Posted by Christopher Mc on Monday, April 6, 2009
Under: Church
The Divine Office provides some wonderful poems in place of hymns. I love the Holy Sonnets of John Donne - phrases like "batter my heart, three-personed God....for I, except you enthrall me, never shall be free, nor ever chaste except you ravish me....my devout fits come and go away like a fantastic ague....those are my best days when I shake with fear".
And sometimes a concluding prayer strikes you from the blue. Today's was particularly beautiful:
Almighty God, grant that we who are constantly betrayed by our own weakness, may draw the breath of new life from the passion and death of your Only-begotten Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
I don't know what the original Latin says but this is a perfect example of how a bad translation can change the whole tone. Below is from the Universalis on-line breviary - presume it's American:
Concluding Prayer
Almighty God, because of our weakness we fall short in many ways:
may we start to breathe new life
through the effects of your Son’s passion.
He lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
Catholic, Carmelite, Husband, Father, Reader of all sorts of books, Writer of occasional letters, Viewer of lots of TV and movies, Lover of tea, Hater of coffee. Anything I write is my own opionion and is not intended to represent the views of any organisation with which I have a connection. You can email me at "blog at live.ie" (replace the "at" with @). Don't be shy. To comment, click on the title of post. You have to include a name and email but fake ones work fine. Make sure there's an @ in the email.
Catholic, Carmelite, Husband, Father, Reader of all sorts of books, Writer of occasional letters, Viewer of lots of TV and movies, Lover of tea, Hater of coffee. Anything I write is my own opionion and is not intended to represent the views of any organisation with which I have a connection. You can email me at "blog at live.ie" (replace the "at" with @). Don't be shy. To comment, click on the title of post. You have to include a name and email but fake ones work fine. Make sure there's an @ in the email.
