June 30, 2013

Let Us Pray For The New World Order

Attentive readers of this blog will have noticed that since initiating a liturgical life in Italian a little over a year ago, I have tried to be attentive to the possibility of sinister forces at work in the Italian Liturgy of the Hours. For example, there was my fear for the reappearance to the Joachimite heresy in the prayers for the feast of St. Benedict.

Today I have another concern to share.

Here's the second-to-last of the intercessions from Evening Prayer today (Sunday, Week I, Evening Prayer II) from the typical edition Liturgia Horarum:

Pacem mundo praestare digneris,
--ut securitas et tranquillitas ubique florescant.

"Deign to grant peace to the world,
--That security and tranquility might flourish everywhere."

Or something like that. I don't have a breviary in English to check it.

But here's the Italian:

Dona al mondo la pace,
--fa' che si costruisca un ordine nuovo nella giustizia e nella fraternità.

"Give the world peace,
--that a new order in justice and fraternity is built."

Whoa! Who said anything about a new order? What made you guys throw that in there? Inquiring minds want to know. (That is, leaving aside the issue of the abandonment of the lovely theological passive of the Latin in favor the decidedly activist verb 'to construct.')

I'm watching you, Italian breviary. Nothing gets past me.
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:14 PM

    Fr-

    What you have for the English translation is essentially the ICEL.

    Specifically, it says "Grant peace to the world. // let every land flourish in justice and security."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brother Charles12:05 AM

    Hey! I'm pretty good. Maybe ICEL should give me a job.

    ReplyDelete

Faithful, or even just thoughtful criticisms are always welcome. Uninformed rudeness to other posters or to the Lord and His Church is not.

I also reserve the right to reject comments promoting things like private revelations and fringe points of view, if it seems to me like they are being presented in a misleading way.

If you raise a disagreement with something I say but I do not respond, please do not feel slighted or insulted, or imagine that this automatically means I disagree or agree with you. It's just that I don't find the comment box to be a constructive medium for certain forms of debate.