Amor Dei beneficiorum intuitu excitatur. Creationis beneficium. Homo quatenus angelis inferior.
The Cry of a Wretched Creature
The soul, aware of its own wretchedness, begs God to reveal the depth of love and praise it owes.
Wretched as I am, my God, show me how much I am bound to love you; show me how much I owe you in praise; make known to me how much I owe you in pleasing you.
God's Creative and Saving Mercy Recounted
The soul calls upon God to thunder into the heart, recounting creation from nothingness, enlightenment, resurrection from spiritual death, nourishment, and rescue from hell.
Thunder forth, Lord, with a great and mighty voice into the innermost ear of my heart: teach me and save me, and I will praise you — you who created me when I was nothing; who enlightened me when I was in darkness; who raised me up when I was dead; who have fed me from my youth with all your good gifts. This useless worm, stinking with sins, you nourish with all your finest gifts. Open to me, O key of David, you who open and no one shuts to the one you open; you who shut and no one opens to the one you shut: open to me the door of your light, so that I may enter and see and know and confess to you with my whole heart, because your mercy is great over me, and you rescued my soul from the lowest hell.✦
The Wonder of God's Name and the Smallness of Man
The soul marvels at the praiseworthiness of God's name and quotes Psalm 8 to reflect on man's insignificance before divine mindfulness.
Lord my God, how wonderful, how praiseworthy is your name in all the earth!✦ And what is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you visit him? (Ps.✦ VIII, 2, 5)?✦
Loving God with the Whole Being
The soul resolves to love God entirely, because God first loved it.
Lord, hope of the saints and tower of their strength; life of my soul, through which I live, without which I die; light of my eyes, through which I see, without which I am blinded; joy of my heart and gladness of my spirit — let me love you with my whole heart, with my whole soul, with all my inmost being and my deepest parts, because you first loved me (1 John✦
The Unmerited Gift of Existence
The soul marvels that the self-sufficient Creator has loved it, asking whence this grace could come.
Psalm 4, verse 10. And whence is this to me, O Creator of heaven and earth and the abyss, who have no need of any good of mine — whence is this to me, but that you have loved me?✦
Praise for God's Eternal Benefits
The soul asks God for a voice to recount all the benefits bestowed from the beginning.
O Wisdom, who opens the mouth of the mute, O Word through whom all things were made — open my mouth, give me a voice of praise, so that I may recount all your benefits, which you have bestowed on me, Lord, from the beginning.✦✦
Predestination Before All Ages
The soul reflects that God predestined and willed the creature's existence from eternity, before any created thing came to be.
For behold, I exist because you created me; and that you would create me, and number me among your creatures — from all eternity you predestined this. Before you made anything from the beginning, before you stretched out the heavens — the abysses did not yet exist, you had not yet made the earth, nor founded the mountains, nor had the springs yet burst forth (Proverbs 8:22–27) —✦ before all these things that you made through the Word, you foresaw by the most certain providence of your truth that I would be your creature, and you willed me to be your creature.✦
No Merit Before Majesty
The soul asks again whence this grace could be, confessing it had no merit to move God's majesty to create.
And how does this come to me — Lord most kind, God most high, Father most merciful, Creator most powerful, and ever most gentle? What merits of mine, what grace of mine, could have pleased your magnificent Majesty, so as to move you to create me?
Created from Nothing, Elevated Above All Creatures
The soul confesses it was made from nothing and reflects that it was given being, growth, and feeling above stars, elements, plants, and animals.
I was nothing, and you created me; I had been nothing, and from nothing you made me into something. But what kind of something?1 Not a star, not fire, not a bird or a fish, not a serpent or any brute animal, not a stone or a piece of wood; not from the kind of things that merely have being, or from the kind that merely have being and can grow, or from the kind that have being and can grow and feel: but above all these things you willed me to be from among those that have being, because I am; and from among those that have being and grow, because I am and I grow; and from those that have being and grow and feel, because I am and I grow and I feel.2
Read the original Latin
Miser ego, Deus meus, quantum teneor diligere te, ostende mihi; quantum debeo laudare te, demonstra mihi; quantum debeo placere tibi, innotesce mihi. Intona, Domine, voce grandi et forti in interiorem aurem cordis mei: doce me et salva me, et collaudabo te; qui creasti me, cum nihil essem; qui illuminasti me, cum in tenebris essem; qui resuscitasti me, cum mortuus essem; qui pavisti me a juventute mea omnibus bonis tuis. Hunc inutilem vermem, foetentem peccatis, nutris omnibus optimis donis tuis. Aperi mihi, o clavis David, qui aperis, et nemo claudit illi cui tu aperis; claudis, et nemo aperit illi cui tu claudis: aperi mihi ostium luminis tui, ut ingrediar, et videam, et cognoscam, et confitear tibi in toto corde meo, quia misericordia tua magna est super me, et eruisti animam meam ex inferno inferiori. Domine Deus meus, quam admirabile, quam laudabile est nomen tuum in universa terra! Et quid est homo quod memor es ejus, aut filius hominis quoniam visitas eum (Psal. VIII, 2, 5)? Domine spes sanctorum, et turris fortitudinis eorum; vita animae meae, per quam vivo, sine qua morior; lumen oculorum meorum, per quod video, sine quo orbor; gaudium cordis mei, et laetitia spiritus mei, diligam te toto corde meo, tota anima mea, totis medullis et visceribus meis, quia tu prior dilexisti me (I Joan.
IV, 10). Et unde hoc mihi, o creator coeli et terrae et abyssi, qui bonorum meorum non indiges; unde hoc mihi, quia dilexisti me? O sapientia quae aperis os mutorum, o Verbum per quod facta sunt omnia, aperi os meum, da mihi vocem laudis, ut enarrem omnia beneficia tua, quae mihi, Domine, a principio contulisti. Ecce enim sum, quia tu creasti me: et quod me creares, et in numero creaturarum tuarum numerares, ab aeterno tu praeordinasti. Antequam quidquam faceres a principio, antequam extenderes coelos; necdum erant abyssi, adhuc terram non feceras, nec montes fundaveras, necdum fontes eruperant (Prov. VIII, 22-27), antequam haec omnia quae fecisti, per Verbum faceres, me creaturam tuam fore, certissima veritatis tuae providentia praevidisti, et esse me creaturam tuam voluisti. Et hoc unde mihi, Domine benignissime, Deus altissime, pater misericordissime, creator potentissime et semper mitissime? Quae mea merita, quae mea gratia, ut complaceret ante conspectum tuae magnificae majestatis creare me?
Non eram, et creasti me; nihil fueram, et de nihilo me aliquid esse fecisti? Quale autem aliquid? Non stellam, non ignem, non avem vel piscem, non serpentem vel aliquid ex brutis animalibus, non lapidem vel lignum; non ex eorum genere; quae tantum habent esse; vel ex eorum, quae tantum esse possunt et crescere; non ex eorum genere, quae tantum esse et crescere et sentire possunt: sed super omnia haec voluisti me esse ex his quae habent esse, quia sum; et ex his quae habent esse et crescere, quia sum et cresco; et ex his quae habent esse, crescere et sentire, quia sum, cresco et sentio.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Isa.22.22;Rev.3.7 — I will place the key of the house of David on his shoulder; he will open and no one will shut, and he will shut and no one will open. Rev.3.7 — And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These things says the Holy One, the True One, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and shuts and no one opens.
- ↩Ps.8.10 — O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
- ↩Ps.8.5 — What is man that you remember him, and the son of Adam that you visit him?
- ↩Ps.8.2 — O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
- ↩1John.4.19 — We love because he first loved us.
- ↩Ps.8.4-Ps.8.5 — When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have set in place— Ps.8.5 — What is man that you remember him, and the son of Adam that you visit him?
- ↩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.
- ↩Mark.7.37 — And they were utterly astonished, saying, 'He has done all things well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.'
- ↩Prov.8.22-Prov.8.31 — The LORD acquired me as the beginning of his way, before his works of old. Prov.8.23 — From everlasting I was established, from the beginning, from the earliest days of the earth. Prov.8.24 — When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no springs heavy with water. Prov.8.25 — Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth— Prov.8.26 — before he had made the earth and the open fields, or the first dust of the world Prov.8.27 — When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, Prov.8.28 — when he made the skies firm from above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep Prov.8.29 — When he set the sea its boundary, so that the waters would not pass his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, Prov.8.30 — Then I was beside him, a master craftsman; I was his delight day after day, playing before him at all times, Prov.8.31 — rejoicing in his inhabited earth, and my delight is with the children of man
- ↩Prov.8.22-Prov.8.27 — The LORD acquired me as the beginning of his way, before his works of old. Prov.8.23 — From everlasting I was established, from the beginning, from the earliest days of the earth. Prov.8.24 — When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no springs heavy with water. Prov.8.25 — Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was brought forth— Prov.8.26 — before he had made the earth and the open fields, or the first dust of the world Prov.8.27 — When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
Notes
- 1 ↩autem here is contrastive, pressing the question further: not just 'something,' but what sort? The abrupt, fragmentary quality of the Latin is preserved.
- 2 ↩The threefold hierarchy — being alone (esse), being + growth (esse et crescere), being + growth + sensation (esse, crescere, sentire) — maps onto the traditional scholastic ranking of existence, life, and sentience. The repeated voluisti me esse ex his… quia sum… cresco… sentio is rendered with parallel structure to preserve the rhetorical ascent.
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