Collect of the Week - 38
Dominica tertia Quadragesimae
Quaesumus, omnipotens Deus, vota humilium respice, atque ad defensionem
nostram dexteram tuae majestatis extende. Per Dominum.
We beseech thee, Almighty God, look upon the hearty desires of thy humble
servants, and stretch forth the right hand of thy Majesty, to be our defence
against all our enemies; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The BCP translation keeps fairly close to the Latin, except that, as usual,
it is somewhat expanded. 'Votum' can mean 'a wish, desire, longing, prayer'
so the reformers' only real change here is to insert the word 'hearty' (not
a quality I would naturally have associated with Cranmer); 'of the humble'
becomes 'of thy humble servants'; and 'against all our enemies' is an
insertion.
God's right hand often stands in the scriptures as a metaphor for his power;
cf. Ps. 59:7(60:5), 'salvum fac dextera tua et exaudi me' ('help me with
thy right hand, and hear me' BCP) or Ps. 17:36 (18:35) 'et dextera tua
suscepit me' ('thy right hand also shall hold me up' BCP) and many more
examples. The idea of 'stretching forth' his right hand is found in Ps.
137(138):7 'super iram inimicorum meorum extendisti manum tuam, et salvum me
fecit dextera tua' ('thou shalt stretch forth thy hand upon the furiousness
of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me' BCP).
The image was perhaps suggested by the Gospel of the day, which is the story
of the casting-out of demons from St Luke ch. 11. Jesus talks of casting
out demons 'with the finger of God' ('porro si in digito Dei eicio daemonia
. . .' 11:20). 'Finger' like 'hand' is used as a metaphor of God's power;
cf. Exodus 8:19, 'And the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of
God."' We may recall that in the hymn 'Veni Creator Spiritus' the Holy
Spirit is called 'Finger of God's right hand' ('dextrae Dei tu digitus').
Oriens.
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