Today we will drill into a hymn sung by Holy Church in the Liturgia horarum for Compline every evening. It is called Te lucis ante terminum.
Since the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the hymn was rewritten a bit, the words changed… and thus the meaning. We will see the variations. As a matter of fact in the making of this audio project I noted that in one recording of the pre-Conciliar version monks were singing “omnipotens” even while I was reading “piissime“! Shocking!
I dissect this hymn, sing it in the Gregorian chant tone, and we hear different translations and many other musical versions.
I just might ramble a little while drilling into the meaning of the hymn.
Sing along with the hymns! Buy a Liber Hymnarius!
Also, we have another installment of stories about the fictional don Camillo Tarocci, (+ A.D. … ?) parish priest of “The Little World”.
Some time ago, I began a to read stories from The Little World of Don Camillo by Giovanni Guareschi. There is a Don Camillo tag you can use to find the others easily.
These delightful pieces are set in post-war Northern Italy. 
They blend brilliant insight into the human condition with solid applied Catholic Faith.
Today we hear two tales:
- 080 09-03-07 Gaudium et spes 9-10; don Camillo (Part V); SSPXer voicemail
- 070 08-11-01 Venerable Bede on All Saints; a collage; don Camillo (Part IV)
- 068 08-08-04 Interview – Fr. Tim Finigan on the Oxford TLM conference; don Camillo (Part III)
- 067 08-07-29 St. Augustine on Martha, active v. contemplative lives; don Camillo (part II)
- 066 08-07-25 don Camillo (part I): VM – advice on getting TLMs & “pro multis”
UPDATE:
By coincidence… ? … there was a story on ZENIT today in Italian on Guareschi!
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You can get a new Liber Hymnarius HERE.
Yay, Don Camillo!
Don Camillo is a very popular “priest” in France and Italy since 5 movies were made in the 1960s based on Guareschi books, with Fernandel as the lead actor. Many videos available on internet. The most well known priest wearing a biretta for the post Vatican II generations.
transept: I have all those movies. They are really fun.