Catholic Chant
Keeping the Faith through Music
Parce Domine


Latin English
Refrain:
Parce, Domine,
Parce populo tuo:
Ne in aeternum
irascaris nobis.

1. Flectamus iram vindicem,
Ploremus ante Judicem;
Clamemus ore supplici,
Dicamus omnes cernui:
Refrain

2. Nostris malis offendimus
Tuam Deus clementiam
Effunde nobis desuper
Remissor indulgentiam.
Refrain

3. Dans tempus acceptabile,
Da lacrimarum rivulis
Lavare cordis victimam,
Quam laeta adurat caritas.
Refrain

4. Audi, benigne Conditor,
Nostras preces cum fletibus
In hoc sacro jejunio,
Fusas quadragenario.
Refrain
Refrain:
Spare, O Lord,
Spare Your people,
Do not be angry with us forever.


1. Let us turn back the angry avenger,
Let us lament before the Judge;
Let us cry aloud as suppliants,
Falling prostrate, let us all say:
Refrain

2. By our evils we have offended
Your clemency, O God.
Pour out upon us from above
Your indulgence, unto remission.
Refrain

3. Giving us an acceptable time,
Grant that by rivers of tears,
The victim, our heart, may be cleansed
That our joy may enkindle our charity.
Refrain

4. Hear, O good Seasoner,
Our prayers through weeping,
In this most sacred fast,
Made firm by these forty days.
Refrain

Season: Lent
Use: General hymn for Mass, processions, or private prayer.

This Lenten hymn reminds us of the ancient city of Nineveh: "Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day's walk announcing, 'Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,' when the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.

"...When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out." (Jonah 3:4-5,10)