Our Father Painting by Jen Norton

... by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress.

These words form part of what is formally called the embolism, the short prayer said by the priest after the recitation of the Lord’s prayer at Mass. The intent of the prayer, which dates from the early Church, is to provide a gloss or commentary on the last petition of the Our Father, “Deliver us from evil.” In the most recent English translation, a more literal rendering of the Latin text from which it is taken, the words “may we be … safe from all distress” replaces the freer translation dating from the time just after the Second Vatican Council, “protect us from all anxiety.” In both instances, the Latin word is perturbatione which we might use in English in its verb form, “to be perturbed”, but rarely as a noun.

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