Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
Showing posts with label Cipriano de Rore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cipriano de Rore. Show all posts
Blessed Fra Angelico, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence [Web Gallery of Art]
Compline, the official Night Prayer of the Church ends with an anthem of antiphon to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In monasteries this is sung. In the traditional liturgical calendar there are four of these, all in Latin.
Alma Redemptoris Mater is sung from Saturday before the 1st Sunday of Advent through February 1.
The anthem from 2 February, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, through Wednesday of Holy Week is Ave, Regina caelorum.
Regina caeli is the Easter anthem, sung from Easter Sunday through Friday within the Octave of Pentecost.
The best known anthem, sung on many occasions apart from Compline, is Salve, Regina. It is the anthem for Compline from Saturday after the Octave of Pentecost through Friday before the 1st Sunday of Advent.
Sung by the Choir of the Holy Ghost Fathers (Spiritans), Chevilly, France, conducted by Fr Lucien Deiss CSSp.
Ave, Regina caelorum , / Ave, Domina Angelorum: / Salve, radix, salve, porta, / Ex qua mundo lux est ora:
Hail, Queen of heaven; / hail Mistress of the Angels; / hail, root of Jesse: hail, the gate / through which the Light rose over the earth.
Gaude, Virgo gloriosa, / Super omnes speciosa, / Vale, o valde decora, / Ex pro nobis Christum exora.
Rejoice, Virgin most renowned / and of unsurpassed beauty. / Farewell, Lady most comely. / Prevail upon Christ to pity us.
English translation from The Roman Breviary, published by Baronius Press, MMXIX.
Ave, Regina caelorum
Setting by Cipriano de Rore (c.1516-1565)
Sung by Voces8 with Voces8 Foundation Choir
For me this music is utterly sublime, a foretaste of heaven. One doesn't have to listen to the lyrics, just the blend of voices, voices that remind us that we are truly made in the image and likeness of God.
Readings(Jerusalem Bible: Australia,
England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan,
Scotland, South Africa)
GospelMatthew 18:15-20 (English
Standard Version Anglicised)
Jesus said to his disciples:
'If your brother sins against
you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens
to you, you have gained your brother.But if he does not listen, take one or two others along
with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or
three witnesses.If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the
church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you
as a Gentile and a tax collector. 'Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth
shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 'Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth
about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.For where two or three are gathered in my
name, there am I among them.'
During my
primary school years I came to know an exceptional person, Brother Mícheál. S.
Ó Flaitile, known to us as ‘Pancho’ from the sidekick of the Cisco Kid, a syndicated
comic-strip [above] that we used to read in The Irish Press, an Irish daily newspaper that no longer
exists. Our 'Pancho', like the Cisco Kid's friend, was on the pudgy side,
though minus the hair and moustache. He organized an Irish-speaking club during
my primary school years and arranged for me to be secretary. I don’t think I
was too happy at the time to get that job but I realized later that he had
spotted my ability to write. Other teachers had encouraged me in this too.
My class was blessed to have had
Brother Ó Flaitile in our last two years in secondary school, 1959 to 1961,
when we were preparing for our all-important Leaving Certificate examination.
He taught us Irish and Latin. He probably should have been teaching at
university level. What I remember most of all about him was his character.
Everyone described him as ‘fear uasal’, the Irish for 'a noble man' – as distinct from 'a nobleman’. Maybe 'a man of noble character' would be a better translation. A stare
from him made you feel humbled, but not humiliated. He had the kind of
authority that Jesus had, that we read about in the gospels.
I remember one event in our last year.
‘Pancho’ used to take the A and B sections - another set of teachers taught the C and D sections - for religion class together during
the last period before lunch every day. One day he scolded a student in the B
section for something or other that was trivial and the student himself and the
rest of us took it in our stride and forgot about it. We were nearly 70 boys
aged between 16 and 18. 'Pancho' was in his late 50s then. The next day
Brother Ó Flaitile apologized to the boy in question and to the rest of us
because he had discovered that the student hadn’t done what he had accused him
of. Whatever it was, it had been very insignificant. But the apology of our revered teacher was
for me a formative moment, a moment when I experienced the truth of the words in today's Gospel: For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.I mentioned the incident to Brother Ó Flaitile many years later when he was
in his 80s. He told me he didn’t remember it, but he smiled. He died
in the late 1980s.
Some years ago a
classmate told me about an incident between himself and Brother Ó Flaitile in
1959 when we were on a summer school/holiday in an Irish-speaking part of
County Galway. If my friend had told me the story at the time I would not have
believed him. He got angry with ‘Pancho’ over something or other and used a
four-letter word that nobody would ever express to an adult, least of all to a
religious brother and teacher whom we revered. The lad stormed back to the
house where he was staying and almost immediately felt remorse. He went back to
‘Pancho’ and apologized. The Brother accepted this totally and unconditionally
and never referred to the incident again.
Looking back on the first incident I figure that
the student in question must have gone to 'Pancho' afterwards and explained to
him what had really happened. Brother Ó Flaitile was the kind of authority
figure whom you felt free to approach in such a situation. If that is what
happened, and I believe it was, then the opening words of today's gospel were
what we all experienced in class the following day: If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault,
between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your
brother
Brother Ó Flaitile's asking for forgiveness
that day was all the more powerful because he was more than three times our
age, an authority figure, a religious brother and a truly revered person. What
he did showed why he was revered, as did the 'four-letter word incident' with
my classmate.
After my father, I don't think that anyone else had such a formative influence on me when I was young as 'Pancho'. Solas na bhFlaitheas ar an mbeirt acu - The Light of Heaven on both of them.
A Thiarna, déan Trócaire
Setting by Patrick Davey from his Aifreann Feirste (Belfast Mass)
A Thiarna, déan Trócaire;
Lord, have mercy;
A Chríost (a Chríost), dean trócaire.
Christ (Christ), have mercy.
Brother Ó Flaitile had a great love for the Irish language and a keen sense of the artistic. I think he would have liked Patrick Davey's setting of the Kyrie.
Composed by Cipriano de Rore, sung by the VOCES8 Foundation Choir
Ave Regina caelorum,
Mater Regis angelorum,
O Maria, flos virginum,
Velut rosa vel lilium.
Funde preces ad Dominum
Pro salute fidelium.
Amen.
Hail, Queen of Heaven,
Mother of the King of Angels,
O Mary, flower of Virgins,
Like a rose or a lily;
Pour out prayers to the Lord
For the salvation of the faithful,
Amen.
This is a different hymn from the Ave, Regina Caelorum that is sung or recited at the end of Compline (Night Prayer), especially from the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord on 2 February through Wednesday of Holy Week.
