Collect of the Week - 37
Dominica secunda Quadragesimae
Deus, qui conspicis omni nos virtute destitui;
interius exteriusque custodi, ut ab omnibus adversitatibus muniamur in corpore,
et a pravis cogitationibus mundemur in mente.
Per Dominum.
BCP:
Almighty God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help
ourselves; Keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls;
that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body,
and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul. Through
Jesus Christ our Lord.
The BCP version is recognisably a translation, though a much expanded one:
'who seest us destitute of all power' becomes 'who seest that we have no
power of ourselves to help ourselves'; 'Keep us inwardly and outwardly'
becomes 'Keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls.'
The reformers would have approved of the idea of our being destitute of all
power, and as we see spelt it out more fully.
The alliteration and parallelism of the Latin is lost:
ut ab omnibus adversitatibus muniamur in corpore,
et a pravis cogitationibus mundemur in mente.
The reformers were content to let the verb 'defend' stand for both clauses,
but there is a contrast in the Latin: mundemur is 'purify'. The body may
be fortified against external enemies, but there is no keeping out those
'twisted thoughts'; they are in the mind already. 'Cogitatio' is the
faculty of thinking, which resides in the mind. The thoughts do not intrude
themselves into the mind; they are produced by the mind itself. But the
faculty has gone awry: 'pravus' is 'twisted, crooked, improper'. The mind
needs to be purified from the effects of this depravity.
Oriens.
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