Attende caelum (“Attend, Oh heaven”) is the tract sung after the eleventh prophecy on Holy Saturday, and is based on Deut 32:1-4.
Dom Guéranger explains the chant: “[This tract is] taken from the sublime canticle sung by Moses, before quitting this earth. The whole assembly of Israel was present, and he put before them, in words of earnest zeal, the chastisements which God exercises against them that break the Covenant He vouchsafes to make with them.” (1)
Attende caelum is here interpreted by an anonymous choir.
Listen to Attende Caelum
Lyrics:
Latin text
Attende caelum, et loquar:
Et audiat terra
Verba exore meo. V. Exspectetur sicut pluvia eloquium meum:
Et descendant sicut ros verba mea,
Sicut imber super gramina. V. Et sicut nix super foenum:
Quia nomen Domini invocabo. V. Date magnitudinem Deo nostro:
Deus, vera opera ejus,
Et omnes viae ejus judicia. V. Deus fidelis, in quo non est iniquitas:
Justus et sanctus Dominus.
English translation:
Attend, Oh heaven, and I will speak:
And let the earth hear
The words that come from my mouth. V. Let my speech be expected like the rain:
And let my words fall like the dew.
Like the shower upon the grass, V. And like the snow upon the dry herb:
Because I will invoke the name of the Lord. V. Confess the greatness of our God:
God, His works are true,
And all His ways are just. V. God is faithful, in whom there is no iniquity:
The Lord is just and holy.
Dom Guéranger, The Liturgical Year, Loreto Publications, 2000, vol. 6, p. 600.
