Texts & Translations

Salve Regina

[From Latin:] O holy Queen, Mother of mercy, hail our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us; and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

—Marian Antiphon

Vater Unser

[From German:] Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

—The Lord’s Prayer

The Deer’s Cry

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in me, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me,
Christ with me.

—from the Lorica of St. Patrick (c. 377)

Blessed is the Man

Trio: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. 
Singers: Alleluia. (after each verse)
For the Lord knows the way of the righteous and the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice in him with trembling. 
Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God. 
Salvation is from the Lord and thy blessing is upon thy people. 
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
Now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen. 
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, glory to thee, O God. (Thrice)

—from Psalms 1, 2 & 3, trans. Donald Sheehan
©Copyright 2013 by Carol Xenia Sheehan
Used with permission.

O Gladsome Light

O gladsome Light of the holy glory of the immortal Father, heavenly, holy, blessed, O Jesus Christ: now that we have come to the setting of the sun, and behold the light of evening, we praise God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For meet it is at all times to worship thee with voices of praise, O Son of God and Giver of life; therefore all the world doth glorify thee.

—Vespers Hymn (3rd century)

Timor et tremor

[From Latin:] Fear and trembling came over me, and darkness fell over me: have mercy on me, O Lord, have mercy on me, for my soul trusts in thee. Hear, O God, my prayer, for thou art my refuge and my strong helper. Lord, I have called upon thee, I shall not be confounded.

Vinea mea electa

O vineyard, my chosen one, I planted you: How have you been changed into bitterness, that you would crucify me and set Barabbas free? I build a fence around you and picked the stones from you and built a watchtower.

Tenebrae factae sunt

Darkness covered the earth when the Jews had crucified Jesus, and about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice: “My God, why have you forsaken me?” And with his head inclined, he gave up his spirit. Jesus, crying out again with a loud voice, said: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

Tristis est anima mea

My soul is sorrowful even unto death; stay here and watch with me. Now you shall see the mob that will surround me. You shall take flight, and I shall go to be sacrificed for you. Behold the hour approaches, and the Son of man will be betrayed into the hands of sinners.

In the Beginning

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

—Genesis 1:1-2:7

Complete This Work Which I Began in Hope

[From Russian:] Complete this work
Which I began in hope
And with your name,
So that my singing may become healing,
Curing the wounds of body and soul.
If my humble work is finished
With your holy blessing—
May the divine spirit in it
Join with my meagre inspiration,
Do not extinguish
The revelation you have granted,
Do not abandon my reason,
But, again and again, receive praise
From your servant.

Amen.

—from the 10th century Armenian poems Book of Lamentations