Homo insufficiens ad laudandum Deum. Quis Deum laudet. Laus hominis vera. Rursum de insufficientia ad laudem Dei. Unde suppleatur.
The Gift of Praise
The soul marvels that God would give it the capacity to praise, recognizing that praise, like creation itself, originates entirely in God's will.
Why this gift to me, Lord? Why should I have praises to offer you? Just as you made me without my help, just as it pleased you before I existed, so praise to you is without my help, just as it pleased you before I existed.
God's Eternal Praise Beyond All Creatures
God's own praise is Godself, eternal and beyond all created faculties of thought, speech, and hearing, which are transient.
Your praise, Lord, is you yourself. Let your works praise you according to the fullness of your greatness.✦ Your praise, Lord, is beyond comprehension: it is not grasped by the heart, not measured by the mouth, not perceived by the ear — because these things pass away, and your praise remains forever. A thought begins, a thought ends; a voice sounds and passes; the ear hears, and the hearing ceases — but your praise stands forever. Who, then, is there to praise you?
True Praise Is God's Own Praise in Us
Authentic praise belongs to God alone, who is lasting, and the person who truly praises is the one who trusts God to be their praise, recognizing that all passing praise sought outside God results in losing the eternal praise that is God.
What person can proclaim your praise? Your praise is lasting; what is passing is not. The one who praises you is the one who trusts you yourself to be your praise. The person who praises you is the one who knows that in themselves they cannot reach your praise. The lasting praise that never passes away — in you our praise finds its home; in you my soul will be praised. We do not praise you — but you praise yourself, through yourself, and in yourself; and praise is for us too, in you. Then we have true praise when we have praise from you, when light confirms light — because you are true praise, and you grant true praise. Whenever we seek praise from any source other than you, we often lose your praise — because that praise is passing, but yours is eternal.
The Soul's Radical Insufficiency
The soul confesses its utter unworthiness to praise God, comparing itself to dust, a dead dog, a worm, darkness, and death before the God who is light and life.
If we chase what fades away, we lose what lasts forever. If we want what's eternal, let's not cling to what passes away. Eternal praise, Lord my God, comes from you — you from whom all praise flows, without whom there is no praise at all. I can't praise you without you: let me hold you, and I will praise you. For who am I, Lord, that I could praise you on my own? I am dust and ashes, a dead dog reeking with decay, I am a worm and rot itself. Who am I, that I should praise you, Lord God — you the mightiest of spirits, of all flesh, the one who dwells in eternity? Will darkness praise the light, or death praise life? You are light, I am darkness; you are life, I am death.
Vanity Cannot Praise Truth
The soul presses further: as vanity, mortality, decay, and sin, it is utterly incapable of offering praise to the eternal, truthful, and holy God.
Can vanity really praise the truth? You are truth itself; I am a man, made to resemble vanity. What praise, then, Lord, can come to you from me? Can my wretchedness really praise you? Can a foul stench praise a sweet fragrance? Can the mortality of man — here today and gone tomorrow — really praise you?✦ Can decay praise you — can the son of man, a worm, praise you?✦ Can one begotten in sin and born in sin really praise you, Lord?✦
Let God's Own Perfections Praise God
The soul turns from its own insufficiency to invoke God's almighty power, wisdom, goodness, clemency, mercy, strength, and love as the true praisers, culminating in the love for which God created the soul.
Let your almighty power praise you, Lord my God; your boundless wisdom praise you; your ineffable goodness praise you. Let your surpassing clemency praise you; your overflowing mercy praise you; and your everlasting strength and divinity praise you. Let your most mighty strength praise you; and your supreme kindness and love praise you—the love for which you created us, Lord God, the life of my soul.
Read the original Latin
Unde hoc mihi, Domine? unde mihi laudes ad laudandum te? Sicut fecisti me sine me, sicut placuit ante te; ita laus tibi est sine me, sicut complacet ante te. Laus tua, Domine, tu ipse es. Laudent te opera tua secundum multitudinem magnitudinis tuae. Laus tua, Domine, incomprehensibilis est; corde non comprehenditur, ore non mensuratur, aure non percipitur: quia ista transeunt, et laus tua manet in aeternum. Cogitatio incipit, cogitatio finitur; vox sonat et transit; auris audit, et auditus desinit; laus vero tua in aeternum stat. Quis ergo est qui te laudet?
Quis homo annuntiet laudem tuam? Laus tua perpetua est, transitoria non est. Hic te laudat, qui te ipsum laudem tuam credit. Hic te laudat, qui se ipsum noscit in tuam laudem non posse pertingere. Laus perpetua, quae nunquam transis, in te est laus nostra, in te laudabitur anima mea. Non nos laudamus te: sed tu te, et per te, et in te; et nobis etiam laus est in te. Tunc veram habemus laudem, quando a te habemus laudem, quando lux approbat lucem; quia tu vera laus veram tribuis laudem. Quoties ab alio quam a te quaerimus laudem, toties tuam amittimus laudem: quia illa transitoria est, sed tua aeterna.
Si transitoriam quaerimus, aeternam amittimus. Si aeternam volumus, transitoriam non amemus. Laus aeterna, Domine Deus meus, a quo omnis laus, sine quo nulla est laus, non valeo laudare te sine te: habeam te, laudabo te. Quis enim ego sum, Domine, per me qui laudem te? Pulvis et cinis ego sum, canis mortuus et fetens ego sum, vermis et putredo ego sum. Quis ego sum, ut laudem te, Domine Deus, fortissime spirituum universae carnis, qui habitas aeternitatem? Numquid tenebrae laudabunt lucem, aut mors vitam? Tu lux, ego tenebrae; tu vita, ego mors.
Numquid vanitas veritatem laudabit? Tu es veritas, ego homo vanitati similis factus. Quid ergo, Domine, laudabit te? Numquid miseria mea laudabit te? Numquid fetor laudabit odorem? Numquid mortalitas hominis, quae hodie est et cras tollitur, laudabit te? Numquid laudabit te putredo, et filius hominis vermis? Numquid laudabit te, Domine, qui in peccatis genitus est et natus?
Laudet te, Domine Deus meus, omnipotens potentia tua, incircumscriptibilis sapientia tua, ineffabilis bonitas tua. Laudet te supereminens clementia tua, superabundans misericordia tua, sempiterna quoque virtus et divinitas tua. Laudet te omnipotentissima fortitudo tua, summa quoque benignitas et charitas tua, propter quam creasti nos, Domine Deus vita animae meae.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.145.4 — One generation shall praise your works to the next, and they shall declare your mighty acts.
- ↩Jas.4.14 — You who do not know what tomorrow will bring — what your life will be! For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
- ↩Job.25.6;Isa.41.14 — how much less, then, is man—a maggot—and the son of man—a worm! Isa.41.14 — Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob, you little band of Israel; I have helped you, declares the LORD, and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
- ↩Ps.51.5 — For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Pseudo-Augustine Soliloquia animae ad Deum (Meditations of the Soul to God) companion
A meditation like this, every morning
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