JoguesChant gives us this translation of the text, which comes from Psalm 91:
When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will rescue him and honour him; with long life will I satisfy him. He who abides in the shelter of the Most High, shall remain under the protection of the God of Heaven.
Here's a really lovely video version of this, from the Concerto Chiesa di San Bevignate (Perugia), recorded on March 21, 2009:
(I thought I had already posted the Introits for Lent and was starting out on the Communion songs - but then realized I was wrong. I haven't posted Introits for this season yet, so I'll do it for each Sunday in Lent this year. Better late than never.)
All the texts for the Lent 1 propers come, as mentioned in the previous post, from Psalm 91 - something that is quite unusual, as far as I know. I don't know of another day of the year in which all the propers come from a single source; it seems to me this means that the people who put all these propers together think that the First Sunday in Lent is very important, as Sundays go. The Psalm is quoted in the Gospel reading (Matthew's story of Jesus in the wilderness) - but so are other Psalms, all the time. I'm going to try to find out exactly how this happened, and will post whatever I find.
There is more about Psalm 91 in the post linked above.
I've gotten to like this painting of Christ in the desert, by Russian painter Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoi, from about 1872. (I don't know of many others that deal with this subject, actually - which is a bit surprising, because it seems like a fertile one.)
In one town alone, the port of Minamisanriku, a senior police official said the number of dead would “certainly be more than 10,000.” The overall number is also certain to climb as searchers began to reach coastal villages that essentially vanished under the first muddy surge of the tsunami, which struck the nation’s northern Pacific coast. Prime Minister Naoto Kan told anews conference late Sunday: “I think that the earthquake, tsunami and the situation at our nuclear reactors makes up the worst crisis in the 65 years since the war. If the nation works together, we will overcome.”
The government ordered 100,000 troops into relief roles in the field — nearly half the country’s active military force and the largest mobilization in postwar Japan. An American naval strike group led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan also arrived off Japan on Sunday to help with refueling, supply and rescue duties.
Amid the despair and mourning, amid the worry over an unrelenting series of strong aftershocks, there was one bright moment on Sunday morning as Japanese naval forces rescued a 60-year-old man who had been riding the roof of his house for the past two days.
Hiromitsu Arakawa’s tiny home in the town of Minami-soma was torn from its foundations by the first wave of the tsunami that crashed ashore Friday afternoon, the defense ministry said. Mr. Arakawa saw his wife slip away in the deluge, and he clung to the roof as the house drifted away. He was discovered late Sunday morning, still on his roof, 9 miles south of his hometown and 9 miles out to sea.
The quake was the strongest ever recorded to hit Japan, which sits astride the notorious “ring of fire” that marks the most violent seismic activity in the Pacific Basin. On Sunday, the Japanese Meteorological Agency “upgraded” the quake’s magnitude from 8.8 to 9.0, an effective doubling of its recorded power.Nuclear officials in Fukushima shut down three reactors after the tsunami on Friday but an explosion tore through the No. 1 reactor building on Saturday.
When the cooling system on the No. 3 reactor also began to fail Sunday, workers pumped seawater and boron into it. Yukio Edano, the government’s chief cabinet secretary, warned Sunday of the possibility of an explosion at No. 3 — and the chance of meltdowns at both reactors.
Some 80,000 people were ordered to evacuate danger zones around two atomic facilities in Fukushima. Japanese officials reported that 19 people showed signs of radiation exposure and as many as another 141 were feared to have been exposed, including some who had been outside the plant waiting to be evacuated. . Three workers are suffering from full-on radiation sickness.
Northern Japan relies heavily on nuclear power for its electricity, and the government said it was instituting a series of rolling blackouts across the country starting Monday to make up for the diminished capacity from the reactor failures at Fukushima.
In a televised address the trade minister, Banri Kaieda, asked businesses to limit their use of power as they returned to operation on Monday. He asked specifically for nighttime cutbacks of lights and heating.
In Sendai, a city of roughly a million people in the region at the center of the catastrophe, many buildings cracked but none had collapsed. Still, city officials said that more than 500,000 households and businesses were without water, and many more lacked electricity as well.
Soldiers surrounded Sendai’s City Hall, where officials converted two floors to treat evacuees and drew power from a generator. Thousands of residents sought refuge inside waiting anxiously for word from their relatives. A line of people waited outside with plastic bottles and buckets in hand to collect water from a pump.
Masaki Kokubum, 35, has been living in City Hall since the quake. He works at a supermarket, and his neighborhood lost power and water. He said he had not slept in three days, and as he spoke he seemed dazed.
“I can’t sleep,” he said as he sat in a chair in a hallway. “I just sit here and wait.” Aerial photos on Sunday showed floodwaters receding from the runways at the airport in Sendai, which is the capital of Miyagi prefecture.
“The rescue is going on through the night, of course,” Michael Tonge, a teacher from Britain, said early Sunday morning from his home in the city.
No buildings had collapsed in his neighborhood, Mr. Tonge said, and people were not panicking — typical of a nation accustomed to order and schooled to stay calm and constructive.
“The few shops open have people queuing nicely,” he said, “with no pushing or fighting or anything.” Tokyo and central Japan continued to be struck by aftershocks from quakes off the eastern coast of Honshu Island, and United States agencies recorded 90 smaller quakes throughout the day Saturday. A long tremor registering 6.2 caused buildings in central Tokyo to sway dramatically on Sunday morning.
Search teams from more than a dozen nations were bound for Japan, including a unit from New Zealand, which suffered a devastating quake last month in Christchurch. A Japanese team that had been working in New Zealand also was called home.
A combined search squad from Los Angeles County and Fairfax County, Va., arrived from the United States with 150 personnel and a dozen sniffer dogs.
Assistance teams also were due from China and South Korea, two of Japan’s traditional and most bitter rivals. Tokyo’s acceptance of these offers of help —along with a parade of senior officials offering updates at televised news conferences on Sunday —was in marked contrast to government policies after the 1995 Kobe earthquake, which killed more than 6,000 people. The government refused most offers of aid at the time, put restrictions on foreign aid operations and offered little information about the disaster.
Just 15 minutes had passed since a devastating earthquake rocked Nakaminato and a broad stretch of Japan’s northeastern coast.
Mrs. Koguchi rushed to her car, escaping shortly before the swirling, debris-laden water crumpled one of the walls of her small Japanese ryokan, or inn, and left a trail of destruction throughout the town. On Saturday, you could smell the effects as much as see it: the air stank of dead fish and sticky brown mud deposited by the three feet of water that had flowed freely through the roads closest to the ocean.
She spent the night in a community center, in freezing temperatures, but went home as soon as she could Saturday. She had not eaten in 24 hours.
“People used to come and praise my inn as beautiful,” she said as she tried to clear the silt and fish that blanketed the floor of her inn. “Now look at it. It’s disheartening.”
A day after the most powerful quake to strike Japan in recorded history hit off the country’s northeast coast, people here remained on edge. They had spent the night without electricity, running water or working telephones, and aftershocks rocked the area all night Friday and through the day on Saturday.
The scenes of destruction were especially frightening because they are far from the worst-hit areas. Nakaminato is on the southern edge of the worst devastation from the 8.9-magnitude quake and the tsunami it spawned, which swept away whole villages farther north. Nakaminato sits about 155 miles south of Sendai, the northern city that bore much of the brunt of the tsunami.
Before the shaking and the waves hit, Nakaminato’s buildings had a worn-out look; the town had been left behind by the country’s industrial buildup and by the young people who headed for thriving cities. The mostly aging population made its living mainly from fishing; the heart of the community was a fishing co-op on the waterfront.
On Saturday, the waterfront was battered, and Nakaminato’s residents were surrounded by the signs of a livelihood in tatters. Giant freezers in the co-op were stacked on top of each other, packed against a far wall where the waves had pushed them. Forty-foot fishing boats, tilting in all directions, were piled on top of a long concrete wharf.
And the fish, mostly silver and blue bonito, were everywhere, mouths agape. Yukinao Nemoto, a 34-year-old forklift driver, was at the wharf on Saturday, trying to absorb the chaos around him. He was loading a boat on Friday afternoon when he noticed the bottom of the forklift suddenly scraping the ground. The reality that the earth was moving took a moment to set in: the forklift hit the ground because the ground beneath it had sunk eight inches.
Mr. Nemoto scanned the water and saw a white line of waves speeding to shore. He jumped off his forklift and ran up a nearby hill, barely beating the waves. “I just dropped everything and ran,” he said.
It was unclear if the water that buffeted the town had spilled over the seawall built to keep it out, or had rushed through an opening that the town’s fishing boats passed through each day.
The destruction in Nakaminato was not limited to the water’s edge. Yukio Kobayashi was on his onion farm when he felt the first tremors radiating from the quake’s center in the Pacific.
“I couldn’t stand up; I had to crawl out of my field,” he said, dropping to the ground and showing how he had fled. “And then I saw the tsunami. I could see it pass by.”
Mr. Kobayashi, 71, said he felt lucky because the waves hit at low tide. “If it was high tide, the waves would have got me.”
He spent the night with about 100 others at an elementary school gymnasium in town, in the dark and the cold, listening to a lone radio for information. He had taken a power generator and a single kerosene space heater to the center, the only source of heat for the people huddled in the gym. No one slept, as aftershocks regularly rattled the building.
On Saturday, his fields were coated with mud. “This is the first time in my more than 70 years that something like this has happened,” he said.
In another part of Nakaminato, Hiromi and Kimiko Ogawa were in their sushi restaurant, scooping up mud and other debris that filled the building. When the quake hit, they sped off in their car.
A day later, their restaurant reeked of seawater and sludge. The giant freezer outside the restaurant used to store food was missing. The second of their cars was stacked on top of a pile of wooden debris.
It will be a long time, they said, before the restaurant will reopen. Chiyako Ito said she was in her house when the shaking began. The first tremor was so powerful that Ms. Ito, a 72-year-old rice farmer, was knocked off her feet. As the trembling subsided, she ran outside, only to be knocked off her feet again by an aftershock.
As she lay on the ground, she saw the barn collapse on her tractor and two cars, flattening them. But the worst was yet to come. The tsunami waters swept up the river near her farm, stopping just a few yards from her house.
“I was paralyzed in fear,” she said.
On Saturday, as she walked amid shattered glasses, cups and plates in her home, she said she felt helpless. “I have no electricity, no water, no cellphone, no telephone,” she said. “I have no idea what’s happening.”
Ms. Ito added: “I’m afraid it might happen again. I’m so afraid, my feet are tingling.”
Scapulis Suis is the Communion song for the first Sunday in Lent (called "Invocavit," after the first word of the Introit on the day); here's an mp3 from JoguesChant. The text comes from the beautiful Psalm 91, sung every night at Compline, so it's very familiar. JoguesChant's translation is this:
He will overshadow you with his pinions, and you will find refuge under his wings. His faithfulness will encompass you with a shield.
Interestingly, the Offertory on the day is also Scapulis Suis. Same text, with a different melody; here's the mp3 and below is the score:
In fact, all the propers for today are taken from Psalm 91. I'm not aware at the moment of any other Sunday of the year for which this is true; if I do discover another case, I'll post about that. Here's the US Book of Common Prayer version of the Psalm:
Psalm 91 Qui habitat
1
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, * abides under the shadow of the Almighty.
2
He shall say to the LORD, "You are my refuge and my stronghold, * my God in whom I put my trust."
3
He shall deliver you from the snare of the hunter * and from the deadly pestilence.
4
He shall cover you with his pinions, and you shall find refuge under his wings; * his faithfulness shall be a shield and buckler.
5
You shall not be afraid of any terror by night, * nor of the arrow that flies by day;
6
Of the plague that stalks in the darkness, * nor of the sickness that lays waste at mid-day.
7
A thousand shall fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, * but it shall not come near you.
8
Your eyes have only to behold * to see the reward of the wicked.
9
Because you have made the LORD your refuge, * and the Most High your habitation,
10
There shall no evil happen to you, * neither shall any plague come near your dwelling.
11
For he shall give his angels charge over you, * to keep you in all your ways.
12
They shall bear you in their hands, * lest you dash your foot against a stone.
13
You shall tread upon the lion and the adder; * you shall trample the young lion and the serpent under your feet.
14
Because he is bound to me in love, therefore will I deliver him; * I will protect him, because he knows my Name.
15
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; * I am with him in trouble; I will rescue him and bring him to honor.
16
With long life will I satisfy him, * and show him my salvation.
Here's something interesting. It's an "Old Roman Chant" of Psalm 91 (90 in the Vulgate reckoning): Qui habitat in adiutorio altissimi (The first line of the Psalm: "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High"):
I'm not sure what this was used for, and it doesn't say at the link. Gloria.tv appears to be a chant treasure trove, though; will have to nose around over there.
Here are all three Compline Psalms (4, 91, and 134), sung by German monastics (at "Abbey St. Ottilie"). They are each labeled and subtitled - but really: they're in German!
Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The Sarum collect for the first Sunday has as its source the collect in the Gregorian sacramentary (no. 166):
God, you cleanse your church with the annual observance of Lent: grant your family that what they strive to obtain from you by fasting they may follow up with good works.
Cranmer provided a new collect with reference to the Gospel lection and without the Pelagian overtones or the implication that we must strive to obtain the gifts with God is anxious to give to those who seek. His collect reads:
O Lord, which for our sake didst fast forty days and forty nights; Give us grace to use such abstinence, that, our flesh being subdued to the spirit, we may ever obey they godly motions in righteousness, and true holiness, to thy honor and glory, which livest and reignest, etc.
The new collect provided in the present edition is a revised version of one of the original collects in William Bright's Ancient Collects (appendix, pp. 237-238). It relates closely to the Gospel for all three years - the account of our Lord's temptation in the wilderness - and is particularly fitting as we enter this season of penitence in preparation for baptism or for renewal of baptismal vows.
The rubric points out that the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of this week are the traditional ember days, though these may now be transferred to a time related to local or diocesan ordinations. (See pp. 205-206 or 256-257 and 929 for the propers for ember days among those for various occasions, no. 15, "For the Ministry.")
After Jesus was baptized, he was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written,
'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"
Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"
Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
It's easy to see why Psalm 91 seemed a good source for the propers in conjunction with this Gospel reading, which was in place at least in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, and I imagine long before that as well. Certainly the theme is God's protection - note the words "shelter" and "shadow" - in dry and difficult times; even the animals mentioned in the Psalm - the bird's "pinions"; the "lion and the adder" - evoke the desert. And in fact, this Psalm is quoted directly - by the Devil! - in the reading.
O merciful Father, who has taught us in your holy Word that you do not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men: Look with pity upon the sorrows of your servants for whom our prayers are offered. Remember them, O Lord, in mercy, nourish their souls with patience, comfort them with a sense of your goodness, lift up your countenance upon them, and give them peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Vitrearum's Church Art: Lenten array 2011, via Allan Barton's wonderful blog that covers "Articles, links and features about all aspects of medieval and medieval revival church art." Thank you, Alan.
The ancient western custom of covering altars and images with Lenten array and Lenten veils has been covered on this blog a number of times. If you want to know more about the custom and its purpose look at the article here and further examples of it see here, here and here. It was a custom that seemed to be in decline, but recently there have been one of two revivals of it. The first few images here are of the array introduced by Fr Anthony Howe at Christ Church Staincliffe in the West Riding of Yorkshire. An old stencilled frontal was acquired for the high altar and new veils made to go with it. The last image comes courtesy of Fr David Ackerman and shows the high altar at Windrush in Gloucestershire. The frontal is an old Warham Guild frontal long unused that he found hidden in a chest in the church and reused for the first time this Lent. The altar arrangement with the riddel posts is a recent revival of the old arrangement and dates from 2010.
