Friday Sext

Church and Eucharist

Background in the story of salvation:  our Lord dies on the Cross; a soldier opens his side: blood and water flow out (John 19:34).  Blood and water are symbols of the two chief sacraments of the Church:  Baptism and the holy Eucharist.

Theme:  Christ, the second Adam, is sleeping in death; from his side comes the second Eve, "mother of all the living", holy Mother Church.

On Friday, at the hour of Christ's death, we sing a song about the Church in a twofold sense: she is the house of God (Ps. 83) and the congregation of the faithful (Ps. 86).

Psalm 83

Longing for God's house

Psalm 83. i.  Quam dilécta !

Longing for God

Quam dilécta tabernácula tua, Dómine virtútum: * concupíscit, et déficit ánima mea in átria Dómini.
2  Cor meum, et caro mea: * exsultavérunt in Deum vivum.
3  Etenim passer invenit sibi domum: * et turtur nidum sibi, ubi ponat pullos suos.
4  Altaria tua, Dómine virtútum: * Rex meus, et Deus meus.
5  Beáti, qui hábitant in domo tua, Dómine: * in sæcula sæculórum laudábunt te.

How lovely is thy dwelling place O Lord of hosts : * my soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord.
2  My heart and my flesh * have rejoiced in the living God.
3  Yea, the sparrow hath found her an house, * and the swallow a nest, where she may lay her young.
4  Even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, * my King and my God.
5  Blessed are they, O Lord, that dwell in thy house; * they shall praise thee for ever and ever.

Pilgrimage

6  Beátus vir, cujus est auxílium abs te: * ascensiónes in corde suo dispósuit, in valle lacrimárum in loco, quem pósuit.
7  Etenim benedictiónem dabit legislátor, ibunt de virtúte in virtútem: * vidébitur Deus deórum in Sion.

6  Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; * he hath appointed in his heart to advance upwards, in the vale of tears, in the place which he hath set.
7  For the lawgiver shall give a blessing, they shall go from strength to strength, * and the God of gods shall be beholden in Sion.

Psalm 83. ii.  Dómine, Deus virtútum

Prayer and consolation:  near to God

8  Dómine, Deus virtútum, exáudi oratiónem meam: * áuribus pércipe, Deus Jacob.
9  Protéctor noster, áspice, Deus: * et réspice in fáciem Christi tui.
10  Quia mélior est dies una in átriis tuis: * super míllia.
11  Elégi abjéctus esse in domo Dei mei: * magis quam habitáre in tabernáculis peccatórum.
12  Quia misericórdiam et veritátem díligit Deus: * grátiam et glóriam dabit Dóminus.
13  Non privábit bonis eos, qui ámbulant in innocéntia: * Dómine virtútum, beátus homo, qui sperat in te.

8  O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; * hearken, O God of Jacob.
9  Behold, O God our defender, * and look upon the face of thy Christ.
10  For one day in thy courts is better * than a thousand.
11  I had rather be cast down in the house of my God, * rather than to dwell in the tents of ungodliness.
12  For God loveth mercy and truth; * the Lord will give grace and worship.
13  And no good thing shall he withhold from them that walk in innocency: * O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that putteth his trust in thee.

Psalm 86.  Fundamenta ejus

The Church:  mother of nations

God's love for the Church

Fundaménta ejus in móntibus sanctis: * díligit Dóminus portas Sion super ómnia tabernácula Jacob.
2  Gloriósa dicta sunt de te, * cívitas Dei.

The foundations thereof are in the holy mountains : * the Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
2  Glorious things of thee are spoken, * thou city of God.

Mother of nations

3  Memor ero Rahab, et Babylónis * sciéntium me.
4  Ecce alienígenæ, et Tyrus, et pópulus Æthíopum, * hi fuérunt illic.
5  Numquid Sion dicet: Homo, et homo natus est in ea: * et ipse fundávit eam Altíssimus?

3  I will be mindful of Rahab and Babylon, * with them that know me.
4  Behold ye the Philistines also; and they of Tyre, with the people of the Ethiopians; * lo, these were there.
5  Shall not Sion say: Man, by man is born in her : * and the Most High himself hath stablished her.

Finale

6  Dóminus narrábit in scriptúris populórum, et príncipum: * horum, qui fuérunt in ea.
7  Sicut lætántium ómnium: * habitátio est in te.

6  The Lord shall write in the scriptures of the people and of the princes; * of them that have been born in her.
7  As it were of all rejoicing : * the dwelling is in thee.