But....("The Secret")

Again from "A Hymn and a Secret," The Brothers Karamazov: 

"I will tell you all our secret," Mitya whispered hurriedly. "I  meant to tell you later, for how could I decide on anything without  you? You are everything to me. Though I say that Ivan is superior to  us, you are my angel. It's your decision will decide it. Perhaps  it's you that is superior and not Ivan. You see, it's a question of  conscience, question of the higher conscience- the secret is so  important that I can't settle it myself, and I've put it off till I  could speak to you. But anyway it's too early to decide now, for we  must wait for the verdict. As soon as the verdict is given, you  shall decide my fate. Don't decide it now. I'll tell you now. You  listen, but don't decide. Stand and keep quiet. I won't tell you  everything. I'll only tell you the idea, without details, and you keep  quiet. Not a question, not a movement. You agree? But, goodness,  what shall I do with your eyes? I'm afraid your eyes will tell me your  decision, even if you don't speak. Oo! I'm afraid! Alyosha, listen!  Ivan suggests my escaping. I won't tell you the details: it's all been  thought out: it can all be arranged. Hush, don't decide. I should go  to America with Grusha. You know I can't live without Grusha! What  if they won't let her follow me to Siberia? Do they let convicts get  married? Ivan thinks not. And without Grusha what should I do there  underground with a hammer? I should only smash my skull with the  hammer! But, on the other hand, my conscience? I should have run  away from suffering. A sign has come, I reject the sign. I have a  way of salvation and I turn my back on it. Ivan says that in  America, 'with the goodwill,' I can be of more use than underground.  But what becomes of our hymn from underground? What's America? America  is vanity again! And there's a lot of swindling in America, too, I  expect. I should have run away from crucifixion! I tell you, you know,  Alexey, because you are the only person who can understand this.  There's no one else. It's folly, madness to others, all I've told  you of the hymn. They'll say I'm out of my mind or a fool. I am not  out of my mind and I am not a fool. Ivan understands about the hymn,  too. He understands, only he doesn't answer- he doesn't speak. He  doesn't believe in the hymn. Don't speak, don't speak. I see how you  look! You have already decided. Don't decide, spare me! I can't live  without Grusha. Wait till after the trial!" 

  Mitya ended beside himself. He held Alyosha with both hands on his  shoulders, and his yearning, feverish eyes were fixed on his  brother's. 

  "They don't let convicts marry, do they?" he repeated for the  third time in a supplicating voice. 

  Alyosha listened with extreme surprise and was deeply moved. 

  "Tell me one thing," he said. "Is Ivan very keen on it, and  whose idea was it?" 

  "His, his, and he is very keen on it. He didn't come to see me  at first, then he suddenly came a week ago and he began about it  straight away. He is awfully keen on it. He doesn't ask me, but orders  me to escape. He doesn't doubt of my obeying him, though I showed  him all my heart as I have to you, and told him about the hymn, too.  He told me he'd arrange it; he's found out about everything. But of  that later. He's simply set on it. It's all a matter of money: he'll  pay ten thousand for escape and give me twenty thousand for America.  And he says we can arrange a magnificent escape for ten thousand." 

  "And he told you on no account to tell me?" Alyosha asked again. 

  "To tell no one, and especially not you; on no account to tell  you. He is afraid, no doubt, that you'll stand before me as my  conscience. Don't tell him I told you. Don't tell him, for anything." 

  "You are right," Alyosha pronounced; "it's impossible to decide  anything before the trial is over. After the trial you'll decide of  yourself. Then you'll find that new man in yourself and he will  decide." 

  "A new man, or a Bernard who'll decide a la Bernard, for I believe  I'm a contemptible Bernard myself," said Mitya, with a bitter grin. 

  "But, brother, have you no hope then of being acquitted?" 

  Mitya shrugged his shoulders nervously and shook his head. 

  "Alyosha, darling, it's time you were going," he said, with a  sudden haste. "There's the superintendent shouting in the yard.  He'll be here directly. We are late; it's irregular. Embrace me  quickly. Kiss me! Sign me with the cross, darling, for the cross I  have to bear to-morrow." 

  They embraced and kissed. 

"A hymn underground...."

From "A Hymn and a Secret," The Brothers Karamazov; it's the night before Mitya's trial.  His brother, the onetime monk Alyosha has come to visit him in prison. 

[Mitya] went up to Alyosha excitedly and kissed him. His eyes glowed. 

 "Rakitin wouldn't understand it," he began in a sort of exaltation; "but you, you'll understand it all. That's why I was thirsting for you. You see, there's so much I've been wanting to tell you for ever so long, here, within these peeling walls, but I haven't said a word about what matters most; the moment never seems to have come. Now I can wait no longer. I must pour out my heart to you. Brother, these last two months I've found in myself a new man. A new man has risen up in me. He was hidden in me, but would never have come to the surface, if it hadn't been for this blow from heaven. I am afraid! And what do I care if I spend twenty years in the mines, breaking ore with a hammer? I am not a bit afraid of that- it's something else I am afraid of now: that that new man may leave me. Even there, in the mines, underground, I may find a human heart in another convict and murderer by my side, and I may make friends with him, for even there one may live and love and suffer. One may thaw and revive a frozen heart in that convict, one may wait upon him for years, and at last bring up from the dark depths a lofty soul, a feeling, suffering creature; one may bring forth an angel, create a hero! There are so many of them, hundreds of them, and we are all to blame for them. Why was it I dreamed of that 'babe' at such a moment? 'Why is the babe so poor?' That was a sign to me at that moment. It's for the babe I'm going. Because we are all responsible for all. For all the 'babes,' for there are big children as well as little children All are 'babes.' I go for all, because someone must go for all. I didn't kill father, but I've got to go. I accept it. It's all come to me here, here, within these peeling walls. There are numbers of them there, hundreds of them underground, with hammers in their hands. Oh, yes, we shall be in chains and there will be no freedom, but then, in our great sorrow, we shall rise again to joy, without which man cannot live nor God exist, for God gives joy: it's His privilege- a grand one. Ah, man should be dissolved in prayer! What should I be underground there without God? Rakitin's laughing! If they drive God from the earth, we shall shelter Him underground. One cannot exist in prison without God; it's even more impossible than out of prison. And then we men underground will sing from the bowels of the earth a glorious hymn to God, with Whom is joy. Hail to God and His joy! I love Him!" 

 Mitya was almost gasping for breath as he uttered his wild speech. He turned pale, his lips quivered, and tears rolled down his cheeks. 

 "Yes, life is full, there is life even underground," he began again. "You wouldn't believe, Alexey, how I want to live now, what a thirst for existence and consciousness has sprung up in me within these peeling walls. Rakitin doesn't understand that; all he cares about is building a house and letting flats. But I've been longing for you. And what is suffering? I am not afraid of it, even if it were beyond reckoning. I am not afraid of it now. I was afraid of it before. Do you know, perhaps I won't answer at the trial at all.... And I seem to have such strength in me now, that I think I could stand anything, any suffering, only to be able to say and to repeat to myself every moment, 'I exist.' In thousands of agonies- I exist. I'm tormented on the rack- but I exist! Though I sit alone on a pillar- I exist! I see the sun, and if I don't see the sun, I know it's there. And there's a whole life in that, in knowing that the sun is there. Alyosha, my angel, all these philosophies are the death of me. Damn them! Brother Ivan-" 

 "What of brother Ivan?" interrupted Alyosha, but Mitya did not hear. 

 "You see, I never had any of these doubts before, but it was all hidden away in me. It was perhaps just because ideas I did not understand were surging up in me, that I used to drink and fight and rage. It was to stifle them in myself, to still them, to smother them. Ivan is not Rakitin, there is an idea in him. Ivan is a sphinx and is silent; he is always silent. It's God that's worrying me. That's the only thing that's worrying me. What if He doesn't exist? What if Rakitin's right- that it's an idea made up by men? Then if He doesn't exist, man is the chief of the earth, of the universe. Magnificent! Only how is he going to be good without God? That's the question. I always come back to that. For whom is man going to love then? To whom will he be thankful? To whom will he sing the hymn? Rakitin laughs. Rakitin says that one can love humanity without God. Well, only a snivelling idiot can maintain that. I can't understand it. Life's easy for Rakitin. 'You'd better think about the extension of civic rights, or even of keeping down the price of meat. You will show your love for humanity more simply and directly by that, than by philosophy.' I answered him, 'Well, but you, without a God, are more likely to raise the price of meat, if it suits you, and make a rouble on every copeck.' He lost his temper. But after all, what is goodness? Answer me that, Alexey. Goodness is one thing with me and another with a Chinaman, so it's a relative thing. Or isn't it? Is it not relative? A treacherous question! You won't laugh if I tell you it's kept me awake two nights. I only wonder now how people can live and think nothing about it. Vanity! Ivan has no God. He has an idea. It's beyond me. But he is silent."

"Apolytikion and Kontakion for the Feast of The Holy Transfiguration"

The YouTube page says:

The Feast of The Holy Transfiguration Apolytikion and Kontakion sung in English.

The OCA Website has the words:

Troparion — Tone 7

You were transfigured on the mountain, O Christ God, / revealing Your glory to Your disciples as far as they could bear it. / Let Your everlasting Light also shine upon us sinners, / through the prayers of the Theotokos. / O Giver of Light, glory to You!

Kontakion — Tone 7

On the Mountain You were Transfigured, O Christ God, / And Your disciples beheld Your glory as far as they could see it; / So that when they would behold You crucified, / They would understand that Your suffering was voluntary, / And would proclaim to the world, / That You are truly the Radiance of the Father!

Wikipedia says this about "Apolytikion":

The Apolytikion (Greek: Ἀπολυτίκιον) or Dismissal Hymn is a troparion (hymn) said or sung at Orthodox Christianworship services. The apolytikion summarizes the feast being celebrated that day. It is chanted at Vespers, Matinsand the Divine Liturgy; and it is read at each of the Little Hours. The name derives from the fact that it is chanted for the first time before the dismissal (Greek: apolysis) of Vespers. In the Orthodox Church, the liturgical day begins at sunset, so Vespers is the first service of the day. The term apolyikion is used in Greek tradition. In Slavic tradition the term troparion is specifically used to stand for Apolytikion,　whilst troparion is of more generic usage in Greek tradition.

The apolytikion could be compared in the Western liturgy to the collect or post-communion, inasmuch as it changes for each feast-day of the year and specifically commemorates the subject of the feast.  

Morales: Parce mihi domine

Exquisite.



The text is from Job:

Parce mihi, Domine, nihil enim sunt dies mei.
Quid est homo, quia magnificas eum? Aut quid apponis erga eum cor tuum?
Visitas eum diluculo et subito probas illum.
Usquequo non parcis mihi, nec dimittis me, ut glutiam salivam meam?
Peccavi, quid faciam tibi, o custos hominum? Quare posuisti me contrarium tibi, et factus sum mihimet issi gravis?
Cur non tolles peccatum meum, et quare non auferes iniquitatem meam? Ecce, nunc in pulvere dormiam, et si mane me quaesieris, non subsistam.

Let me alone; for my days are vanity.
What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?
And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment?
How long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?
I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?
And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.

HT RSM.

"Brene Brown Returns to Church (and Finds Jesus Weeping)"

Dave Zahl posted this at Mockingbird a week or so ago; I don't know who Brene Brown is, but this is really pretty great.   I really appreciate her talking about "what she wanted" in a church upon her return - and then about what actually happened.  To me, this is more good evidence that Christian faith really is, at its best, about diving into the real stuff of what's important - about getting under the skin - and is truly about "making all things new."

I like very much, too, her pointing to the process of growth, and that "something has to die" - i.e., there is unavoidable pain at the heart of it all.   We die, eventually.  Of course, that shouldn't be too surprising in a faith whose symbol is the cross itself - but, it definitely can be anyway.

Too awesome to bury in a weekender post, our love affair with Brene continues: 

On the Feast of the Transfiguration (August 6)

I'm continuing the completion of my Office Hymn listings.  Here are the hymns for Transfiguration listed at Hymn melodies for the whole year from the Sarum service books: 

On the Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord (Aug. 6) :

1st Evensong:   Celestis formara glorie ... ... ... 26, 41 or 42
Mattins:  O Sator rerum ... ... ... ... 44 or 56
Lauds:   O nata Lux de Lumine ... ... ... 41 or 63

(You can get the full office for the Feast of the Transfiguration - Psalms, collect, Chapter, antiphons, etc., although no music is provided - at Breviary Offices, from Lauds to Compline Inclusive (Society of St. Margaret, Boston).)

The Hymner has English words to all three of the hymns for today.  Here is their version of the hymn for First Vespers of the Transfiguration, Celestis formara glorie:

Celestis formam glorie

A Type of those bright rays on high,
For which the Church hopes longingly,
Christ on the holy mountain shows,
Where brighter than the sun he glows.

Tale for all ages to declare;
For with the three disciples there,
Where Moses and Elias meet,
The Lord holds converse high and sweet.

The chosen witnesses stand nigh,
Of Grace, the Law, and Prophecy:
And from the cloud the Holy One
Bears record to the Only Son.

With face more bright than noon-tide ray,
Christ deigns to manifest to-day
What glory shall be theirs above,
Who joy in God with perfect love.

And faithful hearts are raised on high
By this great vision's mystery;
For which in yearly course we raise
The voice of prayer, the hymn of praise.

Thou Father,—thou, eternal Son,
Thou, holy Spirit, Three in One,
To this same glory bring us nigh,
That we may see thee eye to eye. Amen.

Sing Celestis formara glorie to any of these melodies:

LLPB provides a recording of Hymn tune #26;  the cantor is singing the Christmas Evensong hymn "Jesus, the Father's Only Son."  

Here's tune #41, on this mp3 from LLPB; the words are those from the Lauds Assumption hymn Tu, Christe, nostrum gaudium. 

I do not have a recording of melody #42.


Here's the English version of  O Sator rerum from The Hymner:

O Sator rerum

Author of all things, Christ, the world's Redeemer,
Monarch of Monarchs, judgement's dread Awarder,
Now to our praises, as to our petitions,
Graciously hearken.

While the night fleeteth, we our votive anthems
Frame to thine honour ; grant that they may please thee;
And as we hymn thee, Source of Light eternal,
Ever refresh us.

Sunlike thy visage shone with rays of splendour,
Brightly thy raiment gleam'd with snowy whiteness,
When mid the Prophets, Moses and Elias,
Thou wast transfigured.

Then did the Father own thee Sole-begotten;
Thou art the glory of the holy Angels;
Thee, the Way, Virtue, Life, the world's Salvation,
Ever confess we.

Glory and power be to thee, Creator,
Who alone all things rulest and controllest,
Throned in thy kingdom, Monarch everlasting,
Trinal and Onely. Amen.

At Mattins, sing O Sator rerum to either of these 11-11-11-5 meter melodies:

Melody #44 is the one used this mp3 of the hymn O Pater sancte, sung at the Lauds Trinity Office (again the audio file is courtesy of the LLPB).  This tune, and #56 following, uses the 11-11-11-5 meter, the "Sapphic and Adonic" meter.

Melody #56 is the same one used for Iste Confessor, a hymn sung on the feast days of Confessors; the tune is the one on this mp3, from the Lutheran Liturgical Prayer Brotherhood.


And here is the very lovely Lauds hymn, O nata Lux de Lumine:

O nata Lux de Lumine

O Light, which from the Light hast birth,
Jesu, Redeemer of the earth,
Thy suppliant flock vouchsafe to spare,
Nor spurn their gift of praise and prayer.

Thou who, for lost transgressors' sake,
Didst not disdain our flesh to take,
O grant that living members we
Of that thy Body blest may be.

Beyond the sun thine aspect bright;
Thy raiment as the snowdrift white:
To chosen witnesses made known,
Thy Godhead on the mount was shown.

Seers, from their children's eyes conceal'd,
To thy disciples stood reveal'd;
On each thou didst thy power bestow
Thee as eternal God to know.

The Father, from his heav'nly throne,
Proclaim'd thee his Anointed Son,
And we with faithful hearts no less,
Thee, King of glory, aye confess.

May we Thy splendour day by day
In innocence of life display;
And thus to joys beyond the skies
In holy converse heav'nward rise.

Eternal God, of kings the King,
To thee our hymns of praise we bring
Who, Threefold Deity, alone
Dost reign to endless ages One. Amen.

Sing O nata Lux to either of these melodies:

Here again is tune #41, on this mp3 from LLPB; the words are those from the Lauds Assumption hymn Tu, Christe, nostrum gaudium.

Melody #63 is the same one sung by the LLPB cantor on this mp3 of the Assumption Matins hymn "The God Whom Earth and Sea and Sky" (in Latin, Quem terra, pontus, ethera).


Here are a couple of scans of Transfiguration hymsn from the Office of Book of The Community of St. John Baptist.   The Lauds hymn is O nata Lux de Lumine here, too; and for Vespers it's another translation of Celestis formara glorie.

Here's the entire Lauds service from the same source, including the Antiphon on the Benedictus:





The beautiful Quicumque Christum Quaeritis is the the Transfiguration hymn for Vespers and Matins in the Roman Breviary.   It consists of vv. 1-4, 37-40, 41-44, and 85-88 of Aurelius Prudentius' Hymnus Epiphaniae found here, along with a dozen or so others of his hymns, originally compiled and translated by Martin Pope (with thanks to Project Gutenberg).  Prudentius was a Roman Christian and poet born in the year 348. 

Here are the words to Quicumque Christum Quaeritis, in Latin and English:

Quicumque Christum quæritis,
oculos in altum tollite:
illic licebit visere
signum perennis gloriæ.

Inlustre quiddam cernimus,
quod nesciat finem pati,
sublime, celsum, interminum,
antiquius caelo et chao.

Hic ille rex est gentium
populique rex Iudaici,
promissus Abrahae patri
eiusque in aevum semini.

Hunc et prophetis testibus
isdemque signatoribus,
testator et sator iubet
adire regnum et cernere:

Gloria Tibi, Domine
Qui natus es de virgine
Cum Patre et Samcto Spiritu,
in sempiterna sæcula.

Lift up your eyes, whoe'er ye be
That fare the new-born Christ to see:
For yonder is the shining sign
Of grace perennial and divine.

Sure 'tis the sign most reverend
Of Being that doth know no end:
Of One in state sublime arrayed
Ere sky and chaos yet were made.

This is the King of Israel,
Of all in Gentile lands that dwell:
The King to Abram and his seed
Throughout all ages erst decreed.

The prophets witnessed to the bond
Which sealed to Him the realm profound:
The Father's Kingdom He received
And the vast legacy perceived.

All glory be to you O Lord,
Son of the Virgin, the blessed Word,
With Father and Blest Spirit One
Until the ages’ course is done.
Amen.

Read more here about Quicumque Christum quaeritis.

I adore the Feast of the Transfiguration, and have written many posts about it here.  You can also read much more about Transfiguration at the wonderful website Full Homely Divinity.

And here is the entire New Advent entry for today's feast, from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia:

Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ

Observed on August 6 to commemorate the manifestation of the Divine glory recorded by St. Matthew (Chapter 17).

Origin

The Armenian bishop Gregory Arsharuni (about 690) ascribes the origin of this feast to St. Gregory the Illuminator (d. 337?), who, he says, substituted it for a pagan feast of Aphrodite called Vartavarh (roseflame), retaining the old appellation of the feast, because Christ opened His glory like a rose on Mount Thabor. It is not found however in the two ancient Armenian calendars printed by Conybeare (Armenian Ritual, 527 sq.). It probably originated, in the fourth or fifth century, in place of some pagan nature-feast, somewhere in the highlands of Asia.

Propagation

The Armenians at present keep it for three days as one of the five great feasts of the year (seventh Sunday after Pentecost); it is preceded by a fast of six days. Also in the Syriac Church it is a feast of the first class. In the Greek Church it has a vigil and an octave. The Latin Church was slow in adopting this feast; it is not mentioned before 850 (Martyrology of Wandelbert, Gavanti, "Thesaurus Liturg.", II, August); it was adopted in the liturgy about the tenth century in many dioceses, and was celebrated mostly on 6 August; in Gaul andEngland, 27 July; at Meissen, 17 March; at Halberstadt, 3 September, etc. In 1456 Callixtus III extended the feast to the UniversalChurch in memory of the victory gained by Hunyady at Belgrade over the Turks, 6 August, 1456. Callixtus himself composed the Office. It is the titular feast of the Lateran Basilica at Rome; as such it was raised to a double second class for the Universal Church, 1 Nov., 1911.

Customs

On this day the pope at Mass uses new wine or presses a bunch of ripe grapes into the chalice; raisins are also blessed at Rome.  The Greeks and Russians bless grapes and other fruit.

This apparently comes from one of Raphael's studies for the Transfiguration; he worked from around 1500-1525:

And here's Pietro Perugino's 1500 Transfiguration: