The following excerpts are taken from the sixth book of William Durandus’ Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, chapter 32, 6-11. There are fewer ellipses than usual, but perhaps a bit more paraphrasing.
This is the time of Christian warfare, in which the devil rises up against us more strongly. Therefore, lest anyone despair, the Church sings the introit as a way of offering comfort, “He will call upon me, etc.” Having heard this, a man becomes strong in hope, wherefore, the Apostle says (Rom. 12, 12), “Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation,” and Isaiah says (30, 15), “In silence and in hope will be your strength.” For indeed, in these two things consists all the spiritual strength of a man, namely, in silence from the tumult of this world, seeking nothing of those things which are of it, and desiring in eternal hope.
Introitus (Ps. 90) Invocábit me, et ego exaudiam eum: eripiam eum, et glorificábo eum: longitúdine diérum adimplébo eum. Ps. Qui hábitat in adjutorio Altíssimi, in protectióne Dei caeli commorábitur. Gloria Patri... Invocábit me...
Introit He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; I will deliver him and glorify him; with length of days I will fill him. Ps. He that dwelleth in the help of the Most High, shall abide in the protection of the God of heaven. Glory be... He shall call upon Me...
Through the Epistle (2 Cor. 6, 1-10)… the Church arms its soldiers with the four cardinal virtues, first, with fortitude, when it says, “Behold now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” These things are said of fortitude, and there follows, “In all things let us show ourselves forth as the ministers of God, with great patience.” Secondly, She arms them with temperance, where it says, “in fasting, in chastity”, and thirdly with prudence when it says, “in knowledge, in longsuffering”, for by these, both we know how to dwell in the midst of a wicked and perverse nation (Phil. 2, 15), “in sweetness, in the Holy Spirit”. There follows, “in charity unfeigned”, because all things must be done without feigning. Fourth, She arms them with justice, when it says, “by the armour of justice on the right hand and on the left.” |
| King David with some of the other composers of the Psalms, and in the corners, representations of the cardinal virtues; an illustration from the Vivian Bible, produced at the abbey of St Martin of Tours ca. 845. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.) |
After the epistle is said the gradual, “He hath given His angels charge of thee”, etc., so that in this way a man may be able to fight securely, and then the tract which treats of temptation. Now the tract is spoken to God, because it is shows that this miserable life is drawn out by many griefs and laborers. (This is a folk etymology in Latin, in which the word “tractus”, the name of the chant, comes from the same verb root as “distrahitur – is drawn out.”)
Graduale Angelis suis Deus mandávit de te, ut custódiant te in ómnibus viis tuis. V. In mánibus portábunt te, ne umquam offéndas ad lápidem pedem tuum.
He hath given his angels charge over thee; to keep thee in all thy ways. V. In their hands they shall bear thee up: lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. (Psalm 90, 11-12)Now a man might complain about the inequality of this fight, because the tempter is very powerful as is said in Job (41, 24), “there is no power upon the earth which may be compared to him,” and very intelligent, because he sees many things, and very cruel, as Jeremiah says (6, 23), “He is cruel and will show no mercy.” Man, on the other hand, is very weak and ignorant.
The resolution of this is found in the tract. God permits the enemy to tempt man, so that he may fear and flee to God, who knows all and is mighty, and wants to deliver him; and thus may man not hope in himself, but in God, who promises that He will deliver him if he flee unto Him. Therefore, God wants that a man should have fear of the mighty enemy, in hope of the promises of the things to come, and of God’s most ardent love. It follows, then, that He wants to protect him as a hen protects her chicks, out of her ardent love. Our hope of this comes from the guardianship of the angels.
If a man be ground between these two stones, namely hope and fear, he shall be made into the bread that pleases God, and thus he shall conquer all temptation, be it light and hidden, which is called (Psalm 90) “the night-time fear”, or light and open, which is called “the arrow that flieth by day”, or heavy and hidden, which is called, “the business that walketh about in the darkness”, or heavy and open, which is called “the noonday devil.” Whoever is thus armed will conquer these four kinds of temptations as it is said.
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| The first of the three temptation of Christ, 1579-81, depicted by the Venetian artist Jacopo Robusti (1518-94), more commonly known as Tintoretto. |
(In the Gospel, Matthew 4, 1-11), the Lord was tempted by the devil with a threefold temptation; namely, with the temptation of gluttony, when he says to Him, “Command that these stones become bread”; with the temptation of greed, when he says to Him, “I will give Thee all these things, if Thou shalt fall down and worship me”; and of vainglory, when the devil wanted to cast him down from the pinnacle… But the Lord conquers him through the authority of the sacred Scripture, … teaching that we must be armed with the sword of the word of God, in addition to those arms with which the Apostle gives us in the epistle, that we may thus be sufficiently armed for the fight.
It can also be said that from the beginning of Septuagesima, the Church, pressed down by so many tribulations, had cried out (in the introit), “The groans of death have surrounded me”, as if she could not escape them on any side. On the Sexagesima… as if set between hope and despair, she cried out, “Arise, why dost thou sleep, o Lord.” On Quinquagesima, already despairing, she cried out, “Be my protector, my God”; nay rather, turning her prayer into a statement, she said “Thou wilt lead me, and nourish me.” But now, at the beginning of Lent, showing that she has been heard, she says, “He called upon me, and I will hear”, and in the epistle, “In the acceptable time I have heard thee.”
In the gradual is given to us the guardianship of angels, in the tract, divine protection, because we are surrounded by the shield of truth; in the gospel, as an example to us, we see the Savior triumphing over the enemy, to whom we also say, “Go away, Satan.” In the offertory also, the divine protection is noted, when it says, “With his wings he shall overshadow thee”, and in the post communion, the subjection of the demons, as is said, “(Thou shalt trod) upon the serpent and the basilisk.”
