O maligno e duro core
The Hardened Heart
The speaker laments the stubbornness of their own heart in the face of the cosmic signs accompanying Christ's death.
O wicked and hard heart, source of every evil thought—why don't you burst open in the middle of the breast? Why don't you burst with grief? Don't take any comfort, my hard stone heart: for sweet Jesus is dead. The world trembles, and the sun grows dark; the dead come out of the tomb, and the Temple tears its veil; earth and heaven weep, alas—and you feel nothing, hard heart.1
Crucified with Christ
The speaker seeks transformation through identification with Christ's suffering, finding sweetness in the mystery of dying with the Lord.
Melt like wax, O my sad and wicked heart, since the true Life is dying—your Jesus, the kind Lord. My heart, have yourself crucified with Jesus on the hard wood; let that lance pierce you that passed through Jesus's heart.✦2 O my heart, so wounded—make a torrent of tears, as blood pours freely from the holy side; great sweetness, O my heart, is felt by the one who keeps company with holy Jesus; if the pain is so sweet, sweeter still is the one who dies with him. Such sweet waters flow from such a bitter spring; because death, O God, was pleasing to you, death has been made sweet and dear. O my heart, learn from Jesus: take up your cross, too, and hang yourself upon it; whoever dies with him never dies.
Read the original Latin
O maligno e duro core, fonte d’ogni mal concetto, ché non scoppi in mezzo ’l petto, ché non scoppi di dolore?
Non pigliare alcun conforto, o cor mio di pietra dura: poiché Gesú dolce è morto. Triema il mondo e il sole oscura; escon della sepultura morti, e ’l Tempio straccia il velo; piange, omè, la terra e il cielo; tu non senti, o duro core.
Liquefatti come cera, o cor mio tristo e maligno, poi che muor la vita vera, Gesú tuo, Signor benigno; fa’, cor mio, sul duro ligno con Gesú ti crucifigga; quella lancia ti trafigga, che passò a Gesú il core.
O cor mio, cosí piagato fa’ di lacrime un torrente, come dal santo costato versa sangue largamente; gran dolcezza, o cor mio, sente chi accompagna Gesú santo; se la pena è dolce tanto, piú dolc’è chi con lui muore.
Vengon fuor cosí dolci acque della fonte tanto amara; poi che morte, o Dio, ti piacque, fatta è morte dolce e cara. O cor mio, da Gesú impara: la tua croce ancor tu prendi, e sovr’essa ti sospendi; non muor mai chi con lui muore.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.22.15 — I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my bowels.
Notes
Spiritual Lauds companion
Never lose the rhythm again
Chosen Portion delivers your morning, midday and night office to your phone — the Hours, without the bells.
Chosen Portion is a modern Book of Hours: it turns the fixed-hour structure this collection preserves into scheduled, tappable daily prayer on your phone.
- Three daily prayer moments scheduled around your real calendar, not a monastery's
- Psalms and historic prayers sequenced for you — no page-flipping or decision fatigue
- A visible streak of completed offices, so the rhythm compounds instead of collapsing