Is anyone aware of any chant settings for the meal prayers, e.g., "Benedic Domine nos et haec tua dona..."? We're hoping to inject some more chant into our domestic church.
scohop - later tonight, I can scan in a page or two from the 2002 Missale Romanum (or perhaps the Graduale Romanum) that deal with the tones for singing the Collect.
Bénedic, Dómine nos (OR: me) et haec tua dona quae de tua largitáte sumus (OR: sum) súmpturi. Per Christum Dóminum nostrum. Amen.
I think I'd use Simple Tone B: I'd pause after "Domine", with the mediatur (the *) after "dona" (thus "tua" is two descending notes B-A and "dona" is on C again), and no flectitur.
Jeffrey Tucker - By the way, am I using those Latin terms properly? Whitaker's Words tells me "mediatur" means "to be in the middle/to be halved" and "flectitur" means "to bend or curve", so I assume the rubrics simply mean if a prayer has an asterisk or a cross symbol, that is a sign to the priest to know when to inflect his voice.
here's a version with the added rest. Just for you!
Chant & text in Meinrad. Then copied & pasted into a MS Publisher table , in which one can use its handy WordArt tool (not available in Word) for the large initial cap. (Publisher doesn't recognise Meinrad fonts - as far as I can tell - but you can copy and paste from Word, and keep doing that within Publisher.)
I'm not stopping there. I've incorporated, into the pre-meal blessing, the post-blessing (pre-meal) prayer proper to the time of day.
In other words, here's the blessing with a prayer for midday and a prayer for evening added on to the end. Maybe I took some creative liberties here, but I didn't use the same model this time. I will definitely provide an mp3 recording for these two prayers.
About ten years ago, I ordered what should be the standard collection of meal prayers in chant from Solesmes. It is a thin, pocket-sized booklet, with many prayers in Latin, in chant. It is a collection of the chants that are used by the monks at Solesmes at their meals. A quick search on www.solesmes.com did not bring it up- but perhaps it is still there. Very worthwhile, as are the several efforts above!
The booklet of meal prayers from Solesmes is still available: Prières de la table (latin-français). Input Ref. number 3018 into the search form on the section of www.solesmes.com for books.
I see the "Épuisé" next to the booklet on the Solesmes site, and didn't notice that it is currently out of stock. My copy is currently packed away (I'm sure you're thinking, 'why is something like that packed away?', but it is. It will be some days before I will have the time to look it up. However, in brief now, it basically looks like all the other Solesmes editions, 4-line neumatic notation, Latin, and in this case French text as well.
If "epuise" is translated as "worn out," that might mean this publication is out of print or out of stock. I too am interested in obtaining a copy of the meal-prayers said by the monks of Solesmes or Fontgombault for that matter. If someone is aware of an online source please advise.
Cross Ref - I've gotten around the initial cap problem by putting a text box (no line, no fill) at the beginning of the line. That way I can still use Word. But I have a problem with Word adjusting the character spacing - very frustrating after spending all afternoon aligning notes and vowels! Do you have a workaround for that? And which font are you using for the initial character? Very nice!
Thanks for the info, Cross Reference. Not that expensive a font so I think I'll add it to the collection here. I'll just keep cranking away on Word until I get the spacing to settle down.
Is anyone interested in transcribing this longer version into chant, for the benefit of readers? I believe this version of Grace Before/After Meals is what is used in most monasteries and religious orders.
I was thinking it would be good to have in the music book for the Colloquium... if there is already a better version or more appropriate tone, let me know...
Inspired by a mug I recently noticed, here is a 12x18 poster-sized Illustrator PDF file with the prayer before meals set under the feeding of the multitude, suitable for putting on the wall in your parish commons. Most of the online printers (Walmart, Staples, etc) offer 12x18.
“The new publishing house of the Monastère Saint-Bènoit, Éditions Pax inter Spinas, is pleased to announce the publication in August 2019 of its first title, Benedictiones Mensæ, containing the traditional Latin blessings before and after meals with their proper chants according to the Roman and monastic rites, newly typeset and printed in black and red throughout. Designed for easy use, this inexpensive booklet will enable families, communities and other groups and individuals to draw from the rich tradition these blessings contain, including the proper blessings for Christmas, Epiphany, the Sacred Triduum, Easter and Pentecost. The 68 page saddle-stitch stapled booklet (89mm x 123mm) carries the imprimatur of the Bishop of Fréjus-Toulon.”
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