Words: Unknown author, 15th Century (Apparuit benignitas); Benjamin Webb translated a cento beginning with O amor quam exstaticus from Latin to English for The Hymnal Noted, 1854.
Music: Deo Gracias, The Agincourt Song, 1415 (MIDI, score). Alternate tunes:
- Canonbury, Robert A. Schumann, 1839 (MIDI, score)
- Eisenach, Johann H. Schein, 1628 (MIDI, score)
- Melcombe, Samuel Webbe, Sr., 1782 (MIDI, score)
If you have access to a photo of Benjamin Webb that we could put online, please click here.
O love, how deep, how broad, how high,
It fills the heart with ecstasy,
That God, the Son of God, should take
Our mortal form for mortals’ sake!
He sent no angel to our race
Of higher or of lower place,
But wore the robe of human frame
Himself, and to this lost world came.
For us baptized, for us He bore
His holy fast and hungered sore,
For us temptation sharp He knew;
For us the tempter overthrew.
For us He prayed; for us He taught;
For us His daily works He wrought;
By words and signs and actions thus
Still seeking not Himself, but us.
For us to wicked men betrayed,
Scourged, mocked, in purple robe arrayed,
He bore the shameful cross and death,
For us gave up His dying breath.
For us He rose from death again;
For us He went on high to reign;
For us He sent His Spirit here,
To guide, to strengthen, and to cheer.
To Him Whose boundless love has won
Salvation for us through His Son,
To God the Father, glory be
Both now and through eternity.
Labels: 15th c., epiphany, Thomas a Kempis
¶ Wednesday, January 17, 2007 0 comments
trans. John Mason Neale
Tune: Lewes
If there be that skills to reckon
all the number of the blest,
he perchance can weigh the gladness
of the everlasting rest,
which, their earthly exile finished,
they by merit have possessed.
Through the vale of lamentation
happily and safely past,
now the years of their affliction
in their memory they recast,
and the end of all perfection
they can contemplate at last.
There the gifts of each and single
all in common right possess;
there each member hath his portion
in the Body's blessedness;
so that he, the least in merits,
share the guerdon none the less.
In a glass through types and riddles
dwelling here, we see alone;
then serenely, purely, clearly,
we shall know as we are known,
fixing our enlightened vision
on the glory of the throne.
There the Trinity of persons
unbeclouded shall we see;
there the Unity of essence
perfectly revealed shall be;
while we hail the threefold Godhead
and the simple Unity.
Wherefore man, take heart and courage,
whatso'er thy present pain;
such untold reward through suffering
thou may'st merit to attain:
and for ever in his glory
with the Light of light to reign.
Labels: 15th c., latin, Neale, Thomas a Kempis
¶ Saturday, August 05, 2006 0 comments