Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost 347
2. invocabitis me, et ego exaudiam You shall call upon me, and I will
vos: 3. et reducam captivitatem hear you: 3. and I will bring back
vestram de cunctis locis. Ps. Bene- your captivity from all places. Ps.
dixisti Domine terram tuam: * Lord, thou hast blessed thy land: *
avertisti captivitatem Jacob. thou hast turned away the captivity
of Jacob.
The words of today's Introit are an excerpt from the letter which
the Prophet Jeremias wrote at God's behest to the captive Jews at
Babylon. They must have been a soothing balm for those tired and
wounded hearts. God had experienced untold infidelities and offenses
at the hands of His chosen people, and yet He thinks thoughts of peace
and not of affliction. He still promises to hear their prayers, still promises
to bring them back from their captivity into the Promised Land.
We are not yet in the Promised Land. The deathlike picture of all
nature in this bleak November vividly brings the fact home to us. We
know it also from the affliction of heart which frequently weighs more
heavily upon us than captivity: we are exiles, living in that state of flux
called time. Suddenly a word strikes our ear, enters our heart; a word
not spoken by man, for men are powerless: it is the Lord, and He speaks
of peace. He pronounced this word when He sent His beloved Son upon
earth; He published it by the mouth of an angel on Christmas night.
And how often Christ the Saviour uttered His Pax vobisl He is still
uttering it today, and suiting the action to the word.
Majesty marks the opening of the melody; the theme is blessed
peace. Over cogitatio-(nes) the motive of the beginning is repeated, followed
by the bright major chord; then its tones sink again, sweetly,
blissfully, like rays of sunshine into our heart. God thinks thoughts of
peace. Would that we, too, might always think them! But how often
we fail to recognize what serves unto our peace, and thus force the Lord
to discipline us (afflictionis), until, made homesick once more by our
desolation of soul or by some external affliction, we transfer our affection
and longing to Him who alone can be our peace, our happiness. The
cadence over afflictionis is the same as that which is repeated twice in
the Introit Requiem. It places before him who is conversant with plainsong
the thought of those still awaiting the full peace of the Lord in
purgatory. All the melodic pauses and incisions in this first phrase fall
on the note /. The melody loses somewhat in variety thereby, but it
preserves the quiet feeling which is proper to this phrase. This phrase,
moreover, towers far above the other two: its text is longer, its range is
more extended, its neums are more ornate. The usual thing in chant,
however, is to have the phrases more nearly in climactic order.