Daily Reading for January 28 • Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Theologian, 1274

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 I 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 the 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.

Like what tender tales tell of the Pelican,
Bathe me, Jesus Lord, in what Thy bosom ran
Blood that but one drop of has the pow’r to win
All the world forgiveness of its world of sin.

Jesus, 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 forever with Thy glory’s sight.

Words to the eucharistic hymn Adoro te devote (Godhead here in hiding) by Thomas Aquinas, translated by Gerard Manley Hopkins S.J.