Peccatoris miseria. Sine Verbo nihil est, nihil conservatur.
Nothing Without the Word
The soul confesses that apart from God it was nothing—blind, wounded, and lifeless—and cries out to the Lord for mercy and restoration.
When I was without you, then, I was not—because I was nothing. And so I was blind, deaf, and insensible—because I could neither distinguish good nor flee evil, nor feel the pain of my wounds, nor see my own darkness; because I was without you, the true light who illuminates every person coming into this world (John 1:9).✦1 1:9).2 Woe is me! They wounded me, and I felt no pain; they dragged me, and I sensed nothing—because I was nothing, because I was without life, which is the Word through which all things were made.✦3 And so, O Lord my light, my enemies have done whatever they wanted with me—they struck me, stripped me, defiled me, corrupted me, wounded me, and killed me—because I withdrew from you and became nothing without you. Alas, O Lord—my life, who made me; my light, who guided me. Defender of my life, have mercy on me and raise me up again.
Despoiled and Led Astray
The soul recounts how, stripped of its virtues and abandoned by God's presence, it was dragged through vice in willing blindness and bondage.
Lord my God, my hope, my strength, my fortitude, my consolation in the day of my affliction — look upon my enemies and rescue me. Let those who hate you flee from your face, and let me live in you and through you. For they themselves, Lord, looked me over and, seeing me without you, despised me. They divided my garments of virtue among themselves — the virtues with which you had adorned me (Ps. 21, 18–19), they made a path through me, they trampled me under their feet; with the filth of sinners they polluted your holy temple, and they left me desolate and worn out with grief. I went after them, blind and naked, entangled in the ropes of sinners. They dragged me behind them in a circle, from vice to vice and from mire to mire, and I went without strength before the face of the one pursuing me. I was a slave, and I loved my slavery. I was blind, and I desired my blindness.
The Word Who Preserves All Things
The soul reflects on the Word through whom all things are made and sustained, and pleads to cling to Him who alone can preserve, remake, and enlighten it.
I was bound in chains, and I did not shrink from them. I believed bitter was sweet and sweet was bitter. I was wretched and did not recognize it — and this because I was without you, the Word, without whom nothing was made, through whom all things are preserved, and without whom all things are brought to nothing.✦4 For just as all things were made through him, and without him nothing was made, so through him all things are preserved — whatever exists, whether in heaven, on earth, or in the sea, and in all the depths.✦✦5 No part clings to part in stone, nor in any created thing — unless it is because they are preserved through the Word, through whom all things were made.✦6 Let me cling to you, Word, so that you may preserve me — because the moment I turned from you, I perished within myself, had you not, who made me, remade me.7 I sinned; you visited me. I fell; you raised me up. I was ignorant; you taught me. I did not see; you gave me light.8
Read the original Latin
Cum igitur fui sine te, non fui; quia nihil fui. Et ideo caecus eram, surdus et insensibilis; quia nec bonum discernebam, nec malum fugiebam, nec dolorem vulnerum meorum sentiebam, nec tenebras meas videbam; quia eram sine te vera luce, quae illuminas omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum (Joan. I, 9). Vae mihi! vulneraverunt me, et non dolui; traxerunt me, et non sensi: quia nihil eram, quia sine vita eram, quae est Verbum per quod facta sunt omnia. Ideo, Domine lux mea, inimici mei de me fecerunt quaecumque voluerunt, percusserunt, nudaverunt, polluerunt, corruperunt, vulneraverunt et occiderunt me: quia recessi a te, et factus sum nihil sine te. Heu, Domine, vita mea qui fecisti me, lux mea qui direxisti me. Defensor vitae meae, miserere mei et resuscita me.
Domine Deus meus, spes mea, virtus mea, fortitudo mea, consolatio mea in die tribulationis meae, respice inimicos meos, et eripe me: fugiant a facie tua qui oderunt te, et ego vivam in te per te. Ipsi enim, Domine, consideraverunt me, et videntes me sine te, despexerunt me. Diviserunt sibi vestimenta virtutum quibus ornaveras me (Psal. XXI, 18, 19), fecerunt sibi viam per me, sub pedibus suis conculcaverunt me: faecibus peccatorum polluerunt templum sanctum tuum, posuerunt me desolatum et moerore confectum. Ibam post eos caecus et nudus, et illaqueatus funibus peccatorum. Trahebant me post se in circuitu de vitio in vitium, et de luto in lutum: et ibam absque fortitudine ante faciem subsequentis. Servus eram, servitutem amabam. Caecus eram, caecitatem desiderabam.
Vinctus eram, vincula non horrebam. Amarum dulce, et dulce amarum credebam. Miser eram, non cognoscebam; et hoc quia sine te Verbo eram, sine quo factum est nihil, per quod omnia conservantur, sine quo omnia annihilantur. Sicut enim omnia per ipsum facta sunt, et sine ipso factum est nihil; sic per ipsum omnia conservantur quaecumque sunt, sive in coelo, sive in terra, sive in mari, et in omnibus abyssis. Nec pars parti in lapide adhaeret, nec in aliquo creatorum: nisi quia per Verbum conservantur, per quod omnia facta sunt. Adhaeream ergo tibi, Verbum, ut conserves me; quia ubi a te recessi, perii in me: nisi quia tu qui feceras, refecisti me. Ego peccavi, tu me visitasti; ego cecidi, tu me erexisti; ego ignoravi, tu me docuisti; ego non vidi, tu me illuminasti.
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.1.9 — The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
- ↩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.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.
- ↩Col.1.17 — And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
- ↩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.
Notes
- 1 ↩Quotation of John 1:9 (Vulgate) confirmed in source; final Moses resolution pending.
- 2 ↩Biblical citation reference only (John 1:9); no translatable content.
- 3 ↩'Verbum per quod facta sunt omnia' echoes John 1:3; final Moses resolution pending.
- 4 ↩Verbo rendered as 'the Word' (capitalized) to signal the Johannine Logos; the clause 'sine quo factum est nihil' echoes John 1:3.
- 5 ↩The sive…sive…sive series rendered with 'whether' to preserve the exhaustive, three-part alternative scope.
- 6 ↩The nec…nec correlative rendered as 'no…nor' to preserve the negative parallelism. Nisi quia introduces the causal exception.
- 7 ↩Verbum addressed directly in apostrophe, capitalized as 'Word' (Logos). The subjunctive adhaeream rendered as 'let me cling' to capture the optative force. Nisi quia rendered 'had you not' to convey the exceptive-causal logic.
- 8 ↩The asyndetic ego…tu parallel clauses rendered with semicolons to preserve the stark, rhythmic antithesis of the Latin without adding connectives.
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