Tomorrow we celebrate the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time. To celebrate this Sunday, we have chosen the Offertory chant Domine, vivifica me. The text, taken from Psalm 118, verses 107 and 125, is a plea full of fervour and confidence: “Lord, uphold me according to your word. Not according to my merits, but according to your word, according to your promise.” The life-giving word of God makes us strong, lifts us up and enables us to fulfil the divine designs: we serve faithfully the Light and Origin of all things, advancing steadily along the path of Truth. The soul enlivened by divine Grace, the heart expanded by the love of God, we do not act of our own will: the growth of the heart is the delight of justice. This is a gift that God grants us so that we do not shrink from His commandments for fear of punishment, but we are enriched with the love and pleasure of justice, of truth.

As for the melody of this Offertory, composed in mode 3, that of fervent ardour, it begins with a vocative, Domine, in the high register, underlining the urgency of this prayer, the supplicatory character of the piece: the D, the melodic summit, immediately appears twice before the melody settles on the B, the dominant. The leap of a fifth to reach the E, the fundamental, allows the soul to express its desire to be raised, to be strengthened by divine action: in the imperative vivifica me, from the E it rises rapidly to the high register, intensifying in the turn of the chylismatic movement before reaching the B and closing this intermediate cadence in the object of this supplication: me, my soul. It will be thanks to the life-giving word of God that this elevation will take place: The action of the word of God, the grace that descends upon us, is manifested through a melodic movement that is amplified in the pulsed C of the tristrophe to descend from the heights with beautiful musical volutes in eloquium until it reaches the "earth", the low D at the end of the first phrase, conferring a peaceful character to this cadence, a character of total trust in the Lord and his promise. The soul full of confidence, ready to carry out the divine designs, rises quickly. A beautiful leap of a fourth brings the melody back to the high register; for the third time the B appears in a chylismatic context, intensifying once again the fervour of this supplication, the urgency of this prayer which continues with the unisonic development of testimonia before gradually returning to the low register to find the confident peace of the final cadence in tua.