It matters

The prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, "his" Peace Prayer, among its titles over the years, became my go-to for meditation in the 1980s, and often still is. However, when I learned passage meditation and began practice, the version of the prayer was not as I knew it growing up in a rather strict Catholic family and my fourteen years of parochial* schooling. With the new version I adopted and use, the last line has given me pause, and acts as distraction, in my modest attempts at ascendancy.

The line I knew was: "and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life." The line as given by my spiritual teacher was: "It is in dying to self [or Self] that we are born to eternal life."

The difference makes a difference, for when I think back, two members of my family held dear the version we knew, and no doubt they prayed with those words. One of those people wished for death to come soon, and I thought she expressed that wish by embracing that prayer. This is conjecture or opinion, I admit. Perhaps this difference is only significant in my own mind.

The difference is different, however, because both versions are incomplete translations of the French original. (To complete the deception, there is no evidence it was a prayer we can attribute to the historical St. Francis.)

Am I too old or stuck to learn by heart the original in French or its English translation? I can give it a try, as I reflect on the importance of getting words/meanings as close to correct as possible from the start. It is important to translate accurately with meaning and intent the full original source to the target language of choice and text's adoption for use. Agree?

In short, it matters. Interlinear translations quickly reveal whether or not meaning and intent have been faithfully rendered if one knows the target language and is familiar with or is more than comfortable reading in the source language. And even if this is not the case, it matters whether for Christians the Virgin Mary was a virgin and in what sense.