Caput 10. Homo insufficiens ad laudandum Deum. Quis Deum laudet. Laus hominis vera. Rursum de insufficientia ad laudem Dei. Unde suppleatur.
The Incomprehensibility of God's Praise
The soul confesses its inability to praise God adequately, acknowledging that God's praise is eternal and beyond human faculties.
Where does this come from for me, Lord? Where am I to find praises with which to praise you? Just as you made me without me, as it pleased you, so praise is yours without me, as it pleases you.1 Your praise, Lord, is you yourself. Let your works praise you according to the abundance of your greatness.✦ Your praise, Lord, is incomprehensible; it is not grasped by the heart, not measured by the mouth, not taken in by the ear—because these things pass away, and your praise remains forever. A thought begins, a thought ends; the voice sounds and passes; the ear hears, and hearing ceases—but your praise stands forever. Who, then, is there who can praise you?
True Praise Comes from God Alone
Only those who know they cannot reach God's praise truly praise Him, for God praises Himself in us and gives true praise.
What human being can declare your praise? Your praise is perpetual; it does not pass away. The one who praises you is the one who believes that you yourself are your praise. The one who praises you is the one who knows that he himself cannot reach your praise. Perpetual Praise, you who never pass away: our praise is in you; in you my soul will be praised.✦2 We do not praise you; rather, you praise yourself—through yourself and in yourself—and for us too, praise is in you. Then we have true praise when we have praise from you, when light approves light—because you, true praise, give true praise. Every time we seek praise from anyone other than you, we lose your praise—because that praise is fleeting, but yours is eternal.
Renouncing Fleeting Praise for the Eternal
The soul renounces fleeting praise and confesses its utter lowliness as dust, darkness, and sin, questioning how such frailty can praise the eternal God.
If we seek the fleeting, we lose the eternal. If we want the eternal, let's not love the fleeting. Eternal Praise, Lord my God, from whom all praise comes, without whom there is no praise: I cannot praise you without you. Let me have you, and I will praise you.3 For who am I, Lord, that I should praise you by myself? I am dust and ashes; I am a dead and stinking dog; I am a worm and rottenness. Who am I, that I should praise you, Lord God, most mighty One of the spirits of all flesh, you who dwell in eternity? Will darkness praise the light, or death praise life? You are light; I am darkness. You are life; I am death. Will vanity praise the truth? You are the truth; I am a human being made like vanity. What then, Lord, will praise you? Will my misery praise you? Will stench praise fragrance? Will human mortality, which is here today and taken away tomorrow, praise you? Will rottenness praise you, and the son of man—a worm? Will the one who was begotten and born in sins praise you, Lord?
Let God's Own Attributes Praise Him
The soul turns from its own insufficiency and calls upon God's own attributes—power, wisdom, goodness, mercy, and love—to offer the praise that humans cannot.
May your almighty power praise you, Lord my God—your boundless wisdom and your goodness beyond words. May your surpassing clemency praise you, along with your overflowing mercy and your everlasting power and divinity.4 May your all-powerful strength praise you, as well as your supreme kindness and love—the love for which you created us, Lord God, life of my soul.5
Read the original Latin
Unde hoc mihi, Domine? unde mihi laudes ad laudandum te? Sicut fecisti me sine me, sicut placuit ante te; ita laus tibi est sine me, sicut complacet ante te. Laus tua, Domine, tu ipse es. Laudent te opera tua secundum multitudinem magnitudinis tuae. Laus tua, Domine, incomprehensibilis est; corde non comprehenditur, ore non mensuratur, aure non percipitur: quia ista transeunt, et laus tua manet in aeternum. Cogitatio incipit, cogitatio finitur; vox sonat et transit; auris audit, et auditus desinit; laus vero tua in aeternum stat. Quis ergo est qui te laudet?
Quis homo annuntiet laudem tuam? Laus tua perpetua est, transitoria non est. Hic te laudat, qui te ipsum laudem tuam credit. Hic te laudat, qui se ipsum noscit in tuam laudem non posse pertingere. Laus perpetua, quae nunquam transis, in te est laus nostra, in te laudabitur anima mea. Non nos laudamus te: sed tu te, et per te, et in te; et nobis etiam laus est in te. Tunc veram habemus laudem, quando a te habemus laudem, quando lux approbat lucem; quia tu vera laus veram tribuis laudem. Quoties ab alio quam a te quaerimus laudem, toties tuam amittimus laudem: quia illa transitoria est, sed tua aeterna.
Si transitoriam quaerimus, aeternam amittimus. Si aeternam volumus, transitoriam non amemus. Laus aeterna, Domine Deus meus, a quo omnis laus, sine quo nulla est laus, non valeo laudare te sine te: habeam te, laudabo te. Quis enim ego sum, Domine, per me qui laudem te? Pulvis et cinis ego sum, canis mortuus et fetens ego sum, vermis et putredo ego sum. Quis ego sum, ut laudem te, Domine Deus, fortissime spirituum universae carnis, qui habitas aeternitatem? Numquid tenebrae laudabunt lucem, aut mors vitam? Tu lux, ego tenebrae; tu vita, ego mors.
Numquid vanitas veritatem laudabit? Tu es veritas, ego homo vanitati similis factus. Quid ergo, Domine, laudabit te? Numquid miseria mea laudabit te? Numquid fetor laudabit odorem? Numquid mortalitas hominis, quae hodie est et cras tollitur, laudabit te? Numquid laudabit te putredo, et filius hominis vermis? Numquid laudabit te, Domine, qui in peccatis genitus est et natus?
Laudet te, Domine Deus meus, omnipotens potentia tua, incircumscriptibilis sapientia tua, ineffabilis bonitas tua. Laudet te supereminens clementia tua, superabundans misericordia tua, sempiterna quoque virtus et divinitas tua. Laudet te omnipotentissima fortitudo tua, summa quoque benignitas et charitas tua, propter quam creasti nos, Domine Deus vita animae meae.
Scripture echoes
Notes
- 1 ↩sine me keeps the Augustinian paradox: God creates (and is praised) without human help or agency; not 'apart from my existence' in a spatial sense.
- 2 ↩Latin has quae nunquam transis (2nd person) with feminine quae; sense taken as address to perpetual Praise (God as praise) who never passes away. If transit were intended, render 'which never passes away'.
- 3 ↩Laus aeterna is taken as vocative address to God as Eternal Praise, continuing the preceding section's address to perpetual praise.
- 4 ↩clementia rendered 'clemency' to keep it distinct from misericordia ('mercy'); both name divine mildness, but the Latin pairs them as separate attributes.
- 5 ↩charitas rendered 'love' per lexeme default; the relative propter quam most naturally picks up the feminine charity/kindness just named as the motive of creation.
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