The glorious company of the apostles praise You. The goodly fellowship of prophets praise You. The noble army of martyrs praise You. The holy church throughout all the world does acknowledge You: The Father of an infinite majesty; Your adorable, true, and only Son; Also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.--from the Te Deum at Matins (LSB 223)
11 comments:
I love the Te Deam!
I'm with Sue. I love this...NOW. I remember struggling to sing it when I was a little girl and wondering why in the world anyone would write a song like that!!
For those interested in a more literal rendering of the English, so to speak:
Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus,
Te Prophetarum laudabilis numerus,
Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus.
Te per orbem terrarum
sancta confitetur Ecclesia,
Patrem immensae maiestatis:
Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium;
Sanctum quoque Paraclitum Spiritum.
Vatican II abolished Matins in the movus ordo, replacing it with a service for use at any time day, called the Office of Readings.
Still, we have Matins. If only our LSB committee were immune from the Vatican II For Lutherans bug on other things too.
What Past Elder said!
Sue,
God is not feminine! It is Te DEUM, not DEAM.
I cannot use the vulgar "you" when adressing our God, certainly not in the liturgy of the Church. It is second nature now to many, or most of us. But I suggest and urge people to step back and think about how this really comes across. Picture a scenario like standing on a sidewalk, and calling out to someone, to ask him the time of day: "Hey, you there. Excuse me, do you have the time?" As relatively polite as that is, you couldn't imagine replacing it with: "Hey, thou there." If there is one place in society where it is still fitting to use such pronouns, it is in the Church's dealings with the great God. For this reason, I still use the TLH translation of the Te Deum in my praying of the Divine Office, when I pray it in English.
But of course, as you know, Father Deacon, the "thou" form is actually intimate and MORE casual than "you" in its use in the KJV.
Thou...du, in German... is more intimate, more "family".
I certainly wouldn't be calling, "Hey, thou!" out on the street.
"Du" is used to those who outrank you only by invitation, and we are so invited by the Father.
--helen
Only in English could you say "I love you", s declaration of intimate personal feeling with a formal object -- which is what "you" is, formal address rather than the familiar "thee".
Helen is quite right, one can only say the familiar form of address to what is otherwise one's superior by invitation, and that is exactly what God offers.
That is the Gospel, the great duzend! OMG "too German". Not to worry. My ancestors left Angeln centuries ago for East Anglia, we knew Pastor Simojoki was coming.
Not to mention Barnes and "the Germans"!
Actually Herr Diakon, that is but one of many reasons why I still use TLH in my doing of about anything.
I see I made a typo in my earlier comment -- movus ordo. As everyone knows, it's bogus ordo.
Fr. Weedon:
"Thou" is mnore intimate, yes, and that is an argument in its favor, as we know from our theological understanding, eg., of the intro to the Pater Noster, per Luther's Catechism. I suggest, however, that it is not more 'casual.' There is what a word means, and then there is how it comes across. We all instinctively know this. As I say, in today's day and age, one wouldn't think of using "thou" on the streets. This in itself is a clue that it represents a fuller, more dignified, form of the language, which befits sacred contexts.
The Te Deum with "You" sounds good to me. What I don't like is "Lord, You, now let your servant go in peace" in the post-communion canticle. It just sounds ackward and just plain ugly.
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