JamesListen to Giovanni Vianini’s beautiful version of Ad Te Levavi. It’s the Introit for the first Sunday in Advent.
To thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul: in thee, O my God, I put my trust; let me not be ashamed. Neither let my enemies laugh at me: for none of them that wait on thee shall be confounded. Show, O Lord, thy ways to me, and teach me thy paths.
Jeffrey Tucker, writing for the New Liturgical Movement, offers these reflections on the text of the prayer.
The notes mark the beginning of the Church year. The tendency in the musical line is always up, up, up, lifting up our souls, waiting with expectation with eyes toward Heaven–notice the jubilant Deus meus–a musical line at once bright, beautiful, and mysterious, as if we are sure that something extraordinary and liberating is going to happen but we aren’t entirely sure of the details.