LXVII. O pater omnium (Symphonia viduarum)
Exile from the First Mother
The fall of humanity through Eve's transgression is lamented as the source of exile and grief shared by all her children.
O father of all, O king and ruler of the nations, you established us in the rib of our first mother, and she brought great ruin on us, and we, following her, have joined ourselves to her in her own cause, in exile, binding ourselves to her grief.✦
Longing for the Father
Through deepest longing and beloved repentance, the soul runs to God the Father and embraces Him with devoted love after grief.
O most noble Father, through deepest longing we run to you, and through most beloved and sweetest repentance, which comes to us through you, we sigh for you, and after our grief we embrace you most devotedly.
United to Christ in Heavenly Love
Christ is praised as the resurrection of life, and the soul clings to Him in heavenly love through His virginal birth and new spiritual union.
O most glorious and most beautiful Christ, you are the resurrection of life. For your sake we left behind the fruitful love of union, and we hold you fast in heavenly love and in the virginal branch of your birth, and in a new turning we are joined to you more closely than we ever were in the flesh.✦✦
A Prayer for Perseverance
A concluding plea for perseverance asks never to be parted from Christ but to rejoice with Him forever.
Help us to persevere and rejoice with you, and never to be parted from you.
Read the original Latin
O pater omnium et o rex et imperator gentium, qui constituisti nos in costa prime matris, que construxit nobis magnum casum erumpne, et nos secute sumus illam in propria causa in exilio sociantes nos illius dolori. O tu, nobilissime genitor, per summum studium currimus ad te et per dilectissimam atque per dulcissimam penitentiam, que nobis per te venit, anhelamus a te et post dolorem nostrum devotissime amplectimur te. O gloriosissime et o pulcherrime Christe, qui es resurrectio vite, nos reliquimus propter te fertilem amorem coniunctionis et comprhendimus te in superna karitate et in virginea virga nativitatis tue ac in altera vice copulate sumus tibi, quam prius essemus secundum carnem. Adiuva nos perservare et tecum gaudere et a te numquam separari.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.2.21-Gen.2.22 — So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. Gen.2.22 — And the LORD God built the rib that He had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man.
- ↩John.11.25 — Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live."
- ↩Isa.11.1 — A shoot will come forth from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
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