Latin lyrics
Lucis creator optime,
lucem dierum proferens,
primordiis lucis novae,
mundi parans originem.
Qui mane junctum vesperi,
diem vocari praecipis,
illabitur tetrum chaos,
audi preces cum fletibus.
Ne mens gravata crimine,
vitae sit exsul munere,
dum nil perenne cogitat,
seseque culpis illigat.
Caeleste pulset ostium,
vitale tollat praemium,
vitemus omne noxium,
purgemus omne pessimum.
Praesta Pater piissime,
Patrique compar unice,
cum Spiritu paraclito,
regnans per omne saeculum.
English lyrics (Translation by John Henry Newman)
Father of Lights, by whom each day
Is kindled out of night,
Who, when the heavens were made, didst lay
Their rudiments in light;
Thou, who didst bind and blend in one
The glistening morn and evening pale,
Hear Thou our plaint, when light is gone,
And lawlessness and strife prevail.
Hear, lest the whelming weight of crime
Wreck us with life in view;
Lest thoughts and schemes of sense and time
Earn us a sinner’s due.
So may we knock at Heaven’s door,
And strive the immortal prize to win,
Continually and evermore
Guarded without and pure within.
Grant this, O Father, Only Son,
And Spirit, God of grace,
To whom all worship shall be done
In every time and place.
English lyrics (Translation by John Mason Neale)
O Blest Creator of the light,
Who mak’st the day with radiance bright,
and o’er the forming world didst call
the light from chaos first of all;
Whose wisdom joined in meet array
the morn and eve, and named them Day:
night comes with all its darkling fears;
regard Thy people’s prayers and tears.
Lest, sunk in sin, and whelmed with strife,
they lose the gift of endless life;
while thinking but the thoughts of time,
they weave new chains of woe and crime.
But grant them grace that they may strain
the heavenly gate and prize to gain:
each harmful lure aside to cast,
and purge away each error past.
O Father, that we ask be done,
through Jesus Christ, Thine only Son;
Who, with the Holy Ghost and Thee,
doth live and reign eternally. Amen.