Interrogatio de exercitio ante communionem.
Trembling Before the Mystery
The soul, overwhelmed by the weight of God's dignity and its own unworthiness, trembles at the threshold of Communion and cries out to God for guidance.
When I weigh your dignity against my own worthlessness, I tremble deeply and am utterly confounded within myself.1 For if I do not approach, I flee from life; and if I thrust myself in unworthily, I incur offense.23 What then shall I do, O God my helper and my counselor in times of need?4
A Prayer for Preparation
The soul asks God to teach a brief, fitting practice of devotion and reverence for receiving and celebrating the Sacrament.
Teach me the right way, and set out some brief practice suited to sacred Communion. For it is useful to know how — namely, with what devotion and reverence — I ought to prepare my heart to receive your Sacrament wholesomely, or even to celebrate so great and divine a sacrifice.
Read the original Latin
Cum tuam dignitatem, et meam vilitatem penso, valde contremisco, et in me ipso confundor. Si enim non accedo, vitam fugio; et si indigne me ingessero, offensam incurro. Quid ergo faciam, Deus auxiliator meus et consiliator meus in necessitatibus?
Tu doce me viam rectam, propone aliquod breve exercitium sacræ Communioni congruum. Utile est enim scire, qualiter scilicet devote et reverenter tibi præparare debeam cor meum ad recipiendum salubriter tuum Sacramentum, seu etiam celebrandum tam magnum et divinum sacrificium.
Notes
- 1 ↩Cum translated as 'when' rather than 'since'; the temporal reading captures the recurring act of reflection, though a causal sense ('since I weigh…') is also plausible.
- 2 ↩enim grounds the dilemma posed by the conditional clauses; rendered as 'for' to preserve its explanatory force.
- 3 ↩ingessero (future perfect of ingero) rendered 'thrust myself in' to convey the force of rushing forward presumptuously.
- 4 ↩ergo marks the inference from the dilemma in s2; rendered as 'then' to preserve the deliberative force.