Truly it is fitting and just, right and profitable to salvation, that we give Thee thanks always, here and in every place, Lord, Holy Father, almighty and eternal God. Through Christ our Lord. Who under the appearance of bread and wine, declared to us and showed forth the wondrous Sacrament; and by words wondrously spoken forth, transubstantiated the bread and wine into His Body and Blood, which He willed to be received unto life by the worthy, unto judgment by the unworthy. O how great the sweetness and life to the blessed! O how great the death and punishment to the condemned! Let us therefore avoid judgment, by receiving the Sacrament worthily, that we may merit to obtain the eternal kingdom. Through the same Christ, our Lord. Through whom the Angels praise, the Archangels venerate Thy majesty, Thrones, Dominations, Virtues, Principalities and Powers adore. Whom the Cherubim and Seraphim celebrated with one rejoicing. To whom we pray that Thou command our voices also be joined, as we say with humble confession: Holy... (
The Preface of Corpus Christi in the Ambrosian Missal.)
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| The first page of the Mass of Corpus Christi from an Ambrosian Missal printed in 1522. In the illustration after the rubrics (next to the Ingressa, the equivalent of the Introit), a bishop is carrying the Blessed Sacrament in procession. Notice that the monstrance is cylindrical, rather than flat, and he is still wearing his miter; both of these customs are still observed to this day. - The traditional Ambrosian Mass of Corpus Christ is that composed for the Roman Rite by St Thomas Aquinas, with the necessary adjustments to the form of the rite, including a Prophetic reading (3 Kings 19, 3-8) and the proper Preface given here; the Lauda Sion is not said, since the Sequence was never adopted in the Ambrosian Rite. |
Vere quia dignum et iustum est, aequum et salutare, nos tibi semper, hic et ubique gratias agere, Domine, Sancte Pater, omnipotens aeterne Deus. Per Christum, Dominum nostrum. Qui sub specie panis et vini mirabile Sacramentum nobis declarando monstravit: et per verba mirabiliter prolata, panem et vinum transubstantiavit in Corpus et Sanguinem suum: quod sumendo dignis ad vitam, indignis esse voluit ad iudicium. O quanta dulcedo, et vita beatis! O quanta mortalitas, et poena damnatis! Vitemus ergo iudicium, digne sumendo Sacramentum; ut Regnum mereamur consequi sempiternum. Per eundem Christum, Dominum nostrum. Per quem maiestatem tuam laudant Angeli, venerantur Archangeli, Throni, Dominationes, Virtutes, Principates, et Potestates adorant. Quem Cherubim et Seraphim socia exsultatione concelebrant. Cum quibus et nostras voces, ut admitti iubeas, deprecamur, supplici confessione dicentes: Sanctus...
