May): Uere dignum: post illos enim laetitiae dies, quos in honorem domini a mortuis resurgentis et in caelos ascendentis exigimus, postque perceptum sancti spiritus donum necessariae nobis haec ieiunia sancta prouisa sunt, ut pura conuersatione uiuentibus quae diuinitus aeclesiae sunt collata permaneant

Veronese 1282 (December – St. John Evangelist) : Miserator et misericors domine, quo nos continuis caelestium martyrum non deseris sacramentis: presta, quaesumus, ut quae sedulo celebramus affectu, grato tibi percipamus obsequio.

Gelasian 504 (De Pascha Annotina): Deus, per cuius prouidentiam nec praeteritorum momenta deficiunt nec ulla superest expectatio futurorum, tribue permanentem peractae quae reolimus solemnitatis effectum, ut quod recordatione percurrimus, semper in opere teneamus.

FYI the Pascha Annotina was a Mass celebrated in Rome for those who had been baptized at Easter of the previous year.

Notice that we refer here to the Dominus resurgens, the “rising Lord.” The prayer says resurgentis (genitive case of the present active participle) rather than resurrecti (perfect passive participle).   Also, I love the rhythm of that very first line when sung.  We see here also the choice to put dies (“day”) in the masculine rather than feminine.  Dies can have either gender.  In the famous sequence for the Requiem Mass we hear Dies irae, dies illa (which is feminine). 

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Almighty God, cause us to celebrate these days of joy
which we have been accomplishing in honor of the rising Lord
with a zealous affection,
so that we may grasp in deed
what we are traversing in remembrance
.

The great Lewis & Short Dictionary discloses that exsequor means “to follow to the end, pursue, follow” and also “to perform, accomplish, fulfill.”  Affectus means “A state of body, and esp. of mind produced in one by some influence, a state or disposition of mind, affection, mood: Love, desire, fondness, good will, compassion, sympathy.” Sedulus, a, um, the adjective, means “busy, diligent, industrious, zealous, careful, unremitting, solicitous, assiduous, sedulous.”  Another possibility is that we have here an adverb: sedulo.  That would give us something like, “cause us zealously to celebrate with affection”.  From what I understand, it is now sometimes considered “okay” to split infinitives.  This must be in keeping with the shift in lexicographical theory in the last decades that now commands dictionaries to be descriptive rather than prescriptive.  At any rate, splitting an infinitive would be handy in a case like this: we are trying to get the impact of an adverb – “cause us to zealously celebrate with affection.”  That split infinitive thing makes me shiver a bit, but I digress ….  Percurro means “to run through, hasten through; to pass through, traverse, run over, pass over or along.”  It has two possible perfect forms: the reduplicated form percucurri and percurri.  Thus, here we have either the indicative in the present or the perfect.  Given that we still have some time to go before Ascension, I am giving this a present meaning.  Teneo has connotations of “to grasp” both in the physical and intellectual senses.  Recordatio is “a recalling to mind”.  It is related to the verb recordor, “to think over, call to mind, remember.”  Literally, it connotes bringing something back to the heart (cor). 
   
ICEL (1973 translation of the 1970MR):
Ever-living God,
help us to celebrate our joy
in the resurrection of the Lord
and to express in our lives
the love we celebrate
.

In the ICEL version just what we are “celebrating”  (which we do a lot – here we have that same word twice), is not entirely clear.  We are celebrating the “our joy” and then later “our love.”  The Latin says we are celebrating “days of joy in honor of the rising Lord.”  In Latin we celebrate with sedulus affectus (or at least affectus sedulo (adv.)).   Also, the aspect of “remembering” has been expunged.  While there is none of the poetry of the original in this rendition, it does however get at the dimension of expressing concretely what we are celebrating.  This is important.  Doing something because of what Christ did is clearly important in both versions of the prayer.  I regret that ICEL forgot the memory aspect: it is important in understanding what the prayer really says. 

The concept of memory could stand a bit of examination.  Allow me to get a bit theological.  Last week our collect explored the logical sequence of redemption and its resulting freedom culminating in our adoption as God’s own children and thus being admitted to an eternal inheritance (redemptio – libertas – adoptio – hereditas).  In this week’s collect, we seem to have a response on our part, as children, to the great God who freely did all that for us.  In a way, we might say we have a kind of narrative going on from week to week in the collects, each week’s Mass announcing certain aspects of what is central to this liturgical season.  In our collect we now call all these things, these gifts from God, to mind (heart – cor).  These gifts are so important that they must also summon forth from us a concrete response in the here and now.  I call to mind the lines of T.S. Eliot in “Little Gidding” from the Four Quartets:

This is the use of memory:  For liberation – not less of love but expanding  Of love beyond desire, and so liberation  From the future as well as the past.

St. Augustine explores memory (memoria) in different ways.  He makes a connection between memoria and recordatio in a letter to his childhood friend and fellow convert Nebridius (ep. 7).   In classical literature Cicero identified memory as something that set us apart from beasts (Tusc. disp.).  For Augustine, memory was a place of encounter between the self and God in what he calls beata vita, the “blessed life” (which can refer to the happiness that comes from unity with God in this world and in the next).  When looking for ways to explain and explore the Trinity and see its reflection mirrored in man himself, Augustine hypostasizes memory, intellect and will, making memory to correspond to God the Father.  For the great Doctor, memory was also the locus of the self as well as the faculty that connects the here and now with the past and future.  In this sense memory is a sort of “vanishing point”, constantly slipping away into the past.  But it also where the self and God and are found together.  In way, God is the only one who keeps us from vanishing into something even less than a memory.
 
When we are at Mass, we as a Church do at the command of Christ what Christ commanded us to do: do this in memory (commemoratio) of me.  Through Christ, who is Alpha and Omega, living and glorious yesterday, today and tomorrow (as the priest declares when preparing the Paschal candle at the Vigil and which burns in the sanctuary when this prayer is being sung), the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord are really and truly present sacramentally in the here and now even though they took place at a specific point in time many centuries ago.  At Mass the Lord is not only risen, but He is also (sacramentally) rising: we receive the Dominus resurgens.  Because Christ is the principle actor in the liturgical action, our liturgical commemoration is more than a simple “remembrance of things past.”  The rising of the Lord (which some say is symbolized by the reuniting of the Body and Blood when the priest drops the small particle broken from the Host back into the chalice) means that we also, while we journey toward Him in this earthly life, are rising in Him.  We are living in a state of “already but not yet.”  We are risen, rising, and about to rise all at the same time.  When we celebrate the Easter cycle of days commemorating these mysteries, in gratitude we seek to bring by the power of this Christ-informed faculty of “calling to mind” a new dimension to all that we do and say here and now.  Our good works, performed by the baptized in charity and willed, conscience unity with Christ, are simultaneously our acts and His acts.  Christian “commemoration” is enfleshed in many ways.  So, placing ourselves at Christ’s service in the service of others (hopefully doing the same but most often not), we find a kind of freedom from past, present, and even the future that is not otherwise humanly attainable.

Thus, we celebrate the mysteries of Easter sedulo affectu…with zealous, industrious affection… with busy love.     

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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17 Comments

  1. Tom in NY says:

    Compared to many prayers, this is close to Hemingway in its construction. There’s only two English sentences.
    “Affectus” can be translated as “emotion.” “Exsequi” is familiar to English (via Normans and French, of course) as “execute.” There’s no doubt “sedulus” took the same journey. “Percurro” is a nice touch rather than common “curro.” And your exegetical approach is always welcome.
    Salutationes omnibus.

  2. meg says:

    your comment on St. Augustine hypostatizing memory, intellect and will brought to mind St. Ignatius..”Take Lord receive,all my liberty
    my memory,understanding,my entire will..”

  3. The Nyssan says:

    The recordatione percurrimus is lovely: in the memory of our hearts we walk liturgically through the events of our redemption. That is what we are to hold in deed, in opere teneamus: live the resurrection.

  4. Geoffrey #2 says:

    Fr. Z,

    Thanks for your great translations — If these were the prayers I heard at Mass, it would be unbelievable! Please never let up an you have my prayers in all that you do

  5. Thank you for posting this Fr. Z. :-)

  6. The translation in Lauds and Vespers, Rev. Peter Stravinskas (editor), Newman House Press:

    Make us, almighty God, to celebrate these days of joy,
    which we observe in honor of the Lord’s rising,
    with a zealous devotion,
    that what we hasten toward in remembrance,
    we may hold to in work.

  7. Ioannes Andreades says:

    Thanks for this! The use of the participle resugens calls to mind the same use of it in the Easter sequence–et gloriam vidi resurgentis. I always thought of that as poetic license of using a present active participle as the verb (like most) has no perfect active. I appreciate your insights. Celebrare in Latin has much more the sense of “to observe an event in a large group” than “to party”, which is closer to what most would understand it today. Thanks again!

  8. Cal says:

    Fr. Z:

    RE your wordings “In the ICEL version” and “I regret that ICEL” and similar passages, might I humbly recommend that you begin to use the phrases “old ICEL” or “earlier incarnation of ICEL” or somesuch, because the reconstituted ICEL – the Holy See having intervened – ought not continue to be tarred with the same brush as its prececessor. This is something you have made clear from time to time in your commentary, but there are still a lot of folks out there who do not trust “the new ICEL” for they don’t appreciate the sea change that’s occurred with that group.

    Just a though.

  9. Dominican says:

    Thanks, Father! I have to recite this ICEL translation SIX times today. Including last night at Vespers I have to do it SEVEN times! You’d think it was still Lent.

    When there is an especially bad translation I find yours (since my Latin abilities are rather poor!) and post it for the other nuns to enjoy.

  10. Laura Lowder says:

    Father Z, Whenever I read your commentary on the Prayers of the Mass, I’m appalled how insipid, how vapid, the ICEL translations are. Somehow it seems to me to be linked intricately with the lack of understanding, the absence of discernment or spiritual maturity I see so commonly here in the South – where such an overwhelming number of Catholics are transplants from around the country.

    I do hope cal is right and the new translations, when we do get to see them, will go far in rectifying this deficiency – but so far is the NAB from the Challoner Douay-Rheims… I doubt the new ICEL will go far enough.

  11. adriano says:

    father,did you see the video of father norman being arrested at notre dame,on deacons bench or youtube.
    One 80 years old priest,arrested at a catholic university.Insane!!!

  12. LCB says:

    Can someone email this to Fr. Z please, it’s Fr. Jenkins’ remarks and I cant get my email working right now

    http://www.wndu.com/localnews/headlines/45259767.html

  13. michigancatholic says:

    CAL, I’m aware that ICEL has been reconstituted by the Holy See, but I still don’t trust it. I won’t trust it, frankly, until I see something coming out of it that doesn’t read like “Dick, Jane & Sally.” [Are you too old to remember that hogwash? Google is your friend.]

  14. michigancatholic says:

    Oops, I meant “too young.” =D I’m old enough to remember it.

  15. Cal says:

    Dear Laura and Michigan,

    Caution regarding ICEL was warranted, yes. Inasmuch as every “translation is treason” (a proverb sometimes better known in its Italian “tradurre e tradire” version) it’s still true whenever anyone attempts to translate, I suppose.

    Still, one can access the first part of the Ordo Missae which the new ICEL has put together. It’s passed muster with Vox Clara and with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, which has given the “recognitio” of the Holy See. While here and there a bit awkward to proclaim aloud due to the fact that capturing the style of the Latin leads to longer multiple-clause sentences than is usual in English, it is a far superior translation.

    See http://www.usccb.org/liturgy/missalformation/WhiteBookAnnotated.pdf

    Cal

  16. How beautiful, Father Z! Thank you for taking the time to break it down, translate literally and explain everything behind it. I enjoy these posts! It reinforces my desire to learn Latin.

  17. Mark says:

    Why abandon the old Collect cycle? Why this cobbling together of random new prayers. It almost is like a bad joke?

    And I too am skeptical of the new translation. While the Douay style might be a little too much to ask, and unnecessarily affected…why not just build on, say, the Confraternity translations of both Scripture and Missal? Using the same style.

    Most religions have a liturgical language. Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit, Latin, Greek (Slavonic, Syriac, etc), varieties of Amish German, etc.

    And while the vernacular may supplement it more or less, or texts may provide vernacular translations…to use such a profane (and mundane) sounding register of the vernacular totally loses the majesty and mystery of it.

    Elizabethan (or, if you prefer “Shakespearean”) English…would allow for the “understanding” and “active participation” (which I’m not really sure are mutually necessary in liturgy, given the history) in the liturgy (for the most part)…while still indicating to people that this language is “set apart” ie, Sacred. Is to be different than our everyday speech. Affected? Sure. But it’s supposed to be. It’s liturgy after all.

    It’s not as much a veil as Latin or whatever, but at least it would be a bit of a gauze of separation. There can be no revelation without an original veiling.

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