Well-phrased prayer ...

Feb. 2 was Candlemas, and I attended the sung Tridentine Mass that night at my parish at which candles were blessed. The Latin prayers of the blessing were nicely translated. I particularly liked this, from the first prayer: "...Eternal God, Who hast created all things out of nothing, and by Thy word hast caused this liquid through the work of bees to come to the perfection of wax ... we humbly beseechThee to blew and sanctify these candles for the uses of men, for the health of their bodies and souls, whether on the land or on the sea ..."

It reminded me of this, from T.S. Eliot's "The Dry Salvages":

Lady, whose shrine stands on the promontory,
Pray for all those who are in ships, those
Whose business has to do with fish, and
Those concerned with every lawful traffic
And those who conduct them.

That is what prayer should sound like.