One of the happy surprises contained in the new Divine Office Hymnal (Chicago, IL: GIA Publications, Inc, 2023) is the inclusion of two English-language hymns intended for use on 12 December, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the USA. Almost all the hymns in this publication are translations from Latin originals, usually set to both metrical-chorale tunes as well as chant melodies found in the Liber Hymnarius (Sablé-sur-Sarthe-Paris: Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes-Desclée, 1983), but these two hymns are based on Spanish-language originals.
“Heart of the Household” appears as #565/566 in The Divine Office Hymnal and is assigned for use at the Office of Readings and/or at Lauds. According to the attribution apparatus it is based on a text by an unknown author entitled “Eres mujer de casa y, además, peregrina.” I have been unable to determine if the original is widely employed in particular regions of the Spanish-speaking world and/or what tune would be used in singing the text.
Heart of the household, pilgrim with your people.
You are devoted both as wife and mother,
yet you will follow paths where God would lead you,
while your heart ponders.
As dawn is breaking, you stand on the hilltop —
Love has compelled you to make haste to help us —
waiting for Jesus, you prepare his cradle:
Bethlehem once more.
Perfectly sharing in our race and nature,
you speak our language lovingly, with sweetness,
you seek a temple, where your love most tender
may show us kindness.
Like a bird flying, soaring down then upward,
first to your Son’s cross, then on high to heaven,
now to our country, here you draw us homeward:
may we with fly with you.
Praise to the Father, who has no beginning,
glory eternal to the Son, Christ Jesus,
and to the Spirit, comforter most holy:
praise everlasting. Amen.
Though I have been unable to locate the Spanish original, I am still in awe of the poetic and spiritual insight of this hymn-text even in translation. Addressed to the Virgin Mary, the first four stanzas are inspired by scripture and the five apparitions recounted by Juan Diego and his uncle Juan Bernadino occurring in December 1531. Verse one situates Mary as a member of God’s Pilgrim People, alluding to the journey to Bethlehem at the birth of Jesus and possibly to her appearances in Mexico. Verse two yokes the scriptural account of Mary swaddling her new-born son and placing him in a manger with the Virgin’s request that a church embodying the presence of Christ be erected in her honor on the Hill of Tepeyac. Verse three highlights the fact that Mary addresses Juan Diego in his first language, Nahuatl (the language of the former Aztec empire rather than the language of the Spanish conquistadors), declaring her maternal care for “him, the inhabitants of the area and all who love her.” Verse four connects the biblical image of an eagle in flight (Ex 19:4; Dt 32:11) to Mary’s presence at Jesus’ crucifixion (John 19:25-27), the Catholic doctrine of her assumption into heaven, and her ongoing appearances in history. The final verse concludes the hymn with a Trinitarian doxology.
The hymn assigned to Vespers on 12 December, “O how our Lady’s brightness shines,” seems to me a deeply poetic meditation on the venerated image impressed upon Juan Diego’s tilmàtli. Entitled “Morenez de morena hermosura” in Spanish and ascribed to an anonymous author, it is unclear to me at this point how widely sung this hymn-text is in the Spanish-speaking world or what melody might be associated with it. It appears in The Divine Office Hymnal as #567/568.
O how our Lady’s brightness shines
beyond the jasmine, dark and fair!
In her, divisions melt away,
preparing us for boundless Love.
She is the river, we the thirst,
she is the star and we the rays;
she is the ship and we the net,
we are her servants, she the queen.
Her eyes she turns to those who weep,
a mother’s love to those in need;
her praying hands a cooling breeze,
in darkened land she is our sun.
When shadows clothe this vale of tears
and voices in the home are stilled,
we praise you, Lord, the Three in One,
whose name is Love that knows no end.
Verse one considers Mary’s image as a whole (clothed in a colorful robe and mantle; adorned with eight-pointed stars; surrounded by rays of a mandorla), lauding her role in promoting unity between civilizations as preparation for God being “all in all” (1 Cor 15:28). Verse two provides a series of binary contrasts between Mary’s functions and those revering her: a) the faithful long to drink from the river of grace associated with her role in salvation history; b) the faithful illuminate the darkness of disbelief as extensions of her witness; c) the ship/net image may recall Lk 5:1-11 and Jn 21:1-11, highlighting Mary embodying the Church sailing to safe harbor in the kingdom of God and the faithful as missionary disciples gathering all of creation into that voyage; d) the queen/servants image may refer to the remnants of a crown in a discoloration on the top part of the image. Verse three emphasizes Mary’s maternal care for the poor and downtrodden with “their lamentations…miseries, afflictions and sorrows” (cf. text at the first apparition) symbolized by her downward gaze and folded hands. The final verse, positioning the entire hymn as an evening prayer appropriate for Vespers, is a Trinitarian doxology, lauding God as eternal Love.
Just as the Lourdes hymn, “Ô Vierge Marie,” has enriched Marian devotional hymnody in English with its “Ave, Ave, Ave Maria” refrain, one could hope that these two hymn-texts will enrich English-language Marian hymnody in years to come, whether during the Liturgy of the Hours, the Mass for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, or other devotional practices.