Office of Prime

 

The voice of the Church at Prayer

I do not know where this comes from. Maybe from Uwe Michael Lang from his book. I found it among some of my papers. 

Liturgical prayer is a form of public speech, and hence it

is not surprising that in Christian antiquity, the threefold

officia of classical rhetoric were applied to it as well. The

reasons for this are presented succinctly by Mary Gonzaga

Haessly in her seminal, though virtually unobtainable, work

on Rhetoric in the Sunday Collects of the Roman Missal:

All these devices of the art of language are necessary for us, for

they enable us:  to grasp clearly the lessons embodied in the

Prayers (docere); (2) to make these lessons more acceptable to

us through the charm of diction and structure, in a word,

through their appeal to our aesthetic sense (delectare); (3) to

persuade us (movere) to mold our conduct in accordance with

the principles of faith set forth in the Prayers. This explains

why rhetoric is, and must be, found in the liturgy: it is to dis-

pose us to pray "ut oportet," as we ought to pray.

“The liturgy is … a participation in Christ’s own prayer addressed to the Father in the Holy Spirit. In the liturgy, all Christian prayer finds its source and goal. Through the liturgy the inner man is rooted and grounded in ‘the great love with which [the Father] loved us’ in his beloved Son” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1073).

10th Century Mozarabic Hymn

 

10th Century Mozarabic Hymn

 

Attende Domine, et miserere, quia peccavimus tibi.
Attende Domine, et miserere, quia peccavimus tibi.

Ad te Rex summe,
omnium Redemptor,
oculos nostros
sublevamus flentes:
exaudi, Christe,
supplicantum preces.

Attende Domine, et miserere, quia peccavimus tibi.

Dextera Patris,
lapis angularis,
via salutis,
ianua caelestis,
ablue nostri
maculas delicti.

Attende Domine, et miserere, quia peccavimus tibi.

Rogamus, Deus,
tuam maiestatem:
auribus sacris
gemitus exaudi:
crimina nostra
placidus indulge.

Attende Domine, et miserere, quia peccavimus tibi.

Tibi fatemur
crimina admissa:
contrito corde
pandimus occulta:
tua, Redemptor,
pietas ignoscat.

Attende Domine, et miserere, quia peccavimus tibi.

English Translation:

Hear us, O Lord, and have mercy, because we have sinned against Thee.
Hear us, O Lord, and have mercy, because we have sinned against Thee.

To Thee, highest King,
Redeemer of all,
do we lift up our eyes
in weeping:
Hear, O Christ, the prayers
of your servants.

Hear us, O Lord, and have mercy, because we have sinned against Thee.

Right hand of the Father,
corner-stone,
way of salvation,
gate of heaven,
wash away our
stains of sin.

Hear us, O Lord, and have mercy, because we have sinned against Thee.

We beseech Thee, God,
in Thy great majesty:
Hear our groans
with Thy holy ears:
calmly forgive
our crimes.

Hear us, O Lord, and have mercy, because we have sinned against Thee.

To Thee we confess
our sins admitted
with a contrite heart
We reveal the things hidden:
By Thy kindness, O Redeemer,
overlook them.

Hear us, O Lord, and have mercy, because we have sinned against Thee.

The Innocent, seized,
not refusing to be led;
condemned by false witnesses
because of impious men
O Christ, keep safe those
whom Thou hast redeemed.

Hear us, O Lord, and have mercy, because we have sinned against Thee.
(Text and Translation also from Gregorian Chant Lyrics)

 

Presentation of the Lord

 

                     IN PRÆSENTATIONE DOMINI

From the Golden Legend

 

Hanc in honore pio

Candelam porto Mariae.

Accipe per ceram

Carnem de Virgine veram,

Per lumen numen

Majestatis que cacumen.

Lychnus est anima

Carne latens praeopima.

This candle I carry in honor of holy Mary.

Take the wax for the true body born of the Virgin.

Take the light for God and his supreme majesty.

Take the wick for soul concealed in the fat flesh.

Ad Officium lectionis & Ad Vesperas: Paulinus II aquileiensis?

Quod chorus vatum venerándus olim

Spíritu Sancto cécinit replétus,

in Dei factum genetríce constat

  esse María.

Hæc Deum cæli Dominúmque terræ

virgo concépit peperítque virgo,

atque post partum méruit manére

  invioláta.

Quem senex iustus Símeon in ulnis

in domo sumpsit Dómini, gavísus

ob quod optátum próprio vidéret

  lúmine Christum.

Tu libens votis, pétimus, precántum,

regis ætérni génetrix, favéto,

clara quæ fundis Géniti benígni

  múnera lucis.

Christe, qui lumen Patris es supérni,

qui Patris nobis réseras profúnda,

nos fac ætérnæ tibi ferre laudes

  lucis in aula. Amen.

What once the worshipful choir of the prophets sang filled with the Holy Spirit, is accomplished in Mary the Mother of God. A Virgin conceived and a Virgin gave birth to the God of heaven and the Lord of earth and she was deemed worthy to remain inviolate after birth.  The righteous old man took the Child into his arms and entered the Lord’s house, joyously he saw with his own eyes the Christ he had desired to see. We ask you, O Mother of the eternal King, honor our petitions, you who pour out the shining gifts of your kind Son. O Christ, who are the light of your heavenly Father, who open to us the depths of the Father, grant that we may offer you endless praise in the courts of light. Amen.

Ad Laudes matutinas: Petrus Abelardus

Adórna, Sion, thálamum,

quæ præstoláris Dóminum;

sponsum et sponsam súscipe

vigil fídei lúmine.

Beáte senex, própera,

promíssa comple gáudia

et revelándum géntibus

revéla lumen ómnibus.

Paréntes Christum déferunt,

in templo templum ófferunt;

legi parére vóluit

qui legi nihil débuit.

Offer, beáta, párvulum,

tuum et Patris únicum;

offer per quem offérimur,

prétium quo redímimur.

Procéde, virgo régia,

profer Natum cum hóstia;

monet omnes ad gáudium

qui venit salus ómnium.

Iesu, tibi sit glória,

qui te revélas géntibus,

cum Patre et almo Spíritu,

in sempitérna sæcula. Amen.

Adorn, O Sion, the wedding chamber, you who await the Lord: receive the groom and the bride, watch by the lamp of faith. Blessed elder, make haste, fulfill the joy promised you, reveal the light to enlighten all the gentiles.  The parents bring Christ to offer him in the temple; he, who has no debt to the law, desires to obey the law. Offer, O blessed Lady, your Child and the father’s Only-begotten; offer him through whom we are offered the price which redeems us. Ride on, O royal Virgin, offer your Son with the required sacrifice; He, who comes as the salvation of all, admonishes all men to rejoice. O Jesus, to you be glory, you who revealed yourself to the Gentiles, with the Father and loving Spirit for eternal ages. Amen.

St. Bonaventure: Our Lady

 

Sermon of St. Bonaventure

The courage of the Virgin is more blessed than that of all the

heroines of the Old Testament

We see from our reading that in scriptural times three things in women were regarded by men as blessings: that beautiful thing physical integrity, the gift of fruitfulness, and courage. The Virgin Mary, we find, was three times declared blessed—by the archangel Gabriel, by St. Elizabeth and by holy Simeon—because she possessed these three qualities to an eminent degree. There was reason and order in that. It was fitting that an angel should remark on the boon of her virginity; the pregnant Elizabeth was the right sort of person to praise her fruitfulness; Simeon, an upright man,2 could appreciate the brave and manly element in her conduct.

Notice that courage has three degrees. The first of them enables us to master an opponent when he is in flight. In that respect Jahe13 was called blessed, because when Sisara, the prince of the Madianites, was running away, she smote him and killed him. The second degree of courage enables us to worst our enemy when he attacks us. In that sense Judith was said to be blessed for cutting off the head of Holofernes. Courage of the third degree gives us the victory over an adversary who is already our master: and that was the sense in which the glorious Virgin was pronounced blessed by Simeon. Simeon blessed  them, and said to Mary: As for thy own soul, it shall have a sword to pierce it.l His prophecy was fulfilled in that combat between Christ and the Devil in which Christ suffered physical death and the blessed Virgin was pierced and wounded spiritually, thereby winning the supreme victory and displaying the supreme extent of courage. It takes more courage to bear a wound quietly than to inflict one: a woman who can bear to see her son hanging on a cross is braver than one who kills an enemy with her own hands. Blessings, then, to Jahel for her victory over the fugitive Sisara; blessings and more blessings to Judith for her triumph over Holofernes the aggressor; blessings above all to the Virgin Mary, for she vanquished the world and the Devil who crucified her Son and pierced her soul to its depths.

If, then, we refuse to do as the Virgin did—if we will not play the man and fight—that is, if we neglect to mortify our bodies, through which the Devil strives to make us his prisoners and reduce us to slavery—then of necessity the Lord's curse must rest upon us: Cursed the man who goes about the Lord's work grudgingly, nor with blood stains his sword.

Cardinal Pole: Beginning of the Council of Trent

 

Legatine address of Reginald Cardinal Pole at the opening of the Council of Trent, 1546.

Before the tribunal of God's mercy we, the shepherds, should make ourselves responsible for all the evils now burdening the flock of Christ. The sins of all we should take upon ourselves, not in generosity but in justice; because the truth is that of these evils we are in great part the cause, and therefore we should implore the divine mercy through Jesus Christ.

St. Ambrose: Patrimony given to those who ask for it.

Homily by S. Ambrose, Bishop, Bk. 7 on Luke Ch. 16

NOTICE that the divine patrimony is given to those that ask it. Neither think the father to blame in giving it to his younger son. For there is no weakness of age in the kingdom of God, nor does faith decline with years. And he who asked considered himself worthy to receive. Would that he had never gone away from his father, then had he never known the drawback of his age. Then leaving his father's house, he took his journey into a far country, and began to be in want. It is well said that he wasted his patrimony, he who withdrew from the Church.