Latin hymn, attributed to St. Francis Xavier. Tr. Edward Caswall (1506–1552)
My God, I love thee: not because
I hope for heaven thereby,
Nor because they who love thee not
Must burn eternally.
Thou, O my Jesus, Thou didst me
Upon the Cross embrace;
For me didst bear the nails and spear,
And manifold disgrace.
And grief and torments numberless,
And sweat of agony;
Yea, death itself; and all for me
Who was thine enemy.
Then why, O Blessed Jesus Christ,
Should I not love thee well?
Not for the hope of winning heaven,
Nor of escaping hell;
Not with the hope of gaining aught,
Not seeking a reward;
But as thyself hast loved me,
O ever-loving Lord!
E’en so I love thee and will love,
And in thy praise will sing,
Solely because thou art my God,
And my eternal King.
My God, I love thee: not because
I hope for heaven thereby,
Nor because they who love thee not
Must burn eternally.
Thou, O my Jesus, Thou didst me
Upon the Cross embrace;
For me didst bear the nails and spear,
And manifold disgrace.
And grief and torments numberless,
And sweat of agony;
Yea, death itself; and all for me
Who was thine enemy.
Then why, O Blessed Jesus Christ,
Should I not love thee well?
Not for the hope of winning heaven,
Nor of escaping hell;
Not with the hope of gaining aught,
Not seeking a reward;
But as thyself hast loved me,
O ever-loving Lord!
E’en so I love thee and will love,
And in thy praise will sing,
Solely because thou art my God,
And my eternal King.
I like the final verse :)
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to lyrics or poems that you make yourself :D
That's my favorite too.
ReplyDeleteI made one in my blog (Morning Kiss and Roses). Please make a mild comment for that, ok? :) That's the first one.
And actually just this morning I composed a song when I was playing with Nindi, unfinished sih and still needed to be finalized later.