Friday, April 7, 2017

The Use of Abelard’s Easter Hymns at the Paraclete Fr. Chrysogonus Waddell, OCSO

This is from Fr. Waddell and gives some idea of how Abelard's Easter hymns were used in the Office at the Paraclete. I have edited out the manuscript information. As Father writes some of the manuscripts are 'unfortunately, extremely sketchy' and 'the information has been erased and re-written so that it is risky to attempt to reconstruct the original text.'.

On the basis of the Epiphany and Purification distribution of these hymns, we should expect to find Hymns 42-45 assigned to 1st Vespers ,Vigils, Lauds and 2nd Vespers respectively. The "normal" order is changed, however, by the use of the Cistercian "Hie est dies verus Dei" at 1st Vespers.  Abelard's hymns are consistently shifted so that Hymns 42-44 appear respectively at Vigils, Lauds and 2nd Vespers. The 4th hymn of the group,  'Veris grato tempore" is thereupon assigned to Vigils during Faster Week,  "Christiani plaudite, " appears daily during the octave at both Lauds and Vespers. For Low Sunday, however, all four hymns, Hymns 42-45, succeed in their proper order from 1st through 2nd Vespers but The Paraclete Old French Ordinary is , unfortunately, extremely sketchy here. It would seem, however, that, apart from 1st Vespers, Abelard's hymns are used on Easter and throughout its entire Octave-though the precise arrangement differs.  

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