If High Mass is Too Short

If High Mass is too short, to begin with, a vernacular hymn can be sung beforehand, during the procession of the sacred ministers and servers from the sacristy, out through its exterior door, down along beside the outside of the church and in through the great west doors (or, during inclement weather, down one of the side aisles to the back of the church), then up the central aisle to the altar. In addition to this, or as an alternative, the former custom of many churches of France could be adopted – to sing the Veni Creator, with the usual versicle and collect, before Mass. (On Sundays, of course, the usual sprinkling of holy water during the Asperges, versicles and collect would immediately precede the Introit.)

As adjuncts to preaching, vernacular hymns before and after the sermon could be sung, such singing being an old German custom. And of course the sermon itself could begin with the sign of the cross, the reading of the Scriptural text upon which the sermon is founded and developed, and a prefatory “Hail Mary”, while at its end the sermon could end with an ascription of praise, to which some suitable versicle (for example, on Good Shepherd Sunday, Jesu, Pastor bone, – Miserere nobis) could be appended, and then the sign of the cross for a conclusion.

(I pass over in respectful silence the potentially limitless extension of the duration of High Mass by the indefatigable expatiations of the preacher himself...)

Furthermore, following various customs of old time, traditional forms of intercessory prayer could be read after the sermon, such as that known in France as Prône, consisting of prayers for the living (Psalm 122, Kyrie, Pater noster, several versicles and a collect) and the dead (Psalm 129, several more versicles and another collect).

After Mass ends, at the conclusion of the Last Gospel, it is in many places the pious custom for the sacred ministers and servers to process first to the Lady Chapel and there lead the singing of the seasonal Marian anthem, with its versicle and collect. (In England, of course, the prescribed versicle and collect for the Queen would first be chanted; in France, the equivalent versicle is sung thrice before the Postcommunion.) After that, a recessional hymn in the vernacular could suitably be sung while they depart by the long way, down the central aisle, then out the west doors and back around the outside of the church to the sacristy (or, if the weather is unfavourable, returning thence via one of the side aisles).

To summarize, these are suitable optional additions to High Mass:

1. Before (Asperges and) Mass:

(a) Processional Hymn

(b) Veni Creator, versicle & collect

2. At Sermon:

(a) Hymn before Sermon

(b) Sign of the Cross, text & Hail Mary before Sermon

(c) Final ascription of praise, then versicle & Sign of the Cross after Sermon

(d) Hymn after Sermon

(e) Intercessory Prayers

3. After Mass:

(a) Marian anthem, versicle & collect

(b) Recessional Hymn

Such an addition of up to four hymns would afford a valuable opportunity for congregational singing of quality vernacular hymnody, in addition to the chanting of the Ordinary (either led by the choir, or sung in parts by them alone), and the Proper (by the choir alone). It goes without saying that the choir would typically also sing suitable Offertory and Communion Motets – and, following the French custom, it could add an Elevation Motet (O salutaris hostia, or Ave verum, or Pie Jesu at Masses for the dead).

Hymns in Time of Pestilence

Time for an overseas holiday?

Daniel Defoe (c. 1660-1731), in his 1722 work A Journal of the Plague Year, portrays his narrator, stranded in London during its last great plague of 1665, as doing much as any conscientious believer ought in time of prudent self-isolation and enforced quarantine:

Terrified by those frightful objects, I... retire[d] home... and resolve[d] to go out no more; and... I [kept] those resolutions for... days, which time I spent in the most serious thankfulness for my preservation and the preservation of my family, and the constant confession of my sins, giving myself up to God every day, and applying to Him with fasting, humiliation, and meditation. 

As we enter upon the coronavirus pandemic – may it be mild, not severe; may but few suffer, not many; may we repent and beg mercy; God’s will be done – here are some old hymns by Protestant writers that demonstrate a full-blooded Scriptural acceptance of plague and pestilence as instruments chosen by the Almighty to inflict salutary punishment upon us sinful mortals, who ought read these signs of the times aright, and therefore repent and implore the Lord’s clemency, that we may not endure his wrath.

The first two were written by James Montgomery (1771-1854) and issued as “Hymns to be sung on the Day of Humiliation, Wednesday, August 22nd, 1832”, as observed in Sheffield, England, to pray for the cessation of a cholera outbreak: 

Hymn 1. (C.M.) [I omit the original first verse]

1. Let priests and people, high and low,
Rich, poor, and great, and small,
Invoke, in fellowship of woe,
The Maker of them all.  

2. For God hath summoned from his place
Death in a direr form,
To waken, warn, and scourge our race,
Than earthquake, fire, or storm.  

3. Let churches weep within their pale,
And families apart;
Let each in secrecy bewail
The plague of his own heart.  

4. So, while the land bemoans its sin,
The pestilence may cease,
And mercy, tempering wrath, bring in
God’s saving health and peace. 

Hymn 2. (L.M.) 

1. It is the Lord!—Behold his hand
Outstretched with an afflictive rod;
And hark! a voice goes through the land,
“Be still, and know that I am God.”  

2. Shall we, like guilty Adam, hide
In darkest shades our darker fears?
For who his coming may abide,
Or who shall stand when he appears?  

3. No,—let us throng around his seat;
No,—let us meet him face to face;
Prostrate our spirits at his feet,
Confess our sins, and sue for grace.  

4. Who knows but God will hear our cries,
Turn swift destruction from our path,
Restrain his judgments, or chastise
In tender mercy, not in wrath?  

5. He will, he will, for Jesus pleads;
Let heaven and earth his love record;
For us, for us he intercedes,
Our help is nigh:—it is the Lord.

The next hymn is a selection from the metrical paraphrase made by Isaac Watts (1674-1748) of the first part of Psalm 91 (Psalm 90 in the Vulgate), significantly subtitled “Safety in public diseases and dangers” from his masterful version of The Psalms of David (1719), utilising stanzas 6, 5, 7, 9 and 10 – the reordering gives a better sense:

Hymn. (L.M.) 

1. If vapours with malignant breath
Rise thick, and scatter midnight death,
Israel is safe; the poisoned air
Grows pure, if Israel’s God be there. 

2. If burning beams of noon conspire
To dart a pestilential fire,
God is their life; his wings are spread
To shield them with a healthful shade. 

3. What though a thousand at thy side,
At thy right hand ten thousand died,
Thy God his chosen people saves
Amongst the dead, amidst the graves. 

4. But if the fire, or plague, or sword,
Receive commission from the Lord
To strike his saints among the rest,
Their very pains and deaths are blest. 

5. The sword, the pestilence or fire,
Shall but fulfil their best desire;
From sins and sorrows set them free,
And bring thy children, Lord, to thee.

And my last choice of hymns for these troublous times is taken from Hymns Ancient and Modern, being written by William Bullock (1798-1874):

Hymn. (C.M.) 

1. In grief and fear to thee, O Lord,
We now for succour fly;
Thine awful judgements are abroad,
O shield us lest we die. 

2. The fell disease on every side
Walks forth with tainted breath;
And pestilence, with rapid stride,
Bestrews the land with death. 

3. O look with pity on the scene
Of sadness and of dread;
And let thine Angel stand between
The living and the dead. 

4. With contrite hearts to thee, our King,
We turn who oft have stray’d;
Accept the sacrifice we bring,
And let the plague be stay’d. Amen.

Hymns for St Monica

In honour of St Monica, whose feast occurs today, here follows an opening invocation, and then a longer account of her life, being the hymns for each Hour of a Little Office in her honour, all from a little booklet published in Munich at the end of the seventeenth century (Officium Novum cum Litaniis S. Monicæ Matris S. Augustini Hipponensis Episcopi, et Ecclesiæ Doctoris Eximii. Monachii. Typis Joannis Lucæ Straubii, 1695). As for both the metre is 8.8.7.8.8.7. and the rhyme scheme AABCCB, they would serve better in liturgical use as a rhyming antiphon and a sequence respectively. It will be seen that the successive first letters of each line of the Invocation and Commendation spell out Sancta Monica; moreover, the successive first letters of the last word in each line of the Commendation spell out adjuva filios. May she indeed help her spiritual sons!

Invocatio. 

Salve, decus feminarum,

Atque norma viduarum,

Nostra, salve, gloria,

Cujus lacrymis debemus

Tanta (quibus indigemus)

Augustini merita.

Magna Parens nos clientes,

Omnes tuis impendentes

Nostras vires laudibus,

Intellectum, voluntatem,

Cor, et omnem facultatem

Addimus applausibus. Amen.

******

Ad Matutinum. Hymnus.

Ab æterno plurimorum

Quondam Mater filiorum

Præelecta Monica

Ex parentibus honestis,

Perdevotis ac modestis

Nascitur in Africa.

Ab his pie educata,

Cunctarumque exornata

Est virtutum genere:

Æmulas hinc accendebat,

Omnibusque prælucebat

Pietatis munere.

Ad Primam. Hymnus.

Sic virtutibus exculta,

Atque annis jam adulta

Jungitur Patritio

Sponsa viro perdilecta,

Pia, prudens, circumspecta,

Carens omni vitio.

Is cum esset præceps ira,

Perque verba petens dira

Innocentem conjugem,

Cuncta silens perferebat;

Sic per suam corrigebat

Virum mansuetudinem.

Ad Tertiam. Hymnus.

Augustinum cælo datum,

Et ad alta destinatum

Læta parit filium,

Quem ob lumen secuturum,

Jam in spiritu futurum

Dixerat Aurelium.

Hunc ad omnem pietatis,

Optatæque probitatis

Componebat semitam,

Dans cum lacte Jesu nomen,

Velut veram cordis gnomen

Ac salutis tesseram.

Ad Sextam. Hymnus.

Sed incassum sunt hæc nato

Ad perversa inclinato

Sana Matris monita:

Abit, et Manichæorum

Novem spatio annorum

Tenet falsa dogmata.

Sentibus his irretitum,

Vinculisque compeditum

Mater luget filium;

Piæ lacrymæ parentis

Rogant Dei miserentis

Desuper auxilium.

Ad Nonam. Hymnus.

Audi, Mater, consolantem

Et afflictæ prophetantem

Præsulem Ambrosium,

Posse neutiquam tantarum

Precum, atque lacrymarum

Deperire filium.

Eja ergo! Phœbus splendet

(Salus filii impendet)

Fletuum post nubila:

En jam Deum adorantem

Augustinum, tecum stantem

In eadem regula.

Ad Vesperas. Hymnus.

Post Baptismum Roman pergit

Augustinus, inde vergit

Tiberis ad Ostia:

Hic cum ventos expectaret,

Ut in Africam mearet

Cum Parente Monica.

Ad fenestram incumbentes,

Et de cælo colloquentes

Soli valde dulciter,

Spretis mundi his figmentis

De supernis jam fluentis

Delibarunt suaviter.

Ad Completorium. Hymnus.

Tota viribus jam fracta,

Atque voti compos facta

De salute filii,

Ait: dum me sepelitis,

Mei memores tunc sitis

Ad Altare Domini.

Ergo cælis implantanda,

Angelisque socianda

Ad æterna avolat,

Super uno peccatore

Pænitentiam agente

Ut post fletum gaudeat.

Commendatio.

Sublevamen anxiatis,

Ac solamen desolatis,

Nobis præsta indig[n]is;

Corda Deo fac unita,

Tribuatur per te vita

Animabus aridis.

Mentem firma fluctuantem,

Orci nobis inhiantem

Noctem pelle lumine;

In æternum jubilare,

Contra hostes nos ovare,

Ac salvari, satage. Amen.

The Anglican Use in Sydney

As mentioned, I was all set to go to Low Mass at St Mary's Cathedral when a chance remark by my host alerted me to the proximity of the local Ordinariate group – so I ended up attending their Anglican Use Mass at the chapel of Lady Davidson Private Hospital, just near the entrance to Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park (where I'd been for a short bushwalk the day before).

The Ordinariate Mass is held there at 9:30 am, which has been their time slot for some years, well before their group came into full communion late last year (they had been members of the Traditional Anglican Communion); the local Anglicans who belong to the Sydney Diocese (notoriously low, more Puritan than anything else, and quite anti-Catholic) hold services there also, before and after, and having to share use of the premises has been less than ideal, since all has to be carefully set up and then packed away every week.

The altar, readied for the Sacred Mysteries (note server on the right). 

My friend (who's been there before), myself, and another cradle Catholic (he tells me he now always goes there) joined the Ordinariate group for the liturgy; Fr Warren Wade (ordained as an Anglican in 1961, and as a Catholic in 2012) kindly introduced himself to Mike and me before the service, while the altar was being readied by the server and members of the congregation, with crucifix, six candles, an altar stone, and all other needful items.

Mass was celebrated ad orientem, with incense, kneeling for Communion (under both kinds), and "the playing of the merry organ"; however, their lack of a choir that can assemble and practise beforehand – they travel from all across greater Sydney to come to this Mass – precluded more than the singing of four hymns. (I recalled that the Capuchins had the immemorial custom of using incense at their conventual Low Mass.) 

For the record, they used the New English Hymnal, from which they sang:

1. Introit Hymn "And now, O Father, mindful of the love" (NEH 273);
2. Offertory Hymn "Shall we not love thee, Mother dear" (NEH 184);
3. Communion Hymn "Wherefore, O Father, we thy humble servants" (NEH 313);
4. Last Hymn "Love Divine, all loves excelling" (NEH 408, to the tune Blaenwern).

I would have liked to join in in good voice, but I had never sung the first three, and knew a different tune to the fourth! Ah well.

The readings were those of the modern Roman Rite for this Sunday; the homily was very good, the highlight for me being Father's retelling of his visiting a dying parishioner, who was fearful as to whether his sins had really been forgiven him by the Lord: raising a crucifix before his dying eyes, the good priest had reminded that man not to think on sins past, but on the power of Christ Crucified.

Within their Mass booklet, as part of its adaptation for Catholic use, a copy of the Roman Canon as given in traditional language in the Catholic Church's Anglican Use Book of Divine Worship was inserted, and this was prayed.  Earlier, drawing on their own heritage, they had used the prayers of the faithful as drawn up for use in the Anglican Catholic Church of Australia, with suitable adaptations, such as special prayers for the Pope emeritus (how strange that still sounds), the Cardinals, and the new Pope soon to be elected.

As in my earlier experiences of Anglican Use worship, it was most fitting and right to pray the Collect for Purity and the Prayer of Humble Access: Fr Wade told me afterward that several Catholics have asked him for copies of the latter, that they might use it privately in preparation for Holy Communion – that indeed is the sort of cross-fertilization that Holy Church rejoices in, now that the long-sundered Anglican Patrimony is brought back into the fold, reunited to the Western Church from which it sprang.

One amusing detail: given the following of the Order of Mass in the Book of Divine Worship, the offertory prayers, the Orate fratres, the Prayer over the Gifts (Oblations) and the words of consecration were still in their old ICEL version, since the BDW is currently in process of being updated to match the new translation.

Mass concluded, several devotional prayers were appended: the Last Gospel, the Ordinariate Prayers drawn up by Bp Elliott, the Angelus, the Salve Regina with Collect, and then the recessional hymn. I rather too cheekily joked later – forgive me – that Catholics might be put off by the fact that the service ran for just over an hour!

After Mass, while enjoying a cuppa and a biscuit (by ill chance the simnel cake ordered for "Mothering Sunday" had gone astray), I remarked how – given my long acquaintance with the Latin Mass – the service felt quite familiar to me (for instance, before Mass proper began, as a sort of preparatory devotion, the priest and server said Psalm 42(43) alternately in a low voice, etc.); one of them explained how they had long used the English Missal (a translation of the Missale Romanum by Anglo-Papalists), and hence their manner of celebrating Mass is influenced by the older Catholic forms. Fr Wade remarked that he still has to get used to various changes in the wording, and apologized for an innocent mistake he'd made because of this.

I am very glad to have joined these good people to "worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness" and hope to do so again, when next I am in Sydney. May they continue to share their Patrimony, including the dignified and reverent celebration of Holy Mass, with the wider Church, and may their ongoing efforts to grow and evangelize bear much fruit.

Newman Sunday

According to my trusty companion to the altar (Juergens, My Daily Missal, 1963), this is the 17th Sunday after Pentecost, ... apparently the parish was keeping, not so much the relevant Sunday in Ordinary Time (I don't know what number, I remain wisely ignorant of that), as the Beatification of John Henry Newman: hooray!

The processional hymn, therefore, was "Firmly I believe and truly", and the recessional, "Praise to the Holiest in the height" – both penned by the Beatus-elect, as part of his great poem The Dream of Gerontius, wherein these stanzas, amongst others, express the faith and trust and hope of the dying "old man" of the title: surely a figure of Everyman.  Likewise, the latter part of the sermon, as also more than a page of the parish bulletin, was all about about-to-be-Blessed John Henry.

Regarding that great poem, it is surely a very deep expression of Newman's profoundly Godward outlook, rightly Oriented toward the true East (as Donne said) – for this was a saint who daily, as well as praying the prayers of preparation for and thanksgiving after Mass in the Breviary or Missal, also recited the prayers for the dying, the Ordo commendationis animæ, which he prayed for his own and all mortal souls: 

• the brief Litanies for the dying – quoted in Newman's Dream of Gerontius;
• the prayer Proficiscere, anima christiana ("Go forth, Christian soul") – versified in Newman's Dream of Gerontius ("Go forth upon thy journey, Christian soul");
• the prayer Deus misericors ("Merciful God");
• the prayer Commendo te omnipotenti Deo ("I commend thee to almighty God");
• the prayer Suscipe, Domine, servum tuum ("Receive, Lord, Thy servant"), set out as versicles and responses – versified in Newman's Dream of Gerontius ("Rescue him, O Lord, in this his evil hour");
• the prayer Commendamus tibi ("We commend unto Thee");
• the prayer Delicta juventutis... ne memineris ("Remember not the sins of his youth");
• the prayer Clementissima Virgo ("Most clement Virgin");
• the prayer Ad te confugio sancte Joseph ("To thee I fly, Saint Joseph");
• and also, perhaps, the suggested aspirations in expiratione, at the time of expiring: Jesu, Jesu, Jesu... In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum... Jesu, Maria, Joseph...

The eight long prayers in particular are most worthy meditations for all, the Cardinal evidently believed, as he taught by his own example.

Did he nightly say even the responsory Subvenite, with preces and collect, for his own soul?  A worthy devotion.

How many of us will have the chance of a deathbed as was the ideal of old, with priest and family gathered to pray as we pass on?  Perhaps our best chance is to pray these prayers now.

In particular, I recall the most saluary prayer, the Hail Mary: every time we say it, we supplicate her to "pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death".  A great consolation!

As for "Firmly I believe and truly", here are the seldom-sung first and last, Latin, verses thereof:

Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus,

De profundis oro te,

Miserere, Judex meus,

Parce mihi, Domine.

Sanctus fortis, Sanctus Deus,

De profundis oro te,

Miserere, Judex meus,

Mortis in discrimine.

******

For those curious, I like to read in my Trad. Missal as much of the Proper and Ordinary as possible, while still attending to the Mass going on – so for instance, singing the English paraphrase of the Gloria while reading the Latin, and ditto while saying the Creed.  Some prayers, such as the Domine non sum dignus, I always say in Latin, albeit softly enough for those around not to notice this singularity, I trust.  Using my hand-missal in this way helps me to deal with having perforce to attend the Novus Ordo, when I would far rather go to the Traditional Mass always, but cannot since it is not available here.

Listening to Bruckner in the car to and from Mass also helps – "Locus iste", "Ecce sacerdos magnus", and "Christus factus est", as sung just yester-day at the Pope's Mass in London.

The key to the modern Mass, I find, is attending one offered by a devout priest – some priests by their antics can make it a torture.  Yet, as a friend of mine put it, and he lives in a parish with a vile misbeliever, "Jesus has to come to Mass – so why don't you?".  Too true!  Offering oneself up as a victim soul helps in such circumstances; but when I've had to be at a service that was a congeries of liturgical abuses, I did become horribly upset – I suppose it gives me some tiny inkling of what people suffer when they are the innocent helpless targets of evildoers.

The Lord's Most Holy Crown of Thorns – II

Here are the proper hymns for the feast of the Crown of Thorns (kept on the 24th of April in the Dominican Rite), which I think are quite fine, although I can't spare the time to translate them, alas – first, for Matins and Vespers:

Æternæ Regi gloriæ 

Devota laudum cantica

Fideles solvant hodie 

Pro Corona Dominica.

Coronat Regem omnium

Corona contumeliæ,

Cujus nobis opprobrium 

Coronam confert gloriæ.

De spinarum aculeis 

Christi Corona plectitur, 

Qua ministris tartareis 

Mundi potestas tollitur. 

Corona Christi capitis, 

Sacro perfusa sanguine, 

Pœnis solutis debitis, 

Reos purgat a crimine. 

Laus Christo, Regi gloriæ, 

Pro Coronæ virtutibus, 

Qua nos reformans gratiæ 

Coronet in cælestibus.  Amen.

And at Lauds:

Lauda, fidelis concio,

Spinae trophæum inclytum,

Per quam perit perditio

Vitæque datur meritum.

Nos a puncturis liberat

Æterni Patris Filius,

Dum spinis pungi tolerat,

Spinarum culpæ nescius.

Dum spinarum aculeum

Christus pro nobis pertulit,

Per diadema spineum

Vitæ coronam contulit.

Plaudat turba fidelium,

quod per spinæ ludibrium

purgat Creator omnium

spineti nostri vitium.

Laus Christo, Regi gloriæ,

Pro Coronæ virtutibus,

Qua nos reformans gratiæ

Coronet in cælestibus.  Amen.

Alleluia, alleluia, * Alleluia

All this week I've had the inestimable pleasure – for it is such a true, graced consolation – of praying the whole Office, and at the right times, too, giving to the day its rightful rhythm of prayer and praise.  Several mornings I had the opportunity to pray en plein air in the early morning, overlooking the beach, in the natural chapel of God's creation (which declares His glory): Matins, Lauds, and Prime.

The Breviary I'm now adhering to is the Dominican, which has many fine features above and beyond those it shares with its Roman brother.  For instance, for Paschaltide ferias, the Invitatory anthem for the Venite at the opening of the day's Hours is simply a triple Alleluia: what more can be said?

What is the versicle at Easter Lauds in the Roman Office is instead the "sacerdotal" verse preceding the start of Lauds (a very common mediæval item, this):

In resurrectione tua, Christe, alleluia. – Cæli et terra lætentur, alleluia.

At Thy Resurrection, O Christ, alleluia. – Heaven and earth rejoice, alleluia.

The Matins hymn in the Dominican Breviary, Aurora lucis rutilat, is instead the Lauds hymn (mucked about with under Urban VIII) in the Roman; while their respective Lauds (Sermone blando Angelus) and Matins hymns (Rex sempiterne cælitum) are utterly different.  Again, how good it is to have the old authentick words of the splendid Vesper hymn, Ad cenam Agni providi, not the pseudo-classicized Ad regias Agni dapes!  Still further, reading Dominican Compline one finds a proper hymn for Eastertide, Jesu nostra redemptio (almost completely rewritten in the Roman books as Salutis humanæ Sator, and there used as the Lauds hymn of Ascensiontide).

This week (the second after the Paschal Octave) the Collect (for the 2nd Sunday after Easter) has been Deus qui in Filii tui humilitate jacentem mundum erexisti: "God, Who in Thy Son hath raised up the fallen world".  What a mighty statement of fact!  And it goes on: "to Thy faithful a perpetual joy concede: that those whom Thou hast snatched" (eripuisti, from ex + rapere) "from the dangers of perpetual death, Thou mayest make to have fruition of everlasting joys".

The repetition of "perpetual" (perpetuam, perpetuæ), contrasting the endless death from which we have been snatched with the endless joys we now supplicate, that they be everlasting (sempiternis),  and the repeated words for "joy(s)" (lætitiam, gaudiis) indeed intensify the prayer.  As God by His Son's humility unto death did indeed raise the world from its primal fall, so too may we be rescued from all perils of endless death (in hell) and given instead, entirely as a gift, the joys that are eternal (in heaven): all of which we ask through the same Christ our risen Lord.  What better prayer than this?

Deus qui in Filii tui humilitate jacentem mundum erexisti, fidelibus tuis perpetuam concede lætitiam: ut, quos perpetuæ mortis eripuisti casibus, gaudiis facias perfrui sempiternis.  Per eundem Dominum...

Three Hymns for Christ the Priest

Here are three striking hymns in honour of Christ in His Priesthood:


JESUS, IN THEE OUR EYES BEHOLD

— Isaac Watts (1674-1748), Hymns and Spiritual Songs, 1707-1709.  SM (8.6.8.6.)

Jesus, in thee our eyes behold

A thousand glories more,

Than the rich gems and polished gold

The sons of Aaron wore.

They first their own burnt offerings brought,

To purge themselves from sin;

Thy life was pure without a spot,

And all thy nature clean.

Fresh blood as constant as the day

Was on their altar spilt;

But thy one offering takes away

For ever all our guilt.

Their priesthood ran through several hands,

For mortal was their race;

Thy never changing office stands

Eternal as thy days.

Once in the circuit of a year,

With blood, but not his own,

Aaron within the veil appears

Before the golden throne:

But Christ, by his own powerful blood,

Ascends above the skies,

And in the presence of our God

Shows his own sacrifice.

Jesus, the King of glory, reigns

On Zion’s heav’nly hill;

Looks like a lamb that has been slain,

And wears his priesthood still.

He ever lives to intercede

Before his Father’s face:

Give him, my soul, thy cause to plead,

Nor doubt the Father’s grace.


WHERE HIGH THE HEAVENLY TEMPLE STANDS (cf. Heb 4:14-16)

— Attr. Michael Bruce, c. 1764; Scottish Paraphrases, 1781.  LM (8.8.8.8.)

Where high the heavenly temple stands,

The house of God not made with hands,

A great High Priest our nature wears,

The Guardian of mankind appears.

He Who for men their Surety stood,

And poured on earth his precious blood,

Pursues in Heaven his mighty plan,

The Saviour and the Friend of man.

Though now ascended up on high,

He bends on earth a brother’s eye;

Partaker of the human name,

He knows the frailty of our frame.

Our fellow Sufferer yet retains

A fellow feeling of our pains:

And still remembers in the skies

His tears, his agonies, and cries.

In every pang that rends the heart,

The Man of Sorrows had a part,

He sympathizes with our grief,

And to the sufferer sends relief.

With boldness, therefore, at the throne,

Let us make all our sorrows known;

And ask the aids of heavenly power

To help us in the evil hour.


VICTIM DIVINE, THY GRACE WE CLAIM

— Charles Wesley (1707-1788), Hymns on the Lord’s Supper, 1745.

Victim Divine, thy grace we claim,

While thus thy precious death we show:

Once offered up a spotless Lamb,

In thy great temple here below,

Thou didst for all mankind atone,

And standest now before the throne.

Thou standest in the holy place,

As now for guilty sinners slain;

The blood of sprinkling speaks, and prays,

All prevalent for helpless man;

Thy blood is still our ransom found,

And speaks salvation all around.

The smoke of thy atonement here

Darkened the sun, and rent the veil,

Made the new way to Heaven appear,

And showed the great Invisible;

Well pleased in thee, our God looked down,

And calls his rebels to a crown.

He still respects thy sacrifice;

Its savour sweet doth always please:

The offering smokes through earth and skies,

Diffusing life, and joy, and peace;

To these, thy lower courts, it comes,

And fills them with divine perfumes.

 We need not now go up to Heaven,

To bring the long sought Saviour down;

Thou art to all already given,

Thou dost e’en now thy banquet crown:

To every faithful soul appear,

And show thy real presence here!

The Dominican a Simpler Office

I have been interested – when I've managed to pray the Office at all, these ten days past have been very difficult, disrupted and fruitless – in observing the quite pleasant differences between the Roman and Dominican Breviaries.

For example (and I didn't quite believe it till I sat down and carefully compared the full Breviaries of each, for the time per annum and for Septuagesimatide (or as my '56 Diurnal terms it, from the Octave of the Epiphany until Lent, and from the Octave [now suppressed] of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus until Advent), the Dominican books give a single hymn for each of Matins, Lauds and Vespers - the Roman provides seven for each, one per weekday.

At Matins, the Dominican hymn is Nocte surgentes, vigilemus omnes [but with a strange difference in the last lines: cujus reboat in omni / Gloria mundo, using the rarer verb reboö, "to resound"] (the Roman books use this for the Sundays after Trinity until the end of September only); at Lauds, Ecce jam noctis tenuatur umbris (the Roman again appoints this only for Sundays after Trinity till the end of September); and at Vespers, Lucis Creator optime [the Dominican is as the modern Liturgia Horarum, reading Cælorum pulset intimum for the start of the second-last stanza] (the Roman Sunday Vespers hymn) - excepting only that on Saturday evenings, for the first Vespers of Sunday, the hymn is instead (as in the Roman Office) O lux beata Trinitas.

Some Hymns about the Eucharistic Sacrifice

Staying on my Anglican theme (I am a man of enthusiasms), here are some decent hymns teaching the doctrine of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the One Oblation of Christ made present in the Mass and offered up for all the living and the dead; first, three short hymns, and then two longer ones, of which my favourite is that by V.S.S. Coles, for its fullblooded declaration of doctrine:

William H. H. Jervois (1852-1905) & William B. Trevelyan (1853-1929), The English Hymnal (London: Oxford University Press, 1906), number 308:

Father, see thy children bending at thy throne,

Pleading here the Passion of thine only Son,

Pleading here before thee all his dying love,

As he pleads it ever in the courts above.

Not for our wants only we this Offering plead,

But for all thy children, who thy mercy need;

Bless thy faithful people, win thy wandering sheep,

Keep the souls departed who in Jesus sleep.

William H. H. Jervois (1852-1905), The English Hymnal (London: Oxford University Press, 1906), number 328:

See, Father, thy belovèd Son,

Whom here we now present to thee;

The all sufficient Sacrifice,

The sinner’s one and only plea.

Through him we pray for all we love,

For all by pain or sin oppressed;

For souls departed in thy fear:

O grant them thine eternal rest.

William H. H. Jervois (1852-1905), The English Hymnal (London: Oxford University Press, 1906), number 335:

Wherefore, O Father, we thy humble servants

Here bring before thee Christ, thy well belovèd,

All-perfect Offering, Sacrifice immortal,

Spotless Oblation.

See now thy children, making intercession

Through him our Saviour, Son of God incarnate,

For all thy people, living and departed,

Pleading before thee.

Vincent S. S. Coles (1845-1929), The English Hymnal (London: Oxford University Press, 1906), number 334:

We pray thee, heavenly Father,

To hear us in thy love,

And pour upon thy children

The unction from above;

That so in love abiding,

From all defilement free,

We may in pureness offer

Our Eucharist to thee.

All that we have we offer,

For it is all thine own;

All gifts by thy appointment

In bread and cup are shown;

One thing alone we bring not,

The wilfulness of sin;

And all we bring is nothing,

Save that which is within.

Within the pure oblation,

Beneath the outward sign,

By that his operation,—

The Holy Ghost divine, —

Lies hid the sacred Body,

Lies hid the precious Blood

Once slain, now ever glorious,

Of Christ our Lord and God.

Wherefore though all unworthy

To offer sacrifice,

We pray that this our duty

Be pleasing in thine eyes;

For praise, and thanks and worship,

For mercy and for aid,

The Catholic oblation

Of Jesus Christ is made.

William Bright (1824-1901), The English Hymnal (London: Oxford University Press, 1906), number 302:

And now, O Father, mindful of the love

That bought us, once for all, on Calvary's Tree,

And having with us him that pleads above,

We here present, we here spread forth to thee

That only Offering perfect in thine eyes,

The one, true, pure, immortal Sacrifice.

Look, Father, look on his anointed face,

And only look on us as found in him;

Look not on our misusings of thy grace,

Our prayer so languid, and our faith so dim:

For lo, between our sins and their reward

We set the Passion of thy Son our Lord.

Part 2.

And then for those, our dearest and our best,

By this prevailing Presence we appeal:

O fold them closer to thy mercy's breast,

O do thine utmost for their souls' true weal;

From tainting mischief keep them white and clear,

And crown thy gifts with strength to persevere.

And so we come: O draw us to thy feet,

Most patient Saviour, who canst love us still;

And by this Food, so aweful and so sweet,

Deliver us from every touch of ill:

In thine own service make us glad and free,

And grant us never more to part with thee.

I suspect that these hymns were sung in advanced Ritualistic Anglican churches, while the minister, having said the B.C.P. Prayer of Consecration aloud, then said secretly the second half of the Roman Canon (from Unde et memores to the end), having read the first half (down to Quam oblationem) while the Sanctus was in singing. This was a common practice among the very High at the Anglo-Catholic and Anglo-Papalist end of the spectrum at one time.

Some Apposite Hymns

I've been thinking idly about what hymns would be good to sing to God at what one hopes may be joyful occasions soon to be seen: the reception of many Anglicans into full communion with the Holy See, in the unity of the Holy Catholic Church:

• "Firmly I believe and truly";
• "The Church's one foundation";
• "Thou, Who at Thy first Eucharist didst pray" (but to Gibbons' tune); and
• "Faith of our fathers".

I note these are all by Anglicans or Catholics who were Anglicans!

Any comments or suggestions?

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.

Some Hymns for Ascensiontide

Always worth singing, and how appropriately in Ascensiontide:

• "Rejoice the Lord is King" (Chas Wesley, 1744), to Darwall's 148th;
• "The Head that once was crowned with thorns" (Thos Kelly, 1820);
  
• "Hail the day that sees Him rise" (Chas Wesley, 1742).

What a pity that Wesley, in a sense the Newman (and Faber!) of his age, was kept from finding his true home in the Catholic Church; his hymns are certainly very Catholic in their doctrine, all unknowingly.

Novena to St Philip Neri: 2nd Day

Philip Neri ever counselled his disciples to read saint's lives, to be attent to sermons, to be assiduous in prayer, to be habitues of the confessional. He lived in close communion with the saints of primitive times, and so would have gladly celebrated the Mass and Office of to-day's saint, Venantius, a martyr at Camerino under Decius - just as he hailed the students of the English College with the words Salvete flores martyrum, recognizing them as worthy heirs of the faithful of old, who would stand fast for Christ unto death.

One of Philip's devotees used to say,

"When I consider my sins I feel myself a lost man; but through the prayers of Father Philip I hope to be saved."

With such thoughts in mind, pray Newman's Litany of St Philip; and consult Fr Faber's meditation on St Philip, which I published here last year...

******

This is the Collect of St Venantius:

Deus, qui hunc diem beati Venantii Martyris tui triumpho consecrasti: exaudi preces populi tui, et praesta; ut qui ejus merita veneramur, fidei constantiam imitemur. Per...

(God, Who hast consecrated this day to the triumph of blessed Venantius Thy Martyr: hear the prayers of Thy people, and grant, that we who revere his merits, may imitate the constancy of his faith. Through...)

The Martyr's triumph is the irruption in his life of the Paschal Victory of Christ: it ought be for us not merely a cause of passing joy, but a serious call to imitation of such faith, a stedfast witness to Our Lord usque ad mortem - as the Apostle said, "Imitate me, as I imitate Christ." (I Cor. xi, 1.)

Apparently Pope Clement X was previously bishop of Camerino (a small town in the Marches of the Papal States), and he it was who composed the proper Office hymns for the feast of St Venantius, the patron of his former see:

Matins Hymn

Athleta Christi nobilis
Idola damnat gentium,
Deique amore saucius
Vitae pericla despicit.

Loris revinctus asperis,
E rupe praeceps volvitur:
Spineta vultum lancinant:
Per saxa corpus scinditur.

Dum membra raptant martyris,
Languent siti satellites:
Signo crucis Venantius
E rupe fontes elicit.

Bellator o fortissime,
Qui perfidis tortoribus
E caute praebes poculum,
Nos rore gratiae irriga.

Sit laus Patri, sit Filio,
Tibique sancte Spiritus:
Da per preces Venantii
Beata nobis gaudia. Amen.

Noble champion of the Lord!
Armed against idolatry!
In thy fervent zeal for God
Death had naught of fear for thee.

Bound with thongs, thy youthful form
Down the rugged steep they tear,
Jagged rock and rending thorn
All thy tender flesh lay bare.

Spent with toil, the savage crew,
Fainting, sinks with deadly thirst;
Thou the cross dost sign; and lo!

From the rock the waters burst.

Saintly warrior-prince! who thus
thy tormentors couldst forgive;
Pour the dew of grace on us,
Bid our fainting spirits live.

To thee, O Father, with the Son
And Holy Spirit, glory be;
Oh, grant us through thy martyr's prayer
The joys of immortality. Amen.

Lauds Hymn

Dum nocte pulsa lucifer
Diem propinquam nuntiat,
Nobis refert Venantius
Lucis beatae munera.

Nam criminum caliginem,
Stygisque noctem depulit,
Veroque cives lumine
Divinitatis imbuit.

Aquis sacri baptismatis
Lustravit ille patriam:
Quos tinxit unda milites,
In astra misit martyres.

Nunc angelorum particeps,
Adesto votis supplicum:
Procul repelle crimina,
Tuumque lumen ingere.

Sit laus Patri, sit Filio,
Tibique sancte Spiritus:
Da per preces Venantii
Beata nobis gaudia. Amen.

The golden star of morn
Is climbing in the sky;
The birthday of Venantius
Awakes the Church to joy.

His native land in depths
Of pagan darkness lay;
He o'er her guilty regions poured
The light of heavenly day.

Her in baptismal streams
Of grace he purified;
E'en those who came to take his life,
With him as martyrs died.

With the angels now he shares
Those joys which never cease;
Look down on us, O Spirit blest,
And send us gifts of peace.

Praise to the Father, Son,
And, Holy Ghost, to thee,
Oh, grant us through thy martyr's prayer
A blest eternity. Amen.

Vespers Hymn

Martyr Dei Venantius,
Lux et decus Camertium,
Tortore victo et judice,
Laetus truimphum concinit.

Annis puer, post vincula,
Post carceres, post verbera,
Longa fame frementibus
Cibus datur leonibus.

Sed ejus innocentiae
Parcit leonum immanitas,
Pedesque lambunt martyris,
Irae famisque immemores.

Verso deorsum vertice
Haurire fumum cogitur:
Costas utrimque et viscera
Succensa lampas ustulat.

Sit laus Patri, sit Filio,
Tibique sancte Spiritus:
Da per preces Venantii
Beata nobis gaudia. Amen.

Venantius, hail! God's martyr bright,
thy country's honour and her light;
Who didst with joy thy triumph sing,
thy judge and tortures conquering.

A child in years, he heeds no pain,
Nor dungeon damp, nor galling chain;
The tender youth for food is thrown
To lions, mad with hunger grown.

O wondrous sight! the beasts of prey
Their food reject, and turn away;
Then tamely lick the martyr's feet,
A tribute to his virtue meet.

Then downwards hung, his mouth exposed
To clouds of smoke beneath disposed,
Whilst with slow torches, burning clear,
His naked breasts and sides they sear.

Praise to the Father, and the Son,
And Holy Spirit, Three in One;
Oh! grant that through this martyr's prayer,
Your blissful joy we all may share. Amen.

Feast of the Seven Servites

I've been praying the Breviary Hours for the feast of the Seven Holy Founders of the Servites (which fell yesterday), and was curious to better comprehend the Office Hymns appointed; these I found online, but in a form rather hard to read – so I've edited them, and post them forthwith. All three hymns are 19th century compoitions of one Vincent Tarozzi.

The same source specified that "The object of the Servite Order [the Order of Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary] is to preach everywhere compassion for the sufferings of Jesus crucified and of Mary desolate, as well as hatred for sin, the accursed cause of them both (cf. Servite Manual, p. xiv)" and that "The Blessed Virgin first appeared to the Seven Holy Founders in 1233. She exhorted them to leave the world and dedicate themselves, under her auspices, to the service of God. This they did without delay."

Notable also in their Office was the little chapter at Lauds, Terce and Vespers, from I Peter iv, 13:

Dearly beloved: If you partake of the sufferings of Christ, rejoice that when his glory shall be revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. 

Their Collect, addressed to Our Lord, makes allusion to this passage and so begs Him that we may have such part in their tears - those blessed seven Fathers, who at His bidding did make the Church fruitful with a new family of Servants of His most holy Mother, for the recollection of the memory of her sorrows - that we may likewise share in their joys: joys that are eternal, where He lives and reigns with God His Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost for ever.  

Here are the hymns:

MATINS

Bella dum late furerent, et urbes 

Cæde fraterna gemerent cruentæ, 

Adfuit Virgo, nova semper edens 

Munera Matris. 

2 En vocat septem famulos, fideles 

Ut sibi in luctu recolant dolores, 

Quos tulit Jesus, tulit ipsa consors 

Sub cruce Nati. 

3 Illico parent Dominæ vocanti: 

Splendidis tectis opibusque spretis, 

Urbe secedunt procul in Senari 

Abdita montis. 

4 Corpora hic pœnis cruciant acerbis, 

Sontium labes hominum piantes: 

Hic prece avertunt lacrimisque fusis 

Numinis iram. 

5 Perdolens Mater fovet, atque amictum 

Ipsa lugubrem monet induendum: 

Agminis sancti pia cœpta surgunt, 

Mira patescunt. 

6 Palmes in bruma viridans honores 

Nuntiat patrum: proprios Mariæ 

Ore lactenti vocitant puelli 

Nomine Servos. 

7 Sit decus Patri, genitæque Proli, 

Et tibi, compar utriusque virtus 

Spiritus semper, Deus unus, omni 

Temp oris ævo. Amen.

1. ''While wars were raging and blood-stained cities groaned with fratricidal carnage, the Virgin appeared ever manifesting the new gifts of a mother." 

2. "Behold, in her grief, she calls unto herself seven faithful servants that they might recall to mind the sufferings which Jesus endured, and which she, the sharer of His sufferings, endured beneath the Cross of her Son." 

3. "Without hesitation they obey their Lady's call: spurning their stately palaces and wealth, they withdraw afar from the city into the hidden recesses of Mount Senario." 

4. "Here they afflict their bodies with dire punishments, atoning for the sins of guilty men: here by their prayers and by their abundant tears they avert the anger of God. ' ' 

5. "The Mother greatly encourages them and tells them that they should wear a garb indicative of mourning [i.e. a black habit]; the pious undertakings of the holy company prosper; wondrous things become manifest." 

6. "A young vine becoming green in winter proclaims the glory of the Fathers: children unweaned proclaim them by name to be Mary's own Servants." 

(The miracle of the vine occurred in March while the mountain was still covered with hoar frost. The vine which had been planted the preceding year, grew miraculously in a single night, and was covered at once with foliage, flowers, and fruit — a symbol of the speedy increase of their little community as was revealed to the bishop of Florence. ... On two different occasions infants cried out in the street: "Behold the servants of Mary.")

7. "Glory be to the Father and to the incarnate Son, and to Thee, Holy Spirit, ever the co-equal power of both, One God, forever and ever. Amen."

LAUDS

Sic patres vitam peragunt in umbra, 

Lilia ut septem nivei decoris, 

Virgini excelsæ bene grata, Petro 

Visa nitere. 

2 Jamque divina rapiente flamma, 

Cursitant urbes, loca quæque oberrant, 

Si queant cunctis animis dolores 

Figere Matris. 

3 Hinc valent iras domuisse cæcas, 

Nescia et pacis fera corda jungunt, 

Erigunt mæstos, revocant nocentes 

Dicta piorum. 

4 At suos Virgo comitata Servos 

Evehit tandem superas ad oras; 

Gemmeis sertis decorat per ævum 

Omne beatos. 

5 Eja nunc cœtus gemitum precantis 

Audiant, duros videant labores: 

Semper et nostris faveant benigno 

Lumine votis. 

6 Sit decus Patri, genitæque Proli, 

Et tibi, compar utriusque Virtus 

Spiritus semper, Deus unus omni 

Temporis ævo. Amen.

1. "The Fathers spent their lives in obscurity, — yet as seven lilies of snow-white beauty they seemed to Peter to shine — well pleasing to the Virgin high exalted." 

(St. Peter of Verona [who assisted the early Servites in gaining Papal approval for their new Order] saw in a vision a mountain covered with flowers, among which were seven lilies, dazzling white, of exquisite perfume. Mary herself explained the vision — the flowers were the Religious on Mount Senario, the seven lilies were the Seven Founders.)

2. "And now divine charity impelling them, they traverse cities and wander everywhere, if perchance they might be able to fix the Sorrows of the Mother in the souls of all." 

3. "By this means they are able to restrain blind passions; they unite (in the bonds of love) fierce hearts ignorant of peace; the words of the pious preachers raise up the dejected and recall sinners." 

4. "At last the Virgin leading forth her servants accompanies them to the heavenly regions, and with jeweled garlands she adorns her servants forever blessed." 

5. "O may they now hear the sighs of those assembled in prayer; may they behold their difficult labors; and may they with loving inspirations be favorable to our prayers." 

6. "Glory be to the Father and to the incarnate Son, and to Thee, Holy Spirit, ever the co-equal power of both, One God, forever and ever. Amen."

VESPERS

Matris sub almæ numine 

Septena proles nascitur: 

Ipsa vocante, ad arduum 

Tendit Senari verticem. 

2 Quos terra fructus proferet 

Dum sacra proles germinat, 

Uvis repente turgitis 

Onusta vitis præmonet. 

3 Virtute claros nobili 

Mors sancta cælo consecrat: 

Tenent olympi limina 

Servi fideles Virginis. 

4 Cohors beata, Numinis 

Regno potita, respice 

Quos hinc recedens fraudibus 

Cinctos relinquis hostium. 

5 Ergo, per almas vulnera 

Matris rogamus supplices, 

Mentis tenebras disjice, 

Cordis procellas comprime. 

6 Tu nos, beata Trinitas, 

Perfunde sancto robore, 

Possimus ut feliciter 

Exempla patrum subsequi. Amen.

1. "Under the fostering care of the Blessed Mother, a sevenfold progeny comes into being: she calls them, and they direct their steps to the lofty summit of Mount Senario." 

2. "The vine suddenly laden with bursting clusters foreshadows what rich fruits the earth shall produce when this sacred progeny expands."

3. "A holy death doth consecrate to God those rendered illustrious by great virtue: the faithful servants of the Virgin possess mansions in heaven." 

4. "O blessed band who have obtained possession of the Kingdom of God; departing hence, look down on those whom you leave behind, surrounded by the snares of enemies." 

5. "Suppliantly, therefore, we ask through the wounds of a loving Mother, — dispel the darkness of our minds, and restrain the passions of our souls." 

6. "Mayest Thou, Holy Trinity, fill us with Thy strength, that happily we may be able to follow the example of the Fathers. Amen."