Missa Ad Astra

What does it mean to write with blood?

Twenty-five years in the making, Missa Ad Astra is a contemporary mass unlike any other. Composer Rui Paulo Teixeira and writer Alvaro Aspera didn't simply create new settings of traditional texts. They made a sacred promise to themselves: to "write with blood" – to write only what they had lived, what they had earned through experience, what had become undeniably true.

Each movement waited to be born until its truth had been lived.

Traditional in structure, revolutionary in spirit.

Entirely new Latin texts. Original music for SATB soloists, mixed choir with water-tuned glasses, and orchestra with basso continuo. Also on period instruments. 25 minutes duration.

KYRIE · GLORIA · CREDO · SANCTUS · AGNUS DEI

The Words

Kyrie

Rosa florat.

Solitudo.
Ad nos fama Patris est.

Christe eleison.

Solitudo.
In nos gladius fixus est.

Kyrie eleison.

Oh Rose, blossom...

All is emptiness.
We hear our Father. Is He calling us?

Oh Christ! Have mercy.

All is loneliness.
In us a blade has been stabbed.

Lord, do You hear our cry?

Gloria

Pater ex naturam omnem
et Filius in animi core
hominibus lucent exanclatis.

Laudamus te benedicimus te
Sol qui rapuit nos.

Gloria in excelsis Deo
et Pax in intimo Templo
hominibus bonae voluntatis.

Adoramus te glorificamus te
Sol qui rapuit nos.

The Father who lies beyond all Creation,
and the Son in the core of the soul,
shine upon exhausted men.

We praise You, we bless You,
Oh, Sun who has enraptured us!

Glory to God in the highest
and Peace in the innermost Sanctum
to men of good will.

We adore You, we glorify You,
Oh, Sun who has enraptured us!

Credo

Quia signum meum etiam Ignis est

Credo in unum deum
Patrem me omnipotentem
oblitus at semper proximus
verum factorem coeli et terrae
in quo reveniunt omnia.

Expergo in lucem mundi
deum verum de vero
Filium Dei in Golgotha Christus
mortuum in me et sepultum
ad summum ressurrectum in excelsis.

Et nunc diem ex die occidit natura
in me se liberat aeternum mundum
magnificentiam ex magnificentia per Spiritum Sanctum
revenio in Unam Sanctam secundum scripturas.
Dei Gloria Intacta.

Pater, consummatum est.

For Fire, too, is my sign

I believe in one God,
the Father and the might in everything that exists,
forgotten by me and yet always close,
true maker of heaven and earth,
to whom everything shall return.

I wake up in the Light of the world,
true God from the true God,
the Son of God dead in me and buried,
risen in the Sanctum of the Head, at last!
Christ in splendor!

And now I die day after day,
in me the eternal world frees itself,
from magnificence to magnificence, by the Holy Spirit,
I return Home according to the scriptures.
The Untouched Glory of God is now Perfect.

Father, it's done.

Sanctus

Sanctus! Sanctus! Sanctus!

Nunc in excelsis advenisti,
In oblivio nos relinques?

Sanctus! Sanctus! Sanctus!

Tu qui ad fugam ultra finiens orbis abdicasti
Et dolorem innefabilem secretae vitae elegisti.

Sanctum est Nomen Tuum.
Sanctum est Silentium Tuum.
Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua!

(Hosanna in excelsis)
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.

Tu Vivis.

Holy! Holy! Oh Blessed One!

Now that you have come to the highest of the blue sky,
Are you going to leave us in oblivion?

Holy! Holy! Oh Blessed One!

You who have renounced vanishing from sight beyond the ends of the earth,
And have chosen the ineffable pain of the Secret Life.

Holy is Your Name.
Holy is Your Silence.
Heavens and earth are full of your glory!

(Hosanna in excelsis)
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

You are the Living One.

Agnus Dei

Agnus Dei,
Qui tollis peccata mundi,
Miserere nobis.

Tu qui Vitam Lucem decedisti,
Tu qui Viam Crucem eligisti,
Miserere nobis.

Agnus Dei,
Qui tollis peccata mundi,
Dona nobis pacem.

In nos gladius fixus est,
Ad nos fama Patris est,
Dona nobis pacem.

Rosa florat!

Lamb of God,
Who takes away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us.

You who renounced your Divine Life,
You who have chosen the Way of the Cross,
Have mercy on us.

Lamb of God,
Who takes away the sins of the world,
Grant us your inner peace.

In us a blade has been stabbed.
We hear our Father. Is He calling us?
Grant us your inner peace.

Oh Rose... blossom!

Voices

Rui Paulo Teixeira writes with a truly silken hand that goes directly to the interior of each person... He truly manages to bring out the best in us through this music.

Sergio Alapont

Musical Director, Orquestra Clássica do Centro

This is more than an exercise: it is a Work of Art. This work restores our sense of wonder before the Mystery.

Father Joaquim Ganhão

Director of the Liturgy Department, Sanctuary of Fátima

The experience of singing this text is truly sublime.

Pedro Teixeira

Choir Conductor, Coro Ricercare

The decision to compose a Mass demonstrates a desire to provide, beyond musical enjoyment, a spiritual experience – beyond the routines and hustle of everyday life.

Father Carlos Cabecinhas

Rector of the Sanctuary of Fátima

We are touching souls, in an act of unprecedented modernity.

Sergio Alapont

Musical Director, Orquestra Clássica do Centro

Premiering a mass with these characteristics is a major event.

Pedro Teixeira

Choir Conductor, Coro Ricercare

Your music, together with his texts, became for me a form of contemporary spirituality. Together, they united the very best of the Christian message with what it ought to be in our time.

Maria João Gomes

Mezzo-soprano, Soloist at the premiere

It fills me with joy to see sacred music celebrated so beautifully in these times that have become so desacralized. How good it is to bring it to that sanctuary of encounter and silence.

Margarida Mendes

From the Board of Associação Ricercare

My sincere congratulations on the Mass you composed – with a musicality, expression, emotion and modernity that, in my opinion, speaks to any elite… it was thrilling to hear!!!

Lídia Correia

Organist, in the audience at the premiere

In the Sanctus, it felt to me as though the Angels were descending down to us.

Uriel Teixeira

Young audience member

A work that lifts our hearts!

Nuno Mendes

Bass, Soloist at the premiere

For me it was deeply moving – and an enormous pleasure – to be able to perform this great work again. I truly feel privileged to have taken part in two excellent concerts, both with full audiences!

Tiago Sousa

Tenor, Soloist at the premiere

Rui Paulo Teixeira’s art awakens and touches the soul of those who listen and those who perform it! With Missa Ad Astra, he transcribed the divine into music! Absolutely sublime!

Eva Braga Simões

Soprano, Soloist at the premiere

It is striking how freely the author revisits and re-presents the core themes, guiding the initial motif – Rosa florat – into a cosmic and spiritual resonance.

Father Joaquim Ganhão

Director of the Liturgy Department, Sanctuary of Fátima

Experience

Watch

Listen

The Words

Voices

Performances

Missa Ad Astra