Undusted Texts

  Introduction St. Juan de Ávila (1499-1569) was an Andalusian priest and preacher, brought to new prominence upon being named a Doctor of the Church by the late Pope Benedict XVI on October 7, 2012.  Though he tried to arrange a fraternal community of priests, little came of it outside his immediate circle, and, towards the end of his life, he started sending his interested disciples to the Jesuits.  The majority of his work was focused on being a preacher, for which he was nicknamed the "Apostle of Andalusia."  He was also the first rector of the University of Baeza, which became a model for Jesuit seminaries.  His process of veneration was slow: declared Venerable in 1759 (during the investigation for which the Vatican misplaced manuscripts for dozens of his works), he was not beatified until 1894 and not canonized until 1970. Being primarily a preacher, it is fitting that a large portion of his writings consists of sermons.  Oddly, when many of these we...

  Introduction Christ is born!  Glorify Him! Today I have a Christmas hymn I wrote years ago, though I did some adjustments to the text today.  The inspiration, of course, is the famous Paschal hymn, "Jesus Christ Is Risen Today": originally, my first verse was simply a Christmas-themed rewrite of that hymn's first verse.  With further work, though, my hymn drifted away from a strict "parody" of the Paschal hymn.  Like it, though, my hymn is set to the tune "Lyra Davidica," taken from the 1708 hymn collection of the same name. Jesus Christ is Born Today by Brandon P. Otto on Scribd   Scribd link for the above document: here . Internet Archive mirror: https://archive.org/details/jesus-christ-is-born-today Text   1. Jesus Christ is born today, (Alleluia!) in a starlit earthen cave, (Alleluia!) When He once in Bedlam town (Alleluia!) Donned our flesh and doffed His crown! (Alleluia!) 2. Born of Mary, virgin pure, (Alleluia!) who was virgin did e...

 Christ is born!  Glorify Him! As a supplement to my typical translations, I am beginning to post music as well.  Some of it includes simple transcriptions of hymns (such as my recent transcription of the chant Humani Generis Cessent Suspiria ); others will be translations of hymns set to old melodies.  Some may be original poems of mine set to old melodies; still others will be poems (my own or others') set to music I have composed.  I have no delusions of grandeur regarding my own musical ability, but I think some of the choices of texts, at least, might warrant my meager attempts.  The hymn included here is an example. The poem set here is by Ben Jonson (1572-1637), one of the most important poets and playwrights of the English Renaissance.  This poem--originally entitled "A Hymne on the Nativitie of My Saviour"--was included by Jonson in a proposed collection of verse entitled Under-wood (the title being a sequel to an earlier collection, The Forr...

  Introduction The Oratory of Jesus was founded by Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle (1575-1629). Famous members include St. John Eudes (1601-1680)--before forming his own congregation--and Jean-Jacques Olier (1608-1657). The French school of spirituality, founded by Bérulle and perpetuated by the Oratory, was a major force in the spiritual formation of St. Louis Marie de Montfort (1673-1716). The Oratory is a society of priests, not a traditional religious order, and their emphasis is on Jesus and His humility in the Incarnation.  Their liturgical calendar has a few peculiar feasts, most notably the Solemnity of Jesus (January 28), as well as a special commemoration of the Incarnation on the 25th of every month.  However, the hymn transcribed here is simply a special sequence for the Feast of the Annunciation, taken from a book of hymns for the use of the Oratory. I posted a translation of this sequence to my old website, "Undusted Texts," back in 2017.  What I've done he...

  Introduction The odd litany translated below is found in a collection of chants, songs, and hymns used by the Oratory of Jesus, founded by Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle (1575-1629).  This litany is provided in an appendix, and it is said to be the work of Charles de Condren (1588-1641), the second Superior General of the Oratory, following Bérulle's death.  He was also the confessor of Jean-Jacques Olier (1608-1657), founder of the Sulpicians (Society of the Priests of Saint-Sulpice).  The petitions in this litany are quite unwieldy, being mostly passages from St. Paul--predominantly the Letter to the Hebrews--awkwardly stuffed into the format of a litany.  The theme of the litany is still an interesting one, though, so I have translated it here.      Litany in Honor of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Priest and Victim   (Extracted from the Epistles of St. Paul by Charles de Condren)   Kyrie eleison. Christ eleison.  Kyrie eleison. Jesus, Pri...

  Introduction St. Romanos (d. 6th century) is one of the most famous figures in Byzantine hymnody.  Though the majority of the Byzantine liturgical hymns are ascribed to St. John of Damascus (675-749) and his foster-brother St. Cosmas the Hymnographer (8th c.), St. Romanos' works are a foundational element of Byzantine hymnody.  Specifically, he is considered the Greek popularizer of the kontakion format, a long hymn consisting of metrically-identical stanzas ( oikoi ) preceded by a distinct introductory stanza ( prooimoion or koukoulion ), with an identical refrain shared by both types of stanza.  The full hymns used to be used in the liturgy: now all that usually remains is the koukoulion (renamed "kontakion") and the first oikos .  The Akathist Hymn is a memorable example of a full kontakion still in use.  (The Akathist is often attributed to St. Romanos, but scholars typically think it is a later imitation of his work.) Legend states that St. Romanos...

In order to make this blog a better hub for all of my work, I have added a new page with links to my Publications and Unpublications , that is, draft papers.  Most of these publications are articles at the Homiletic & Pastoral Review ; a few are conference papers, which I have uploaded to Academia.edu.   I have also begun uploading some draft papers, or papers for which I don't think I'll ever find a publisher.  Each paper will be added to my Publications and Unpublications page once I have linked it. In my slow process of revising the layout of this blog, I have added this new page to the main navigation bar, and I have removed links to two prominent blog posts: "How to Discuss the Eastern Church: A Grammatical Primer," and the Table of Contents to my Church Documents Index.  The grammatical primer was written over a decade ago, and--though I have not yet taken time to review it--I assume I made some errors in it.  The Church Documents Index has not been ...