Rorate Caeli

The New Benedictus

In the religious radio program Morgengedanken (Morning Thoughts), for the fourth channel (SWR4) of German public radio broadcaster SWR, host Remi Denoix presented the New Benedictus, composed by Fr. Anton Rotzetter, a Capuchin priest:

"Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel,

He leads through the arid land / He frees from slavery and oppression / He promises a new world.

Blessed be the Lord, God of Muhammad,

He is great and sublime / He is incomprehensible and inaccessible / He is great in his Prophet.

Blessed be the Lord, God of Buddha,

He lives in the depths of the world / He lives in every man / He is the fullness of silence.

Blessed be the Lord, God of Africa,

He is life in the trees / He is power in the father and in the mother / He is the soul of the world.

Blessed be the Lord, God of Jesus Christ,

He radiates Love / He gives himself up in goodness/ He overcomes death."

Father Rotzetter, a native of Basel, is also one of the leading forces behind the Institut für Theologische Zoologie (Institute for Theological Zoology), dedicated to the establishment of a "scientifically sound theological appreciation of the animal". (Source: SWR4 radio, August 7, 2012; tip: Pius.info)