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The voice of my prayer

The ancient discipline of Lent comprises prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Too often, we imagine prayer to be more complicated than it is, because we imagine it should comprise ecstatic contemplation or the prolonged silent meditation. In the Summa Theologiae, Question 83, when he discusses prayer, it is clear St Thomas Aquinas understands prayer as petition, quoting St Augustine and St John Damascene as authorities. He insists that we should not shy away from asking God for definite things, including temporal things. As to whether prayer should be vocal, he answers that public prayer needs to be vocal, and private prayer should be vocal unless that proves a hindrance. That our prayer ought to be vocal reminds us that we relate to God with our bodies, not merely our minds. We cry out to God! These twin aspects, that prayer as vocal and as petition, are echoed in the proper chants for Thursday in the First Week of Lent.

The Introit reads:

Verba mea auribus percipe, Domine, intellege clamorem meum :
Intende voci orationis meæ.
V : Quoniam ad te orabo, Domine :
mane exaudies vocem meam. (Ps 5 : 2, 3, 4)

Which translates as:

Give ear, O Lord, to my words, understand my cry.
Hearken to the voice of my prayer.
For to thee will I pray: O Lord,
in the morning thou shalt hear my voice.

The chant springs vigorously from the words “verba mea” to the tenor of the mode, DO on “auribus percipe” and “percipe” is emphasized by a triple pulsation on the first syllable. The words “clamorem meum” span the entire ambitus of this composition (FA to MI) while the words “orationis meae” receive the most melodic elaboration, albeit in the lower part of the ambitus (FA to DO). The cry of the psalmist is insistent and his prayer is very vocal indeed.

The Communion takes up the same theme, with the words of our Lord (Luke 11: 9, 10):

Petite, et accipietis ; quærite, et invenietis ; pulsate, et aperietur vobis. Omnis enim qui petit, accipit : et qui quærit, invenit : pulsanti aperietur.

Which translates as :

Ask, and you shall receive: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asks, receives; and he that seeks, finds; and to him that knocks, it shall be opened.

Ask, seek and knock! We cry and God hears.