Benedicite

Benedicite or "the song of the three Hebrew children," is a canticle appointed by the rubric of the Church of England to be said or sung at the morning service, instead of the hymn Te Deum, whenever the minister may think fit. It is a paraphrase of the forty-eighth Psalm. In the Book of Common Prayer published under the sanction of Edward VI, it was ordered that the Te Deum should be said daily throughout the year, except in Lent, when the Benedicite was to be used. The minister had no choice according to this appointment; but in the subsequent revision of the Prayer Book, the choice was left to the option of the minister to read the Te Deum or the Benedicite. This hymn was sung as early as the 3d century. Chrysostom speaks of it as sung in all places throughout the world. — Bingham, Orig. Eccles. bk. 14, ch. 11, § 6; Procter, On Common Prayer, p. 224.