«NOCTE SURGENTES VIGILEMUS OMNES». — Hymn of Matins, used from the third Sunday after Pentecost to 27 September, by an unknown author.
In the silence of the night, when all is quiet, the faithful are summoned to praise the Lord in meditation on the psalms and in the singing of hymns: a gentle alternative that keeps them awake when their limbs, weary from the day’s work, long for rest. This renunciation or curtailment of rest in order to devote oneself to prayer will earn admission to eternal light.
BIBL.: G. B. Belli, Gli inni del Breviario tradotti, Rome 1856, pp. 6–7; S. G. Pimont, Les hymnes du Bréviaire romain, I, Paris 1874, pp. 39–47. Silverio Mattei