Exaudi, Domine, vocem meam, qua clamavi ad te, alleluia: tibi dixit cor meum, quaesivi vultum tuum, vultum tuum Domine requiram: ne avertras faciem tuam a me, alleluia, alleluia.
“Hear my voice, Lord, with which I shout to you, hallelujah. My heart says to you: I seek your face, I will seek your face. Do not turn away your face from me, hallelujah, hallelujah.” (Ps 27(26):7–9)
Click here to listen to an audio of the chant.
Sung by Br. Jacob Berns, OSB, of St. John’s Abbey.
The word alleluia has always been an integral part of this chant, unlike in some liturgical acclamations or antiphons in the Liturgy of the Hours that get one or two or three alleluias in a more schematic way in the weeks of Easter. Christians are always in the “yet-but-not-yet-mode:” We still pray for salvation, ask for forgiveness, but we believe that the good has the final say over the bad – and this changes our lives here and now. The final alleluia of this introit antiphon is a good expression for that: It seems to be almost as long as all the rest of the chant. Salvation and jubilation have the final say.
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