«EN UT SUPERBA CRIMINUM». — This is the hymn of Vespers for the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; its author is unknown. It was inserted into the Breviary when the feast had not yet been extended to the universal Church.
Even before the lance of the Roman soldier pierced it, the sins of men had pierced the divine Heart of Jesus. The resolve to sin no more is the conclusion of profound meditation, in which the weeping of a soul that loves and, in love, finds the means of making itself more worthy of Jesus’ love, is here engraved in austere verses.
BBL.: G. Belli, Gli inni del Breviario tradotti, Rome 1856, pp. 486–97; V. Tureno, Gli inni dell'Ufficio divino, Mondovì 1932, p. 100 agg.; A. Mitra, Gli inni del Breviario romano, Naples 1937, p. 141 agg.