St. Augustine's Commentaries on the Psalms for Tenebrae
  • Gustavo Zayas
    Posts: 87
    Hello all.
    This year I am preparing our annual Tenebrae service following the Second Nocturn of Maundy Thursday. As many of you know, the Lessons come from St. Augustine's Commentary on the Psalms. I've googled this work and have also come up with "Exposition on the Psalms." But these are the whole Commentaries. I see that the Lessons in the Liber Usualis are excerpts from the Commentary on Psalm 54. They are found on pages 643, 644, and 645.
    I am a bit out of my depth here and none of the priests I associate with can help me. I need to prepare the texts to be read aloud in English.
    My request is this.
    Can someone point me to an English translation of the Lessons as they are found in the Liber?
    I am eternally grateful for any assistance.
  • Jenny Donelson
    Posts: 243
    Hi Gus - divinumofficium.com has usable translations. Use the calendar function to select the date, and then click on "Divinum Officium" and then "Matutinum."
    Thanked by 2Incardination Gustavo Zayas
  • Gustavo Zayas
    Posts: 87
    Hi Jenny. Thank you so much. I have used that site before but it simply did not occur to me to look under Matutinum.

    Last year I decided to leave the popular, composite Tenebrae format and attempt the traditional format. So we presented Maundy Thursday, First Nocturn, with a choral Christus factus est before the last candle is extinguished and the Strepitus. It was well received.

    I think I will have to edit the Commentaries. The audience for Tenebrae is still not quite ready for "thee" and "thou". Neither are the lectors.
    Thanks again and have a blessed Holy Week!
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