Before too much longer, I hope, as happened yesterday; who knows of course. Today is the Friday Ember Day in Pentecost, the Mass being Repleatur os meum laude tua, alleluia (Introibo). Nothing is at the Saint-Eugène YouTube page at the moment but certainly yesterday it was the plan for today's Ember Day Mass to be streamed at the usual hour.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. O quam bonus et suavis est, Domine, Spiritus tuus in nobis!Alleluia. Veni Sancte Spiritus, reple tuorum corda fidelium: et tui amoris in eis ignem accende.
Veni, Sancte Spíritus,et emítte cǽlituslucis tuæ rádium.Veni, pater páuperum,veni, dator múnerum,veni, lumen córdium.Consolátor óptime,dulcis hospes ánimæ,dulce refrigérium.In labóre réquies,in æstu tempéries,in fletu solátium.O lux beatíssima,reple cordis íntimatuórum fidélium.Sine tuo númine,nihil est in hómine,nihil est innóxium.Lava quod est sórdidum,riga quod est áridum,sana quod est sáucium.Flecte quod est rígidum,fove quod est frígidum,rege quod est dévium.Da tuis fidélibus,in te confidéntibus,sacrum septenárium.Da virtútis méritum,da salútis éxitum,da perénne gáudium.Amen, allelúia.
During the Offertory, the Schola chanted a 10th century sequence from the ancient Parisian use for Friday in the Pentecost Octave, an Aquitanian composition the text of which is drawn from Saint Isidore of Seville on the Divine Names. Very far from Adam of Saint-Victor! and, as welcome as it was, it does also compel one to realize that the suppression of the multitude of sequences and proses following the Council of Trent was perhaps understandable, at least in some cases.
Alma Chorus Domini nunc pangat nomina Summi. Alleluia.
Messías, Soter, Emmánuel, Sabáoth, Adonái.
Est Unigenitus, via, vita, manus, homoúsios,
Princípium, primogénitus, sapiéntia, virtus,
Alpha caput, finísque simul vocitátur et est Ω,
Fons et orígo boni, paraclétus, ac mediátor,
Agnus, ovis, vítulus, serpens, áries, leo, vermis,
Os, verbum, splendor, Sol, glória, lux, et imágo,
Panis, flos, vitis, mons, jánua, petra, lapísque,
Angelus, et sponsus, pastórque, Prophéta, Sacérdos,
Athánatos, Kyrios, Theos, et Pantocrátor, Jésus,
Salvíficet nos, sit cui sæcla per ómnia doxa. Amen.
While I approve of the use of the Greek certainly, I have a difficult time, off the top of my head, thinking where in Scripture or Tradition it is thought fitting to ascribe the names 'Worm' and 'Serpent' to Our Lord, Whose undoubted prominence in the text seems a bit 'off' during the celebration of Pentecost-- but I'm sure that there are not a few facts I'm unaware of.
Am reading in the second chapter of the seventh book of the Etymologiae of the great Doctor of Seville, paragraphs 41 sqq.
Further He is called Fundamentum, the Foundation, because faith on Him is most firm, or because the Catholic Church was built upon Him. Now Christ is Agnus, the Lamb, for His innocence, and Ovis, the Sheep, for His submissiveness, and Aries, the Ram, for His leadership, and Haedus, Goat, for His likeness to sinful flesh, and Vitulus, Calf, because He was made a sacrificial victim for us, and Leo, Lion, for His kingdom and strength, and Serpens, Serpent, for His death and His sapientia, Wisdom, and again Vermis, Worm, because He rose again, Aquila, Eagle, because after His Resurrection He returned to the stars.
Nor is it a wonder that He should be figured forth by means of lowly signs, He who is known to have descended even to the indignities of our passions or of the flesh. For although He is coeternal with God the Father before worldly time, when the fulness of time arrived, the Son for our salvation took the form of a slave (Philippians 2,7), and the Son of God because a son of man. For this reason some things are said of Him in Scripture according to the form of God, some according to the form of a slave.
The authority of Saint Isidore was very great; but I am still wondering why it was thought important to include those two names, vermis and serpens. Ah, vermis, I will suppose, because of Psalm 21,7 and its application to Our Lord in His Passion, in the Tractus of Palm Sunday and elsewhere in the Sacred Liturgy:
Ego autem sum vermis, et non homo; opprobrium hominum, et abjectio plebis.
Serpens, however, I shall leave to further looking about later... but of course having decided to stop, the answer immediately thereafter occurred to me: what did the Holy Patriarch Moses raise up in the desert? From Numbers 21,7sqq:
Oravitque Moyses pro populo, et locutus est Dominus ad eum: Fac serpentem æneum, et pone eum pro signo: qui percussus aspexerit eum, vivet. Fecit ergo Moyses serpentem æneum, et posuit eum pro signo: quem cum percussi aspicerent, sanabantur.
And then from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John, 3,14sq:
Et sicut Moyses exaltavit serpentem in deserto, ita exaltari oportet Filium hominis: ut omnis qui credit in ipsum, non pereat, sed habeat vitam æternam.
Of course; one wonders why one had to puzzle these out-- I'm rather dense at times, is the explanation. Tsk.
It is also the feast of Saint Germanus of Paris (6th century), of Saint Justus of Urgel (6th century), and of Saint Chéron of Chartres (5th century).
V. Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum. R. Deo grátias.
LDVM
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