From the YouTube Music Video Archives: Adoro te devote by Saint Thomas Aquinas, as sung by the Benedictine Monks of the Abbey of St. Maurice & St. Maur, Clevaux

The most abstract idea conceivable is the sensuous in its elemental originality. But through which medium can it be presented? Only through music. Kierkegaard, Either/Or

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

Comments

  1. Quin Finnegan says

    Wiki Translation:

    I devoutly adore you, O hidden Deity,
    Truly hidden beneath these appearances.
    My whole heart submits to you,
    And in contemplating you,
    It surrenders itself completely.
    Sight, touch, taste are all deceived
    In their judgment of you,
    But hearing suffices firmly to believe.
    I believe all that the Son of God has spoken;
    There is nothing truer than this word of truth.
    On the cross only the divinity was hidden,
    But here the humanity is also hidden.
    I believe and confess both,
    And ask for what the repentant thief asked.
    I do not see the wounds as Thomas did,
    But I confess that you are my God.
    Make me believe more and more in you,
    Hope in you, and love you.
    O memorial of our Lord’s death!
    Living bread that gives life to man,
    Grant my soul to live on you,
    And always to savor your sweetness.
    Lord Jesus, Good Pelican,
    wash me clean with your blood,
    One drop of which can free
    the entire world of all its sins.
    Jesus, whom now I see hidden,
    I ask you to fulfill what I so desire:
    That the sight of your face being unveiled
    I may have the happiness of seeing your glory. Amen

  2. That would probably be in the top ten list of “What I want to be listening to when the lights go out, the major organs fail, the senses dim and I give up the ghost.”

    Beautiful. Thank you, Quin.

    JOB

  3. Broderick Barker says

    Benedictines singin’ a Dominican’s hymn? What’s next, a Jesuit in the Vatican?

  4. Quin Finnegan says

    Yes, we have euthanasia here out west, but we also have musical-thanatologists. They might be able to hook you up.

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