Easter Jubilation: Victimae Paschali Laudes
The Easter Season is my favorite time of
year. The joyful exuberance of praise for Christ’s majestic glory in his
resurrection is mirrored in the beauty and joy of Earth’s Spring. Our souls are
renewed in hope once again. The music of the season (sadly missed in public
worship in these Covid-19 times) both expresses and enhances our joy and
jubilation.
Speaking of jubilation, the exuberant
charismatic gift of tongues the Apostles experienced on Pentecost has continued
throughout Church history in various forms, most especially a well-known form
of spontaneous prayer called “jubilation.” In the Middle Ages the prayer of
jubilation was incorporated into the Liturgy of the Mass after the “Alleluia”
and before the reading of the Gospel. The people would extend the singing of
the “Alleluia” through spontaneous jubilation, even shouting loudly, and the
jubilation could last for 20 minutes. In some parts of central Europe this
remained part of the official Liturgy until the 16th Century. In Europe, this
jubilation of the “Alleluia” became modulated through harmonized series of
tones (such as can still occur today in the charismatic gift of tongues as
praise). Blessed Notker Balbulus (c. 840-912), called “a vessel of the Holy
Spirit without equal in his time,” had a gift for lyric and meter, and he
introduced to the Church the form of religious lyric called a “sequence” by
which he fit the separate syllables of a Latin text to the harmonic tones of
this form of jubilation. We still have a “sequence” at Mass for certain
Solemnities like Easter, although our English translation loses the meter of
the Latin.
The sequence for the Easter Sunday Mass is Victimae paschali laudes, which has been ascribed to Bl. Notker, but more usually it is attributed to Wipo of Burgundy (d. 1048). The Latin text has six stanzas with two different meters and melodies.
Fr. Matthew Britt, OSB, summarizes
“Victimae paschali laudes” as follows: the first part “consists of an
exhortation to all Christians to offer sacrifices of praise to Christ, the true
Paschal Lamb, the Sinless One, who by His immolation on the Cross reconciles
sinners to His Father. Death and life engage in a most unusual combat; the
Prince of Life dies, but by His very death He triumphs and now reigns in glory.
The second part is the form of a dialogue. Mary Magdalene is appealed to as a
witness of the Resurrection and she testifies: ‘I saw the sepulcher of the
living Christ, the glory of the risen Lord, the witness-angels at the tomb, the
napkin and the winding-sheet.’ Then in an ecstasy of joy she proclaims to the
Apostles: ‘Christ my hope is risen and He shall go before you into Galilee.’ It
concludes with a testimonial of our belief in the Resurrection and with a
petition for mercy.” (See Jn 20, Mt 28, Mk 16, Lk 24.)
Of the more than 25 English translations,
the following hymn is perhaps the best known today:
Christ the Lord is risen today: Christians, haste your vows to pay;
Offer ye your praises meet At the Paschal Victim’s feet;
For the sheep the Lamb hath bled, Sinless in the sinner’s stead.
Christ the Lord is risen on high; Now he lives, no more to die.
One of my favorite Easter hymns used in the Liturgy of the Hours is a text which is
actually a loose adaptation by Martin Luther (1483-1546), translated into English by Richard Massie (1800-1887), with music of Walther’s Gesangbuchlein (1524) which has quite a medieval feel:
Christ Jesus lay in death’s strong bands For our offenses given:
But now at God’s right hand he stands And brings us life from heaven;
Therefore let us joyful be, And praise the Father thankfully
With songs of Alleluia. Alleluia.
So the Easter season is a great time of
jubilation which can take many forms of praise to God: a sequence, a hymn,
Latin, English, Alleluia’s, spontaneous words, syllables, tongues, or even
squeals of delight like joyful children.
International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services Doctrinal Commission, Baptism in the Holy Spirit -Jubilee Anniversary Edition (Locust Grove, VA: National Service Committee of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the U.S. Inc., 2017), p. 62-64, on jubilation.
“Blessed Notaker Balbulus (Stammerer),” Catholic Encyclopedia, https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11125b.htm, accessed April 22, 2021.
“Victimae Paschali Laudes Immolent Christiani,” Catholic Encyclopedia, https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15407a.htm, accessed April 22, 2021.
“Prose or Sequence,” Catholic Encyclopedia, https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12481d.htm, accessed April 22, 2021.
Britt, Rev. Matthew, OSB, The Hymns of the Breviary and Missal (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd., 1922), p. 141-144.
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church is located in California City, CA. Visit our website at ollcalcity.org.
Dibby Allan Green has a BA in Religious Studies (Westmont College, 1978) and MA in Theology (Augustine Institute, 2019), is a lay Catholic hermit, and a parishioner of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish.