A great new feature of the 2002 Missale Romanum in Latin is that for Lent the "Prayer over the people" or Oratio super populum has been revived as an option.
Priests can use this prayer NOW at the end of Mass, but still only in the Latin.
Yah, I know.. I keep posting these as if they were, I dunno, interesting.
Let’s have a look at today’s:
ORATIO SUPER POPULUM (2002MR):
Clementiam tuam imploramus, Domine,
in misericordia tua confidentes,
ut, sicut nos ex te habemus esse quod sumus,
sic per gratiam tuam et bene velle sumamus,
et bonum posse quod volumus.
This is based mostly on an ancient prayer which was in the Sacramentarium Veronense. It was part of a Preface listed for Masses in the month of Semptember, but perhaps used for the anniversary of a bishop’s consecration. It was originally: "[Vere dignum…] Maiestatem tuam devotis mentibus implorantes ut sicut ex te habemus esse quod sumus sic per gratiam tuam et bene velle sumamus et bonum posse quod volumus: per …".
Note that maiestas, typical more of a preface, is changed to clementia, which is often paired with a form of the very imploro in ancient Latin prayers. That creates a rather awkward juxtaposition of misericordia and clementia, which means close to the same thing.
Clementia is “calm, tranquil state of the elements, calmness, mildness, tranquility” as in describing weather or the ocean and is “indulgent, forbearing conduct towards the errors and faults of others, moderation, mildness, humanity, forbearance, benignity, clemency, mercy” in regard to interior dispositions. Again, we often see clementia paired with a form of imploro. Certain concepts expressed in specific vocabulary tend to be paired and repeated in liturgical prayers.
The original version, from that preface, is grammatically "incomplete", unless you are perhaps Preserved Killick. You can why, in putting together this "shake and bake" prayer, they decided to change implorantes to imploramus.
SLAVISHLY LITERAL VERSION:
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Want to have a go?
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My gosh, this has more infinitives than I know what to do with. Well, the old college try, I suppose:
Confident in your mercy, O Lord, we beseech your clemency, that as we have from you to be that which we are, thus through your grace we may both take it upon ourselves to desire well and be able to do well, which we desire.
Hot or cold, anyone?
Marius: Not so easy, is it!
We beg, O Lord, thy clemency, trusting in thy mercy, that as we have from Thee that which we are, so by thy grace we may both gain to desire well and be able to do the good we will.
I’m not sure either… in my guess the first ‘esse’ was a noun and the ‘bonum’ which you translate as ‘well’ can’t be ‘well,’ you know. That’s all I can say.
“Trusting in your mercy,Lord, we call upon your forbearance, just as who we are, we have from you, in that way we may take by your grace and good will, that we want to be as good as we can be.”
Linguam latinam una sententia anglica tres loqui dixi, ut apparet ibi.
Salutationes omnibus.
Anyone else?
We implore your clemency, Lord
confiding in your mercy,
that, as we have from you our being,
so through your grace and generosity,
may we also obtain the good we desire.
Maybe the last line is not clear:
sic [thus] per gratiam tuam [through your grace] et bene velle [and generosity] sumamus [we obtain],
et [etiam, also] bonum posse [power of the good] quod volumus [that we want].
So, through your grace and generosity, we obtain
also the power of good that we desire.
Clementiam tuam imploramus, Domine,
in misericordia tua confidentes,
ut, sicut nos ex te habemus esse quod sumus,
sic per gratiam tuam et bene velle sumamus,
et bonum posse quod volumus.
We implore your Mercy, O Lord,
and trusting in your mercy,
just as we have all from You which is whole,
may we truly begin, through your grace and by your good will,
to desire the Good.
We implore your Mercy, O Lord,
and trusting in your mercy,
just as we have all from You which is whole,
may we truly begin, through your grace and by your good will,
to desire the Good.
Agnes of Prague has it closest to right so far.
We implore Thy clemency, O Lord, trusting in Thy mercy, so that, just as we have from Thee the being of what we are, we may receive by Thy grace both good intention [literally “to will well”] and the ability to do the good that we intend.
I’d say the “ut” clause should read slavishly as follows:
“that just as from thee we have our being,
so by thy grace may we undertake to
will well and be able to do the good which we will.”
The ‘esse quod sumus’ has a hint of St Augustine from his Contra Academicos. The rest is awkward from a Ciceronian, even perhaps an Apuleian perspective, but it has a certain plebeian charm, like the scuptures on the Arch of Constantine.