. Its gentle, ethereal, yet sustaining melody eases me back into the ordinary days.The Holy Spirit will surely carry us along, and provide music for the journey as well. Pieces of the Golden Sequence, or as it is better known, Veni Sancte Spiritus, which dates to the 13th century, infused every hymn my community sang at the Pentecost vigil last night. This is Mozart's version, but I love Palestrina's
. Its gentle, ethereal, yet sustaining melody eases me back into the ordinary days.One 16th century theologian approved of the sequences' "wondrous sweetness, clarity of style, pleasant brevity combined with wealth of thought". Perhaps this is why we have so many hymns that draw from it.
What did you sing today? How many of your songs bore traces of the Golden Sequence?
Come, Holy Ghost,
send forth the heavenly
radiance of your light.
Come, father of the poor,
come giver of gifts,
come, light of the heart.
Greatest comforter,
sweet guest of the soul,
sweet consolation.
In labor, rest,
in heat, temperance,
in tears, solace.
O most blessed light,
fill the inmost heart
of your faithful.
Without your divine will,
there is nothing in man,
nothing is harmless.
Wash that which is unclean,
water that which is dry,
heal that which is wounded.
Bend that which is inflexible,
warm that which is chilled,
make right that which is wrong.
Give to your faithful,
who rely on you,
the sevenfold gifts.
Give reward to virtue,
give salvation at our passing on,
give eternal joy.
Amen. Alleluia.
What's a sequence? The term comes from the Latin sequela, "that which follows". These pieces grew out of an elaboration on the last note of the alleluia - sung before the Gospel.
We sang O Day Full of Grace and others. I get a lump in my throat almost every time.
ReplyDeleteWe did a similary thing to this as the offertory, from The Dublin Troper with fabulous lyrics...I reproduced them over at my place.
ReplyDeleteLovely piece! We did Cum Sancto Spiritus from Vivaldi's Gloria. Not the same text, but a lovely lively piece!
ReplyDeleteOrdinary time isn't quite ordinary for a while..at least not on Sundays! We've got Trinity Sunday next week, and then Corpus Christi! (yes, yes, Catholics go a little overboard with feasts, but I love it...)
Thanks, Mary Beth...and imngrace - more lovely music!
ReplyDeleteSophie's daughter, I'm Roman Catholic - and yes, we do have a few lovely Sunday feasts upcoming, but for those of us who pray the daily monastic hours, tomorrow things get pretty ordinary! My deep red breviary goes on the shelf and the plain brown gets tucked into my purse...thanks for reminding me there is something festal coming next week, too!!
Music this morning:
ReplyDeleteCall to worship: Spirit of the Living God - arr. by Iverson
Entrance hymn: O Spirit of Life (tune, "O Jesulein süss") WOV 680, stz. 1,3,4
Choir anthem: On the Day of Pentecost - no composer listed in bulletin; it was sort of modal or minor
HOD: Breathe on Me, Breath of God
Recessional hymn: O Day Full of Grace
I love Festivals of the Spirit, but I'm really looking forward to the greenness of Ordinary Time this year.
Our choir sang a very cool song called "a new anointing" as the introit--it's been in my head since this morning! They also sang Fill-A-Me Up and Send Down the Fire--both awesome! Congregational hymns were more forgettable...something from the Pentecost section of they hymnal first, As A Fire Is Meant For Burning after the sermon, and They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love for the closing. But the choir--oh man, they were awesome today.
ReplyDeleteokay, so I really wanted to share "a new anointing" with you all. This is the song, but imagine it being sung by a 30 voice choir, still a capella, and with really good pitch even by the sopranos. :-)
ReplyDelete