Rain that transforms hearts
The fourth Sunday of Advent is known to be "Rorate Sunday." It owes this name to the introit: Rorate caeli desuper et nubes pluant justum aperiatur terra et germinet Salvatorem Stillate, heavens, from above, and the clouds make it rain justum, open the tera and germinate the Savior (Is 45:8). This song, however, is not exclusive to this...
That spiritual jubilation that sustains the path
The night prayer of the third Sunday of Advent sees a new invitatory. The song that had awakened the clerics in the middle of the night on previous Sundays had been, Regem venturum Dominum venite adoremus Come, let us adore the King Lord who is about to come This is a song with a very practical value: "et dicit...
People of Zion: the time of singing has returned!
The Roman liturgy knows the stationes: of stops, moments of prayer that saw-and still see-the pope and the faithful go to a significant basilica: the stationary church, often the memory and place of custody of the relics of a martyr. Lenten ones are famous, but they are not the only ones, and Advent, like any pilgrimage, has the...
Advent: a springtime of renewal
Nota etiam quod avicule in vere cantare incipiunt et Ecclesia cantum suum in Adventu inchoat, scilicet Antiphonarium et Graduale. (Praepositinus Cremonensis) Pay attention also to how the birds in spring begin to sing and, similarly, the Church begins its own singing in Advent, that is, with the Antiphonarium and Gradual. The seasons of the liturgy, in the...
The mnemonic-didactic antiphons of the Tonarium of St. Martial of Limoges (10th-11th cent.).
The theology of the eight Gregorian modes in the mnemonic-didactic antiphons of the Tonarium of St. Martial of Limoges. May 28, 2022, Rome. (Tonarium Sancti Martialis Lemovicensis. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 1121, ff. 201v-205v, https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8432272p/f413.image ). What is the modality of Gregorian Chant? It is certainly a complex question, and probably a lecture or a moment would not be enough...