This one done at the time of the Reformation by Hermanno Bonno. It was the sequence hymn appointed for the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Concentu parili (you can download the "uncorrected" from iTunes; it is the same piece musically, if altered textually); originally addressed to the Blessed Virgin, it was altered to address our Lord. What is interesting to me is the use of the image of Aaron's rod for our Lord; Gerhard still has it refer to the Blessed Mother. This piece occurs both in Lossius and in the 1613 Magdeburg Book:With one accord this people reveres You, O Christ the King, and venerates You with devoted hearts. You the venerable Son of noble Abraham, born of the stem of David. Your most holy body is completely without the guilt of sin, born of a pure virgin mother.
The blessed Mother and noble Virgin, who trusted the words of the Archangel Gabriel, gave birth to a Son, while still a virgin, a Son in whose most sacred blood the whole of the ruined race is cleansed, just as God promised Abraham.
You the branch are prefigured by Aaron’s rod, barren but splendid in flowering, which delivers from mortality the mortals who trust in You. You are the ever open door of which Scripture everywhere testifies, who gives life to those who desire it.
Therefore, let us willingly take as our example the modesty of the Virgin Mother, submitting to the remedy of our polluted maternity.
To the temple she brought Him that all might be cleansed, the God-made-man who exalts her intact virginity. He who searches hearts and innermost parts has chosen her and from her flesh Jesus Christ takes flesh. She is then mother of the little smiling one, Jesus, at whose gift all rejoice, at whose command all exist.
Therefore all we who celebrate the feast of Christ, made a child on our behalf, and his Mother Mary, in order to cultivate among ourselves mutual bonds of humility, let us follow the example of His mother.
Praise be to the Father of glory, who by revealing His Son to the gentiles and His people alike joins us to Israel.
Praise be to His Son, who by reconciling us to His Father with His blood has joined us to the saints above.
Praise, too, be to the Holy Spirit forever.
That's beautiful. It gives the glory and praise to Christ and honors Mary in the proper way at the same time. Thank you for posting it.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Pr. Yount, and I agree; it does.
ReplyDeleteThat's because the image of Aaron's rod does refer to Mary, flowering, but not because of a man's seed, not to mention descent is reckoned from the mother, not the father.
ReplyDeleteI'm rather inclined to agree with you and Gerhard on this, Terry. Yet with so many types, we can see it can bear a double meaning. This sequence suggests that the parallel is that from a dead rod life blossoms, rather as life blossoms from the cross.
ReplyDeleteTe virga arida aaron flore speciosa te figurat maria sine viri semine nato florida.
ReplyDeleteAn arid virgin addressed directly, not to mention the second verse in the couplet, which identifies Mary as the gate closed except to God spoken of by Ezechiel.
It's about her, not the cross whose praise happens at the end.
If there's a type, it would be Mary faith as a type for ours, which she, though she didn't need a trip to the mikveh being still a virgin, did it anyway, so that while we will not attain the humility of Christ, God, not claiming his divinity, and submitting to God, we may attain the humility of the human Mary.
Which is a nice thought, but the 6th couplet is just the sort of jumping off place for obscuring Christ even as he is praised.
Which is why I am for doing these things for what they were composed to be, as distinct from reforming a liturgy to what it was meant to be, or leave them aside.
But being Latin rather than Greek, I promise not to post a few dozen times about it.