Fr. Z's Blog

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN THE WANDERER in January 2001

What Does the Prayer Really Say? Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

On Sunday 7 January we celebrated the Epiphany of the Lord, a day traditionally associated with three events in the Lord’s earthly life: the coming of the Magi, His baptism by John in the Jordan, and the changing of water to wine at Cana during the wedding feast. We observed the Baptism of the Lord on Monday the 8th since Epiphany supplanted it from the Sunday. We have the Cana event today.

We have moved into what is called “Ordinary Time”, the Sundays of the Church’s liturgical year that do not have a specific festal or penitential meaning. We wear the green of hope in this season. Each Sunday, however, remains an echo of Easter. Before the reform of the Roman calendar, this time was once called the Season of Epiphany and the Sundays were called the Sundays after Epiphany. It was a cycle of transition toward Lent. Liturgical books once called the Sundays after Epiphany and the Sundays after Pentecost the tempus per annum… the time through the year. This terminology has remained even though both these non-festal seasons form two parts of “Ordinary Time”. So, we enter into that period of the Church’s calendar that stretches from the adoration of kings and shepherds at the feet of the infant King to the end of the year and the solemn feast of Christ the King, the King of fearful majesty who will come as judge and will separate the goats from the sheep and usher in the unending reign of peace.

COLLECT:

LATIN (1970 Missale Romanum)Omnipotens sempiterne Deus,
qui caelestia simul et terrena moderaris,
supplicationibus populi tui clementer exaudi,
et pacem tuam nostris concede temporibus.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:Almighty eternal God,
who governs heavenly and earthly things at the same time,
mercifully give ear to the supplications of your people,
and grant your peace in our temporal affairs.

Our wonderful Lewis & Short Dictionary lets us know that simul et is the equivalent of simul etiam and means “and at the same time, and also”. It connects two or more co-ordinate terms or facts and represents them as simultaneous. Moderor, a deponent verb (it has a passive form but an active meaning) means to manage, regulate, rule, guide, govern, direct. The word moderator is what we use in Latin for people like the state governor or the president of the United States: governing officials. (A gubernator was the steersman or pilot of a sailing ship. One thinks of the “ship of state”, but I digress….). When we pray these prayers in Latin we usually ask God to pay attention to us in some way, usually by “hearing” us. Different words are used for this in Latin and though they mean subtly different things, they are all pretty much the same thing. A good example is the beginning of one of the Litanies in Latin. Christe audi nos… Christe exaudi nos… which is often translated as “Christ hear us… Christ graciously hear us.” The choice of one word or another may have as much to do with the sound and rhythm it creates as anything else. Exaudio means “listen to” in the sense of “harken, perceive clearly.” There is a greater urgency to exaudi (an imperative, or command form) than in the simple audi. I like “harken.” Also, we are asking eternal and omnipotent God Creator of the universe to listen to us little finite sinful creatures in a manner that is not only attentive but also patient and indulgent. That word clementer, an adverb from clemens, means among other things, “Mild in respect to the faults and failures of others, i.e. forbearing, indulgent, compassionate, merciful.” (The Lewis & Short Dictionary is truly useful. Everyone should have a copy. You can get it through the WDTPRS BOOKSTORE.) In the religious language of the ancient Romans supplicatio was a public prayer or supplication, a religious solemnity in consequence of certain (fortunate or unfortunate) public events. A supplication was a day set apart for prayer, either by way of thanksgiving or of religious humiliation and genuflection. Supplicatio is a compound of plico, meaning “to bend or fold”. Here the bending refers to the body, head or the knee to the ground in humble petition. So, we have a phrase that runs something like, “in an indulgent manner graciously pay close attention to the humble petitions of your people, bent down in prayer.”

Going on now… if you are like me, when you hear the end of this prayer, and that word temporibus (from tempus; neuter plural: tempora) in this context you think of the famous utterance of M. Tullius Cicero in his first oration against Catilina: O tempora! O mores! Mores comes from mos, and we get our English word “mores”, meaning custom, fashion, modes of behavior, moral attitudes. You could say “What times these are! What a state of affairs!” And we are indeed in quite a state of affairs in this world today, are we not? Tempus is a word with many significations: “time in general, or a season of time; the state of the times, position, state, condition; circumstances.” It can also be “the appointed time, the right season, an opportunity (Greek kairos)”. In the plural tempora gives us the word for the “temples” of sides of our heads. The word “temporal” ultimately derives from tempus and it often indicates worldly or earthly things, material things, as opposed to eternal or spiritual. Clearly, in this prayer we are begging God, in His role as disposer of all things, not merely for peace, but rather His peace in our temporal affairs. We want peace now, not just later. But that peace must come from Him. We have confidence that He will give us this peace, for Christ said that He was giving it to us. In Holy Mass the priest, before the entirely optional sign of peace, repeats the words of Christ, “Pacem relinquo vobis, pacem meam do vobis… Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:26-28).

There is a great difference between the peace in the way that the world can offer, and the peace that God can offer. The former is passing and fragile, always susceptible to loss. The later is lasting, enduring, solid and dependable. God knew each one of us outside of time, before the creation of both the visible and invisible universe. He calls us into being according to His plan at precise moments in time. He gives us talents and work to fulfill with them. He aids us with actual graces. God knows our needs and we turn to Him in this prayer, in our troubled times in this earthly journey asking for the only peace that can make final sense of what we experience here. The peace we ask for, we ask from His mercy. He is the only source of this peace. Our sins lost it for us but it’s possibility has been restored through the merits of Christ. Thus, we ask humbly, begging His patience indulgence with our knees bent, our foreheads to the ground, our bodies together with our wills bent in supplication.

ICEL:
Father of heaven and earth,
hear our prayers, and show us the way
to peace in the world.

Some time ago I made mention of the fact that the ICEL versions of the prayers for the festal seasons of Advent/Christmas and Lent/Easter were somewhat better than those of Ordinary Time. We now have the opportunity to explore whether that is true or not. From the onset we notice something fairly significant: the ICEL prayer is shorter than the Latin version. Big deal? Well… it is an hint that something might not be right. Usually when you take a Latin text and put it into English, the English will be considerably longer than the Latin by the time you are done. When you see an English prayer shorter than the Latin red flags and loud alarm bells should go off in your wary minds.

To the prayer… it is a bit terse and not exactly inspiring in its poetic flare. It seems utilitarian. Yes, God the Father, is Father of heaven and earth. That is not, however, what the Latin prayer says, is it? The Latin says, “Almighty eternal God.” God governs and disposes all heavenly and earthly things. We can say “Father,” I guess for this prayer is addressed to the First Person of the Trinity, and understand that God is God of everything. Fine. But that shorthanded saying it seem just a sterile minimalism. Besides: that is not what the Latin prayer really says. I would say the same goes for, “hear our prayers.” This is a serious reduction of even the reduced form I gave in my literal version: “mercifully give ear to the supplications of your people. There is no discernable, or at least clearly expressed, humility. In the Latin, we are cast down, bent in prayer, asking the almighty God, to give a little attention in an indulgent way. There is a recognition of our status in the Latin that the ICEL doesn’t give. This is further evidenced in our request for God simply to “show us the way” to peace. I may be off base here, but what I get from this prayer is that we are asking God to point the way to a peace that is peace of our making in the world. Is that being too hard on the prayer? Clearly in the Latin prayer we are praying for the peace that only God can give. Here I get the sense that we are focused on the peace that we can create in the world and we merely need a little pointer or two from God so we can do it ourselves. I don’t think that the Latin prayer in any way removes from us either hard work or responsibility for bringing about Christ’s peace in the world. But I ask myself if the ICEL version isn’t a bit to self-secure. Perhaps others will hear in the ICEL version more of what the Latin says than I do. I can be teased out, I suppose. But, to be very concrete, I must ask: does it accurately render what the Latin says?

So, the ICEL version in our first taste of a collect in Ordinary Time, isn’t entirely successful. It is not my intention to pick at it too much, of course. My observations urge me to remind you the reader that someday we are going to need new English translations of liturgical texts. This will be the responsibility of the bishops and the Holy See. The task of translating the prayers is not exactly easy. Thus, they need our prayerful support and positive urging and input. Never forget when reading this column to say a prayer for our bishops and ask the Holy Spirit to guide them in their challenging mandate.

WHAT DOES THE PRAYER REALLY SAY? 1st Sunday of Advent

Welcome to the first offering of WDTPRS.

In this series we will examine the Latin texts of the Collects (Opening Prayers) taken from the Church’s official text for celebration of Holy Mass for the Latin Church: the typical edition of the Missale Romanum promulgated by Pope Paul VI which can into force on the 1st Sunday of Advent, 30 November of 1969 (the so-called “Novus Ordo” or 1970 Roman Missal). Translations into vernacular languages were to be made from this Latin text. I will below offer my own translation of the Latin and then compare the Latin and my translation with the version provided by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) in use commonly in the English speaking world. It is the one you probably hear in your parish church in the USA. (More on ICEL in a later offering.) A new edition of the Roman Missal in Latin will be issued soon by the Holy See. The conferences of bishops are constantly faced with the task of finding good translations for Latin texts. In this series perhaps we can seek to understand in faith the prayers of Mass ever more deeply and also commit ourselves to support positively the bishops in their difficult pastoral mandate regarding translations of liturgical texts. They have an unenviable challenge. Without further comments, let us plunge in.

COLLECT: LATIN (1970 Missale Romanum)
Da, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus,
hanc tuis fidelibus voluntatem,
ut, Christo tuo venienti iustis operibus occurrentes,
eius dextrae sociati, regnum mereantur possidere caeleste,
Per Dominum.

The wonderful thing about Latin, not so easy to convey in English, is how the style of the prayer itself helps the attentive listener to package together concepts and how it delights the ear. Latin allows words which go together, such as a noun with an adjective, to be separated from each other even by a significant distance. This is because Latin is an inflected language, with tell-tale case-endings indicating the functions and relationships of words. This use of endings provides a greater flexibility for word order than English does. Words can be rearranged in many different patterns and, while nuances of meaning shift and vary, the basic meaning will remain the same. However, this same flexibility in Latin requires the listener to hold all sorts of concepts in the air, almost like a juggler or a man spinning plates, until the final piece, such as an all important main verb, is provided. The separation of words permitted by this flexibility also allows other concepts to be packaged within these connected words as if within bookends. This flexibility of Latin allows for words to be moved around subtly in a sentence and a beautiful rhythm to be accomplished, a sublime poetry to be attained, perfect for singing and listening. In the prayer above, we see how the separation of the words hanc…voluntatem, which go together, embraces tuis fidelibus and how regnum….caeleste envelops mereantur possidere. …operibus occurréntes and possidére caeleste have a beautiful cadance.

A LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Almighty God, grant, we beg,
to your faithful this disposition of will,
(namely) that those rushing with just works to meet your Christ who is coming,
having been united to His right hand,
may merit to possess the heavenly kingdom.

This is where I get to defend my translation. First, I am not trying to make a poetically smooth translation. Second, other translations are possible and you are welcome to come up with your own: explore these prayers on your own too. Third, moving from Latin into English requires some agility. As in English, words in Latin can have many meanings, some conveying slight differences, some very divergent. Also when hearing a Latin prayer remember that we can be picking up Biblical imagery, old prayers or theological traditions, technical vocabulary and a raft of other influences from the past. Sometimes we get the allusions. Sometimes allusions are subtle and we miss them. I won’t pretend to exploring every possible reference or source for every phrase in all the Collects during this series. Space wouldn’t permit that, even if I could do it. That said, when I make a choice for a literal translation into English I will at times hedge my bet and attempt to get at more than one possible meaning of a word: often there is no good one-to-one correspondence in English. A perfect case in point is found above in that Latin word voluntas. (I will usually give the Latin word in the form you will find it in the dictionary, the “lemma” form, though in truth it will usually be in some other form in the prayer itself… but that’s Latin for you.)

Voluntas means basically “will” as a first meaning in a decent dictionary. My dictionary of choice is the so-called Lewis and Short Latin Dictionary published by the Oxford University Press. In the invaluable L&S, voluntas can also mean things like “freewill, wish, choice, desire, inclination” and even things like “disposition towards a thing or person”. I chose “disposition of will” in this prayer. I have a theological starting point for this.

First, this prayer is really Catholic. Imagine for a moment, a fundamentalist Christian saying a prayer like this. Herein we find all sorts of issues of faith versus “just works”, “meriting” to possess heaven, and so forth. Just what does a “disposition of will” mean for us, fallen human beings as we are? Is our nature wholly corrupt as some Protestants think and therefore anything good in us is only imputed to us through the alien merits of Christ? Is the “voluntas” we are begging for really going to be our will or will it be only someone else’s will covering us over? Let make this more complicated by saying that this voluntas is grammatically a little ambiguous in the prayer, for we can’t tell if this will is God’s or ours. It is like the old question wrapped up in that phrase we will hear a lot at Christmas, “Peace to men of good will”. Whose good will? God’s or ours? This is the difference in Latin between the subjective and objective genitive. Sorry about the technical stuff, but that’s what we are faced with here, folks. You can’t have just any Caius, Titius or Sempronius stumble in off the cobbles and think they can easily put these prayers into English. ICEL had a tough task. At any rate, in order make my choices I use a Catholic starting point. “Disposition of will” indicates to me that, although it is truly from God, it will be really ours once God grants it. We are not wholly corrupt. We are fallen and sinful, true, But once we are baptized and live in the state of grace, we are New Creations. Christ is at work in us. We recognize that everything that is good in us comes from God, but this does not mean that we also are not real agents in this salvific gift, cooperators with the grace He gives us. That proper “disposition of will” is made possible by God, but after it is made possible it is really ours. Our works do not by themselves merit anything, but once we are transformed and renewed by sanctifying grace our work on earth counts for something and merits heaven.

Many many more things can be said, as you can imagine, and we cannot tease it all out here. But we cannot pass over occurentes and then dextrae sociati.

Occurrentes: Here we are listening to the first Collect prayer of the liturgical year! It is a new season, Advent, and we are preparing for Coming of Christ. Christ comes in many ways, of course, and Advent is as much about the Second Coming as about the First at Bethlehem. It is also about how Christ comes in Holy Communion and in actual graces and so forth. Christ is coming and we pray for Him to come: Maranatha! In our collect we have an image of a faithful people rushing to meet Jesus. “Make straight the paths!” the liturgy of Advent cries with the words of Isaiah and John the Baptist. We are surging as a whole Church excitedly out along the way, smoothing the path for the feet of the Coming Christ. And that takes work, just works, just by their origins: they are of those united to the right hand of Christ…dextrae sociati. We know that Christ, having ascended to the Father, sits at His right hand and will come from thence at the ending of the world. But our humanity sits in Christ at the Father’s right hand. “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself (John 12:32)” He draws. We dash. The image of the “right hand” points to the eternal glory of God and the inauguration of the Messianic kingdom… regnum…celeste (cf. CCC 663-4).

How rich is this prayer! And it is all framed in language of deep humility: “Grant, we beg…”

ICEL TRANSLATION:
All-powerful God,
increase our strength of will for doing good
that Christ may find an eager welcome at his coming
and call us to his side in the kingdom of heaven,
where he lives and reigns….

I won’t always comment on the ICEL version, but I would be remiss to pass this prayer without observation. First, I think it clear that many of the concepts of the Latin prayer are found somewhere in the ICEL version. But the way they are worked together does not really do the Latin prayer justice. It seems to me there is a difference between God simply “increasing our strength of will to do good” and God giving us a transforming disposition of will. “Increase” implies to me that the reality is there already but it just needs to be made stronger. Also, is there a difference between “to do good” and “rush with just works to meet your Christ”? Perhaps that comes up with the “find an eager welcome” image. Still, I think we lose that exquisite image of us dashing forth to meet Him. And in the Latin we have that poignant “your Christ”: there is a close Father and Son relationship being expressed in the Latin. It is not emphasized in the ICEL version. “Doing good” is nice, but “just works” says a bit more. I don’t get the total dependence on God here that sings forth in “Grant, we beg….” All in all, perhaps it could have been better. Keep in mind that the Collect prayers in these special seasons like Advent and Lent, Christmas and Easter, in general resonate more clearly with the Latin than those of Ordinary Time. These things will be looked at in due season.