| Contents | Lucis Creator optime O Blest Creator of the Light |
Hymni |
Attributed to Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604), this hymn is used in the Roman Breviary at Vespers for Sundays after Epiphany and Sundays after Pentecost. In the Liturgia Horarum it is used for Sunday evening Vespers for Ordinary time for the first and third weeks of the Psalter.
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| LUCIS Creator optime lucem dierum proferens, primordiis lucis novae, mundi parans originem: |
O BLEST Creator of the light, Who mak'st the day with radiance bright, and o'er the forming world didst call the light from chaos first of all; |
| Qui mane iunctum vesperi diem vocari praecipis: tetrum chaos illabitur,1 audi preces cum fletibus. |
Whose wisdom joined in meet array the morn and eve, and named them Day: night comes with all its darkling fears; regard Thy people's prayers and tears. |
| Ne mens gravata crimine, vitae sit exsul munere, dum nil perenne cogitat, seseque culpis illigat. |
Lest, sunk in sin, and whelmed with strife, they lose the gift of endless life; while thinking but the thoughts of time, they weave new chains of woe and crime. |
| Caeleste pulset ostium:2 vitale tollat praemium: vitemus omne noxium: purgemus omne pessimum. |
But grant them grace that they may strain the heavenly gate and prize to gain: each harmful lure aside to cast, and purge away each error past. |
| Praesta, Pater piissime, Patrique compar Unice, cum Spiritu Paraclito regnans per omne saeculum. Amen. |
O Father, that we ask be done, through Jesus Christ, Thine only Son; Who, with the Holy Ghost and Thee, doth live and reign eternally. Amen. |
| From the Roman Breviary, translation by J. M. Neale (1818-1866). Changes made by Pope Urban VIII in 1632 to the Roman Breviary: 1 illabitur tetrum chaos, 2 The Liturgia Horarum has: Caelorum pulset intimum. |
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