DOREMUS IN AETERNUM is a traditional prayer that’s been popular for hundreds of years. The Catholic Church assigned it to be sung at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament for a long time. There are many different melodies in many different modes. Here’s an organ accompaniment for the most common melody [source], along with an audio recording. I’ve also provided a video recording which is best viewed full screen
Because this prayer has been so favored by the Church, I was surprised to read comments made by John Ainslie on 13 September 2013:
However traditional ‘Adoremus in aeternum’ is — I see that Allegri wrote a setting of it — the words are not good theology. We will not be adoring the Blessed Sacrament for all eternity, nor should we wish to. [source]
A priest of the Archdiocese of Cardiff responded:
I won’t need to adore the Blessed Sacrament when I get to heaven, but I am looking forward to enjoying Jesus face-to-face for the rest of eternity. There is a continuity between the one I now adore in the form of the Eucharistic Presence and the one I will adore face-to-face, so think I can say to him while he is the Blessed Sacrament that I will love him for ever. If a fiancé said “I will love my girlfriend for ever”, who would dare to say to him: “You are wrong, because you will no longer love your girlfriend when she becomes your wife”!
I would be interested to hear what readers have to say.
SPEAKING OF JOHN AINSLIE, in the years following the Second Vatican Council, he created a book with the following title:
The Simple Gradual for Sundays and Holy Days Revised Edition (Full Music Edition for Cantor, Choir and Organist)
I don’t own this book (but I would like to). It appears to be an English version of the Graduale Simplex. A reader saw our posts about the Simplex, and sent me some samples of Ainslie’s book:
* * Sample Page of John Ainslie’s Simple Gradual (ENGLISH)
If anyone is willing to email me more samples, please do. Ainslie’s work appears to have been based on the 1969 ICEL translation of the Graduale Simplex (as was By Flowing Waters by Paul Ford). I believe John Ainslie was also responsible for creating the British Processional (Antiphonal). We’ve been talking a lot about Propers, the Graduale Simplex, Bugnini, and we’ll continue to do so, because there’s a lot to take in. Gary Penkala seems to have been ahead of the game on this, as you can see by his article, “What have we done?”
Here are three (3) interesting recordings of the Graduale Simplex: 01 • 02 • 03
