CathInfo.com

https://lesalonbeige.fr/xiie-dimanche-apres-la-pentecote-le-bon-samaritain/

AI Translation, contains errors. Excerpts:

We thank the association to allow us to publish excerpts from the excellent comments of the five Gregorian pieces of Sunday or the upcoming feast.

You will have all the texts on the site and we can only encourage you to subscribe to the weekly newsletter by checking the appropriate box on the home page.

...Gospel of the good Samaritan which today gives its name to the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost.

  The ‘Introit begins with the beautiful verse of Psalm 69: O God, come to my help; Lord, hurry to help me! In his Tenth Conference, Cassian shows how this cry of the soul suits all states and responds to all feelings. Durand de Mende makes it applied in the present circuмstance to Job, because the readings of the Office of the Night drawn from the Book where his trials are told sometimes meet, though rarely, with this Sunday. Rupert preferably sees the accents of the deaf-mute, whose mysterious healing was the object of our meditations eight days ago. “The human race in the person of our first parents,” he said, “had become deaf to listen to the commandments of the Creator, and silent to sing his praises; the first movement of his tongue untied by the Lord is to invoke God. It is also every morning the first impulse of the Church, like her first word at each of the Hours of the day and night.
Dom Guéranger The Liturgical Year

► Introit : Deus in adjutórium

  In the Introit of this twelfth Sunday after Pentecost is Psalm 69, a supplication addressed to the Lord to obtain his help in the midst of the dangers and trials of this life. The first verse is well known, for ...is sung at the beginning of all the hours of the Divine Office without exception, a call full of trust in God who is ready to grant us his graces, but who wants them to be asked to:

    Deus, in adjutórium meum inténde: Dómine, ad adjuvándum me festína: confundántur and revereántur inimíci mei, quærunt ánimam meam.

To this first verse ..., the text of the Introit adds the second verse.

    Avertántur retrórsum and erubéscant: qui cogitant mihi mala...
    May they be covered with shame and confusion the enemies who seek my soul.

  The melody of this Introit is quite original. It first embarks on the high force in an assertion full of confidence. If the text is very supplicating, the melody expresses absolute confidence. Then it becomes calmer and static, always turning around the same notes to end with a very peaceful low rate. The following verse that is psalmodized in the sequel repeats about the same thing:

    Avertantur retrorsum and erubescant, qui volunt mihi mala.
    Let them return with blushing those who want to hurt me.

► Gradual : Benedícam Dóminum

  Like that of the Introit, the text of the Gradual of the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost is the beginning of a psalm. This is Psalm 33, the psalm of praise and thanksgiving for the deliverance of great danger, which is often used in the liturgy. We noticed this recently at the Gradual of the seventh Sunday and at the Communion of the eighth and we will again hear this at the Offertory of the fourteenth. His first two verses are entirely devoted to praise.

    Benedícam Dóminum in omni tempore: semper laus eius in ore meo.
    I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise will always be in my mouth.

    V/. In Dómino laudábitur ánima mea : áudiant mansuéti, and læténtur.
    My soul will be glorified in the Lord; let the meek hear and rejoice.

  “Semper laus ejus in ore meo – May his praise always be in my mouth. “This must be the motto of all singers and especially of the Gregorianists, but it is only the gentle, those who have no sense of pride or violence in their hearts who are invited to rejoice in all the blessings that the Lord bestows upon us.

  That’s why the melody, if it is very developed like those of the Graduals with great vocalizations, remains on the whole quite moderate and peaceful, with only a beautiful flight in the acute 'in omni tempore ' and an enthusiastic crescendo on the word 'meo' at the end of the first part.
  The second part, unlike most Graduals is even quieter and more restrained. It is truly an inner joy with, on the word 'mansueti' (the gentle ones), a long contemplative vocalise turning on itself.

► Alleluia : Dómine, Deus salútis meæ

  Like the one on... ninth Sunday, the Alleluia of the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost is an exception in the series of the Alleluias of this liturgical time, which are generally enthusiastic and triumphal exclamations. We find here a text of supplication, and as in the Introit and Gradual of this Mass, and as for most of the Hallelujahs of this time, it is still the beginning of a psalm, this time Psalm 87. This psalm is the prayer of an unfortunate abandoned of all, and it is one of the few of the whole Psalter to be a long complaint, without any word of trust or hope. We sing it at the holy week, where it is obviously put in the mouth of the suffering Christ, but here we find only the first verse:

    Dómine, Deus salútis meæ, in die clamávi and nocte coram te
    Lord, God of my salvation, day and night I cried out in Your presence.

  This text may very well be detached from its scriptural context and be interpreted only as the affirmation of our incessant but also confident prayer. The melody invites us to do this.

It is full of mystical fervor, but also of calm and peaceful abandonment, in a great line flexible and very linked. This is note for note the same as that of the Alleluja 'Cognoverunt' of the second Sunday after Easter, the Sunday of the Good Shepherd: “They recognized the Lord Jesus at the breaking of the bread.” We expressed our gratitude to the Lord for the grace to know Him intimately; we find this same fervor to beg Him day and night.
[ 2 min. sample singing]

► Offertory : Precátus is

  The Offertory of the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost has an exceptional character, if only by its length and its dramatic intensity. ... not taken from a psalm, but from the book of Exodus.

  Thus there are at that time after Pentecost six great offerings from various books of the Old Testament. We have heard one in the seventh Sunday, borrowed from the book of Daniel, and we will  again see this in the seventeenth, eighteenth, twenty-first and twenty-second Sundays. But this one is the longest, exceeding even by its dimensions the great 'Jubilate' of the second Sunday after the Epiphany. He has the shape of a triptych, whose central part is Moses’ prayer for his people who had distanced themselves from God to worship the golden calf and whom the Lord wanted to exterminate. This prayer is framed by two short stories, an introductory account and a concluding narrative.

    Precátus is Moyses in conspectu Dómini, Dei sui, et dixit: Quare, Dómine, irascéris in pópulo tuo? Parce iræ ánimæ tuæ: memento Abraham, Isaac and Iacob, quibus iurásti dare terram fluentem lac and mel. Et placátus factus est Dóminus de malignitáte, quam dixit fácere pópulo suo...

  Moses prayed in the presence of the Lord his God, saying, “Why, Lord, irritate yourself against your people? Cease the wrath of your soul, remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom you have sworn to give the earth where milk and honey flow. And the appeased Lord renounced the evil He had wanted to do to his people.

  It will be noted that the first sentence, the introductory narrative, is repeated twice, as in the great 'Jubilate', but this time with the same melody; only the final cadence is a little different. The melody of this story is calm and well asserted with flexible ripples. Moses' prayer, then, has three sentences. We immediately feel more movement and tension. The first is almost anxious, the second very begging. Finally the third sentence 'Memento, Abraham...' rises abruptly to the treble with vehemence. We find calm for the conclusion, the Lord has renounced punishment, it is appeasement and relaxation.

► Communion : De fructu

  We find in the antiphon of Communion of the twelfth Sunday after Pentecost the same idea as in the Communion of the previous Sunday: in this full summer, period of harvests, offer to the Lord the harvests and thank Him for the fruits of the land that He gives us in abundance. Today’s text is taken from Psalm 103, a great hymn of praise and recognition for all the splendors of creation, which are listed with admirable poetry. The liturgy has chosen here the verses that relate to the matter of the sacraments, bread, wine and oil:

    De fructu óperum tuórum, Dómine, satiábitur terra : ut edúcas panem de terra, and vinum lætíficet cor hóminis: ut exhílaret fáciem in oleo, et panis cor hóminis confírmet.
    Lord, the earth is filled with the fruit of your works. Thus, you draw bread from the bosom of the earth and wine rejoices the heart of man; the oil puts joy on his face and bread comforts the heart of man.

  The Eucharistic meaning of... words is evident at the time of communion: the bread that gives strength and the wine that gives joy are sung with a very simple and light melody, expressing the confident happiness of the little children to whom their good father gives everything they need.


*******
Audio here:


The more we know about Chant, the more we love Holy Mother Church. Tradition is essential.