Collect for the Fourth Sunday After Trinity:
O GOD, the protector of all that trust in thee,
without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy:
Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy;
that, thou being our ruler and guide,
we may so pass through things temporal,
that we finally lose not the things eternal:
Grant this, O heavenly Father,
for Jesus Christ's sake our Lord. Amen.
One of Thomas Cranmer's finest efforts, where content, vocabulary and rhythm all come together. Read it aloud, and note the stresses on the syllables. And note that for once Cranmer's English is almost stronger than the Latin original from the Gregorian Sacramentary, via the Use of Sarum:
Protector in te sperantium Deus, sine quo nihil est validum, nihil sanctum; multiplica super nos misericordiam tuam, ut te Rectore, te Duce, sic transeamus per bona temporalia, ut non amittamus Êterna. Per Dominum nostrum.
Cranmer, otherwise humdrum as a writer, achieved greatness in translation. Amazing.
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