It was twice a week at the elementary school I attended for a few years, and occasionally in high school—though almost daily by senior year. In college, it was more spotty but I made a special effort during Lent. By graduate school it was daily and, of course, that has continued as a Dominican. All told, when you add all these weekday Masses to Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, I’d guess I’ve been present for the coming of the Incarnate Lord under the species of bread and wine almost six thousand times. I’d like to say that I was caught up in contemplation of the “source and summit of the Christian life” each time, but that is patently absurd. Honestly, I’d settle for claiming I was simply paying attention most of those times; I probably can’t even do that.
Too often the memorial acclamation was not a culmination of devotion following that glorious transformation, but rather a slap in the face snapping me out of some banal distraction. Over the years, I developed habits and cultivated devotions to help stay attentive and prayerful during the Eucharistic Prayer, but I can’t say they have worked perfectly.
I think this struggle is what made the discussion of the Adoro Te Devote by Fr. Paul Murray, O.P., in his book Aquinas at Prayer, so inspiring. In his comments on the prayer, he references recent scholarship that clarifies the place the poem might have had in Aquinas’ own prayer life. First and foremost, there is the recognition that William of Tocco included the full text of the prayer in later editions of his biography of St. Thomas (the first biography of the Common Doctor), strengthening the traditional attribution of the prayer to Aquinas. Further, Murray points out that, despite our experience of the prayer as a liturgical hymn, no evidence of a musical setting for it exists before the seventeenth century. It seems that the Adoro Te Devote was originally a simple private prayer. Some have even argued that it was composed by Aquinas as a personal devotion that he used when attending a second daily Mass where he was not celebrating. It was composed to draw his attention to the great mystery that he was witnessing and to spur his love and devotion as the celebrant silently continued the Canon of the Mass.
This context makes even more poignant some of the unique characteristics of the prayer, even in comparison to other prayers of Aquinas. While his Eucharistic hymns are beautiful reflections about the Blessed Sacrament, the Adoro Te Devote is addressed directly to Christ, present in the Eucharist. This inspires a beautiful image of Thomas devotedly beginning to whisper this poem as the celebrant elevates the newly consecrated host, continuing to call out most personally to “You,” to Christ himself present before him, body, blood, soul, and divinity.
And what exactly does he say to his Savior and his God? The first half of the poem expresses the great devotion and love that Aquinas has for Christ who he knows, by faith, to be present before him. In the second, he turns to beg his present Savior for an increase of that faith, hope, and love which give him the confidence to address his Lord in the first place and for that final gift of living permanently in the presence of Christ in the Beatific Vision.
By pointing out these insights into the Adoro Te Devote I do not mean to implicate St. Thomas in my own personal struggles during Mass, but to draw attention to one more way that Aquinas displays deep insight into human nature. That great mystery of the Eucharist seems mundane if we simply leave it to our senses. Since it is only by faith that we can recognize our Lord in the Eucharist, it is essential to both affirm that faith in that great moment and take advantage of the precious time we have with him to beg for an increase in the gifts that make that faith possible.
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Latin critical text from Robert Wielockx. English translation by Paul Murray, O.P.
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Image: Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P., Adoro Te devote (Used with permission)
