Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

Special Feasts Of Our Lord
And The Saints
(Proprium de Sanctisj
ST. ANDREW, APOSTLE
(Nov. 30)
INTROIT (Ps. 138: 17)
1. Mihi autem nimis honorati 1. To me thy friends, 0 God, are
sunt amid tui, Deus: 2. nimis con- made exceedingly honorable: 2.
fortatus est principatus eorum. their principality is exceedingly
Ps. Domine, probasti me, et cog- strengthened. Ps. Lord, thou hast
novisti me: * tu cognovisti sessio- proved me and known me: * thou
nem meam, et resurrectionem meam. hast known my sitting down, and
my rising up.
At the Last Supper Christ said to His Apostles: "I will not now call
you servants: for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth. But I
have called you friends: because all things whatsoever I have heard of
My Father, I have made known to you" (John 15: 15). He initiated
them into those profound mysteries of His divinity, otherwise impervious
to the mind of man. He imparted to them powers that not only
pierced but elevated into the very heavens. Never was there a truer
friend and never has friend given so generously as Christ gave to His
Apostles.
Christ's Bride, the Church, shares the sentiments and emotions of
her divine Founder. And hence she exclaims on the feasts of the holy
Apostles: "To me Thy friends, 0 God, are made exceedingly honorable."
With splendor she honors the Apostles in her divine services, although
the feasts of the Apostles are no longer days of obligation.
Numberless churches have been dedicated to their memory! Together
with the Queen of the Apostles, their name is daily invoked during the
sacrifice of the Mass!
Solemn and ever-increasing awe pervades the melody until it reaches
its proper climax on the accented syllable of honorati. It is a truly festal
melody requiring a worthy, joyful rendition. The feeling of awe is even
more vividly expressed in the preceding nimis with its descending in-