Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

132 Third Sunday in Lent
my trust") must not be neglected; still the flow of the whole must not
be interrupted by it.
If, in the first place, the Church prayed in the stead of those who
are preparing for Baptism, she has to pray for many today who after
Baptism have again become the prey of the devil, who have again strayed
into his snares, from which they cannot or will not liberate themselves.
From our own experience we know that he does not very readily resign
his domination over a man; that, like a spider, he spins his webs, employing
our evil propensities and the seductions of the world to ensnare us.
We are well aware of the difficulty of the struggle and the extent of our
weakness. This calls for much and fervent prayer; we must fix our eyes
on the Lord (Oculi mei semper ad Dominum), we must implore Him to
look down upon us in his mercy.
GRADUAL (Ps. 9: 20, 4
1. Exsurge Domine, non prae- 1. Arise, 0 Lord, let not man prevaleat
homo: 2. judicentur gentes in vail: 2. let the gentiles be judged in
conspectu tuo. jf. 1. In convertendo thy sight. %. 1. When mine enemies
inimicum meum retrorsum, 2. in- shall be turned back, 2. they shall
firmabuntur, et peribunt a facie tua. be weakened and perish before thy
face.
In every instance, the final syllable of each part has a very florid
melody, two of which are the same: tuo and tua. Extended rhythms,
therefore, bring both these parts to a close. Perhaps the similarity of
the thought expressed by the text must be assigned for the correspondence:
in conspectu tuo and a facie tua = in Thy sight. Smaller rhythms
close the first half of each phrase in the first part. Domine and gentes
correspond. After this descent, the second part opens each phrase a
fourth higher. (Cf. the rule for the adaptation of phrases.)
The prayer for divine assistance in the fight becomes still more
urgent here than in the Introit. Man, the evil in man, and the evil one,
must not carry away the victory. We sang the first five words at the close
of the Gradual for Septuagesima Sunday, but with another melody.
Homo alone in both cases preserves some similarity. In plain song it
makes a world of difference in the melodic development whether there
is question of the beginning of a piece or of a phrase working toward a
close. In the first instance the passage shows great agitation, while we
begin the second quietly. This song is the continuation of the verses
from Psalm 9, which itself finds a continuation on the Saturday after
the fourth Sunday in Lent. In mode, style, and text, these three pieces
form one whole, pointing perhaps still to that time when, according to