Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences/Adoro Te devote, latens Deitas
Adoro Te devote, latens Deitas.
The following hymn of S. Thomas Aquinas to the Holy Eucharist was never in public use in the mediæval Church; but it has been appended, as a private devotion, to most Missals. It is worthy of notice how the Angelic Doctor, as if afraid to employ any pomp of words on approaching so tremendous a Mystery, has used the very simplest expressions throughout.
Humbly I adore Thee, hidden Deity,
Which beneath these figures art concealed from me;
Wholly in submission Thee my spirit hails,
For in contemplating Thee it wholly fails.
Taste and touch and vision in Thee are deceived:
But the hearing only may be well believed:
I believe whatever God's own Son declared;
Nothing can be truer than Truth's very Word.
On the Cross lay hidden but Thy Deity:
Here is also hidden Thy Humanity:
But in both believing and confessing, Lord,
Ask I what the dying thief of Thee implored.
Though Thy Wounds, like Thomas, I behold not now,
Thee my Lord confessing, and my God, I bow:
Give me ever stronger faith in Thee above,
Give me ever stronger hope and stronger love.
O most sweet memorial of His death and woe,
Living Bread, Which givest life to man below,
Let my spirit ever eat of Thee and live,
And the blest fruition of Thy sweetness give!
Pelican of Mercy, Jesu, Lord and God,
Cleanse me, wretched sinner, in Thy Precious Blood:
Blood, whereof one drop for humankind outpoured
Might from all transgression have the world restored.
Jesu, Thou, Whom thus veil'd, I must see below,
When shall that be given which I long for so,
That at last beholding Thy uncovered Face,
Thou wouldst satisfy me with Thy fullest grace?