Liturgy of Lent: February 2007 Archives

LAUDS II

The darkness flees, and dew-kissed earth
Sings welcome to the waking day;
Hope holds to Christ the mirror high
To catch the Dayspring’s healing ray!

You fill with light this sacred time,
Give tears as well to purify;
Give flames of love to purge our hearts;
In us your mercy magnify.

The hidden wound whence flow our sins,
Wash clean by bathing in the tide;
Remove the things that, of ourselves,
We cannot reach, or put aside.

The Day draws near when all re-blooms —
Your Day, O Christ, life-giving Lord!
We too will joy, by your right hand
From death’s dark tomb to joy restored.

To God, the loving Trinity,
Let earth and sky adoring bend;
And evermore from hearts renewed
Let songs fresh sprung of praise ascend. Amen.

LAUDS I

Come, weep before the Judge, and seek
With broken hearts his grace to win;
Be bold, and trusting meet his gaze,
And trembling claim the hope within.

Much have we sinned, O Lord! and still
we fall again and seek to rise;
Look down in pity from on high;
Be dawning light to searching eyes.

Remember that we yet are yours
Though fashioned of a fragile frame;
And take not from our gasping souls
The Breath by which we praise your Name.

Undo past evil; heal the wounds,
And guide our steps in faith’s dark night;
So may we now and ever find
Joy pure and boundless in your sight.

Blest Trinity in Unity!
Uphold our weakness in your love,
That we to death may die with Christ
and rise with Christ to life above. Amen.

VIGILS OR OFFICE OF READINGS II

Bright beauty of the Lenten Fast
By heaven taught, on earth displayed;
Which Christ, in silent desert hid,
By his own fast has sacred made.

On Sinai’s height with trumpet blast
The Law to Moses fasting came;
Elijah, fasting, rose aloft
In soaring chariot of flame.

So Daniel, saved from lions, saw
God’s mysteries in coming years;
So John, the Bridegroom’s loving friend,
In chaste and radiant truth appears.

O grace us, God of love, we pray,
Their paths of temperance to choose;
To those made weak by sin, give strength,
In ev’ry soul your joy infuse.

Grant this, O Father, through the Son,
In Spirit-Breath, bestow your grace,
That when these forty days are passed
We may exult before your face. Amen.

VIGILS OR OFFICE OF READINGS I

Now, with the slow revolving year,
Again the sacred Fast we greet;
Which in its mystic circle moves
In Forty Days to be complete.

That Fast by Law and Prophet taught,
A sacred sign by Christ restored;
He is, of seasons and of times,
The fullness and the timeless Lord.

Henceforth more sparing let us be,
of food and drink, of words and sleep;
And let us by a closer guard
Our roving senses cloistered keep.

Quick! Let us shun whatever things
Distract the careless eye and heart;
And let us shut our minds against
The tyrant tempter’s lying art.

Blest Trinity in Unity!
Uphold our weakness in your love,
That we to death may die with Christ
and rise with Christ to life above. Amen.

VESPERS II

Jesus! You taught and sanctified
Observance of this Lenten tide;
Be pleased our fast to consecrate,
And by it mend our broken state.

Now unto Paradise once more,
By penitence our souls restore;
Without the gates our souls were thrust
Where thorns and toil turned pride to dust.

Be with your Church in saving pow’r,
In this her death and rising hour;
When for the sins of bygone days,
With Word-pierced heart she weeps and prays.

For all our grievous past offence,
Your gracious pardon, Lord, dispense;
Henceforth, O gentle Guardian, shield
From sin each sense by mercy sealed.

So cleansed and chastened in your eyes,
By this our gladsome sacrifice,
May we for Pascha’s joys prepare,
Who now a joyful sorrow share.

Infuse us, Father, with your Breath,
The Crucified’s last Gift in death;
That in that Spirit we may raise
New paschal hymns of living praise. Amen.

As Holy Lent approaches, I am offering my own translation of some of the hymns for the Divine Office. Although not strictly literal, my translations do adhere to the sense of the traditional Latin texts. I have prayed with these texts and sung them for a number of years. The melodies given in the Liber Hymnarius work well, although minor adaptations of the neums are needed in a few instances.

VESPERS I

Kind Maker of the world, give ear,
Accept the prayer and own the tear,
Before your Seat of Mercy spent
In this most holy fast of Lent.

The secrets of each life you see:
You measure our infirmity;
Teach wisdom in the inward parts;
Refresh and heal our broken hearts.

Our sins are manifold and sore;
Our spirits now to health restore;
And for your Name’s sake, make each soul,
That feels and owns its sickness, whole.

Give watchfulness o’er every sense
Give grace for outward abstinence,
That far from Egypt’s spread of sin
The soul may keep her fast within.

Hear us, O Blessed Trinity!
Shine bright within, O Unity!
That at the end of Forty Days
Our healing may become your praise. Amen.