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Views from the Choir Loft

“Jesu Nostra Redemptio” • Ancient Hymn for the Ascension translated into English!

Jeff Ostrowski · May 21, 2020

NE MAJOR FLAW in too many Catholic hymnals has to do with editors who delete verses. They do it constantly—as if it’s a type of compulsion. 1 Verse expunction has a deleterious effect on the poetry and causes great inconvenience to choirmasters. We need all those verses! For example, we need them to fill up the time when the congregation is receiving Holy Communion. In 2018, the Saint Jean de Brébeuf Hymnal did something wonderful by restoring all the missing verses to the Roman Catholic treasury of hymns.

Many people believe the Antiphonale contains hymns, whereas the Graduale does not. They are wrong; the Graduale does contain hymns. An example would be “Jesu Nostra Redemptio” (the title was changed by Pope Urban VIII to “Salutis Humanæ Sator” in 1631AD). You can see that this hymn is also found in the 1908 Graduale. Page 256 of the Brébeuf Hymnal provides a marvelous English translation, courtesy of an FSSP priest who assisted with the project. The second verse will give you a taste of this hymn’s power and beauty:

What mercy conquered thee,
so as to bear our misdeeds,
suffering a cruel death,
so as to lift us from death?

The Brébeuf hymnal has many versions of this ancient hymn for the Ascension—and here’s one:

Rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #260.

The same melody is used in another place, at a higher key:


Which key do you like better? Higher or lower?

Every Mass Commemorates the Ascension

Immediately after the Consecration, the priest says:

Wherefore, O Lord, we, Thy servants, as also Thy holy people, calling to mind the blessed passion of the same Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, His resurrection from the grave, and His glorious ascension into heaven, offer up to Thy most excellent majesty of Thine own gifts bestowed upon us…etc.

Father Leslie Audoen Rumble (d. 1975) helps us understand the Ascension better in his famous “Radio Replies,” Question #1007:

1007. Christ ascended to heaven beyond the clouds. To the moon? Or did He continue beyond the sun and the stars? Or is heaven everywhere?

The ascension of Christ until a cloud received Him out of the sight of the Apostles was a phenomenon sufficiently clear to impress upon them some higher state of being. As a matter of fact He ascended only relatively to those who were watching Him. Our notions of ascent and descent are regulated by direction from the center of the earth. To the man on the opposite side of the earth the direction taken by Christ would be in the direction of descent. However, relatively to those watching Him, Christ ascended, and after a few moments they found themselves looking at a cloud. How far did Christ go? He merely allowed His supernatural qualities to assert themselves, and His body took upon itself a nature independent of all earthly conditions and limitations. He simply passed into another state of being, even as the thoughts incorporated in these words on paper are passing into another state of being within your mind as you read. And His new state at once renders useless all calculations based upon visible qualities as we know them. You might just as well try to measure abstract beauty with a wooden ruler. Christ’s glorified body is not subject to conditions of which we have experience.

One last time, here’s what the priest says at every Mass:

 


NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   Even the good Catholic hymn editors mutilated and decimated hymns in a most inexplicable way. If you look through the Mediator Dei Hymnal (1955), you will see that J. Vincent Higginson (a.k.a. “Cyr de Brant”) deleted 70% of the verses for almost every hymn in his book. Achille P. Bragers had a very good reputation, and his harmonizations for certain hymns (such as “Holy God We Praise Thy Name”) are quite clever. Yet, look how Bragers eliminated most of the verses from “Jesu Nostra Redemptio” in English and Latin! That example comes from “The Monastery Hymnal,” published by Achille P. Bragers with a 1954 IMPRIMATUR by Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

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Filed Under: Articles, Featured Tagged With: Jean de Brebeuf Hymnal, Jesu Nostra Redemptio, Leslie Rumble Radio Replies Last Updated: May 13, 2021

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About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Michigan. —(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Bugnini’s Statement (6 November 1966)
    With each passing day, more is revealed about how the enemies of the liturgy accomplished their goals. For instance, Hannibal Bugnini deeply resented the way Vatican II said Gregorian Chant “must be given first place in liturgical services.” On 6 November 1966, his cadre wrote a letter attempting to justify the elimination of Gregorian Chant with this brazen statement: “What really gives a Mass its tone is not so much the songs as it is the prayers and readings.” Bugnini’s cadre then attacked the very heart of Gregorian Chant (viz. the Proprium Missae), bemoaning how the Proprium Missae “is completely new each Sunday and feast day.” There is much more to be said about this topic. Stay tuned.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Luis Martínez Must Go!
    Sevilla Cathedral (entry dated 13 December 1564): The chapter orders Luis Martínez, a cathedral chaplain, to stay away from the choirbook-stand when the rest of the singers gather around it to sing polyphony—the reason being that “he throws the others out of tune.” [Excerpt from “The Life of Father Francisco Guerrero.”]
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Urgent! • We Desperately Need Funds!
    A few days ago, the president of Corpus Christi Watershed posted this urgent appeal for funds. Please help us make sure we’re never forced to place our content behind a paywall. We feel it’s crucial that 100% of our content remains free to everyone. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity, entirely dependent upon the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment and no major donors. We run no advertisements and have no savings. We beg you to consider donating $4.00 per month. Thank you!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

Soloists are dangerous in any church choir! Their voices frequently do not blend with those of the other singers to form a rich, integrated tone.

— Roger Wagner

Recent Posts

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