Bone Pastor, Panis Vere

Use: Eastertide, funeral, ordination, Corpus Christi
Required Resources: SATB choir
Language: Latin

In 1264 when Pope Urban IV instituted the feast of Corpus Christi, he requested the great Dominican theologian, Thomas Aquinas, to write the prayers and texts for the Office and Mass for the new feast. The beautiful sequence, Lauda Sion, was part of the Mass texts written by Saint Thomas.

The last two stanzas of that sequence are here set for SATB choir, a cappella, by composer Jonathan Kregor. The Latin begins, "Bone Pastor, panis vere...". An English translation follows:

1. Good Shepherd, true bread, tend us
   Jesu, of Thy love befriend us,
   Thou refresh us, Thou defend us,
   Thine eternal goodness send us
   In the land of life to see.
    
2. Thou who all things canst and knowest,
   Who on earth such food bestowest,
   Grant us with Thy Saints, though lowest,
   Where the heavenly feast Thou showest,
   Fellow-heirs and guests to be. Amen.

The music is mostly homophonic in texture; stanza one is set in c minor, stanza two in C Major. It is well within the grasp of any good church choir and the ranges are comfortable [soprano: mid C to high G; alto: Ab to C; tenor: Eb to F; bass: F to C] This edition, as all of CNP's a cappella motets, is printed in open score (four staves, one for each SATB part), with a keyboard reduction "for rehearsal only."