Salisbury Hymnal: Rector potens, verax Deus

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O God of Truth, O Lord of Might

Every now and then an old chant we used to sing from the old Salisbury Hymnal comes to mind. Here follows The Revd Dr John Mason Neale's translation of Saint Ambrose with the chant to be sung at Mid-Day:

O God of truth, O Lord of might,

Who ord'rest time and change aright,

And send'st the early morning ray,

And light'st the glow of perfect day :

Extinguish Thou each sinful fire, 

And banish ev'ry ill desire ;

And while Thou keep'st the body whole, 

Shed forth Thy peace upon the soul :

O Father, that we ask be done,

Through Jesus Christ Thine Only Son ;

Who, with the Holy Ghost and Thee,

Shall live and reign eternally. 

Amen.

[Click on the chant image above 

for a larger view of the mid-day hymn.]

Text: Saint Ambrose
Translation: J.M. Neale
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Thy Hand, O God, Has Guided (Tune: Thornbury)

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This hymn is often associated with Remembrance Day and other such memorials of national life.  It strikes me as a wonderful hymn to sing at any time especially when it seems that the foundations of the world we know have been shaken and the future appears uncertain.  At such a time we do well to remind ourselves that the world is the Lord's, the Church is the Lord's, and we and all our times are the Lord's.

Saint Isidore of Seville, pray for us.

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A prayer before logging onto the internet: 

Statue of St. Isidore of Sevilla in Madrid, Spain

Almighty and eternal God, who created us in Thine image and bade us to seek after all that is good, true and beautiful, especially in the divine person of Thine Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, that, through the intercession of Saint Isidore, Bishop and Doctor, during our journeys through the internet we will direct our hands and eyes only to that which is pleasing to Thee and treat with charity and patience all those souls whom we encounter. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

I thank Fr. Zed for making this collect known via his blog.   

Αγνή Παρθένε — Fecioară Curată ('Agni Parthene' in Romanian)

Fecioară Curată ('Agni Parthene' in Romanian)

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Grupul BYZANTION chant 'Fecioara Curata' (Agni Parthene).

I have often enjoyed listening to Agni Parthene by Saint Nektarios on Mothering Sunday, and in the past I have posted this Romanian Orthodox version.  

The melody has an unusual history in that it came to birth after the composer heard the tune Greensleeves being sung to the text "What Child Is This?".  The text Αγνή Παρθένε was written by Saint Nektarios of Aegina in the 19th century and remains a favourite among Eastern Orthodox Christians.

In recent years Αγνή Παρθένε has found a wider audience through the recordings and performances of the Serbian Orthodox cantor called Divna who sings it in Greek:

This piece is para-liturgical but I think quite a few Eastern Orthodox Christians think of it as liturgical as it is employed at times as a closing hymn after a liturgy.

From Richard Tatlock's 'An English Benedictional'

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Most of the forms of benediction in Richard Tatlock's 'An English Benedictional' derive from the Leofric Missal.  There have been various debates about the use of these benedictions as to when and where they were employed. Did they come at the end of the Mass, the end of the Morning or Evening Office, or at the end of the Mass of the Catechumens?  Perhaps they were employed at all of these points.  We were not there, and the texts that have survived do not provide definitive answers.

By looking to Old Gallican and Anglo-Saxon missals, texts and patterns, Tatlock offers his own interpretation that in the Anglican context bishops (or other clergy) would make use of these forms at the end of Holy Mass, Choral Mattins, and Evensong.  That seems very sensible to me.  However, in those places where the Dismissal of the Catechumens still takes place, would they not serve well as a benediction upon the Catechumens departing from the church before the Celebration of the Holy Eucharist? I think they would.

The argument that they were part of the dismissal of the Catechumens before the Holy Eucharist is a very sound notion. But it can be argued that they were meant as a summary at the end of the Holy Mass.  As none of us were there, I think the value in them is their versatility and their specificity with regard to liturgical time and lectionary texts.

Instead of the priest giving the same final form of Benediction week by week, in Tatlock's book we have a rich resource that is not unrelated to the appointed antiphons and other propers that clothe the body of Holy Mass week by week.

Drawing from Tatlock's translations and the formulae from the Leofric Missal, the following is one of the possible ways the final benediction may be given for the Fourth Sunday in Lent:

FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT

May the God, who hath deigned to bring you thus far on your way, 

grant you the blessing of his mercy:

May he accept the abstinence ye have offered him, 

and cause the abstinence ye are yet to offer him to be pleasing in his sight; 

that, as ye abstain for a season from food and pleasure, 

so too ye may abstain from every evil thing:

That, returning thanks to almighty God for every spiritual gift, 

ye may come unharmed to an holy Eastertide:

Through Jesus Christ Our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end.  

R. Amen.

The Blessing of God almighty, + the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be upon you, and remain with you for ever. Amen.

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The following is one of the possible ways the final benediction may be given for what some still call Passion Sunday (or, The Fifth Sunday in Lent):

PASSION SUNDAY

May the Lord kindle within you the fire of love for himself,

and pour upon you the gift of his benediction:

That, as ye offer him the sacrifices of your self-denial, 

so also ye may please him with the sacrifice of a lowly and a contrite heart:

May all your prayers ascend on high, to the ears of your Creator, 

on the wings of mercy and abstinence; 

that ye may be the heirs of eternal blessedness, 

and the companions of the Saints in heaven:

And may the Lord God omnipotent, 

whose kingdom and dominion endureth for ever, 

vouchsafe to grant you these blessings: 

and the peace of the Lord be always with you.

R. And with thy spirit.

The Blessing of God almighty, + the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be upon you, and remain with you for ever. Amen.

Bishop Lopes: Beauty in the Spoken Word and Ministerial Action"

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Bishop Stephen J. Lopes, the first bishop of the  Roman Catholic Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, gave an address at SWLC 2019 entitled "Beauty in the Spoken Word and Ministerial Action".   

"Be merciful, O Lord, to us sinners" [Eric Milner-White]

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Be merciful, O Lord, to us sinners

An Anglo-Catholic litany

Be merciful, O Lord, to us sinners, and at the pleading of thy mother, sorrowing in thine agony and sharing in thy bitter cup, O Jesus mercy.

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us. 

Be merciful O Lord, to us sinners and at the pleading of thy mother, suffering in thy sufferings and bruised with thy stripes, O Jesus mercy.

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.

Be merciful, O Lord, to us sinners, and at the pleading of thy mother, who saw thee crowned with thorns and robed with shame, O Jesus mercy.

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.

Be merciful, O Lord, to us sinners, and at the pleading of thy mother, whose love unvanquished trod thy way of sorrows, O Jesus mercy;

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.

Be merciful, O Lord, to us sinners, and at the pleading of thy mother, whose soul was pierced beneath thy Cross, O Jesus mercy.

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.

Eric Milner-White

"Jesu, Jesu, Jesu, have mercy on me."

Saint Margaret Clitherow

Father Andrew: The Altar

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Dear children, each one of you has got some wilderness where you go apart and wrestle with your sins and fight your flesh and try to think and plan your life ideally ; each one of you has some Nazareth where you sweep up shavings day after day and do the same tiresome jobs ; each one of you has your mountain where you pray and wonder and hope ; each one of you knows something of the shadow of Gethsemane; and each one of you is going to some Calvary, somewhere, somehow, some day. Many have already found their Calvary.  Here at the altar of God we migle our life's experience with His life's experience Who for our sakes became man.

We, as I say, have our wildernesses, but no one of us has had forty days and forty nights of it, fasting, fighting with the fiend ; we have our Nazareths, but no one of us has been so fettered and so cramped as was the Divine Nature humbled beneath the disguise of a village carpenter among the envious people and the stupide people who could not understand His great soul and wondrous mind and His thoughts of God and man.

We have had our dark and difficult days, and we are going, each one of us, to a Calvary ; but no one of us has had a sweat of blood, no one of us can know what it must have been to hang on the gibbet of the Cross, first in the awful glare of the day and then in the awful blackness of the night.

I cannot think of a religion without an altar.  It is God's altar ; it is Christ's altar ; it is our altar.  Here we come to find the holy way of sacrifice and the strength to follow that way. 'I will go unto the altar of God. 

Father Andrew, S.D.C.

The Symbolism of the Sanctuary

'The Altar', pp. 16-17

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A Litany for Friday [Sursum Corda Prayer Book]

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O Lord, Who didst come to call sinners to repentance,
Call them still and make them answer Thy call.

Be merciful to those who have no cloke for their sin,
But have seen and hated both Thee and Thy FATHER.

Thou Who didst melt the hardness of the thief,
Soften the hearts of all who are impenitent.

Thou Who didst recover the woman that was a sinner,
Recover all those who have fallen away from Thee.

Thou Who didst call Zaccheus from the sycamore tree,
Arouse the careless and arrest the curious.

Thou Who didst speak the words of spirit and of life,
Enlighten the ignorant and teach the unlearned;

Dispel all prejudices, correct all errors,
Establish Thy people in the truth of the gospel.

Thou Who didst call S. Matthew from the receipt of custom,
Deliver many souls from the slavery of the world.

Thou Who didst pray for Thy murderers,
Pity those who oppose Thy rule and persecute Thy servants.

Thou Who didst cast out many devils,
set free many by the power of Thy grace,
who are possessed by the devils of drink and lust.
Deliver the victims of pride and anger, of greed and selfishness.

Thou Who didst satisfy the doubts of S. Thomas,
Deal gently with those who can scarcely believe.

Thou Who didst uplift the sinking S. Peter,
Support all those who are weak and unstable.

Thou Who didst come to proclaim deliverance. to captives,
Pity all prisoners and loose the chain of their sins.

Thou, Who didst heal the impotent man,
Uphold those who are weakened by past sin.

Thou Who didst still the tempest on the lake,
Rebuke the storms of passion and anger,
and bid the waves be still.

Thou Who didst heal the withered hand,
Recover for many the faculties which they have lost,
of prayer and work, of self-control and self-sacrifice.

Thou Who didst make both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak,
Open deaf ears to Thy message;
Loosen stammering tongues to speak words of penitence.

Thou Who didst put to shame the woman of Samaria,
Reveal to many who are living in sin the shame of their life,
and bring them to repentance.

Thou Who didst raise the dead to life,
Quicken dead souls to the life of righteousness.

JESUS! JESUS! JESUS!
Who didst come to save Thy people
from their sins,
Save us, O SAVIOUR.
Hosanna!

from Sursum Corda

Ven. Fulton J. Sheen: Decaying Civilization

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“It is a characteristic of any decaying civilisation that the great masses of the people are unaware of the tragedy.

“Humanity in a crisis is generally insensitive to the gravity of the times in which it lives.

“Men do not want to believe their own times are wicked, partly because they have no standard outside of themselves by which to measure their times. If there is no fixed concept of justice, how shall men know it is violated?

“Only those who live by faith really know what is happening in the world; the great masses without faith are unconscious of the destructive processes going on because they have lost the vision of the heights from which they have fallen.”

The Venerable Fulton J. Sheen

Prayers from the Church of South India, Liturgy 1954

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Prayer of Corporate Confession

HEAVENLY Father, we confess that we have sinned against thee and our neighbour. We have walked in darkness rather than in light; we have named the name of Christ, but have not departed from iniquity. Have mercy upon us, we beseech thee; for the sake of Jesus Christ forgive us all our sins; cleanse us by thy Holy Spirit; quicken our consciences; and enable us to forgive others, that we may henceforth serve thee in newness of life, to the glory of thy holy name. Amen. 

The Prayer of Humble Access

WE do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy: Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the Flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his Blood, that our sinful bodies and souls may be made clean by his most precious Body and Blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.

A Thanksgiving after Holy Communion

O ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, who hast accepted us as thy children in thy beloved Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and hast fed us with the spiritual food of his most precious Body and Blood, giving us the forgiveness of our sins and the promise of everlasting life; we thank and praise thee for these inestimable benefits, and we offer and present unto thee ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a holy and living sacrifice, which is our reasonable service. Grant us grace not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we may learn what is thy good and perfect will, and so obey thee here on earth, that we may at the last rejoice with all thy saints in thy heavenly kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever. Amen.

"The Last Anchorite", a Documentary

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The marvellous documentary The Last Anchorite concerns the life of a Marxist atheist Australian who became a Coptic Orthodox desert monk, an anchorite.  This is perfect viewing for anyone keeping the holy Fast of Great Lent or the Season of Lent, and it will take less than 20 minutes to view.

Father Lazarus El-Anthony lives in solitude on the Egyptian Al-Qalzam Mountain in the pursuit of what the Desert Fathers called apatheia, holy stillness.

More videos of Father Lazarus El-Anthony are to be found on the Coptic Youth Channel on YouTube.

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