I did a search for examples of “laborat ex” and stumbled on this tweet/prayer from Pope Francis. Of course I can’t find the English version of it because it was back in 2020.
29 Martius 2020
“Fremuit spīritū et turbāvit sē ipsum et … turbātus est Iēsus” (Io 11, 33-35).
he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved (John 11:33…Jesus was greatly disturbed
Hodiē cōram populō, quī tam labōrat ex effectibus huius ūniversālis pestilentiae, obsecrāmus Dominum, ut grātiam concēdat lacrimārum. Haec dies sit omnibus nobis dominica lacrimārum. #HomiliaSanctaeMarthae
How does this seem for a translation
Today among (your) people, who suffer so greatly from the effect of this universal pandemic, we pray to the Lord to (that he would) grant the grace (gift) of (his) tears. May the Lord’s tears be for every one of us today.
dominicus=the Lord’s, why is lacrimarum in the genitive?
Thank you
Jim (Jacobulus)
“Haec dies sit omnibus nobis dominica lacrimārum…”
I would understand dies again with dominica, something like “May this day of the Lord be for us all a day of tears” so that lacrimarum would be dependent on dies.
I mainly agree with Barry. Except that I would tweek his translation a bit, to reflect my understanding of how haec dies and (dies) dominica work in this sentence: “May this day be for us all a Sunday of tears”.
Also, I disagree with “among (your) people” and “the grace (gift) of (his) tears”. Coram populo is simply “in front of the people” and the tears are not those of the Lord. The gratia/donum lacrimarum is (was?) a common theme in Catholic thought: you ask for it, i.e. you ask for the ability to shed tears.
I can’t find an English wiki page for it, so here is more Francis:
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/43553/pope-francis-the-gift-of-tears-is-precious
https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/francis-chronicles/pope-francis-extols-gift-tears
Thank you Barry and Shenoute
1 for the translation help. I thought dominica could mean Sunday, but I couldn’t figure out how to fit it in the sentence.
Today in front of your people, who suffer so greatly from the effect of this universal pandemic, we pray to the Lord "May this day be for us all a Sunday of tears.”
2 And the cultural help. "My father said “If you want to cry–I’ll GIVE you something to cry about.” I had never thought of Jesus’ tears, or our tears as empathy, healing. Fits with Jesus weeping at Lazarus’ funeral.
Thank you again
Jim
I dont want to be overly pedantic but I wonder whether pandemic is the right translation for “pestilentia”? It just seems odd to translate using a Greek loan word which has a technical meaning in English which I think is absent in the Greek and certainly absent from the latin “pestilentia”. I think in general usage most people don’t think about the technical meaning of pandemic and usually mean something like “serious disease”, nevertheless I would have opted for the old fashioned “plague”. “Universal pandemic” seems rather tautologous to me.