« AUDI BENIGNE CONDITOR ». - Hymn for Vespers in Lent, in which the verse unfolds in a tone of humble prayer, that the Lord, taking account of fasts and penances, may be pleased to grant us forgiveness for our sins. Trust in divine mercy is beautifully joined to the humility of the supplicant. The Lord knows well our weaknesses and understands all the frailty of human misery; He will therefore know how to understand and pity us. Moreover, all the prayers of Lent and the spirit that animates them are wonderfully summed up in this hymn, preserved in manuscripts of the tenth century.
BIBL.: G. G. Belli, Iuni del Breviario romano tradotti, Rome 1856, pp. 142-43; L. Venturi, Gli inni della Chiesa, 3rd ed. Florence 1880, pp. 196-99; U. Chevalier, Repertorium hymnologicum, Louvain 1889-97, no. 1449; G. Bossi, Gli inni del Breviario romano, versione ritmica, Rome 1919, p. 34; A. Mirra, Gli inni del breviario romano, Naples 1947, p. 108; C. Albin, La poésie du Bréviaire, I, Lyons n.d., pp. 142-44. Silverio Mattei