Caput 7. Amor Dei beneficiorum intuitu excitatur. Creationis beneficium. Homo quatenus angelis inferior.
A Cry for Love and Light
The soul begs God to teach it how to love and praise Him, recalling His gifts of creation, enlightenment, and rescue, and pledges love in response to God's prior love.
Wretched as I am, my God, show me how deeply I am bound to love you; show me how much I ought to praise you; make known to me how much I ought to please you. Thunder, Lord, with a great and mighty voice into the inner ear of my heart: teach me and save me, and I will praise you fully — you who created me when I was nothing; who enlightened me when I was in darkness; who raised me when I was dead; who have fed me from my youth with all your good gifts. This useless worm, stinking with sins — you nourish him with all your finest gifts. Open to me, O Key of David — you who open, and no one shuts for the one you open to; you shut, and no one opens for the one you shut to: open to me the door of your light, so that I may enter and see and know and confess you with my whole heart, because your mercy is great upon me, and you have rescued my soul from the lowest hell.1 Lord my God, how wonderful, how praiseworthy is your name in all the earth! And what is man that you remember him, or the son of man that you visit him (Ps.2 8:2, 5)?3 Lord, hope of the saints and tower of their strength; life of my soul, through whom I live, without whom I die; light of my eyes, through whom I see, without whom I am blind; joy of my heart and gladness of my spirit — I will love you with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my inmost depths and inward being, because you first loved me (1 John.4
The Mystery of Being Chosen
The soul marvels at the incomprehensible grace that God loved it before creation, ordaining it from eternity and creating it without any merit of its own.
4:10). And how does this come to me, O Creator of heaven and earth and the deep—you who have no need of my goods? How does this come to me—that you loved me? O Wisdom who opens the mouth of the mute, O Word through whom all things were made: open my mouth and give me a voice of praise, so that I may tell of all the benefits you, Lord, have bestowed on me from the beginning. Look at this: I exist because you created me; and you ordained from eternity that you would create me and count me among your creatures. Before you made anything from the beginning, before you stretched out the heavens; when the deeps did not yet exist, you had not yet made the earth, nor had you founded the mountains, and the springs had not yet burst forth (Prov. 8:22–27)—before you made through the Word all these things that you have made, you foresaw with the most certain providence of your truth that I would be your creature, and you willed that I should be your creature. And how does this come to me, most kind Lord, most high God, most merciful Father, most powerful and ever most gentle Creator? What merits of mine, what favor of mine, that it should please you before the sight of your magnificent majesty to create me?5
From Nothing to a Rational Soul
The soul reflects on being created from nothing and elevated above all lower creatures to share in being, life, and sensation as a rational being.
I was not, and you created me; I had been nothing, and from nothing you made me something? But what kind of something? Not a star, not fire, not a bird or a fish, not a serpent or any brute animal, not a stone or wood; not of the kind that merely exists; nor of those that only exist and grow; not of the kind that only exists, grows, and senses: but above all these, you willed me to be among those that have being, because I am; among those that have being and grow, because I am and grow; and among those that have being, grow, and sense, because I am, grow, and sense.6
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.
Notes
- 1 ↩confitear rendered as 'confess you' in the sense of thankful acknowledgment/praise, not merely admission of sin.
- 2 ↩Parenthetical citation is split across s6–s7; modern leaves the open citation marker intact for later resolution.
- 3 ↩Citation-only fragment completing s6's '(Psal.' as Vulgate Psalm 8:2, 5.
- 4 ↩Parenthetical citation is truncated mid-reference; neighboring next section continues as 'IV, 10).' (1 John 4:10).
- 5 ↩Here gratia is the speaker's claim to favor, parallel to merita—not divine grace bestowed.
- 6 ↩The Latin tracks the classical hierarchy of living powers (esse / crescere / sentire). 'Sense' renders sentire as animal sensation, not intellectual understanding; reason appears in the next chapter.
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