The Supplices te rogamus

Lost in Translation #146

After the Supra quæ propitio, the priest prays:

Súpplices te rogámus, omnípotens Deus, jube hæc perférri per manus sancti Angeli tui in sublíme altáre tuum, in conspéctu divínæ majestátis tuæ: ut quotquot ex hac altáris participatióne sacrosánctum Fílii tui Corpus et Sánguinem sumpsérimus, omni benedictióne cælésti et grátia repleámur. Per eúndem Christum Dóminum nostrum. Amen.

Which I translate as:

Suppliant we ask Thee, almighty God: command these to be borne all the way up by the hands of Thy holy angel to Thine altar borne on high, in the sight of Thy divine Majesty, so that as many of us as shall have consumed the sacrosanct Body and Blood of Thy Son by this partaking of the altar may be filled with every heavenly blessing and grace. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Most translations have “humbly” or “in humble prayer” (2011 ICEL) for supplices. Supplex does indeed betoken humility, but it also connotes prostration: sub-plico means to fold down or under. I suspect that this word was chosen over others like it because this connotation helps increase the distance in the prayer, so to speak, between us and God’s altar in Heaven. Folded over, we ask an Angel to go all the way up to Heaven on our behalf. This image is reinforced by the comportment of the celebrant, who is bowing down as he says these words, literally suppliant.

Two other words emphasize the distance between us and the heavenly altar. I have translated perferri as “to be borne all the way up” to reflect the fact that perfero, with its muscular prefix per, is more intense than fero, the verb to bear or carry. And I suspect that there is a subtle pairing of perfero and sublimis, the adjective used to describe God’s altar, for sublimis does not simply refer to being lofty or on high but especially has the meaning of being “borne aloft, uplifted, elevated, raised” (the word possibly comes from sub-limen, “up to the lintel”). [1] The sacrificial offerings must travel afar, being borne all the way up to something that is borne on high.

And the prayer asks that the carrier of these offerings be the hands of God’s Holy Angel. The inspiration for this petition may be Revelation 8, 3-4, which describes an angel offering with his hand the prayers of the saints to God on His altar:

And another angel came, and stood before the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given to him much incense, that he should offer of the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar, which is before the throne of God. And the smoke of the incense of the prayers of the saints ascended up before God from the hand of the angel.

A second possibility is that the Holy Angel is Christ Himself, whom St. Paul calls the Messenger of God (angelos Theou) in Galatians 4, 14. Although it is true that every Mass is offered to the Father through the Son (and with the Holy Spirit), I am of the opinion that the Angel referenced here is a celestial spirit and not the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, for the Son of God is mentioned in the second half of the prayer as being here on the altar and not journeying away from it to Heaven. The imagery would be confusing if we were asking Christ to be in two different places at the same time, even though He is, of course, present to all places at all times. Another consideration is that in the Book of Tobias the Archangel Raphael tells the elder Tobias that he himself offered all of Tobias’ prayers and good works to the Lord (see 12, 12). If that is true of all prayer, namely, that angels play a role in communicating our prayers to God, and if the Mass is the greatest prayer that can be offered to God, it stands to reason that a Holy Angel plays a role in that offering.

The first half of the Supplices te rogamus, as we have argued, increases the distance between us and God’s altar, but only so that the second half may close it. The main petition of the prayer is for every communicant at this Mass to be filled with every heavenly grace and blessing. Heavenly graces and blessings are not just in the Heaven borne on high; they are present here through a participation in this Mass. And the lynchpin is the sacro-sanct Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, now present on the altar. The adjective is significant: the Eucharist is both holy (sanctus) and sacred (sacer): holy because it is the living Christ, who is holy; and sacred because it is forever set apart from profane use. Just as the holy and sacred unite in the sacramental Body and Blood of Our Lord, so too Heaven and earth unite at this altar during this sacrifice.

Yet despite our reflections, we must in the end agree with the medieval deacon Florus of Lyons (d. 860) about the Supplices te rogamus: “These words of mystery are so profound, so wonderful and stupendous, who is able to comprehend them? Who would say anything worthy? They are more to be revered and feared than discussed.”

Note

[1] Lewis and Short Latin Dictionary, “Sublimis,” I.B.