Today is the second Sunday in Epiphany...

And the mages tell me that it is to be grey and overcast almost all of the day-- but Holy Mass at Saint-Eugène this morning has been and is lovely; the Credo is being sung now but I want to notice specially the Alleluia, for it was splendid. The livret for the Mass is here.

Allelúia, allelúia. – V/. Laudáte Dóminum, omnes Angeli ejus : laudáte eum, omnes virtútes * ejus. Allelúia.

The Gospel lesson today is the description by Saint John in the second chapter of his Gospel of the wedding at Cana and of Our Lord's first sign performed there, at the behest of His Mother. 

In illo témpore : Núptiæ factæ sunt in Cana Galilææ : et erat Mater Jesu ibi. Vocátus est autem et Jesus, et discípuli ejus ad núptias. Et deficiénte vino, dicit Mater Jesu ad eum : Vinum non habent. Et dicit ei Jesus : Quid mihi et tibi est, múlier ? nondum venit hora mea. Dicit Mater ejus minístris : Quodcúmque díxerit vobis, fácite. Erant autem lapídeæ hydriæ sex pósitæ secúndum purificatiónem Judæórum, capiéntes síngulæ metrétas binas vel ternas. Dicit eis Jesus : Impléte hydrias aqua. Et implevérunt eas usque ad summum. Et dicit eis Jesus : Hauríte nunc, et ferte architriclíno. Et tulérunt. Ut autem gustávit architriclinus aquam vinum factam, et non sciébat unde esset, minístri autem sciébant, qui háusserant aquam : vocat sponsum architriclínus, et dicit ei : Omnis homo primum bonum vinum ponit : et cum inebriáti fúerint, tunc id, quod detérius est. Tu autem servásti bonum vinum usque adhuc.

Hoc fecit inítium signórum Jesus in Cana Galilææ : et manifestávit glóriam suam, et credidérunt in eum discípuli ejus.

Amen. Yesterday I saw that the Requiem Mass for the martyred King Louis XVI, celebrated in the Strasbourg cathedral since 1993 on the 21st, Friday coming, has been suppressed by Mons Ravel, the archbishop. (It will still be celebrated, mind, only by a priest of the FSSPX, in one of their churches.) Saint-Eugène also usually celebrates the Requiem Mass for Louis XVI, and the YouTube channel shows it scheduled; I have to wonder if it will be streamed or not, in the circumstances.




At Communion, the Schola will sing stichères of "the ancient Greek office of the Epiphany put into Latin at the court of Charlemagne (but keeping their original melody) in order to serve as antiphons in the Octave". A stichère is a type of liturgical chant-- ha, beyond that I cannot go because I can't figure out what the English form is to search with. I can only see references to the Russian liturgy with this and that stichère... for Good Friday, for the Assumption of Our Lady and so forth. Perhaps it is Russian and not Greek; the στιχαριον, though, is the Greek word for their version of our alb (and the Russian word is it adapted). Sticha-, stiche-. Who knows. M. de Villiers wrote about these... antiphons, I shall say, here. Tons stichéariques remain in use in the Greek liturgy, evidently, so I should think lovely Google should return something 'stichearical' but it doesn't.

Veterem hominem renovans Salvator venit ad baptismum,
Ut naturam quæ corrupta est, per aquam recuperaret,
Incorruptibili veste circumamiciens nos.

Te, qui in Spiritu et igne purificas humana contagia
Deum et Redemptorem omnes glorificamus.

Baptista contremuit, et non audet tangere sanctum Dei verticem,
Sed clamat cum tremore: Sanctifica me, Salvator.

Caput draconis Salvator contrivit in Jordanis flumine;
Ab ejus potestate omnes eripuit.

Peccati aculeus conteritur hodie, baptizato Domino, et nobis donata est regeneratio.

Aqua comburit peccatum hodie, apparet liberator, et orat omnis mundus divinitatis opem.

Magnum mysterium declaratur hodie,
Quia Creator omnium in Jordane expurgat nostra facinora.

Præcursor Joannes exsultat cum Jordane;
Baptizato Domino facta est orbis terrarum exsultatio,
Facta est peccatorum nostrorum remissio sanctificando aquas:
Ipsi omnes clamemus: Miserere nobis.

Beautiful! The more I learn about the status quo ante at the time of the Pian reform the less inclined I am to wholehearted or universal enthusiasm. Time for Matins and Lauds.

Post Tertiam. Vespers is underway at Saint-Eugène. The Schola is singing the Epiphany prosa from the tradition of Paris at the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Ad Jesum accurrite.




Ha. Getting that image there involved copying the Schola's image from the libellus to Evernote, downloading it from Evernote to my laptop, and the uploading it from my laptop to Blogger. It is much  simpler, not to say easier, to go to the libellus itself (where one can view the entire sequence and not just the first two lines, ahem). 




The final song after Benediction is Te laudamus, Domine omnipotens, the transitus for Dominica IVa post Epiphaniam in the Ambrosian Rite-- transitus being what the Communion antiphon is called in that venerable Rite. 


LDVM



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