Tractatus Prior, Pars Prior, Cap. 7. De lactatione esurientis lesu.
Tractatus Prior, Pars Prior, Cap. 7. De lactatione esurientis lesu.
I bless you and give thanks to you, Lord Jesus Christ, source of unending life, for your nourishment from the breasts of the Virgin Mary, from whose sacred milk you were fed, you yourself the shepherd of all, food and bread of angels. O ineffable sweetness of divine grace toward humankind. Who can truly estimate the value of such a Sacrament and the grace it brings, that God should suckle from the breasts of flesh and be nourished by the milk of a virgin? How great is the sweetness of love to me, O my Lord, that You unite with me, who have inclined to my needs in the fragility of human life! O great and terrible mystery, when you are proclaimed as God from the Father and as true man from the Virgin Mother, behold, you are believed to be the only Son of a woman and the unique glory of the Father, the one who became a partaker of humanity and is Lord adored by the angels. I praise and bless you for your ineffable sweetness, who did not shrink from nursing at a mother's breast, showing that you took true flesh from the Virgin Mother. You who feed all things and were content with such modest nourishment, feed my soul with the sacred food of your Word and grant me to serve you with gratitude as long as I remain in this fragile state of the body.
Read the original Latin
Benedico et gratias ago tibi, Domine lesu Christe, fons indeficiens vitae, pro tua lactatione ex uberibus virginis Mariae, cuius sacro lacte pastus es, tu ipse pastor omnium, cibus et panis angelorum.
O ineffabilis dulcedo divinae dignationis ad hominum genus.
Quis digne existimare valeat, quanti sacramenti quantaeque sit gratiae, quod Deus sugit ubera carnis et lacte alitur virginis? quanta dulcedine caritatis mihi, Dos mine, coniungeris, qui ad indigentias te inclinasti humanae fragilitatis!
O magnum tremendumque mysterium, cum unus idemque praedicaris de Deo patre Deus et de matre virgine homo verus, lo unus idemque filius crederis feminae et unicus paternae gloriae, unus idemque particeps factus hominum et Dominus adoraris angelorum.
Laudo itaque te et benedico ineffabili is dulcedini tuae, qui non erubuisti matemum lac sugere ostendens te veram carnis originem de matre virgine traxisse. qui pascis omnia et tam modica contentus fuisti alimonia, pasce animam meam sacri verbi dapibus et tribue cum gratiarum actione tibi servire, quamdiu in hoc fragili sum statu corporis.
Prayers and Meditations on the Life of Christ companion
à Kempis wrote 86 of these — you've prayed 8
The full cycle, from the creation of man to Pentecost, runs as free daily devotionals in Chosen Portion.
à Kempis structured the work as day-by-day thanksgiving over the whole life of Christ, and Chosen Portion runs that original cycle as a modern daily devotional from creation to Pentecost.
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