Ash Wednesday
Massimo Palombella
In Christian liturgy, Lent is a fruitful time, a precious opportunity that the Church offers to everyone to “return”, to return to God, to return home, to return to the Truth.
During Lent, we will be accompanied at Vespers by a hymn of unknown authorship, also attributed to St. Gregory the Great, with the following text:
Audi, benigne Conditor,
nostras preces cum fletibus,
in hoc sacro ieiunio
fusas quadragenario.
Scrutator alme cordium,
infirma tu scis virium:
ad te reversis exhibe
remissionis gratiam.
Multum quidem peccavimus,
sed parce confitentibus;
ad laudem tui nominis
confer medelam languidis.
Concede nostrum conteri
corpus per abstinentiam,
culpae ut relinquant pabulum
ieiuna corda criminum.
Praesta, beata Trinitas,
concede, simplex Unitas,
ut fructuosa sint tuis
ieiuniorum munera.
O merciful Creator, hear!
To us in pity bow thine ear:
accept the tearful prayer we raise
in this our fast of forty days.
Our hearts are open, Lord, to thee:
thou knowest our infirmity;
pour out on all who seek thy face
abundance of thy pardoning grace.
Our sins are many, this we know;
spare us, good Lord, thy mercy show;
and for the honour of thy name
our fainting souls to life reclaim.
Give us self-control that springs
from discipline of outward things,
that fasting inward secretly
the soul may purely dwell with thee.
We pray thee, Holy Trinity,
one God, unchanging Unity,
that we from this our abstinence
may reap the fruits of penitence.
The attached music is a manuscript by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, specifically manuscript codex 59 from the Lateran Archives.
The interpretation is by the Sistine Chapel Choir. The musical track can be found on the CD “O Crux Benedicta. Lent and Holy Week at the Sistine Chapel” released by Deutsche Grammophon in 2019.
A blessed Ash Wednesday and heartfelt greetings.
