Archive for the 'music' Category

Exsultet

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

You can listen to a beautiful recording of the Exsultet from Father Z’s blog. There is an introduction, but the singing itself begins about 10:49 into the file.

Exultet iam angelica turba caelorum:
exultent divina mysteria:
et pro tanti Regis victoria tuba insonet salutaris.

Gaudeat et tellus tantis irradiata fulgoribus:
et, aeterni Regis splendore illustrata,
totius orbis se sentiat amisisse caliginem.

Laetetur et mater Ecclesia,
tanti luminis adornata fulgoribus:
et magnis populorum vocibus haec aula resultet.

Quapropter astantes vos, fratres carissimi,
ad tam miram huius sancti luminis claritatem,
una mecum, quaeso,
Dei omnipotentis misericordiam invocate.
Ut, qui me non meis meritis
intra Levitarum numerum dignatus est aggregare,
luminis sui claritatem infundens,
cerei huius laudem implere perficiat.

Vers. Dominus vobiscum.
Resp. Et cum spiritu tuo.
Vers. Sursum corda.
Resp. Habemus ad Dominum.
Vers. Gratias agamus Domino Deo nostro.
Resp. Dignum et iustum est.

Vere dignum et iustum est,
invisibilem Deum Patrem omnipotentem
Filiumque eius unigenitum,
Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum,
toto cordis ac mentis affectu et vocis ministerio personare.

Qui pro nobis aeterno Patri Adae debitum solvit,
et veteris piaculi cautionem pio cruore detersit.

Haec sunt enim festa paschalia,
in quibus verus ille Agnus occiditur,
cuius sanguine postes fidelium consecrantur.

Haec nox est,
in qua primum patres nostros, filios Israel
eductos de Aegypto,
Mare Rubrum sicco vestigio transire fecisti.

Haec igitur nox est,
quae peccatorum tenebras columnae illuminatione purgavit.

Haec nox est,
quae hodie per universum mundum in Christo credentes,
a vitiis saeculi et caligine peccatorum segregatos,
reddit gratiae, sociat sanctitati.

Haec nox est,
in qua, destructis vinculis mortis,
Christus ab inferis victor ascendit.

Nihil enim nobis nasci profuit,
nisi redimi profuisset.
O mira circa nos tuae pietatis dignatio!
O inaestimabilis dilectio caritatis:
ut servum redimeres, Filium tradidisti!

O certe necessarium Adae peccatum,
quod Christi morte deletum est!
O felix culpa,
quae talem ac tantum meruit habere Redemptorem!

O vere beata nox,
quae sola meruit scire tempus et horam,
in qua Christus ab inferis resurrexit!

Haec nox est, de qua scriptum est:
Et nox sicut dies illuminabitur:
et nox illuminatio mea in deliciis meis.

Huius igitur sanctificatio noctis fugat scelera, culpas lavat:
et reddit innocentiam lapsis
et maestis laetitiam.
Fugat odia, concordiam parat
et curvat imperia.

O vere beata nox,
in qua terrenis caelestia, humanis divina iunguntur!

In huius igitur noctis gratia, suscipe, sancte Pater,
laudis huius sacrificium vespertinum,
quod tibi in hac cerei oblatione sollemni,
per ministrorum manus
de operibus apum, sacrosancta reddit Ecclesia.

Sed iam columnae huius praeconia novimus,
quam in honorem Dei rutilans ignis accendit.
Qui, licet sit divisus in partes,
mutuati tamen luminis detrimenta non novit.

Alitur enim liquantibus ceris,
quas in substantiam pretiosae huius lampadis
apis mater eduxit.

Oramus ergo te, Domine,
ut cereus iste in honorem tui nominis consecratus,
ad noctis huius caliginem destruendam,
indeficiens perseveret.
Et in odorem suavitatis acceptus,
supernis luminaribus misceatur.

Flammas eius lucifer matutinus inveniat:
Ille, inquam, lucifer, qui nescit occasum:
Christus Filius tuus,
qui, regressus ab inferis, humano generi serenus illuxit,
et vivit et regnat in saecula saeculorum.

Amen.

My translation:

Now let the angelic multitude of Heaven exult:
exult, divine mysteries:
and let sound the trumpet of salvation for the victory of so great a King.

Let rejoice the earth, irradiated with such flashes of lightning:
and, illumined with the splendor of the eternal King,
may it see clearly that it has dispelled that cloud from the whole world.

And let mother Church rejoice,
adorned with the shimmers of such great light:
and may this hall resound with the peoples’ loud voices.

Wherefore, you dearest brethren who are present,
for such wonderful clarity of this holy light,
together with me, I ask,
invoke the mercy of God almighty.
So that he, who not by my merits
has deigned to count me among the number of the Levites,
as he pours out the clarity of his own light,
may cause me to fulfill the praise of this candle.

Vers. The Lord be with you.
Resp. And with your spirit.
Vers. Our hearts on high.
Resp. We hold to the Lord.
Vers. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
Resp. It is worthy and just.

Truly it is worthy and just,
with the whole affect of heart and mind and with the ministry of the voice
to sound forth
to the invisible God and Father almighty
and his Only-begotten Son,
Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Who for us loosed Adam’s debt to the eternal Father,
and cleansed with pious bloodshed the bond of that ancient offense.

For this is our paschal feast,
on which he the true Lamb is slain,
by whose blood the posts of the faithful are consecrated.

This is the night,
on which first our fathers, the sons of Israel
led forth from Egypt,
you made to cross dry-shod across the Red Sea.

Therefore this is the night,
which purged the darkness of sins by the enlightening of a column.

This is the night,
which today throughout the whole world restores to grace those who believe in Christ,
separated from the vices of the world and the cloud of sins,
and gathers them in holiness.

This is the night,
on which, the chains of death destroyed,
Christ ascends from Hell the victor.

For it would have profited us nothing to be born,
unless it had profited us to be redeemed.
O wonderful grant of your piety on our behalf!
O inestimable love of charity:
to redeem a slave, you handed over the Son!

O certainly necessary sin of Adam,
which by the death of Christ was destroyed!
O happy fault,
which merited to gain such and so great a Redeemer!

O truly blessed night,
which alone merited to know the time and the hour,
on which Christ rose from Hell!

This is the night, about which it is written:
And the night will be enlightened like the day:
and the night will be enlightenment in my beloved.

Therefore the sanctification of this night puts sins to flight, cleanses faults:
and returns innocence to the fallen
and joy to the mourning.
It banishes hates, prepares agreement
and bends empires.

O truly blessed night,
on which the heavenly to the earthly and the divine to the human are joined!

Therefore in the grace of this night, take, holy Father,
the evening sacrifice of this praise,
which unto you in this oblation of a solemn candle by the work of bees,
the most holy Church renders,
through the hands of your ministers.

But already we know the proclamations of this column,
which the reddening fire lights for the honor of God.
Which, though it be divided into parts,
nevertheless knows no lack in its borrowed light.

For it is nourished by the melting portions of wax,
which the mother of bees
produced for the substance of this precious lamp.

Therefore we pray to you, Lord,
that that candle consecrated for the honor of your name,
to destroy the cloud of this night,
might persevere unfaltering.
And accepted for an odor of sweetness,
it might be mixed with the heavenly lamps.

May the morning star find its burning flames:
That morning star, indeed, who knows no setting:
Christ your Son,
who bright and clear, having returned from Hell, has enlightened the human race,
and lives and reigns forever and ever.

Amen.