Luminis Dei necessitas et imploratio.
The Darkness of Sin and Nothingness
Without God's light, sin reduces the soul to nothingness, a just return to the void from which only divine creation preserves us.
Look, Lord: where there is no light, there is death — or rather, it isn't even death, because death itself is nothing. For through death we tend toward nothingness, since we don't fear doing nothing through sin. And this is only just, Lord, because we receive what our deeds deserve as we come to nothingness like running water — since without you nothing was made, and we, by doing nothing, have been made nothing: without you we are nothing, we through whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made.✦
The Word Through Whom All Things Were Made
The prayer turns to the divine Word, confessing Christ as the creative and redemptive light, way, truth, and life.
O Lord Word, O God Word, through whom all things were made, without whom nothing was made (John 1:3).✦ Woe to me, wretched, so often blinded — because you are light, and I without you; so often wounded — because you are salvation, and I without you; so often made foolish — because you are truth, and I without you; so often led astray — because you are the way, and I without you; so often dead — because you are life, and I without you; so often brought to nothing — because you are the Word through whom all things were made, and I without you, without whom nothing was made.✦✦ O Lord Word, O God Word, who are the light by which light was made; who are the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).✦✦
Let There Be Light: The Fourfold Petition
Echoing Genesis, the soul begs the Lord to speak the word of light so it may see and avoid darkness, error, vanity, and death.
In which there are no darkness, error, vanity, or death; light without which there is darkness, way without which there is error, truth without which there is vanity, life without which there is death. Speak the word, speak, Lord: let there be light, so that I may see the light and avoid the darkness; so that I may see the way and avoid the wrong path; so that I may see the truth and avoid vanity; so that I may see life and avoid death.✦
The Soul's Titles for God
The soul addresses God by a cascade of intimate titles—light, salvation, Lord, Father, Bridegroom—asking whom else it could fear, praise, honor, or love.
Give light, Lord — my light, my illumination, and my salvation — whom shall I fear? My Lord, whom shall I praise? My God, whom shall I honor? My father, whom shall I love? My bridegroom, to whom shall I keep myself?✦
Blindness, Darkness, and the Way of Peace
The soul, blind and sitting in the shadow of death, begs the Light for guidance into the way of peace that leads to God's dwelling, and concludes that confession is the true path of return.
Give light — I say it again, give light, O Light — to this blind one of yours who sits in darkness and in the shadow of death, and guide his feet into the way of peace, through which I may enter the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God, in the voice of exultation and confession.✦✦ Confession is truly the way I can come to you, the way I can leave the wrong path and return to you, because you are the true way of life.
Read the original Latin
Ecce, Domine, quia non est lux, est mors: imo non est mors, quia nihil est mors; nam per ipsam ad nihilum tendimus, dum nos nihil facere per peccatum non formidamus. Et juste quidem hoc, Domine; nam digna factis recipimus, dum ad nihilum devenimus sicut aqua decurrens: quia sine te factum est nihil, et nos faciendo nihil, facti sumus nihil: quia sine te sumus, per quem facta sunt omnia et sine quo factum est nihil. O Domine Verbum, o Deus Verbum, per quod facta sunt omnia, sine quo factum est nihil (Joan. I, 3); vae mihi misero toties obcaecato, quia tu lux, et ego sine te; toties vulnerato, quia tu salus, et ego sine te; toties infatuato, quia tu es veritas, et ego sine te; toties oberrato, quia tu via, et ego sine te; toties mortuo, quia tu vita, et ego sine te; toties annihilato, quia tu Verbum per quod facta sunt omnia, et ego sine te, sine quo factum est nihil. O Domine Verbum, o Deus Verbum, qui es lux per quam facta est lux; qui es via, veritas et vita (Id. XIV, 6); in quo non sunt tenebrae, error, vanitas, neque mors; lux sine qua tenebrae, via sine qua error, veritas sine qua vanitas, vita sine qua mors; dic verbum, dic, Domine, Fiat lux, ut videam lucem, et vitem tenebras; videam viam, et vitem invium; videam veritatem, et vitem vanitatem; videam vitam, et vitem mortem. Illuminare, Domine lux mea, illuminatio mea, et salus mea, quem timebo, Dominus meus quem laudabo, Deus meus quem honorificabo, pater meus quem amabo, sponsus meus cui me servabo. Illuminare, inquam, illuminare, lux, huic caeco tuo qui in tenebris et in umbra mortis sedet, et dirige pedes ejus in viam pacis, per quam ingrediar in locum tabernaculi admirabilis usque ad domum Dei in voce exsultationis et confessionis.
Vere confessio est via per quam ingrediar ad te, via per quam egrediar ab invio, et redeam ad te viam, quia tu es vera via vitae.
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.1.3 — All things came into being through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.
- ↩John.1.3 — All things came into being through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.
- ↩John.14.6 — Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'
- ↩John.1.3 — All things came into being through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.
- ↩John.14.6 — Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'
- ↩Gen.1.3 — And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
- ↩Gen.1.3 — And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
- ↩Ps.26.1 — Vindicate me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity, and in the LORD I have trusted; I shall not slip.
- ↩Luke.1.79 — to shine on those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
- ↩Ps.41.5 — I said, "Lord, be gracious to me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against you."
Pseudo-Augustine Soliloquia animae ad Deum (Meditations of the Soul to God) companion
A meditation like this, every morning
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