Faithful Vigil Ended
Feb. 6th, 2012 09:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ancientandmodernFaithful vigil ended,
watching, waiting cease;
Master, grant your servant
his discharge in peace.
All the Spirit promised,
all the Father willed,
now these eyes behold it
perfectly fulfilled.
This your great deliverance
sets your people free;
Christ their light uplifted
all the nations see.
Christ, your people's glory!
Watching, doubting cease:
grant to us your servants
our discharge in peace.
Here we are, not even a week late for Candlemas (or the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, or the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whatever you want to call it). Inevitably, there is one text that is particularly associated with this festival: the Nunc Dimittis.
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace : according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen : thy salvation, Which thou has prepared : before the face of all Israel, To be a light to lighten the Gentiles : and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
And if this were a blog in which I shared my favourite choral music, we'd be here until next Candlemas. This is, however, the one hymn that particularly sticks out in my mind, and it is something between a metrical version of the Nunc Dimittis, and a commentary on it.
'Faithful vigil ended' makes explicit some of what is implicit in the Nunc - that very first line summarises the context that Luke gives us: Simeon waiting and watching in the temple. These are not just Simeon's words; they carry centuries of Church tradition and interpretation with them. Did Simeon think of it as a faithful vigil? I wonder.
The second half of the first verse perpetuates the common misreading of 'Lord now lettest thou' as a plea rather than a statement ('grant thy servant his discharge'). That is my only gripe, though, and in certain moods it works better for me than the serenity of e.g. 'Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace'. I love the second verse, with two persons of the Trinity named, and the third very present. The third verse is pretty much perfect, and the fourth is a neat twist on the Gloria Patri, which at the same time loops back to the first verse, linking our experience to Simeon's. Timothy Dudley-Smith knew what he was doing.
I could not find a single video of this hymn on YouTube. This surprised me. I'm afraid that the best I can do is this one, which is at least the right tune, Pastor Pastorum:
Or, if you like, there is a MIDI file over at Oremus, and you can sing along. Since it's quite a short one, you will probably get through all four verses before the horrible MIDI sound drives you to distraction.
watching, waiting cease;
Master, grant your servant
his discharge in peace.
All the Spirit promised,
all the Father willed,
now these eyes behold it
perfectly fulfilled.
This your great deliverance
sets your people free;
Christ their light uplifted
all the nations see.
Christ, your people's glory!
Watching, doubting cease:
grant to us your servants
our discharge in peace.
Here we are, not even a week late for Candlemas (or the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, or the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whatever you want to call it). Inevitably, there is one text that is particularly associated with this festival: the Nunc Dimittis.
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace : according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen : thy salvation, Which thou has prepared : before the face of all Israel, To be a light to lighten the Gentiles : and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
And if this were a blog in which I shared my favourite choral music, we'd be here until next Candlemas. This is, however, the one hymn that particularly sticks out in my mind, and it is something between a metrical version of the Nunc Dimittis, and a commentary on it.
'Faithful vigil ended' makes explicit some of what is implicit in the Nunc - that very first line summarises the context that Luke gives us: Simeon waiting and watching in the temple. These are not just Simeon's words; they carry centuries of Church tradition and interpretation with them. Did Simeon think of it as a faithful vigil? I wonder.
The second half of the first verse perpetuates the common misreading of 'Lord now lettest thou' as a plea rather than a statement ('grant thy servant his discharge'). That is my only gripe, though, and in certain moods it works better for me than the serenity of e.g. 'Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace'. I love the second verse, with two persons of the Trinity named, and the third very present. The third verse is pretty much perfect, and the fourth is a neat twist on the Gloria Patri, which at the same time loops back to the first verse, linking our experience to Simeon's. Timothy Dudley-Smith knew what he was doing.
I could not find a single video of this hymn on YouTube. This surprised me. I'm afraid that the best I can do is this one, which is at least the right tune, Pastor Pastorum:
Or, if you like, there is a MIDI file over at Oremus, and you can sing along. Since it's quite a short one, you will probably get through all four verses before the horrible MIDI sound drives you to distraction.