CollectSep 19, 2026
Da, quaesumus, Domine, populo tuo diabolica vitare contagia: et te solum Deum pura mente sectari.
Literal renderingGrant, O Lord, unto Your people, to shun diabolical contamination: and with a pure soul to follow You, the only God.
Is this prayer appropriate today or what?!? It seems to me that we can see what we are praying against at nearly every level of the Church today. Some are witless about it, others are witting. Among the witting, some are unwilling and others most willing.
Read the full post on wdtprs.com →CollectSep 14, 2026
Deus, qui nos hodierna die Exaltationis sanctae Crucis annua solemnitate laetificas: praesta quaesumus; ut cuius mysterium in terra cognovimus, eius redemptionis praemia in caelo mereamur.
Literal renderingO God, who on this day gladden us by the yearly solemnity of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross: grant, we beseech You; that in heaven we may merit to attain the rewards of redemption of Him, whose mystery we have known on earth.
Today’s feast commemorates the discovery in AD 325 in Jerusalem by the Emperor Constantine’s mother St Helena of the Holy Cross, as tradition has it, under sweet basil herb bushes. It is also the anniversary of the Dedication of the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher built on that site in 335. A portion of the Cross was placed there. The…
Read the full post on wdtprs.com →CollectSep 11, 2026
Tua nos, quaesumus, Domine, gratia semper et praeveniat et sequatur, ac bonis operibus iugiter praestet esse intentos.
This dense Collect for the 16th Sunday after Pentecost survived the scissors and paste-pots of the Consilium during the 1960s and lived on in the post-Conciliar Missale Romanum as the 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time. This prayer, used for centuries, is found in the Hadrianum (No. 966), the form of the Gregorian Sacramentary sent by Pope Hadrian I to Charlemagne…
Read the full post on wdtprs.com →CollectSep 8, 2026
Fámulis tuis, quaesumus, Dómine, cœléstis grátiæ munus impertíre: ut, quibus beátæ Vírginis partus éxstitit salútis exórdium; Nativitátis eius votíva sollémnitas pacis tríbuat increméntum.
The Nativity of Mary, which we celebrate on 8 September is older than the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which was precisely nine months ago. Stop for a moment. Consider what our eternal prospects were before the birth not only of Our Lord, but also before the birth of His Mother, from whom He took our human nature, the Blessed…
Read the full post on wdtprs.com →CollectSep 5, 2026
Ecclesiam tuam, Domine, miseratio continuata mundet et muniat: et quia sine te non potest salva consistere; tuo semper munere gubernetur.
Literal renderingLet Your continuous compassion, cleanse and defend Your Church, O Lord, and because without You she cannot stand to, safe, may she forever by Your favor be steered.
For the last few years I’ve had a terrible inkling that the Church hit an iceberg and is taking on water faster than it can be pumped. It has ever been so, in cycles, since the Lord’s Ascension. The Church will not sink, capsize or founder.
Read the full post on wdtprs.com →CollectAug 15, 2026
Deus, qui diligentibus te bona invisibilia praeparasti, infunde cordibus nostris tui amoris affectum, ut, te in omnibus et super omnia diligentes, promissiones tuas, quae omne desiderium superant, consequamur.
Literal renderingO God, who have prepared unseen goods for those loving You, pour into our hearts the disposition of Your love, so that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may attain Your promises, which surpass every desire.
The Collect for the 20th Ordinary Sunday, found also in the 8th century Gelasian Sacramentary, is in the 1962 Missale Romanum for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost. Our prayer has many different words for love and longing: diligo, amor, affectus and the related cor, desiderium, promissio. Affectus means “a state of body, and especially of mind produced in one by…
Read the full post on wdtprs.com →