Saturday, May 17, 2008

Ember Friday Organ Recital

Lauds before work, Prime during a break, Terce, Sext and None after work, before picking up Fr Rowe, so that he and I could go to an organ recital to which Justin had invited us, because it was to be the inauguration of the new chamber organ he and his workmates had built at Pipe Organs W.A.

There were eats and drinks to start, and a good forty or so present, to hear Stewart Smith play for a delightful half-hour on the kist o' whistles. The programme played consisted of Buxtehude's Præludium no. 99, followed by an anonymous 16th C. English Galliard, then a Voluntary in two movements by the eighteenth century English blind organist, John Stanley, and - to conclude - three pieces by Bach: two choral preludes, the former on Liebster Jesu, the latter for Pentecost, and Bach's own transcription of the first movement of an Italianate violin concerto by Duke Ernst of Weimar.

After that I went and served Fr's 6:40pm Mass at the Pro., being for the Ember Friday in the Octave of Pentecost, after which I made my thanksgiving (until the church was locked up at 8pm) by reading Matins, praying the Prayer of St Bonaventure after Mass, which I have committed to memory long since, saying the Penitential Psalms, then having Vespers and ending with a few collects in honour of the Blessed Sacrament and the Saints whose feasts have been impeded this week. The evening ended with dinner, but not till 8:30pm!

One item today I would like to mention, pursuant to some discussion of the proper endings of collects on several Trad blogs, is the secret today, which uniquely, I think, ends with both eumdem Dominum and ejusdem Spiritus Sancti:

Sacrificiis, Domine, tuis oblata conspectibus ignis ille divinus absumat, qui discipulorum Christi Filii tui per Spiritum Sanctum corda succendit. Per eumdem Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, Filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate ejusdem Spiritus Sancti, Deus, per omnia sæcula sæculorum. Amen.

(May that divine fire consume the sacrifices offered in thy sight, Lord, which by the Holy Ghost inflamed the hearts of the disciples of Christ thy Son. Through the same Our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son, Who with Thee liveth and reigneth in the unity of the same Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.)


Contrast this prayer ad Patrem with two prayers ad Filium: the private prayer of the priest before Communion beginning Domine Jesu Christi, Fili Dei vivi; and the collect Domine Jesu Christe, qui de cælis ad terram for the Votive Mass of the Passion. These have the related nonstandard endings Qui cum eodem Deo Patre et Spiritu Sancto vivis et regnas, Deus in sæcula sæculorum / per omnia sæcula sæculorum respectively.

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