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COLLECT OF THE WEEK - 11 Family affairs kept me from getting this out earlier, though I don't suppose many of you were waiting on the edge of your seat! This year, in England at any rate, the Assumption took precedence over the Sunday; but this would not have been so in the Middle Ages. In any case, I do not have the Latin collect for the Assumption to hand - no doubt there are those of you who can supply it, perhaps with a little commentary of your own. So let us look at the Collect for the 10th Sunday after Trinity. Our collect appears in the Leonine Sacramentary in the following form: Ad aures misericordiae tuae, Domine, supplicum vota perveniant; et, ut possimus impetrare quae poscimus, fac nos semper tibi placita postulare. Per . . . This is modified in the Gelasian Sacramentary as follows: Pateant aures misericordiae, Domine, precibus supplicantium; ut et [for et ut?] petentibus desiderata concedas, fac tibi eos, quaesumus, placita postulare. Per . . . And this is with very slight modification what we find in the Sarum Missal: Pateant aures misericordiae tuae, Domine, precibus supplicantium; et ut petentibus desiderata concedas, fac eos quae tibi placita sunt postulare. Per Dominum nostrum . . . All have a striking alliteration on the letter 'p': Pateant . . . precibus . . . petentibus . . . placita . . . postulare. I find - perhaps this is merely subjective - this rather opens up the collect, stretches it out in a line. I follow one 'p' to the next in a straight line, rather like a bird following a line of crumbs. Other collects have an involuted syntax, words being wrapped around others by hyperbaton, and we are encouraged to pause and ponder the ramifications of a particular word. This one invites us to follow along to the end, which arrives with a certain inevitability. The opening is perhaps an allusion to ps. 33(34):16 "Oculi Domini super iustos, Et aures eius in precibus eorum." The Gelasian modification turns the onus back on God; 'Let the prayers of the suppliants reach your ears of mercy' becomes 'Let your ears of mercy be open to the prayers of the suppliants.' This is better; surely the prayers will reach God's ears in any case - we can hardly suppose he is deaf - but it is up to God whether or not his ears are open to them. There is a similar modification in the second part: "so that we may be able to obtain what we ask" becomes "So that you can grant the things desired to those who ask". The revised prayer is altogether more theocentric, more concerned with what God is going to do. Note the transferred epithet in "ears of thy mercy." God's ears are presumably not in themselves merciful; they are the ears of a merciful God. "Ears of mercy" for "merciful ears" is a characteristically Hebrew idiom; we find many such constructions in the OT. The insertion of "sunt" at the end, to my ears at any rate, improves the rhythm and breaks up a slightly unfelicitous alliteration. The BCP translation is as follows: Let thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of thy humble servants; and that they may obtain their petitions make them to ask such things as shall please thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Note that the first part of the prayer derives from the Gelasian/Sarum version, but the second - "and that they may obtain their petitions" - from the Leonine. Evidently Cranmer preferred this. The Supple Doctor. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%