Godhead Here in Hiding

- Msgr. Anthony Mancini

Use: Eucharistic, Marian
Required Resources: SATB choir, organ
Language: English & Latin

Msgr. Anthony Mancini is Rector and Music Director of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Providence, Rhode Island, and a protege of Dr. C. Alexander Peloquin, who held the music director position there for 41 years, until his retirement in 1991.

Godhead Here in Hiding is subtitled "A Marian Communion Hymn" by the composer; it appears as such in his Mother of Mercy Mass. It begins with a lengthy refrain on a text by Gerald Manley Hopkins:

Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore,
Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more.
See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.

The refrain is in SATB chorale style, with organ doubling the voice parts. The verses have the men singing the lovely anonymous breviary text, "Mary the Dawn," to the hymn tune Pleading Savior ("Sing of Mary"). Over this the women sing in lengthened notes the text, "Ave verum corpus natum..." in Latin.

This liturgical motet is a perfect way, during a Marian celebration, to emphasize Mary's relation to Christ, as does the text "Mary the Dawn" itself; while the juxtaposition of a Marian tune with the Christocentric text "Ave verum" heightens the correspondence.