Beate Pastor Petre, clemens accipe

Peter, blest Shepherd, hearken to our cry

Saints Peter and Paul
29 June

Beate Pastor Petre, clemens accipe
Voces precantum, criminumque vincula
Verbo resolve, cui potestas tradita,
Aperire terris cœlum, apertum claudere.
Egregie Doctor Paule, mores instrue,
Et nostra tecum pectora in cœlum trahe;
Velata dum meridiem cernat fides,
Et solis instar sola regnet caritas.
Sit Trinitati sempiterna gloria,
Honor, potestas, atque jubilatio,
In unitate, quæ gubernat omnia,
Per universa æternitatis sæcula.

Peter, blest Shepherd, hearken to our cry,
And with a word unloose our guilty chain;
Thou! who hast power to ope the gates on high
To men below, and power to shut them fast again.
Lead us, great teacher Paul, in wisdom’s ways,
And lift our hearts with thine to heaven’s high throne;
Till faith beholds the clear meridian blaze;
And sunlike in the soul reigns charity alone.
Praise, blessing, majesty, through endless days,
Be to the Trinity immortal given;
Who in pure unity profoundly sways
Eternally alike all things in earth and heaven.

“O blessed shepherd Peter, thou to whom was given the power to open heaven, and, opened, to close it, mercifully receive the prayers of thy suppliants, and by thy word unloose the chains of their sins.” Precantum for precantium. This stanza is a metrical rendering of Matt. 16, 19: Et tibi dabo claves regni cœlorum, Et quodcumque ligaveris super terram, erit ligatum et in cœlis: et quodcumque solveris super terram, erit solutum et in cœlis.
“Illustrious teacher Paul, mould thou our lives, and draw with thee to heaven our hearts, till faith now veiled beholds the bright noonday, and, like the sun, charity alone doth reign.” St. Paul was taken up “even to the third heaven,” i.e., to the abode of the Angels and Saints (Cf. II Cor. 12, 1-4). The same illustrious Doctor teaches us that—“We see now through a glass in a dark manner” (i.e., by faith): “but then face to face” (I Cor. 13, 12). And again, that charity remains forever—“never falleth away” (I Cor. 13, 8) though in the next world faith shall pass into vision, and hope into the enjoyment of God.