The buzz on the new "Exultet": here come the bees! [Catholic Caucus]

Patheos.com via TheDeaconsBench. ^ | Mar 15th, 2011 | Deacon Greg Kandra

[Salvation]

The buzz on the new "Exultet": here come the bees!

Mar 15th, 2011 by Deacon Greg Kandra

With Easter rapidly approaching, deacons everywhere will be clearing their throats and getting ready to give voice to the great hymn of the Paschal Proclamation — also known as “The Exultet,” a seven-minute a capaella chant that fittingly, as the lyric proclaims, “humbles earthly pride.”    It is the Mother of All Chants, an epic best approached with a strong heart and steeled nerves.

(For those interested, there’s an excellent downloadable version here that I’ve used for the last three years.)

My pal Elizabeth Scalia took note the other day of the new Roman Missal translation, so this seems a good time to mention, too, the changes coming to “The Exultet” — and they are not insignificant.

Those who aren’t aware of them may want to sit down.

The text which is sung now begins:

“Rejoice, heavenly powers!  Sing choirs of angels!  Exult all creation around God’s throne!  Jesus Christ, our King, is risen!”

That will become:

“Exult, let them exult, the hosts of heaven, exult, let Angel ministers of God exult, let the trumpet of salvation sound aloud our mighty King’s triumph!”

There are quite a few long and meandering tongue twisters along the way, like:

“Therefore, dearest friends, standing in the awesome glory of this holy light, invoke with me, I ask you, the mercy of God almighty, that he, who has been pleased to number me, though unworthy, among the Levites, may pour into me his light unshadowed, that I may sing this candle’s praises…”

But one of the biggest of the many changes is the inclusion of bees.  Yes.  Bees.  To wit:

On this, your night of grace, O holy Father, accept this candle, a solemn offering, the work of bees and of your servants’ hands, an evening sacrifice of praise, this gift from your most holy Church…

(You can read more, and see the musical setting, right here.  The good news: we all have a year to practice.)

Evidently, bees were mentioned prominently in early versions of the medieval texts, and so are making a return appearance.  Rejoice!  (Unless, of course, you’re allergic…)   It remains to be seen — and heard — how all this will sound in the all-too-human voice of your average parish deacon (ahem) and how it will then land on the ear.  (Or will the deacon land on his rear?)  Stay tuned.

So, practice, gentlemen.

And, of course, pray …

[Salvation]

Note the date -- over a year to prepare for this awesome proclaamation.

[Salvation]

The text of the new exultet from Catholic Answers forum

Exult, let them exult, the hosts of heaven,
exult, the Angel ministers of God exult,
let the trumpet of salvation
sound our mighty King’s triumph!

Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her,
ablaze with light from her eternal King,
let all corners of the earth be glad,
knowing an end to gloom and darkness.

Rejoice, let Mother Church also rejoice,
arrayed with the lightning of his glory,
let this holy building shake with joy,
filled with the mighty voices of the peoples.

(Therefore, dearest friends,
standing in the awesome glory of this holy night,
invoke with me, I ask you,
the mercy of God almighty,
that he who has been pleased to number me,
through unworthy, among the Levites,
may pour into me his light unshadowed,
that I may sing this candle’s perfect praises.)

(V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with your spirit.)

V. Lift up your hearts.
R. We lift them up to the Lord.

V. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
R. It is right and just.

It is truly right and just,
with ardent love of mind and heart,
and with devoted service of our voice,
to acclaim our God invisible, the almighty Father,
and Jesus Christ, our Lord, his Son, his Only-Begotten.

Who for our sake paid Adam’s debt to the eternal Father,
and pouring out his own dear Blood
wiped clean the record of our ancient sinfulness.

These them are the feasts of Passover,
in which is slain the Lamb, the one true Lamb,
whose blood anoints the doorposts of believers.

This is the night,
when once you led our forebears, Israel’s children,
from slavery in Egypt
and made them pass dryshod through the Red Sea.

This is the night
that with a pillar of fire
banished the darkness of sin.

This is the night
that even now, throughout the world,
sets Christian believers apart from worldly vices
and from the gloom of sin,
leading them to grace,
and joining them to his holy ones.

This is the night
when Christ broke the prisonbars of death,
and rose victorious from the underworld.

Our birth would have been no gain,
had we not been redeemed.

O wonder of your humble care for us!
O love, O charity beyond all telling,
to ransom a slave you gave away your Son!

O truly necessary sin of Adam,
destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!

O happy fault
that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!

O truly blessed night,
worthy alone to know the time and hour
when Christ rose from the underworld!

This is the night
of which it is written:

The night shall be as bright as day,
dazzling is the night for me,
and full of gladness.

The sanctifying power of this night
dispels all wickedness, washed faults away,
restores innocence to the fallen, and joy to mourners,
drivers out hated, fosters concord, and brings down the mighty.

On this, your night of grace, O holy Father,
accept this candle, a solemn offering,
the work of bees and of your servants’ hands,
an evening sacrifice of praise,
the gift from your most holy Church.

But now we know the praises of this pillar,
which glowing fire ignites for God’s honor,
a fire into many flames divided,
yet never dimmed by sharing of its light,
for it is fed by melting wax,
drawn out by mother bees
to build a torch so precious.

O truly blessed night,
when things of heaven are wed to those of earth,
and divine to the human.

Therefore, O Lord,
we pray you that this candle,
hallowed to the honor of your name,
may persevere undimmed,
to overcome the darkness of this night.

Receiving it as a pleasing fragrance,
and let it mingle with the lights of heaven.

May this flame be found still burning
by the Morning Star:
the one Morning Star who never sets,
Christ your Son,
who coming back from death’s dominion
has shed his peaceful light on humankind,
and lives and reigns for ever and ever.
R. Amen.

[Salvation]

Exultet Ping!

Choir members will be especially interested.

[Bigg Red]

I like it!

[netmilsmom]

WOW!!!

I know our Deacon chants this during our Holy Masses on Easter but my girls are singing Latin tomorrow downtown. I hope we get to hear it.

[Cicero]

Beeswax makes the best candles!

[MarkBsnr]

Very good. I’m looking forward to tomorrow (along with the leg of lamb I’m preparing).

I got to read both readings last night - Isaiah 52:13—53:12 and Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9.

I actually had a couple of tears going towards the end of the Isaiah passage, and received a whole bunch of compliments on the quality of the reading.

Thursday and Friday, we had a professor at the local Catholic university saying Mass (eclectic priest who wears Converse sneakers all the time). Oddly, I keep getting introduced as the Conservative in our parish. I don’t know why.

Nobody has said anything about the Exultet, so I guess I’ll find out tomorrow.

[Tax-chick]

Some of those passages are just on the edge of Catastrophic Comma Chaos. But one pauses, when singing, anyway, for emphasis, or to breathe, or because one lost one’s place ...

It will be interesting to see if this appears in our parish next year, or if there’s a “stone-cold tone-deaf deacon” exception.

[Salvation]

I was supposed to read the Epistle tonight — so beautiful. But with a borken foot, I’m not going out of the house.

Sure am missing these liturgies though....I’ll remember this Easter for sure.

[Salvation]

It’s in this year’s misalette.

[Salvation]

And for a candle to burn during the End Times it must be blessed and be at least 51 percent beeswax.

[Salvation]

The buzz on the new "Exultet": here come the bees! [Catholic Caucus]
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THE EXULTET: Liturgical Treasure of the Easter Vigil
Easter Sunday of the Lord's Resurrection: The Easter Vigil
The Sacraments of Initiation and Christian Life [Easter Vigil]

The Easter Vigil
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Holy Saturday (Easter Vigil)
The Exultet
The Dark before Dawn
Easter and the Holy Eucharist(Catholic/Orthodox Caucus)
Easter Day and Easter Season
THE EASTER LITURGY [Easter Vigil] (Anglican and Catholic Rites)
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HOMILIES PREACHED BY FATHER ALTIER FOR EASTER VIGIL FROM 2002-2005
2 Paschal Candles; Lights On at Vigil And More on Washing of the Feet
RCIA and Holy Saturday

[MarkBsnr]

I was supposed to read the Epistle tonight — so beautiful. But with a borken foot, I’m not going out of the house.

You are so right. :)

[Cicero]

I would add that few things smell as good as a beeswax candle. Candles and incense, I love it.

[Fishtalk]

Let me be the first to stand up proud and say that even as I type I heard this just two short hours ago at my church’s Easter vigil.

The Deacon was chanting this thing and I had to clear my throat, cough. But the church was silent as the Deacon went on and I wanted to hold in my cough. I needed a big throat clearing thing and didn’t want to intrude on this.

I ended up with teared up eyes, running mascara....and I heard that bit about the candle and bees and thought somebody’s making this up.

I had to drink some water, find kleenex....what a situation that was. It ended up that I coughed anyway but then so did a bunch of people.

Yeah, it was interesting, I’ll sure say that.

But the Deacon did a great job of it.

[Fishtalk]

Couple of interesting things about this year’s Easter Vigil.

I been to these vigils for the last eight years. They usually have us all holding lit candles for a longish time but this year everyone walked in with lit candles, then blew them out.

THEN we had to light them up again and we all were confused. While our candles were lit they called up the confirmation candidates. THEY blew out their candles while the congregation was standing with ours still lit. At some point we began blowing them out because hey, the confirmandi blew theirs out. The Deacon then says we shouldn’t blown them out so we had to relight them.

Also, prior vigils had the church in darkness for about almost an hour. THIS time the church lights went on after about five minutes of entry with the candles.

Which was kind of interesting as I am in the choir and we always had to bring flashlights so we could see the music and this year I forgot mine. I fretted awful before the vigil began about not having a flashlight but turned out I didn’t need one.

[Salvation]

That’s strange that the lights came on so early. They are supposed to come on as the Gloria is sung for the first time in six weeks/40 days of Lent.

Then the Epistle is read.

Usually our priest has us blow out at the candles when the lights go on and they are picked up in baskets by the greeters/ushers.

[lightman]

This Lutheran has been using the Pauline version since 1985 and has no intention of changing...the revised Missal’s notation is much more difficult to read even under normal lighting conditions, and much of the lyricism of the first vernacular translation has been lost.

[lightman]

I actually had a couple of tears going towards the end of the Isaiah passage,

We should be moved to tears; and when lectoring we should not afraid to let such emotions show.

Well done.

[Fishtalk]

Nope. It’s changed. It’s very detailed in our “Breaking Bread” and it says to the effect that the church lights might come on now that the entry procession was done and the candles were lit.

The lights had been on for almost an hour before we sang the Gloria for the first time.

And the candle thing, I dunno.

But it was detailed step by step in the Breaking Bread.