Prayers to Plague Saints

Over the past several weeks or more I had thought to post these prayers to Saint Sebastian, Saint Roch and Saint Rosalia against contagious disease, but my procrastination has led me to leave off disseminating such petitions to these famous plague saints almost too late:

1. Ad Sanctum Sebastianum Martyrem.

Aña. O beate Sebastiane, Martyr Dei, intercede pro nobis ad Dominum Jesum Christum, ut a peste seu a morbo epidemiæ tuis meritis et precibus liberemur. 

V. Ora pro nobis, beate Sebastiane.
R. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi. 

Oremus. 

Oratio.Da nobis, quæsumus, Domine, « omnia tela nequissimi ignea exstinguere » (Eph. 6, 16b), qui inclyto Martyri, Ecclesiæ defensori, et pestilitatis propulsori Sebastiano tribuisti sagittarum suarum tormenta superare. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. R. Amen. 

2. Ad Sanctum Rochum Confessorem. 

Aña. Ave, Roche sanctissime,
Nobili natus sanguine,
Crucis signatus schemate
Sinistro tuo latere.
Roche, peregre profectus,
Pestiferæ mortis ictus
Curavisti mirifice,
Tangendo salutiferæ.
Vale, Roche angelice,
Vocis citatus flamine,
Obtinuisti deifice
A cunctis pestem pellere. 

V. Ora pro nobis, beate Roche.
R. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi. 

Oremus.

Oratio.Deus, qui beato Rocho per Angelum tuum tabulam eidem afferentem promisisti; ut qui ipsum invocaverit, a nullo pestis cruciatu læderetur: præsta, quæsumus, ut qui ejus memoriam agimus, ipsius meritis et precibus a mortifera peste corporis et animæ liberemur. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. R. Amen. 

3. Ad Sanctam Rosaliam Virginem. 

Hymnus (abbrev.) Ave, rosa sine spina,
Contra pestem medicina,
Rosalia, dux inclyta,
Recens a mundo cognita.
Post tot sæcla revelata,
In Patronam orbi data
Contra pestem nobis fave,
Dum tibi sonamus Ave.
Laus, honor sit Majestati,
Uni, trinæ Deitati,
Rosaliam exaltanti,
Pestem per eam sedanti. 

V. Ascendat odor rosæ hujus in conspectu Domini.
R. Et placetur ira Altissimi. 

Oremus. 

Oratio.Deus, qui corpus famulæ tuæ Rosaliæ Virginis post tot sæcula inter montes inventum, contra sævientem pestilentiam sacrum amuletum fidelibus tuis esse voluisti: præsta supplicibus tuis, ut, qui ejus commemoratione lætamur, ejus quoque intervenientibus meritis, a præsentibus periculis, et a malo pestilentiæ liberemur. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. R. Amen.

 ******

1. To St Sebastian. 

Antiphon. O blessed Sebastian, Martyr of God, intercede for us with the Lord Jesus Christ, that from plague or from epidemic disease we may be delivered by thy merits and prayers. 

V. Pray for us, blessed Sebastian.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. 

Let us pray.

Collect.Grant unto us, we beg, Lord, “to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one” (Eph. 6:16b), who didst grant unto Sebastian, the famous Martyr, the defender of the Church, and the repeller of plague, to overcome the torments of his arrows. Through Christ our Lord. R. Amen. 

2.  To St Roch. 

Antiphon. Hail, most holy Roch,
Born of noble blood,
Marked with the form of the Cross
On thy left side.
O Roch, rendered a pilgrim,
Struck by pestilential death,
Thou didst miraculously cure
With healing touch.
Hail, angelic Roch,
Summoned by the blast of the voice,
Thou didst obtain, O god-like one,
To drive plague from all.  

V. Pray for us, blessed Roch.
R. That we may be made worthy of the  promises of Christ. 

Let us pray. 

Collect.O God, who didst promise blessed Roch, by thine Angel delivering a tablet to the same, that those who call upon him should suffer no torment of plague: grant, we beg, that those who make remembrance of him may be freed, by his merits and prayers, from deadly plague of mind and body. Through Christ our Lord. R. Amen. 

3. To St Rosalia.

Hymn. Hail, rose without a thorn,
Medicine against pestilence,
Rosalia, famous leader,
Recently made known to the world.
Revealed after so many centuries,
Given to the world as a Patroness,
Support us against the pestilence,
While to thee we cry out Hail.
Praise, and honour be
To the One Majesty, the Trinal Deity,
Exalting Rosalia,
Stopping the plague through her. 

V. The fragrance of this rose ascended in the sight of the Lord.
R. And appeased the wrath of the Most High. 

Let us pray. 

Collect.O God, who didst will the body of thy servant Rosalia the Virgin, found after many centuries amongst the mountains, to be a sacred amulet for thy faithful against the raging pestilence: grant unto thy supplicants, that we, who rejoice in her commemoration, and by her intervening merits, may be delivered from present perils, and from the evil of pestilence. Through Christ our Lord. R. Amen.

Santiago Matamoros, ruega por nosotros

The Dominican Breviary contains the following anthems at 1st Vespers of St James the Greater, Patron of Spain - the lesser for the psalms, and the greater for the Magnificat:

(O blessed James, deserving of praise by the heart and lips of all, O singular and amiable patron, intercede for us with the Lord.)

(O light and beauty of Spain, most holy James, who holdest the first place among the Apostles, first-crowned with martyrdom of them! O singular guard, who didst deserve to behold our Redeemer, while still a mortal, transformed into the Deity! Graciously hear the prayers of thy servants, and intercede for our salvation and that of all peoples.)

Spanish editions of the Roman Breviary also contain the following responsory; I am still hunting for the music thereof:

R. viii. Iste est, qui ante alios Apostolos primus plantavit Ecclesiam sanguine suo: * Cujus corpus in Gallæciam delatum, per totum orbem gloria illustratur. V. O sidus, o decus Hispaniæ, sancte Jacobe Apostole, intercede pro nobis ad Deum, qui te elegit. * Cujus corpus in Gallæciam delatum, per totum orbem gloria illustratur. Gloria Patri. * Cujus corpus in Gallæciam delatum, per totum orbem gloria illustratur. 

(This is him, who before the other Apostles first planted the Church with his blood: * Whose body carried to Galicia, through the whole world was made famous in glory. V. O star, O beauty of Spain, Saint James the Apostle, intercede for us with God, who chose thee. * Whose body carried to Galicia, through the whole world was made famous in glory. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost. * Whose body carried to Galicia, through the whole world was made famous in glory.)

As I hope in a few years to walk the Camino to Santiago de Compostela, for the moment I pray to this great Saint for strength and aid, not least invoking him under his more militant and apposite title: Santiago Matamoros, ruega por nosotros.

Not the O, but the Z Antiphons

In the last days of Advent, while the wider Church sings the far-famed O Antiphons, our retiring friends the Canons Regular of the Dormition instead sound the Z Antiphons, unique compositions found only in the Breviary proper to their Order.  Liturgiologists, and all who seek to find in the Sacred Liturgy their proper guide to holiness, ought hearken to this cry, as of herald angels singing.

It must be recalled, first, that – until the last preconciliar changes made to the Roman and allied Breviaries – it was the usual practice to intone only the opening phrase of a given antiphon before its psalm, and to sing the whole antiphon only at its close. This rule, not applied to the O Antiphons, is still applied by the Dormitionists to their Z Antiphons.

Furthermore, in older sources (such as those of sundry French Uses), the O Antiphons are sometimes found to still be repeated even within the Magnificat – as for example before as well as after the Gloria Patri with which the Gospel canticle closes; again, there is evidence for the repetition of each such antiphon after every verse of the Magnificat, for greater solemnity.

Finally, the parallel Mozarabic custom ought be remembered: recall that, on the feast of Our Lady’s Expectation, it was ever the practice in Spain for the choirs to sing a great prolonged O, in recapitulation of the impatient groaning of Creation as sea, sky, earth and all things living looked forward in panting eagerness for Messiah’s birth.

The Dormitionist custom unites all these three curiosities (no doubt in mystical veneration of the Triune Deity). During the latter part of Advent (sometimes styled the Christmas Novena), each Canon in his cell – wherein their Breviary is read, for only Compline is sung in common according to the Soporific Rule – when tackling Vespers in totally restful, quiet, manner, rejoices inwardly at the yearly blessing of the Z Antiphons, and signifies his delight in the manner about to be defined.

The Magnificat about to be read, he prefaces it with a long trilled Zzzzzzzzz. (Note the threefold triplication inherent in this, the opening phrase of each Z Antiphon! In this we hear, do we not, the ninefold harmony of the angelic hosts, as once tickled the shepherds' ears near Bethlehem that happy morn.) Each verse thereof completed, he interpolates a redoubled Zzzzzzzzz, thus:

Zzzzzzzzz

Magnificat: * anima mea Dominum.

Zzzzzzzzz

Et exſultavit ſpiritus meus: * in Deo ſalutari meo.

Zzzzzzzzz

…

Behold, regard with wonder such holy snoring!  Thus do the good Canons fulfil the primitive charism of the Dormitionist Order, especially during the Great Sleep in honour of Our Lord's fetal repose in  Our Lady's womb ere, nine months after the Annunciation, He deigned to be born.  To symbolize His coming forth to run His course from womb to tomb and back to heaven, the Sicut erat of the Gloria Patri ended, at last each Canon tackles the whole Z Antiphon of the day.

While I do not wish to bore readers with details of these texts (whose mediæval Latin is, to be frank, somewhat barbarous, if diverting, in its vigorous expression of a confident simple piety), I must at least list their incipits, for these reveal the reason the expected O is replaced with Z – put simply, each antiphon begins with a word starting with Z, and by a process of elision the primitive O has doubtless been conformed to the following sibilant, as phoneticians and philologists will understand.

These are the incipits of the Dormitionist Z Antiphons for use with the Magnificat at Vespers from the 16^th to the 23^rd of December each passing year:

• Zzzzzzzzz zelo zelatus… (“With zeal have I been zealous…”)
• Zzzzzzzzz zephyrus ſpirat… (“The west wind bloweth…”)
• Zzzzzzzzz Zebaoth mitte… (“O Lord of Hosts, send…”)
• Zzzzzzzzz zinziare dignare… (“Vouchsafe to sing as a blackbird…”)
• Zzzzzzzzz zaconi lætate… (“Deacons, rejoice…”)
• Zzzzzzzzz zabule ulula… (“Devil, lament and cry [literally, ‘ululate’]…”)
• Zzzzzzzzz zunior fui… (“I was young…”)
• Zzzzzzzzz zona angelica… (“With an angelic girdle…”)

Note the intriguing use of the German spelling of Sabaoth (familiar to music lovers from Bach’s settings of the Sanctus), and of the vulgar Latin spellings zaconus, zabulus and zunior for diaconus, diabolus and junior.  (I leave it to the experts – above all the incomparable Fr Z – to comment further, as would seem most appropriate.)

Many observations could be made about these compositions; suffice to say that the first seems to be the original source of the well-known motto of the Carmelite Order, while the second, when its plainchant is reviewed, reveals itself as the remote origin of the famous Westron Wynde Masses of Taverner, Tye and Sheppard.

Some pedants and Ciceronians have contemptuously spoken of the language of these antiphons as infra dignitatem; but what shall we say of those who disdain Christian Latin, and mayhap proceed to traduce the Vulgate?  Such persons were behind the mutilation of venerable Latin hymns; their works are vain, and the Vulgate itself says of them, obstructum est os loquentium iniqua.

It will be noted that there are eight Z Antiphons, not merely seven, the total of the usual set of O Antiphons (though some Uses had more – the Premonstratensians, twelve).  This is surely a numerical reference to the Resurrection and the Eighth Day, when all Creation shall be renewed at the last.  Sacred numerology ought be a happy hunting ground for believers.

Beata Dei Genetrix

Each morning at Lauds of the Blessed Virgin, the Benedictus antiphon is as follows:

Beata Dei Genitrix Maria, Virgo perpetua, templum Domini, sacrarium Spiritus Sancti:

sola sine exemplo placuisti Domino nostro Jesu Christo:

ora pro populo, interveni pro clero, intercede pro devoto femineo sexu.

(Blessed Mother of God Mary, ever a Virgin, temple of the Lord, shrine of the Holy Ghost:

alone without peer thou didst please our Lord Jesus Christ:

pray for the people, intervene for the clergy, intercede for consecrated women.)

Interestingly, this Marian anthem is composed of three parts - the first is a series of Our Lady's titles; the second, a slightly expanded quotation from Sedulius (Carmen paschale, II, 69 - Sola sine exemplo placuisti femina Christo); the third, part of the prayer of Fulbert of Chartres long attributed to St Augustine (Serm. IX - ora pro populo; interveni pro clero; intercede pro devoto femineo sexu).

Sedulius also gives us the Introit for Our Lady, Salve sancta Parens (at which words the Carthusians genuflect in memory of the Incarnation): his verses were Salve, sancta parens, enixa puerpera regem, / Qui caelum terramque tenet per saecula... (Carmen paschale, II, 63f), but these the Church has expanded upon by changing the last words to regit in saecula saeculorum.

Salve, sancta parens,

enixa puerpera Regem,

qui caelum, terramque regit

in saecula saeculorum.

(Hail, holy Parent,

a woman in labour who didst bring forth the King,

Who ruleth heaven and earth

for ever and ever.)

From his abecedarian hymn A solis ortus cardine come some wonderful Christmas and Epiphany hymns, though his full text extends from the Infancy to the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. From the Carmen comes also the following lines (II, 66-68):

...quæ ventre beato
Gaudia matris habens cum virginitatis honore
Nec primam similem visa es nec habere sequentem:

(... by whose blessed womb

having the joys of a mother with the honour of virginity:

neither was one like seen before thee nor shall there be another)

These appear reused in various places in the Liturgy, such as in this antiphon sung before Christmas in some rites:

O Virgo virginum, quomodo fiet istud?

Quia nec primam similem visa es nec habere sequentem.

Filiæ Jerusalem, quid me admiramini?

Divinum est mysterium hoc quod cernitis.

(O Virgin of Virgins, how shall this be?

For neither before thee was any like thee, nor shall there be after.

Daughters of Jerusalem, why marvel ye at me?

The thing which ye behold is a divine mystery.)

As Gambero notes, Sedulius offers a synthesis and summary of all Mariology in a short passage of his Carmen (II, 63-69), parts of which have already been quoted above, parts taken up into the official Liturgy of Christ's Church:

Hail, O holy mother; you gave birth to the King

Who governs heaven and earth forever, whose

Divinity and dominion embrace everything in one eternal realm

And endure without end. In your blessed womb

You hold a mother's joy, yet you enjoy the honour of virginity.

No woman like you was seen before, nor did one appear after;

You alone, without comparison, were the woman who pleased Christ.

May the Blessed Virgin intercede for us with her Son, Who refuses nothing to His Mother in whom He is well-pleased.

Our Lady's Hours

Ante thorum hujus Virginis, frequentate nobis dulcia cantica dramatis.

(Before the couch of this Virgin, repeat often unto us sweet chants with solemnity.)

– Third antiphon of the First Nocturn both in Our Lady's Office and in the Common for her feasts; it is also the second antiphon at Matins for feasts of Virgins.

I have taken a break, so to speak, by turning to the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin these past few days... I must say, it has helped me observe the veritas horarum by reciting Matins upon arising (before dawn, it being winter), Lauds and then Prime around dawn when heading off for work, Terce, Sext, and None at their appropriate times mid-morning, noon and mid-afternoon, then Vespers in the evening twilight before dinner, and Compline later in the evening. The strain and stress of trying to get through the full Day Hours of the Breviary, and feeling guilty for not managing Matins, is good to get away from: and I like praying these beautiful Marian Hours in honour of the Holy Mother of God. For a long time, I had shied away from reading Our Lady's Hours alone, thinking it insufficiently liturgical; but this I realize is untrue.

While delighting in this devotion, the origin of certain lines in Our Lady's Office has been exercising my seldom-inactive discursive mind, or rather, my curiosity. Now, many verses and antiphons are plainly Scriptural, such as those from St Luke chapter i, or from the Psalms; many are just as plainly ancient and venerable ecclesiastical compositions, such as Dignare me laudare te; but there are some that seem to sit in-between, for example:

Benedicta, filia, tu a Domino, quia per te [*] fructum vitæ communicavimus.

(Blessed, daughter, art thou by the Lord, for through thee we have partaken of the fruit of life.)

Down to the asterisk, this text is a rearrangement of Judith xiii, 23b and 22b; but the second half is not Scriptural, though it plays on many Scriptural themes: Mary is the new Eve, not proffering the abysmal apple of deceit and death, but bringing forth to the faithful Him Who is the fruit of her womb, and the food of eternal life.

The text that really causes me confusion is the fifth antiphon of Vespers (used also in the Breviary for Marian feasts), since it sounds like a quotation from the Canticle of Canticles, but isn't:

Speciosa facta es et suavis in deliciis tuis, Sancta Dei Genitrix.

(Thou art made beauteous and sweet in thy delights, Holy Mother of God.)

I have been unable to find anything closely resembling the phrase Speciosa facta es et suavis in deliciis tuis in the Scriptures. Canticles vi, 3 contains the word suavis, while Cant. vii, 6 reads Quam pulchra es, et quam decora, carissima, in deliciis! - but neither of these bear more than a vague resemblance to this text. Where does it come from? I would appreciate any advice...

Finally, I was struck by the conceptual identity of Judith xiii,22b with the well-known antiphon Gaude Maria Virgo (a text I have long prayed daily):

Gaude, Maria Virgo, cunctas hæreses sola interemisti in universo mundo.

(Rejoice, Virgin Mary, all heresies alone thou hast crushed in the whole world.)

Benedixit te Dominus in virtute sua, quia per te ad nihilum redegit inimicos nostros.

(The Lord hath blessed thee with his power, for by thee have our enemies been brought to nought.)

Why?

Why is it that, on ordinary Sundays, the psalm antiphons for Lauds and the Little Hours have alleluias, whereas the antiphons for Vespers and Matins do not?

And furthermore, prior to the Office reform under Pope St Pius X, Lauds on Sundays after Pentecost (and after Epiphany) had only three antiphons: for the first three psalms (92, 99, and counting 62 and 66 together) Alleluja, alleluja. (not retained in the post-1912 Breviary); for the Benedicite (Dan. iii), Tres pueri as in the 1962; and for the praising-psalms (148-150, under one conclusion), Alleluja, alleluja, alleluja. (again, not retained).

Why?

The Holy Name

While I kept the Feast of the Most Holy Name of JESUS yesterday, since I was praying the 1962 Breviary (altho' I didn't get round to it till late at night after a very busy day!), in the modern Roman Rite the same feast (as an optional memorial) falls today, rather than attaching to the Sunday between the 2nd and the 5th inst., or failing that, on the 2nd; and the modern Martyrology declares:

Sanctissimi Nominis Jesu, in quo solo omne flectatur genu, cælestium, terrestrium et infernorum, ad gloriam divinæ majestatis.

(Of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, at which alone every knee shall bend, of celestials, of terrestrials and of infernals*, to the glory of the divine majesty.  [Cf. Phil. ii, 10-11.])

[*i.e. "of those who are in heaven, on earth, and in hell" – my little joke.]

This reminds me: one of the many things I like about the modern Divine Office is the inclusion of New Testament canticles at Vespers; and I liked to genuflect at the words Ut in nomine Jesu omne genu flectatur, cælestium, terrestrium, et infernorum, which appear each Saturday in the cancticle from Philippians ii, 6-11; I based this on the rubric requiring this genuflection at the same words when read on Palm Sunday (and on the feasts of the Holy Cross) as part of the Epistle at the Traditional Mass.

I also try to maintain the formerly universal Catholic custom of bowing the head at the name of Jesus.  It is a sad sign of secularization that this salutary practice has become so rare.

Today's a good day (especially since I hardly celebrated the Feast yesterday) to pray the Litanies of the Most Holy Name; also a good day to delight in the moving Office hymns – Jesu Rex admirabilis (at Matins), Jesu decus angelicum (at Lauds), and Jesu dulcis memoria (at Vespers)  – proper to the (Traditional version) of the feast, drawn from the Jubilus Rhythmicus (wrongly) attributed to St Bernard.

Certain versicles in the Office, widely used elsewhere in the Church's Liturgy, have great appeal also:

V/.   Sit nomen Domini benedictum.

R/.  Ex hoc nunc et usque in sæculum.  (Ps 112:2)

V/.  Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini.

R/.  Qui fecit cælum et terram.  (Ps 123:8)

V/.  Magnificate Dominum mecum.

R/.  Et exaltemus nomen ejus in idipsum.  (Ps 33:4)

Domine, Dominus noster, quam admirabile est nomen tuum in universa terra!  (Ps 8:2)

Ego autem in Domino gaudebo, et exsultabo in Deo Jesu meo.  (Hab.  iii, 18)

The last sentence - the 3rd antiphon at Vespers – is unique in that it is the actual Vulgate rendering of "But I will rejoice in the Lord, and exalt in God my Saviour": for that is the import of the Name Jesus.

This also reminds me of the pious customs for those at Sunday or festal Vespers to bow their heads (and doff their birettas...) at the half-verses Sanctum et terribile nomen ejus and Sit nomen Domini benedictum in Psalms 110 and 112, and even at et sanctum nomen ejus in the Magnificat.

Yesterday's Postcommunion at Mass in the extraordinary form is quite unusual:

Omnipotens æterne Deus, qui creasti et redemisti nos, respice propitius vota nostra: et sacrificium salutaris hostiæ, quod in honorem nominis Filii tui, Domini nostri Jesu Christi, majestati tuæ obtulimus, placido et benigno vultu suscipere digneris; ut gratia tua nobis infusa, sub glorioso nomine Jesu, æternæ prædestinationis titulo gaudeamus nomina nostra scripta esse in cælis.  Per eumdem Dominum...

(Almighty eternal God, Who hast created and redeemed us, graciously regard our prayers: and deign to receive with a placid and benign countenance the sacrifice of the saving Victim which we have offered unto Thy Majesty, in honour of the Name of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ; that Thy grace being poured forth into us,  we may rejoice at our names to be written in heaven under the glorious Name of Jesus as a title of eternal predestination.  Thro' the same...)

"For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved."  (Acts iv, 12.)

Childermas

The Holy Innocents bore witness to Christ, not by speaking, but by dying: and so they won the martyrs' crown.

In the Divine Office for their feast (a fine composition), and in a part of it online, an apposite extract is given from St Quodvultdeus, Archbishop of Carthage and Metropolitan of Africa, confessor of the Faith under the Arian Visigoths.

The Coventry Carol, with its haunting tune, and sad words, to me sums up the horror of this commemoration – the soldiers hunting out the children, bashing them against walls, slaying them with swords, the unchilded mothers screaming...

From among many versions of the Carol seen sung on YouTube:

In sympathy with the sadness of this feast, until the last pre-Conciliar reforms, the Te Deum at Matins and Gloria in excelsis at Mass were not sung on Childermas day except it fall on Sunday; and, except on Sunday, not red, but purple was worn.

As often, the Dominican Breviary puts us in touch with medieval tradition, and provides not only proper antiphons, but also proper psalms for Matins of the Holy Innocents, the antiphons drawing on and interpreting those psalms in light of the feast:

Aña i.  Novit Dominus vias Innocentium, qui non steterunt in viis peccatorum.  (Cf. Ps 1:6a, 1b; & Ps 1)

Aña ij.  Rex terræ infremuit adversus Christum: quia rex in Sion constitutus super innocentium millia regnat.  (Cf. Ps 2:1a, 2ac, 6ab; & Ps 2)

Aña iij.  Deus, judex justus, judica nos secundum innocentiam nostram.  (Cf. Ps 7:12a, 9bc; & Ps 7)

Aña iv.  Ex ore infantium, Deus, et lactentium laude perfecta, destruis inimicum.  (Cf. Ps 8:3; & Ps 8)

Aña v.  Judicabit Dominus pupillum, et viduam: et pluet super peccatores laqueos ignis.  (Cf. Ps 10:7; & Ps 10)

Aña vj.  Mortis usuras rex impius exegit super innocentes: sed illi requiescunt in monte sancto Dei; malignus ad nihilum est deductus.  (Cf. Ps 14:1b, 4a, 5ab; & Ps 14)

Aña vij.  Quis ascendit, aut quis stabit in loco sancto Dei?  Innocens manibus, et mundo corde.  (Cf. Ps 23:3-4a; & Ps 23)

Aña viij.  Innocentes adhæserunt mihi, quorum pedes avulsi sunt a laqueo mortis.  (Cf. Ps 24:21a, 15b; & Ps 24)

Aña ix.  Filio regis datum est judicium: ut salvet innocentes filios pauperem: et humiliabit Herodem calumniatorem.  (Cf. Ps 71:2b, 4bc; & Ps 71)

The last antiphon is instructive: Christ the newborn King, about Whose everlasting Reign the Royal Psalmist sings, is He to Whom judgement is given (by the Father); He shall save the innocent sons of the poor; and He shall humble Herod the proud.

The Beloved Disciple St John, Apostle and Evangelist

Today is the feast of the beloved disciple, St John, Apostle and Evangelist.  As I heard at Mass at Carmel in the homily today, St John reminds us in his Gospel that the Christ-Child brings us the same gifts at every Christmas: grace and truth (cf. S. John i, 14).

I thoroughly recommend, if it is not said at the Mass one attends (i.e., Traditional Roman – or Armenian Rite!), and even if it is, that the glorious prologue of St John's Gospel, the "Last [but really the first] Gospel", In principio erat Verbum (S. John i, 1-14) be read and prayed very often.  St Augustine records a man who desired it be written up in every church in letters of gold; I agree.  If the New Testament be 'greater' than the Old, and the Gospels 'greater' than the Acts, Epistles and Apocalypse, and the Johannine 'greater' than the Synoptics, then it is the first chapter of St John, and within it these glorious words, that is 'greatest' of all.  And genuflect at those sacred words, proclaiming the greatest event in all history:  Et Verbum caro factum est.

The traditional collect for today is as follows; I pair it with the collect for his former feast on the 6th of May, St John-before-the-Latin-Gate, commemorating his miraculous deliverance from being thrown in a vat of boiling oil:

Ecclesiam tuam, Domine, benignus illustra: ut beati Joannis Apostoli tui et Evangelistæ illuminata doctrinis, ad dona perveniat sempiternis.  Per Christum Dominum nostrum.  R/.  Amen.

(Lord, in Thy goodness shine upon Thy Church: that enlightened by the doctrines of blessed John, Thine Apostle and Evangelist, she may attain unto everlasting gifts.  Thro' Christ our Lord.  R/.  Amen.)

Deus, qui conspicis quia nos undique mala nostra perturbant: præsta, quæsumus; ut beati Joannis Apostoli tui et Evangelistæ intercessio gloriosa nos protegat.  Per Christum Dominum nostrum.  R/.  Amen.

(O God, Who seest that on every side we are afflicted by our evils: deny us not, we entreat Thee, the safeguard of the glorious intercession of blessed John Thine Apostle and Evangelist.  Thro' Christ our Lord.  R/.  Amen.)

Tho' the Roman Breviary does not have proper Matins antiphons for this feast, the Dominican does, and I append them:

Aña j.  Joannes Apostolus, et Evangelista, virgo est electus a Domino, atque inter cæteros magis dilectus.  

Aña ij.  Supra pectus Domini Jesu recumbens, Evangelii fluenta de ipso sacro Dominici pectoris fonte potavit.  

Aña iij.  Quasi unus de Paradisi fluminibus Evangelista Joannes, verbi Dei gratiam in toto terrarum orbe diffudit.  

(These antiphons of the First Nocturn describe St John, the Beloved Disciple, reclining on Our Our Lord's breast, and drawing from His Sacred Heart the secret inspiration for the Fourth Gospel.)

Aña iv.  In ferventis olei dolium missus Joannes Apostolus, divina se protegente gratia, illæsus exivit.  

Aña v.  Propter insuperabilem evangelizandi constantiam exilio relegatus, divinæ visionis, et allocutionis meruit crebra consolatione revelari.  

Aña vj.  Occurrit beato Joanni, ab exilio revertenti, omnis populus virorum, ac mulierum, clamantium et dicentium: Benedictus, qui venit in nomine Domini.  

(These antiphons of the Second Nocturn – probably drawing on apocryphal sources –  describe how the attempt to boil the Apostle in oil was foiled, how he was exiled to Patmos, there received the vision of the Apocalypse, and upon returning to his see of Ephesus was feted by all.)

Aña vij.  Apparuit charo suo Joanni Dominus Jesus Christus cum discipulis suis, et ait illi: Veni, dilecte mi, ad me, quia tempus est, ut epuleris in convivio meo cum fratribus tuis.  

Aña viij.  Expandens manus suas ad Deum, dixit: Invitatus ad convivium tuum venio, gratias agens, quia me dignatus es, Domine Jesu Christe, ad tuas epulas invitare: sciens, quia ex toto corde meo desiderabam te.  

Aña ix.  Domine, suscipe me, ut cum fratribus meis sim, cum quibus veniens invitasti me: aperi mihi januam vitæ, et perduc me ad convivium epularum tuarum: tu enim es Christus filius Dei vivi, qui præcepto Patris mundum salvasti: tibi gratias referimus per infinita sæculorum sæcula.  

(These antiphons of the Third Nocturn – again, seemingly from some apocryphal source – tell of how Our Lord appeared to St John, calling him home to heaven, and how the aged Evangelist cried out with joy and gratitude that He Who had loved and chosen him from childhood years now at last drew him for ever to Himself.)