Contents Immense caeli Conditor
O great Creator of the Sky
Hymni


Attributed to Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604). The theme of this traditional hymn for the second day of the week is fittingly the second day of creation on which the firmament was created (Gen 1, 6-8). The hymn is traditionally sung at Monday Vespers and is used in the Liturgia Horarum at Vespers for Mondays of the first and third weeks of the Psalter during Ordinary Time. Likewise the hymn is also found in the Roman Breviary for Monday Vespers.

IMMENSE caeli conditor,
qui, mixta ne confunderent,
aquae fluenta dividens,
caelum dedisti limitem,
O GREAT CREATOR of the sky,
Who wouldest not the floods on high
with earthly water to confound,
but madist the firmament their bound;
Firmans locum caelestibus,
simulque terrae rivulis,
ut unda flammas temperet,
terrae solum ne dissipet:1
The floods above Thou didst ordain;
the floods below Thou didst restrain:
that moisture might attemper heat,
lest the parched earth should ruin meet.
Infunde nunc, piissime,
donum perennis gratiae,
fraudis novae ne casibus
nos error atterat vetus.
Upon our souls, good Lord, bestow
Thy gift of grace in endless flow:
lest some renewed deceit or wile
of former sin should us beguile.
Lucem fides inveniat,2
sic luminis iubar ferat;
haec vana cuncta terreat,3
hanc falsa nulla comprimant.
Let faith discover heavinly light;
so shall its rays direct us right:
and let this faith each error chase,
and never give to falsehood place.
Praesta, Pater piissime,
Patrique compar Unice,
cum Spiritu Paraclito
regnans per omne saeculum. Amen.
Grant this, O Father, ever One
with Christ, Thy sole-begotten Son,
and Holy Ghost, whom all adore,
reigning and blest forevermore. Amen.

From the Liturgia Horarum. Translation by J. M. Neale (1818-1866).

Changes made by Pope Urban VIII in 1632 to the Roman Breviary:
1 dissipent,
2 adaugeat.
3 proterat


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