Si vis pacem, para bellum.

I saw this wise proverb from the fifth century writer Vegetius in a letter in the Sunday Telegraph on Sunday, 27th January.  In Engish, the advice is "If you want peace, prepare for war".  Sadly, the converse is also true, and worryingly relevant to the UK's present circumstances.

vis is the second person singular of the present indicative of the irregular verb volo and means you (s) want.  para is the singular imperative of the verb paro, parare, paravi, paratum to prepare.  It simply means prepare.

Pope Benedict's first tweet in Latin

Back in January, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI added Latin to the list of languages in which he tweeted.  His first tweet in Latin was:

"Unitati christifidelium integre studentes quid iubet Dominus? Orare semper, iustitiam factitare, amare probitatem, humiles Secum ambulare."

Fortunately, the language is relatively simple.  Most of the words even I know, or at least I can make an educated guess.
  
You can read more about this on BBC News website Pope Benedict XVI posts first tweet in Latin.  Also, Harry Mount also discussed it on the Telegraph blog in his piece - The Pope's right - Latin is the perfect language for twitter

Pater Noster

Here is the Lord's Prayer in Latin.  As I already know it in English, it is a very useful short text to memorise to help improve my Latin.
 

Pater Noster
qui es in caelis,
sanctificetur nomen tuum.
Adveniat regnum tuum.
Fiat voluntas tua,
sicut in caelo et in terra.
Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie,
et dimitte nobis debita nostra,
sicut et nos
dimittimus debitoribus nostris.
Et ne nos inducas in tentationem:
sed libera nos a malo.
 

The adverb sicut has a number of translations, but for present purposes "as" or" like" in the context of a comparison will do.

Habemus Papam

Whilst I am not a Roman Catholic, one thing I very much like about the Catholic Church is their continued use of Latin.  When the Cardinals succeeded in electing a new Pope on Thursday, the traditional Latin  announcement was made to the Faithful from the balcony of St Peter's Basilica: 

"Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum... habemus papam!" 

In English translation it is: "I announce to you a great joy... we have a pope!"  Containing just a verb in the first person plural present indicative active and a first declension noun in the accusative singular, the statement habemus papam is well within the understanding of a Latin beginner.