Benedícite, gentes, Dóminum, Deum nostrum, et obaudíte vocem laudis ejus: qui posuit ánimam meam ad vitam, et non dedit commovéri pedes meos: benedictus Dóminus, qui non amóvit deprecatiónem meam et misericordiam suam a me, allelúja. (The Offertory of the Fifth Sunday after Easter.)
Bless the Lord our God, ye nations: and harken to the voice of His praise, Who hath set my soul to live, and not given my feet to be moved: Blessed be the Lord, who hath not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me, allelúja.A polyphonic setting by Palestrina.
From the Breviarium in Psalmos, a commentary on the Psalms traditionally attributed to either St Jerome or St Augustine, which was highly influential on the creators of the Roman chant repertoire.
“Bless the Lord our God, ye nations, and make heard the voice of his praise.” The Apostles preach these things, so that the nations may bless God Himself... and obey Him into whom they have been reborn through baptism.
“Who hath set my soul to live”, lest everlasting death consume it. Death has killed death, that is, Christ has killed our death. “And not given my feet to be moved”, but hath established me in the preaching which I have brought unto the gentiles.
“Blessed be the Lord, who hath not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me.” Being full of mercy, he hath not turned away my prayer from himself, because what I was asking was just, for his holy ears are always open to the prayers of the just. But let us humbly beseech the Lord, that He may open His ears to our prayers, and having granted forgiveness of sins, deliver us from our present troubles, and having made us a pure offering unto Himself, our vices being slain, join us to the multitudes of the Saints. Amen.
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| The Blessing Christ, ca. 1498, by the Spanish painter Fernando Gallego (1440 ca. - 1507). Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons. |
