Sunday, December 8, 2024

May the instruction of Heavenly Wisdom transform us into members of His wedding party (eius . . . consortes)

T'oros Roslin, Wise and foolish virgins,
Gospel book, Walters Art Gallery
W.539 (1262), fol. 106v

"Almighty and merciful God, may no earthly undertaking hinder those who set out in haste to meet your Son, but may our learning of heavenly wisdom gain us admittance to his company, who", etc.

"Omnipotens et misericors Deus, in tui occursum Filii festinantes nulla opera terreni actus impediant, sed sapientiae caelestis eruditio nos faciat eius esse consortes.  Qui", etc.


     Collect for the Second Sunday of Advent, current (which is to say, not even 1962) Roman missal.  This is not in Bruylants, but vol. 14 of Corpus orationum fingers the differently-ordered no. 2669 in vol. 4,

Festinantes, omnipotens deus, in occursum filii tui domini nostri nulla impediant opera actus terreni sed caelestis sapientiae eruditio faciat nos eius esse consortes

which occurs in the mid-8th-century Old Gelasian Sacramentary that "is modelled on a type that largely represents Roman presbyteral practice around the middle of the 7th cent[ury]" (ODCC, 4th ed. (2022)).  (According to Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, at least, it occurs also in "the so-called Rotulus ('scroll') of Ravenna, dated perhaps as early as the 5th century.")
     May the instruction of Heavenly Wisdom | instruction in heavenly wisdom | erudition in heavenly wisdom | etc.