Catholic CornucopiadCheney

Lucis Creator optime

O Blest Creator of the light

The Hymns of the Breviary and Missal

  1. Lucis Creator optime
    Lucem dierum proferens,
    Primordiis lucis novæ,
    Mundi parans originem:
  2. Qui mane junctum vesperi
    Diem vocari præcipis:
    Illabitur tetrum chaos,
    Audi preces cum fletibus.
  3. Ne mens gravata crimine,
    Vitæ sit exsul munere,
    Dum nil perenne cogitat,
    Seseque culpis illigat.
  4. Cœleste pulset ostium:
    Vitale tollat præmium:
    Vitemus omne noxium:
    Purgemus omne pessimum.
  5. Præsta, Pater piissime,
    Patrique compar Unice,
    Cum Spiritu Paraclito
    Regnans per omne sæculum.
  1. O Blest Creator of the light,
    Who mak’st the day with radiance bright,
    And o’er the forming world didst call
    The light from chaos first of all;
  2. Whose wisdom joined in meet array
    The morn and eve, and named them Day:
    Night comes with all its darkling fears;
    Regard Thy people’s prayers and tears.
  3. Lest, sunk in sin, and whelmed with strife,
    They lose the gift of endless life;
    While thinking but the thoughts of time,
    They weave new chains of woe and crime.
  4. But grant them grace that they may strain
    The heavenly gate and prize to gain:
    Each harmful lure aside to cast,
    And purge away each error past.
  5. O Father, that we ask be done,
    Through Jesus Christ, Thine only Son;
    Who, with the Holy Ghost and Thee,
    Doth live and reign eternally.
Author: Probably by Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604). Meter: Iambic dimeter. Translation by J. M. Neale. There are twenty-one translations; Father Caswall’s being more widely used than any other. There are five translations in the Annus Sanctus. Theme: The work of the first day—the creation of light. Dixit Deus: Fiat lux. Et facta est lux. Et vidit Deus lucem quod esset bona; et divisit lucem a tenebris. Appelavitque lucem Diem, et tenebras Noctem; factumque est vespere et mane dies unus (Gen. 1, 3-5).
  1. “O august Creator of the light, who didst bring forth the light of day, and didst begin the origin of the world with the creation of new light;” Primordiis, origin, first beginning. Parans (paro 1), prepare, design. Originem, creation.
  2. “Thou didst command that morning joined with evening be called Day; foul darkness descends, hear Thou our prayers with our weeping.” “Lest the soul burdened with sin be deprived of the gift of life, while it thinks of nothing eternal and fetters itself with sins.” Exsul, an exile, banished person; Constr. with the abl. or gen.
  3. “Let it knock at the heavenly portal and bear away the prize of life; let us avoid everything harmful, and purge out everything sinful.” The subject is mens from the preceding stanza.