Anima humana unde, quid sit et quo beata.
The Soul Made for God Alone
The soul, created by God's Word and marked with His light, finds its full satisfaction only in possessing Him as the highest good.
The soul, then—the one you created not from yourself but through your Word, not from any matter of the elements but from nothing—this soul, rational, intellectual, spiritual, always alive, always in motion, which you marked with the light of your face and consecrated by the power of your washing: it has been made so capable of your majesty that it can be filled by you alone, and by no one else.✦ But when it has you, its desire is full; and now nothing else that could be desired from outside remains. But when it desires something from outside, it's clear that it doesn't have you within; and once you are possessed, there is nothing left to be desired. Since you are the highest good and every good, it has nothing more to desire if it possesses every good.
The Hunger of Disordered Desire
When the soul turns to creatures rather than God, it falls into perpetual emptiness, because nothing but the God in whose image it was made can fill it.
But if it doesn't desire every good, it follows that it desires something that isn't every good—therefore not the highest good, therefore not God, but rather a creature. But when it desires a creature, it has a continual hunger; because even though what it desires from creatures may be obtained, it nevertheless remains empty, since there is nothing that can fill it except you, in whose image it was created.✦
Counting All Things as Loss
God fills those who desire nothing apart from Him, making them His friends who regard everything as dung to gain Christ alone.
But you yourself fill those who desire nothing apart from you, and you make them worthy of you—holy, blessed, immaculate, friends of God—who regard everything as dung, in order to gain you alone (Phil.✦ 3:8).✦
The Dignity of the Human Soul
God has honored the human race above all creatures with the happiness of knowing Him, so that His name is held in wonder across the earth.
This is the happiness You have given to the human race — this is the honor by which You have honored us among all creatures, and indeed above all creatures, so that Your name might be held in wonder across the whole earth.✦12 Psalm 8, verse 2.
Read the original Latin
Anima enim quam creasti non de te, sed per Verbum tuum; non ex qualibet elementorum materia, sed ex nihilo; quae quidem rationalis, intellectualis, spiritualis, semper vivens, semper in motu, quam signasti lumine vultus tui, et consecrasti virtute lavacri tui: ita facta est capax majestatis tuae, quod a te solo, et a nullo alio possit impleri. Cum autem te habet, plenum est desiderium ejus; et jam nihil aliud quod desideretur exterius, restat. Dum autem aliquid exterius desiderat, manifestum est quod te non habet interius; quo habito, nihil est quod desideretur. Cum enim sis summum et omne bonum; non habet quod desideret amplius, si possidet omne bonum. Quod si non desiderat omne bonum, restat ut desideret aliquid quod non est omne bonum: ergo nec summum bonum, ergo nec Deum, sed potius creaturam. Cum autem creaturam desiderat, continuam famem habet; quia licet quod desiderat de creaturis, adipiscatur, vacua tamen remanet, quia nihil est quod eam impleat nisi tu, ad cujus imaginem est creata. Imples autem tu eos, qui nihil aliud desiderant praeter te; et facis eos dignos te, sanctos, beatos, immaculatos et amicos Dei; qui omnia reputant ut stercora, ut lucrifaciant te solum (Philipp. III, 8).
Haec est beatitudo quam homini contulisti; hic honor quo eum inter omnes creaturas, sed et super omnes honorificasti, ut sit admirabile nomen tuum in universa terra (Psal. VIII, 2).
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.1.27 — So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
- ↩Gen.1.27 — So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
- ↩Phil.3.8 — But more than that—indeed, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost everything and consider it all rubbish, so that I may gain Christ.
- ↩Phil.3.8 — But more than that—indeed, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have lost everything and consider it all rubbish, so that I may gain Christ.
- ↩Ps.8.10 — O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Notes
- 1 ↩'sed et' rendered as 'and indeed' to capture the adversative-additive force: not only among creatures but above them.
- 2 ↩Closing clause echoes Psalm 8:10 (Vulg. 8:9): 'ut sit admirabile nomen tuum in universa terra.' Citation numeral 'VIII, 2' in the source points to Psalm 8, verse 2 (Vulgate numbering).
Pseudo-Augustine Soliloquia animae ad Deum (Meditations of the Soul to God) companion
A meditation like this, every morning
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These soliloquies were written for daily private devotion, and the Chosen Portion app restores exactly that rhythm with one portion each morning.
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