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 in 2002]

Saint Thomas Aquinas, translated by E. Caswall.
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