Translate Latin

[MarcoPolo]

Is there someone adept at Latin that could translate this paragraph for me? For those interested, it’s from the 1977 Ordo dedicationis ecclesiae et altaris. Google translate doesn’t sound right and I can’t get all the words. Thx!

Sua ipsius natura altare uni Deo dicatur, nam sacrificium eucha- risticum uni Deo offertur. Hoc sensu intellegi debet consuetudo Ecclesire dicandi altaria Deo in honorem Sanctorum. Quod S. Augus- tinus apte exprimit: « nulli martyrum, sed ipsi Deo martyrum, quam- vis in memoriis martyrum, constituimus altaria ».18
Hoc dare fidelibus explicari debet. In novis ecclesiis simulacra vel imagines Sanctorum supra altare ne collocentur.
Item ne deponantur super altaris mensam Sanctorum reliquire cum ad populi venerationem exhibentur.

 

[Bithynian]

By its very nature, an altar is consecrated to the one God, for the sacrifice of the Eucharist is offered to the one God. By this idea one must understand the Church’s custom of consecrating altars to God in honour of the saints. Because Saint Augustine fittingly expressed: “We build altars to none of the martyrs, but to the God of the martyrs, very much in memory of the martyrs”. This ought to be given to the faithful as explanation. Let no statues or images of the saints be placed over the altar in new churches. Likewise let no relics of the saints be placed upon the upper surface of an altar when they are displayed for veneration by the people.

 

[Dovekin]

The altar is of its very nature dedicated to the one God, for the eucharistic sacrifice is of- fered to the one God.This is the sense in which the Church’s practice of dedicating altars to God in honour of the saints must be understood. St.Augustine expresses it well:‘It is not to any of the martyrs, but to the God of the martyrs, though in memory of the martyrs, that we raise our altars.’
This should be made clear to the people. In new churches statues and pictures of saints may not be placed above the altar.
Likewise, when relics of saints are exposed for veneration, they should not be placed on the table of the altar.

This is the ICEL translation from Rite of Dedication of a Church and an Altar on the website of the bishops of England and Wales.

@Bithynian did an excellent job with his translation, as you can see.

 

[MarcoPolo]

Thank you