CMP Review 2026-03-22

The Gospel of Luke includes three songs. One is the prophecy of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, sung at the time of his son’s birth. When this song was translated from Greek to Latin for the Vulgate, the first line read, “Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel” (“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel”). Because of this, the hymn (Luke 1:68–79) has been known as the Benedictus.

According to J.H. Blunt, “This prophetic hymn of Zacharias has been used as a responsory canticle to the Gospel Lessons from very ancient times, being spoken of as so used by Amalarius [a.d. 820]; and perhaps by St. Benedict, nearly three centuries earlier, since he speaks of a Canticum de Evangelio occurring here in Mattins.”

Blunt goes on: “The position of this Canticle makes its ritual meaning self-evident. It is a thanksgiving to Almighty God for His mercy as exhibited towards mankind in the Incarnation of our Lord, whereof the Gospel speaks, and in the foundation of the Church in His blood, as recorded in the Acts of the Holy Apostles. It is the last prophecy of the Old Dispensation, and the first of the New, and furnishes a kind of key to the Evangelical interpretation of all prophecies under the one by which they are connected with the other.”

It is poetry indeed, but its poetic character is not very evident in our English translations. Charlotte Mason recast this ancient liturgical song, this connection between testaments old and new, with the meter and rhyme that we associate with traditional English verse. Mason’s poem has found new life in a recording by Antonella Greco. Take a moment to listen here.

@artmiddlekauff