Exsultet


The Exsultet or Easter Proclamation, in Latin Praeconium Paschale, is a lengthy sung proclamation delivered before the paschal candle, ideally by a deacon, during the Easter Vigil in the Roman Rite of Mass. In the absence of a deacon, it may be sung by a priest or by a cantor. It is sung after a procession with the paschal candle before the beginning of the Liturgy of the Word. It is also used in Anglican and various Lutheran churches, as well as other Western Christian denominations.

History

Since the 1955 revision of the Holy Week rites, the Roman Missal explicitly gives the title Praeconium to the Exsultet, as it already did implicitly in the formula it provided for blessing the deacon before the chant: ut digne et competenter annunties suum Paschale praeconium. Outside Rome, use of the paschal candle appears to have been a very ancient tradition in Italy, Gaul, Spain and, perhaps, from the reference by St. Augustine, in Africa. The Liber Pontificalis attributes to Pope Zosimus its introduction in the local church in Rome. The formula used for the Praeconium was not always the Exsultet, though it is perhaps true to say that this formula has survived, where other contemporary formulae have disappeared. In the Liber Ordinum, for instance, the formula is of the nature of a benediction, and the Gelasian Sacramentary has the prayer Deus mundi conditor, not found elsewhere, but containing the remarkable "praise of the bee"—possibly a Vergilian reminiscence—which is found with more or less modification in all the texts of the "Praeconium" down to the present. The regularity of the metrical cursus of the Exsultet would lead us to place the date of its composition perhaps as early as the fifth century, and not later than the seventh. The earliest manuscript in which it appears are those of the three Gallican Sacramentaries: -- the Bobbio Missal, the Missale Gothicum and the Missale Gallicanum Vetus. The earliest manuscript of the Gregorian Sacramentary does not contain the Exsultet, but it was added in the supplement to what has been loosely called the Sacramentary of Adrian, and probably drawn up under the direction of Alcuin.
As it stands in the liturgy, it may be compared with two other forms, the blessing of palms on Palm Sunday, and the blessing of the baptismal font at the Easter Vigil. The order is, briefly:
In pre-1970 forms of the Roman Rite the deacon or, if there is no deacon, the priest himself, puts off his violet vestments and wears a white or gold dalmatic for the entry into the church with the paschal candle and the singing or recitation of the Exsultet, resuming the violet vestments immediately afterwards. In the later form, white vestments are worn throughout. The affixing, in the pre-1955 form of the Roman Rite, of five grains of incense at the words incensi hujus sacrificium was removed in Pope Pius XII's revision.
The chant is usually an elaborate form of the well-known recitative of the preface. In some uses a long bravura was introduced upon the word accendit, to fill in the pause, which must otherwise occur while, in the pre-1955 form of the rite, the deacon is lighting the candle. In Italy the Praeconium was sung from long strips of parchment, gradually unrolled as the deacon proceeded. These "Exsultet Rolls" were decorated with illuminations and with the portraits of contemporary reigning sovereigns, whose names were mentioned in the course of the "Praeconium". The use of these rolls, as far as is known at present, was confined to Italy. The best examples date from the tenth and eleventh centuries.
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Roman Catholic English and Latin text

English text

Exult, let them exult, the hosts of heaven,

exult, let Angel ministers of God exult,

let the trumpet of salvation

sound aloud our mighty King's triumph!



Be glad, let earth be glad, as glory floods her,

ablaze with light from her eternal King,

let all corners of the earth be glad,

knowing an end to gloom and darkness.



Rejoice, let Mother Church also rejoice,

arrayed with the lightning of his glory,

let this holy building shake with joy,

filled with the mighty voices of the peoples.



.





Deacon: Lift up your hearts.

People: We lift them up to the Lord.

Deacon: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

People: It is right and just.



It is truly right and just,

with ardent love of mind and heart

and with devoted service of our voice,

to acclaim our God invisible, the almighty Father,

and Jesus Christ, our Lord, his Son, his Only Begotten.



Who for our sake paid Adam's debt to the eternal Father,

and, pouring out his own dear Blood,

wiped clean the record of our ancient sinfulness.



These, then, are the feasts of Passover,

in which is slain the Lamb, the one true Lamb,

whose Blood anoints the doorposts of believers.



This is the night,

when once you led our forebears, Israel's children,

from slavery in Egypt

and made them pass dry-shod through the Red Sea.



This is the night

that with a pillar of fire

banished the darkness of sin.



This is the night

that even now throughout the world,

sets Christian believers apart from worldly vices

and from the gloom of sin,

leading them to grace

and joining them to his holy ones.



This is the night

when Christ broke the prison-bars of death

and rose victorious from the underworld.



Our birth would have been no gain,

had we not been redeemed.

O wonder of your humble care for us!

O love, O charity beyond all telling,

to ransom a slave you gave away your Son!



O truly necessary sin of Adam,

destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!



O happy fault

that earned for us so great, so glorious a Redeemer!



O truly blessed night,

worthy alone to know the time and hour

when Christ rose from the underworld!



This is the night

of which it is written:

The night shall be as bright as day,

dazzling is the night for me,
and full of gladness.



The sanctifying power of this night

dispels wickedness, washes faults away,

restores innocence to the fallen, and joy to mourners,

drives out hatred, fosters concord, and brings down the mighty.



On this, your night of grace, O holy Father,

accept this candle, a solemn offering,

the work of bees and of your servants' hands,

an evening sacrifice of praise,

this gift from your most holy Church.



But now we know the praises of this pillar,

which glowing fire ignites for God's honour,

a fire into many flames divided,

yet never dimmed by sharing of its light,

for it is fed by melting wax,

drawn out by mother bees

to build a torch so precious.



O truly blessed night,

when things of heaven are wed to those of earth,

and divine to the human.



Therefore, O Lord,

we pray you that this candle,

hallowed to the honour of your name,

may persevere undimmed,

to overcome the darkness of this night.

Receive it as a pleasing fragrance,

and let it mingle with the lights of heaven.

May this flame be found still burning

by the Morning Star:

the one Morning Star who never sets,

Christ your Son,

who, coming back from death's domain,

has shed his peaceful light on humanity,

and lives and reigns for ever and ever.

Amen.
Latin text

Exsúltet iam angélica turba cælórum:

exsúltent divína mystéria:

et pro tanti Regis victória tuba ínsonet salutáris.
Gáudeat et tellus, tantis irradiáta fulgóribus:

et ætérni Regis splendóre illustráta,

tótius orbis se séntiat amisísse calíginem.
Lætétur et mater Ecclésia,

tanti lúminis adornáta fulgóribus:

et magnis populórum vócibus hæc aula resúltet.






V/ Sursum corda.

R/ Habémus ad Dóminum.

V/ Grátias agámus Dómino Deo nostro.

R/ Dignum et iustum est.



Vere dignum et iustum est,

invisíbilem Deum Patrem omnipoténtem

Filiúmque eius unigénitum,

Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum,

toto cordis ac mentis afféctu et vocis ministério personáre.



Qui pro nobis ætérno Patri Adæ débitum solvit,

et véteris piáculi cautiónem pio cruóre detérsit.
Hæc sunt enim festa paschália,

in quibus verus ille Agnus occíditur,

cuius sánguine postes fidélium consecrántur.



Hæc nox est,

in qua primum patres nostros, fílios Israel

edúctos de Ægypto,

Mare Rubrum sicco vestígio transíre fecísti.



Hæc ígitur nox est,

quæ peccatórum ténebras colúmnæ illuminatióne purgávit.
Hæc nox est,

quæ hódie per univérsum mundum in Christo credéntes,

a vítiis sæculi et calígine peccatórum segregátos,

reddit grátiæ, sóciat sanctitáti.


Hæc nox est,

in qua, destrúctis vínculis mortis,

Christus ab ínferis victor ascéndit.



Nihil enim nobis nasci prófuit,

nisi rédimi profuísset.

O mira circa nos tuæ pietátis dignátio!

O inæstimábilis diléctio caritátis:

ut servum redímeres, Fílium tradidísti!



O certe necessárium Adæ peccátum,

quod Christi morte delétum est!



O felix culpa,

quæ talem ac tantum méruit habére Redemptórem!



O vere beáta nox,

quæ sola méruit scire tempus et horam,

in qua Christus ab ínferis resurréxit!



Hæc nox est, de qua scriptum est:

Et nox sicut dies illuminábitur:

et nox illuminátio mea in delíciis meis.
Huius ígitur sanctificátio noctis fugat scélera, culpas lavat:

et reddit innocéntiam lapsis et mæstis lætítiam.

Fugat ódia, concórdiam parat et curvat impéria.
In huius ígitur noctis grátia, súscipe, sancte Pater,

laudis huius sacrifícium vespertínum,

quod tibi in hac cérei oblatióne solémni,

per ministrórum manus

de opéribus apum, sacrosáncta reddit Ecclésia.



Sed iam colúmnæ huius præcónia nóvimus,

quam in honórem Dei rútilans ignis accéndit.

Qui, lícet sit divísus in partes,

mutuáti tamen lúminis detrimenta non novit.



Alitur enim liquántibus ceris,

quas in substántiam pretiósæ huius lámpadis

apis mater edúxit.



O vere beáta nox,

in qua terrénis cæléstia, humánis divína iungúntur!
Orámus ergo te, Dómine,

ut céreus iste in honórem tui nóminis consecrátus,

ad noctis huius calíginem destruéndam,

indefíciens persevéret.

Et in odórem suavitátis accéptus,

supérnis lumináribus misceátur.



Flammas eius lúcifer matutínus invéniat:

ille, inquam, lúcifer, qui nescit occásum.

Christus Fílius tuus,

qui, regréssus ab ínferis, humáno géneri serénus illúxit,

et vivit et regnat in sæcula sæculórum.



R/ Amen.

Prayer for the Emperor

Until 1955, the Exsultet ended with a long prayer for the Emperor:
Only the head of the Holy Roman Empire could be prayed for with this formula, and the resignation in 1806 of the last emperor, Francis II of Austria, the prayer was in practice not used. The prayer now ended with the immediately preceding petition, for the members of the Church:
After Pope Pius IX's Imperii Galliarum of 10 September 1857, Emperor Napoleon III of France would be prayed for from 1858 to 1870, not by adding "necnon gloriosissimo Imperatore nostro N." to this ending, which became:
In 1955 Pope Pius XII added a phrase to the prayer for the members of the Church and definitively removed the prayer for the Holy Roman Emperor, replacing it with a generic prayer for the civil authorities inspired by the prayer for the Emperor:
This was removed in the 1970 revision, but remains in use in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, ending with the formula:

Anglican text

The following is an example of an Anglican text of the Exsultet, taken from the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church in the United States. The paschal candle is placed in its stand. Then the deacon, or other person appointed, standing near the candle, sings or says the Exsultet, as follows :
Rejoice now, heavenly hosts and choirs of angels,
and let your trumpets shout Salvation
for the victory of our mighty King.
Rejoice and sing now, all the round earth,
bright with a glorious splendor,
for darkness has been vanquished by our eternal King.
Rejoice and be glad now, Mother Church,
and let your holy courts, in radiant light,
resound with the praises of your people.
Deacon: The Lord be with you.
Answer: And also with you.
Deacon: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
Answer: It is right to give him thanks and praise.
Deacon:
It is truly right and good, always and everywhere, with our whole heart and mind and voice, to praise you, the invisible,
almighty, and eternal God, and your only-begotten Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord; for he is the true Paschal Lamb, who
at the feast of the Passover paid for us the debt of Adam's sin,
and by his blood delivered your faithful people.
This is the night, when you brought our fathers, the children
of Israel, out of bondage in Egypt, and led them through the
Red Sea on dry land.
This is the night, when all who believe in Christ are delivered
from the gloom of sin, and are restored to grace and holiness
of life.
This is the night, when Christ broke the bonds of death and hell,
and rose victorious from the grave.
Holy Father, accept our evening sacrifice, the offering of this
candle in your honor. May it shine continually to drive away
all darkness. May Christ, the Morning Star who knows no
setting, find it ever burning—he who gives his light to all
creation, and who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.
It is customary that the Paschal Candle burn at all services from
Easter Day through the Day of Pentecost.

Lutheran text

The following is an example form of the Lutheran Exsultet, taken from the Lutheran Service Book. This version, or a similar translation, may be used in various Lutheran denominations.
The version authorized by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and published in Evangelical Lutheran Worship retains the wording about the candle and the bees:

Methodist text

The text of the Easter Proclamation contained in The United Methodist Book of Worship is chanted by a deacon after the procession into the church with the Paschal Candle: