Adoro te devote

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.

Thy wounds, as Thomas saw, I do not see; 
Yet Thee confess my Lord and God to be: 
Make me believe Thee ever more and more; 
In Thee my hope, in Thee my love to store. 

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. 

O loving Pelican! O Jesu, Lord! 
Unclean I am, but cleanse me in Thy Blood;
Of which a single drop, for sinners spilt,
Is ransom for a world's entire guilt. 

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. 

(St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. E. Caswall.)


Adoro te devote, latens Deitas, 
Quae sub his figuris vere latitas; 
Tibi se cor meum totum subiicit, 
Quia te contemplans, totum deficit. 

Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur, 
Sed auditu solo tuto creditur; 
Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius, 
Nil hoc verbo veritatis verius. 

In Cruce latebat sola Deitas. 
At hic latet simul et humanitas: 
Ambo tamen credens, atgue confitens, 
Peto quod petivit latro paenitens. 

Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor, 
Deum tamen meum te confiteor: 
Fac me tibi semper magis credere, 
In te spem habere, te diligere. 

O memoriale mortis Domini, 
Panis vivus vitam praestans homini: 
Praesta meae menti de te vivere, 
Et te illi semper dulce sapere. 

Pie pellicane Iesu Domine, 
Me immundum munda tuo Sanguine: 
Cuius una stilla salvum facere 
Totum mundum quit ab omni scelere. 

Iesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio, 
Oro, fiat illud, quod tam sitio, 
Ut te revelata cernens facie, 
Visu sim beatus tuae gloriae. Amen. 

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