Adoro Te

 

St. Thomas Aquinas is rightly known as the Angelic Doctor, perhaps the greatest of theologians, and the sanctity of his thought and devotion comes through in his hymnody, not least Adoro Te, composed for the Feast of Corpus Christi. Here:

Anglo-Catholics, that rare breed, are familiar with this translation:

Humbly I adore thee, Verity unseen,

Who thy glory hiddest ‘neath these shadows mean;

Lo, to thee surrendered, my whole heart is bowed,

Tranced as it beholds thee, shrined within the cloud.

Taste and touch and vision to discern thee fail;

Faith, that comes by hearing, pierces through the veil.

I believe whate’er the Son of God hath told;

What the Truth hath spoken, that for truth I hold.

O memorial wondrous of the Lord’s own death;

Living Bread that givest all thy creatures breath,

Grant my spirit ever by thy life may live,

To my taste thy sweetness never failing give.

Jesus, whom now hidden, I by faith behold,

What my soul doth long for, that thy word foretold:

Face to face thy splendor, I at last shall see,

In the glorious vision, blessed Lord, of thee.

And in the military Latin original, so beautifully moving in the singing:

Adoro te devote, latens Deitas,

Quae sub his figuris vere latitas;

Tibi se cor meum totum subiicit,

Quia te contemplans, totum deficit.

Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur,

Sed auditu solo tuto creditur;

Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius,

Nil hoc verbo veritatis verius.

In Cruce latebat sola Deitas.

At hic latet simul et humanitas:

Ambo tamen credens, atque confitens,

Peto quod petivit latro paenitens.

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 praestans homini:

Praesta meae menti de te vivere,

Et te illi semper dulce sapere.

Pie pellicane Iesu Domine,

Me immundum munda tuo Sanguine:

Cuius una stilla salvum facere

Totum mundum quit ab omni scelere.

Iesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio,

Oro, fiat illud, quod tam sitio,

Ut te revelata cernens facie,

Visu sim beatus tuae gloriae.

Amen.

Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274 A.D.) was  born into a noble family in northern Italy. His Father, Count Landulph of Aquino, was of Lombard descent and his Mother, Theodora, was Norman.

Unsurprisingly, the men of his family were knights and warriors but Thomas chose the religious life and joined the newly formed Domincan Order, much to the annoyance of his brothers and doubtless Father. But if he declined the offer of a temporal sword he most definitely took up its spiritual equivalent.

His writing, like light cast on a darkened city, like a flare of sanctity and truth, illumines and drives back error, evil and disbelief today.

Iesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio, Oro, fiat illud, quod tam sitio.

Yes,

LSP