In our time, grant us your peace

rainbow over gaza.jpg
Rainbow Over Gaza
This AP photo shows a rainbow over Gaza today, 18 January 2009. In the context of what is happening in the Mideast, today’s Collect (2nd Sunday Per Annum) could not be more suitable. I have learned by experience that the liturgy of the Church provides us with the very prayer we need at the moment we most need it. The liturgy is, in fact, the great means by which the Holy Ghost “helpeth our infirmity, for we know not how to pray as we ought” (Rom 8:26). This, of course, is why it is so important to have accurate translations of the received liturgical texts.
Peace: the Tranquility of Order
The Latin text uses the verb moderor. It is perhaps best translated here by the English verb to order, meaning to set aright. Peace is, according to Saint Augustine, “the tranquility of order.”
Collect
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus,
qui caelestia simul et terrena moderaris,
supplicationes populi tui clementer exaudi,
et pacem tuam nostris concede temporibus.

Almighty and everlasting God,
Who order all things both in heaven and on earth,
mercifully hear the supplications of your people,
and in our time, grant us your peace.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.

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