Hello, everybody. I'm not a newcomer though I registered only yesterday, but one question made me finally register. I'm going to prepare the music for the Religious Profession at our abbey but since I don't have the actual Graduale Romanum, I don't know exactly which Propers we should sing. That's why I'd like to ask some person who has the recent edition of GR to write the incipits of the Propers for such a mass (I mean the mass for the Perpetual Profession). Then I hope to find the pieces in my old edition of Graduale. Please write every option because there could be some innovation with no equivalent in older books. Thank you in advance for any help! br. Gregory OCist.
Here are all the options (caution: there are a lot of options!) for "In die consecrationis virginum et in professione religiosorum":
Introit: Dum sanctificatus fuero in vobis Expecta Dominum, viriliter age Lætetur cor quærentium Dominum Tibi dixit cor meum
Tempore paschali: Exaudi, Domini… tibi dixit cor Venite, benedicti Patris mei
Gradual: Beata gens Ecce quam bonum et quam iucundum Lætatus sum Unam petii a Domino Venite, filii, audite me
Alleluia: Domine, dilexi decorum domus tuæ Ego vos elegi de mundo Lætatus sum Lauda, anima mea, Dominum O quam bonus et suavis est Paratum cor meum Quinque prudentes virgines Venite ad me, omnes
Tract: Qui confidunt in Domino Sicut servus desiderat
Offertory: Confitebor tibi, Domine Domine Deus, in simplicitate cordis mei Expectans, expectavi Dominum Meditabor in mandatis tuis Sicut in holocausto arietum
Tempore paschali: Deus, Deus meus, ad te de luce vigilo Lauda, anima mea, Dominum
Communion: Amen dico vobis quod vos Beati mundo corde (cum ps. 33) Ego vos elegi de mundo Memento verbi tui servo tuo Notas mihi fecisti vias vitæ Optimam partem elegit Qui mihi ministrat, me sequatur Qui vult venire post me Quicumque fecerit voluntatem Quinque predentes virgines Unam petii a Domino
Tempore paschali: Ego sum vitis vera Populus acquisitionis Si consurrexistis cum Christo
And, to be complete, those from the Graduale Simplex, "In professione religiosa":
IN Oculi mei PR Quemadmodum desiderat AL Beati immaculati OF Qui te expectant CO Adiuva me CO Quærite primum (extra tempus quadragesimæ)
To me there is nothing more moving than the surrender to God at a monk’s vow-taking, symbolized by the monk’s singing three times on ascending pitches : Suscipe me, Domine, secundum eloquium tuum et vivam. Et non confundas me ab expectatione mea (“Uphold me, Lord, according to your word and I shall live; let not my hope be put to shame”), repeated each time by the monks.
What does the drama of the Suscipe mean? In pagan Latin, the paterfamilias, the head of the household, was the one before whose feet the newborn child of the household, freeborn or slave, was placed. If the head decided to be the susceptor by picking up the child to hand it to its mother, then the child could be nursed and brought up. If he chose not to lift up the child, the child was left to die.
Christians who spoke Latin immediately gave to the Abba of Jesus and our Abba the title of Susceptor. By singing the Suscipe, the monk, who had just signed his life away, is begging his heavenly Father to pick him up, to sustain him, to confirm the incredible act of hope that religious profession is.
In many monasteries, the offertory chant is from Daniel 3:40: Sicut in holocausto arietum, et taurorum, et sicut in millibus agnorum pinguium, sic fiat sacrificium nostrum in conspectu tuo hodie, ut placeat tibi, quoniam non est confusio confidentibus in te (“As though it were holocausts of rams and bullocks, or thousands of fat lambs, so let our sacrifice be in your presence today as we follow you unreservedly; for those who trust in you cannot be put to shame”)—a wonderful response to the self-offering just made!
Smvanroode, thank you for helping me so quickly! That's exactly what I needed! Paul F. Ford, thank you too. The mass text you uploaded won't be useful for me because the mass will be in Polish, however the liturgical commentary seems to be very interesting, I'll try to translate it in Polish. Concerning the Litany, we have not only our proper Cistercian text but also a particular melody, somewhat simpler than the Roman one.
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