VATICAN - SEASON OF ADVENT (3) - Rorate Caeli Desuper

Saturday, 25 November 2006

Rome (Fides Service) - Rorate Cæli in Gregorian Chant is the Advent hymn par excellence. The refrain is taken from the Book of Isaiah (45,8) : "Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above, like gentle rain let the skies drop it down. Let the earth open and salvation bud forth; let justice also spring up".

Refrain:
Bedew us, heaven, from above;
ye clouds rain down the Just One. (Repeat Refrain)
1. Withhold Thy wrath from us, O Lord,
and remember no more our evil doing.
Lo, the city of the Holy One is made a desert,
Sion a desert is become. Jerusalem waste and desolate:
the house of Thy hallowing presence and of Thy glory,
where of old our fathers sang Thy praises.
(Repeat Refrain)
2. We all have sinned, and are become life unto one unclean.
We have fallen low, as a dying leaf falls earthward;
and our iniquities, as a wind have swept us swiftly far.
Thou has hidden Thy face from us, Thy people;
Thou has broken us by the weight of our own sinning.
(Repeat Refrain)
3. Behold, O Lord, the affliction of Thy people.
Send quickly Him who is to come.
Send forth the Lamb who rules all earthly kingdoms,
from Petra in the desert, to the Mount of the daughter of Sion;
that He may take away the grievous yoke of our subjection.
(Repeat Refrain)
4. Be ye comforted, be ye comforted, O ye My people:
for most speedily comes salvation. Why are ye consumed
with sorrowing, so that your grief has quite transformed you?
I come to save, be no more fearful. For know ye not that I am
your God and Master, Israel's Holy One, your sole Redeemer.
(Repeat Refrain)
(J.M.) (Agence Fides, 25 November 2006)


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