I began think of setting text in 2020. In the first stanza of we read: "Our foes press on from every side;" It seemed at the time--as it does in every age--that not only were the principalities of the world and the foes of the good at our door, but that they raged against the peace of our souls. In the subsequent years this "other-wordly war" continued to rage--as it always has--and we continue to seek peace, especially interiorly. It is my hope that my setting of this text represents not only that struggle, but the salve that can only come from the True Presence.
O Salutáris Hóstia ~Nicholas Lemme | SATB a cappella | 2-4'
O Salutáris hóstia
quae caeli pandis óstium:
bella premunt hostília,
da robur, fer auxílium.
Uni trinóque Dómino,
sit sempitérna glória,
qui vitam sine término
nobis donet in pátria.
TRANSLATION (poetical)
O SAVING Victim opening wide
The gate of heaven to all below.
Our foes press on from every side;
Thine aid supply, Thy strength bestow.
To Thy great name be endless praise
Immortal Godhead, One in Three;
Oh, grant us endless length of days,
In our true native land with Thee.
~ tr. E Caswall
~St. Thomas Aquinas' famous last two stanza's from his Eucharistic hymn, Verbum Supernum, a text commissioned by Pope Urban IV for the institution of the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1264.