Byzantine Vespers: St. Nicholas

Byzantine Vespers: St. Nicholas

Let us come together, O feast-lovers, and praise in paeans the comeliness of Bishops, the pride of the fathers, and the fountain of miracles, the great helper of believers, saying, Rejoice, O watchman of the people of Myra, their revered leader and unshakeable pillar. Rejoice, O effulgent star, lighting the utmost corners of the world with miracles. Rejoice intercede with Christ God on behalf of those who ever honor, O divine joy of the sorrowful, all-zealous champion of the oppressed. Wherefore, now, O all-beatified Nicholas, you still faithfully and eagerly celebrate your all-festive and joyful memory.

Excerpts from Three Treatises on the Divine Images by St John of Damascus, translation and introduction by Fr. Andrew Louth, St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003.

“Of old, God the incorporeal and formless was never depicted, but now that God has been seen in the flesh and has associated with human kind, I depict what I have seen of God. I do not venerate matter, I venerate the fashioner of matter, who became matter for my sake and accepted to dwell in matter and through matter worked my salvation… Do not abuse matter; for it is not dishonorable, this is the view of the Manichees. The only thing that is dishonorable is something that does not have its origin from God.” (Treatise 1.16)

“I say that everywhere we use our senses to produce an image of the Incarnate God himself, and we sanctify the first of the senses (sight being the first of the senses), just as by words hearing is sanctified. For the image is a memorial. What the book does for those who understand letters, the image does for the illiterate; the word appeals to hearing, the image appeals to sight; it conveys understanding.” (Treatise 1.17)

“Is it not fitting to venerate the saints rather than stone them? …If you loved God, you would certainly honor his servants. …How was the dead man who touched the bones of Elisseus (i.e. Elisha, cf. 2 Kings 13.21) immediately raised up? If God works miracles through bones, it is very clear that he can also do so through images and stones and many other things, just as also it happened with Elisseus, who gave his own staff to his servant and told him to go and through it raise up the child of the Shunamitess (cf. 2 Kings 4.29).” (Treatise 1.56)

The Common of Holy Men/Confessors: Vespers (apologies for wrongful translation)

Previously this hymn was used for both priests and laity, i.e. “confessors” One presumes that it was limited to laymen in LH because the virtues listed are not necessarily sacerdotal virtues. However, that we might say is rank clericalism. There is no reason why it could not be used in place of Dom Anselmo’s composition.

Iesu, coróna célsior

et véritas sublímior,
qui confiténti sérvulo
reddis perénne præmium,

Da supplicánti cœtui,
huius rogátu cælitis,
remissiónem críminum
rumpéndo nexum vínculi.

Nil vanitátis díligens,
terréna sic exércuit,
ut mente tota férvidus
tibi placéret únice.

Te, Christe, rex piíssime,
hic confiténdo iúgiter,
calcávit hostem fórtiter
supérbum ac satéllitem.

Virtúte clarus et fide,

oratióni sédulus
ac membra servans sóbria,
dapes supérnas óbtinet.

Deo Patri sit glória
tibíque soli Fílio
cum Spíritu Paráclito,
in sempitérna sæcula. Amen.

O Jesus, the eternal crown, sublime truth, who grants to your humble confessor, an everlasting reward, grant to those gathered for prayer, through his heavenly intercession, remission of sins, the breaking of the bonds of sin. Loving nothing vain, thus he passed his earthly life, fervent with all his soul, to please you alone. By ever confessing you, O Christ, most gracious King, he bravely crushed under foot the enemy, pride and all its allies. Bright in virtue and faith, steadfast in prayer, preserving sobriety of the body, obtaining heavenly feasts.

St. Augustine and Cassiodorus: Commentary on Psalm 7:8

et synagoga populorum circumdabit te et propter hanc in altum regredere

The Latin of this verse is somewhat obscure but the ancient commentaries are a big help.

St. Augustine:

6. [V. 8] And a congregation of people shall surround thee. This may be taken in two ways. The congregation of people may be understood either of believers or of persecutors, since our Lord's humility had this twofold result. The crowd of persecutors surrounded Him because they despised His humility; of these we read: Why have the Gentiles raged, and the people devised vain things? But the crowd of those who believed in Him in virtue of His humility also flocked around Him, so much so that it was true to say: Blindness in part hath happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in: and again: Ask of me, and I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession.

And for their sakes return thou on high. For the sake of this multitude of people, return thou on high. This, as we know, Christ did, by rising from the dead and ascending into heaven. Thus glorified, He sent the Holy Spirit; for before Christ was raised to glory the Spirit could not be given. The Gospel tells us so. For as yet the Spirit was not given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Thereupon, having returned to heaven for the sake of the multitude of the people, He sent the Holy Spirit, with whom the preachers of the Gospel were filled when in their turn they filled the whole world with churches.

Cassiodorus:

8. And a synagogue of people shall surround thee, and for their sakes return thou on high. The psalmist earlier begged Him to come, but now he reveals what can result at His coming. It is as if he were saying: "You indeed will come to deliver, but the Jewish people will persecute you with lunatic hearts." Synagogue here denotes a gathering of wicked men, not a group of religious minds, for if the whole Jewish people had believed in Him, they would have received Him before all with devoted hearts. And for their sakes return thou on high: their here refers to the people of the synagogue, who with rigid habits remained unpledged, and He could not dwell in it since He withdrew himself from its infidelity. Return thou on high is here because the gospel says: No man hath ascended into heaven but he that descended from heaven. Returning means retracing the same path to the place from where you came. In another psalm he is to say of this glorious ascension: And he ascended upon the Cherubim, and he flew upon the wings of the winds, and he made darkness his covert.

HYMNUS AMORIS S. FRANCISCI XAVERII

Attributed to

S. Francis Xavier

O Deus, ego amo Te!

Nec amo Te, ut salves me,

aut quia non amántes Te,

ætérno punis igne:

Tu, Tu, mi Jesu, totum me

ampléxus es in Cruce.

Tulísti clavos, lánceam

multámque ignomíniam,

innúmeros dolóres,

sudóres et angóres

ac mortem: et hæc propter me

ac pro me peccatóre!

Cur ígitur non amem Te,

o Jesu amantíssime?

Non ut in cælo salves me,

aut ne ætérno damnes me,

nec præmii ullíus spe;

sed sicut Tu amásti me,

sic amo et amábo Te,

solum quia Rex meus es,

et solum quia Deus es. Amen.

Fr Edward Caswall, Translator

My God, I love Thee, not because

I hope for heaven thereby;

Nor yet since they who love Thee not

Must burn eternally.

Thou, O my Jesus, Thou didst me

Upon the Cross embrace;

For me didst bear the nails and spear,

And manifold disgrace;

And griefs and torments numberless,

And sweat of agony;

E’en death itself; and all for one

Who was Thine enemy.

Then why, O blessed Jesus Christ,

Should I not love Thee well,

Not for the sake of winning heaven,

Or of escaping hell;

Not with the hope of gaining aught,

Not seeking a reward;

But as Thyself hast loved me,

O ever-loving Lord?

E’en so I love Thee, and will love,

And in Thy praise will sing,

Solely because Thou art my God,

And my eternal King.

Advent Collects Week One

Collect for Week I Advent: Monday 

Fac nos, quǽsumus, Dómine Deus noster, advéntum Christi Fílii tui sollícitos exspectáre, ut, dum, vénerit pulsans, oratiónibus vigilántes, et in suis invéniat láudibus exsultántes.

Grant, we beseech thee, O Lord our God, to await eagerly the coming of Christ, thy Son, that when he comes knocking, he may find us vigilant in prayer and rejoicing in his praise.

 Collect for Week I Advent: Tuesday 

Propitiáre, Dómine Deus, supplicatiónibus nostris, et tribulántibus, quǽsumus, tuæ concéde

pietátis auxílium, ut, de Fílii tui veniéntis præséntia consoláti, nullis iam polluámur contágiis vetustátis.

Favor, O Lord God, our supplications and in troubles, we beseech thee, grant us the help of thy goodness, that consoled by the presence of the coming of thy Son, we may not be defiled by old corruption.

Collect for Week I Advent: Wednesday 

Prǽpara, quǽsumus, Dómine Deus noster, corda nostra divína tua virtúte, ut, veniénte

Christo Fílio tuo, digni inveniámur ætérnæ vitæ convívio, et cibum cæléstem, ipso
ministránte, percípere mereámur.

Prepare, we beseech thee, O Lord our God, our hearts by thy divine power, so that when thy son Christ cometh, we may be found fit for the banquet of eternal life, and by his ministry to us, worthy to receive the food of heaven.

Collect for Week I Advent: Thursday 

Excita, Dómine, poténtiam tuam, et magna nobis virtúte succúrre, ut, quod nostra peccáta

præpédiunt, grátia tuæ propitiatiónis accéleret.

Stir up, O Lord, thy power and come to our help with thy great might, that what our sins impede, the grace of thy pardon may swiftly overcome.

Collect for Week I Advent: Friday 

Excita, quǽsumus, Dómine, poténtiam tuam, et veni, ut, ab imminéntibus peccatórum nostrórum perículis, te mereámur protegénte éripi, te liberánte salvári.

Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy power and come, that we might by thy protection be made worthy to be rescued from the imminent perils of our sins and to be saved by thy deliverance.

Collect for Week I Advent: Saturday 

Deus, qui, ad liberándum humánum genus a vetustátis condicióne, Unigénitum tuum in hunc mundum misísti, largíre devóte exspectántibus supérnæ tuæ grátiam pietátis, ut ad veræ perveniámus prǽmium libertátis.

O God, who, in order to free the human race from its former condition, sent thine Only-Begotten Son into this world, graciously grant to those devoutly awaiting the grace of thy heavenly kindness, that we may attain the reward of true liberty.

Homily of St. Gregory the Great: The approach of the judgement

Our Lord and Redeemer, wishing to find us ready, foretells the evils that will come on the world as it grows old, that he may wean our hearts from earthly affections. He makes known to us the great convulsions which will come before the end, that if we will not fear God when we are at peace, at least we may be so impressed by these terrible happenings as to dread his judgement when it is at hand.

A little before the passage which has just been read to you from the Gospel are found these words of our Lord: Nation will rise in arms against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes in this region or that, and plagues and famines* After a few more verses come the words you have just heard: The sun and  the moon and the stars will give portents, and on earth the nations will  be in distress, bewildered by the roaring of the sea and of its waves. Some of these things, indeed, have already come to pass; others, we fear, are not far off. In these our days we see nation rise against nation, and their distress over all the earth, more than ever we read of in books. You know also how often we have heard of earthquakes overwhelming countless cities in other parts of the world. We ourselves suffer pestilences without end.

When all this begins, look up, and lift up your heads; it means that the time draws near for your deliverance. He who is the Truth warns his elect very clearly by these words: when calamities are multiplied in the world, when the disturbances of the laws of nature foretell the fearful judgement to come, he bids them lift up their heads, that is, rejoice, for while the world for which they have no love is coming to the end, the deliverance that they have sought will approach. In holy scripture the word "head" often means the mind, for the head governs the members, and likewise the mind orders the thoughts. To lift up the head means, then, to raise the soul to the joys of heaven. Those who love the Lord are invited to draw joy and gaiety from the end of the world, for at this moment they will find him whom they love, while that which they have not loved will disappear.