A gradual canticle.

Canticum graduum.

(A song of ascents.)

To thee have I lifted up my eyes, who dwellest in heaven.

Ad te levavi oculos meos, qui habitas in cælis.

Unto thee I lift up my eyes, unto thee, who dwellest in the heavens.

Behold as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, As the eyes of the handmaid are on the hands of her mistress: so are our eyes unto the Lord our God, until he have mercy on us.

Ecce sicut oculi servorum in manibus dominorum suorum; sicut oculi ancillæ in manibus dominæ suæ: ita oculi nostri ad Dominum Deum nostrum, donec misereatur nostri.

See how the eyes of servants are fixed on the hands of their masters, the eyes of a maid on the hand of her mistress! Our eyes, too, are fixed on the Lord our God, waiting for him to shew mercy on us.

Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us: for we are greatly filled with contempt.

Miserere nostri, Domine, miserere nostri, quia multum repleti sumus despectione;

Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us; we have had our fill of man’s derision.

For our soul is greatly filled: we are a reproach to the rich, and contempt to the proud.

quia multum repleta est anima nostra opprobrium abundantibus, et despectio superbis.

Our hearts can bear no more to be the scorn of luxury, the derision of the proud.