Holy Week Collects

 

Palm Sunday

 

Omnípotens sempitérne Deus, qui humáno géneri, ad imitándum humilitátis exémplum, Salvatórem nostrum carnem súmere et crucem subíre fecísti, concéde propítius, ut et patiéntiæ ipsíus habére documénta et resurrectiónis consórtia mereámur.

 

Almighty eternal God, who in order to give the human race an example of humility to imitate, has caused our Savior to take flesh and to endure the cross, graciously grant that we may be worthy to follow the example of his patience and share in his resurrection.

The following notes are taken from Lauren Pristas, Collects of the Roman Missals and she follows the commentary of Sr. Mary Gonzaga Haessly, Rhetoric in the Sunday Collects of the Roman Missal.

Not only is the Palm Sunday collect the same in the 1962 and 1970/2002 missals but the collect has been unchanged since the eighth century.  This collect is in the 1962 missal the first of the Sunday collects since Lent II to have a laudatory qui clause. Notice also the unusual length of the collect.

The qui clause is elaborate: with a purpose clause ad imitándum humilitátis exemplum and two infinitive clauses governed by one verb: carnem súmere et crucem subíre fecísti.

Haessly says that this the only collect Tridentine Missal which the Savior is presented as our model.

Holy Monday

Da, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus, ut, qui ex nostra infirmitate deficimus, intercedente Unigeniti Filii tui passione, respiremus.

Pre 1970 Collect

Da, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus: ut, qui in tot adversis ex nostra infirmitate deficimus: intercedente unigeniti Filii tui passione respiremus.

Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that we who fail through infirmity in our many difficulties, may be relieved through the merits of the passion of Thine only-begotten Son.

Monsignor Knox’s translation:

Fainting, thou seest us, Almighty God; so many perils about us, and we so frail! Let but the Passion of thy only-begotten Son come between, to grant us breathing space: who with thee in the bond of the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth and is God, world without end.

 

Holy Tuesday

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, da nobis ita dominicae passionis sacramenta peragere, ut indulgentiam percipere mereamur.

Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Almighty everlasting God, grant us so to celebrate the mysteries of the Lord’s Passion, that we may merit to receive pardon.

This prayer was in the 1962MR on Tuesday of Holy Week. It was in the Hadrianum and Paduenese of the ancient Gregorian Sacramentary for the same day, when the Station is at Santa Prisca. So, it seems that today we have a prayer which The Redactors of theNovus Ordo didn’t fiddle around with. They left it on the same day as it had always been, and didn’t change or cut out any words.

The verb perago means, according to the dark blue bound Lewis & Short Dictionary, in its fundamental sense “to thrust through, pierce through, transfix”. It can then come to mean by logical extension “to drive about, harass, disturb, disquiet, agitate, annoy a person or thing”. However, in our context here, it is probably “to carry through, go through with, execute, finish, accomplish, complete. . . .

The verb percipiois “to take wholly, to seize entirely”. Often when you see a prepositional prefix per on verbs, you get an intensification of the concept of the verb. At the same time percipio is “to perceive, observe” and “to feel” and “to learn, know, conceive, comprehend, understand, perceive”. Blaise/Dumas gives us “recevoir (l’eucharistie)”. I think this gets us close to the meaning for our prayer.

 

Holy Wednesday

Deus, qui pro nobis Filium tuum crucis patibulum subire voluisti, ut inimici a nobis expelleres potestatem, concede nobis famulis tuis, ut resurrectionis gratiam consequamur.

©copyrighted by Michael Martin: Thesaurus Precum Latinarum.

This ancient prayer from the first millennium is found in the 1970 Missal as the collect for Holy Wednesday, the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross (Sept 14), and votive Masses of the Holy Cross. In the 1962 Roman Missal it is used as the collect for Holy Wednesday and for votive Masses of the Holy Cross during Pascal time.

O GOD, who for our sake didst will Thy Son to undergo the torments of the Cross, that Thou mightest drive far from us the power of the enemy; grant unto us Thy servants that we may attain to the grace of His Resurrection. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Maundy Thursday: Lauds

Deus, quem diligere et amare iustitia est, ineffäbilis grätiæ tuæ in nobis dona multiplica, et, qui fecisti nos in morte Filii tui speräre quæ crédimus, fac nos, eödem resurgénte, pervenire quo téndimus. Qui tecum.

This collect was previously used in the Blessing of the Palms on Palm Sunday.

O God, whom it is right to cherish and love, multiply upon us the gifts of your ineffable grave and in as much as you have caused by the death of your Son to hope for what we believe, make us through his resurrection to attain the end we seek.

 

Maundy Thurday: Vespers

Deus, qui ad gloriam tuam et generis humani salutem Christum voluisti, summum aeternumque constituere sacerdotem, praesta, ut populus, quem sanguine suo tibi acquisvit, ex eius memorialis participatione, virtutem crucis ipsius capiat et resurrectionis.

O God, who for your glory and the salvation of the human race, desired that Christ be made an eternal high priest, grant that, the people he acquired by his blood, by partaking in his memorial, might receive the power of his cross and resurrection.

This collect is now used in the restored Mass of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest.

 

Good Friday: Lauds

Respice, quaesumus, Domine, super hanc familiam tuam, pro qua Dominus noster Jesus Christus non dubitavit minibus tradi nocentium, et cruces subire tormentum

This is taken from the Prayer over the People at the end of Good Friday Liturgy.

Watch over, we beseech you, O Lord, this your family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed and to be delivered into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer the torment of the cross.

 

Holy Saturday: Lauds

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, cuius Unigenitus ad inferiora terrae descendit, unde et gloriosus ascendit, concede propitious, ut fideles tui, cum eo conseptuli in baptismate, ipso resurgente, ad vitam proficiant sempiternam. Qui tecum.

 

Almighty, eternal God, whose only-begotten Son descended to the realm of the dead, and from there he also ascended gloriously, graciously grant that your faithful, having been buried with him in Baptism, by his rising, may attain to everlasting life. who with.