ADAM of ST. VICTOR ~ LITURGICAL SEQUENCES

V. CHRISTMAS
[Latin]

Songs of joy let us be raising
To that Savior now, in praising
Whom with us heaven's choirs delight;
News of peace from heaven is brought us,
Heaven is leagued with earth about us,
And the Church with angels bright.

God the Word, with our flesh blended,
As beforehand was intended,
She, who never knew a man,
Virgin, bears, God's temple hallowed,
Following none, by no one followed,
Ever since the world began.

That a bush with red fire gloweth,
Yet the fire no harm there doeth,
Is a new and wondrous thing:
Heaven drops dew, the clouds rain fountains,
Melt the hills and drip the mountains,
Jesse's root doth upward spring.

From that root a flower upgroweth,
As the prophet plainly showeth
In his prophecy of yore:
David as that root appeareth,
As the rod the maid that beareth,
As its flower the Child she bore.

Guilty man to raise to heaven,
Condescends the God-man even
To our nature's misery.
Who would not with joy be praising,
Songs of wondering gladness raising,
Grace-work of such novelty?

What is more full of bliss,
What is more fathomless,
Than such a mystery?
How worthy all our praise,
How unlike human ways,
Our God's Humility!

Wondrous beauty hath the flower,
That rich grace's sevenfold dower
Hath commended to our care.
Let us in this flower delight us,
Which doth both by taste invite us,
And by scent and semblance rare.

Jesu, infant death-defying!
May Thy birthday be supplying
Peace to us and Joys divine:
Flower and fruit of spotless maiden,
With immortal fragrance laden!
Glory and great praise be Thine!
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VI. NATIVITAS DOMINI
[English]

Nato nobis Salvatore
Celebremus cum honore
Diem natalitium,
Nobis datus, nobis natus,
Et nobiscum conversatus
Lux et salus gentium.

Eva prius interemit,
Sed Salvator nos redemit
Carnis suae merito.
Prima parens nobis luctum,
Sed Maria vitae fructum
Protulit cum gaudio.

Negligentes non neglexit,
Sed ex alto nos prospexit
Pater mittens Filium;
Praesens mundo, sed abscondus,
De secreto tanquam sponsus
Prodiit in publicum.

Gigas velox, gigas fortis,
Gigas nostrae victor mortis,
Accinctus potentia,
Ad currendam venit viam,
Complens in se prophetiam
Et legis mysteria.

Jesu, nostra salutaris
Medicina, singularis
Nostra pax et gloria,
Quia servis redimendis
Tam decenter condescendis,
Te collaudant omnia!
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VI. CHRISTMAS
[Latin]

Since a Saviour is born for us,
Let us, honouring Him, in chorus
Celebrate His natal day,
To us given, for us even
Born, a man 'mongst men, from heaven,
As all nations' light and stay.

Death we first from Eve inherit,
But redemption through the merit
Of the Saviour's fleshly birth.
Sorrow our first parent bore us,
But the fruit, which shall restore us,
Mary with great joy brought forth.

Caring for the careless even,
God the Father looked from heaven,
Sending down His Son on earth:
In the world, yet from it hidden,
As a bridegroom, when thus bidden,
From His chamber Christ came forth.

Giant swift and giant glorious,
Giant o'er our death victorious,
Girt with power and majesty,
Came to run His course, fulfilling
All that seers had been foretelling,
And the Law's whole mystery.

Jesu, our salvation-giving
Balm, Who only on all living
Peace and glory canst bestow!
Since, Thy servants to deliver,
Thou dost stoop in love, for ever
All things join Thy praise to show!
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VII. NATIVITAS DOMINI
[English]

Splendor Patris et figura
Se conformans homini.
Potestate, non natura,
Partum dedit Virgini.

Adam vetus,
Tandem laetus,
Novum promat canticum;
Fugitivus
Et captivus
Prodeat in publicum!

Eva luctum,
Vitae fructum
Virgo gaudens edidit;
Nec sigillum
Propter illum
Castitatis perdidit.

Si crystallus sit humecta
Atque soli sit objecta,
Scintillat igniculum:
Nec crystallus rumpitur,
Nec in partu solvitur
Pudoris signaculum.

Super tali genitura
Stupet usus et natura,
Deficitque ratio;
Res est ineffabilis
Tam pia, tam humilis
Christi generatio.

Frondem, florem, nucem sicca
Virga profert, et pudica
Virgo Dei Filium.
Fert coelestem vellus rorem
Creatura Creatorem,
Creaturae pretium.

Frondis, floris, nucis, roris
Pietati Salvatoris
Congruunt mysteria.
Frons est Christus protegendo,
Flos dulcore, nux pascendo,
Ros coelesti gratia.

Cur, quod virgo peperit,
Est Judaeis scandalum,
Cum virga produxerit
Sicca sic amygdalum?

Contemplemur adhuc nucem;
Nam prolata nux in lucem
Lucis est mysterium.
Trinam gerens unionem,
Tria confert: unctionem,
Lumen et edulium.

Nux est Christus, cortex nucis
Circa carnem poena crucis,
Testa corpus osseum.
Carne tecta Deitas
Et Christi suavitas
Signatur per nucleum.

Lux est caecis, et unguentum
Christus aegris, et fomentum
Piis animalibus.
O quam dulce sacramentum!
Foenum carnis in frumentum
Convertit fidelibus.

Quos sub umbra sacramenti,
Jesu, pascis in praesenti,
Tuo vultu satia.
Splendor Patri coaeterne,
Nos hinc transfer ad paternae
Claritatis gaudia. Amen.
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VII. CHRISTMAS
[Latin]

Fashioned as a human creature,
Christ, His Father's image clear,
By His power, and not by nature,
Caused a Virgin's womb to bear.

No more grieving,
New songs weaving,
Let old Adam sing for mirth!
Exiles flying!
Captives lying
Prison-bound! come boldly forth!

Eve bore sadness
But with gladness
Fruit of life a Virgin bears;
While unbroken
Still the token
Of her chastity appears.

If a crystal that is wetted
To the sun's rays be submitted,
It emits a little spark;
Neither doth the crystal break,
Neither doth this child-birth take
From the maid her maiden-mark.

Such begetting of a creature
Strikes experience dumb, and nature;
Reason too fails utterly;
Words could ne'er be found to show
Birth so loving, birth so low,
As at Christ's nativity.

Leaf, flower, nut, a dry rod beareth,
And a maiden pure prepareth
To produce God's Son Most High.
From a fleece heaven's dew-shower springeth;
She, He made, her Maker bringeth
Forth, what He had made to buy.

In the flower, leaf, nut, and shower
Mystic emblems of the power
Of the Saviour's love are met.
Leaf Christ is - by shelter spreading;
Flower - by sweetness; nut - by feeding;
Dew - by grace with heaven's dew wet.

Why should it offend the Jews,
That a virgin bore a son,
When a rod could thus produce
Almonds, though a sapless one?

On the nut still let us ponder;
For, if a full light brought under,
'Tis the mystic type of light.
As it three in one appeareth,
So three gifts too it conferreth;
Unction, food, effulgence bright.

Christ the nut, - its hull His passion,
Closing round his human fashion, -
And His bony frame its shell, -
The incarnate Deity
And Christ's tender sympathy
In the kernel mark ye well.

Christ is light to those not seeing,
Balm, the sick from sickness freeing,
And His loving creatures' food.
O how sweet a rite! He taketh
Grass - our flesh - and thereof maketh
Grain for those who trust in God.

Those, whose food Thou now providest,
Jesu! as 'neath rites Thou hidest,
With Thy presence satiate!
Thou, the Father's Co-eternal
Brightness! us to joys supernal
In His glory hence translate! Amen.
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VIII. DIES CIRCUMCISIONIS
[English]

Hac die festa concinat multimoda camoena,
Collaudans coeli Dominum cum dulci cantilena.

Per haec enim solempnia sunt cuncta renovata,
Humano quoque generi est venia donata.

Invenit drachma mulier; accenditur lucerna,
In carne dum comparuit mens Deo coaeterna.

Dum cadit secus Jericho vir Hierosolomita,
Samaritanus affuit quo lapso datur vita.

Perduxit hunc in stabulum clementia divina,
Vinum permiscens oleo suavi medicina.

Curantis aegri vulnera sunt dulcia fomenta,
Dum cunctis poenitentia fuit reis inventa.

Bini dati denarii sunt duo Testamenta
Dum Christus, finis utriusque, complet sacramenta.

En tellus rore germinat nec patet madefacta,
Dum virgo Deum partuit, et mater est intacta.

In tenebris exortus est Puer, lux sempiterna:
Octava circumcisus est hac die hodierna.

Haec ab antiquis patribus dies fuit praevisa
Dum se prolemque Domino dant carne circumcisa.

Hac die circumcisio fiebat sub figura
Octavo, qua salvabitur humana creatura.

Ergo nos circumcidamus, non carnis preputia,
Sed a nobis abscidamus sordes et vitia.

Ut mundati mente, carne, capiamus praemia,
Quae octava confert aetas merenti coelestia.

Eya, die ista,
Omnis organista
Cantor et psalmista
Intonet,
Consonet
Cum cytharista. Amen.
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VIII. The CIRCUMCISION of CHRIST
[Latin]

This festal day our Muse should be a varied song upraising,
In strains of sweetest melody the Lord of heaven praising.

For all things by this festival have been renewed from heaven,
And pardon to the human race for all their misdeeds given.

The woman finds her silver piece; her candle she hath lighted,
What time to flesh the mind, with God co-equal, is united.

When from Jerusalem the man nigh Jericho is lying,
The good Samaritan comes by and rescues him from dying.

By clemency divine he is into the inn attended,
Whilst wine and oil, as remedy to soothe his pain, are blended.

Sweet are the balms of Him, who gives to sick men's wounds their healing,
The way of penitence for all their sinfulness revealing.

Of the two Testaments the gift of the two pennies telleth,
Since Jesus Christ, the end of both, their mysteries fulfilleth.

Lo! now the earth buds forth with dew and yet abideth rainless,
Whilst bears a maid our God Himself, and is a mother stainless.

In darkness was the Infant born, Who light eternal giveth;
And circumcision on this day, the eight day, He receiveth.

This day the Patriarchs of old foresaw in clear pre-vision,
Who gave themselves and progeny to God by circumcision.

That circumcision was performed this eighth day in a figure,
Which shall a human creature save from God's most righteous rigour.

Ourselves, and not our foreskins, then let us be circumcising,
And cut away the lust and sin for aye within us rising.

That, cleansed in heart and flesh, to us those prizes may be given,
Which the eighth age confers on him deserving joy in heaven.

Come ye then to-day here,
Every organ player,
Singer and psalm-sayer!
Lift your praise,
And upraise,
Minstrel! your lay here! Amen.
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IX. PASCHA
[English]

Ecce dies celebris!
Lux succedit tenebris,
Morti resurrectio.
Laetis cedant tristia,
Cum sit major gloria
Quam prima confusio;
Umbram fugat veritas,
Vetustatem novitas,
Luctum consolatio.

Pascha novum colite;
Quod praeit in capite,
Membra sperent singula.
Pascha novum Christus est,
Quid pro nobis passus est,
Agnus sine macula.

Hosti qui nos circuit
Praedam Christus eruit:
Quod Samson praecinuit,
Dum leonem lacerat.
David, fortis viribus,
A leonis unguibus
Et ab ursi faucibus
Gregem patris liberat.

Qui in morte plures stravit,
Samson, Christum figuravit,
Cujus mors victoria.
Samson dictus Sol eorum:
Christus lux est electorum,
Quos illustrat gratia.

Jam de Crucis sacro vecte
Botrus fluit in dilectae
Penetral ecclesiae.
Jam, calcato torculari,
Musto gaudent ebriari
Gentium primitiae.

Saccus scissus et pertusus
In regales transit usus:
Saccus fit soccus gratiae,
Caro victrix miseriae.

Quia regem peremerunt,
Dei regnum perdiderunt:
Sed non deletur penitus
Cain, in signum positus.

Reprobatus et abjectus
Lapis iste, nunc electus,
In tropaeum stat erectus,
Et in caput anguli.
Culpam delens, non naturam,
Novam creat creaturam,
Tenens in se ligaturam
Utriusque populi.

Capiti sit gloria,
Membrisque concordia! Amen.
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IX. EASTER
[Latin]

Hail, great day of wondrous deeds!
Light to deepest gloom succeeds,
And to death new risen life.
Joy all sorrows triumphs o'er,
For the glory now is more
Than the former mingled strife;
Truth the shadow puts to flight,
What is new the old and trite,
Consolation tears and grief.

Hail to our new Passover;
What the Head did first secure
May each member hope to gain.
Our new Passover is Christ,
Who for us is sacrificed,
As a Lamb devoid of stain.

From the foe about our way
Christ delivers now the prey,
E'en as Samson once did say,
When the lion he slew of yore.
David, strong in his good cause,
Rescues from the lion's claws
And the bear's devouring jaws,
All his father's flock once more.

Samson slew the most when dying,
Jesus Christ thus typifying,
Death to Whom was victory.
Samson's name "The Sun" declareth;
As His saints' light Christ appeareth,
Whom He shines on graciously.

From the Cross's holy transom
Flow the grapes' divinest ransom
To the well-loved Church's shrine:
Round the trodden wine-press thronging,
Gentile first-fruits drink, with longing,
Draughts of new and gladdening wine.

Sackcloth, worn to rags and riven,
Is to royal uses given:
With sackcloth shod, see! peace doth go;
The flesh hath triumphed over woe.

They are from God's kingdom driven,
Who to death its king have given:
Cain hath not wholly perished yet,
But for a warning sign is set.

Though condemned once and rejected
Was this stone, it stands erected
For a trophy now, selected
As the chiefest corner-stone.
Sin, not nature, He rebateth,
A new creature He createth,
And Himself incorporateth
Jews and Gentiles into one.

To the Head all glory be,
'Mongst the members unity! Amen.
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X. PASCHA
[English]

Lux illuxit Dominica,
Lux insignis, lux unica,
Lux lucis et laetitiae,
Lux immortalis gloriae.

Diem mundi conditio
Commendat ab initio,
Quam Christi resurrectio
Ditavit privilegio.

In spe perennis gaudii,
Lucis exultent filii;
Vindicent membra meritis
Conformitatem capitis!

Solemnis est celebritas
Et vota sunt solemnia;
Primae diei dignitas
Prima requirit gaudia.

Solemnitatum gloria,
Paschalis est victoria,
Sub multis aenigmatibus
Prius promissa patribus.

Jam scisso velo patuit
Quod vetus lex praecinuit;
Figuram res exterminat,
Et umbram lux illuminat.

Quid agnus sine macula,
Quid haedus typi gesserit,
Nostra purgans piacula,
Messias nobis aperit.

Per mortem nos indebitam
Solvit a morte debita;
Praedam captans illicitam
Praeda privatur licita.

Carnis delet opprobria
Caro peccati nescia;
Die reflorens tertia
Corda confirmat dubia.

O mors Christi mirifica,
Tu Christo nos vivifica!
Mors morti non obnoxia,
Da nobis vitae praemia!
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X. EASTER
[Latin]

The Lord's own day hath poured its rays,
That glorious light, the day of days;
The light of light and joy, the day
Whose glory passeth not away.

This day the world's foundations laid
Distinguish, since the world was made;
On which Christ's rising from the dead
Hath new peculiar glory shed.

Ye sons of light! with lifted voice
In hope of endless joys rejoice;
And by good deeds, ye members! see
That like unto your Head ye be!

A holy feast this day displays,
And prayers as holy it desires;
The glory of the first of days
The first-fruits of our joy requires.

The feast of Easter's victory
The glory of all feasts must be,
'Neath many a mystic type foretold
In promise to our sires of old.

Now, rent the veil, is that well known
In the old law obscurely shown;
Fulfilment types obliterates,
And shadows light illuminates.

From what the lamb without a spot,
From what the scapegoat, typified,
Purging from us guilt's sinful blot,
Messias draws the veil aside.

By death deserved not doth He pay
From death deserved to set us free;
Death, seizing the unlawful prey,
Loses what was his lawfully.

That flesh, which knows not guilt nor stain,
Destroys our guilt, the flesh's bane;
And, springing the third day again,
Doth doubting hearts' full faith maintain.

O death of Christ, most wondrous death!
Be thou in Christ our life and breath!
O death, that bows no death beneath!
Grant thou to us life's glory-wreath!
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XI. PASCHA
[English]

Salve, dies dierum gloria,
Dies felix, Christi victoria,
Dies digna jugi laetitia,
Dies prima!
Lux divina caecis irradiat,
In qua Christus infernum spoliat,
Mortem vincit et reconciliat
Summis ima.

Sempiterni Regis sententia
Sub peccato conclusit omnia,
Ut infirmis superna gratia
Subveniret.
Dei virtus est sapientia
Temperavit iram clementia
Cum jam mundus in praecipitia
Totus iret.

Insultabat nostrae miseriae,
Vetus hostis, auctor malitiae,
Quia nulla spes erat veniae
De peccatis;
Desperante mundo remedium,
Dum tenerent cuncta silentium,
Deus Pater emisit Filium
Desperatis.

Praedo vorax, monstrum tartareum,
Carnem videns, nec cavens laqueum,
In latentem ruens aculeum
Aduncatur;
Dignitatis primae conditio
Reformatur nobis in Filio.
Cujus nova nos resurrectio
Consolatur.

Resurrexit liber ab inferis
Restaurator humani generis,
Ovem suam reportans humeris
Ad superna.
Angelorum pax fit et hominum;
Plenitudo succrescit ordinum:
Triumphantem laus decet Dominum,
Laus aeterna!

Harmoniae coelestis patriae
Vox concordet matris ecclesiae;
Alleluia frequentet hodie
Plebs fidelis.
Triumphato mortis imperio,
Triumphali fruamur gaudio:
In terra pax et jubilatio
Sit in coelis! Amen.
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XI. EASTER
[Latin]

Hail, day, the glory of all days, to thee!
Thrice happy day, Christ's day of victory!
The first day! day most fit continually
Our joy to show!
This day divine illumines blind eyes,
Upon which Christ of hell's dark realms makes prize,
O'ercometh death and joins in one the skies
And earth below.

The judgment of the everlasting King
Hath under sin concluded everything,
That heavenly grace the weak and wavering
Might come to aid.
God's goodness and His wisdom from on high
His wrath hath tempered with His clemency,
Now when all earth was being rapidly
In ruin laid.

The father of all lies, man's ancient foe,
Was trampling on us in our bitter woe,
Because no hope of pardon here below
For sin was left;
When thus the earth despaired of cure for sin,
And silence reigned o'er it and all therein,
Forth God the Father sent His Son to men
Of hope bereft.

The insatiate robber, monster hell did bear,
Seeing the bait, but heedless of the snare,
Rushing upon the hooks' point hidden there,
On it is caught;
The dignity of man, as first begun,
Is now refashioned for us in the Son,
By Whose new resurrection to each one
Comfort is brought.

Free hath He risen from depths of hell below,
Who hath the human race re-fashioned so,
And, on His shoulder borne, His sheep He now
To heaven doth raise.
'Twixt men and angels is there perfect peace;
The ranks of heaven now swell to full increase;
Praise to the Lord Who maketh wars to cease,
Eternal praise!

O let the voice of Mother-Church agree
With heaven, our fatherland's, bright harmony,
And alleluias from the faithful be
Countless to-day!
The power of death o'ercome effectually,
Let us enjoy the joys of victory:
On earth be peace and jubilee on high
In heaven for aye! Amen.
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