Lent is hard.
Not because these 40 days involve making difficult sacrifices and finally wrangling stubborn prayer lives into subordination, but because — despite the best of intentions — intended sacrifices are forgotten and proposed prayers are left unsaid. By the time Holy Week rolls around, the temptation to throw in the towel until next year is almost overwhelming.
But to give in to that temptation would be to waste Holy Week. Instead, this sacred time of year should be approached with renewed attention to the liturgical spirit, and what better way to do so than to turn to the music written to capture the spirit of this season?
Whether you want to sit down and meditate on these choral settings of sacred texts or simply want to set the mood of your home during this penitential time, here are five penitential songs from generations past that capture the emotion of these sacred days.
“Crux Fidelis” — Gregorian Chant
There is something hauntingly beautiful and otherworldly about well sung Gregorian chant. It has a unique character that sets it apart from any other kind of music that might be played during the rest of the year, which makes it especially appropriate for penitential and mournful seasons like Lent.
“Crux Fidelis” is among the oldest pieces of music passed down from the early Christians. Ostensibly, it was composed in the late sixth century by a Roman named Venantius Fortunatus for a procession taking place in France, which had converted to Christianity a mere generation before. In Catholic churches today, this piece is generally sung during the Adoration of the Cross on Good Friday, a ceremony during which each member of the congregation venerates a crucifix one by one.
The text is a beautiful retelling of the fall of man, the subsequent birth of the long-awaited Christ Child, and His death to redeem the world:
Lofty timber, smooth your roughness,
Flex your boughs for blossoming;
Let your fibers lose their toughness,
Gently let your tendrils cling;
Lay aside your native gruffness,
Clasp the body of your King!
“God of Mercy and Compassion” — Edmund Vaughan
Less a work of liturgy and more a hymn for private devotion, “God of Mercy and Compassion” takes its text from Redemptorist priest Edmund Vaughan and its tune from Italian Renaissance violinist and composer Giovanni Pergolesi.
Vaughan’s text focuses on the role our sins and faults have played in condemning our innocent Lord to His death on Calvary, and the contrition that ought to be felt for them. “Jesus, Lord, I ask for mercy, let me not implore in vain,” the refrain reads. “All my sins, I now detest them, never will I sin again.”
“Memento, Homo” — William Byrd
At the onset of Lent, the marking of foreheads with ashes in the manner of penitent Nineveh was a reminder that we are “dust, and unto dust” we shall return. But, between Ash Wednesday and Holy Week, that text tends to recede into the background of our meditations. By the time we’re gearing up to contemplate the death of an eternal God, we’ve forgotten that the curse of our sin is to return to the dust from which we came.
William Byrd (with his teacher Thomas Tallis) was the first musician to receive permission to publish sacred music in England, and the result was a collection called Cantiones Sacrae, which included a setting of this famous penitential text, “Memento, Homo.”
Byrd might have chosen a minor key; instead, he lulls listeners into complacency with a major key that stands at odds with the text. In a similar way, our approach to this season and our impending death is frequently one of complacency — an approach that is at odds with the punishment incurred because of sin.
“O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded” — J.S. Bach
There are, in Lenten music, some classics that bear listening to frequently and on an annual basis; Gregorio Allegri’s “Miserere Mei” is one such classic, and J.S. Bach’s “O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded” is another.
The text comes from a 900-year-old poem written by St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the founder of the Cistercian order and a prolific writer of spiritual texts. He is particularly famous for his sermons on the Canticle of Canticles, in which he meditates on the courtship between Divine Love and the Christian soul; “O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded” reflects that aspect of his spirituality.
The hymn is an excerpt from a larger poem reflecting on the wounds Christ sustained during His Passion and focuses primarily on the shame and mockery associated with the crown of thorns.
“O kingly head, surrounded / With mocking crown of thorn … / O countenance whose splendor / The hosts of heav’en adore!” Bernard sings, contrasting man’s cruel treatment of the God-man with the angels’ adoration of Him. The hymn ends with a prayer for God’s mercy and aid in the final moments of life:
My days are few, O fail not,
With Thine immortal pow’r,
To hold me that I quail not
In death’s most fearful hour
That I may fight befriended,
And see in my last strife
To me Thine arms extended
Upon the cross of life.
“Parce Domine”
The text of “Parce Domine” is one of the most commonly repeated liturgical texts in the historical liturgy of the Catholic Church. It mimics the Old Testament prayer of Joel: “Spare us, O Lord, spare your people and be not angry with us forever.”
The original text included verses and a refrain, and at one point the entire hymn was prescribed during the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday. In recent years, the refrain — without the verses — has regained popularity as an extra-liturgical penitential hymn in Catholic parishes. That said, the verses are an example of the kind of devout Latin poetry that was composed and incorporated into liturgical settings as a form of commentary on the Scripture associated with the season.
For example, the third verse echoes St. Paul’s exhortation in 2 Corinthians, once prescribed for the First Sunday in Lent: “Offering an acceptable time, give streams of tears to wash the sacrifice of our heart, which joyful charity enkindles.”
It is an apt reminder, as the season comes to a close, that this acceptable time is not yet over. There are still a few days left to embrace the spirit of this sacred season and to prepare for the coming Easter season.
