Devoutly I Adore Thee

Devoutly I Adore Thee

O Godhead hid, devoutly I adore Thee,

Who truly art within the forms before me;

To Thee my heart I bow with bended knee,

As failing quite in contemplating Thee.

Sight, touch, and taste in Thee are each deceived;

The ear alone most safely is believed:

I believe all the Son of God has spoken,

Than Truth’s own word there is no truer token.

God only on the Cross lay hid from view;

But here lies hid at once the Manhood too;

And I, in both professing my belief,

Make the same prayer as the repentant thief.

O thou Memorial of our Lord’s own dying!

O Bread that living art and vivifying!

Make ever Thou my soul on Thee to live;

Ever a taste of Heavenly sweetness give.

Jesu! Whom for the present veil’d I see,

What I so thirst for, O vouchsafe to me:

That I may see Thy countenance unfolding,

And may be blest Thy glory in beholding. Amen.

By Thomas Aquinas

[Christian History originally published this article in Christian History Issue #73.0 in 2002]

Saint Thomas Aquinas, translated by E. Caswall.
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