Vieni a me, peccatore
The Fountain of Mercy
Christ invites the sinner to drink from the life-giving waters flowing from his side.
Come to me, sinner—I’m waiting with open arms; from my holy breast, water, blood, and love pour out for all to see. Just as the rod once gave water in the desert, so Longinus has opened the side with the lance: come, ungrateful people, drink from the holy spring that never dies.✦✦✦ The thirsty people were in a dry place; from the rock a broad and flowing spring has come forth. Here let all the people drink: the rock is Christ, from whom the water comes out.✦✦ Whoever has been thirsty for a while, let them come to the holy waters; and even if they have nothing to pay, let them not hold back for that; but with joy let them quench their thirst at the waters, and their devout ardor too.1
The Suffering Savior
The passion of Christ is prefigured in the Old Testament and fulfilled in his sacrifice on the cross.
This is that holy Noah who presses the wine of the grape: so drunk with it, he lies uncovered and is not afraid; then Ham, that wicked seed, laughs, and the two cover his honor. And so Jesus, naked on the cross and burning with love, pays no mind to the mockery or the voice of those who have despised him; then Nicodemus has taken the sweet Savior and wrapped him in cloths. So Isaiah saw him, drunk with love: his clothes looked red and soaked with wine; wine was pouring from the press: this is the cross and the great suffering.✦
An Invitation to Intimacy
Despite his disfigurement, Christ tenderly calls the sinner to embrace him and be cleansed by his blood.
My breast and holy feet pour blood all over: you see my hands and head suffering, and you have the fruit of it; though I am so disfigured, come all the same, O penitent sinner.✦2 Ah!3 Come close to me; don't be afraid that I'll soil you!4 You're my dear son, the one I call in a thousand ways: the nails won't keep me from embracing you and holding you tight against my heart.5 Don't fear the cruel thorn that has wrapped my head, or that my lips taste so strongly of vinegar and gall; kiss my holy face—ah!✦✦ Don't be disgusted by your Lord! The blood I shed doesn't stain; instead, it washes clean. This unfailing, abundant spring quenches every thirst. Every pain of mine grows heavier if such great love remains unknown.✦✦6
Read the original Latin
Vieni a me, peccatore, che a braccia aperte aspetto: versa dal santo petto visibilmente acqua, sangue e amore.
Come giá nel diserto la verga l’acque ha dato, cosí Longino ha aperto colla lancia il costato: vieni, o popolo ingrato, a bere al santo fonte, che non muore.
Era in arido sito il popol siziente; è della pietra uscito largo fonte e corrente; qui bea tutta la gente: la pietra è Cristo, onde vien l’acqua fòre.
Chi sete ha avuto un pezzo, alle sante acque venga; e chi pur non ha prezzo, per questo non si tenga; ma con letizia spenga la sete all’acque e ’l suo devoto ardore.
Quest’è quel Noè santo, che ’l vin dell’uva prieme: inebriato tanto, sta scoperto e non teme: allor Cam, quel mal seme, si ride, e’ due ricuopron suo onore.
E cosí nudo in croce Gesú, d’amore acceso, non cura scherni o voce di chi l’ha vilipeso; poi Nicodemo ha preso e involto in panni il dolce Salvatore.
Ebro di caritate cosí ’l vide Esaia: rosse e di vin bagnate le sue veste paría: del torculare uscía il vin: questa è la croce e ’l gran dolore.
Il petto e’ santi piedi versan sangue per tutto: le mani e ’l capo vedi patire, e tu n’hai il frutto; perch’io sia cosí brutto, vien’ pure, o penitente peccatore.
Deh! accòstati a me, non temer ch’io t’imbrodi! Il mio car figlio se’, ch’io chiamo in mille modi: non mi terranno i chiodi ch’io non t’abbracci e stringa col mio core.
Non temer la crudele spina che ’l capo ha involto, o che d’aceto e fele sappin le labra molto; bacia il mio santo volto: deh! non avere a schifo il tuo Signore!
Questo sangue, ch’io spargo, non imbratta, anzi lava: questo perenne e largo fonte ogni sete cava: ogni mia pena aggrava, se non è conosciuto tanto amore.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Exod.17.5-Exod.17.6;Num.20.11 — Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go on ahead of the people, and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Exod.17.6 — I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it so that the people may drink." And Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. Num.20.11 — And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and much water came out, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.
- ↩John.19.34 — But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
- ↩John.4.10-John.4.14;1Cor.10.4 — Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." John.4.11 — The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water?" John.4.12 — Surely you are not greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, and his sons, and his livestock? John.4.13 — Jesus answered her, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again." John.4.14 — but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst forever; rather, the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life 1Cor.10.4 — and they all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
- ↩1Cor.10.4 — and they all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
- ↩John.19.34 — But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
- ↩Isa.63.1-Isa.63.3 — Who is this coming from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bozrah? This one, majestic in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save. Isa.63.2 — Why is your apparel red, and your garments like one who treads the winepress? Isa.63.3 — I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples there was no one with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my fury. Their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and I stained all my clothing.
- ↩Isa.52.14 — Just as many were appalled at you — so his appearance was disfigured beyond that of any man, and his form beyond the sons of Adam.
- ↩John.19.2 — And the soldiers, having woven a crown of thorns, placed it on his head, and they clothed him in a purple robe.
- ↩John.19.29;Ps.69.21 — A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and held it to his mouth. Ps.69.21 — Reproach has broken my heart, and I am sick with grief; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found no one.
- ↩1John.1.7;Rev.1.5 — But if we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. Rev.1.5 — and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth — to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,
- ↩John.4.14;Rev.21.6 — but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst forever; rather, the water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life Rev.21.6 — And he said to me, 'It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the one who is thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life.'
Notes
- 1 ↩Prezzo can mean price/payment or worth. Rendered as 'nothing to pay' to keep the free-grace invitation (come drink even if you cannot pay), not a claim that the person is worthless.
- 2 ↩Italian brutto is plain “ugly”; in this Passion address it names the crucified body’s marred appearance (not moral baseness). “Disfigured” keeps that visual force without modern slang.
- 3 ↩Italian pleading interjection Deh! has no single English match; rendered as Ah! to keep the urgent, tender appeal without archaism (alas/pray).
- 4 ↩imbrodi (from imbrodare) = soil/smear/stain; in Passion context, fear of being stained by Christ's blood. Kept as soil to preserve the concrete bodily image rather than a purely moral paraphrase.
- 5 ↩se’ = archaic sei (you are). chiamo in mille modi = call in a thousand ways/names; rendered as ways to keep the breadth of address without forcing 'names'.
- 6 ↩Italian cava (in cavare la sete) is rendered as “quenches”; perenne e largo as “unfailing, abundant” (ever-flowing and generous in measure).
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
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