A Lenten Prayer- "Attende Domine"
Walters Art Museum, Eugène Delacroix, “Christ on the Cross,” photograph, 1846, https://en.m.wikipedia.org.1
Lent is an intense time for purgation, purification and penance. Although Lent can often be emphasized as a time of giving up and stripping away all attachments to the world, nevertheless, as we well know, it is not meant to focus on merely the negative aspect of spiritualty. For, more striking than supplying us with merely a deficit or “do not’s” during this season, the Church wonderfully supplies us with an abundance of useful tools all geared towards helping our hearts and minds anticipate, in joyful expectation that the kingdom of God is at hand,” (Mt 3:2, DRV). 2
One such method of aiding our spiritual endeavors is through chant, specifically through the hymns which seek to create a favorable environment for our hearts to “hear(eth) the word, and understandeth, and beareth fruit,” (Mt 13:5). In particular, the hymn Attende Domine can be seen to achieve this result by unfolding before our eyes the sentiments necessarily contingent to the Chrisitan Lenten path. (Link below) Hence, this aforementioned hymn, through its unique appeal to the Christian salvific journey, attempts to turn our attentions away from our own meager Lenten sufferings and selves and out towards the ultimate gift: our loving and suffering Savior.
Before getting into the specifics of this hymn, something must first be said regarding its construction as a whole. At first glance, Attende Domine might seem like a highly simplistic form of Lenten chant, a fact that is emphasized by the website “Gregorian Chant Lyrics-English translation Attende Domine”.3 Indeed, it is true that there are no glorious harmonies, no heart-rendering soloist parts, and hardly any stimulating or striking diversion within the music itself. In fact, it borders on the repetitive, we might dare assert. Yet, it is this lack of nuance, this simplicity which renders it so captivating.
For, this hymn, though brief and lacking in the complexity with which we might find more familiar, is nevertheless a beautiful mediation which, through its lyrics as well as its effortless fluctuation between the major and minor sounds, propels the listener to contemplate the seemingly opposed sentiments of our hope in Redemption as well as our gripping acknowledgment and compunction for our iniquities against God, both of which concepts we know to be equally necessary to the true Catholic life. Thus, one could say, Attende Domine, in both its tone and words, magnanimously encapsulates the hopeful yet contrite Lenten spirit through its transparent simplicity.
Having established a few words regarding the nature of the hymn as a whole, let us turn our attention to its composition. As one notices upon his first examination of this hymn, the format is comprised of one refrain and four verses. The hymn, therefore, commences with the major swelling of the refrain: “Attende Domine, et miserere, quia peccavimus tibi” which translates to mean “Hear us, O Lord, and have mercy because we have sinned against Thee.” 4 What is felt here is the heart rendering cry of our miserable human nature in its need for a Savior, a fact also affirmed by the website mentioned above. 5
Yet, this concept of mercy is not taken in isolation; rather, it is seen to be coupled with a humble and a courageous acknowledgment of our sinfulness, an acknowledgement which we all know to be a prerequisite to obtaining the mercy of God. For, as Christ tells us, “I came not to call the just, but sinners to penance,” (Lk 5:32).
Immediately springing off of this theme of mercy, while fluctuating between the minor and major tone, the first two verses of the hymn start to enumerate the numerous glories contained in the identity of the Savior: for instance, Christ is lovingly referred to as “highest King, Redeemer of all” and then again as “Right hand of the Father, corner-stone, way of salvation, gate of heaven”.6 Thus, the hymn attributes to the God-Man of whom we read “there is no beauty in him, nor comliness: and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him,” (Is 53:2) the honor and tribute which He so wholly deserves: we recall, therefore, St. Augustine’s words which state “Great Art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised…Thou awakes us to delight in Thy praise…” 7 Hence, through this hymn’s affirmation of Our Lord’s glory, the listener is reminded that the Passion and all the insults heaped on Our Lord in no way took away from His glory or Divinity. Rather, they added to the glory He gave His Father, for He accomplished His Father’s Will perfectly, as He prayed in the Garden, “not my will, but thine be done,” (Lk 22:42).
It is important to note that Attende Domine does not permit us to stop at the beauty of contemplating Our God’s goodness and majesty. Rather, once establishing the grandeur of who it is that we call Redeemer, it subsequently directs us again within the next two verses to implore more specifically the forgiveness of this Redeemer. Finally, the last verse concludes with the following words: “The Innocent, seized, not refusing to be led; condemned by false witnesses because of impious men O Christ, keep safe those whom Thou hast redeemed.”8 Thus, the listener is left contemplating a key concept of the Passion: namely, a humble yet poignant affirmation of Christ’s power in His seeming weakness, an insight which has is grounded in the realities of the Scriptures. For, as Christ Himself states, “Thinkest thou that I cannot ask my Father, and he will give me presently more than twelve legions of angels? w How then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that so it must be done?” (Mt 26:53).
Thus, at the conclusion of this hymn, we have before us in glaring simplicity a beautiful doxology of faith so appropriate for the Lenten season. For, not only are we presented with the proper sentiments of hope and contrition so necessary for us in relation to our Savior, but, moreover, the hymn, through its emphasis on the adorable traits of Our Lord, also plainly outlines exactly Who it was that was crucified and redeemed us on that Good Friday which turned the tide of history.
It was none other than a God whose enemies “were struck with terror, and became as dead men,” after His Resurrection (Mt 28:4) a God Who, as we know from all philosophical reasonings, is and must be His own source of glory, a notion which we so frequently affirm in the “Glory Be” at the conclusion of each decade of the Rosary. Furthermore, this hymn places before our eyes the awesome reality of a God Who is also a Redeemer, a God-Man, who coveted, as it were, man’s freedom to such an extent that the most barbarous tortures and death were of no consequence to Him. This hymn, therefore, can be seen above all else as a prayer, a tribute to the truths regarding man and God that the Church lays before our eyes during this Lenten season.
Click the link below to hear this exceptional piece:
Walters Art Museum, Eugène Delacroix, “Christ on the Cross,” photograph, 1846, https://en.m.wikipedia.org.
The Holy Bible: Douay Rheims, (Post Falls, ID: Lepanto Press).
“Gregorian Chant Lyrics-English translation Attende Domine,” Gregorian Chant Lyrics, at https://www.chantcd.com.
“Gregorian Chant Lyrics-English translation Attende Domine.”
“Gregorian Chant Lyrics-English translation Attende Domine.”
“Gregorian Chant Lyrics-English translation Attende Domine.”
St. Augustine of Hippo, “Book 1,” in The Confessions of Saint Augustine, trans Edward B. Pusey D. D., (New York: Pocket Books, INC., 1951) 1.
“Gregorian Chant Lyrics-English translation Attende Domine.”