Adoro Te

O hidden Godhead, humbly I adore thee,

Who truly are beneath the forms before me.

To Thee I bow my heart and bend the knee,

As failing quite, when contemplating Thee.

Sight, touch and taste in Thee are each deceived;

The ear alone most safely is believed.

I firmly hold whatev’r God’s Son has spoken,

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

God only on the Cross was hid from view,

But here hides Deity and Manhood too;

And I in both professing firm belief,

Make mine the prayer of the repentant thief.

Thy wounds, as Thomas saw, I do not see,

Yet Thee confess my Lord and God to be.

My faith confirm and childlike trust impart,

And may I love Thee, Lord, with all my heart.

O Blest memorial of our Lord’s own dying;

O Living Bread, to mortals life supplying;

Become indeed the life of my own mind,

So that in Thee I may all sweetness find.

O Pelican, self-wounding on the Rood,

Me, unclean man, yet cleanse with Thy own Blood,

Of which a single drop, for sinners spilt,

Can purge this wicked world of all its guilt.

O Jesus Whom at present veiled I see,

What I so thirst for; do Thou grant to me:

That I may see Thy Blessed Self unfolding,

And may find rest Thy glory in beholding.

Amen.

(St. Thomas Aquinas)