Deus misericordiae sempiternae

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Deus misericordiae sempiternae is the incipit of the oration on the 2nd Sunday of Easter , the so-called White Sunday (Dominica II Paschae seu de divina Misericordia) in the Roman rite .

text

Deus misericordiae sempiternae, qui in ipso paschalis festi recursu fidem sacratae tibi plebis accendis, auge gratiam quam dedisti, ut digna omnes intellegentia comprehendant, quo lavacro abluti, quo spiritu regenerati, quo sanguine sunt redempti.

Translation in the German missal :
Merciful God, through the annual Easter celebration you renew the faith of your people. Let us see ever more deeply how sacred is the baptismal bath that has purified us, how mighty your spirit, from which we are born again, and how precious the blood through which we are bought. We ask for this through Jesus Christ.

Translation after Alex Stock :
God of eternal mercy, by celebrating Easter itself you rekindle the faith of your people again and again, increase the grace given to us, so that everyone really understands with what water they washed, from what spirit they were born again, with what blood they are ransomed.

history

The current text of the forma ordinaria differs greatly from the previous text of the forma extraordinaria . This read:

Praesta, quaesumus, omnipotens Deus: ut, qui paschalia festa peregimus, haec, te largiente, moribus et vita teneamus.

"We ask you, almighty God: Let us, who are now at the end of the Easter celebration, with your grace keep it in our behavior and our way of life."

The text thus expresses the wish to continue this in everyday behavior and lifestyle after the calendar end ( peregimus from Latin perago , 'to complete'). Due to the changed calendar, this wording could not be retained after the liturgical reform : Easter therefore does not end until Pentecost. The revised Latin version is not only adapted in terms of content, but also more heavily charged in terms of content (according to Alex Stocks : too much).

In the German translation of the Deutsches Missbuchss from 1975, the rhetorical power and content-related concentration diminish:

  • the "God of eternal mercy" (Deus misericordiae sempiternae) is reduced to the mere "merciful God",
  • the plebs sacrata, i.e. the "holy people" appears in the German translation without an adjective,
  • the accendis ("kindle", "ignite") reminding of the Easter fire has lost its metaphor and has become "renewed": the image of the glow of faith to be kindled by the Easter fire has disappeared,
  • the nine words of the request for the "grace of understanding" (auge ... comprehendant) are finally weakened in German to "let us know more and more deeply",

The Latin text closes with an almost catechizing threefold climactic anaphor quo… quo… quo… ('with what?', ' With what?'); the following auxiliary verb sunt emphasizes the last part of the anaphor particularly strongly. The Latin text then relates this desired knowledge to water, spirit and blood. The German version retains the anaphor, but interferes with the sense of the Latin text: instead of “with what” it translates “like…, like…, like…”. However, water (here narrowed to 'baptism'), spirit and blood now appear enriched with adjectives: holy, powerful and precious.

literature

  • Alex Stock : Orations. The daily prayers of the feast days translated and explained again . Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-7917-2613-7 , pp. 90-92 .

Further:

  • Lauren Pristas: Collects of the Roman Missals: A Comparative Study of the Sundays in Proper Seasons Before and After the Second Vatican Council . tape III . A&C Black, 2013, ISBN 978-0-567-03384-0 .
  • Josef Pascher : The orations of the Roman Missal of Pope Paul VI. tape III . EOS, 1981, ISBN 3-88096-190-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alex Stock: Orations. The daily prayers of the feast days translated and explained again . Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-7917-2613-7 , pp. 84 .
  2. ^ Translation: Alex Stock: Orations. The daily prayers of the feast days translated and explained again . Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-7917-2613-7 , pp. 90 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Alex Stock: Orations. The daily prayers of the feast days translated and explained again . Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-7917-2613-7 , pp. 90-92 .
  4. ^ Gero Weishaupt: Presidential prayers, Example II from the Easter liturgy