'Our life is changed; his coming our beginning.' Sunday Reflections, 3rd Sunday of Easter, Year A

The Road to Emmaus

Fritz von Uhde [Wikipedia]

The April issue of Magnificat features this painting on its cover. You will find Pierre-Marie Dumont's commentary on it here.

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

       

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Luke 24:13-25 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition, Canada)

Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, ‘What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?’ They stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, ‘Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?’ He asked them, ‘What things?’ They replied, ‘The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.’ Then he said to them, ‘Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! Was it not necessary that the Messiah^[e] should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. But they urged him strongly, saying, ‘Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.’ So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’ That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. They were saying, ‘The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!’ Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

The Horses  by Edwin Muir

In my Reflections for Good Friday and Easter Sunday I used poems by Scottish poet Edwin Muir that were explicitly Christian. Even though his poem above, The Horses, is not overtly Christian, I read it in the light of the Resurrection. It is set in a world after a seven-day nuclear war but with a powerful message of hope. The words of the poem are here.

They remind me of Psalm 103 [104], the Grail translation of which you'll find here. This is used in the Office of Readings on the second Sunday of the four-week Psalter in The Divine Office (Breviary). It is a marvellous song of praise to God for his creation and how He takes care of every creature: 

You make springs gush forth in the valleys;

they flow in between the hills.

They give drink to all the beasts of the field;

the wild asses quench their thirst.

On their banks dwell the birds of heaven;

from the branches they sing their song.

The psalm reflects the first account of creation in Genesis 1:

And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.’ And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.

A Ploughman

Francis Wheatley [Web Gallery of Art]

Edwin Muir shows the relationship that God intended between us and some of his other creatures: 

Since then they have pulled our ploughs and borne our loads, 
But that free servitude still can pierce our hearts. 
Our life is changed; their coming our beginning.

Our life is changed because of the pandemic; the life of the whole world is changed. There is evidence that our skies are clearer because so many smoke-producing buildings such as factories are closed for the time being, so few planes are flying and roads are almost empty of cars. As I write, some oil-producers cannot sell their product.

We wonder when things will return to normal. Should they return to the previous 'normal'? 

We had sold our horses in our fathers' time 
To buy new tractors . . . Yet they waited, 
Stubborn and shy, as if they had been sent 
By an old command to find our whereabouts
And that long-lost archaic companionship. 

But we had hoped, said the two disciples to Jesus. When news of Covid-15 in China came out in January I filed it away in my mind with SARS and Ebola, which had affected a limited number of countries. I didn't even hope that it would not affect Ireland or any other part of Europe. I simply presumed it wouldn't. Now it has reached almost every part of the globe and has affected every one of us to some degree or other. The other night I spoke to a retired religious sister in the USA who lives in her congregation's retirement home. All the Sisters are confined to their rooms, even for meals. I heard the same from a retired religious priest in Dublin who recently decided to go into a nursing home there. Neither of my friends was complaining. But their lives, along with those of countless others, have been restricted, as has my own, though I am not confined to my room and can walk in our extensive grounds which are normally open to the public, though not right now..

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus could not see beyond the Crucifixion and the end of their hopes. But the stranger whom they invited into their company led them gradually to see the reality of his Resurrection. When the two reached their destination, the inn in Emmaus, they extended their hospitality to the stranger: Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over. They invited him to their table where they recognised him as he broke bread with them and vanished from their sight.

But Jesus was far more powerfully present to them now. Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us? They immediately became missionaries.

The Capuchin Day Centre for the Homeless is situated behind St Mary of the Angels Church in Dublin, run by the Capuchin friars, about 15 minutes' walk from where I grew up. Pope Francis visited the Centre in August 2018. Because of social distancing regulations people can no longer eat in the Centre. So the friars have made the church available as a dining room. I experienced something akin to that in the late 1980s when I was asked to be part of a group investigating human rights violations in a remote mountain area of Cebu Province in the Philippines. We slept the two nights we were there on pews in the parish church. I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me (Matthew 25:35).

At one level nothing changed when the two disciples recognised the Risen Lord Jesus. Life still went on as usual in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Galilee, in the rest of the world. But their understanding of everything had changed radically and they began to share that understanding with their companions, setting off for Jerusalem immediately, even though it was night. That sharing continues to this day.

Where is the Risen Lord in all of this? He shows himself in those taking care of the sick at this time. Many front-line medics have given their lives in order to save others. And to the medics he shows himself in the sick. He is present in the staff of the Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin. He is present in the Blessed Sacrament in the church next door where now homeless people can eat breakfast and lunch because there is nowhere else to go. To the Capuchin friars and the staff of the Centre he shows himself in the poor and the hungry.

In my post-Resurrection understanding of Edwin Muir's poem I see the Risen Lord as showing himself through the horses as he showed himself to the two disciples in Emmaus through the breaking of bread: Our life is changed; their coming our beginning. Cleopas and his companion could say almost exactly the same thing: Our life is changed; his coming our beginning.

What will our beginning, my beginning, be right now and post-Covid-19?

Ploughing

Giovanni Segantini [Web Gallery of Art]

Easter Music


Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah
Royal Choral Society

Handel's Messiah  is performed in many places during Advent. But it's first performance was in my native Dublin on 13 April 1742, during the Easter Season. Easter Sunday that year fell on 25 March. During Lent we never sing or say Alleluia, which means 'Praise the Lord'. It is sung again during the Easter Vigil. So the Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah - Hallelujah is a variant spelling of Alleluia - is above all an Easter hymn. And it is worth nothing that in this 'Covid-19' recording each singer dressed formally at home as they would have done had they been singing in the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Sinfonia from Easter Oratorio by JS Bach

Easter Sunday 1725 fell on 1 April when Bach's Easter Oratorio was first performed in St Thomas Church, Leipzig, Germany. Therecording of the full Oratorio from which this extract is taken is on YouTube here. The conductor, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, is my 'twin' as we were both born on the same day. The instrumental Sinfonia is such a joyful piece of music! It has been said that when the angels are on duty they Bach when 'on duty' and Mozart when 'off duty'. Both were gifted by God and have revealed to us something of the beauty of God.

Below are some 'off duty' angels I found in Jerusalem playing the first movement of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik - A Little Night Music. 

'Mozart in Quarantine'

Jerusalem Street Orchestra

Some music for the pandemic

Va, pensiero from Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi

This recording of Va, pensiero, also known as The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, from Verdi's opera Nabucco was made as a tribute to Italy's medical workers and others fighting Covid-19 in that country. The Wikipedia article on the aria, which includes the Italian lyrics with an English translation, notes Verdi composed Nabucco at a difficult moment in his life. His wife and small children had all just died of various illnesses. Despite a purported vow to abstain from opera-writing, he had contracted with La Scala to write another opera and the director, Bartolomeo Merelli, forced the libretto into his hands.

There is a touching image at 4:40 of a medic cradling Italy as a new-born child.

I first became familiar with this beautiful chorus back in the 1950s when it was regularly played on Hospitals Requests on Wednesdays at lunch time on Radio Éireann, Ireland's state-owned national radio station.

The libretto of the opera, which is set in the Babylonian captivity  of the Jewish people around 600 BC, is by Temistocle Solera who was inspired by Psalm 137 [136]. Here is the Grail translation, used in the English language versions of The Divine Office (The Breviary).

By the rivers of Babylon

there we sat and wept, remembering Sion;

on the poplars that grew there

we hung up our harps.

For it was there that they asked us,

our captors, for songs,

our oppressors, for joy,

'Sing to us,' they said,

one of Sion's songs.

O how could we sing

the song of the Lord

on alien soil?

If I forget you, Jerusalem,

let my right hand wither!

O let my tongue

cleave to my mouth

if I remember you not,

if I prize not Jerusalem

above all my joys!

St Teresa of Ávila, who lived from 1515 to 1582 in Spain, could never have imagined the internet, though if she were around today I'm certain that she'd be involved in this digital continent, as Pope Benedict calls it, and as a woman who travelled considerably, despite being a contemplative nun, she would certain journey along the digital highways - las calles digitales - of Pope Francis.

in 2014 83 followers of St Teresa, Discalced Carmelite nuns from 24 countries, created a virtual choir to sing and record the saint's poem Nada te turbe - Let nothing disturb you to mark the 500th anniversary of her birth. She was born on 28 March 1515. An interesting piece of trivia is that she died on the night of 4-15 October 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII switched from the Julian calendar to the one named after him in what was a correction of the older one.

Sr Claire Sokol of the Carmelites in Reno, Nevada, wrote the music.

Though this is not a 'Covid-19' initiative, the words of St Teresa are very appropriate for what the whole world is living through right now.

Nada te turbe   Let nothing disturb you

by St Teresa of Ávila

Nada te turbe,

nada te espante,

todo se pasa,

Dios no se muda;

la paciencia

todo lo alcanza;

quien a Dios tiene

nada le falta:

Sólo Dios basta.

Let nothing disturb you,

let nothing frighten you,

everything passes,

but God stays.

Patience reaches it all;

he who has God

nothing lacks:

God alone suffices.

Eleva tu pensamiento,

al cielo sube,

por nada te acongojes,

nada te turbe.

Lift your thinking,

raise up to heaven,

let nothing anguish you,

let nothing disturb you.

A Jesucristo sigue

con pecho grande,

y, venga lo que venga,

nada te espante.

Follow Jesus Christ

with an open heart,

and, no matter what may come,

let nothing frighten you.

¿Ves la gloria del mundo?

Es gloria vana;

nada tiene de estable,

todo se pasa.

See the glory of the world?

It's vainglory;

it is not everlasting,

everything passes.

Aspira a lo celeste,

que siempre dura;

fiel y rico en promesas,

Dios no se muda.

Yearn for the celestial

that lasts forever:

faithful and rich in promises,

God doesn't change.

Ámala cual merece

bondad inmensa;

pero no hay amor fino

sin la paciencia.

Love it the way it deserves

immense kindness;

but there is not fine love

without the patience.

Confianza y fe viva

mantenga el alma,

que quien cree y espera

todo lo alcanza.

Confidence and a live faith

let the soul maintain,

that he who believes and hopes

reaches it all.

Del infierno acosado

aunque se viere,

burlará sus furores

quien a Dios tiene.

Although harassed by hell

one may see himself,

he who has God

will defeat its rage.

Vénganle desamparos,

cruces, desgracias;

siendo Dios tu tesoro

nada te falta.

Come abandonment,

crosses, misfortune;

God being your treasure,

you lack nothing.

Id, pues, bienes del mundo;

id dichas vanas;

aunque todo lo pierda,

sólo Dios basta.

Go, then, wordly goods

go, vain happiness;

even if everything is lost

God alone suffices.

Berliner Luft by Paul Lincke

Every summer the Berlin Philharmoniker give a concert in the Waldbühne, an amphitheatre in Berlin. They play a programme of classical music, most of it of a serious nature, but always end with Berliner Luft - Berlin Air, from an operetta written by Paul Lincke in 1899. The song has become the unofficial anthem of the city. It has no deep significance whatever. But as you can see in the video, made in those 'far off' days of the pre-social distancing era, it's a piece of music than can bring a smile to anyone's face and create a moment of happy community between the musicians and the audience, and between the generations. The conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, is from Venezuela. He's enjoying it more than anyone else. You enjoy it too!

A little self-indulgence on my pandemic birthday

Arrival of the Queen of Sheba

by George Frideric Handel, conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner

Handel's Arrival of the Queen of Sheba is a favourite of mine, one of the most exuberant pieces of music I know. Here it is conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner who, as it happens, is a 'twin' of mine. We both turned 77 today, having been born on Tuesday of Holy Week, 20 April 1943, when Easter fell on the latest day possible, 25 April. It had not fallen on that date since 1886, has not since and will occur again in 2038. After that not till 2190. It happens only once in a century.

Handel, who was German, lived in England for many years but has a significant connection with my native city, Dublin, since his Messiah  was first performed there, on 13 April 1742.

There were no fireworks in Dublin on the day I was born. But below is Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks, conducted by Sir John.

Please remember in your prayers my parents John and Mary (née Collins) without whose love I would not be posting this. My mother's 50th death anniversary occurs on 29 April and my father's 33rd on 11 August. They both stimulated my interest in music. Solas na bhFlaitheas orthu - The Light of Heaven upon them.

'Reach out your hand . . .' Sunday Reflections, 2nd Sunday of Easter, Year A

The Incredulity of St Thomas

Caravaggio [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

          

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel John 20:19-31 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition, Canada)

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’

But Thomas (who was called the Twin^[a]), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

John 20:19-31 in Filipino Sign Language

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

John 20:19-31 from The Gospel of John

We can read the words of Jesus to Thomas as a gentle rebuke that has led to the nickname he may carry for all eternity: 'Doubting Thomas'. But I prefer to see him as the one who understood that the Risen Lord must carry the scars of his crucifixion and who made the most explicit act of faith in the whole of Sacred Scripture: My Lord and my God!

The First Reading today (Acts 2:42-47) opens with the words They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 'The breaking of the bread' is an expression used for the celebration of the Eucharist. We can see in this sentence the essence of the Mass as we celebrate it today: listening to God's word, praying and sharing in the Sacrifice of Jesus and sharing his Body and Blood.

Some commentators say that the failure of Thomas was not to listen to God's word as related by his companions. Maybe he did fail here but did the others have the same awareness as Thomas had that the Risen Lord must carry his scars for all eternity?

In Evangelii Gaudium No 7 Pope Francis writes: I never tire of repeating those words of Benedict XVI which take us to the very heart of the Gospel: 'Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction'.

Thomas had been a companion of Jesus for two to three years but what he experienced in today's gospel was precisely what Pope Benedict describes as the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.

Servant of God, Fr Emil Joseph Kapaun 

(20 April 1916 - 23 May 1951)

Celebrating Mass with American soldiers on 7 October 1950 during the Korean War. [Wikipedia]

 In his general audience in St Peter's Square on 31 October 2012 Pope Benedict said: I cannot build my personal faith in a private dialogue with Jesus, because faith is given to me by God through a community of believers that is the Church and projects me into the multitude of believers, into a kind of communion that is not only sociological but rooted in the eternal love of God who is in himself the communion of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, it is Trinitarian Love. Our faith is truly personal, only if it is also communal: it can be my faith only if it dwells in and moves with the 'we' of the Church, only if it is our faith, the common faith of the one Church.

Pope Francis re-echoes this in Evangelii Gaudium Nos 264 - 268: We need to implore his grace daily, asking him to open our cold hearts and shake up our lukewarm and superficial existence . . . Sometimes we lose our enthusiasm for mission because we forget that the Gospel responds to our deepest needs, since we were created for what the Gospel offers us: friendship with Jesus and love of our brothers and sisters . . . The word of God also invites us to recognise that we are a people . . . Mission is at once a passion for Jesus and a passion for his people. When we stand before Jesus crucified, we see the depth of his love which exalts and sustains us, but at the same time, unless we are blind, we begin to realize that Jesus’ gaze, burning with love, expands to embrace all his people. We realize once more that he wants to make use of us to draw closer to his beloved people. He takes us from the midst of his people and he sends us to his people; without this sense of belonging we cannot understand our deepest identity.

What both Pope Benedict and Pope Francis are saying is that while our faith is in a person, Jesus Christ the Risen Lord, it can never be a question of 'Jesus and me'. Pope Benedict says, faith is given to me by God through a community of believers that is the Church and projects me into the multitude of believers. And Pope Francis emphasises that He takes us from the midst of his people and he sends us to his people; without this sense of belonging we cannot understand our deepest identity.

In other words, I can only know myself as a brother or sister of Jesus, as a son or daughter of God the Father when I know myself as a member of their family, which I have become through my baptism.

And that awareness of who I am is strengthened when I join other members of God's family every Sunday as they devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

During the current Covid-19 pandemic most Christians are not able to participate directly in the Eucharist. Yet we may do so in a real way - more than a 'virtual' way - through modern technology. 

On Tuesday of this Easter Week 2020 - I participated in such a way in the funeral Mass of a friend named Helen Rickard who was a member of Our Lady of the Visitation Praesidium of the Legion of Mary in Navan, our local town. I'm the spiritual director of the praesidium. The celebrant, Fr Declan Hurley, emphasised that through her baptism Helen had become a sister of Jesus and that she had lived her faith out of that in prayer, especially in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, often in the middle of night, and in serving others. The following day I watched on Facebook part of the funeral Mass of a priest of the Prelature of Marawi, Philippines, who was my student in the 1970s, Fr Nilo Tabania. I didn't watch it live, but many others did. Like my friend Helen, Father Nilo was a man of great simplicity, a man without guile, like Nathanael in St John's Gospel. Please remember Helen and Father Nilo in your prayers.

I spent most of my life as a priest in the Philippines and was well aware of the fact that probably a majority of the people there, certainly in rural areas, aren't able to take part in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on a regular basis because they live so far away from churches where it is celebrated. The present situation enables us to share in their experience. 

Yet when we participate in Mass through television, online or listening to the radio, we hear the word of God proclaimed to us. This is as real as the voice of a loved one we are talking to on the telephone or through one of the modern internet forms of communication. The conversation is real, not 'virtual'.

Yes, we cannot receive Holy Communion but we can be in true communion with the Risen Lord present body, blood, soul and divinity in the Blessed Sacrament when the priest says the words of consecration over the bread and wine that become the Body and Blood of Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI wrote as follows about spiritual communion in his apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis (The Sacrament of Charity) in No 55: Clearly, full participation in the Eucharist takes place when the faithful approach the altar in person to receive communion. Yet true as this is, care must be taken lest they conclude that the mere fact of their being present in church during the liturgy gives them a right or even an obligation to approach the table of the Eucharist. Even in cases where it is not possible to receive sacramental communion, participation at Mass remains necessary, important, meaningful and fruitful. In such circumstances it is beneficial to cultivate a desire for full union with Christ through the practice of spiritual communion, praised by Pope John Paul II and recommended by saints who were masters of the spiritual life.

There is a very good post on spiritual communion on Catholic Strength.

In the suffering of so many throughout the world because of the Covid-19 pandemic we can see both the wounds of the suffering Christ and the scars of the Risen Christ. 

May we have the grace to see, with St Thomas, the presence of My Lord and my God especially in suffering, our own and that of others, in whatever form it comes.

All in the April Evening

Words by Katharine Tynan, music by Hugh S. Roberton

Sung by the Glasgow Orpheus Choir

I learned the poem All in the April Evening in Fourth Class (Grade Four) when we had a wonderful teacher named John Galligan, a man who influenced my life greatly, though it was only years later I realised that. I think our class also learned to sing it that year - I'm not totally sure! - under a colourful woman named Mrs Agnes Boylan, who loved to wear large hats like the late Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother of England. She was everyone's 'favourite grandmother'. I learned later that she was the mother of the late Dom Eugene Boylan OCSO, abbot of Roscrea Monastery in Ireland and author of a number of influential books on spirituality.

All in an April Evening by Katharine Tynan

All in the April morning,
April airs were abroad;
The sheep with their little lambs
Pass'd me by on the road.

The sheep with their little lambs
Pass'd me by on the road;
All in an April evening
I thought on the Lamb of God.

The lambs were weary, and crying
With a weak human cry,
I thought on the Lamb of God
Going meekly to die.

Up in the blue, blue mountains
Dewy pastures are sweet:
Rest for the little bodies,
Rest for the little feet.

But for the Lamb of God
Up on the hill-top green,
Only a cross of shame
Two stark crosses between.

All in the April evening,
April airs were abroad;
I saw the sheep with their lambs,
And thought on the Lamb of God.

Canon Patrick Comerford, a priest of the Anglican Church of Ireland, has a very good commentary on the poem on his blog. He puts it in a Lenten context. But Good Friday is followed by Easter Sunday. Katharine Tynan died on Good Friday 1931.

Gregorian Chant setting of the Communion Antiphon

Antiphona ad communionem  Communion Antiphon  Cf John 20:27

Mitte manum tuam, et cognosce loca clavorum,

Put your hand and feel the place of the nails,

et noli esse incredulus, sed fidelis, alleluia, alleluia.

and do not be unbelieving but believeing, alleluia, alleluia.

Below is a setting of the Latin text of the Communion Antiphon by contemporary Scottish composer James MacMillan, sung by The Sixteen, Harry Christophers.