Today we celebrate the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time. To celebrate this Sunday, we have once again chosen the Offertory chant. The text taken from Psalm 39 is messianic, and probably in the strict sense. The new canticle that is mentioned corresponds to the liturgy, and in particular here, to the Eucharistic praise that fills the hearts of the faithful and that spontaneously rises to their lips when they feel the vital transformation that the Eucharist works in them.

As for the melody, it is a very quiet, gentle and contemplative song. The soul, as if it had suddenly escaped death, or the danger of death, or some purifying trial, feels gratitude rising up in it, wrapped in peace and joy. She sings this deep joy to the Lord and discreetly gives the fruit of her experience to those who can understand it.

It is noteworthy that there are no melodic movements of wide intervals; everything goes by consecutive degrees or nearly so. In fact, there is a quite marked melodic ascent at ‘exspectavi’, but the descent is so gentle for ‘Dominum!’ In ‘et respexit’ there is clearly a joyful tenderness and in particular in the very gentle and luminous cadenza.

The second phrase appears with simple cadences and exquisite freshness. At ‘immisit’, the joy is more exalted and externalised. The soul gives a further glimpse of its enthusiasm to sing the joy that it finds on its lips, the song that can express all its gratitude. Note how the melody lingers on the words of ‘canticum novum’ and particularly emphasises the pressus at the end.

There is a sweetness in the last three words, ‘hymnum Deo nostro’, which cannot be found in any of the others; we feel how tenderly the soul delights in this thought which is, ultimately, the expression of its whole life.