A Reflection on the Last Things
interspersed with choral music
(The image above – public domain – is part of The Last Judgment a triptych attributed to the Flemish painter Hans Memling and painted between 1467 and 1471 now in the National Museum in Gdańsk in Poland)
To listen click on this link below
Hymn, Now is the Evening
Introit: Almighty and everlasting God
Setting by Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) with words from the Collect for the Third Sunday after Epiphany
Almighty and everlasting God,
mercifully look upon our infirmities,
and in all our dangers and necessities
stretch forth thy right hand to help and defend us,
through Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Anthem: Remember not Lord, our offences, Z 50
Henry Purcell (1659-1695)
Remember not, Lord, our offences, nor the offences of our forefathers; neither take thou venge-ance of our sins, but spare us, good Lord. Spare thy people, whom thou hast redeem’d with thy most precious blood; and be not angry with us forever. Spare us, good Lord.
(from The Great Litany, The Book of Common Prayer)
Sequence text (sung in Plainsong) The Dies Irae
Dies iræ, dies illa
Solvet sæclum in favilla,
Teste David cum Sibylla.
Quantus tremor est futurus,
Quando Judex est venturus,
Cuncta stricte discussurus!…….
Lacrimosa dies illa,
Qua resurget ex favilla,
Judicandus homo reus.
Huic ergo parce, Deus:
Pie Jesu Domine,
Dona eis requiem. Amen.
(A somewhat free English translation though not the one cited in the reflection)
DAY OF WRATH and doom impending,
David’s word with Sibyl’s blending!
Heaven and earth in ashes ending!
Oh, what fear man’s bosom rendeth,
When from heaven the judge descendeth,
On whose sentence all dependeth!
Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth,
Through earth’s sepulchres it ringeth,
All before the throne it bringeth.
Death is struck and nature quaking,
All creation is awaking,
To its judge an answer making.
Lo! the book exactly worded,
Wherein all hath been recorded;
Thence shall judgement be awarded.
When the judge his seat attaineth,
And each hidden deed arraigneth,
Nothing unavenged remaineth.
What shall I, frail man, be pleading?
Who for me be interceding,
When the just are mercy needing?
King of majesty tremendous,
Who dost free salvation send us,
Fount of pity, then befriend us.
Think, kind Jesu, my salvation
Caused thy wondrous Incarnation;
Leave me not to reprobation.
Faint and weary thou has sought me,
On the Cross of suffering bought me,
Shall such grace be vainly brought me?
Righteous judge, for sin’s pollution,
Grant thy gift of absolution,
Ere that day of retribution.
(Camila Parias & Francesco Logozzo, cantors)
The Introit & Kyrie from the Missa pro defunctis a 6—
Tomás Luis de Victoria (c 1548-1611)
The reflection is by the Revd. Canon Alistair Macdonald-Radcliff.
The music heard in this Reflection is from the sound archive of the Choir of the Church of the Advent, Boston by kind permission of the Rector the Revd. Fr. Douglas Anderson and the Director of Music, Mark Dwyer.