Verses on Various Occasions · Chapter
CXXXIII: Lauds—Monday explained
A hymn invoking Christ as the 'Splendor Paternae gloriae'—the bright effluence of the Father—asking for divine light, purity, and guidance.
What happens
A hymn invoking Christ as the 'Splendor Paternae gloriae'—the bright effluence of the Father—asking for divine light, purity, and guidance. The speaker seeks the Father's grace to purge sin, overcome enemies, and infuse faith, chastity, and self-control. Christ is presented as spiritual food and the cup of Heaven, leading to a day filled with modest, faithful, and soft light. The prayer concludes with a plea for the Father's Word to shine like a cloudy pillar and a doxology to the Trinity.
Themes in this chapter
Faith and Doubt
Faith is portrayed as a 'keen flame' and the 'cup of Heaven,' central to the believer's journey and the quenching of spiritual thirst.
Nature and the Divine
The hymn uses natural imagery—light, day, dawn, noon, eve—to symbolize divine presence and the progression of a sanctified day.
Characters to notice
- Christ
Addressed as the 'Splendor Paternae gloriae' and 'Truest Sun,' invoked to stream perpetual light and become spiritual food.
- Father, Son, and Paraclete
The Trinity is praised in the closing doxology, with glory given to the Father, Son, and Spirit.
- Faith
Personified as a 'keen flame' and the 'cup of Heaven,' essential for spiritual joy and ascent.
Key passages
“Splendor Paternae gloriae, Out of Light evolving light, Light from Light, unfailing Ray, Day creative of the day”
Christ is the radiant glory of the Father, generated from divine light, the eternal ray that creates each new day.
This opening establishes Christ as both the source and sustainer of spiritual and physical light.
“Christ Himself for food be given, Faith become the cup of Heaven, Out of which the joy is quaff’d Of the Spirit’s sobering draught.”
May Christ be our spiritual nourishment, and faith the heavenly cup from which we drink the sobering joy of the Holy Spirit.
Eucharistic and sacramental imagery links faith directly to the reception of divine grace and joy.
“It has dawn’d;—upon our way, Father in Thy Word, this day, In Thy Father Word Divine, From Thy cloudy pillar shine.”
The day has begun; may the Father, through His divine Word, shine upon our path as a cloudy pillar guided Israel.
References the biblical pillar of cloud that led the Israelites, symbolizing God's guidance and presence.