Friday, May 1, 2015

"at your nod"

. . . we who by the death of your Son have been redeemed,
to the glory of his resurrection
are, at your nod, [immediately] summoned forth.

     Preface IV for the Dead, Missale Romanum, 3rd edition, my translation.  This has to be seen in the context of the vigorous language of the whole:

It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,
always and everywhere to give you thanks,
O Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God[,]
at whose summons [(imperio)] we are born [(nascimur)],
by whose will [(arbitrio)] we are governed [(regimur)],
at whose command [(praecepto)] we return [(absolvimur)],
by the law of sin,
to that earth from which we came [(sumpti sumus)].
And we who by the death of your Son have been redeemed
          [(redempti sumus)],
to the glory of his resurrection
are, at your nod [(nutu)],
          [immediately] summoned forth [(excitamur)].

     "Nod" (nutus) can, of course, mean also "command, will, pleasure".     

"It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,
always and everywhere to give you thanks,
Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God.
For it is at your summons that we come to birth,
by your will that we are governed,
and at your command that we return,
on account of sin,
to that earth from which we came.
And when you give the sign, we who have been redeemed by the Death of your Son,
shall be raised up to the glory of his Resurrection."

"Vere dignum et iustum est, aequam et salutare,
nos tibi semper et ubique gratias agere:
Domine, sancte Pater, omnipotens aeterne Deus:
Cuius imperio nascimur, cuius arbitrio regimur,
cuius praecepto in terra, de qua sumpti sumus,
peccati lege absolvimur.
Et, qui per mortem Filii tui redempti sumus,
ad ipsius resurrectionis gloriam
tuo nutu excitamur."

     According to Ward & Cuthbert (The prefaces of the Roman missal:  a source compendium with concordance and indices (Rome, 1989), 513-514)), this Preface, new to the new Missal, is heavily influenced by no. 40 of the 9th-century "Fragmentum Sancti Mauricii" (no. 40 being itself a preface):
VD. Aeterne deus. Cuius imperio nascimur, cuius arbitrio regimur, cuius misterio redempti sumus, cuius etiam praecepto in terram, de qua sumpti sumus, praevaricationis lege dissolvimur, atque tuo nutu resurrectionis ad gloriam pulvis ex homine in hominem reparatur. Nostri est, domine, meriti quod perimus, tuae vero pietatis et gratiae, quod morte consumpti, redivivo cinere perpetuam revocamur ad vitam. Per Christum.

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