The Lord Goes Up With Shouts of Joy

Folio from Trés Riches Heures - Courtesy of Wikipedia

The Lord Goes Up With Shouts of Joy is written by the Benedictine Nuns of Stanbrook Abbey. In the Divine Office (1974) it is sung for both Evening I and at Evening Prayer II on the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. It is set to the 1793 tune: Duke Street, by John Warrington Hatton (c.1710-1793).


Tune: Duke Street

Sower and Seed of Man's Reprieving

Fresco by Giotto di Bondone - Courtesy of Wikipedia

Sower and Seed of Man's Reprieving is by Monsignor Ronald A. Knox (1888 - 1957). In the Divine Office (1974) it is sung at Morning Prayer on the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. The Office recommends the hymn tune: Les Commandements de Dieu by Louis Bourgeois (c.1510–1560) as it's musical setting. An alternative tune that can all be used is St. Clement, as featured in the following video.


Alternative Tune: St. Clement

Liturgical Guide: Ascension

The hymns used in the Liturgy of the Hours on the Ascension of Our Lord reflect the themes of heaven and earth. In the following video Fr. Robert Barron from Word On Fire Ministries lends his own perspective on the Ascension. To best understand it, he explains that Christians need to recover a Jewish sense of heaven and earth. When Jesus prayed: "as it is on earth as it is in heaven", he was expressing the ancient Jewish concept of heaven and earth  as impinging on each other. Instead, many in modern times have, without realizing adopted Plato's view of earth, and indeed even our own body as a prison from which we long to be freed. The other world is 'up there' in a spiritual realm, and 'down here' we live in a world of matter; the two are distinct and unrelated. After the Ascension, the disciples stand looking up at the sky in a manner more fitting for a Platonist. But then, two men dressed in white garments (denizens of heaven) chastise them: "Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.” Acts:1, 10-11. They are reminding the Apostles of their mission "to do all they can to bring about the Kingdom on earth, as it is in heaven."



LITURGY OF THE HOURS (1975)
122. Hail Thee, Festival Day
124. Let the Earth Rejoice and Sing
125. Praise Him As He Mounts the Skies
126. The Head That Once Was Crowned with Thorns

DIVINE OFFICE (1974)
The Lord Goes Up with Shouts of Joy
Sower and Seed of Man's Reprieving

The Head That Once Was Crowned with Thorns

Crowned With Glory Now

The Head That Once Was Crowned with Thorns was written is 1820 by Thomas Kelly (1769-1854). Born in Dublin, Ireland, Kelly took Holy Orders in the Church of England in 1792. He would eventually leave the Anglican Church, and set up a local independent congregation where he preached and lead worship services which included some of the 765 hymns he wrote during his life. The Head That Once Was Crowned with Thorns is set to the tune, Saint Magnus (Nottingham) written in 1707 by English baroque composer and organist, Jeremiah Clarke (c.1659-1707). In the Liturgy of the Hours it is used on Ascension.



THE HEAD THAT ONCE WAS CROWNED WITH THORNS by Thomas Kelly, 1820 (Public Domain)

1. The head that once was crowned with thorns
Is crowned with glory now:
A royal diadem adorns
The mighty victor’s brow.

2. The highest place that heav’n affords
Is surely his by right:
The King of kings and Lord of lords,
And heav’n’s eternal light.

3. The joy he is of all above,
The joy to all below:
To ev’ryone he shows his love,
And grants his name to know.

4. To them the cross, with all its shame,
With all its grace, is giv’n:
Their name an everlasting name.
Their joy the joy of heav’n.

5. The cross he bore is life and health,
Though shame and death to him;
His people’s hope, his people’s wealth,
Their everlasting theme.


Sung by the Choir of the King's School

Praise Him As He Mounts the Skies

He Will Come Again in Love, Alleluia!

Praise Him As He Mounts the Skies, first published in 1968, was written by the Scottish Jesuit priest, theologian and hymnwriter: James Quinn (1919-2010). From 1969 to 1976, Fr. Quinn acted in several capacities to the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL). They were responsible for the Vatican II translation of the Roman Rite from the original Latin into English; including the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours. In the Divine Office, Praise Him As He Mounts the Skies is used at Ascension. It is sung to the tune: Lianfair (1817) written by Robert Williams (1781-1821).

Let the Earth Rejoice and Sing

Alleluia!

Let the Earth Rejoice and Sing was written by the Sulpician Priest, Fr. Melvin Farrell in 1955. It is set to the tune, Lianfair, first taken down in manuscript form in 1817 as sung by the blind Welch singer Robert Williams (1781-1821). In the Liturgy of the Hours, Let the Earth Rejoice and Sing is used at Ascension.

Hail Thee, Festival Day / Salve, Festa Dies

Blest Day!

Hail Thee, Festival Day is a 1906 Anglican minister, Maurice F. Bell (1862-1947) translation of the Latin processional hymn for Easter, Sal­ve Fes­ta Di­es (sung by Schola Gregoriana Mediolanensis in the 2nd video) by Venan­ti­us For­tu­na­tus (c.530-c.609). After recovering from an eye ailment, in 565 he embarked on a pilgrimage from his native Italy to the Shrine of St. Martin of Tours, from whose intercession he attributed the healing. He became an important poet in the Merovingian Court and was eventually appointed Bishop of Poitiers. Although often referred to as a "Saint", he has never been formally canonized by the Church. The tune, Salve, Festa Dies was composed for Bell's text in 1906 by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). In the Liturgy of the Hours, Hail Thee, Festival Day is used at Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost.

Tune: Salve, Festa Dies

HAIL THEE, FESTIVAL DAY by Maurice Bell, 1906 (Public Domain)

EASTER REFRAIN:
Hail thee, festival day!
Blessed day to be hallowed forever;
Day when our Lord was raised,
Breaking the kingdom of death.

ASCENSION REFRAIN:
Hail thee, festival day!
Blessed day to be hallowed forever;
Day when our risen Lord
Rose in the heavens to reign.

PENTECOST REFRAIN:
Hail thee, festival day!
Blessed day to be hallowed forever;
Day when the Holy Ghost
Shone in the world full of grace.

2. Lo, the fair beauty of the earth,
From the death of the winter arising!
Every good gift of the year
Now with its Master returns.

3. He who was nailed to the cross
Is Ruler and Lord of all people.
All things created on earth
Sing to the glory of God.

4. Daily the loveliness grows,
Adorned with glory of blossom;
Heaven her gates unbars,
Flinging her increase of light.

5. Rise from the grave now,
O Lord, The author of life and creation.
Treading the pathway of death,
New life You give to us all.

6. God the Almighty Lord,
The Ruler of earth and the heavens,
Guard us from harm without;
Cleanse us from evil within.

7. Jesus the health of the world,
Enlighten our minds, great
Redeemer, Son of the Father supreme,
Only begotten of God.

8. Spirit of life and of power,
Now flow in us, fount of our being,
Light that enlightens us all,
Life that in all may abide.

9. Praise to the giver of good!
O lover and author of concord,
Pour out your balm on our days;
Order our ways in your peace.



SALVE, FESTA DIES by Venantius Fortunatus (Public Domain)

REFRAIN:
Salve, festa dies, toto venerabilis aevo. qua deus infernum vicit et astra tenet

1. Ecce renascentis testatur gratia mundi omnia cum domino dona redisse suo.

2. Namque triumphanti post tristia Tartara Christo undique fronde nemus, gramina flore favent.

3. Legibus inferni oppressis super astra meantem laudant rite deum lux polus arva fretum.

4. Qui crucifixus erat, deus ecce per omnia regnat, dantque creatori cuncta creata precem. salve, festa dies.

5. Christe salus rerum, bone conditor atque redemptor, unica progenies ex deitate patris.

6. Qui genus humanum cernens mersisse profundo, ut hominem eriperes es quoque factus homo

7. Nec voluisti etenim tantum te corpore nasci, sed caro quae nasci, pertulit atque mori

8. Fexequias pateris vitae auctor et orbis, intras mortis iter dando salutis opem.

9. Tristia cesserunt infernae vincula legis expavitque chaos luminis ore premi.

10. Depereunt tenebrae Christi fulgore fugatae et tetrae noctis pallia crassa cadunt.

11. Pollicitam sed redde fidem, precor, alma potestas: tertia lux rediit, surge, sepulte meus.

12. Non decet. ut humili tumulo tua membra tegantur, neu pretium mundi vilia saxa premant.

13. Lintea, precor, sudaria linque sepulchro: tu satis es nobis et sine te nihil est.

14. Solvecatenatas inferni carceris umbras et revoca sursum quidquid ad ima ruit.

15. Redde tuam faciem, videant ut saecula lumen, redde diem qui nos te moriente fugit.

16. Sed plane inplesti remeans, pie victor, ad orbem: Tartara pressa iacent nec sua iura tenent.

17. Inferus insaturabiliter cava gruttura pandens, qui rapuit semper, fit tua praeda, deus.

18. Evomit absorptam trepide fera belua plebem et de fauce lupi subtrahit agrnus oves.

19. Rex sacer, ecce tui radiat pars magna triumphi, cum puras animas sancta lavacra beant

20. Candidus egreditur nitidis exercitus undis atque vetus vitium purgat in amne novo.

21. Fulgentes animas vestis quoque candida signat et grege de niveo gaudia pastor habet.