Scrutator alme cordium
As we embark on this Great Lent, let’s look at the Vespers hymn that would have resounded through cathedrals and monasteries throughout the Latin west in a time not so long forgotten: the Audi benigne Conditor. And one can’t discuss Gregorian Chant without its namesake: Pope St. Gregory the Great. The hymn below was attributed to the saint, though it is likely that, like so many others, it did not flow from his pen. It has a certain pre-Carolingian flair to it, as half of the lines are rhymed in a rather un-schematic manner. Still, may the great pope of antiquity intercede for us as we chant these verses throughout the fast.
In the traditional office, it is sung every day at Vespers from Quadragesima Sunday until Passiontide. It is interesting to note that it does not begin before the First Sunday of Lent, but rather on the date the actual forty days begin, as Quadragesima Sunday is forty days from Holy Thursday. Ash Wednesday and the ferias following all use the Per Annum ferial hymn, not the Lenten one. The lyrics focus on sin, frailty, mortality, and the need for Divine Grace. Indeed each strophe is bleeding with references to our infirmity. We have sinned, we are weak and we need Him to strengthen us with heavenly food as we embark on this Great Fast from the earthly. Hear us oh kindly Creator!
“But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’”
I should like to focus on that second verse: Scrutator alme cordium: searcher of our hearts. It has a certain Augustinian ring to it, that He is closer to us than we are to ourselves. He knows the infirmity of man, nothing is hid from Him. He was a man, He was tempted, as the Sunday gospel reminds us, yet he knew not sin. A turning to him, as the hymn calls for, is a turn inward, where our Heavenly Father sees in secret. As I pray this each evening, I take it as a call to pause and examine my heart. Whatever outward fasts and penances I offer mean little if my heart is not humble and contrite. Pope St. Gregory gives us the answer: “Let anyone then who is preparing his inner house for God, cleanse away the dirt of his evil deeds.…The Lord comes into the heart and makes His home in one, who truly loves God and observes His commandments…” So anoint thy head, wash thy face, but cleanse also thy heart.
Here are a few settings of the hymn. The first is the chant, while the others are polyphonic. I think the Lasso is my favourite.
Thou loving Maker of mankind,
Before Thy throne we pray and weep!
Oh, strengthen us with grace divine
Duly this sacred Lent to keep.
Searcher of hearts! Thou dost our ills
Discern, and all our weakness know;
Again to Thee with tears we turn,
Again to us Thy mercy show.
Much have we sinned; but we confess
Our guilt, and all our faults deplore:
Oh, for the praise of Thy great name
Our fainting souls to health restore!
And grant us, while by fasts we strive
This mortal body to control,
To fast from all the food of sin,
And so to purify the soul.
Hear us, O Trinity thrice blest!
Sole Unity! to Thee we cry:
Vouchsafe us from these fasts below
To reap immortal fruit on high. Amen.
AUDI, benigne Conditor,
nostras preces cum fletibus,
sacrata in abstinentia
fusas quadragenaria.
Scrutator alme cordium,
infirma tu scis virium;
ad te reversis exhibe
remissionis gratiam.
Multum quidem peccavimus,
sed parce confitentibus,
tuique laude nominis
confer medelam languidis.
Sic corpus extra conteri
dona per abstinentiam,
ieiunet ut mens sobria
a labe prorsus criminum.
Praesta, beata Trinitas,
concede, simplex Unitas,
ut fructuosa sint tuis
haec parcitatis munera. Amen.