Thursday, November 10, 2016

Monday: Weeks I & III: Lucem fides invéniat


Lauds: St. Ambrose



“It will be asked: ‘In what sort was the Son begotten?’ As one who is forever, as the Word, as the brightness of eternal light, (Hebrews 1:3)  for brightness takes effect in the instant of its coming into existence.” Ambrose de Fid. 1:79

Splendor patérnæ glóriæ,
de luce lucem próferens,
lux lucis et fons lúminis,
diem dies illúminans,

Verúsque sol, illábere
micans nitóre pérpeti,
iubárque Sancti Spíritus
infúnde nostris sénsibus.

Votis vocémus et Patrem,
Patrem perénnis glóriæ,
Patrem poténtis grátiæ,
culpam reléget lúbricam.

Infórmet actus strénuos,
dentem retúndat ínvidi,
casus secúndet ásperos,
donet geréndi grátiam.

Mentem gubérnet et regat
casto, fidéli córpore;
fides calóre férveat,
fraudis venéna nésciat.

Christúsque nobis sit cibus,
potúsque noster sit fides;
læti bibámus sóbriam
ebrietátem Spíritus.

Lætus dies hic tránseat;
pudor sit ut dilúculum,
fides velut merídies,
crepúsculum mens nésciat.

Auróra cursus próvehit;
Auróra totus pródeat,
in Patre totus Fílius
et totus in Verbo Pater. Amen.

Radiance of the Father’s glory, bring forth light from light, Light of light and Source of light, Day illuminating day. And true Sun descend upon us, glittering with perpetual glow, ray of the Holy Spirit, pour out upon our thoughts. In prayer we call upon the Father, the Father of endless glory, the Father of powerful glory, take away our devious sin.  Shape our manly deeds, blunt the teeth of the envious one, turn to good our difficulties, grant us the gift to act. May he direct and rule our minds, our bodies keep chaste and faithful, may faith burn bright, and know no venomous deceit. May Christ be our food, faith our drink; let us joyfully drink the Spirit’s sober drunkenness. May this day pass happily; our modesty like dawn, faith enkindled as noonday, the mind ignorant of nightfall.  Dawn in its course advances, may full dawn come: the Son wholly in the Father, the Father wholly in his Word. Amen.


Louis F. Benson

O splendor of God’s glory bright,
From light eternal bringing light,
Thou Light of light, light’s living Spring,
True Day, all days illumining.

Come, very Sun of Heaven’s love,
In lasting radiance from above,
And pour the Holy Spirit’s ray
On all we think or do today.

And now to Thee our prayers ascend,
O Father glorious without end;
We plead with Sovereign Grace for pow’r
To conquer in temptation’s hour.

Confirm our will to do the right,
And keep our hearts from envy’s blight;
Let faith her eager fires renew,
And hate the false, and love the true.

O joyful be the passing day
With thoughts as pure as morning’s ray,
With faith like noontide shining bright,
Our souls unshadowed by the night.

Dawn’s glory gilds the earth and skies,
Let Him, our prefect Morn, arise,
The Word in God the Father one,
The Father imaged by the Son.

When the Office of Readings is said in the daytime: 18th Century

Ætérna lux, divínitas,
in unitáte Trínitas,
te confitémur débiles,
te deprecámur súpplices.

Summum Paréntem crédimus
Natúmque Patris únicum,
et caritátis vínculum
qui iungit illos Spíritum.

O véritas, o cáritas,
o finis et felícitas,
speráre fac et crédere,
amáre fac et cónsequi.

Qui finis et exórdium
rerúmque fons es ómnium,
tu solus es solácium,
tu certa spes credéntium.

Qui cuncta solus éfficis
cunctísque solus súfficis,
tu sola lux es ómnibus
et præmium sperántibus.

Christum rogámus et Patrem,
Christi Patrísque Spíritum;
unum potens per ómnia,
fove precántes, Trínitas. Amen.

Eternal light, Divinity, Trinity in unity, weak as we are we give you thanks, humbly we pray to you. We believe in the highest Father, the only Son of the Father, and the Spirit, the bond of love which joins them. O truth, O Love, O end of all and happiness, teach us to hope and believe, to love and follow you.  The end and the beginning, you are the source of all things, you alone our consolation, you the certain hope of those who trust in you.  You alone do all things, you alone are sufficient for all things, you the only light for all and only hope for those who hope in you. We ask Christ and the Father and the Spirit of both Christ and the Father, the single power behind all things, assist us as we pray. Amen.

Vespers: St. Gregory the Great?

Imménse cæli cónditor,
qui, mixta ne confúnderent,
aquæ fluénta dívidens,
cælum dedísti límitem,

Firmans locum cæléstibus
simúlque terræ rívulis,
ut unda flammas témperet,
terræ solum ne díssipet:

Infúnde nunc, piíssime,
donum perénnis grátiæ,
fraudis novæ ne cásibus
nos error átterat vetus.

Lucem fides invéniat,
sic lúminis iubar ferat;
hæc vana cuncta térreat,
hanc falsa nulla cómprimant.

Infinite Creator of heaven, you who separated the flowing waters and set a limit to the sky, so that the two not be mixed and confused. Fortifying a place for the heavens and also for the rivers of the earth,  that water might temper heat and the soil of earth not be dried up. Pour now, most holy One , into us the gift of endless love,  that no occasions of new deceit or ancient deception destroy us. May light find faith, thus  supported by the beam of light; so may all vanities be removed, and no falsehood compromise our faith.

Gabriel Gillett

O boundless Wisdom, God most high,
O Maker of the earth and sky,
Who bid’st the parted waters flow
In heaven above, on earth below.

The streams on earth, the clouds in heaven,
By Thee their ordered bounds were given,
Lest ’neath the untempered fires of day
The parchèd soil should waste away.

E’en so on us who seek Thy face
Pour forth the waters of Thy grace;
Renew the fount of life within,
And quench the wasting fires of sin.

Let faith discern the eternal Light
Beyond the darkness of the night,
And through the mists of falsehood see
The path of truth revealed by Thee.


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