O Emmanuel. (Advent Meditations)
by VP
Posted on Friday December 22, 2023 at 11:00PM in Chant
“O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the expectation of the nations and their Savior, come to save us, O Lord our God!”
1.
Emmanuel, God with us, is a name that in every way belongs to Christ
Our Lord. He is with His people in all their needs, ever ready to help
and console them. He is with us on every altar, waiting for us to come
and pour out before Him our sorrow and our needs. He is with us, above
all, in Holy Communion, when He comes to dwell in our heart and to bring
with Him every grace that we need. He is with us in the hour of death,
and He will be with us forever in heaven.
2. He Who thus comes
to dwell with us in familiar friendship is our King ; He Who thus
condescends to be our companion is the God Who has an absolute right to
our obedience. He is our Lawgiver, and the statutes that He enacts for
us have but one end and aim and object, to lead His subjects into the
ways of happiness and the paths of peace.
3. Come then, O God,
our Lord and our Savior. Come and save us from all the perils of the
Evil One, and from our own weakness and frailty. Come and save us in the
hour of temptation,for Thou alone art our King, and none save Thou
shalt rule over us. Come and bring us safe through this valley of tears
to Thy eternal kingdom, where we shall dwell forever, O sweet Jesus, in
the everlasting delights of Thy blissful company. "
O Rex Gentium. (Advent Meditations)
by VP
Posted on Thursday December 21, 2023 at 11:00PM in Chant
“O
King of the nations and desired of them, and the Corner-stone that
maketh both one, come and save man, whom Thou didst form of dust.”
1.
Never was there a king who had such a claim to sovereignty as Christ
Our Lord. He is King by divine appointment and His own right. He is King
by the consentient voice of His subjects, and by the right of conquest.
He is King by reason of His having purchased us with His own blood.
What unnumbered claims He has on me ! and besides all the rest, does He
not deserve to reign supreme by reason of His having won me by His love ?
2. Christ was desired by all nations, long before they knew Him
Whom they desired. The heathen world felt a craving want, which it
could not define, but which was the desire for the Savior Who should
free them from the bondage of sin. So now men of good-will outside the
Church feel something of the same strange longing. Nothing will satisfy
it save submission to their King by union with His mystical body, the
Church of God. Oh, how happy am I, whose desires are fulfilled in that I
am no alien, but a servant of that King Whom to serve is my own desire !
3. Christ is the Corner-stone that maketh both one ; the King
of peace, Whose work it is to unite together those who love Him in the
unity of mutual love of one another for His sake. Thus He desires that I
should be united to those around me, that there should be no dissension
or disunion. Do I in this fulfill the pleasure of my King ? "
Meditations for Advent . By Rev. Richard F. Clarke S.J. The Catholic Truth Society, London 1891
O Oriens. (Advent Meditations)
by VP
Posted on Wednesday December 20, 2023 at 11:00PM in Chant
“
O Orient, Splendor of eternal light and Sun of justice ; come and
enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.”
1.
The night of pagan times was long and dark, and seemed hopeless. Deeper
and deeper the nations were sinking in misery and vice. But at length
the Orient, the brightness of the eternal light of heaven, rose, and
scattered the darkness, changing the gloom into a brilliant day. So too
for those who have been long shrouded in the dense gloom of sin or
sorrow there waits the same divine Light, ready to scatter their
darkness in a moment, if only they will draw nigh to Him. He waits for
me, ready to brighten my path, to scatter my sins and sorrows, if I will
avail myself of His love.
2. That rising Light is the Sun of
justice, Who shall exercise His justice in delivering the captive, and
in recompensing His friends a hundred, nay, a thousandfold, for every
little service done to Him. For His justice is virtually identical with
His mercy, and rejoices to employ itself in works of pity and of love.
3.
Come then, O Orient, O Sun of justice ; shine on those who sit in
darkness, on those who are enveloped in the thick mists of heathendom
and heresy. Come and enlighten their ignorance, that they may not
perish. Come and deliver them from the shadow of death, for they cannot
deliver themselves. Pour upon them such a flood of light and grace as
may guide their feet into the way of peace."
O Clavis David. (Advent Meditations)
by VP
Posted on Tuesday December 19, 2023 at 11:00PM in Chant
"O
Key of David, and Scepter of the house of Israel ; Who openest and no
man shutteth, and shuttest and no man openeth ; come and deliver from
the prison-house the captive who sits in darkness and in the shadow of
death"
1. The key and the scepter are the symbols of supreme
authority ; they indicate the sway that the Savior is to hold over His
faithful people, and the right which He alone possesses of opening the
gate of heaven to the children of men, and of extending to them the
golden scepter of His mercy and forgiving love. To me, O Key of David,
unworthy though I am, open in Thy mercy the door of heaven ; stretch out
to me,all undeserving, the scepter of Thy favor and Thy love.
2.
Thou shuttest, O Lord, and no man opens. O shut not upon me the door
which will admit me to draw nigh to Thee! Shut not upon me the door of
Thy mercy and grace. Shut not the door which leads me into the inner
sanctuary of Thy love. Shut not the door of that fold wherein Thy
favorite children dwell in peace and happiness. Shut not, above all, the
door of paradise at my last hour.
3. Come then, O Lord, and
open to me now the door of my captivity. I am a captive to my own
self-will ; a captive to my want of charity ; a captive to my vanity and
love of display; a captive to my self-indulgence and dislike of
mortification ; a captive to a thousand faults of which I am scarcely
conscious. Come, O Lord, and set the captive free. I am weak, and cannot
break my chains unless I receive from Thee the necessary strength ;
come, O Lord Jesus, come quickly. "
O Radix Jesse. (Advent Meditations)
by VP
Posted on Monday December 18, 2023 at 11:00PM in Chant
“O
Root of Jesse, Who standest for a sign to the nations, before Whom
kings shall shut their mouth, of Whom the Gentiles shall entreat mercy ;
come to set us free, and no longer delay.”
1. The King Who is
to come is of the root of Jesse, since He is of David’s royal line. He
is the true David, Who laid low the spiritual Goliath, the prince of
darkness, who in pagan times defied the power of the living God. He is
above all the Man after God’s own heart, in that the one motive of His
heart was to carry out His Father’s will. If this is the motive power of
my life, then I too am of the root of Jesse, and in spite of failings
am a man after God’s own heart, just in proportion as this motive is
ever present to me.
2. Jesus is a sign to the nations; a sign of
contradiction to His enemies, but before Whom the most powerful will
have to shut their mouth in humble subjection; a sign to His friends,
the men of good-will in every clime and country, who will be drawn to
Him to offer their joyful homage at His feet, entreating of Him that
mercy which He is more ready to grant than they to ask. To me He is a
sign, either fondly loved, or neglected and treated as of no account.
3.
O Root of Jesse, O King and Savior, come and set us free ; free from
all that displeases Thee, free from the snares that entangle our feet,
free from our perverse attachment to our own will, free from the power
of the devil, free from our slowness in obeying Thy commands and holy
inspirations, free from all that hinders us in Thy service ; come and
say the word, and we shall be delivered. "
October 24: Saint Raphael, Archangel
by VP
Posted on Monday October 24, 2022 at 11:45AM in Chant
Tibi, Christe, Splendor Patris by Gloriae Dei Cantores
Jesu, brightness of the Father!
Life and strength of all who live!
In the presence of the Angels,
Glory to Thy name we give,
And Thy wondrous praise rehearse,
Singing in alternate verse.
Hail, too ye angelic powers!
Hail ye thrones celestial!
Hail, Physician of salvation,
Guide of life, blest Raphael!
Who the foe of all mankind
didst in kinks of iron bind.
O may Christ, by the protection,
Shelter us from harm this day;
Keep us pure in flesh and spirit,
Save us from the enemy;
And vouchsafe us, of His grace,
In His paradise a place.
Glory to Th' Almighty Father
Sing we now in anthems sweet;
Glory to the great Redeemer,
Glory to the Paraclete;
Three in one, and one in three,
Throughout all eternity, Amen.
Source: Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Catholic Laity, The Official Prayer Book of the Catholic Church, 1916 Prepared and published by the order of the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore.
Prayer to Saint Raphael
Glorious Archangel, St. Raphael, great prince of the heavenly court, illustrious by thy gifts of wisdom and grace, guide of travelers by
land and sea, consoler of the unfortunate and refuge of sinners, I entreat thee to help me in all my needs and in all the trials of my life, as
thou didst once assist the young Tobias in his journeying And since thou art the "physician of God," I humbly pray thee to heal my soul of its many infirmities and my body of the ills that afflict it, if this favor is for my greater good. I ask, especially, for angelic purity, that I may be made fit to be the living temple of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Pope Leo XIII, June 21, 1890
Source: My Prayer Book, Fr. Lasance
Prayer to the Holy Angels for Parishes
All you legions and choirs of Angels,
please make haste to come to the aid and defense of our One Holy Roman
Catholic Church. Led by St. Michael, may She be protected from
destruction within by all modernistic attempts that try to diminish the
true presence of God and take away His proper and due respect! In
particular, come to the aid of my parish (name your parish) that it may
remain or be remade to be a place of reverence and a stronghold from
which the One True Triune God may continue to lead and strengthen us.
Amen.