Quod omnia serviunt homini ut homo serviat Creatori.
All Things Subjected to Man
Scripture shows all things placed under human feet so that man, having dominion, may be wholly subjected to God, with creation ordered from external things through body to soul for the soul's freedom in God.
You have placed all things under the feet of men (Ps.✦ VIII, 8); so that man alone might be wholly subject to you, and so that your man might be wholly yours — man, having dominion, is set over all your things.✦ External things — all of them — you created for the body; but the body itself for the soul; and the soul for yourself, so that it might be free for you alone and love you alone, possessing you as its comfort, while all lesser things serve its needs.
The Soul's Ascent Above All Creation
The human soul is ranked above all heavenly things and, by clinging to the highest good and rising above changeable lower necessities, will enjoy eternal blessedness in the house of the Lord.
For whatever is contained within the circuit of heaven is lower than the human soul, which was made to possess the highest good above it, and by possessing it to become blessed. If the soul clings to that good, rising above all the changeable necessities of lower things, it will rejoice with serene clarity in the eternity of that highest majesty whose likeness it emulates. Then indeed the soul will enjoy those best and highest goods in the house of the Lord — goods compared to which all the things we perceive here are reckoned as nothing at all.✦
The Unseen Goods Prepared by God
The goods God has prepared for those who love him surpass all human perception, echoing Isaiah and Paul on what eye has not seen nor ear heard.
Those are the things that eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they risen up in the heart of man — which God has prepared for those who love him (Isai.✦✦ LXIV, 4; I Cor.✦ II, 9).✦
God's Daily Gladdening of Souls
The Lord gives and gladdens souls day by day, prompting wonder at the honor shown to those created in God's image and likeness.
And these things, Lord, you are about to give to the soul. With these you also gladden, day by day, the souls of your servants — you who love souls. Why should I marvel at these things, Lord my God?
Creation's Gifts to Body and Soul
God honors the human person by bestowing heavenly light for sight, air for breath, and all varieties of sensory experience, along with beasts, birds, fish, and fruits for bodily needs and refreshment.
Surely you honor your image and your likeness, to which they were created.✦ For even to our body — though it is still corruptible and lowly — you gave the brightness of heaven to see by, through the hand of your tireless ministers, the sun and the moon, who by your command serve your children unceasingly day and night; to breathe, you bestowed the purity of the air; to hear, the varieties of sounds; to smell, the sweetness of odors; to taste, the qualities of flavors; to touch, you gave the textures of all bodily things.1 For their needs you gave beasts of burden; the birds of the sky too, and the fish of the sea, and the fruits of the earth — for refreshment you bestowed them.
The Potter Knows Our Frame
God created medicines and individual consolations for each corruption and ill, acting as the merciful and compassionate Potter who knows our frame and sees us as clay in his hand.
Medicines from the earth you created for each of its particular corruptions; individual consolations matched to individual ills you prepared — because you are merciful and compassionate, and you know our frame, our potter, and all of us as clay in your hand.✦2
Read the original Latin
Omnia sub pedibus hominum subjecisti (Psal. VIII, 8); ut solus homo totus tibi subjiceretur; et ut tuus esset totus homo, super omnia tua dominatus est homo. Exteriora nempe pro corpore cuncta creasti, ipsum vero corpus pro anima, animam vero pro te; ut tibi soli vacaret, et te solum amaret, possidens te ad solatium, inferiora vero omnia ad servitium. Quidquid enim coeli ambitu continetur, inferius ab anima humana est, quae facta est ut summum bonum superius possideret, cujus possessione beata fieret; cui si adhaeserit, cunctarum mutabilitatum inferiorum necessitudines supergrediens, illius summae majestatis, cujus aemulatur speciem, aeternitate immortalitatis cum serenitate gaudebit. Tunc vero illis bonis optimis fruetur in domo Domini, quorum comparatione cuncta quae hic cernimus, velut nihilum computantur. Illa sunt quae oculus non vidit, nec auris audivit, nec in cor hominis ascenderunt, quae praeparavit Deus diligentibus se (Isai. LXIV, 4; I Cor. II, 9).
Et haec quidem, Domine, daturus es animae. His etiam quotidie laetificas animas servorum tuorum, qui amas animas. Quid miror haec, Domine Deus meus? Imaginem quippe tuam honorificas, et similitudinem tuam ad quam creatae sunt. Nam et corpori nostro, licet adhuc corruptibili et ignobili, ut videret, dedisti claritatem coeli per manum ministrorum tuorum indefessorum, solis et lunae, qui praecepto tuo jugiter die ac nocte deserviunt filiis tuis; ut spiraret, largitus es aeris puritatem; ut audiret, sonorum varietates; ut odoraret, odorum suavitates; ut gustaret, saporum qualitates; ut contrectaret, dedisti corpulentorum omnium grossitates. Adjumenta suis necessitatibus dedisti jumenta; volucres quoque coeli et pisces maris, et fructus terrae ad reficiendum impendisti. Medicinas de terra propter singulas quasque suas corruptelas creasti, singula solatia singulis malis obviantia praeparasti; quoniam es misericors et miserator, et novisti figmentum nostrum figulus noster, et nos omnes quasi lutum in manu tua.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.8.8 — the flocks and the herds—all of them—and also the beasts of the field
- ↩Ps.8.8 — the flocks and the herds—all of them—and also the beasts of the field
- ↩Ps.23.6 — Surely goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for length of days.
- ↩Isa.64.4 — You meet those who rejoice and do righteousness; in your ways they remember you. But behold, you were angry, and we sinned — in those ways we have been for long, and can we be saved?
- ↩1Cor.2.9 — But as it is written: What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived—all that God has prepared for those who love him.
- ↩Isa.64.4 — You meet those who rejoice and do righteousness; in your ways they remember you. But behold, you were angry, and we sinned — in those ways we have been for long, and can we be saved?
- ↩1Cor.2.9 — But as it is written: What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived—all that God has prepared for those who love him.
- ↩Gen.1.26 — Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
- ↩Isa.64.8 — But now, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
Notes
Pseudo-Augustine Soliloquia animae ad Deum (Meditations of the Soul to God) companion
A meditation like this, every morning
Chosen Portion serves the full 37-chapter work — and dozens like it — as free daily devotionals.
These soliloquies were written for daily private devotion, and the Chosen Portion app restores exactly that rhythm with one portion each morning.
- 30 ready-to-pray meditations, each readable in about 5 minutes
- A one-line response prompt per day so you pray it, not just read it
- The full 37 chapters unlocked in the app when the month ends