Wednesday, August 07, 2013

On the Feast of the Most Sweet Name of Jesus (Aug 7)

Still filling in my Sarum Office hymn listings!  So here are the hymns for this feast day, from Hymn Melodies for the Whole Year from the Sarum service-books:
On the Feast of the most sweet Name of Jesus ( Aug 7) & during the Octave (when the Service is of the Feast ):
EvensongExultet cor precordiis ... ... ... 25 or 41
Mattins: Jesu, dulcis memoria ... ... ... 26
Lauds: Jesu, Auctor clemencie ... ... ... 27 or 39

This feast day, needless to say, isn't on the Calendar anymore.   According to New Advent, it's the same Feast that's now celebrated in most traditions on January 1 - the Feast of the Holy Name - but as you can see (in the citation below) it has been observed at other times in various traditions.

You can get the full office for this day - Psalms, collect, Chapter, antiphons, etc., although no music is provided - at Breviary Offices, from Lauds to Compline Inclusive (Society of St. Margaret, Boston).    (See also the iFrame peek-in at the bottom of this page.Clearly, as late as 1885 - the publish date of that book - at least some Anglican religious orders were still celebrating this August feast.  Here's a link to the SSM website

Here are all five chant scores listed; interestingly, #s 25, 26, and 27 are the same melodies used for the Christmas Office (although some are used at other times as well); melody #41 is used twice at Transfiguration and twice on Ascension Day, as well as for Common of Saints days; and #39 is used during Paschaltide in a variety of ways. 








Sing Exultet cor precordiis to melody #25 or #41.    Here's LLPB's recording of melody #25, as used for the familiar Christmas First Vespers hymn Veni, Redemptor Gentium.   On this feast day, you can sing Exultet cor precordiis to this tune, using the following set of English words for this hymn; they come from Breviary Offices, from Lauds to Compline Inclusive (Society of St. Margaret, Boston)
Exultet cor precordiis

O LET the heart exulting beat,
"When Jesus' holy Name resounds;
Above all other it is sweet,
And in all gladness it abounds.

Jesus, Who comforteth in woe,
Jesus, Who heals the wounds of sin,
Jesus, Who curbs the fiends below,
Jesus, Who routs Death's arms within.

Jesus! it soundeth sweetest, best,
In every measure, hymn, and song;
And with its comfort soothes the breast,
And lifts us up, and makes us strong.

Let that great Name of Him the Lord,
Jesus, from tongues of all men peal;
And let the voice and heart accord,
That every ill its sound may heal.

Jesus, Who savest sinners lost,
Be present as we kneel in prayer;
Guide Thou the erring, tempest-tost,
And us, Thy guilty servants, spare.

O let Thy Name be our defence,
In every peril guard and stay,
And purging us from sin's offence.
Perfect us in the better way.

O Christ, all glory be to Thee,
Who shinest with this Name above,
Honour, and worship, majesty,
Be Thine, O Jesu, Lord of love.

O Jesu, from the "Virgin sprung,
All glory be ascribed to Thee,
Like praise be to the Father sung,
And Holy Ghost eternally. Amen. 

Or, use hymn tune #41 as an alternative; here's an an mp3 of that tune from LLPB (with the words for "a Hymn for Morning Prayer of the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord")

LLPB also provides a recording of Hymn tune #26;  the cantor is singing the Christmas Evensong hymn "Jesus, the Father's Only Son."    Here are the Latin words - along with Edward Caswall's 19th Century English translation - for Jesu, dulcis memoria, the Matins hymn for the Feast of the Most Sweet Name of Jesus:
Jesu, dulcis memoria

Jesu, dulcis memoria,
dans vera cordis gaudia:
sed super mel et omnia
ejus dulcis praesentia.

Nil canitur suavius,
nil auditur jucundius,
nil cogitatur dulcius,
quam Jesus Dei Filius.

Jesu, spes paenitentibus,
quam pius es petentibus!
quam bonus te quaerentibus!
sed quid invenientibus?

Nec lingua valet dicere,
nec littera exprimere:
expertus potest credere,
quid sit Jesum diligere.

Sis, Jesu, nostrum gaudium,
qui es futurum praemium:
sit nostra in te gloria,
per cuncta semper saecula.
Amen.



Jesus, the very thought of Thee
With sweetness fills the breast;
But sweeter far Thy face to see,
And in Thy presence rest.

Nor voice can sing, nor heart can frame,
Nor can the memory find
A sweeter sound than Thy blest Name,
O Savior of mankind!

O hope of every contrite heart,
O joy of all the meek,
To those who fall, how kind Thou art!
How good to those who seek!

But what to those who find? Ah, this
Nor tongue nor pen can show;
The love of Jesus, what it is,
None but His loved ones know.

Jesus, our only joy be Thou,
As Thou our prize will be;
Jesus be Thou our glory now,
And through eternity.


(More English verses:

O Jesus, King most wonderful
Thou Conqueror renowned,
Thou sweetness most ineffable
In Whom all joys are found!

When once Thou visitest the heart,
Then truth begins to shine,
Then earthly vanities depart,
Then kindles love divine.

O Jesus, light of all below,
Thou fount of living fire,
Surpassing all the joys we know,
And all we can desire.

Jesus, may all confess Thy Name,
Thy wondrous love adore,
And, seeking Thee, themselves inflame
To seek Thee more and more.

Thee, Jesus, may our voices bless,
Thee may we love alone,
And ever in our lives express
The image of Thine own.

O Jesus, Thou the beauty art
Of angel worlds above;
Thy Name is music to the heart,
Inflaming it with love.

Celestial Sweetness unalloyed,
Who eat Thee hunger still;
Who drink of Thee still feel a void
Which only Thou canst fill.

O most sweet Jesus, hear the sighs
Which unto Thee we send;
To Thee our inmost spirit cries;
To Thee our prayers ascend.

Abide with us, and let Thy light
Shine, Lord, on every heart;
Dispel the darkness of our night;
And joy to all impart.

Jesus, our love and joy to Thee,
The virgin’s holy Son,
All might and praise and glory be,
While endless ages run.)


Here's TPL on the famous Jesu, dulcis memoria:
Iesu, Dulcis Memoria is a celebrated 12th century hymn attributed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), Doctor Mellifluus. The entire hymn has some 42 to 53 stanzas depending upon the manuscript. Parts of this hymn were used for the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, which was formerly celebrated on the Sunday between the Circumcision and Epiphany, or failing such a Sunday, on January 2. The part below was used at Vespers. In the liturgical revisions of Vatican II, the feast was deleted, though a votive Mass to the Holy Name of Jesus had been retained for devotional use. With the release of the revised Roman Missal in March 2002, the feast was restored as an optional memorial on January 3. Similarly the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary was restored as an optional memorial on September 12 in the revised Missal.


The hymn is more often sung to this better-known (and very beautiful) tune:





LLPB has a recording of melody #27here's a recording of it sung as "From East to West, from shore to shore" (A solis ortus cardine), the Lauds and 2nd Vespers hymn for Christmas Day.   You can sing Jesu, Auctor clemencie to this tune today; here's a translation, again from the SSM Breviary:
Jesu, auctor clemencie

Jesu, the Beauty Angels see,
The ears' ecstatic minstrelsy.
The nectar of the Heavenly Home,
The lips' delicious honey comb.

Flower of Virgin Mother blest,
Jesu, true sweetness, purest, best,
Of man the honour and the head.
Thy light of lights upon us shed.

More glorious than the sun to see,
More fragrant than the balsam-tree,
My heart's desire, and boast, and mirth.
Jesu, Salvation of the earth.

Jesu, Who highest bounty art,
And wondrous joyaunce of the heart,
Of goodness the infinity,
Constrain us with Thy charity.

0 King of Virtues. King renowned,
With glory and with victory crowned,
Jesu, by Whom all grace Is given,
Thou honour of the courts of heaven t

Let choirs of Angels singThy Name,
And echo all Thy matchless fame,
Jesus on joyful earth hath smiled,
And us with God hath reconciled.

All honour, laud, and glory be,
0 Jesu, Virgin-born to Thee;
All glory, as is ever meet,
To Father and to Paraclete. Amen. 

Here's an mp3 of an example of alternate melody #39it's the Easter Mattins hymn, Aurora Lucis Rutilat ("The Day Draws on with Golden Light").

It's interesting to me that the Sarum breviary apparently wanted to recall Christmas on this August 7 Feast Day (although it did provide those alternate hymn melodies as well).
Here's the New Advent citation I mentioned above (keep in mind this is from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia):
This feast is celebrated on the second Sunday after Epiphany (double of the second class). It is the central feast of all the mysteries of Christ the Redeemer; it unites all the other feasts of the Lord, as a burning glass focuses the rays of the sun in one point, to show what Jesus is to us, what He has done, is doing, and will do for mankind. It originated towards the end of the fifteenth century, and was instituted by the private authority of some bishops in Germany, Scotland, England, Spain, and Belgium. The Office and the Mass composed by Bernardine dei Busti (d. 1500) were approved by Sixtus IV. The feast was officially granted to the Franciscans 25 February, 1530, and spread over a great part of the Church. The Franciscans, Carmelites, and Augustinians kept it on 14 Jan.; the Dominicans 15 Jan. At Salisbury, York, and Durham in England, and at Aberdeen in Scotland it was celebrated 7 Aug., at Liège, 31 Jan., at Compostela and Cambrai, 8 Jan. (Grotefend, "Zeitrechnung", II, 2. 89). The Carthusians obtained it for the second Sunday after Epiphany about 1643; for that Sunday it was also extended to Spain, and later, 20 Dec., 1721, to the Universal Church. The Office used at present is nearly identical with the Office of Bernardine dei Busti. The hymns "Jesu dulcis memoria", "Jesu Rex admirabilis", "Jesu decus angelicum", usually ascribed to St. Bernard, are fragments of a very extensive "jubilus" or "cursus de aeterna sapientia" of some unknown author in the thirteenth century. For the beautiful sequence "Dulcis Jesus Nazarenus" (Morel, "Hymnen des Mittelalters", 67) of Bernardine dei Busti the Franciscans substituted a prose sequence of modern origin: "Lauda Sion Salvatoris"; they still celebrate the feast on 14 January.

In the current Catholic Breviary, the feast is observed (optionally) on January 3, and the hymns - quite obviously deliberately! - all contain the name "Jesus" in the title. They are, per TPL:
This is another set of feast-day hymns formed from a single longer hymn/poem - the one by Bernard of Clairvaux.  More about those hymns at the links.

Here's that iframe look-in to the SSM's Breviary page for this feast:




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