17 Monday Evening
JESU, DULCIS MEMORIA
Generally, and there seems little reason to doubt correctly, ascribed to Bernard of Clairvaux. Born in 1091 at his father’s castle near Dijon in Burgundy; died, 1153. The monk of Citeaux, the first Abbot of Clairvaux, the Papal controversialist and the preacher of the Second Crusade, is better known in our day as the author of a hymn regarded by many as the sweetest and most Evangelical in mediæval hymnody. The poem from which the hymn is taken consists of nearly fifty quatrains on the name of Jesus, known as the Joyful Rhythm of St. Bernard. In the Roman Breviary three hymns are taken from the Rhythm, Jesu dulcis memoria, Jesu Rex Admirabilis, and Jesu decus angelicum.
I
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18III
IV
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19VII
VIII
| O Jesus, when I think of Thee, True gladness fills my heart; But joy unspeakable ’twill be To see Thee as Thou art. | | O blessed name! No note more sweet, No music so divine; Its charms the dearest fancies greet That with my memory twine. | | To those who come with sin confessed, Thy name their hope inspires; And every needy soul is blessed, And granted all desires. | | To those who seek, ah! Thou art found Far more than all desire— A living fount whose streams abound, A flame of heavenly fire. | | What tongue can e’er the charm express? What words its beauty show? For Thy dear name’s sweet loveliness No heart can ever know. | | Who only taste the heavenly bread, They hunger for the feast; Who drink of Christ, the Fountainhead, But find their thirst increase. | | O Jesus, to my fainting heart When wilt Thou come to speak? O, when to me Thy bliss impart, And more than I can seek? | | O I will feed and hunger still, O I will drink and pine Till Thou my famished spirit fill With that blest name of Thine. | |