El día y la noche en los himnos Félix María Arocena Solano part 3

At this point, we should pause for a brief consideration. So far we could say there have been no surprises. The ideas given by the verses on the subject of light are beautiful, full of affection for the Redeemer, but these are what we would have expected. These are ideas that respond, precisely, to the liturgical nature of the Hour of Lauds. But, as we shall see below, allusions to the dawn cover a much wider and varied perspective.  The hymns collect together  in fact, many other meanings that overlap with those already described. These are new and original variations that respond to the free inspiration that runs through the pen of the poet.

As we go through the pages of the current liturgical hymnal, we also find a very characteristic set of allusions to the morning, in relation to good weather, a sign and augury of a desired inner serenity:

We see, first, a longing for the new day to bring us a clear sky, a peaceful time:

* Hæc lux serenum conferat purosque nos præstet sibi; Nihil loquamur subdolum, volvamus obscurum nihil. (May this light bring us a serene time and render us pure, that our speech may avoid deceit  and our thoughts be on nothing dark.)  (Sol ecce Surgit, verse 3 Lauds I and III Thursday).

In the earlier Hymnal, it was possible to see even a Mediterranean view of climatology. Thus we see in this hymn of the older  Breviarium Romanum, composed by Evaristo D "Anversa (+1968) (St. Joseph the Worker: Lauds):

PRIMITIVE TEXT

1 Aurora solis nuntia,

2 florumque mense prævio

3 fabri sonoram malleo

4 domus salutat Nazaræ.

CURRENT TEXT

1 Aurora solis nuntia,

2 mundi labors excitans,

3 fabri sonoram malleo

4 domus salutat Nazaræ. (43)

The expression in the older text carries a Mediterranean vision of the month of May, a month of the flowers. But since the hymn is intended  to be universal, it has been subjected to revision  through the new verse which speaks of the dawn that awakens the world for the beginning of the work: Aurora, ... mundi labores excitans.

The same thing happens with the very ancient  Rector potens of Sexta:

* Exstingue flammas litium, aufer calorem noxium, confer salutem corporum, veramque pacem cordium. (Extinguish  passionate discord and remove the unpleasant heat, give bodies health and authentic peace to souls)  

Here we observe that, in the sixth hour, that is to say, in the middle of the day, with a temperate conception of the climate, the heat heats up. But it also takes advantage of the idea of the time to put it in relation with our interior serenity.

It is not uncommon for verses to describe an echo of the account of the creation of light, as narrated in the beginning of Genesis. Thus Fulgentis auctor speaks of the establishment of the eternal law that determines the succession of the light of the Sun for the day and the light of the Moon for the night:

(O God, Author of the sky, which you have arranged with a precise order, the light of the sun for the days and the light of the Moon for the nights, the light of the sun for the days).

Here it is far from distinguishing whether it is the Moon that emits the light, or rather it is a reflection of the light it receives from the Sun.  

In other cases, this same Trinitarian activity consisting in creating beings out of nothing, is also attributed to the Only Begotten Word of the Father. Thomas Aquinas says that when the circle of the two "ad intra" processions has been closed, there is no place except for that "ad extra" operation, called Creation. Even though it is common to the three Persons, all of it must be attributed plainly and simply to the Word because in the divine Essence, He is the personal Wisdom, through which God created everything. The beauty of the Universe is but a great song, the work of an ineffable musician, the external and pale echo of the Creator Word. In the following example, God the Father establishes, by means of his Word, the eternal law of the day and night:

By which [the Word], the Creator of the world wished to establish day and night with an everlasting law that provided for its perpetual succession) (Diei luce reddita, verse 2 Lauds II and IV Saturday)

We already know how the psalms mention day and night separately according to the laws of parallelism proper to Hebrew poetry - as suggesting that, above the alternation of both, there is something that remains constant. In the case of hymns, this invariant is divine Providence: from morning to night, God looks at us from Heaven:

* Speculator astat desuper qui nos diebus omnibus actusque nos prospicit a luce prima in vesperum. (Continually every day, from dawn until night, in the watchtower of Heaven, God contemplates our life. ( Sol ecce surgit, verse 5, Lauds I and III Thursday).

This text, taken from Canto II of the Cathemerinon of Prudentius, recalls that of the Psalter: "The Lord looks down from heaven, he looks at all men; From his dwelling he observes all the inhabitants of the earth. " In the context of this hymn, the poet indicates a remedy against daily faults: the remembrance of Christ, Lord and Judge of History. Speculator here means watchful judge. Prudentius, who had been a judge and had well experienced that his office was a protective medium against crime. On the other hand, Prudentius was familiar, as all Christians of his time, with the idea of the universal Judge.

Throughout the hymns of the Weekly Series - the almost exclusive object of our analysis - we find references to some beings of Nature (the dew, the sea, the rooster, the Moon, the planet Venus, ...) on which the hymnographers were fixed - with poetic inspiration and without neglecting the rhythmic and prosodic laws of Latin poetry - to put them in relation to the morning. Thus, we have the following allusions:

A) .- The rooster:

The Fathers and spiritual authors exhorted the Christians to  daily night prayer, which received their form from the monastic practice. Sometimes it is midnight prayer and sometimes it is a prayer towards the end of the night (gallicinium). The Roman Office and the Benedictine Office leaned toward this second moment and this is the reason why the rooster’s  song appears with relative frequency in some hymns.

Let us begin by analyzing a hymn composed by Ambrose (+397), the Father of the strongest expressions, who vigorously established the hymn in the hearts of the faithful. Note the liveliness and agility that the Iambic diameters induce in the stanza:

* Præco diei iam sonat, noctis profundæ pervigil, nocturna lux viántibus, at noctem segregans. (The announcement of the day already sounds - the cock crowing, faithful watchman of the night,  awakens the light for the travelers, setting apart night.) (Aeterne rerum, verse 2 Lauds I and III Sunday).

But also the Spanish Prudentius (+405), the highest poet of Christian antiquity, imitated Ambrose on this point. Let's look at the first stanza of Ales diei, extracted from Canto I of the  Cathemerinon:

* Ales diei nuntius lucem propinquam præcinit; In the excitator mentium iam Christus ad vitam vocat. (The winged messenger of the day announces the dawn, and, awakening our souls, Christ calls us to life.) (Ales diei, verse 1 Lauds II and IV Thursday).

This cock, who with his song becomes a messenger of the light of the new day, was called by Ambrose præco diei and by Prudencio ales diei nuntius.

Nor is it surprising to find in a hymn of Lauds an allusion of the four Gospels to the rooster. That sound indicated the moment of Peter's contrition and Ambrose's pen did not forget to use the scene:

* hoc ipsa petra ecclesiae canente culpam diluit. (by this song-the dawn that had announced the song of the rooster in the previous stanza-, Peter, Rock of the Church, washes away  his guilt.) (Aeterne rerum, verse 4 Lauds I and III Sunday).

B) .- The planet Venus:

* Præco diei iam sonat, noctis profundæ pervigil, nocturna lux viántibus, at noctem segregans. (The announcement of the day already sounds - the cock crowing, faithful watchman of the night, and awakens the light for the travelers, setting apart nigh).

This alludes to the song of the cock that, impatiently calling the sun, awakens with its cackling also Venus. That night lux viantibus, that star that is light for those who travel  at night refers to the planet Venus, which is called 'star of the dawn'. Venus served as a point of reference to distinguish the days when there was no electric light; This is the meaning of the verse lux a nocte noctem segregans.

C) .- The dew:

* Aurora stellas iam tegit rubrum sustollens gurgitem, umectis atque flatibus terram baptizans roribus. ( dawn, a sea of reddish light, which covers the stars and because of the damp breeze, the ground appears damp with dew.)

This stanza, among all those contained in the series hebdomadaria, is one of the most poetic in the description of the dawn. It belongs to the Deus qui cæli, which is a hymn written in Iambic diameters with a metric scheme - with some license - of unknown author and very old: between the fifth and sixth centuries.

D) .- The navigators and the sea:

* Hoc nauta vires colligit pontique mitescunt freta; Hoc, ipse Petra Ecclesiæ, canine, blame diluit. (by this - the dawn that had announced the song of the rooster in the previous verse - the sailor is preparing to gather his strength and the sea softens its waves, with him, Peter, Rock of the Church, mourns his guilt).

Ambrose has reflected in this stanza the idea that, once the nocturnal harm has passed, the sailor is ready to fight with renewed strength; Is also accompanied by the optimism of seeing that, after dawn, the sea has regained its calm.

E) .- The travelers:

Once again, the Æterne rerum conditor surprises us with a curious allusion that will not easily catch anyone who is not familiar with the Latin of Ambrose:

Hoc excitatus lucifer solvit polum caligine; Hoc erronum chorus vias nocendi deserit. (by this the dawn that had been announced by the crowing of the rooster in the previous stanza-, the morning star emerges, frees the sky from darkness, by this  the crowd of who err desert  harmful ways)

And this is logical, because - even nowadays - thieves and vagabonds, are usually removed from the streets and squares, when it the morning begins to dawn.

Before concluding this first section on the theme of the morning in the hymns, we have selected some verses, through which we intend to emphasize the richness and variety of forms that the  poetry of the hymnal uses to suggest the idea of dawn. We will now go over the following formulas, which show the elegance and splendor of these compositions: 

* Caligo terræ scinditur percussa solis spiculo, reusque iam color redit vultu nitentis sideris. (The darkness of the earth is torn, pierced by the rays of the sun, and, before the splendid star, color returns.) (Nox et Tenebrae verse 2 Lauds I and III Wednesday).

* Pergrata mundo nuntiat aurora solis spicula [25] res et colore vestiens iam cuncta dat nitescere. (The dawn is already benignly revealed by the first rays of the sun, and with the  dyeing with  color, everything begins to shine.) (Lauds II and IV Tuesday).

* Iam cedit pallens proximo diei nox adventui, obtundens lumen siderum adest et clarus lucifer. (As the dawn is approaching, the night begins to pale, and as soon as the brightness of the stars is mitigated, the morning star appears bright.) (Aeterne lucis, verse 1 Lauds II and IV Tuesday).

* Ecce iam noctis tenuatur umbra lucis aurora rutilans coruscat; (The shadow of the night is now dimmed, when the light of the dawn  shines as if dyed with gold) (Lauds II and IV Sunday)

 * Lux a nocte noctem segregans, (Light separating  between each night) (60) * Cadit caligo noctium (The nocturnal gloom falls) (Æterna cæli, verse 3 Lauds I and III Friday )

* Aurora iam spargit polum, terris dies illabitur, lucis resultat spiculum: (The dawn sptinkles the sky and with the insinuation of the day on the earth , ray of light shines forth) (Aeterne rerum, verse 2 Lauds I and III Sunday).