Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor.Exultemus, et in ipso iucundemur.Timeamus, et amemus Deum vivum.Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.Simul ergo cum in unum congregamur:Ne nos mente dividamur, caveamus.Cessent iurgia maligna, cessent lites.Et in medio nostri sit Christus Deus.Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est.Simul quoque cum beatis videamus,Glorianter vultum tuum, Christe Deus:Gaudium quod est immensum, atque probum,Saecula per infinita saeculorum. Amen.English translation. Where charity and love are, God is there.Christ's love has gathered us into one.Let us rejoice and be pleased in Him.Let us fear, and let us love the living God.And may we love each other with a sincere heart.Where charity and love are, God is there.As we are gathered into one body,Beware, lest we be divided in mind.Let evil impulses stop, let controversy cease,And may Christ our God be in our midst.Where charity and love are, God is there.And may we with the saints also,See Thy face in glory, O Christ our God:The joy that is immense and good,Unto the ages through infinite ages. Amen.French translation.
At the outset of the holiest three-day period in the Christian calendar, most Christian liturgies celebrate some of the most intimate rituals Christ ever gave His disciples. 'Maundy' Thursday, the Thursday evening three days before the celebration of Easter, commemorates on the one hand the blessed institution of the Last Supper, when Christ we are told broke bread for the last time with His most intimate friends, and spoke of reinventing the Passover meal as representing His flesh and blood, broken and shed for them and for many. He reclined at the ritual Passover table together with them and even dipped bread into the cup of Judas, who would be His betrayer. During the course of the same evening, Jesus also took the intimate and surprising act of physically washing the dirty feet of the disciples. As he was doing so, He gave the 'new commandment' ('mandatum novum,' from which the Maundy Thursday liturgy has since taken its name) that 'You shall love one another, even as I have loved you' (John 13:34). As the Church has remembered these actions in its liturgy, there are several particular texts which have been featured; perhaps the best-loved is the Latin poem 'Ubi caritas et amor.'
Durufle Ubi Caritas Pdf
The anonymous author of the poem was most probably a product of the medieval French Church; one way or another, the poem drips the sincerity of true brotherhood. 'Where there is charity and love, God is also there.' In the Catholic liturgies, the poem fairly quickly assumed a well-known plainchant melody whose mode is close enough to 'modern' melodies to help make the piece also a favorite for 20th century composers to create choral settings. Is one of several who have contributed choral settings to this chant, and as with many, he gives central honor to the chant melody itself.
The chant melody opens 's setting in the men's soli voices, followed by an intimate choral verse, tinged at first with echoes of the chant melody in different voices. The subjunctive 'let us rejoice' bursts forth in somewhat more disjunct harmonies, returning to a serene cadence on the revering of the 'living God.'
A brief chant quotation leads to the second choral verse, dealing in somewhat diverse harmonies and brief tenor solos with the cessation of strife as Christ dwells among us. A relaxed 'Amen' uses several of the plainchant's main motives in conclusive counterpoint, with a final tenor chant quotation and pregnant dissonance resolving into the peaceful dew of the last cadence.