07 January 2006

Liturgy Quote for the Day

Our parish regularly moves Epiphany's observance to a Sunday. With the way things fell this year, we'll be observing Epiphany on the Sunday within Epiphany's octave.

The Western Rite for January 7th provides the following as the antiphon for the Benedictus at Lauds:

"From the East there came wise men to Bethlehem, to worship the Lord: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him precious gifts: gold as to a mighty King, incense as to the true God, and myrrh to foreshew His burial. Alleluia" (From the Monastic Diurnal Noted)

The same themes are picked up in the hymn that is used today, composed by Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (348-413) - you can sing it to the tune Stuttgart:

Earth has many a noble city;
Bethl'hem, thou dost all excel:
Out of thee the Lord of heaven
Came to rule His Israel.

Fairer than the sun at morning
Was the star that told His birth,
To the world its God announcing
Seen in fleshly form on earth.

Eastern sages at his cradle
Make oblations rich and rare:
see they give, in deep devotion,
gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

Sacred gifts of mystic meaning:
Incense doth their God disclose,
Gold the King of kings proclaimeth,
Myrrh his sepulchre forshows.

Jesus, whom the Gentiles worshipped
At Thy glad Epiphany,
Unto Thee, with God the Father
And the Spirit, glory be! Amen.

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