WDTPRS: Thursday in the 1st Week of Lent

Today’s prayer is unchanged from the Veronese Sacramentary and the Gelasian and so-called “Gregorian“.

It was in the 1962 Missale Romanum too. It was the used on the 8th Sunday after Pentecost. I cannot fathom why the redactors of the Novus Ordo thought there were not enough ancient lenten prayers in the available venerable sacramentaries.  I wasn’t consulted.

In our prayers this week we find a theme of the mind developing. We have seen a mens / corpus paring this week.

COLLECT
Largire nobis, quaesumus, Domine,
semper spiritum cogitandi quae recta sunt,
promptius et agendi,
ut, qui sine te esse non possumus,
secundum te vivere valeamus.

Augustine of HippoOne of the meanings of secundum found in the prestigious Lewis & Short Dictionary is “agreeably to, in accordance with, according to”. Largire is an imperative of a deponent verb, not an infinitive. The famous verb cogito is more than simply “to think”. It reflects deeper reflection, true pursuit in the mind: “to consider thoroughly, to ponder, to weigh, reflect upon, think”.

LITERAL TRANSLATION
We beg you, O Lord, bestow upon us
the spirit of thinking always things which are correct,
and of carrying them out promptly,
so that we who are not able to exist without You
may be able to live according to Your will.

In St. Augustine’s commentaries on the Gospel of John (Io. eu. tr. 51,3):

“For Christ, who humbled Himself, made obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross, is the teacher of humility. When He teaches us humility He doesn’t thus let go of His divinity: for in it (His divinity) He is the equal of the Father, while in this (His humility) He is like unto us; and in that He is the Father’s equal He created us in order that we might exist; and in that He is like to us, He redeemed us so that we would not perish.”

In God, we live and move and have our being. We are made to act as God acts: knowing, willing, loving. When we cleave to God, seeking what is good and true and beautiful through the tangle of our wounded intellect, we are seeking God. Once we know what is good, true and beautiful either because we reasoned to it or authority helped us, then we must act in accordance with the good, truth and beauty we have found.

Today we are praying to God to give us the actual graces we need in order to live more properly according to His image He placed within us. For we are even more ourselves, even more free when, eschewing our own varying wills, we embrace Him who is Goodness, Truth and Beauty.

Yet there are times when we purposely (and thereafter habitually) choose against what reason and authority point to as good, truth and beauty. We make the choice to stray and sin. In doing so we diminish ourselves, who have our very existence from the One whom we have defied. We must return to the correct path, like Dante who has strayed into the dark woods after leaving the path of the right reason.

So often, we could avoid straying and sinning if we would just act on that first proper of our minds and consciences. Sometimes, of course, we must ponder to discern the correct path in difficult situations.

But most of the time, we get into trouble when we hesitate in doing what we know is right. We mull and pick and dawdle and get ourselves into a whole hornet nest of problems.

Prompt action helps us to avoid many problems and many sins. In a way, the phrase of the Nike commercial (and Nike means “victory” in ancient Greek) sums it up: Just Do It.

NEW CORRECTED ICEL:
Bestow on us, we pray, O Lord,
a spirit of always pondering on what is right
and of hastening to carry it out,
and, since without you we cannot exist,
may we be enabled to live according to your will
.

I promise I am not making this up.   This is what we have been using all these years.

LAME-DUCK ICEL:
Father, without you we can do nothing.
By your Spirit help us to know what is right
and to be eager in doing your will
.


About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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

  1. MarkH says:

    Fr. Z,

    I am a convert (baptized in 2002) who looks forward with joy to the corrected translation this Advent. Yesterday, in a used bookstore, I came across what seems a lost treasure: a “New Catholic Family Missal”, dated 1966. This is an English translation of the Novus Ordo. The forward even refers to Sacrosanctum concilium. But: the English translation in this Missal is close to what we will be praying this Advent! “And with your spirit”, “I believe in one God…”, “He, on the day before he suffered, took bread into his holy and worshipful hands…”

    Sorry if I am late in awakening to this, but does this mean that there WAS a faithful English translation of the Latin Novus Ordo, but that it was later superceded by the lame ICEL version? What a shame that they did not retain this first, faithful translation! I feel like we have been cheated out of the full beauty of the Novus Ordo for 40 years. Thanks be to God for the corrected translation!

  2. MarkJ says:

    Maybe they should continue to use the lame duck version at children’s Masses… as long as those present are 5 years old or younger.

  3. HighMass says:

    MarkH,

    Not understanding what all the fuss is about re: the “new Translation of the Roman Missal” and to comment the First Venacular translation (which was in our missals on the English Side even before the council) Yes the Old/New Translation is very close to the original. “And with your Spirit”, I believe in one God….. the Gloria in the New Translation does not include “and peace to Men of good will” SURPRISE!

    There was if I stand correct a transition from the close of council 12/8/1965 to the impliementation of the N.O.

  4. HighMass says:

    SOrry What I meant to write was When The Mass started to be said in English I was like the Mass of 1962, but said in english and Latin. That Mass had already had prayers omitted, i.e. the prayers at the foot of the alter were shortened. Prayers at the Offeratory etc.

    Sorry for not expressing myself well

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