Mosarabic: Hymn for Terce:

 

The Mosarabic Rite was the liturgy which the Christians in the south of Spain used and developed under Arabic rule in the Middle Ages. 

Feria secunda: Ad tertiam in Quadragesima

In the Durham Hymnal this hymn is used at Compline. The collectar specifies it for the 3^rd and 4^th Saturdays and the 3^rd Sunday of Lent. The Anglo-Saxon version does not have the third stanza, nor the same doxology. It is taken from Prudentius, Cathemerinon  VII. 

 

O Nazarene, lux Bethlehem, Verbum Patris.

Quem partus alvi Virginalis protulit,

Adesto castis, Christe, parsimoniis,

Festumque nostrum rex serenus adspice,

Jejuniorum dum litamus victimam.

 Nil hoc profecto purius mysterio,

Quo fibra cordis expiatur vividi,

Intemperata quo domantur viscera,

Arvina putrem ne resudans crapulam

Obstrangulatae mentis ingenium premat.

  
Hinc subjugatur luxus, et turpis gula,

Vini atque somni degener socordia,

Libido sordens, inverecundus lepos,

Variaeque pestes languidorum sensuum

Parcam subactae disciplinam sentiunt.

  
Nam si licenter diffluens potu et cibo,

Jejuna rite membra non coerceant:

Sequitur, frequenti marcida oblectamine,

Scintilla mentis ut tepescat nobilis,

Animusque pigris stertat ut praecordiis.

   Amen. Honor, potestas, etc.

O man of Nazareth. Light of Bethlehem, the Word of the Father, whom the birth from a virginal womb brought forth, assist us, O Christ, in this season of chaste abstinence and as a  peaceful king watch over our observance, while we offer up the sacrifice of fasting. Nothing is more cleansing than carrying out this mystery, by which the very fiber of the living heart is cleansed, through which the intemperance within us is conquered, lest unbridled fat and sordid drunkenness be not restrained and the natural capacity of the strangled mind be strangled and oppressed.  In this way luxury and base gluttony are brought low, degenerate sloth of wine and sleep, filthy lust and foolish wit and the various plagues of sick feelings are subjected and made to feel the discipline of restraint. For if drink and food flow freely, the body is not coerced with proper fasting, it follows that, exhausted by continual amusement, the noble spark of the mind grows tepid and the soul sleeps from the laziness of the inmost heart. 

Hymn for Sext in Lent:

 YMNUS AD SEXTAM

MERIDIE ORANDUM EST

Christusque deprecandus est,

ut iubeat nos edere

de suo sancto corpore,

ut ille sit laudabilis

in universis populis,

ipse celorum dominus,

qui sedet in altissimis,

detque nobis auxilium

per angelos mirabiles,

qui semper nos custodiant

in omni vita seculi,

             

Gloria tibi, trinitas

Prayer must be made at noonday and we must ask Christ that he command us to eat of his holy body, that he be praised among all peoples, He, the Lord of heaven, who is enthroned in the highest, and that he give us help through his wondrous angels, who for ever guard us in whole  life  of the world.

Ember Friday: Lent: Homily of St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo

Remember how I remarked, that the man healed by our Lord at the pool of Bethesda had had an infirmity thirty and eight years. I wish to explain why this number of thirty-eight is proper rather to weakness than to health. Love is the fulfilling of the law Rom. xiii. 10; to the fulfilling of the law belongeth in every work the number forty. But in love we have given us two precepts Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matth. xxii. 37-40. When the widow gave all she had for an offering to God she gave two mites Mark xii. 42; the inn-keeper received two pence wherewith to cure him that had fallen among thieves Luke x. 35; Jesus abode for two days among the Samaritans John iv. 40, that He might establish them in love. When, then, anything good is spoken of as two, the two great divisions of love are the chief mystic interpretation. If, then, the law is fulfilled in the number forty, and it is not fulfilled if there be lacking the two precepts of love, what wonder is it that he was infirm who lacked two of forty?emember how I remarked, that the man healed by our Lord at the pool of Bethesda had had an infirmity thirty and eight years. I wish to explain why this number of thirty-eight is proper rather to weakness than to health. Love is the fulfilling of the law Rom. xiii. 10; to the fulfilling of the law belongeth in every work the number forty. But in love we have given us two precepts Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matth. xxii. 37-40. When the widow gave all she had for an offering to God she gave two mites Mark xii. 42; the inn-keeper received two pence wherewith to cure him that had fallen among thieves Luke x. 35; Jesus abode for two days among the Samaritans John iv. 40, that He might establish them in love. When, then, anything good is spoken of as two, the two great divisions of love are the chief mystic interpretation. If, then, the law is fulfilled in the number forty, and it is not fulfilled if there be lacking the two precepts of love, what wonder is it that he was infirm who lacked two of forty?

Remember how I remarked, that the man healed by our Lord at the pool of Bethesda had had an infirmity thirty and eight years. I wish to explain why this number of thirty-eight is proper rather to weakness than to health. Love is the fulfilling of the law Rom. xiii. 10; to the fulfilling of the law belongeth in every work the number forty. But in love we have given us two precepts Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matth. xxii. 37-40. When the widow gave all she had for an offering to God she gave two mites Mark xii. 42; the inn-keeper received two pence wherewith to cure him that had fallen among thieves Luke x. 35; Jesus abode for two days among the Samaritans John iv. 40, that He might establish them in love. When, then, anything good is spoken of as two, the two great divisions of love are the chief mystic interpretation. If, then, the law is fulfilled in the number forty, and it is not fulfilled if there be lacking the two precepts of love, what wonder is it that he was infirm who lacked two of forty?hether, therefore, it be in the Law, or in the Prophets, or in the Gospel, the number of forty is recommended to us for Fast-days. The great and general Fast is this to abstain from the iniquity of the world, and her forbidden pleasures. This is the perfect Fast, that, denying ungodliness, and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. After such a Fast, what is the Feast that followeth? Hear what the Apostle saith in continuation Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Titus ii. 12, 13. We, then, make our pilgrimage in this world a Lent, by living good lives, and abstaining from her iniquities and her forbidden pleasures. But at the end of this life-long Lent there will be an Easter indeed. We look for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ When that hope is realised, when that faith is swallowed up in knowledge, then indeed shall we receive every man a penny. In good sooth, it is true that every labourer in the vineyard will get his wages witness that Gospel which I believe ye have not forgotten, Matth. xx. 116 and which it is not my business to quote again as if ye were ignorant children. Now, the word used in the original for this penny which the labourers received is denarion. And the derivation of the word denarion is the numeral decem, ten. There are forty days in Lent, and if we add ten, we get fifty. So do we toil in fasting for the forty days of Lent before Easter, and, then, when we have, as it were, received our reward, we keep holiday for the fifty days of Eastertide.

Remember how I remarked, that the man healed by our Lord at the pool of Bethesda had had an infirmity thirty and eight years. I wish to explain why this number of thirty-eight is proper rather to weakness than to health. Love is the fulfilling of the law Rom. xiii. 10; to the fulfilling of the law belongeth in every work the number forty. But in love we have given us two precepts Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matth. xxii. 37-40. When the widow gave all she had for an offering to God she gave two mites Mark xii. 42; the inn-keeper received two pence wherewith to cure him that had fallen among thieves Luke x. 35; Jesus abode for two days among the Samaritans John iv. 40, that He might establish them in love. When, then, anything good is spoken of as two, the two great divisions of love are the chief mystic interpretation. If, then, the law is fulfilled in the number forty, and it is not fulfilled if there be lacking the two precepts of love, what wonder is it that he was infirm who lacked two of forty?

Hymn at None: (HYMNS of the Anglo-Saxon Church)

 A very strange hymn for None in Lent and perhaps the result of scribal error.

THE Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church, Igne B. Milfull

PERFECTO TRINO NUMERO

ternis horaum terminis

laudes cantes debitas

nonam dicentes psallimus

Sacrum dei myterium

puro tentes pectore

Petri magistri regulam

 signo sautis proditam

et nos psallamus spiritu

adherentes apostlis

qui plantas habent debiles

Christi virtute diligant.

GLORIA Tibi, trinitas.

Now that the number three is full, made up of periods of three hours each we sing, chanting the songs of praise we owe, and reciting the Office of None. Keeping the sacred mystery of God, in a pure heart and the rule Peter, our teacher, as it was made known to us by the sign, the healing. Let us also sing, cleaving in our spirits to the apostles. May they love those who have weak feet by the by the healing power of Christ.

Glory to thee, O Trinity.

Sung on weekdays in Lent in the Winchester Hymnal.

Qua Christus hora sítiit

Qua Christus hora sítiit (1)(3)

crucem vel in qua súbiit,

quos præstat in hac psállere

ditet siti iustítiæ.

Simul sit his esúries,

quam ipse de se sátiet,

crimen sit ut fastídium (2)

virtúsque desidérium.

Charísma Sancti Spíritus

sic ínfluat psalléntibus,

ut carnis æstus frígeat

et mentis algor férveat.

Christum rogámus et Patrem,

Christi Patrísque Spíritum;

unum potens per ómnia,

fove precántes, Trínitas. Amen.

1. The first stanza points to the time when the hymn is sung: "The hour when Christ thirsted or submitted himself to the cross". Also, a reference to the thirst of the Cross.

2. fastidium = ‘a loathsome thing’ (Walpole) 

3.  Walpole says that the ‘thirst’ may refer to Joh. 4:6: erat autem ibi fons Iacob Iesus ergo fatigatus ex itinere sedebat sic super fontem hora erat quasi sexta or to Joh. 19.28: postea sciens Iesus quia iam omnia consummata sunt ut consummaretur scriptura dicit sitio. In any case the hymn prays that ‘he may enrich us with a thirst for righteousness”. 

The hour when Christ thirsted or submitted himself to the cross, when he grants those who sing this hour to be enriched with a thirst for righteousness.  At the same time may they hunger that Christ might fill them with himself that wearied by sin they may desire virtue.  May the gifts of the Holy Spirit so pour down upon those who praise you that the heat of flesh may grow cold and cold souls might become fervent.  We ask Christ and the Father and the Spirit of Christ and the Father, one power through all things, O Trinity, cherish those who pray to you. Amen.

EMBER WEDNESDAY: Lent: St. Ambrose

 

 

The reading of the holy Gospel according to St. Matthew

At that time certain of the Scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, "Master, we would see a sign from thee." And so forth.

 

Homily of St. Ambrose, Bishop

 

. . . the mystery of the Church, which is gathered from all the ends of the earth—in the Ninevites through penance, and in the Queen of the South through the desire of obtaining wisdom—to hear the words of the peaceful Solomon. For the Church is truly a queen, whose kingdom is undivided, rising up out of various and distant nations into one body.

Thus, that is an excellent figure of Christ and the Church; however, this is greater, because before it was only in figure, but now it is truly verified. In the former, Solomon is a type, but here Christ is present in His body. The Church consists of two classes of people: those who know not how to sin, and those who have ceased to sin. For penance wipes sin away and knowledge guards against it.

Moreover, the sign of Jonas, as a figure of the Lord's Passion, is also a testimony of the grave sins  . . .. At the same time, we may see in these words of our Lord a declaration of His power and a sign of His love. For by the example of the Ninevites both the punishment is foretold and a way of escape is pointed out.

Dei fide, qua vivimus

 Ad Tertiam: saec. VIII

Dei fide, qua vívimus, (1)

qua spe perénni crédimus, (2)

per caritátis grátiam

Christi canámus glóriam,

Qui ductus hora tértia (3)

ad passiónis hóstiam,

crucis ferens suspéndia

ovem redúxit pérditam. 

Precémur ergo súbditi,

redemptióne líberi,

ut éruat a sæculo

quos solvit a chirógrapho.

Christum rogámus et Patrem,

Christi Patrísque Spíritum;

unum potens per ómnia,

fove precántes, Trínitas. Amen.

1.       Three theological virtues: Faith, Hope, and Love.

2.      Mk 15:25: "at the third hour they crucified him." 

3.      Reference to the penitent thief: the lost sheep. 

Faith in God, by which we live, in eternal hope by which we believe, through the grace of love we sing the glory of Christ.  Who was lead at the third hour to the sacrifice of the passion, bearing the gibbet of the cross he returned the lost sheep.  We humbly pray therefore that delivered by his redemption he would rescue from the world those he freed from the charge. We ask Christ and the Father and the Spirit of Christ and the Father, one power through all things, O Trinity, cherish those who pray to you. Amen.