Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Prayer for England

We (in England) should all know the Prayer for England in English; a friend of mine recently found the original Latin, and for the record I put it up here. It is interesting to see where it came from - a letter of Leo XIII, the prayer probably being composed by Pope Leo's English Secretary of State, the great Cardinal Merry del Val.

Appended to Leo XIII’s apostolic epistle “Amantissimae Voluntatis”, 14 April 1895, Acta Sanctae Sedis 27 [1894-5] at page 593.

Ad Sanctissimam Virginem: Pro Anglis fratribus precatio

O beata Virgo Maria, Mater Dei, Regina nostra et Mater dulcissima, benigna oculos tuos converte ad Angliam, quae Dos tua vocatur, converte ad nos, qui magna in te fiducia confidimus. Per te datus est Christus Salvator mundi, in quo spes nostra consisteret; ab ipso autem tu data es nobis, per quam spes eadem augeretur. Eia igitur, ora pro nobis, quos tibi apud Crucem Domini excepisti filios, o perdolens Mater: intercede pro fratribus dissidentibus, ut nobiscum in unico vero Ovili adiungantur summo Pastori, Vicario in terris Filii tui. Pro nobis omnibus deprecare, o Mater piissima, ut per fidem, bonis operibus foecundam, mereamur tecum omnes contemplari Deum in caelesti patria et collaudare per saecula. Amen.

O Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and our most gentle Queen and Mother, look down in mercy upon England thy "Dowry" and upon us all who greatly hope and trust in thee. By thee it was that Jesus our Saviour and our hope was given unto the world; and He has given thee to us that we might hope still more. Plead for us thy children, whom thou didst receive and accept at the foot of the cross. O sorrowful Mother! intercede for our separated brethren, that with us in the one true fold they may be united to the supreme Shepherd, the Vicar of thy Son. Pray for us all, dear Mother, that by faith fruitful in good works we may all deserve to see and praise God, together with thee, in our heavenly home. Amen.

King Richard II attributed the political salvation of his kingdom to the intercession of Our Lady - together with his patrons St Edward the Confessor, St Emund King and Martyr, and St John the Baptist. In the Wilton Diptych he is represented as receiving the pennant of his kingdom back from the Child Jesus in her arms.
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2 comments:

  1. Oliver8:03 pm

    I'd be interested to know the origin of the mistranslation 'He has given thee to us', when the Latin quite clearly says 'He gave thee to us'. Certain pedantic Catholics have even taken this to its logical conclusion and changed 'might hope still more' to 'may hope still more'.

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  2. Mike Carroll10:41 am

    Thought I'd mention that I used some basic history from this post on my blog. I hope you do not mind.

    http://catholicgadfly.blogspot.com/

    I also wanted to say that although I am not sure that all Latin should be introduced to every single Mass, I believe that there should be at least one, if not more, latin masses in every parish, every week with out question.

    I really do think that in light of the James McMillan debarcle and the Westminster Papal Mass debarcle, the LMS is now at a point where the Liberal Bishops are beginning to lose battles to traditionalists and if you really want to make a difference NOW is the time for you to start pushing forward.

    I have heard it said that a senior member of clergy at the Vatican said that 'there will be no such thing as the Novus Ordo in 50 years'. Now, I do not know if this is true but the Orthodox Catholics are now beginning to come out of the woodwork, particularly in america. I have placed a link to RealCatholicTV below and a Latin Mass video. There are lots of people on your side in the US and UK.

    http://www.youtube.com/user/RealCatholicTV#p/u/80/9sToEy7c4mk

    Good luck!

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