Traditional Catholics who attend Mass or recite the Office today for the feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary will pray this beautiful Collect:
Deus, qui beátam Maríam semper Vírginem, Spíritus Sancti habitáculum, hodiérna die in templo præsentári voluísti: præsta, quǽsumus; ut, eius intercessióne, in templo glóriæ tuæ præsentári mereámur.
(O God, by Whose will the blessed Mary, ever Virgin, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, was on this day presented in the temple, grant, we beseech You, that by her intercession we may be found worthy to be brought into the temple of Your glory.)
A classic Roman Collect in every sense: the perfect balancing of the elements, the matching of Our Lady being presented in the temple with our hope to be brought into the temple of heavenly glory; the Virgin as herself the temple (dwelling place) of the Most High.
In contrast, the Novus Ordo has a Collect that is as remarkable for its generality as for its lack of poetry:
Sanctíssimæ venerántibus Vírginis Maríæ memóriam gloriósam, ipsíus nobis, quǽsumus, Dómine, intercessióne concéde, ut de plenitúdine grátiæ tuæ nos quoque mereámur accípere.
(As we venerate the glorious memory of the most holy Virgin Mary, grant, we pray, O Lord, through her intercession, that we, too, may merit to receive from the fullness of your grace.)
Everywhere one looks, one finds the same sort of thing. Converte, Domine, captivitatem nostram, sicut torrens in austro.
