Posted by BROTHER ANDRÉ MARIE
What’s in That Prayer? The Collect for the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost – Catholicism.org
Here is the oration that the Church prays in the Mass and Office for the Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost:
Deus, refúgium nostrum et virtus: adésto piis Ecclésiæ tuæ précibus, auctor ipse pietátis, et præsta; ut, quod fidéliter pétimus, efficáciter consequámur.
Here is my translation:
O God, our refuge and our strength, the very Author of piety: attend to the devout entreaties of Thy Church, and grant that what we faithfully ask for, we may efficaciously acquire.
Here is the translation from the Divinum Officium site:
O God, our Refuge and Strength, Who art the author of all godliness, be ready, we beseech thee, to hear the devout prayers of thy Church, and grant that those things which we ask faithfully, we may obtain effectually.
Is there a more beautiful way to ask for grace in this life and glory in the next?
To show how very Biblical the Catholic Church is in her prayers, the oration uses the language of Psalm 45: Deus noster refugium et virtus; adjutor in tribulationibus quae invenerunt nos nimis (“Our God is our refuge and strength: a helper in troubles, which have found us exceedingly”).
Uniting ourselves to this prayer liturgically is a sublime example of sentire cum ecclesia (thinking [and feeling] with the Church). We are not each alone making this prayer; we are not even only morally united as one; we are one Mystical Person praying. This oration is the voice of the Bride directed through her heavenly Bridegroom to His Father in the unity of their Holy Ghost. The Church, composed of many yet one, beseeches the Divine Trinity in Unity. It is Jesus Christ, true God and true Man who is the High Priest, the Pontifex Maximus building a bridge between the two as only He can.
The Religion is not a private affair, but a social reality, and this is manifest most clearly in the sublime social prayer of the Church, our sacred liturgy.