Rorate Caeli desuper - Klassiek Adventslied bijvoorbeeld na H. Communie of na de H.Mis

In the seventeenth century, Rorate was arranged into a hymn combining the traditional text with other scriptural passages used in the liturgy for Advent. The earliest known version is in the Oratorian Officia Propria (1673); it also appears in French diocesan rites, such as the Rouen Processional of 1729 and 1763.^[2]

The hymn was popularized in English by the English Hymnal. In the Book of Hymns (Edinburgh, 1910), p. 4, W. Rooke-Ley translates the text in connection with the O Antiphons ('Mystic dew from heaven Unto earth is given: / Break, O earth, a Saviour yield—Fairest flower of the field').^[1] The text also forms the basis for the hymn 'O Heiland, reiß die Himmel auf'.

The traditional English translation of the text is from the English Hymnal (except for the third verse, and with the last verse modified here to follow the Latin).

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In addition to traditional plainsong, musical settings of the Rorate coeli have been composed by amongst others, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1572), Jacob Handl (1586), William Byrd (1605) and Heinrich Schütz (1639).^[3]

Settings of the English text, Drop down ye heavens, have been written by a number of composers, including Judith Weir (written in 1983 for the choir of Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge),^[4] Andrew Cusworth^[5] and Richard Hey Lloyd (1979).^[6]

Latin	English
Roráte caéli désuper, et núbes plúant jústum.	Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness.
Ne irascáris Dómine, ne ultra memíneris iniquitátis: ecce cívitas Sáncti fácta est desérta: Síon desérta fácta est, Jerúsalem desoláta est: dómus sanctificatiónis túæ et glóriæ túæ, ubi laudavérunt te pátres nóstri.	Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever: thy holy city is a wilderness, Sion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation: our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee.
Peccávimus, et fácti súmus tamquam immúndus nos, et cecídimus quasi fólium univérsi: et iniquitátes nóstræ quasi véntus abstulérunt nos: abscondísti faciem túam a nóbis, et allisísti nos in mánu iniquitátis nóstræ.	We have sinned, and are as an unclean thing, and we all do fade as a leaf: and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away: thou hast hid thy face from us: and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.
Víde Dómine afflictiónem pópuli túi, et mítte quem missúrus es: emítte Agnum dominatórem térræ, de Pétra desérti ad móntem fíliæ Síon: ut áuferat ípse júgum captivitátis nóstræ.	Behold, O Lord, the affliction of thy people, and send forth him whom thou wilt send; send forth the Lamb, the ruler of the earth, from Petra of the desert to the mount of the daughter of Sion: that he may take away the yoke of our captivity.
Vos testes mei, dicit Dóminus, et servus meus quem elégi; ut sciátis, et credátis mihi: ego sum, ego sum Dóminus, et non est absque me salvátor: et non est qui de manu mea éruat.	Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know me and believe me: I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Saviour: and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
Consolámini, consolámini, pópule méus: cito véniet sálus túa: quare mæróre consúmeris, quia innovávit te dólor? Salvábo te, nóli timére, égo enim sum Dóminus Déus túus, Sánctus Israël, Redémptor túus.	Comfort ye, comfort ye my people; my salvation shall not tarry: why wilt thou waste away in sadness? why hath sorrow seized thee? Fear not, for I will save thee: For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer.