"A Short Responsory" for Lent: Illumina oculos ("Lighten my eyes")

Here's something interesting, for Lent: a "short responsory" that comes from Medieval Hungary.  It's beautifully sung here by the Schola Hungarica:




The text is taken from Psalm 12/(13):4-5/(3-4), and Psalm 87/(88):2:

12:4b Illumina oculos meos, ne unquam obdormiam in morte,
12:5a Ne quando dicat inimicus meus. Praevalui adversus eum.

2. Domine, Deus salutis meae, in die clamavi et nocte coram te.

13:3b Lighten mine eyes, that I sleep not in death.
13:4a Lest my enemy say "I have prevailed against him."

2. O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee.

Perfect for Lent!   But, this text is nowhere to be found in the Trent Breviary.  The CD lists it as included in "The Istanbul Antiphonary,"  which I have not found online (although I have found numerous references to it).  I need to look more at this.

Fortunately, Cantus Database lists it as a Compline Responsory, found 18 times in various manuscripts, most from Eastern Europe:  Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, etc.  It's used, variously, on the first four Sundays of Lent.  (In one exception below, St. Gall, it's listed as "uncertain usage" for feasts of the BVM.  So not much help there.) 

I've copied the concordance table from Cantus here for easier reading:

Siglum	Folio	Incipit				Feast	Mode	Image	DB
A-Gu 29	128r	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 4 Quadragesimae	6	Image	CD
A-Gu Ms. 211	064v	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 3 Quadragesimae			CD
A-VOR 287	066v	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 3 Quadragesimae	5		CD
A-Wda D-4	001v	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 3 Quadragesimae	5		CD
A-Wda D-4	039v	Illumina oculos meos*	C	R		Dom. 3 Quadragesimae	*		CD
CH-SGs 388	476	Illumina oculos meos ne	X	R	2	De BMV	?	Image	CD
CZ-Pst DE I 7	107v	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 1 Quadragesimae	5		CD
PL-KIk 1	059r	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 3 Quadragesimae	5		CD
PL-WRu R 503	056r	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 3 Quadragesimae	5		CD
SI-Lna 18 (olim 17)	083r	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 2 Quadragesimae	5		CD
TR-Itks 42	059r	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 1 Quadragesimae	5		CD
SK-BRsa SNA 2	089r	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 1 Quadragesimae		Image	CSK
SK-BRsa SNA 4	095r	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 1 Quadragesimae		Image	CSK
SK-BRsa SNA 17	018v	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 3 Quadragesimae		Image	CSK
SK-Bra EC Lad. 6	054v	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 1 Quadragesimae		Image	CSK
PL-KIk PL-KiK 1	059r	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 3 Quadragesimae	5		CPL
PL-PłS PL-PłS 35	047v	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 1 Quadragesimae	5	Image	CPL
PL-PłS PL-PłS 35	053v	Illumina*	C	R		Dom. 2 Quadragesimae	*	Image	CPL

The usual "Short Responsory" at Compline in the Trent Breviary (and others)  is this:   

Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
– Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
You have redeemed us, Lord God of truth.
– Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
– Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.

I wonder if Illumina oculos replaced it during Lent, in some of these Eastern European breviaries?    Would be very interesting to know, so here's another thing I'll have to investigate.


Here's an image of the chant from the Antiphonary of Bratislava (15th C. ); here is one from the Antiphonarium from Płock Cathedral, a 15th C. Polish source.  (I cannot post these images on this page because of copyright restrictions.)   They differ slightly, in places, from what's on the video above - but they are clearly the same tune.  The pretty rise and fall of the melody on "oculos" is the same in every case.

Here's one from the Antiphonarium Benedictinum (1400) (Austria), which doesn't have the same restriction.  The text does not seem to be complete here, though:

Here's the St. Gall/BVM version; it's written in the old-style chant notation, without staff, so hard to tell - but it seems to me to be a similar melody, with the same rise and fall on "oculos."  The St. Gall MS is from the 13th Century.

St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 388, p. 476 – Antiphonary

There is another "Illumina oculos" in the repertoire, though; a different text that begins the same way is the Offertory at Lent IV in Year C.   (This chant was formerly the Offertory on the Fourth Sunday of Pentecost.)

Qui habitat in adiutorio altissimi (The Lent 1 Tract)

Here are two videos of this Old Roman Chant version of the Lent 1 Tract, Qui habitat in adiutorio altissimi ("He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High"). The Tract replaces the Alleluia during Lent, and is always an unbroken section of a Psalm; on Lent 1, the Tract is the whole of Psalm (90/)91.

This Tract is so long that it requires two YouTube videos!  (Palm Sunday and Good Friday are the only other days assigned long tracts like this one.)   Psalm 91 is the basis for all of the chant propers for Lent 1; I believe that's unique for the Great Church Year.   The historical Lent 1 Gospel reading is Christ's temptation in the desert, during which Satan quotes this Psalm - so it's easy to see why Psalm 91 has the status it does on this day.

Below I've posted the Gregorian version of the chant; the music is not the same, but the words are all there.  The singers on the video are Ensemble Organum, directed by Marcel Peres.

Part I:




Part II:

Here's the Psalm itself, from the link above:

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
    my God, in whom I trust.”

³ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
    and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with his pinions,
    and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of the night,
    nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
    nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

⁷ A thousand may fall at your side,
    ten thousand at your right hand,
    but it will not come near you.
⁸ You will only look with your eyes
    and see the recompense of the wicked.

⁹ Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—
    the Most High, who is my refuge—
¹⁰ no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
    no plague come near your tent.

¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways.
¹² On their hands they will bear you up,
    lest you strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the adder;
    the young lion and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

¹⁴ “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
    I will protect him, because he knows my name.
¹⁵ When he calls to me, I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble;
    I will rescue him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him
    and show him my salvation.”

Here are the propers for for Lent I, from the Brazilian Benedictines:

Hebdomada prima quadragesimæ
Dominica Introitus: Ps. 90, 15.16 et 1 Invocabit me (cum Gloria Patri) (4m21.1s - 4083 kb) score
Graduale: Ps. 90, 11-12 Angelis suis (4m03.3s - 3805 kb) score
Tractus: Ps. 90, 1-7 et 11-16 Qui habitat (2m59.0s - 2801 kb) score
Offertorium: Ps. 90, 4-5 Scapulis suis (1m04.4s - 1011 kb) score
Communio: Ps. 90, 4-5 Scapulis suis (4m32.5s - 4261 kb) score

Here are posts on Chantblog about the propers for the First Sunday in Lent:

• The Introit for the First Sunday in Lent: Invocabit me
• Angelis suis: the Lent I gradual
• Qui Habitat: "The First Sunday of Lent: A Note on the Tract" (also see, for interest, Josquin des Prez: Qui habitat)  
• The Lent I Offertory: Scapulis suis 
• The Communio for the First Sunday in Lent: Scapulis suis

"Five paths of repentance"

This is the second reading at Mattins of Tuesday in the Third Week of Lent:

Would you like me to list also the paths of repentance? They are numerous and quite varied, and all lead to heaven.

A first path of repentance is the condemnation of your own sins: Be the first to admit your sins and you will be justified. For this reason, too, the prophet wrote: I said: I will accuse myself of my sins to the Lord, and you forgave the wickedness of my heart. Therefore, you too should condemn your own sins; that will be enough reason for the Lord to forgive you, for a man who condemns his own sins is slower to commit them again. Rouse your conscience to accuse you within your own house, lest it become your accuser before the judgment seat of the Lord.

That, then, is one very good path of repentance. Another and no less valuable one is to put out of our minds the harm done us by our enemies, in order to master our anger, and to forgive our fellow servants’ sins against us. Then our own sins against the Lord will be forgiven us. Thus you have another way to atone for sin: For if you forgive your debtors, your heavenly Father will forgive you.

Do you want to know of a third path? It consists of prayer that is fervent, careful and comes from the heart.

If you want to hear of a fourth, I will mention almsgiving, whose power is great and far-reaching.

If, moreover, a man lives a modest, humble life, that, no less than the other things I have mentioned, takes sin away. Proof of this is the tax-collector who had no good deeds to mention, but offered his humility instead and was relieved of a heavy burden of sins.

Thus I have shown you five paths of repentance; condemnation of your own sins, forgiveness of our neighbor’s sins against us, prayer, almsgiving and humility.

Do not be idle, then, but walk daily in all these paths; they are easy, and you cannot plead your poverty. For, though you live out your life amid great need, you can always set aside your wrath, be humble, pray diligently and condemn your own sins; poverty is no hindrance. Poverty is not an obstacle to our carrying out the Lord’s bidding, even when it comes to that path of repentance which involves giving money (almsgiving, I mean). The widow proved that when she put her two mites into the box!

Now that we have learned how to heal these wounds of ours, let us apply the cures. Then, when we have regained genuine health, we can approach the holy table with confidence, go gloriously to meet Christ, the king of glory, and attain the eternal blessings through the grace, mercy and kindness of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

The text is taken from one of John Chrysostom's homilies, I'm sorry to say.  I just cannot stand him - but he's exactly right about this. 

Lent 5: Saepe expugnaverunt ("Greatly have they afflicted me")

Sung by a group called Sequentia, this seems to be a version of the Tract for the Fifth Sunday in Lent.



Remember that the Tract replaces the Alleluia during Lent, and that the text consists either of a complete Psalm or of the greatest part of a Psalm.

Here's the chant score; the singing on the video above is much more elaborate - if not actually improvised upon - but the tune does seem to me to be there:

I've written briefly about this tract before; the text in English is from Psalm 129, verses 1-4:

1  “Greatly^[a] have they afflicted me from my youth”—
    let Israel now say—
² “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth,
    yet they have not prevailed against me.
³ The plowers plowed upon my back;
    they made long their furrows.”
⁴ The Lord is righteous;
    he has cut the cords of the wicked.

I noted in the previous post that Psalm 129 is one of the "Songs of Ascents."    Also that Verse 4 is translated "The Lord who is just will cut the necks of sinners" in the Douay-Rheims version of this Psalm - but that the King James translates it this way:  "The LORD is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked," as do most other versions.  (The Good News Bible -  and some others  - translate it this way:  "But the Lord, the righteous one, has freed me from slavery," )  So I'm not quite sure what's going on there; clearly there are some disputes about the Hebrew.

It's a beautiful recording, though, and I'm really happy to have found it. 

ChristusRex.org provides the full complement of propers for today, here sung by the Sao Paulo Benedictines;  note that the Communio again depends on the Gospel for the day.

Hebdomada quinta quadragesimæ  Dominica
Introitus: Ps. 42, 1.2.3 Iudica me, Deus (3m09.1s - 1293 kb) chant score
Graduale: Ps. 142, 9.10. V. Ps. 17, 48.49 Eripe me, Domine (3m49.9s - 1572 kb) chant score
Tractus: Ps. 128, 1-4 Sæpe expugnaverunt (1m50.9s - 759 kb) chant score
Offertorium: Ps. 118, 7.10.17.25 Confitebor tibi, Domine (1m41.8s - 697 kb) chant score
Communio:
                 quando legitur Evangelium de Lazaro:
                 Io. 11, 33.35.43.44.39 Videns Dominus (3m43.2s - 1526 kb)

                 quando legitur Evangelium de muliere adultera:
                 Io. 8, 10.11 Nemo te condemnavit (2m35.9s - 1213 kb)

                 quando legitur aliud Evangelium:
                 Io. 12, 26 Qui mihi ministrat(49.0s - 382 kb)

Here are posts on Chantblog about the other propers:

• The Introit for the Fifth Sunday in Lent: Judica Me ("Vindicate Me")
• Lent 5: The Gradual Eripe me Domine and the Tract Saepe Expugnaverunt
• The Lent 5 Offertory: Confitebor tibi, Domine 
• The Lent 5 Communion Song: Videns Dominus ("When the Lord saw") 

The Communio for Lent 4: Ierusalem, quæ ædificatur ut civitas ("Jerusalem is built as a city")

Ierusalem, quæ ædificatur ut civitas is the Communion Song for the Fourth Sunday in Lent (when the Gospel is other than that of the man blind from birth or the parable of the Prodigal Son - in Year B, in other words).


Lent - Fourth Sunday: Communio from Corpus Christi Watershed on Vimeo.

The text is taken from the beautiful Psalm 122:3-4:

Jerusalem, quæ ædificatur ut civitas, cuius participatio eius in idipsum: illuc enim ascenderunt tribus, tribus Domini, ad confitendum nomini tuo, Domine.

Jerusalem is built as a city that is bound firmly together, to which the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to give thanks to the name of the Lord.

Here's the chant score:

Ierusalem, quæ ædificatur ut civitas is the old, Tridentine, Communion Proper for today; the others,  Lutum fecit and Oportet te were added as alternates that depend on the Gospel reading, after the 3-year lectionary was adopted.

Today is Laetare Sunday in Lent:  "Rose Sunday," a day when the penitential mood lifts a bit.  The vestments are rose-colored, and the theme is throughout one of grace.  It's a parallel, in that way, to Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday in Advent.

Another, very interesting, parallel, though, is Lent IV's similarity to Advent II, in that all the chant propers for these Sundays mention Jerusalem (or "Sion").  Last year, as readers of this blog might recall, I was wondering why this was the case for the Advent II propers; I asked Derek about it, and he referred me to Dom Dominic Johner's book. The Chants of the Vatican Gradual.   Here's what Johner has to say about today, Laetare Sunday, in Lent:

Even more than on the second Sunday of Advent (q.v.), the station "at the church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem," in which the solemn services were conducted at Rome, has determined the selection of the liturgical texts of today's Mass. All the chants contain allusions to Sion or Jerusalem. Only the Offertory in its present form is an exception.

In other words, the chant propers for today refer to Jerusalem because the Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem was the stational church in Rome on the Fourth Sunday in Lent during the church's early years.

This page describes the custom, and lists all the stational churches for Lent; you'll see that the Fourth Sunday in Lent was celebrated at "Santa Croce in Gerusalemme," i.e., The Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem.   Here's the introduction from that page:

Pilgrims who travel to Rome during Lent can participate in a beautiful custom that dates back to the fourth century. It’s a custom that began as a way to strengthen the sense of community in the city while honoring the holy martyrs of Rome. The faithful would journey through the streets to visit various churches. As they walked they would pray the Litany of the Saints. The bishop of Rome, that is the Holy Father, would join them, lead them in prayer and celebrate Mass at the church.

Though this practice was around for years, Pope Saint Gregory the Great established the order of the churches to be visited, the prayers to be recited and designated this as a Lenten practice. The tradition continued until 1309 when the papacy moved to Avignon. Pope Leo XIII revived the tradition and it was fully restored by John XXIII in 1959.

The PNAC apparently observes this Lenten custom even today, and elaborates on the history at this page.  Here's a short excerpt, with much more at the link:

Our modern observance of the stational liturgy traces its roots back to the practice of the Bishop of Rome celebrating the liturgies of the church year at various churches throughout the city, a tradition dating back as far as the late second or early third century.  One reason for this was practical: with the church in Rome being composed of diverse groups from many cultures, regular visits by the bishop served to unify the various groups into a more cohesive whole.  Another reason, particularly following the legalization of Christianity in A.D. 313 which permitted public worship, was to commemorate certain feast days at churches with a special link to that celebration.  Therefore, Good Friday came to be celebrated at the Basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem and Christmas at St. Mary Major, where a relic of the manger was venerated.  In time, the original churches in the city, known as tituli (sing. titulus) because they often bore the name of the donor, took on an additional significance as the places that held the relics of the martyrs and the memory of the early history of the church in this city. 1

As time passed the schedule of these visits, which had earlier followed an informal order, took on a more formalized structure.  By the last half of the fifth century, a fairly fixed calendar was developed, having the order of the places at which the pope would say Mass with the church community on certain days throughout the year.  In the weeks before the beginning of Lent, the three large basilicas outside the walls were visited, forming a ring of prayer around the city before the season of Lent began.  During Lent, the various stations were originally organized so that the Masses were held in different areas of the city each day.  During the octave of Easter the stations form a litany of the saints, beginning with St. Mary Major on Easter Sunday and continuing with St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Lawrence, the Apostles, and the martyrs.

This also explains the Advent II propers; Santa Croce in Gerusalemme was the stational church on that Sunday as well.

Which is all quite interesting, to me, and definitely explains what I took to be mysterious!


ChristusRex.org offers a complete list of today's propers sung by the Sao Paolo Benedictines; note that the Offertory and Communio vary, depending on the Gospel for the day.

Hebdomada quarta quadragesimæ  Dominica
Introitus: Cf. Is. 66, 10.11; Ps. 121 Lætare Ierusalem (3m46.5s - 3540 kb) chant score
Graduale: Ps. 121, 1. V. 7 Lætatus sum (1m58.9s - 1858 kb) chant score
Tractus: Ps. 124, 1.2 Qui confidunt (3m13.4s - 3024 kb) chant score
Offertorium: Ps. 134, 3.6 Laudate Dominum (1m37.4s - 1524 kb) chant score
                 quando legitur Evangelium de filio prodigo:
                  Ps. 12, 4.5 Illumina oculos meos (1m33.8s - 1468 kb) chant score
Communio:  Ps. 121, 3.4 Ierusalem, quæ ædificatur chant score (1m09.7s - 1092 kb)

                 quando legitur Evangelium de cæco nato:
                  Io. 9, 6.11.38 Lutum fecit (39.3s - 616 kb)

                 quando legitur Evangelium de filio prodigo:
                  Lc. 15, 32 Oportet te (28.9s - 454 kb)

Other Chantblog articles about the propers for the day include:

• The Introit for the Fourth Sunday in Lent: Laetare Jerusalem ("Rejoice, O Jerusalem")
• The Lent 4 Gradual: Laetatus sum
• The Tract for Lent 4: Qui confidunt in Domino  
• The Lent 4 Offertory: Laudate Dominum and Illumina oculos meos
• The Communio for Lent 4: Ierusalem, quæ ædificatur ut civitas