Ash Wednesday Liturgical Prayers

Here is a great example of why we needed a new translation of the Roman Missal.  This is the closing prayer for today's Liturgy of the Hours, which also serves as the Collect before today's Mass readings.  Notice that the Latin prayer from which these were translated has not changed.

Latin
Concéde nobis, Dómine, præsídia milítiæ christiánæ sanctis inchoáre ieiúniis, ut, contra spiritáles nequítias pugnatúri, continéntiæ muniámur auxíliis. Per Dóminum... Amen.


Old Translation
Lord, you reward virtue and forgive the repentant sinner. Grant us your forgiveness as we come before you confessing our guilt. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. – Amen.

New Translation
Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting this campaign of Christian service, so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils, we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. – Amen.


It would be too generous to even call the Old Translation a loose paraphrase, for the ideas expressed as virtue, forgiveness, confession, and guilt are simply not there at all in the Latin.  Rather, fasting, a militant campaign, battle, spiritual evils, weapons, and self-restraint are much more faithful renderings of the Latin.  Were I a Latin teacher giving a test, the Old Translation would get an F, while the New Translation would score much higher (not being fluent in Latin, I hesitate to give it the A I'm betting it deserves).


Regardless of the quality of translation, it is clear that the prayer we say today has a profound relation to that which we are actually doing in this season of Lent.  In fact, the entire Mass was laced with this stuff today.  Are you battle-ready?  Have a blessed Lent!