Fifty years ago, Paul VI implemented a new form of the Roman Missal, a departure from the tradition of centuries not just in forms and gestures, but also in the content of our prayers. Vatican II required that in the liturgical reform nothing should be changed that wasn’t truly for the good of the people and that changes had to flow organically from what went before (Sacrosanctum Concilium 23).
The traditional Missal has 1,183 orations. However, in the new book 760 of those prayers were obliterated. Of the survivors, half were edited. Only 17 per cent of prayers from the traditional Missal made it into the Novus Ordo unscathed. The edited prayers and new compositions systematically eliminated or avoided concepts such as guilt, sin, judgment and propitiation.
With that as a background, this week we have a rare event, what I have sometimes called a “liturgical unicorn”. The Second Sunday of Ordinary Time and the coincident Second Sunday after Epiphany both have the same collect, untouched except for the punctuation which provides indications for chanting the prayer.
This week’s collect was in the ancient Hadrianum Sacramentary which Charlemagne gave to Pope Adrian I in about 785.
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui caelestia simul et terrena moderaris, supplicationibus populi tui clementer exaudi, et pacem tuam nostris concede temporibus.
For the ancient Romans a supplicatio was a solemn religious ceremony in thanksgiving for a victory or prayer in the face of danger.
It is related to supplex, which describes the posture of a beggar, on bended knees, or prostration.
Current ICEL translation: “Almighty ever-living God, who govern all things, both in heaven and on earth, mercifully hear the pleading of your people and bestow your peace on our times.”
We beg God, as the omnipotent guide of all things, for peace in our temporal affairs now, not just later in heaven. We plead for the peace that comes from Him alone, not as the world gives (John 14:27).
No passing, created thing can give us peace that truly lasts. God alone endures. Moreover, every one of us has the constant challenge from three great adversaries: the world, the flesh and the Devil. Sin shatters His peace. Peace can be regained in the Sacrament of Penance.
With bent knees and with foreheads to the ground, bodies and wills both bent in supplication, let us beg God to aid all who suffer. Beg His graces. Beg His peace.
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