Carpe Diem....pro Deo!

To illustrate Ephesians 5:16 (“making the most of every opportunity, for the days are evil”), Pastor Allen cited the familiar Latin phrase, “Carpe diem,” (seize the day). I first learned it as a high school Latin student, but it has become very familiar in modern American culture, because of exposure in the movie, “Dead Poets’ Society,” and other popular references.

But while taking notes on the sermon, I decided to find out where in the world of Latin this phrase originated, since it fits a Biblical principle so well.)

Here’s the answer. It comes from Horace’s Odes, Book 1. The couplet goes:

Dum loquimur, fugerit invida
Aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero

which translates as:

While we're talking, envious time is fleeing: seize the day, put no trust in the future

Lord Byron was the first to integrate it into English in his 1817 'Letters', which was published in 1830 by T. Moore:

"I never anticipate, - carpe diem - the past at least is one's own, which is one reason for making sure of the present."

Byron's use of a quotation from Horace isn't surprising, since he had published Hints from Horace just a few years earlier, in 1811.

But never (so this may be an Allen Cooney original) had I heard “Carpe diem pro Deo” (seize the day for God). I like this version much better. And good translating, Pastor Allen!