Summae Parens clementiae Mundi regis qui machinam, Unius et substantiae Trinusque personis Deus, 5 Nostros pius cum canticis Lumbos jecurque morbidum 10 Flammis adure congruis, Accincti ut artus excubent, Luxu remoto pessimo, Quicunque ut horas noctium Nunc concinendo rumpimus, 15 Ditemur omnes affatim Donis beatae patriae. Hymn 8 Saturday Matins Fount and source of infinite mercy, ruler of the world's structure, God, one in nature and three in persons, in Your love graciously receive our 'mingled penitence and praise' so that with our soul free from sin we may more fully enjoy You. Burn away with healing flames what is unhealthy in our affections and thoughts so that with loins well girt and all sinful desires cast out we may keep our prayerful vigil. May all of us who break the silence of the night with songs of praise be abundantly enriched with graces from heaven. Hymn 9 Te Deum laudamus, te Dominum confitemur. 5 'Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Dominus Deus sabaoth. Pleni sunt caeli et terra majestatis gloriae tuae'. Te prophetarum laudabilis numerus, Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium, We praise You as God; we acknowledge You as Lord. The whole earth reverences You, the eternal Father. All the angels, the heavens and the whole body of heavenly powers, Cherubim too and Seraphim, cry aloud unceasingly: 'Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts. Your glory and majesty fill heaven and earth.' The choir of Apostles, of glorious fame, the band of prophets, worthy of our praise, the array of martyrs, in their robes of white-all give praise to You. The holy Church in all parts of the earth acknowledges You, the Father of boundless majesty, Your adorable, true and only Son, and also the holy Spirit, the Paraclete. Continued 10. mordet. Besides meaning to bite, mordere may mean to bite into, take fast hold of and also to sting, pain. Interpretations of mordet in this line vary. 11. gestit, is eager, yearns, desires. 14. intrinsecus, an adverb used almost as an ad jective; dispel the inner darkness (of our soul). 15. gaudeat sc. mens. 16. se collocari, to establish oneself, live permanently in. In such cases the pronoun is often omitted; cf. 24, 15. Notes on Hymn 7 Author. Unknown. Same conjectures as for 5. 2. quae, sc. Unitas. MSS have qua or qui. If qui is read, the construction is similar to lux ipse, 4, 2. 3. Attende; usually followed by the dative or by a preposition. Here, as occasionally in the Vulgate, the accusative is used. 4. excubantes, keeping watch; cf. vigilemus, 1, 1. 10. Noctibus: the plural in such cases denotes that no particular night (or day, diebus) is meant. 11. Caelitus, an adverb, used almost as an adjective; cf. 6, 14. 13. astet, originally adsit; both= sit. 14. instet suggests that this is an immediate result of the preceding line; cf. perennis instet gloria, 21, 8. 15. contagio (contagium, a touching, contact, generally in a bad sense), pollution, defilement, infection, contamination etc. Cf. arcens mali contagium, 83, 7 and diabolica vitare contagia, collect Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost. 17. Ob hoc. W suggested that 17-20 are an addition to this hymn (cf. intro. to 4), and certainly the Ob hoc is abrupt. The first four verses are addressed to Trinitatis Unitas, but this one to the Redemptor. 19. per quod, sc. lumen; i.e. if we are helped by this light. 20. nullis ... actibus, no actions of ours may cause us to fall, W. An intransitive followed by an ablative is classical. The sense is that of John 11, 9-10. Tu rex gloriae, Christe, Tu Patris sempiternus es Is Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem, non Tu, devicto mortis aculeo, aperuisti credentibus regna caelorum. Tu, ad dexteram Dei sedes in gloria Patris; judex crederis esse venturus. Te ergo quaesumus, tuis famulis subveni, quos pretioso sanguine redemisti. Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari. Et rege eos et extolle illos usque in aeternum. You, the king of glory, Christ, are the Father's everlasting Son. Yet, when for man's salvation You were about to assume man's nature, You did not shrink from entering the Virgin's womb. You drew out death's poisonous sting and opened for believers the kingdom of heaven. You sit at God's right hand; You will, as we believe, come again as Judge. We therefore ask this favour of You: come to Your servants' aid, for You redeemed them at the price of Your blood. Bring it to pass that they be numbered with Your saints in everlasting glory. Save Your people, Lord, and bless Your in Et laudamus nomen tuum in saeculum et in saeculum heritance. saeculi. Dignare, Domine, die isto sine peccato nos custodire. 25 Miserere nostri, Domine, miserere nostri. Fiat misericordia tua, Domine, super nos, quemadmodum speravimus in te. In te, Domine, speravi; non confundar in aeternum. Be a shepherd to them and bear them up for ever. Day by day we bless You, and we praise Your name for ever and ever. Deign, Lord, today to keep us without sin. Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us. May Your mercy, Lord, be upon us, as we have hoped in You. In You, Lord, have I placed my hope; never let me be put to shame. 2. LAUDS When the name Matins was given to the vigiliary office, it could no longer be used for the morning service, whose former name was Matutini or Laudes Matutinae. From the second of these titles there was accordingly formed the new name of Laudes, Lauds. But the office did not thereby lose its character of being a morning one, as the hymns in this section clearly show. The morning office was the normal completion of the night office and followed it without break or with but a slight break. The references in these hymns to rising must therefore be interpreted either as a continuation of the mention of this at Matins or in a spiritual sense. But the writers may well have thought, in some cases at least, of the normal sense of 'rising'. This would certainly be true of 13, 14 and 15, which were not written for the Office but were formed out of longer hymns and then inserted into the prayer of the Church. various other endings are found. All these endings 20-27 are sentences from various psalms. The sudden transition to the singular in the last verse suits neither the Te Deum as a whole nor 20-26. Some editors therefore, e.g. Phillimore, omit it from the text. Two ideas are prominent in these hymns. Cock-crow is the theme of Aeterne rerum conditor, 11, by St Ambrose and of Ales diei nuntius, 13, by Prudentius. Who is it, asks God of Job, that has 'put wisdom in the heart of man? Or who gave the cock understanding?' (Job 38, 36). St Ambrose, following this idea, sees a manifestation of God's wisdom and power in the division of day and night and in the God-given instinct of the cock to announce this division. And on that simple fact joined with the story of St Peter's denial he builds up one of the most beautiful hymns of the Breviary. For simplicity and sublimity it has few rivals. However beautiful the Ales diei nuntius may be, in its full or shortened form, it pales beside the other. Prudentius in one place likens our Lord to the cock. He is the excitator mentium, 13, 3, as the cock is to the sun, 11, 9, or to those still in bed, 11, 18. But if He is the awakener of men's souls, He is also their light, as all these hymns testify. The Matins Tu rex gloriae, Christe, Tu Patris sempiternus es Is Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem, non Tu, devicto mortis aculeo, aperuisti credentibus regna caelorum. Tu, ad dexteram Dei sedes in gloria Patris; judex crederis esse venturus. Te ergo quaesumus, tuis famulis subveni, quos pretioso sanguine redemisti. Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari. Et rege eos et extolle illos You, the king of glory, Christ, are the Father's everlasting Son. Yet, when for man's salvation You were about to assume man's nature, You did not shrink from entering the Virgin's womb. You drew out death's poisonous sting and opened for believers the kingdom of heaven. You sit at God's right hand; You will, as we believe, come again as Judge. We therefore ask this favour of You: come to Your servants' aid, for You redeemed them at the price of Your blood. Bring it to pass that they be numbered with Your saints in everlasting glory. Save Your people, Lord, and bless Your in Et laudamus nomen tuum in saeculum et in saeculum heritance. saeculi. Dignare, Domine, die isto sine peccato nos custodire. 25 Miserere nostri, Domine, miserere nostri. Fiat misericordia tua, Domine, super nos, quemadmodum speravimus in te. In te, Domine, speravi; non confundar in aeternum. Be a shepherd to them and bear them up for ever. Day by day we bless You, and we praise Your name for ever and ever. Deign, Lord, today to keep us without sin. Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us. May Your mercy, Lord, be upon us, as we have hoped in You. In You, Lord, have I placed my hope; never let me be put to shame. 2. LAUDS When the name Matins was given to the vigiliary office, it could no longer be used for the morning service, whose former name was Matutini or Laudes Matutinae. From the second of these titles there was accordingly formed the new name of Laudes, Lauds. But the office did not thereby lose its character of being a morning one, as the hymns in this section clearly show. The morning office was the normal completion of the night office and followed it without break or with but a slight break. The references in these hymns to rising must therefore be interpreted either as a continuation of the mention of this at Matins or in a spiritual sense. But the writers may well have thought, in some cases at least, of the normal sense of 'rising'. This would certainly be true of 13, 14 and 15, which were not written for the Office but were formed out of longer hymns and then inserted into the prayer of the Church. |