De recordatione multiplicium beneficiorum Dei.

A Prayer for Understanding and Gratitude

The soul prays for an opened heart and understanding, confessing its utter inadequacy to render the thanks God deserves.

Open my heart, Lord, to your law, and teach me to walk in your precepts.¹ Give me understanding of your will, and with great reverence and careful consideration help me recall your benefits to you, both in general and in particular, so that from this I may be able to render thanks.² Yet I know and confess that not even in the smallest detail can I fully pay the praises owed in thanksgiving.³ I am less than all the good things granted to me; and when I consider your greatness, my spirit fails before its magnitude.⁴⁵

All Good Things Come from God

Every gift—whether of soul, body, grace, or nature—flows from God, and the humble heart alone is fit to receive more.

Everything we have in soul and in body, and whatever we possess outwardly or inwardly, by nature or beyond nature — all of it is your gift, and it all points back to you as the generous, faithful, and good one from whom we have received every good thing.^✦⁶ And even if one person has received more and another less, all of it is still yours; and not the smallest thing can exist apart from you.⁷ The one who has received greater gifts cannot boast on his own merit, or look down on others, or look down on the one who has less. For the truly greater and better person is the one who claims less for himself and is more humble and more devoted in giving thanks. And the one who considers himself the most worthless of all and judges himself the most unworthy — that person is the most fit to receive even greater things.^✦^✦⁸⁹

God Distributes Without Favoritism

One must not envy those with more, for God alone knows what each person needs and distributes all things freely and without partiality.

Whoever has received fewer things shouldn't be saddened, or resentful, or envious of the one who has more. Instead, look to God himself and praise his goodness above all, because he gives his gifts so abundantly, so freely, so willingly, and without favoritism.¹⁰¹¹ All things come from you, and so you are to be praised by all.¹² You know what it is expedient for each one to be given, and why this person has less and that person more. It is not ours to discern, but yours, with whom the merits of each individual have been determined.¹³¹⁴

The Blessing of Lowliness

Poverty and lowliness are themselves great benefits, for God chooses the despised as his friends, as the apostles joyfully demonstrated.

And so, Lord God, I count it a great benefit not to have many things from which outward praise and glory might appear in the eyes of others — so that when anyone considers the poverty and lowliness of my state, he conceives from it not merely heaviness or sadness or dejection, but rather consolation and great joy; because you, God, chose the poor and the humble and those despised by this world as your own intimate friends and household companions.^✦¹⁵¹⁶ Your own apostles are the witnesses — those you established as princes over all the earth.¹⁷ For they lived in the world without complaint, as humble as they were simple, free from all malice and deceit — so that they even rejoiced to suffer insults for your name's sake, and they embraced with great affection the very things the world abhors.^✦^✦¹⁸¹⁹

Resting in God's Will Above All Gifts

The lover of God finds deepest peace in embracing the lowest place, because God's will and honor surpass every blessing.

Nothing, therefore, should gladden the one who loves you and knows your blessings so much as your will at work in him and the good pleasure of your eternal plan — the one thing he ought to rest in and take comfort in — so that he would just as gladly choose to be the least as anyone might wish to be the greatest, and just as peaceful and content in the lowest place as in the first, and just as willingly despised and cast down, of no name or reputation, as others are more honored and greater in the world. For your will and your love of your own honor ought to surpass everything, and comfort him more, and please him more, than all the blessings given or to be given to him.

Read the original Latin

Aperi, Domine, cor meum in lege tua, et in præceptis tuis doce me ambulare. Da mihi intelligere voluntatem tuam et cum magna reverentia ac diligenti consideratione beneficia tua, tam in generali, quam in particulari memorare tibi, ut hinc valeam gratias referre. Verum scio et confiteor, nec pro minimo puncto me posse debitas gratiarum laudes persolvere. Minor ego sum omnibus bonis mihi præstitis; et cum tuam nobilitatem attendo, deficit præ magnitudine illius spiritus meus.

Omnia quæ in anima habemus et in corpore et quæcumque exterius vel interius naturaliter vel supernaturaliter possidemus, tua sunt beneficia, et beneficum pium, ac bonum commendant, a quo bona cuncta accepimus. Et si alius plura alius pauciora accepit, omnia tamen tua sunt, nec minimum sine te haberi potest. Ille qui majora accepit, non potest merito suo gloriari, nec super alios extolli, nec minori insultare, quia ille major et melior est, qui sibi minus adscribit, et in regratiando humilior est atque devotior: et qui omnibus viliorem se esse existimat, et indigniorem se judicat, aptior est ad percipiendum majora.

Qui autem pauciora accepit, contristari non debet, nec indignanter ferre, neque ditiori invidere: sed te potius attendere, et tuam bonitatem maxime laudare, quod tam affluenter, tam gratis, tam libenter sine personarum acceptione tua munera largiris. Omnia ex te, et ideo omnibus es laudandus. Tu scis quid unicuique donari expediat, et cur iste minus et ille amplius habeat, non nostrum, sed tuum est discernere, apud quem singulorum definita sunt merita.

Unde, Domine Deus, pro magno etiam reputo beneficio, non multa habere unde exterius et secundum homines laus et gloria appareat: ita ut quis considerata paupertate et vilitate personæ suæ, non modo gravitatem, aut tristitiam, vel dejectionem inde concipiat, sed potius consolationem, et hilaritatem magnam; quia tu, Deus, pauperes et humiles atque huic mundo despectos tibi elegisti in familiares et domesticos. Testes sunt ipsi Apostoli tui, quos principes super omnem terram constituisti. Fuerunt enim sine querela conversati in mundo, tam humiles quam simplices sine omni malitia et dolo, ut etiam pati contemelias gauderent pro nomine tuo, et quæ mundus abhorret, ipsi amplecterentur affectu magno.

Nihil ergo amatorem tuum, et cognitorem beneficiorum tuorum ita lætificare debet, sicut voluntas tua in eo, et beneplacitum æternæ dispositionis tuæ, de qua tantum contentari debet et consolari, ut ita libenter velit esse minimus, sicut aliquis optaret esse maximus, et ita pacificus et contentus in novissimo loco sicut in loco primo atque ita libenter despicabilis, et abjectus, nullius quoque nominis et famæ sicut cæteris honorabilior, et major in mundo. Nam voluntas tua et amor honoris tui, omnia excedere debet, et plus eum consolari, magisque placere, quam omnia beneficia sibi data vel danda.

Scripture echoes

↩1Cor.4.7 — For who makes you different? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you had not received it?
↩Luke.14.11;Luke.18.14 — For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted. Luke.18.14 — I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than that one; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
↩Jas.4.6;1Pet.5.5 — But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.' 1Pet.5.5 — Likewise, younger people, submit to the elders. And all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
↩Jas.2.5 — Listen, my beloved brothers: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?
↩Acts.5.41 — So they went away from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the Name.
↩1Cor.4.13 — when slandered, we speak gently; we have become like the world's refuse, the scum of everything, even to this moment.

Notes

1 ↩Echoes Psalm 118:34 (Vulgate): 'Da mihi intellectum et scrutabor legem tuam.' The pairing of 'cor meum' and 'lex tua' with 'præceptis tuis' is strongly psalmic.
2 ↩'Gratias referre' rendered as 'render thanks' — the phrase carries the sense of giving back what is owed, fitting the gratitude theme of the chapter.
3 ↩'Debitas gratiarum laudes' — the praises owed for graces received. The language of debt underscores that no human response can fully match God's generosity.
4 ↩'Nobilitas' rendered as 'greatness' rather than 'nobility' — the context points to God's majesty and excellence, not social rank.
5 ↩'Deficit præ magnitudine illius' — 'fails before its magnitude.' The preposition 'præ' with ablative expresses being overwhelmed by comparison.
6 ↩beneficium rendered as 'gift' rather than 'benefit' to capture the devotional sense of God's generosity; beneficum pium ac bonum rendered descriptively ('the generous, faithful, and good one') to preserve the threefold praise.
7 ↩Et rendered as 'And' to preserve the additive connection to the previous section; tamen ('nevertheless/still') rendered as 'still' to capture the concessive force — the inequality of distribution does not change the fact that all comes from God.
8 ↩merito suo rendered as 'on his own merit' to preserve the theological distinction between grace and earned claim. regratiando (a gerundive difficult to render literally) rendered as 'in giving thanks' to capture the sense of active, ongoing gratitude. devotior rendered as 'more devoted' per the approved lexicon.
9 ↩quia rendered as 'For' to mark the causal explanation. The triple nec ('nor...nor') is rendered as 'or...or' in natural English while preserving the negative force through the preceding 'cannot.'
10 ↩The three-part negative frame (non … nec … neque … sed) is rendered with 'not … nor … nor … instead' to preserve the rhetorical shift from prohibition to positive exhortation.
11 ↩Sine personarum acceptione rendered 'without favoritism' to capture the theological sense of impartial divine giving.
12 ↩et … ideo rendered with 'and therefore' to preserve the consequential link between origin and praise.
13 ↩non nostrum, sed tuum est rendered 'not ours … but yours' to preserve the adversative contrast between human and divine prerogative.
14 ↩merita rendered 'merits' in the sense of God's determined judgment of each person's deserts.
15 ↩The 'ita ut' clause is rendered as a result clause ('so that') rather than purpose, following the natural reading of the context: the speaker is describing the actual effect of having few outward goods, not merely the intended purpose.
16 ↩Vilitate rendered 'lowliness' to capture the sense of social insignificance and cheapness (vilitas) in the eyes of the world, distinct from humility as a virtue.
17 ↩The quoted clause 'principes super omnem terram constituisti' echoes Psalm 44:17 (Vulgate) / Psalm 45:16 (Hebrew): 'Thou hast set them princes over all the earth.' Final resolution deferred to tx-08 Moses source matching.
18 ↩The 'ut' clause rendered as result ('so that') rather than purpose, consistent with the preceding sentence's usage: the apostolic joy is presented as the actual outcome of their humble, guileless way of life.
19 ↩Affectu magno rendered 'with great affection' — here affectus carries the sense of heartfelt devotion and warm attachment, not disordered affection.