Hymn of the week, Latin and English.
Today I am spurred on to promote devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. This time of the year the Church celebrates the feast of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Our Lord. In Sydney this Sunday hundreds, if not thousands of people will process through the streets in a huge Eucharistic procession called Walk With Christ. This is all a drop in the ocean compared to the love he pours out for us, a love which is all too often ignored, even ridiculed.
The writer of this hymn is St Thomas Aquinas, whose whole life is worth reading, but this one episode stands out to me:
…towards the end of his life, when at Salerno he was laboring over the third part of his great treatise, Against the Pagans (Summa Contra Gentiles), dealing with Christ’s Passion and Resurrection, a sacristan saw him late one night kneeling before the altar and heard a voice, coming, it seemed, from the crucifix, which said, “Thou hast written well of Me, Thomas; what reward wouldst thou have?” To which Thomas replied, “Nothing but Thyself, Lord.” read more at EWTN, Lives of the Saints, St Thomas Aquinas
Nothing but Thyself.
The picture here is of Peter Julian Eymard, Apostle of the Blessed Sacrament.
Adoro te devote, latens Deitas, Quæ sub his figuris vere latitas; Tibi se cor meum totum subjicit, Quia te contemplans totum deficit.
Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur, Sed auditu solo tuto creditur. Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius; Nil hoc verbo veritátis verius.
In cruce latebat sola Deitas, At hic latet simul et Humanitas, Ambo tamen credens atque confitens, Peto quod petivit latro pœnitens.
Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor: Deum tamen meum te confiteor. Fac me tibi semper magis credere, In te spem habere, te diligere.
O memoriale mortis Domini! Panis vivus, vitam præstans homini! Præsta meæ menti de te vívere, Et te illi semper dulce sapere.
Pie Pelicane, Jesu Domine, Me immundum munda tuo sanguine: Cujus una stilla salvum facere Totum mundum quit ab omni scelere.
Jesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio, Oro, fiat illud quod tam sitio: Ut te revelata cernens facie, Visu sim beátus tuæ gloriæ. Amen
Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore, Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more, See, Lord, at Thy service low lies here a heart Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.
Seeing, touching, tasting are in Thee deceived: How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed; What God’s Son has told me, take for truth I do; Truth Himself speaks truly or there’s nothing true.
On the cross Thy godhead made no sign to men, Here Thy very manhood steals from human ken: Both are my confession, both are my belief, And I pray the prayer of the dying thief.
I am not like Thomas, wounds I cannot see, But can plainly call Thee Lord and God as he; This faith each day deeper be my holding of, Daily make me harder hope and dearer love.
O Thou our reminder of Christ crucified, Living Bread, the life of us for whom He died, Lend this life to me then: feed and feast my mind, There be Thou the sweetness man was meant to find.
Like what tender tales tell of the Pelican; Bathe me, Jesu Lord, in what Thy bosom ran—– Blood whereof a single drop has power to win All the world forgiveness of its world of sin.
Jesu, whom I look at shrouded here below, I beseech Thee send me what I thirst for so, Some day to gaze on Thee face to face in light And be blest for ever with Thy glory’s sight. Amen.
Written by St Thomas Aquinas O.P. about 800 years ago. Translated by Gerard Manley Hopkins S.J. about 150 years ago.
Looking for a youtube clip with the English translation by Gerard Manley Hopkins there doesn’t seem to be one. Adoremus has a recording of the first verse Here (see number 511). Or me singing it : Godhead
But there’s still the beautiful original in Latin:
Sheet music: