On this Post, for the moment this is a 'piggy-back' lift to Fr. Z's 
right-up-to-date "What Does The Prayer Really Says?"
It is another irresistible exposition of the COLLECT.
The taste will tempt to the feast, those who love 'the meaning of the words chosen for the celebration, often extraordinarily brief...’, and will know where to find the Website.
31 March 2010
WDTPRS - “Spy” Wednesday of Holy Week
The term “Spy” Wednesday probably is an allusion to Christ’s betrayal by Judas.
COLLECT
Deus, qui pro nobis Filium tuum
crucis patibulum subire voluisti,
ut inimici a nobis expelleres potestatem,
concede nobis famulis tuis,
ut resurrectionis gratiam consequamur.
- This prayer was the Collect for this same day in the 1962 Missale Romanum. It was also in the ancient Gregorian Sacramentary in both the Hadrianum and Paduense manuscripts.
- The impressive and informative Lewis & Short Dictionary informs us thatpatibulum (deriving from pateo) is “a fork-shaped yoke, placed on the necks of criminals, and to which their hands were tied; also, a fork-shaped gibbet”. In turn, English “gibbet” means “an upright post with a projecting arm for hanging the bodies of executed criminals as a warning”.
- The verb subeo in its basic meaning is “to come or go under any thing” and by logical extension “to subject one’s self to, take upon one’s self an evil; to undergo, submit to, sustain, endure, suffer”. The L&S explains that “The figure taken from stooping under a load, under blows, etc.)” There are other shades of meaning, including “to come on secretly, to advance or approach stealthily, to steal upon, steal into”. Keep this one in mind.
- Consequor is very interesting. It signifies “to follow, follow up, press upon, go after, attend, accompany, pursue any person or thing” and then it extends to concepts like “to follow a model, copy, an authority, example, opinion, etc.; to imitate, adopt, obey, etc.” and “to reach, overtake, obtain”. Going beyond even these definitions, there is this: “to become like or equal to a person or thing in any property or quality, to attain, come up to, to equal (cf. adsequor).” I know, I know - mentio non fit expositio. Still it is interesting to make connections in the words, which often have subtle overlaps. Remember that interesting meaning ofsubeo, above? There is a shade of “pursuit” and “imitation” in the prayer’s vocabulary.
SLAVISHLY LITERAL RENDERING
O God, who willed Your Son to undergo
on our behalf the gibbet of the Cross
so that You might drive away from us the power of the enemy,
grant to us Your servants,
that we may obtain the grace of the resurrection.
This is an austere prayer, razor like, cutting to the heart of the matter. By our sins we are in the clutches of the enemy, who mercilessly attacks us. Christ freed us from dire consequences of slavery to sin by His Passion.
LAME-DUCK ICEL VERSION
Father,
in your plan of salvation
your Son Jesus Christ accepted the cross
and freed us from the power of the enemy.
May we come to share in the glory of his resurrection.
The ancient Romans would have their conquered foes pass under a yoke (iugum), to show that they were now subjugated. Their juridical status changed. Christ went under the Cross in its carrying and then underwent the Cross in its hideous torments. In his liberating act of salvation, we passed from the servitude of the enemy to the service of the Lord, not as slaves, but as members of a family.
We are not merely household servants (famuli), we are according the status of children of the master of the house, able to inherit what He already has.
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_______________________________________________________________________Wednesday Holy Week
Today is Holy Wednesday, also called Spy Wednesday, as we draw closer to the end of Lent and the beginning of the commemoration of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of the Lord.
Today the Mass readings again show Judas Iscariot making the preparations to betray Our Lord.
The Synoptic tradition on the betrayal of Judas began about the time when the authorities in
The Gospels of Matthew and Luke did not imply that the betrayal was induced by anything more than the money offered or that opposition to Jesus was Judas’ motive; indeed Judas appeared as the instrument of higher powers as Luke write: “Satan entered into Judas.’’ (Lk 22:3).
The event was not unexpected to Jesus, since at the Last Supper, He had announced His coming betrayal by one of the 12 disciples. While to the 12, this event seemed at the time most improbable, to Jesus it was not so and indeed was in keeping with the divine purpose as expressed in the Scriptures and was a necessary means for the accomplishment of the divine plan.
What is so significant about Spy Wednesday is that it reflects the daily struggles we all endure in order to accept a relationship with the Lord. To live the life that Jesus intended for us is a perpetual struggle on a daily basis with good and evil. Sometimes when we are questioned about our transgressions, we answer back. “It’s not me Lord.’’ But the tranquility of Jesus’ realization of His mission provides us with hope in the days to come.
There is a real message here in Jesus’ tranquil resignation to the events that are coming: Faith in the love and power of the Father. As believers in the power of God’s love and goodness, Spy Wednesday should provide a period for reflection and prayer. We need to examine our lives and look for the moments that we have falsely shared intimacy with our brothers and sisters in faith.
(Clerical Whispers http://clericalwhispers.blogspot.com/)
Please afford a light moment. At the school where I learned Latin, detention under the prefect was known as “jug”—“Sub jugo praefecti passi sumus.”
Ut semper, gratias orationum exegetis alti agimus.
Comment by Tom in NY — 31 March 2010 @ 10:30 amHe took the form of a slave and died a horrible death so that we would no longer be slaves to sin and death.
Comment by Dr. Eric — 31 March 2010 @ 10:35 amWhereas you render crucis patibulum concretely and vividly as “gibbet of the cross”, and the lame-duck ICEL version labors along the “plan of salvation” route in order to simply omit the word patibulum, including no translation at all, the British Divine Office and Lauds and Vespers (ed. Fr. Peter Stravinskas) both take a “softer” intermediate course.
Divine Office: agony of the cross
Comment by Henry Edwards — 31 March 2010 @ 12:13 pmLauds & Vespers: ignominy of the cross
This was the second Collect for today. The first Collect is thus:
Praesta, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus: ut qui nostris excessibus incessantur affligimur, per unigeniti Filii tui passionem liberemur: Qui tecum vivit…
“Grant, we beseech thee, O almighty God that we who are incessantly aafflicted by our sinful excesses may be delivered by the Passion of Thine only-begotten Son.”—Taken from the Baronius Press missal ;)
Comment by Phil — 31 March 2010 @ 12:59 pmSo a patibulum is that thing that looks like the stocks, but is mobile.
Huh. I guess a crossbar does look like that.
Comment by Suburbanbanshee — 31 March 2010 @ 1:14 pmI found this translation in my mother’s 1948 Roman Missal:
Comment by Mrs Kate — 31 March 2010 @ 2:28 pm“O God who for our sakes didst will that thy Son should suffer the death of the Cross, and thereby free us from the power of the enemy: grant to us thy servants to have part in the grace of the resurrection.”
I’m no latin scholar, but even I can see that ‘lame duck’ translations seem to be to the latin text, what decaffeinated coffee is to the real thing!