Masses of rain clouds were moving steadily onward, from the West, and by the time I had reached the halfway point and turned back at 0500 or so, the face of the Moon was concealed by cloud, and the morning chorus of birds was much diminished. Now, some half an hour after I returned to my little room here, only a tiny window or two give a glimpse of the opaque white and pinks of Dawn, the rest of the sky filled now with the prospect of rain. We shall see. My recollection is that the weather mages had predicted a day of rain Thursday or yesterday.
It is the Saturday within the Octave of Corpus Christi (Introibo here and here), and the feast of Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr (Introibo, CE, Wiki). I am myself using the Tridentine Office of the Octave, for the sake of the lessons as much as anything else (and see here), commemorating Saint Boniface at Lauds and Vespers.
And the beautiful sequence; such profound truths expressed in so few words and phrases.
Lauda, Sion, Salvatórem,
lauda ducem et pastórem
in hymnis et cánticis.
Quantum potes, tantum aude:
quia major omni laude,
nec laudáre súfficis.
Laudis thema speciális,
panis vivus et vitális
hódie propónitur.
Quem in sacræ mensa cenæ
turbæ fratrum duodénæ
datum non ambígitur.
Sit laus plena, sit sonóra,
sit jucúnda, sit decóra
mentis jubilátio.
Dies enim sollémnis agitur,
in qua mensæ prima recólitur
hujus institútio.
In hac mensa novi Regis,
novum Pascha novæ legis
Phase vetus términat.
Vetustátem nóvitas,
umbram fugat véritas,
noctem lux elíminat.
Quod in cœna Christus gessit,
faciéndum hoc expréssit
in sui memóriam.
Docti sacris institútis,
panem, vinum in salútis
consecrámus hóstiam.
Dogma datur Christiánis,
quod in carnem transit panis
et vinum in sánguinem.
Quod non capis, quod non vides,
animosa fírmat fides,
præter rerum órdinem.
Sub divérsis speciébus,
signis tantum, et non rebus,
latent res exímiæ.
Caro cibus, sanguis potus:
manet tamen Christus totus
sub utráque spécie.
A suménte non concísus,
non confráctus, non divísus:
ínteger accípitur.
Sumit unus, sumunt mille:
quantum isti, tantum ille:
nec sumptus consúmitur.
Sumunt boni, sumunt mali
sorte tamen inæquáli,
vitæ vel intéritus.
Mors est malis, vita bonis:
vide, paris sumptiónis
quam sit dispar éxitus.
Fracto demum sacraménto,
ne vacílles, sed meménto,
tantum esse sub fragménto,
quantum toto tégitur.
Nulla rei fit scissúra:
signi tantum fit fractúra:
qua nec status nec statúra
signáti minúitur.
Ecce panis Angelórum,
factus cibus viatórum:
vere panis filiórum,
non mitténdus cánibus.
In figúris præsignátur,cum Isaac immolátur:
agnus paschæ deputátur:
datur manna pátribus.
Bone pastor, panis vere,
Jesu, nostri miserére:
tu nos pasce, nos tuére:
tu nos bona fac vidére
in terra vivéntium.
Tu, qui cuncta scis et vales:
qui nos pascis hic mortáles:
tuos ibi commensáles,
coherédes et sodáles
fac sanctórum cívium.
Amen. Allelúja.
Post Primam. Both the scrub jays and Steller's jays have been peanut-eating, and the single crow that has decided this is the place to be, but have seen no squirrels this morning; hmm. The Chopin recitals from Zelazowa Wola are streamed at noon local time which is, I guess, 0400 here.
Ante Vesperas. Am perhaps half of the way through John Gardner's Nickel Mountain; honestly, I forget why I bought the book (it's been in the Kindle library since November 2017), and had no idea when I began it what I was getting myself into, the peculiarities of ordinary lives, I gather, in an otherwise humane society before the present dominion of the machines. It's hard to tell at this point if there is some significant plot unfolding or if it is simply a snapshot of human life, in the late 40s or early 50s in upstate New York. Hmm. Vespers and then off I go downtown to Saint Mary's for the 'Vigil Mass' of the Pauline Rite's celebration of the feast of the Body and Blood of Our Lord.
It is also the feast of Saint Illidius of Clermont (4th century), of Saint Eutichius of Como (6th century), and of Saint Sancius of Cordoba (9th century).
V. Et álibi aliórum plurimórum sanctórum Mártyrum et Confessórum, atque sanctárum Vírginum. R. Deo grátias.
LDVM
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