In a previous post I had stated my intention to convert to Catholicism; since that post, while I have occasionally discussed religion, I haven't really clarified that, verily, I have been attending Mass on Sundays and going to OCIA (Order of Christian Initiates) meetings on Wednesdays. It was not an empty claim and I am on the road to being babtized.
One of my favorite things about the religion is Gregorian chant.
At my church we have English versions of these liturgical hymns but at home I like to listen to the Latin ones.
This is the one that got me into it:
The words say
Sanctus,Sanctus,Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth Pleni sunt Caeli et terra gloria tua Hossana in Excelsis Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domine Hossana in Excelsis
and in English
Holy,Holy,Holy Lord God of Hosts Heaven and earth are full of your glory Hossana in the Highest Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord Hossana in the Highest
If I remember correctly, "Sabaoth" is an Aramaic word that doesn't cleanly translate into English. It means "heavenly armies", so some translations have said "God of Power and Might" and others have simplified it to "God of Hosts"
Hossana is an exclamation from the Jewish tradition, meaning, "Please God."
However in the Christian tradition it tends to mean more like "Praise God"
Anyway here is a version of the song you can try to sing along with
This one is pretty hard to do in my opinion. This video is pretty helpful at breaking down each part, although it's in Spanish with English subtitles. Doesn't matter too much though since it's the same song.
There is a much easier version.
In fact there are a lot of versions that they seem to use at different times. So far the only one I've heard at my church is this one:
It is a bit sad that I would much rather do the older Latin versions but where I live we do these ones in English, which is understandable and probably makes the experience better for the majority of people who don't want to learn Latin chants.
Oh well.
