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Chapter 12PsAugSoliloquia.1.12

Caput 12. Contra concupiscentiarum laqueos oratio. Hos laqueos quis effugiat.

From the Prison of Shadows to the Light of Grace

The soul lifts its cry from the abyss of darkness, waiting for the Lord's voice to bring forth light, life, and the fruit of righteousness.

These are the shadows that cover me in this murky abyss of this prison, where I lie prostrate until the day breathes and the shadows lean away, and a voice arises in the firmament of your power—the voice of the Lord in power, the voice of the Lord in majesty—and says, "Let there be light," and the darkness will be driven away, and dry land appear, and the earth sprout green grass that bears seed and the good fruit of the righteousness of your kingdom.

A Prayer against Pride and Desire

The soul begs to be delivered from evil thoughts, haughty eyes, and every harmful desire, asking for humble eyes that see only what leads to God.

Lord, Father and God, Life through whom all things live, and without whom all things are counted dead: do not abandon me to an evil thought, and do not give me the haughtiness of my eyes.1 Take desires away from me, and do not hand me over to a disrespectful and senseless spirit (Eccli.2 23:4–6): but take possession of my heart, so that it may always think of you. Enlighten my eyes, that they may see you and not be lifted up before you, everlasting Glory; but let them think humbly, not of wonders beyond them; and let them see what is at the right hand, not what is at the left, away from you.3 And let my eyelids go before my steps: for your eyelids also search the children of men (Psal.4 X, 6).5

The Tangled Snares of This World

The soul confesses the world is full of the snares of desire and declares that only the one freed from pride, lust, and arrogance can pass through unharmed.

Dash my desire against your sweetness, which you have hidden for those who fear you, so that I may long to desire you with everlasting desires—lest, enticed and deceived by empty things, my inner taste set bitter as sweet and sweet as bitter, darkness as light and light as darkness, amid so many snares laid everywhere by the enemy across the face of this road to catch souls, snares with which the whole world is full, so that the one who saw them did not pass by in silence, saying: For whatever is in the world is either desire of the flesh, or desire of the eyes, or pride of life (I Joan.67 2:16).✦8 Look, Lord my God, the whole world is full of the traps of desire that they have set for my feet. And who can escape these traps? Truly, the one from whom you have taken away the haughtiness of his eyes, so that the desire of the eyes does not seize him; and the one from whom you have taken away the desire of the flesh, so that the desire of the flesh does not seize him; and the one from whom you have taken away a disrespectful and senseless spirit, so that the pride of life does not cunningly deceive him.9 Oh, how blessed is the one for whom you will do these things! Indeed, he will pass through unharmed.

A Cry for Rescue and Shelter

The soul implores God to scatter its enemies, hide it in the secret place of His face, and shelter it under His wings like a father and mother of the fatherless.

Now I beg you by your very self: help me, so that I do not fall in the sight of my adversaries, caught in the traps they have set for my feet to bring my soul down.10 But rescue me, strength of my salvation: do not let your enemies who hate you make a laughingstock of me. Arise, Lord my God, my strength; let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee from your presence. As wax melts before the fire, so let sinners perish from the presence of God.11 I will hide myself in the secret place of your presence, and I will rejoice with your children, satisfied with all your good things. And you, Lord God, father of orphans, and mother of your fatherless children, hear the wailing of your children; stretch out your wings so that we may flee under them from the face of the enemy—you are the tower of strength for Israel, who neither slumbers nor sleeps while keeping watch over Israel, because the enemy who attacks Israel does not slumber.12

Read the original Latin

Hae sunt umbrae, quibus operior in hac abysso caliginosa carceris hujus, in quo prostratus jaceo donec aspiret dies, et inclinentur umbrae, fiatque vox in firmamento virtutis tuae, vox Domini in virtute, vox Domini in magnificentia: dicatque, Fiat lux, et effugentur tenebrae, et appareat arida, germinetque terra herbam virentem et facientem semen et fructum bonum justitiae regni tui. Domine Pater et Deus, vita per quam omnia vivunt, et sine qua omnia mortua computantur, ne derelinquas me in cogitatu maligno, et extollentiam oculorum meorum ne dederis mihi. Aufer a me concupiscentias, et animo irreverenti et infrunito ne tradas me (Eccli. XXIII, 4-6): sed posside cor meum, ut te cogitet semper. Illumina oculos meos, ut te videant, et non extollantur ante te, gloria sempiterna: sed humiliter sentiant, non in mirabilibus super se; et quae a dextris sunt videant, non quae a sinistris abs te. Et palpebrae meae praecedant gressus meos: nam et palpebrae tuae interrogant filios hominum (Psal. X, 6). Allide concupiscentiam meam dulcedine tua, quam abscondisti timentibus te, ut concupiscam concupiscere te concupiscentiis sempiternis: ne vanis illectus et deceptus interior gustus ponat amarum dulce, et dulce amarum, tenebras lucem, et lucem tenebras in medio tot decipularum passim ab inimico super faciem viae hujus ad capiendas animas paratarum, quibus plenus est totus mundus, ut is qui vidit, sub silentio non transivit, inquiens: Quidquid enim est in mundo, aut est concupiscentia carnis, aut concupiscentia oculorum, aut superbia vitae (I Joan.

II, 16). Ecce, Domine Deus meus, mundus totus plenus est concupiscentiarum laqueis, quos paraverunt pedibus meis. Et quis effugiet hos laqueos? Profecto a quo tu abstuleris extollentiam oculorum suorum, ut non eum capiat concupiscentia oculorum; et a quo tu abstuleris carnis concupiscentiam, ne eum capiat carnis concupiscentia; et a quo tu abstuleris animum irreverentem et infrunitum, ne eum callide decipiat superbia vitae. O quam felix cui haec facies! quippe pertransibit immunis. Nunc deprecor te per te, adjuva me; ne corruam in conspectu adversariorum meorum captus laqueis eorum, quos paraverunt pedibus meis, ut incurvent animam meam. Sed erue me, virtus salutis meae: ne sibi risum exhibeant de me inimici tui qui oderunt te.

Exsurge, Domine Deus meus, fortis meus; et dissipentur inimici tui, et fugiant qui oderunt te a facie tua (Psal. LXVII, 1): sicut fluit cera a facie ignis, sic pereant peccatores a facie Dei. Et ego abscondar in abscondito faciei tuae, et gaudeam cum filiis tuis, satiatus omnibus bonis tuis. Et tu, Domine Deus, pater orphanorum, et tu, mater pupillorum tuorum, audi ejulatum filiorum tuorum; et extende alas tuas, ut fugiamus sub eis a facie inimici, turris fortitudinis Israel, qui non dormitas neque dormis custodiens Israel, quia non dormitat hostis qui impugnat Israel.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩1John.2.16 — For all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the pride of life—is not from the Father, but is from the world.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩extollentiam oculorum rendered as 'haughtiness of my eyes' (proud, uplifted gaze), matching the Sirach petition that continues in the next sentences.
  2. 2 ↩Printed sentence breaks mid-citation after Eccli.; reference completes in s4 as XXIII, 4–6.
  3. 3 ↩gloria sempiterna taken as vocative address to God ('everlasting Glory'); also readable as apposition to te.
  4. 4 ↩Printed sentence breaks mid-citation after Psal.; reference completes in s7 as X, 6.
  5. 5 ↩Citation-only fragment completing '(Psal.' from s6; left as the printed closer.
  6. 6 ↩Allide + dulcedine taken as instrumental: smash/override disordered desire by means of God's sweetness (cf. dashing against a rock).
  7. 7 ↩Printed sentence ends mid-citation after I Joan.; neighboring section continues with II, 16).
  8. 8 ↩Citation-only fragment completing the parenthetical opened in the previous section as (I Joan. …): 1 John 2:16.
  9. 9 ↩Latin answers quis effugiet with an absolute relative (a quo…); English supplies 'the one' for grammatical completeness without adding an explicit escape-verb the Latin leaves implied.
  10. 10 ↩deprecor te per te rendered 'I beg you by yourself' (appeal grounded in God himself); ut incurvent animam meam taken as the purpose of the snares, 'to bring my soul down.'
  11. 11 ↩Printed citation reads LXVII, 1, but the wax-melting petition is the usual Vulgate Ps 67:2–3 material continuing the Exsurge line from s1.
  12. 12 ↩God is addressed as both father of orphans and mother of the fatherless; kept literally rather than smoothed into a single parental title.

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