“Deus, qui conspicis populum tuum nativitatis dominicae festivitatem fideliter exspectare, praesta, quaesumus, ut valeamus ad tantae salutis gaudia pervenire, et ea votis sollemnibus alacri laetitia celebrare.”
The infinitives, expectare (“await”), pervenire (“attain”) and celebrare (“frequent; honour”) climatically summarise our Advent preparation. Conspicio (“to get sight of”) is etymologically related to exspecto. This is skillful wordplay: God “watches” over us and we “watch” for Him. Current ICEL translation: “O God, who see how your people faithfully await the feast of the Lord’s Nativity, enable us, we pray, to attain the joys of so great a salvation and to celebrate them always with solemn worship and glad rejoicing.” Speaking of climatically, I capture in this Collect the promising potential of a Christmas Day scene. The verbs rush us towards our goal. Our heavenly Father watches over us as we run down the path toward His gift, our Saviour. Earthly fathers look over this spectacle on Christmas morning. Children don’t go by zig-zags when they catch sight of their gifts, they go straight at ’em, as Admiral Nelson told Captain Aubrey. “Make straight the path”, cries the Baptist throughout Advent. Christ, in his return, will come straight at us. Knowing that God watches over our sometimes faltering steps, always go straight at Him. Visit fatherzonline.com
