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

A Short Sunday Sermon

 

There it is, you've no sooner recovered from the admirable Uganda Police Band than you're in church conjuring with the Saints, the innumerable multitude of the holy who stand before God's throne in the exultant liturgy of heaven. As through a door or window opened up into paradise, we see them in the book of Revelation:

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!"

 

Behold the glory of the beatific vision, and with it we're reminded that sanctity is our common vocation, we're all called to be saints, but how? By imitating Christ, patterning our lives after the pattern of Christ's life, and our Savior reveals his character to us in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12). 

Blessed are the poor in spirit, the humble. This is Jesus who "humbled himself taking the form of a servant and became obedient even unto death." Blessed are those who mourn, and Christ does precisely that, he grieves for the sin of the world and its deadly effect. Think on the two awful and piercing words at the death of Lazarus, "Jesus wept." Blessed are the meek or gentle? Such is Jesus, a gentle man as opposed to an arrogant, aggressive, boastful man, "Come to me for I am gentle and lowly in heart."

Again, "Zeal for your house has consumed me." Our Lord hungers and thirsts for righteousness as he drives the moneylenders out of the Temple. And mercy? "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," and he doesn't, though qualified to do so. Instead, the sinless man, in utter purity, brings peace to the world, uniting fallen humanity to the Father on the cross where he dies for the forgiveness of our sins. 

Humility, compassion, gentleness, righteousness, mercy, purity and peace, the character of Christ and the path of holiness which Jesus invites us to walk. Those who do become saints, indwelt, purified and redeemed by the Holy One of Israel.

Can it be done? Yes. The Saints, from righteous Abel through the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs, up to the holy men and women of today show us that sanctity, by the grace of God, is very real. Christ invites us to follow him so that we may attain it and the crown of glory which fadeth not away.

God bless,

LSP

All Flame

From The Desert Fathers:

Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him: Abba, as much as I am able I practice a small rule, a little fasting, some prayer and meditation, and remain quiet and as much as possible I keep my thoughts clean. What else should I do? Then the old man stood up and stretched his hands toward heaven, and his fingers became like ten torches of flame and he said to him: If you wish, you can become all flame.

Thanks, GWB, for the reminder. I won't comment, except to say that you'll notice that Joseph doesn't recommend a balance of hot and cold, fire and non-fire, or good and evil. Rather, Lot can become all flame, but he has to wish it. That, just in itself, is no small thing.

God bless,

LSP

Dallas Saint

Archbishop Dmitri died in 2011 and was buried, unembalmed. His body was transferred yesterday to St. Saraphim's Cathedral in Dallas. The body was found to be incorrupt.

Rod Dreher comments.

When the cemetery personnel opened his coffin, they found Vladyka Dmitri incorrupt.

That is to say, his body had not decayed. He has been buried for four and a half years under the Texas ground, and his body looks like it did the day he died.

This is a miracle. In Orthodox and Roman Catholic Christianity, it is seen as a sign that the deceased was, and is, a saint.

If you read The Brothers Karamazov, you may remember that whether or not the deceased Elder Zosima was incorruptible was a feature of the narrative.

I believe Dmitri was a genuinely holy man. He had a great love of Fr. Homer Rogers, some will know who I mean, and as I understand it was brought to catholicism (Anglican) by him, and then moved to Orthodoxy. But perhaps I'm wrong, they were certainly friends.

Dmitri shares the same name as the martyred Tsarevitch, who was also found incorrupt. And at the risk of irreverence, in strong contradistinction to our establishment pay-to-play ruling elites.

Let's have more sanctity, please, and less corruption.

You can and should read Dreher's article here.

God bless,

LSP