Adorote Devote

English

Latin

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

Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur,
Sed auditu solo tuto créditur.
Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius,
Nil hoc verbo Veritatis vérius.

In cruce latébat sola Déitas,
At hic latet simul et humanitas.
Ambo tamen crédens atque confitens;
Peto quod petivit latro paénitens.

Plagas sicut Thomas, non intueor;
Deum tamen meum te confiteor.
Fac me tibi semper magis crédere,
In te spem habére, te diligere.

O memoriale mortis Domini!
Panis vivus vitam praéstans 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 scélere.

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

English I

How devoutly I adore you, my hidden God!
For truly you are hidden under these outward forms.
My heart, which entirely gives way in pondering you,
gives itself entirely away to you.
Seeing, touching, tasting—with you, they fail of their mark.
Only hearing may safely be relied upon.
The Son of God has said it, therefore, I trust it.
What can be truer than the Word of Truth itself?
On the cross only your divinity was hidden.
Here, your humanity is hidden too.
Nonetheless, relying upon both and openly affirming them,
I make the very same request as that dying thief.
Thomas saw wounds: I see none.
And yet like him I confess you to be “my God.”
Make me then ever to grow in faith in you,
in hope of you, in love for you.
What sort of marvelous memorial this is,
of the death of the Lord! – bread which is alive,
giving life to man! Give to my mind then the gift of living upon you.
Give it the gift of always sweetly savoring you.
My dear pelican, Jesus, my Lord!
Cleanse me, uncleansed, with your blood --
which holds in a tiny drop more than enough power
to cleanse the entire world of all its sin.
Jesus, whom I gaze upon now though hidden—
bring to pass what I so long for!
I want to see your face!
Make me happy forever with a glimpse of your glory!
Amen.

English II

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 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 living bread, to mortals life supplying!
Make thou my soul henceforth on thee to live;
Ever a taste of heavenly sweetness give.

O loving Pelican! O Jesus Lord!
Unclean I am, but cleanse me in thy blood:
Of which a single drop, for sinners spilt,
Can purge the entire world from all its guilt.

Jesus, whom for the present veiled I see,
What I so thirst for, do vouchsafe to me:
That I may see thy countenance unfolding,
And may be blest thy glory in beholding. Amen.