Hymn, Magnificat, and Anthems of the Blessed Virgin

1. The Hymn

During the night the followers of the impious Arius ran through the streets of Constantinople singing hymns which breathed forth their pernicious doctrines. The Christians were exposed to meeting them and hearing them. To fortify their faith by orthodox chants, St. John Chrysostom, who then occupied the see of that illustrious Church, added to the divine office certain hymns. Their origin in the West goes back to the pontificate of St. Ambrose. During the persecution stirred up by the Empress Justina, mother of Valerian and a furious Arian, the great prelate was in a sense besieged in his church with all his people.

To conquer sleep and weariness, Ambrose composed hymns which were sung with the psalms. This singing, which delighted the faithful, remained in the divine office. Other churches, filled with holy jealousy, imitated that of Milan, and, in remembrance of Ambrose, the hymns were called Ambrosian. The doxology—for p. 110so the last strophe which ends the hymns is called—is the chant of victory over the ruins of Arianism; it is also an honorable reparation offered by the Church to the Blessed Trinity, and to Our Lord Jesus Christ above all, so infamously outraged by the Arians.

We cannot enter into an explanation of the hymns of Vespers; they vary according to the feasts. We will content ourselves with saying a word of that of Sunday. The light was created on the first day, which is Sunday. On the same day there burst from the tomb that divine Light which enlightens the spiritual world of intelligences, and has become the sun of the heavenly Jerusalem. The hymn celebrates these two great memories. As we thank God for this double blessing, let us sigh for the day when it will be given to us to contemplate the radiant clearness of the eternal light.

2. The Magnificat

The hymn finished, the voice of a child makes itself heard, and all the assembly turns toward the altar. This chant, short and piercing like a cry, bears the name of versicle, that is to say, return. The Church has placed it before the canticles and the prayers of the office, to bring us back to meditation so that if our mind has up to this time been wandering in outside affairs, now at least it may return to God to praise Him with Mary and by Mary.

Magnificat Sung Each Day.—The Incarnation is the gift of God above all others; St. Paul calls it “the great mystery of godliness.” (i. Tim. iii. 16.) Gratitude without limit should respond to infinite mercy. But how shall we praise worthily the humiliations and p. 111tenderness of a God made flesh? Even the language of angels would be but stammering. What has the Church done? She repeats each day the canticle of the Blessed Virgin, that sublime chant in which the august Mother of God offers, in the name of humanity, the homage of her adoration and gratitude. The Magnificat, the canticle of the Incarnation, recalls to us each day that God has stripped Himself of His glory to clothe Himself in the livery of poor and suffering humanity.

God is made flesh: this thought alone ravished into ecstasy the holy Magdalen and many saints. Let it at least arouse in our hearts some feeling of love for a God “Who has so loved the world that He has delivered His only-begotten Son.”

Why is this canticle said in the evening? Why at Vespers rather than at Compline? We have already seen that it was the evening of the world when Jesus Christ came among us, that then paganism had spread everywhere, in minds and hearts, the shadows of its darkness. It was also the sixth age of the world. For this reason the Magnificat is sung at Vespers, the sixth canonical hour of the divine office.

Ceremonies of the Magnificat.—During this canticle, taken from the Gospel, the clergy and people stand, out of respect for the sacred word. As at Mass before the reading of the Gospel, the sign of the cross is made at the first words of Mary’s canticle. Then the celebrant, leaving his place, goes to the altar, kisses and incenses it. The Introit of the Mass has already given us occasion to study the meaning of these two ceremonies. At the Magnificat they have the same signification. “Let Him kiss me with a kiss of His mouth” (Cant. i. 1) was the cry of humanity while it awaited the coming of the Messias. The priest, representing Jesus Christ, by the kiss which he gives the altar, on the spot where the bones of the saints are laid, announces to the world that its prayers have been heard; the Word Incarnate has given us the kiss of love and reconciliation. (Spicil. de Solesmes, t. iii. ch. 29.) The earth, thrice blessed at this hour, has sent up, even to the throne of God, the perfume of an acceptable prayer. God was praised and glorified by a God. The odor of the incense poured out upon the altar and in all the holy place, again can recall to us the graces given to the holy humanity of Jesus Christ, and from Him, as from their source, shed upon the world. We should not forget the august Mother of God. This incensing is a symbol of the perfumes with which her virtues filled Elizabeth’s house at Hebron. And the priest, leaving his place and mounting the steps of the altar, should remind us of Mary, who, says the Gospel, “rising up in those days, went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda” (St. Luke i. 39).

Explanation of the Magnificat.—“My soul doth magnify the Lord.” Never has purer praise mounted to God. All creatures praise the Lord; none can do so as Mary did. What soul is like to hers?—full of grace, immaculate, more shining than the sun by the splendor of her virtues. She alone could say: My soul doth magnify the Lord. She alone is without sin and without the least stain. Since the pure soul is a harmonious canticle, celestial praise, let us live in such a manner as to be able to say each Sunday: “Magnificat anima mea Dominum.”

“And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.”

Mary well understood the grandeur of the mystery wrought in her. Her soul was so filled with God that it longed to break the bonds of its earthly tabernacle to be united more closely with Him. The blissful emotion that Mary felt when the Word descended into her breast would have killed her a thousand times over had not a miracle preserved her life. What a cause of humiliation for us! The same God comes into our heart, and it hardly beats more rapidly. We know nothing of those joys which inundate the souls of the saints. Tepidity, distaste, weariness, these are most frequently our feelings while Jesus Christ dwells in us. O Mary, give us a little of thy love for Jesus, that our souls may always rejoice in God our Saviour.

“For He hath regarded the humility of His handmaid: for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.”

God seems to regard and take pleasure only in humility, a virtue so powerful as to call down the Son of the Eternal God into the bosom of a virgin. How profound it was in Mary! Let us admire the terms in which she speaks of the sublime dignity to which she was elevated. “The Lord hath regarded the humility of His handmaid.” What a beautiful model, unhappily little followed! “Without speaking of worldly persons, we often hear those that are pious talking complacently of the graces which they have received.” When they are exposed to the breath of flattery and praise, these graces are scattered like the dust. “He who humbleth himself shall be exalted.” The humble Virgin, who calls herself the Lord’s handmaid, shall hear all generations proclaim her grandeur. The first name lisped by the p. 113child shall be thine, O Mary; later it will console the agony of the dying. Everywhere temples will arise in thy honor, associations under thy patronage. All ages, all conditions will crowd around thy altars. Each generation bending the knee will proclaim thee blessed.

“For He that is mighty hath done great things unto me: and holy is His name.”

The dignity to which the title of Mother of God has raised Mary merits the praises and gratitude of all the centuries.

St. Thomas says that “God could, if He would, have made more perfect works except the Incarnation, the divine maternity, and the beatitude of man, which consists in the vision of God. His power could make nothing better, nothing greater, because there could be nothing better and greater than God Himself.” (P. i. quæst. 25, art. 6.)

In the harmony of praise which the generations send toward Mary’s throne heresy mingled its blasphemies against the adorable mystery of a Virgin-Mother. Nothing shall shake our faith. He Who has wrought these marvels is almighty and thrice holy: “Qui potens est et sanctum nomen ejus.”

“And His mercy is from generation to generation unto them that fear Him.”

Mary has just said, “the Lord has done great things unto me”; but the divine mercy, which has deigned to stoop even to me, will overflow, throughout the ages, upon those who fear God. Humanity is the Lord’s great family; all its members will have part in His mercy.

The earth henceforth will be His kingdom. “Let him not despair, then,” says St. Bernard, “he who fears the judgment of God because of his sins; mercy is for those who fear the Lord.”

“He hath shown strength with His arm: He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.”

The greatest work of God, that in which He put forth, so to speak, all His power, is, as we have said, the Incarnation. When the mystery of the Word made flesh was revealed to the love of the angels, and the proud spirits refused it their homage, God dispersed their rebel hosts, and hurled them into the abyss. His chosen people, the Jews, being vain and haughty, did not recognize in Jesus Christ, poor and humiliated, the redeeming Messias promised to their fathers; the breath of God dispersed them to the four points of the compass. No longer do they form a people, a race, or a nation. This is the dispersion of the Jews prophesied by Mary: “Dispersit.”

“He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.”

The demons, fallen angels, were the princes of this world before the coming of Jesus Christ; on the altars of the false divinities they had really their throne. Before the Child in the crib their temples crumbled, and the power of Satan was destroyed.

The Jews are also dethroned princes. Sons of the kingdom, elect of God, they merited, by their treachery, seeing the gentiles substituted for them. The latter, in the person of the centurion and the woman of Chanaan, threw themselves humbly at the feet of Our Lord, and Jesus Christ, filled with admiration, cried out: “Amen I say to you, I have not found so great faith in Israel. And I say to you that many shall come from the east p. 114and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into the exterior darkness.” (St. Matt. viii. 10, 11.) Thus is accomplished the prophecy: “He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.”

“He hath filled the hungry with good things: and the rich He hath sent empty away.”

This verse is the continuation of the preceding one; it still alludes to the Jews and gentiles. “The whelps,” said the woman of Chanaan, “also eat of the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” She represented the gentile people, hungry and supplicating for the good things of heaven. The favors of God were showered upon them in abundance, while the Jews, until then filled with the gifts of heaven, were banished from before the face of the Lord.

“He hath upholden His servant Israel: being mindful of His mercy.”

How was it that a people so unfaithful were chosen by the Lord? Why had the Messias willed to be born of this race which He was about to curse? Because He remembered His merciful promises.

“As He spake unto our fathers: to Abraham and his seed for ever.”

God had promised a saviour to Adam, to Abraham, to Jacob, and to David.

God is faithful to His word; the malice of man could not prevent Him from fulfilling it. The second part of the verse assures us that the mercy which the Lord remembered in His Incarnation should always rest with the posterity of Abraham, the father of the believing. The true race of Abraham is the Christian people. God has chosen it for the child of His love. How have we responded to the goodness of the Lord in our own case? By ingratitude when it was not by revolt.

Listen and see what passes on the earth; you will feel a thrill of horror. Why does not Heaven send upon so many crimes a new deluge or another rain of fire? It is the reign of mercy, which pardons always: Abraham et semini ejus in sæcula.

The Prayer.—The anthem of the Magnificat ended, the priest says, “Let us pray,” and the assembly turns toward the altar, that is, toward the east, and prays, still standing. These two circumstances it is important to explain. From the beginning of Christianity the churches have been so constructed that the priest and people turn toward the altar, looking to the east, for prayer; a liturgical arrangement to which Christian art has always conformed when circumstances permitted, and which is called orientation. The east was the cradle of the human race; the terrestrial paradise was placed on that side, according to the testimony of Genesis. (Cornel. in Gen. ii. 8.)

Man was expelled thence after his disobedience. On this distant shore what can the poor exile do? He loves to turn his eyes toward that point where lay all that was dearest to his heart: his land, his family. Under the influence of this sentiment so natural to man, the Church has caused us to look in the direction of that earthly home whence all the children of Adam were banished.

But this gaze, while it wakens our regrets, ought also to call forth hope. By the side of the gate of Eden, p. 115guarded by the flaming sword of the seraph, Jesus Christ has opened another door which leads to heaven: “Sing to God, ye kingdoms of the earth,” cries the Prophet. “Sing ye to God, Who mounteth above the heaven of heavens to the east.” (Ps. lxvi.)

As we turn toward this point of the horizon we sigh after our future home. (St. Thom., II. 2. quæst. 84, art. 3.) We seem to say with David: “As the hart panteth after the fountains of waters, so doth my soul pant after Thee, O God.” The east, the witness of the happy days of man’s innocence and the glories of the Ascension of the Saviour, will see the same Jesus descend on the clouds of heaven, surrounded by angels, and become the Judge of the living and the dead.

“His feet,” says the prophet Zacharias, “shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is over against Jerusalem toward the east.” (Zach. xli. 2.) By this practice of her liturgy the Church warns us to be like the faithful and vigilant servant, who, never to be surprised, waits each hour the return of his master. The earthly paradise, the inheritance of heaven, the last judgment: what tremendous memories for the pious and recollected heart!

The Christian congregation, turned toward the east, remains standing during the prayer. This custom is very ancient in the Church.

From the beginning she prescribed that the prayers of Sundays and during Paschal time should be said standing, in token of joy, and kneeling for all the rest of the year as a sign of mourning. A passage of St. Jerome’s shows the antiquity of this practice. “St. Paul,” he says, “remained at Ephesus till Pentecost, the time of p. 116joy and victory, when we bend not the knee, neither bow ourselves toward the earth, but when, arisen with Our Lord, we raise ourselves toward heaven.” (Comment. Epist. ad. Eph.) For the same reason the Angelus or, during the Paschal time, the Regina Cœli, is on Sundays said standing.

The Dominus Vobiscum, contrary to the custom in the Mass, not only precedes but follows the prayer. Here is another reminder of the resurrection of Our Lord. When He appeared on Easter Sunday evening to His apostles, He saluted them with these words: Pax vobis; and the gospels tell us that He repeated the words on leaving them. (Hugh of St. Victor; Rational.)

Benedicamus Domino.—Many graces have been given us during the office which is just ending, and, especially in the prayer made by the minister of God in the name of all. “Let us bless the Lord,” the Church sings by the voice of a child; for from children, the Prophet says, God receives the most perfect praise. To praise the Lord worthily, let us become like children in innocence and simplicity. Some writers believe that these words are sung by a child in remembrance of the canticle of the three children in the fiery furnace, to whom they have been attributed. May our hearts, more than our lips, repeat the chant of gratitude: Deo gratias! Yes, let us thank God, Who has permitted us to speak in His temple the language of angels!

Thanks be to a God dead for us upon the cross, that adorable mystery the memory of which we have just been celebrating! Thanks be to God, Who has given us what His minister has asked for us in his last prayer! Yes, let us repeat: For ever, thanks be to God! Deo gratias!

The Commemoration of the Dead.—As members of the Church militant, we have just associated ourselves with the canticles and the joy of the Church in heaven; before we separate, let us unite ourselves to the sorrows of our brethren of the Church suffering. At this moment let the thought of the violence of their anguish and the sweetness of the ties which unite us to them be present in our minds. There are a father, a mother, children, brothers, sisters, and friends. Let us offer to God for them all the merits which we may have gained during the office of Vespers. This last prayer will then fall on these poor souls like a merciful dew: “Fidelium animæ, misericordiam Dei requiescant in pace”—“May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.”

3. The Anthems of the Blessed Virgin

These are four in number: the Alma Redemptoris Mater, the Ave Regina Cœlorum, the Regina Cœli, and the Salve Regina.

The Alma Redemptoris.—This anthem is commonly attributed to Herman Contractus, a Benedictine monk, in the monastery of St. Gall. He was always remarkable for a tender piety toward the Blessed Virgin. His death occurred toward the year 1054. The Alma Redemptoris is sung from Advent to the Purification.

The Ave Regina Cœlorum.—Tradition says that the apostles reunited around the dying bed of the Blessed Virgin, singing the praises of her who was so soon to become their glorious queen: “Hail, Queen of heaven,” they said. “Hail, mistress of angels; hail, thou who hast borne the Light of the world. Rejoice, glorious p. 117Virgin, most glorious of all God’s creatures. Farewell, and pray for us.”

This was, according to certain authors, the origin of the Ave Regina Cœlorum. It is sung from the Purification to Holy Thursday.

The Regina Cœli.—Under the pontificate of Saint Gregory the Great, the city of Rome was decimated by a frightful plague. In order to appease the anger of God, the holy Pontiff ordered a solemn procession on Easter Day, in which the picture of the Blessed Virgin, said to have been painted by St. Luke, was carried with pomp and ceremony.

His confidence was not deceived. Heavenly voices were heard in the air which sang: “Joy to thee, O Queen of heaven, alleluia; for He Whom thou wast meet to bear, alleluia; as He promised hath arisen, alleluia.” And the Pope, joining with the angels, cried out: “Pour for us to Him thy prayer, alleluia.”

At that instant was seen, on the castle of Adrian, an angel who dried a sword wet with blood, and sheathed it. The plague had not another victim. This anthem is sung from Holy Saturday to Trinity Sunday.

The Salve Regina.—Nothing certain is known of the author of this anthem. It is commonly attributed to Adhemar of Monteil, bishop of Puy and member of the Council of Clermont, where the first crusade was resolved upon. Subsequently he took the cross, and composed for the crusaders the Salve Regina. This chant ended with the words: “And after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” The last words were added by St. Bernard. Sent as legate to Germany, he assisted one day in the divine office at Spire. Suddenly, under an inspiration, he added, genuflecting three times: “O clement, O pious, O sweet Virgin Mary”—words which were carved in the marble of the basilica, on the site where St. Bernard had uttered them.

According to several historians, the holy abbot of Clairvaux had learned these three invocations of the Salve Regina from the angels themselves. We will let them tell the story.

“One night the saint was awakened by the sound of celestial voices, which sang in the church of the monastery the praises of God and of the Virgin Mary. He arose quickly, and hastened secretly into the church to see more closely the marvellous things which were happening there. He beheld the Blessed Virgin between two angels, who held in their hands a golden censer and incense. One of them, taking St. Bernard by the hand, led him to the altar, at the right of the Blessed Virgin. There he heard the angels singing the Salve Regina complete, as we have it now.”

During the chanting of these anthems let us represent to ourselves Mary on the night of the crucifixion, consoled by angels and the apostles. May our praises and prayers also rejoice her maternal heart!