Sequence for St. Rupert
Jerusalem, O golden city,
in royal purple clad:
O edifice of Good supreme,
you are a light that’s never dimmed:
For you are decked
with dawn and sunshine’s warmth.
O childhood blest
that shines at dawn,
O honored youth
that burns in the sun.
For you, O noble Rupert,
have gleamed in these like a gem,
so that you can’t be hid by fools,
as a mount cannot be covered by a vale.
Your windows, O Jerusalem,
with topaz and sapphire
especially are set.
As you, O Rupert, glint in them,
you can’t be hid
by lukewarm ways—as not the mountain by the vale,
with roses, lilies, purple crowned
to show the truth.
O tender flower of the field,
O apple’s sweet viridity,
O weight without pith
that does not sink the heart to sin.
O noble vessel,
neither dirtied
nor devoured
by the ancient cavern’s dance,
nor weakend by
the ancient wrecker’s wounds:
In you the Holy Spirit symphonizes,
for you’re joined to the angels’ choirs
and spotless now, adorned
for the Son of God.
How beautiful your vessel, O Rupert!
In childhood
and in youth
you yearned for God with fear,
embracing divine Love
with good works’ sweetest scent.
O Jerusalem,
your foundation’s set
with a waterfall of stones—
that is, with publicans and sinners,
the sheep that once were lost
but now are found by the Son of God—to you
they’ve flocked and now in you are set.
And now your walls,
they flash with living stones
that flew with good will’s highest zeal
like clouds across the sky.
And so your towers,
O Jerusalem,
glint red with their blood,
gleam white with the shine of the saints
and all the ornaments of God—
they’re yours forever, O Jeruslaem.
So you, adorned
and crowned
who dwell within Jerusalem,
and you, O Rupert,
their comrade in
this dwelling place—
come to our aid
as we in exile labor and attend.