St. Thomas Aquinas

Godhead here in hiding — the great hymn of Eucharistic adoration.

Aquinas wrote the office for Corpus Christi at the request of Pope Urban IV, and this hymn belongs to it. The greatest intellect of the Middle Ages, writing about the Eucharist, begins by admitting that sight, touch and taste all fail here, and that only hearing — the word of Christ — can be trusted.

In English

Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore,
masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
see, Lord, at Thy service low lies here a heart
lost, all lost in wonder at the God Thou art.

Seeing, touching, tasting are in Thee deceived;
how says trusty hearing? That shall be believed;
what God's Son has told me, take for truth I do;
truth Himself speaks truly or there's nothing true.

On the cross Thy godhead made no sign to men;
here Thy very manhood steals from human ken:
both are my confession, both are my belief,
and I pray the prayer of the dying thief.

I am not like Thomas, wounds I cannot see,
but can plainly call Thee Lord and God as he:
this faith each day deeper be my holding of,
daily make me harder hope and dearer love.

O thou our reminder of Christ crucified,
living Bread the life of us for whom He died,
lend this life to me then: feed and feast my mind,
there be Thou the sweetness man was meant to find.

Jesu whom I look at shrouded here below,
I beseech Thee send me what I thirst for so:
some day to gaze on Thee face to face in light
and be blest for ever with Thy glory's sight. Amen.

In Latin

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 atque 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.

About This Hymn

The English is Gerard Manley Hopkins’ translation, and it is a poem in its own right. The fourth line of the second verse — truth Himself speaks truly or there’s nothing true — is the hinge of the whole hymn: either Christ’s word about the Eucharist stands, or nothing He said can be relied on.