Monday, January 21, 2013

What I longed for, I now see; what I hoped for, I now possess; in heaven I am espoused to him whom on earth I loved with all my heart.

Ecce quod concupivi, iam video; quod speravi, iam teneo: ipsi sum iuncta in cælo, quem in terris posita, tota devotione dilexi.

Lo, what I desired I now do see; what I did hope for I now possess; now am I united in heaven to him whom I loved with my whole heart upon earth.

     Antiphon assigned to the Benedictus, Morning prayer (Lauds), Feast of St. Agnes (21 January).  Translation no. 1 from Christian prayer:  the Liturgy of the hours (1976), 1067; translation no. 2 from The Anglican breviary (1998 [1955]), E58 =1078.  "ipsi sum iuncta in cælo, quem in terris posita, tota devotione dilexi" echoes PL 17, col. 820A:  "illi sum juncta in coelis, quem in terris posita tota devotione dilexi."  Cf. Acta sanctorum at 21 January (January II, pp. 714 ff.), which I haven't yet examined.  For some lovely manuscripts inclusive of this antiphon, including one from the 10th century, see the relevant entry in CANTUS.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Not all of the lovely ones are ancient

3rd edition:
Nourished with these sacred gifts,
we humbly entreat your mercy, O Lord,
that, faithfully listening to your Only Begotten Son,
we may be your children in name and in truth.

2nd edition:
Lord, you feed us with bread from heaven.  May we hear your Son with faith and become your children in name and in fact.

Latin:
Sacro munere satiati,
clementiam tuam, Domine, suppliciter exoramus,
ut, Unigenitum tuum fideliter audientes,
filii tui vere nominemur et simus.

Perisho (wooden):
Satiated by the sacred gift,
your clemency, O Lord, we humbly entreat,
that, your Only-Begotten faithfully hearing,
your sons we may truly be called and be.

     Prayer after Communion, Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.  Newly composed for the Missale Romanum of 1975 on the basis of Mt 17:5 (ipsum audite, hear him) and 1 Jn 3:1 (ut filii Dei nominemur et sumus, that we should be called children of God; and such we are).  Cuthbert Johnson, OSB, and Anthony Ward, SM, The sources of the Roman missal (1975), I:  Advent, Christmas no. 136 ((Rome:  Notitiae 240-242, July-September 1986), pp. [239]/679-[241]/681).  "suppliciter exoramus" could mean also "we humbly by entreaty obtain".
     The Collect in the 1979 Book of common prayer, also a new composition, was based not on this Prayer after Communion, but on the first of the two Roman Collects of the day (and highly modified).  Marion J. Hatchett, Commentary on the American prayer book (New York:  The Seabury Press, 1980), 171.

The next time I'm tempted to correct someone who says "Revelations" instead of "Revelation,"...

. . . I'll remember that John Henry Newman was among the many who used the plural.  Cf.

     Oxford English dictionary, sv revelation, n., 2.c.i-ii, "In plural in sense 2a, now regarded as informal and by some as incorrect," from c. 1400 and following.