O Salutaris Hostia
This is the hymn usually sung at the beginning of the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. It comes from the last two verses of the longer hymn Verbum supernum prodiens by St. Thomas Aquinas.
First verse:
I’m using a text which rearranges the Latin word order to make the English easier to understand. We’ll learn this one first, then move on to the real hymn.
Copy this out on paper until you can copy the Latin and write the English underneath from memory.
- O
- O
- salutaris
- saving
- Hostia
- Victim
- quae
- who
- pandis
- openest
- ostium
- the gate
- caeli
- of heaven
- hostilia
- hostile
- bella
- wars
- premunt
- sore press us
- da
- give
- robur
- strength
- fer
- bring
- auxilium
- help
Learn them well. Come back and refresh your memory to help them stick.
Second verse:
- Uni
- to the One
- trinoque
- and Trine
- Domino
- Lord
- sit
- be
- sempiterna
- everlasting
- gloria
- glory
- qui
- and may
- donet
- he give
- vitam
- life
- sine
- without
- termino
- end
- nobis
- to us
- in
- in
- patria
- our native home
Trine is an unusual English word for Threeness. You might think of it as meaning Three-ish or Three-y or maybe Three-fold. Trine is a little shorter to write.
You can find O salutaris Hostia on page 83 of A New Book of Old Hymns.
Sing it through bringing to mind what each word means.