Contents Rerum Creator optime
Who madest all
Hymni


Attributed to Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604). This traditional Matins hymn is used in the Liturgia Horarum for the Office of the Readings for Wednesdays of the 1st and 3rd weeks of the Psalter during Ordinary Time. Likewise it is found as the Matins hymn for Wednesdays in the Roman Breviary.

RERUM Creator optime,
rectorque noster, respice;
nos a quiete noxia
mersos sopore libera.
WHO madest all and dost control,
Lord, with Thy touch divine,
cast out the slumbers of the soul,
the rest that in not Thine.
Te, sancte Christe, poscimus;
ignosce tu criminibus,1
ad confitendum surgimus
morasque noctis rumpimus.
Look down, Eternal Holiness,
and wash the sins away,
of those, who, rising to confess,
outstrip the lingering day.
Mentes manusque tollimus,
Propheta sicut noctibus
nobis gerendum praecipit
Paulusque gestis censuit.
Our hearts and hands by night, O Lord,
we lift them in our need;
as holy Psalmists give the word,
and holy Paul the deed.
Vides malum quod gessimus;2
occulta nostra pandimus,
preces gementes fundimus;
dimitte quod peccavimus.
Each sin to Thee of years gone by,
each hidden stain lies bare;
we shrink not from Thine awful eye,
but pray that Thou wouldst spare.
Sit, Christe rex piissime,
tibi Patrique gloria
cum Spiritu Paraclito,
in sempiterna saecula. Amen.
Grant this, O Father, Only Son
and Spirit, God of grace,
to whom all worship shall be done
in every time and place. Amen.

Latin form the Liturgia Horarum. Translation by John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890).

Changes made by Pope Urban VIII in 1632 to the Roman Breviary:
1 ignosce culpis omnibus
2 Vides malum quod fecimus


<- Prev

©copyrighted by Michael Martin

Next->