Secret Harbour - Portus Secretioris: The Excellent Good

21 April 2011

The Excellent Good

Jesus said, I give unto you a new Commandment, the compendium of all My teachings; that you love one another as I have loved you.

As I lay down My life for you, so also you should love one another unto death. As I love him who betrayed Me, and have prayed for them who brought Me to the Cross, so also you should love your enemies, and do good to them, by lending loving help to all who persecute you, and bring evil upon you.

This new Commandment of love our Lord Jesus taught not only by word, but also by deed. He desired to make known to us that we were His true sons, and that out of His eternal love He bore us in His Bosom, and that from everlasting we had been in Him.

No earthly father had ever embraced us as with such exceeding love as that which He had embraced us. It was that, as a most faithful Father, He left us His most incomparable testament, and bequeathed to us that excellent good, which is nobler and better than heaven and earth, His most sacred Body for food, and for our drink His most precious Blood.

Behold, I am near unto death, for I have turned away from You, the Medicine of my soul, the Bread of Life. My heart has withered within me, so that I am forced to beg my bread upon the earth, that is to say, to go after earthly and temporal consolation, for I have gone away from You, the food and nourishment of heaven.

I now come to You, Father of mercy, the well of loving kindness. With lowly prayer I knock at the door of Your divine grace and mercy, and at Your Fatherly Heart. Hear my prayer! Grant unto me the desire of my heart, fill the hungry one with good things, refresh the thirsty one, quicken my languor, heal my sickness, for You alone can heal me.

~ Johannes Tauler ~

(Latin)
Credo firmiter in Patrem et Filium et Spiritum Sanctum: Patrem ingenitum, Filium unigenitum, Spiritum Sanctum ex utroque procedentem; et has tres Personas unum Deum.

Credo quod idem Dei Filius conceptus sit de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine. Credo quod Virgo castissima fuerat ante partum, virgo in partu, et post partum virgo in æternum permansit. Credo quod idem Dei Filius conceptus sit inter homines ut verus homo sine peccato. Credo quod idem Dei Filius invidiose captus est a Iudæis, injuriose tractatus, injuste ligatus, consputus, flagellatus, mortuus, sepultus. Descendit ad inferos, ut captivos suos inde liberaret. Descendit propter redemptio nem nostram, et resurrexit, ascendit ad cœlos, inde venturus judicare vivos et mortuos.

Credo Sacramenta quæ catholica credit et veneratur Ecclesia, et nominatim quod consecratur in altari verum Corpus esse, veram Carnem et verum Sanguinem Domini nostri Iesu Christi, quem et nos accipimus in remissionem peccatorum nostrorum, in spem salutis æternæ. Credo carnis resurrectionem, vitam æternam.

Confiteor et credo sanctam atque ineffabilem Trinitatem, Patrem et Filium et Spiritum Sanctum, unum Deum naturalem, unius substantiæ, unius naturæ, unius maiestatis atque virtutis. Et Patrem quidem non genitum, non creatum, sed ingenitum profitemur. Ipse Pater a nullo originem ducit, ex quo et Filius nativitatem, et Spiritus Sanctus processionem accepit. Fons ipse igitur et origo est totius Divinitatis. Ipse quoque Pater, essentia quidem ineffabilis, substantia sua Filium genuit ineffabiliter, nec tamen aliud quam quod ipse est genuit, Deus Deum, lux lucem. Ab Ipso ergo est omnis paternitas in cœlo et in terra. Amen.

(English)
I firmly believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: the Father unbegotten, the only begotten Son, the Holy Spirit proceeding from them both; and I believe that these three Persons are but one God.

I believe that the same Son of God was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. I believe that the Virgin was chaste before she bore her Child, that she remained a Virgin while she bore her Child, and continued a Virgin ever after. I believe that the same Son of God was conceived among men, a true Man with no sin. I believe the same Son of God was captured by the hatred of some of the Jews who did not believe, was bound unjustly, covered with spittle, and scourged. I believe that He died, was buried, and descended into hell to free those of His who were held there. He descended for our redemption, He rose again, He ascended into heaven, and from there He will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe also in the sacraments that the Church believes and holds in reverence, and especially that what has been consecrated on the altar is the true Flesh and the true Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we receive for the forgiveness of our sins and in the hope of eternal salvation. I believe in the resurrection of the flesh and everlasting life.

I acknowledge and believe the holy and ineffable Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to be but only one God, of only one substance, of only one nature, of only one majesty and power. We profess that the Father was neither begotten nor created but that He has begotten. The Father takes His origin from no one; of Him the Son is born and the Holy Spirit proceeds. He is the Source and Origin of all Divinity. And the Father, ineffable by His very nature, from His own substance has begotten the Son ineffably; but He has begotten nothing except what He is Himself: God has begotten God, Light has begotten Light, and it is from Him that all Fatherhood in heaven and on earth proceeds. Amen.