I thought that this must certainly be a very poor translation, as how could the original be this confused? Yet, when I went to the Universalis Liturgy of the hours site, I found:
– Lord, may your mother pray for us.
I don't know, it just strikes me as backwards; it smacks of a protestant fear of praying to Mary. But Universalis offers a nice feature; you can put up the Latin next to the English! So the above is suposed to be a translation of:
Plenam grátia intuére et exáudi nos.
OK, so I'm not a Latinist, but I'm rather suspicious that the above English is a more than a bit out to lunch. From my brief choral experience I can pick out "full of grace" and "hear us" but I still went to Google translate, which offered:
Full of
grace, look down and hear us.
I am relieved that the Latin appears to make emminent sense, even if the English we struggle with doesn't.
As a linguistic cripple, I had come to expect more from the translation at the Universalis site. I expect far more from Holy Mother Church, of course. All in due time, in spite of my impatience.
Glorious and dearest mother Mary, you whose life and assumption are the model of humble patience and endurance, pray for us.
A dilatory liturgist and fading Latinist here. The prayers in the original Latin are addressed to Christ and so the response must also be. The liturgy never prays directly to any saint, Mary included, but only ever asks them to pray for us.
ReplyDeleteHere, praying to Christ (itself fairly rare, since almost all liturgical prayer is to God as Father) "Plenam gratia intuere et exaudi nos" means "Look upon (her who is) full of grace and hear us."
http://brewiarz.katolik.pl/latin/1508/laudes_matutinae.php3