“COR ARCA LEGEM CONTINENS.” – Hymn at Lauds on the feast of the Sacred Heart. The heart is the seat of love; Jesus shows us in His heart, pierced by the lance, the wounds of love from which flowed the water and the blood that washed humanity from sin. The hymn dates from 1847, and only ten years later Pius IX included it in the Roman Breviary.
Bibl.: C. Albin, La poésie du Bréviaire romain, Lyon n.d., p. 277; G. Bossi, Gli inni del Breviario romano, versione ritmica, Rome 1919, p. 111; A. Mirra, Gli inni del Breviario romano, Naples 1947, p. 139.