Fr. Z's Blog

Shall we look at the Collect for this upcoming Sunday’s Holy Mass in the Ordinary Form?   It will the 17th Sunday of Greater Meatloaf…. Ordinary Time.

COLLECT (2002MR):

Protector in te sperantium, Deus, sine quo nihil est validum, nihil sanctum, multiplica super nos misericordiam tuam, ut, te rectore, te duce, sic bonis transeuntibus nunc utamur, ut iam possimus inhaerere mansuris.

The traditional Roman Missal, 1962MR, places today’s Collect at the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost though it is a little different from the newer version, to wit: sic transeamus per bona temporalia, ut non amittamus aeterna.

Historically the prayer has roots in the ancient “Leonine” or better the Veronese Sacramentary used during the month of July in which we find: sic bonis praetereuntibus nunc utimur, ut iam possimus inherere perpetuis. This historical digging shows us that the Novus Ordo version returned to a more ancient form of the prayer.

That inherere for the more regular inhaerere shows how the ae was pronounced when the manuscript was made.  The eminent paleographer E.A. Lowe dated the earliest manuscript of the Veronese to the first quarter of the 7th century.

There is a pleasant humming “m” alliteration in lines 2-3.  A nice pair of pairs present themselves: nihil validum, nihil sanctum and some exemplary ablative absolutes te rectore, te duce.

Protector is from protego fundamentally meaning “to cover before, or in front, cover over” and obviously also “to shield from danger” as well as things like “put a protecting roof over”.  A protector is also “one of the lifeguard or body – guard”.

Last week in the Collect we heard “vigili custodia … vigilant restraint/guarding.”  Both words refer to protection.

In last week’s Collect the priest prayed to God: clementer gratiae tuae super eos dona multiplica, (indulgently multiply upon/over them the gifts of Your grace) while this week we ask multiplica super nos misericordiam tuam.

In this and last week’s prayer we have the image of a people asking to cover them over abundantly, last week with the theological virtues, this week with mercy.

God is our shield.  In His mercy He guards us from the attacks we face as soldiers in the Church Militant.

Validus, a, um (from the verb valeo) is “strong, stout, able, powerful, robust, vigorous” and also “well in body, in good health, sound, healthy”.  “Vale!” is one Latin way to say “Farewell!”

The verb inhaereo means “to stick in, to stick, hang, or cleave to, to adhere to, inhere in”.  Inhaereo is construed with either dative or ablative and it is very hard to know which case is mansuris, the future participle from maneo, “to remain, last, endure, continue”.   Without going into details, St. Augustine (+430) used a similar combination of words, but to different effect, in a sermon about the love of God and love of the world (s. 344.2 in PL 39:1512).

LITERAL ATTEMPT:

O God, protector of those hoping in you, without whom nothing is efficacious, nothing holy, multiply your mercy upon us, so that, you being our helmsman, our commander, we may so make use of things that pass away as to be able to cleave to those that will endure.

We can also render rector and dux respectively as “guide” and “leader” but I think in our times we need a bolder tone.  A rector is also a “helmsman” and “commander of the army”.  In honor of World Youth Day, rector can be the “master of youth, teacher”.  On the other hand, dux is also a military term for a “general” or “chief”.

OBSOLETE ICEL (1973):

God our Father and protector,
without you nothing is holy,
nothing has value.
Guide us to everlasting life
by helping us to use wisely
the blessings you have given to the world.

CURRENT ICEL (2011):

O God, protector of those who hope in you,
without whom nothing has firm foundation, nothing is holy,
bestow in abundance your mercy upon us
and grant that, with you as our ruler and guide,
we may use the good things that pass
in such a way as to hold fast even now
to those that ever endure.

We are members of the Church Militant and we must never forget it.

We must not permit ourselves complacency.  We must not be softened into spiritual acedia by the coos and lullabies of those who deny the existence of evil and the devil and personal sin.

Some people today think that any “evil”, if it is really evil after all and not merely a difference of perspective, can be reduced to mere social ills stemming from a societal lack of tolerance and diversity.

This is a deception of the enemy of the soul, the devil.

In reality, our personal sins are the foundation of every societal ill.  When people do not believe in the devil and in sin, then the enemy has already won.   Our enemy Satan and his fallen angels desire our everlasting damnation and agony with them in hell.  This world has a fell prince, a spiritual being, a mighty fallen angel (cf. John 14:30).

Jesus Christ is our King, our great Captain in our battle against all that is wicked in this world.  Christ Jesus has broken hell’s power over us, but for a time we are still in this world and the devil dominates it – but only to the extent that omnipotent God permits in His providence.  We are living in a state of “already, but not yet.”

As soldiers traveling through enemy territory we need strong shields, a sure leader to set our feet on the right path out of the danger zone, a sturdy roof over us when we rest, some way to identify what is holy and what is deception.

Without God nothing is worthwhile or holy.   He must pour out and multiply upon us all that we need simply in order to live.

Today we are asking for a protection, sin-Teflon, so that the passing things of this world can’t stick to us, distract us, and hold us back from heaven.

May God give us demon-Kevlar, so that the enemy cannot penetrate our minds and hearts with the darts of temptation and the provocations of doubts.

We beg God to make us “sticky” only for the things that endure forever and not the things that are under control of this world’s prince, who from the beginning is a liar, a murderer (cf. John 8:44).

This week’s Collect, which historically was in the 8th century Liber sacramentorum Gellonensis, was also the prayer over the people, or Super populum, in the 1962MR for Wednesday of the 4th Week of Lent.

It was not, I believe, in the 1970MR or 1975MR (Novus Ordo), but it was reinserted on Saturday of the 2nd  Week of Lent in the third edition of 2002, which also revived the ancient Lenten Super populum blessings.

COLLECT (1962MR):

Pateant aures misericoridae tuae, Domine, precibus supplicantium: et, ut petentibus desiderata concedas; fac eos, quae tibi sunt placita, postulare.

SUPER LITERAL TRANSLATION

Open the ears of Your mercy, O Lord, to the prayers of those humbly beseeching: and, that You might grant the things desired to those seeking them, cause them to desire the things which are pleasing to You.

We often use anthropomorphic expressions in our prayer, giving God physical, human characteristics.  The image of God opening or inclining His ears is common.  Our Latin liturgical prayer constantly has God harking to us or lending His celestial ear, or inclining toward us so that He can listen more closely, not miss our meaning, our sincerity, our need.  We want to be in His hearing and in His sight.  We want Him to hurry to us and to be near.

This language is normal in the human experience of praying to our mysterious and transcendent God, who is infinitely removed from us, but who is nevertheless closer to us than we are to ourselves.

St. Augustine of Hippo (+430) in his Confessions gives expression to this tension of transcendence and immanence in words unsurpassed by man for over fifteen centuries.

We might linger over the great Doctor of Grace’s words (Conf. 5.2; 6.3 – not my translation):

Thou alone art near even to those that remove far from You.  Let them, then, be converted and seek You; because not as they have forsaken their Creator have You forsaken Your creature. Let them be converted and seek You; and behold, You are there in their hearts, in the hearts of those who confess to You, and cast themselves upon You, and weep on Your bosom after their obdurate ways, even Thou gently wiping away their tears. And they weep the more, and rejoice in weeping, since Thou, O Lord, not man, flesh and blood, but Thou, Lord, who made, remakest and comfortest them. And where was I when I was seeking You? And You were before me, but I had gone away even from myself; nor did I find myself, much less You! …

O crooked ways! Woe to the audacious soul which hoped that by forsaking thee it would find some better thing! It tossed and turned, upon back and side and belly – but the bed is hard, and thou alone givest it rest. And lo, thou art near, and thou deliverest us from our wretched wanderings and establishest us in thy way, and thou comfortest us and sayest,

“Run, I will carry you; yea, I will lead you home and then I will set you free.”