Olive Sprouts

Cantus Christi, pg. 426
Nunc dimittis
Luke 2:29-32
Thomas Tallis, The Dorian Service, c. 1550

Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace,

according to Thy word.

For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation,

Which Thou has prepared before the face of all people;

To be a light to lighten the Gentiles,

and to be the glory of Thy people Israel.

Glory be to the Father,

and to the Son,

and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning,

is now and ever shall be,

world with-out end.

Amen.

Cyberhymnal didn't have this one, but it did have a short biography of the composer, Thomas Tallis, which is where I got the picture. You may recognize the name Tallis, since on the soundtrack for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, track 6 is Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. That theme is Third Mode Melody, I believe, which has Psalm 63 set to it in the Cantus Christi, number 92:

O Lord, My God, Most Earnestly

O Lord, my God, most earnestly

I seek your holy face

Within Your house again to see

the glories of Your grace.

Apart from You I long and thirst

and naught can satisfy;

I wander in a desert land

where all the streams are dry.

You can listen to Third Mode Melody here on the Cyberhymnal (although they have it with other words.)