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Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Booklet • “Blessing Epiphany Water” (18 Pages)

Jeff Ostrowski · January 4, 2022

ATHER FORTESCUE says there are three “cardinal feasts” of the liturgical year: viz. EPIPHANY, EASTER, and PENTECOST. On the eve of the Epiphany—in other words, on 5 January (tomorrow night)—there is a special blessing of water: Benedictio Aquae in Vigilia Epiphaniae Domini. Below is the booklet we use at Saint Vitus Parish, which is run by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. I’m sharing this rough draft of a booklet we use, in case anyone else needs to sing this ceremony; it contains the Gregorian chant scores reqired. I’m not saying it’s the greatest booklet in the world, but here it is:

*  PDF Download • BLESSING EPIPHANY WATER (18 pages)
—Blessing of the Waters on the Eve of the Epiphany; Gregorian Chant.

I scanned a few pages from the Rituale Romanum so you can see where Benedictio Aquae in Vigilia Epiphaniae Domini comes from. I wrote out the Tonus Solemnis (“Solemn Tone”) for the TE DEUM with a literal English translation by Rt. Rev. Msgr. Charles E. Spence. (The 1961 Graduale Romanum provides a total of three tones.) If you just want the TE DEUM for your congregation to sing at the end of the ceremony, print those 4 pages double-sided.

Speaking of EPIPHANIA DOMINI, Ms. Eleanor Parker has posted an English “Book of Hours” (circa 1350AD) with exquisite illustrations depicting the entire narrative of the Magi and King Herod, in a series of pictures running across the bottom:

We begin with one king:

…plus two kings:

…equals three kings:

The Magi encounter the shepherds, who point the way to Bethlehem:

When we turn the page, they are arriving at Herod’s castle:

They tell Herod the purpose of their quest:

Troubled by what the Magi have told him, Herod sends letters gathering the “chief priests and scribes of the people”:

And they point out to him the prophecies which tell that Christ is to be born in Bethlehem:

Meanwhile, the Magi find the child and present their gifts, but are quickly warned by an angel—while sleeping still wearing their crowns!—to flee:

“They departed into their own country by another way,” and that’s the last we see of them. But Joseph is also warned by an angel:

…and takes his family to Egypt:

Learning that the Magi set sail from Tarsus, Herod orders the ships there to be burnt:

Having failed in his pursuit, he sends out his knights to kill children under two years old:

Katérva matrum pérsonat
conlísa deflens pígnora,
quorum tyránnus mília
Christo sacrávit víctimam.

And we see the massacre of the children, their mothers struggling against the soldiers:

This story is told on the very first pages of the Brébeuf hymnal—in Latin with a literal English translation—by the ABECEDARIUS, which is a very important Alphabetical Hymn by Caelius Sedulius, a Christian Poet who lived in the 5th century.

* Consists of previously-released material.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Blessing Epiphany Water, Vigilia Epiphaniae Domini Last Updated: January 6, 2023

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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 Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

    Vespers Booklet (4th Sunday of Lent)
    The organ accompaniment booklet (24 pages) which I created for the 4th Sunday of Lent (“Lætare Sunday”) may now be downloaded, for those who desire such a thing.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Vespers Booklet, 3rd Sunday of Lent
    The organ accompaniment I created for the 3rd Sunday of Lent (“Extraordinary Form”) may now be downloaded, if anyone is interested in this.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Weeping For Joy! (We Hope!)
    Listening to this Easter Alleluia—an SATB arrangement I made twenty years ago based on the work of Monsignor Jules Van Nuffel—one of our readers left this comment: “I get tears in my eyes each time I sing to this hymn.” I hope this person is weeping for joy!
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

A hymn verse need not be a complete sentence, but it must have completed sense as a recognisable part of the complete sentence, and at each major pause there would be at least a “sense-pause.” Saint Ambrose and the early writers and centonists always kept to this rule. This indicates one of the differences between a poem and a hymn, and by this standard most of the modern hymns and the revisions of old hymns in the Breviary stand condemned.

— Fr. Joseph Connelly

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