"'Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.'"
-SM Stirling, The Desert And The Blade (New York, 2016), Chapter Twenty-Seven, p. 664.
"Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen."
Poul and Karen Anderson's Roman centurion, Gratillonius, addressed Mithras in Latin which remained the language of the Church long after the Empire. Stirling's Emberverse Catholics have revived Latin prayers.
How do these two Latin prayers differ?
They are addressed to different beings, a god and the mother of a god;
Catholics might be unique in praying to someone to ask her to pray to someone else?
8 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Your last comment above reminded me of how many Protestants object to the Catholic/Orthodox invoking of the saints. Some say that to do so is to somehow deny the power or sufficiency of Christ. We reply that we do believe in the infinite sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice, but that it pleases Him that we ask holy persons to pray for us.
Sean
Kipling wrote a poem (which IIRC Poul quoted somewhere) which contains the lines:
"Ah, Mary pierced with sorrow,
Remember, reach and save
The soul that comes to-morrow
Before the God that gave!
Since each was born of woman,
For each at utter need –
True comrade and true foeman –
Madonna, intercede!"
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Very nice indeed, this bit you quoted from Kipling. It reminded me of another Kipling poem, "Cold Iron," esp. these verses, after a rebellious baron was conquered by his king:
Yet his King made answer (few such Kings there be!)
"Here is Bread, and here is Wine--sit and sup with me.
Eat and drink in Mary's Name, the whiles I do recall
How iron--Cold Iron--can be master of men all."
He took the Wine and Blessed it. He Blessed and brake the Bread.
With His own Hands He served Them, and presently He said:
"See! These Hands they pierced with nails, outside my city wall,
Show Iron--Cold Iron--to be master of men all."
The poem ended with the penitent Baron kneeling to Christ and declaring that Iron--Cold Iron--out of Calvary was master of all men.
Sean
Sean,
"Cold iron" turns me off.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I think I know why: the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. I'm reminded of how St. Paul declared this mystery of the Cross to be a scandal to the Greeks and a stumbling block to the Jews.
Sean
Sean,
"Foolishness to Greeks." I am a Greek.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
And not all the Greeks to whom St. Paul preached reacted that way. Dionysius the Areopagite comes to mind!
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Another thing to note about "Cold Iron" was how, in one of Stirling's "Nantucket" books, William Walker quoted the first stanza in a self serving way but ignored the rest of the poem.
Sean
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