Psallite Domino
Chant for Ascension Thursday
Tomorrow being Ascension Thursday, I wanted to highlight a hymn from the Mass for the feast day. The chant “Psallite Domino” is sung as the Communion antiphon during the Mass. In his work, A Forest of Symbols, Abbé Claude Barthe explains the significance of the Communion antiphon. He explains that it is “one of the three processional antiphons of the Mass: the Introit antiphon, the Offertory antiphon, and the Communion antiphon.”
It is easier to consider the Introit and the Offertory as “processional,” but that the Communion antiphon is also processional needs a bit more explanation. Our first instinct might be to say that it is those going up for Communion who are “processing.” However, Abbé Claude Barthe states that it is rather Christ who is processing to us: “the Body of Christ draws near to those who are going to receive him and who present themselves to him.” Christ processes from the altar to meet us. This might be seen even more distinctly in those places which have altar rails where we “see the priest…‘processing’ from one kneeling communicant to the next.”
The Communion antiphon itself “signifies the joy of the communicants, which resembles that of the apostles at the Resurrection of Christ (‘The disciples therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord’ — Jn 20:20), a joy so strong that it left them amazed (Lk 24:41).”
The text of the chant “Psallite Domino” is a pairing of two lines taken from Psalm 67. Firstly, “Sing ye to the Lord…Who mounteth above the heaven of heavens, to the east” (Psalm 67:33-34). And, “Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered: and let them that hate him flee from before his face.” (Psalm 67:2). Of course, we see the relationship to the feast of the Ascension in the first line. But the two lines taken together seem an odd pairing. However, in the context of the reception of Holy Communion, this seemingly strange pairing becomes understandable.
We are being called to sing to the Lord whom we have just received, with an understanding that the same Lord who ascended into heaven is now present within our souls. And with the reception of the body, blood, soul, and divinity of our Lord the enemies of Christ (both our own vices and imperfections, as well as those antagonizing spirits who seek to lead us into sin) are forced to flee from His presence.
Not only does Abbé Claude Barthe’s description of the Communion antiphon help make sense of this antiphon in particular, but looking at each Communion antiphon in light of the reception of Holy Communion can unlock the possibility for greater meditation on this part of the Mass.
Text and Translation
Psallite Domino…Qui ascendit super caelum caeli, ad orientem.
Sing ye to the Lord…Who mounteth above the heaven of heavens, to the east.
Exurgat Deus, et dissipentur inimici ius; et fugiant, qui oderunt sum, a facie eius.
Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered: and let them that hate him flee from before his face.