Cibavit eos ex adipe frumenti, alleluia: et de petra, melle saturavit eos, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
“He fed them with nourishing fruit, hallelujah, and saturated them with honey from the rock, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.” (Ps 81(80):17)
Click here to listen to an audio of the chant.
Sung by Liborius Lumma, Innsbruck (Austria).
Corpus Christi is another solemnity that was introduced into the calendar of the Latin Church not before the Middle Ages – in the middle of the 13th century, to be more precise. Unlike on Trinity Sunday no new introit was created. Instead the Church used the introit from Pentecost Monday, and still does so in our days.
Using a Pentecost chant for Corpus Christi is a beautiful reminder that the Eucharistic matter does not make a stand against the Word or the Spirit. God gives many different sorts of “bread” and “wine” so that we can live. Biblical stories, metaphors and symbolic liturgical experiences are no rivals to each other – they complement each other. That is why the Pentecostal liturgy can sing about the “fruits”, and that is why Ephrem the Syrian said that God “gave his word many colors.”
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