Sunday, August 21, 2022

Honor the Lord from Thy Substance

Honor the Lord from thy substance, and from the first of all thy fruits, and thy barns shall be filled with abundance, and thy presses shall run over with wine. (Proverbs 3, 910; the Post-Communion of the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost.)

Hónora Dóminum de tua substantia, et de primitiis frugum tuárum: et implebuntur hórrea tua saturitáte, et vino torcularia redundábunt.

“Following the letter, the humble man does this, for he willingly gives to the poor, and this is what it means to honor the Lord, because He commanded that we should give to the poor; but also, it means to attribute to God all the goods you have, which is proper to the humble. This post-Communion is fittingly sung in this season, when the barns are full of the fruits (i.e. the wheat harvest), and the cellars of wine, by means of which the Lord is devoutly honored (i.e., in the celebration of the Mass.)” - William Durandus in the Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, 6.125.3, explaining both the material and spiritual sense in which these words from the book of Proverbs are sung as a post-Communion.

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