They are multiplied above the hairs of my head, who hate me without cause.

Ps. 68: 1 Unto the end, for them that shall be changed; for David.

2 SAVE me, O God: for the waters are come in even unto my soul.

3 I stick fast in the mire of the deep: and there is no sure standing. I am come into the depth of the sea: and a tempest hath overwhelmed me.

4 I have laboured with crying; my jaws are become hoarse: my eyes have failed, whilst I hope in my God.

5 They are multiplied above the hairs of my head, who hate me without cause. My enemies are grown strong who have wrongfully persecuted me: then did I pay that which I took not away.

6 O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my offences are not hidden from thee:

7 Let not them be ashamed for me, who look for thee, O Lord, the Lord of hosts. Let them not be confounded on my account, who seek thee, O God of Israel.

8 Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.

9 I am become a stranger to my brethren, and an alien to the sons of my mother.

10 For the zeal of thy house hath eaten me up: and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

11 And I covered my soul in fasting: and it was made a reproach to me.

12 And I made haircloth my garment: and I became a byword to them.

13 They that sat in the gate spoke against me: and they that drank wine made me their song.

14 But as for me, my prayer is to thee, O Lord; for the time of thy good pleasure, O God. In the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.

15 Draw me out of the mire, that I may not stick fast: deliver me from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.

16 Let not the tempest of water drown me, nor the deep swallow me up: and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.

17 Hear me, O Lord, for thy mercy is kind; look upon me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

18 And turn not away thy face from thy servant: for I am in trouble, hear me speedily.

19 Attend to my soul, and deliver it: save me because of my enemies.

20 Thou knowest my reproach, and my confusion, and my shame.

21 In thy sight are all they that afflict me; my heart hath expected reproach and misery. And I looked for one that would grieve together with me, but there was none: and for one that would comfort me, and I found none.

22 And they gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

23 Let their table become as a snare before them, and a recompense, and a stumblingblock.

24 Let their eyes be darkened that they see not; and their back bend thou down always.

25 Pour out thy indignation upon them: and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.

26 Let their habitation be made desolate: and let there be none to dwell in their tabernacles.

27 Because they have persecuted him whom thou hast smitten; and they have added to the grief of my wounds.

28 Add thou iniquity upon their iniquity: and let them not come into thy justice.

29 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; and with the just let them not be written.

30 But I am poor and sorrowful: thy salvation, O God, hath set me up.

31 I will praise the name of God with a canticle: and I will magnify him with praise.

32 And it shall please God better than a young calf, that bringeth forth horns and hoofs.

33 Let the poor see and rejoice: seek ye God, and your soul shall live.

34 For the Lord hath heard the poor: and hath not despised his prisoners.

35 Let the heavens and the earth praise him; the sea, and every thing that creepeth therein.

36 For God will save Sion, and the cities of Juda shall be built up. And they shall dwell there, and acquire it by inheritance.

37 And the seed of his servants shall possess it; and they that love his name shall dwell therein.

Their throat is an open sepulchre: they dealt deceitfully with their tongues

Ps. 5: Verba mea auribul. A prayer to God against the iniquities of men.

[1] Unto the end, for her that obtaineth the inheritance. A psalm of David. [2] Give ear, O Lord, to my words, understand my cry. [3] Hearken to the voice of my prayer, O my King and my God. [4] For to thee will I pray: O Lord, in the morning thou shalt hear my voice. [5] In the morning I will stand before thee, and will see: because thou art not a God that willest iniquity.

[6] Neither shall the wicked dwell near thee: nor shall the unjust abide before thy eyes. [7] Thou hatest all the workers of iniquity: Thou wilt destroy all that speak a lie. The bloody and the deceitful man the Lord will abhor. [8] But as for me in the multitude of thy mercy, I will come into thy house; I will worship towards thy holy temple, in thy fear. [9] Conduct me, O Lord, in thy justice: because of my enemies, direct my way in thy sight. [10] For there is no truth in their mouth; their heart is vain.

[11] Their throat is an open sepulchre: they dealt deceitfully with their tongues: judge them, O God. Let them fall from their devices: according to the multitude of their wickedness cast them out: for they have provoked thee, O Lord. [12] But let all them be glad that hope in thee: they shall rejoice for ever, and thou shalt dwell in them. And all they that love thy name shall glory in thee: [13] For thou wilt bless the just. O Lord, thou hast crowned us, as with a shield of thy good will.

For he hath delivered me from the snare of the hunters: and from the sharp word

The First Sunday of Lent features the longest Tract in the Gregorian repertoire from the Liber Usualis. The Second Sunday of the Passion, or Palm Sunday's Deus, Deus meus is of similar length and is of the same Mode II. It is as if they are book-ends from the beginning of Lent to the Holy Week. While both can be sung in psalm-tone, if it can be managed, they should be sung as above.

Here below, it is sung in the manner in which it would have sounded before the end of the first millennium and the change in style of western chant. The chant at this time was not written down, there were no neums, no staff to put them on. The Cantor would have followed those little red markings, as above, to give him his cues but you can imagine that it was much more fluid and free-wheeling, almost letting the real Spirit, lead him. Note the sound, it is Latin text sung "as the Easterns do," but it is not Byzantine, it is Syriac. The one above, which I and others will chant today, is in the version below. You can hear it smoothed out and structured in the Old Roman Chant.

Now, imagine this. The sound you hear below is the closest thing we know to what Our Most Blessed Lord would have heard in the Temple in Jerusalem and sung Himself.

To those of you trapped in the Nervous Disorder, the great liturgical error of the Church from which She will most surely repent, this is what you should have also heard today.

In 1974, under the orders of the Pope, the Monks of Solesmes published the revised Graduale Romanum for the new calendar. Over 30 years ago, I was told by the late Emeritus Archbishop of Ottawa, that "those who long for Gregorian chant suffer from nostalgia neurosis." Well, that is not what the Second Vatican Council's document on the sacred liturgy had to say, but I digress.

Many of the Mass chants remained intact, others were reordered with different Introits or Communion antiphons for the three-year lectionary, as they often theme with the Gospel. Yet, on this day, and for all of Lent, they are the same. The option of the "Gospel Acclamation" is only an option, it is the Tract that is meet and proper. 

And if you heard "On Eagles Wing's in the nervous disorder today, then you need to find a new parish.

Psalm 90 (91)

1 Laus cantici David Qui habitat in adiutorio Altissimi in protectione Dei caeli commorabitur          

The praise of a canticle for David. He that dwelleth in the aid of the most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of Jacob.

2 Dicet Domino susceptor meus es tu et refugium meum Deus meus sperabo in eum    

He shall say to the Lord: Thou art my protector, and my refuge: my God, in him will I trust.

3 Quoniam ipse liberabit me de laqueo venantium et a verbo aspero     

For he hath delivered me from the snare of the hunters: and from the sharp word.

4 Scapulis suis obumbrabit te et sub pinnis eius sperabis               

He will overshadow thee with his shoulders: and under his wings thou shalt trust.

5 Scuto circumdabit te veritas eius non timebis a timore nocturno            

His truth shall compass thee with a shield: thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night.

6 A sagitta volante in die a negotio perambulante in tenebris ab incursu et daemonio meridiano               

Of the arrow that flieth in the day, of the business that walketh about in the dark: of invasion, or of the noonday devil.

7 Cadent a latere tuo mille et decem milia a dextris tuis ad te autem non ad propinquabit              

A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand: but it shall not come nigh thee.

8 Verumtamen oculis tuis considerabis et retributionem peccatorum videbis      

But thou shalt consider with thy eyes: and shalt see the reward of the wicked.

9 Quoniam tu Domine spes mea Altissimum posuisti refugium tuum       

Because thou, O Lord, art my hope: thou hast made the most High thy refuge.

10 Non accedent ad te mala et flagellum non ad propinquabit tabernaculo tuo  

There shall no evil come to thee: nor shall the scourge come near thy dwelling.

11 Quoniam angelis suis mandabit de te ut custodiant te in omnibus viis tuis       

For he hath given his angels charge over thee; to keep thee in all thy ways.

12 In manibus portabunt te ne forte offendas ad lapidem pedem tuum

In their hands they shall bear thee up: lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

13 Super aspidem et basiliscum ambulabis et conculcabis leonem et draconem 

Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk: and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon.

14 Quoniam in me speravit et liberabo eum protegam eum quia cognovit nomen meum              

Because he hoped in me I will deliver him: I will protect him because he hath known my name.

15 Clamabit ad me et exaudiam eum cum ipso sum in tribulatione eripiam eum et clarificabo eum            

He shall cry to me, and I will hear him: I am with him in tribulation, I will deliver him, and I will glorify him.

16 Longitudine dierum replebo eum et ostendam illi salutare meum       

I will fill him with length of days; and I will shew him my salvation. 

Hold your peace

Holy your peace with me,

and let me speak.

Then let come to me what may.

Come what may.

Why do I take my flesh

in my teeth?

And put my life in His hands.

For He shall be

My life and my salvation.

And though he slay me.

Though he slay me.

Yet, shall I trust.

Yet, shall I trust.

Yet shall I trust.

In Him.

A lament written in two parts for soprano and bass based on Job and the Psalms

For David himself

Ps. 34 Judica, Domine, nocentes me. David, in the person of Christ, prayeth against his persecutors: prophetically foreshewing the punishments that shall fall upon them.

[1] For David himself. Judge thou, O Lord, them that wrong me: overthrow them that fight against me. [2] Take hold of arms and shield: and rise up to help me. [3] Bring out the sword, and shut up the way against them that persecute me: say to my soul: I am thy salvation. [4] Let them be confounded and ashamed that seek after my soul. Let them be turned back and be confounded that devise against me. [5] Let them become as dust before the wind: and let the angel of the Lord straiten them.

[6] Let their way become dark and slippery; and let the angel of the Lord pursue them. [7] For without cause they have hidden their net for me unto destruction: without cause they have upbraided my soul. [8] Let the snare which he knoweth not come upon him: and let the net which he hath hidden catch him: and let the net which he hath hidden catch him: and into that very snare let them fall. [9] But my soul shall rejoice in the Lord; and shall be delighted in his salvation. [10] All my bones shall say: Lord, who is like to thee? Who deliverest the poor from the hand of them that are stronger than he; the needy and the poor from them that strip him.

[11] Unjust witnesses rising up have asked me things I knew not. [12] They repaid me evil for good: to the depriving me of my soul. [13] But as for me, when they were troublesome to me, I was clothed with haircloth. I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer shall be turned into my bosom. [14] As a neighbour and as an own brother, so did I please: as one mourning and sorrowful so was I humbled. [15] But they rejoiced against me, and came together: scourges were gathered together upon me, and I knew not.

[16] They were separated, and repented not: they tempted me, they scoffed at me with scorn: they gnashed upon me with their teeth. [17] Lord, when wilt thou look upon me? rescue thou my soul from their malice: my only one from the lions. [18] I will give thanks to thee in a great church; I will praise thee in a strong people. [19] Let not them that are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: who have hated me without cause, and wink with the eyes. [20] For they spoke indeed peaceably to me; and speaking in the anger of the earth they devised guile.

[21] And they opened their mouth wide against me; they said: Well done, well done, our eyes have seen it. [22] Thou hast seen, O Lord, be not thou silent: O Lord, depart not from me. [23] Arise, and be attentive to my judgment: to my cause, my God, and my Lord. [24] Judge me, O Lord my God according to thy justice, and let them not rejoice over me. [25] Let them not say in their hearts: It is well, it is well, to our mind: neither let them say: We have swallowed him up.

[26] Let them blush: and be ashamed together, who rejoice at my evils. Let them be clothed with confusion and shame, who speak great things against me. [27] Let them rejoice and be glad, who are well pleased with my justice, and let them say always: The Lord be magnified, who delights in the peace of his servant. [28] And my tongue shall meditate thy justice, thy praise all the day long.