Over the past months, as this dreadful pandemic has arisen and spread, I have been gathering together suitable prayers and devotions to pray, begging God to avert this terrible scourge, the chosen instrument of his justice appointed on account of our sins, that his wrath may be assuaged and all mankind be delivered from this new plague. For while on the natural level the outbreak of a novel coronavirus is but an example of a common natural process, and the means of social isolation needed to slow the spread of infectious diseases have been known for centuries, yet with the eyes of faith we know that all occurs at the direction of divine providence, and we also know that God from all eternity has determined to grant some favours in response to prayer - may the amelioration and swift end of this pestilence be one of them!

A. I attach copies of the music for the following:

1. The Antiphon Parce, Domine, together with a selection of verses from Lenten hymns (borrowed from the Parish Book of Chant, spread over two pages), plus an extra verse for use in place of v. 4, which is only suitable during Lent;
2. The Responsory Media vita;
3. The Responsory Recordare, Domine, testamenti tui;
4. The famous Marian anthem Stella cæli for use in time of plague;
5. The Antiphon O beate Sebastiane - I could not find the music for this online, so I made a contrafactum chant setting based on O beate Dionysi, which looks likely to be the text on which the later antiphon to St Sebastian was based.

B. Here are four English hymns suited to these grim days - others far abler than I will suggest appropriate tunes:

James Montgomery (1771-1854), “[Two] Hymns to be sung on the Day of Humiliation, Wednesday, August 22nd, 1832” [as observed in Sheffield, England, to pray for the cessation of a cholera outbreak]:

Hymn 1. (C.M.) [I omit the original first verse]
1. Let priests and people, high and low,
Rich, poor, and great, and small,
Invoke, in fellowship of woe,
The Maker of them all.
2. For God hath summoned from his place
Death in a direr form,
To waken, warn, and scourge our race,
Than earthquake, fire, or storm.
3. Let churches weep within their pale,
And families apart;
Let each in secrecy bewail
The plague of his own heart.
4. So, while the land bemoans its sin,
The pestilence may cease,
And mercy, tempering wrath, bring in
God’s saving health and peace.

Hymn 2. (L.M.)
1. It is the Lord!—Behold his hand
Outstretched with an afflictive rod;
And hark! a voice goes through the land,
“Be still, and know that I am God.”
2. Shall we, like guilty Adam, hide
In darkest shades our darker fears?
For who his coming may abide,
Or who shall stand when he appears?
3. No,—let us throng around his seat;
No,—let us meet him face to face;
Prostrate our spirits at his feet,
Confess our sins, and sue for grace.
4. Who knows but God will hear our cries,
Turn swift destruction from our path,
Restrain his judgments, or chastise
In tender mercy, not in wrath?
5. He will, he will, for Jesus pleads;
Let heaven and earth his love record;
For us, for us he intercedes,
Our help is nigh:—it is the Lord.

Isaac Watts (1674-1748), from the first part of Psalm 91 (Psalm 90 in the Vulgate), subtitled “Safety in public diseases and dangers” in his The Psalms of David (1719), stanzas 6, 5, 7, 9 and 10 [the reordering gives a better sense]:

Hymn. (L.M.)
1. If vapours with malignant breath
Rise thick, and scatter midnight death,
Israel is safe; the poisoned air
Grows pure, if Israel’s God be there.
2. If burning beams of noon conspire
To dart a pestilential fire,
God is their life; his wings are spread
To shield them with a healthful shade.
3. What though a thousand at thy side,
At thy right hand ten thousand died,
Thy God his chosen people saves
Amongst the dead, amidst the graves.
4. But if the fire, or plague, or sword,
Receive commission from the Lord
To strike his saints among the rest,
Their very pains and deaths are blest.
5. The sword, the pestilence or fire,
Shall but fulfil their best desire;
From sins and sorrows set them free,
And bring thy children, Lord, to thee.

William Bullock (1798-1874), Hymns Ancient and Modern:

Hymn. (C.M.)
1. In grief and fear to thee, O Lord,
We now for succour fly;
Thine awful judgements are abroad,
O shield us lest we die.
2. The fell disease on every side
Walks forth with tainted breath;
And pestilence, with rapid stride,
Bestrews the land with death.
3. O look with pity on the scene
Of sadness and of dread;
And let thine Angel stand between
The living and the dead.
4. With contrite hearts to thee, our King,
We turn who oft have stray’d;
Accept the sacrifice we bring,
And let the plague be stay’d. Amen.