O peccator, io sono Iddio eterno
The Divine Call to the Sinner
God addresses the sinner with tender love, revealing His desire to save them from hell through the sacrifice of the cross.
O sinner, I am the eternal God, who call only to draw you out of hell. Ah! Think about who it is that loves you so much, who is calling you so gently today, and who you are—the one whose salvation he longs for. If you take this to heart, you won't die forever. I am God, the creator of all things; you are not a man, but a lowly worm that dies. I keep touching your heart in a thousand ways, yet you don't listen, and you would rather choose hell.✦ So that the holy voice may move you more, look: for you I die upon the cross; with my blood I wash your heinous guilt, so deeply does your eternal ruin grieve me.✦✦ Ah! Come to me, you wretched one, you poor soul, O sinner—I wait with open arms for you to wash your fault in my blood, so I may embrace you and draw you out of hell.1
The Gentle Yoke and the Vanity of Sin
God invites the sinner to exchange their heavy, sinful life for His light yoke, warning against the emptiness of worldly pursuits.
With a loving voice and a gentle one I call you, to change your wicked desires. Ah!2 Take my yoke—it isn't heavy; it's a light burden that brings eternal good.✦ I can see clearly that your old sin makes you shut your ear to my call: look, I set my grace ready for you; you run from it, and you'd rather have hell. Ah! Tell me: what good or contentment do you actually get from this life that only seems like living but is really just torment—aside from shame, anguish, and regret?3 And for this you want to lose the eternal good.
The Urgency of Repentance
God warns the sinner that the time for mercy is limited and that they must repent before the final judgment or death seals their fate.
Full of love, pity, and clemency, I call you, O sinner, to repentance; but if you wait for the final judgment, there is no redemption afterward in hell. Don't wait for that harsh sentence, when every pity must then be shut out; don't wait for death to close your eyes, for it comes swiftly, and it may last forever.
Read the original Latin
O peccator, io sono Iddio eterno, che chiamo sol per trarti dello inferno.
Deh! pensa, chi è quel che tanto t’ama e che sí dolcemente oggi ti chiama; e tu chi se’, la cui salute brama: se tu ci pensi, non morrai in eterno.
Io sono Dio, del tutto creatore; tu, non uomo, anzi un vil vermin che muore: in mille modi ognor ti tocco il core; tu non odi, e piú tosto vuoi lo ’nferno.
Perché ti muova piú la santa voce, ecco per te io muoio in su la croce; col sangue lavo la tua colpa atroce, tanto m’incresce del tuo male eterno.
Deh! vieni a me, misero, poveretto, o peccator, che a braccia aperte aspetto che lavi nel mio sangue ’l tuo difetto, per abbracciarti e trarti dello inferno.
Con amorosa voce e con soave ti chiamo, per mutar tue voglie prave. Deh! prendi il giogo mio, che non è grave; è leggier peso, che dá bene eterno.
Io veggo ben che ’l tuo peccato vecchio al mio chiamar ti fa serrar l’orecchio: ecco, la grazia mia io t’apparecchio; tu la fuggi, e piú tosto vuoi lo ’nferno.
Deh! dimmi, che frutto hai o che contento, di questa, che par vita, ed è tormento, se non vergogna, affanno e pentimento? E vòi perder per questa il bene eterno.
Pien d’amor, di pietá e di clemenza, te chiamo, o peccatore, a penitenza; ma, se aspetti l’ultima sentenza, non è redenzion poi nello inferno.
Non aspettar quella sentenzia cruda, ch’ogni pietá convien che allor s’escluda; non aspettar che morte gli occhi chiuda, ché ne vien ratta, e forse fia in eterno.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Job.25.6;Ps.22.6 — how much less, then, is man—a maggot—and the son of man—a worm! Ps.22.6 — To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
- ↩Rom.5.8;Gal.2.20 — But God demonstrates his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Gal.2.20 — I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
- ↩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,
- ↩Matt.11.29-Matt.11.30 — Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matt.11.30 — For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Notes
- 1 ↩Italian 'difetto' is rendered 'fault' (moral stain/shortcoming); 'sin' would also fit if a stronger sacramental sense is preferred.
- 2 ↩Italian Deh! is a pleading interjection (Ah! / Oh! / Please!). Rendered Ah! to keep the brief emotional appeal without archaic Oh come.
- 3 ↩Italian 'questa' (this, feminine) has no explicit noun; sense is the sinner’s false/worldly life (the thing that 'seems life'). 'Pentimento' here is rendered as regret/remorse of the empty life, not formal penance.
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