Excita, quǽsumus, Dómine, poténtiam tuam, et veni: et magna nobis virtúte succúrre; ut per auxílium grátiæ tuæ, quod nostra peccáta præpédiunt, indulgéntiæ tuæ propitiatiónis accéleret: Qui vivis et regnas.
Today is the 4th Sunday of Advent; the Mass is Rorate caeli desuper et nubes pluant iustum, repeated from the Saturday Ember Day. It is also the proper date of the feast of the Apostle Saint Thomas. In the Traditional Rite until the time of the innovations of Pius XII, the feast is transferred to tomorrow, Monday; after these, it is commemorated on the 4th Sunday. Ioannes XXIII imposed the 'solution' of 'not celebrated at all', which is what is done at Le Barroux.
The Schola Sainte-Cécile's page for today is here. The livrets for 1st Vespers are here and here (the second contains the texts for the O Clavis David) for Holy Mass here, and for Vespers and Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament here, here (the texts for the O Rex gentium) and here (this last contains the texts for the commemoration of the Holy Apostle).
The grand antiphon, antiphona maior, at the Magnificat today.
The Missale Paulinum agrees with the Missale Romanum in the Communion antiphon: Ecce, Virgo concípiet et páriet fílium: et vocábitur nomen ejus Emmánuel. I've added their emailed commentary on it infra.
The Schola Sainte-Cécile's page for today is here. The livrets for 1st Vespers are here and here (the second contains the texts for the O Clavis David) for Holy Mass here, and for Vespers and Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament here, here (the texts for the O Rex gentium) and here (this last contains the texts for the commemoration of the Holy Apostle).
The grand antiphon, antiphona maior, at the Magnificat today.
O Óriens splendor lucis ætérnæ, et sol justítiæ: veni, et illúmina sedéntes in ténebris, et umbra mortis.
The Missale Paulinum agrees with the Missale Romanum in the Communion antiphon: Ecce, Virgo concípiet et páriet fílium: et vocábitur nomen ejus Emmánuel. I've added their emailed commentary on it infra.
The Roman Martyrology for today December 21, for tomorrow the 11th day before the Kalends of January.
Statio ad Sanctos duodecim Apostolos
Introitus. Is. 45, 8. Rorate, cœli, désuper, et nubes pluant iustum: aperiátur terra, et gérminet Salvatórem. Ps. 18, 2. Cœli enárrant glóriam Dei: et ópera mánuum ejus annúntiat firmaméntum. ℣. Glória Patri.
Kyrie.
Oratio. Excita, quǽsumus, Dómine, poténtiam tuam, et veni: et magna nobis virtúte succúrre; ut per auxílium grátiæ tuæ, quod nostra peccáta præpédiunt, indulgéntiæ tuæ propitiatiónis accéleret: Qui vivis et regnas.
Lectio Epístolæ beati Pauli Apostoli ad Corinthios.
1 Cor. 4, 1-5.
Fratres: Sic nos exístimet homo ut minístros Christi, et dispensatóres mysteriórum Dei. Hic jam quǽritur inter dispensatóres, ut fidélis quis inveniátur. Mihi autem pro mínimo est, ut a vobis júdicer aut ab humano die: sed neque meípsum judico. Nihil enim mihi cónscius sum: sed non in hoc justificátus sum: qui autem júdicat me, Dóminus est. Itaque nolíte ante tempus judicáre, quoadúsque véniat Dóminus: qui et illuminábit abscóndita tenebrárum, et manifestábit consília córdium: et tunc laus erit unicuique a Deo.
Graduale. Ps. 144, 18 et 21. Prope est Dóminus ómnibus invocántibus eum: ómnibus, qui ínvocant eum in veritáte. ℣. Laudem Dómini loquétur os meum: et benedícat omnis caro nomen sanctum ejus.
Allelúja, allelúja, ℣. Veni, Dómine, et noli tardáre: reláxa facínora plebis tuæ Israël. Allelúja.
✠ Sequéntia sancti Evangélii secundum Lucam.
Luc. 3, 1-6.
Anno quintodécimo impérii Tibérii Cǽsaris, procuránte Póntio Piláto Judǽam, tetrárcha autem Galilǽæ Heróde, Philíppo autem fratre ejus tetrárcha Iturǽæ et Trachonítidis regionis, et Lysánia Abilínæ tetrárcha, sub princípibus sacerdotum Anna et Cáipha: factum est verbum Domini super Joannem, Zacharíæ filium, in deserto. Et venit in omnem regiónem Jordánis, prǽdicans baptísmum pæniténtiæ in remissiónem peccatórum, sicut scriptum est in libro sermónum Isaíæ Prophétæ: Vox clamántis in desérto: Paráte viam Dómini: rectas fácite sémitas ejus: omnis vallis implébitur: et omnis moris et collis humiliábitur: et erunt prava in dirécta, et áspera in vias planas: et vidébit omnis caro salutáre Dei.
Credo.
Offertorium. Luc. 1, 28. Ave, María, gratia plena; Dóminus tecum: benedícta tu in muliéribus, et benedíctus fructus ventris tui.
Secreta. Sacrifíciis præséntibus, quǽsumus, Dómine, placatus inténde: ut et devotióni nostræ profíciant et salúti. Per Dóminum.
Praefatio de Adventu.
Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei.
Communio. Is. 7, 14. Ecce, Virgo concípiet et páriet fílium: et vocábitur nomen ejus Emmánuel.
Postcommunio. Sumptis munéribus, quǽsumus, Dómine: ut, cum frequentatióne mystérii, crescat nostræ salútis efféctus. Per Dóminum.
The Neumz commentary on the Communio.
Today we celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Advent. To celebrate this last Sunday of Advent, we at Neumz have chosen the communion chant Ecce virgo concipiet. The text is taken from the Book of Isaiah 7:14, the great prophet of Advent. Here he communicates the prophecy to King Ahaz: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign; the young woman, pregnant and about to bear a son…” (Isaiah 7:14). That promised sign is the one that comes on the day of the Annunciation. It is the same word or message of the prophet that the Archangel says to the Virgin: “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus” (Luke 1:31). This text is therefore entirely appropriate for the day on which the Annunciation is commemorated. However, it does not seem to be sung here as a prophecy, the Church returns to these words at the moment of communion: contemplating, in the light of the sacramental grace, the Incarnation which is prolonged by the Eucharist in the entire Mystical Body. The Church also sings the joy of Emmanuel, of God with us, at the same time as the mystery of Christmas in which the divine word is once again mystically fulfilled.
This communion takes the text of the prophecy of Isaiah, but here it speaks directly of a Saviour who will be born of a virgin, a child who will be called Emmanuel. In the New Law, Jesus takes the name of Emmanuel to indicate the indissoluble character of the friendship established between God and man. Sin can no longer destroy this order because as long as Jesus is Jesus, and will be forever, he will also always be our advocate with the Father and will be able to wash away our sins with his blood.
As for the melody, it is composed in mode I, the mode of the solemn majestic announcements; it has a certain lyricism. The piece begins with a beautiful melodic arc, Re-Sol-Re, Ecce virgo, behold a virgin. It is worth pointing out that both the melody at the beginning and the end of this communion antiphon moves around the fundamental, the Re, to express the conception of the Son (Ecce virgo) as his Name (Emmanuel). This first incise is very discreet, intimate, and contemplative. The lyric indicated in the ‘Einsiedeln Manuscript’, votiver, with devotion, is rather rare in the repertoire, and deeper in this sense: a kind of deep delight is created, and the soul admires the mystery of the Virgin Mother. In the next incise, this contemplative delight is extended, and the surprising revelation appears: concipiet, (a virgin!) will conceive. This verb is treated with great care, the rhythm is widened, and the sounds are lengthened, and recreated. The melodic movement rises majestically with a pes quadratus from the Do (Re in the Graduale Novum version) to the La, the dominant of the mode, which resounds for the first time. The soul sings another beautiful melodic arc but with greater amplitude and brilliance than the previous one: all is adoration in the melodic ascent and reverence in the descent towards the Re, with a masterful neumatic cut on the Fa of the posttonic syllable before settling on the Re of the intermediate cadence. In the last incise of the first phrase, et pariet filium, and will give birth to a son, as if the soul, every time more enlightened, understands in what the mystery of divine maternity consists, sets its gaze on the heights, with an identical melodic movement, two pes quadratus Re-Sol (version of the Graduale Novum) and Sol-La, it rises beyond the La: it touches the Do for the first time, amplifying it with a pulsation and even reaches the octave of the fundamental, melodic summit of the mode. It is a divine birth, the Son is given to us from on high. From the high Re, the melodic movement bends profoundly to the La (the Sol in the Graduale Novum) and, after a brief recitative on the La, in filium, it rises again to the Do in a solemn quilismatic movement to end up settling on the La and closing the first phrase.
But as soon as the soul becomes aware of this second wonder, a virgin conceiving and giving birth to a son, a third one opens before it: the mystery of God with us this time, Emmanuel. The name is also given to us from heaven. Et vocabitur, and he will be called, the prayerful one continues to gaze on the heights. Once again and for the last time the Do resounds, underlined by a bivirga, note the parallelism, the compositional genius: if in pariet we have two pes framing the double high Do, then in et vocabitur we have two clivis with episema La-Sol, embracing the bivirga in the Do. The semantic and musical links are evident. Everything is also expanded in et vocabitur. The mystery expands and extends to the soul. She feels she enters into it, in this moment of communion. She is gathered, enclosed in the wonders that take place within her. The melody follows her in her contemplation, the B-flat resounds, conferring that semitonal proximity to the La, that proximity to the mystery that the prayerful one sings. After a brief turn in the low register, around the Fa, in the penultimate incise, nomen ejus, his name, the moment is approaching when the name chosen by the Father is revealed. The melodic movement rises to the dominant, solemnized once again by the quilisma, with the touch of the B-flat as the ornamentation of the La, to continue singing that closeness to the divinity that resounded in the previous incise. And finally, it is time to reveal the name: Emmanuel. The melody practically stops, everything is unction, the soul delights with maximum fervor in making the divine name shine, God with us. The melodic turn is very close to the one sung just before in the offertory, Ave Maria, in fructus ventris. That reverence in the melodic descent of the pretonic syllable, from the Fa to the Re, that fervent and enthusiastic ascent from the Re to the La in the accent of the word, amplified, of course, by the quilismatic movement, giving it all the solemnity and majesty it deserves. And from the La, the genuflection of the climacus, Fa-Mi-Re, in the posttonic syllable. All this sublimely conveys all the tenderness of the soul for the divine Host that is with her, the loving devotion to the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God.
✠ ✠ ✠
Concéde, miséricors Deus, fragilitáti nostræ præsídium; ut, qui sanctæ Dei Genitrícis memóriam ágimus; intercessiónis ejus auxílio, a nostris iniquitátibus resurgámus. Per Christum Dóminum nóstrum.
Deus, a quo sancta desidéria, recta consília, et justa sunt ópera: da servis tuis illam, quam mundus dare non potest, pacem; ut et corda nostra mandátis tuis dédita, et hóstium subláta formídine, témpora sint tua protectióne tranquílla. Per Dóminum.
Deus, qui caritátis dona per grátiam Sancti Spíritus tuórum fidélium córdibus infudísti: da fámulis et famulábus tuis, pro quibus tuam deprecámur cleméntiam, salútem mentis et córporis; ut te tota virtúte díligant, et quæ tibi plácita sunt, tota dilectióne perfíciant. Per Dóminum.
Laus Deo Virginique Matri
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