Starting Wednesday Off Right – Tebe Poem Edition

Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  Amen.

PATER NOSTER, qui es in caelis, sanctificetur nomen tuum. Adveniat regnum tuum. Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. Panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie, et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris. Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo. Amen.

No, not “poem” as in the English word “poem”.  “Tebe Poem” is a hymn sung after the Consecration in the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (Byzantine Rite).  This particular version was composed by Bortniansky.  Sigh.  Partaking of such gorgeous choral music is important because when one becomes fixated on the sorry state of both mankind and one’s self, things like this remind us that people aren’t all bad and we are capable of beauty far above our sorry state.  I reckon one of the secondary reasons Our Lord inspired and desires only objectively beautiful Liturgy is to give us something to do that demonstrates our own dignity and potential to ourselves so that we don’t despair.  It is very hard to hate humanity and view it as “totally depraved” or people as mere “dunghills” after listening to an achingly beautiful choral hymn sung in perfect five-part harmony that surely must make the angels stop and listen.

Here is the text in Romanized Slavonic (so you can phonetically recognize what is being sung), English and Latin.

So Our Lord has just come down upon the altar and is physically, substantially present thereon, and what could be more fitting than this:

Tebe poem
Tebe blagoslovim
Tebe blagodarim, Gospodi
I molim Ti sia, Bozhe nash.

We sing to Thee,
we praise Thee,
we thank Thee, O Lord,
and we pray to Thee, our God.

Te laudamus,
te benedicimus,
tibi gratias agamus, Domine,
et obsecramus te, Deus noster.

Bruce Jenner is a man. And furthermore I consider that islam must be destroyed.