Scapulis suis obumbrabit tibi. “He will conceal you with his pinions and under his wings you will refuge” is the full text. I’ve heard the chanting of this Latin responsory like a Lenten earworm ever since I first heard it sung, which was when I spent my first proper monastic retreat at the Benedictine monastery of Prinknash when I was a university student.
Actually, more than an earworm, it’s a heartworm. That is, the sentiment, and not just the sound it made, keeps me replaying it. Both operated in expressing a kind of restrained joy which seemed striking amid what I had previously tended to think of as the gloom of Lent.
