TAKE thought now, redeemed man, and consider how great and worthy is he who hangs on the cross for you. His death brings the dead to life, but at his passing heaven and earth are plunged into mourning and hard rocks are split asunder

Consídera et tu, homo redémpte, quis, quantus et qualis est hic, qui pro te pendet in cruce, cuius mors vivíficat mórtuos, cuiúsque tránsitum et cælum luget et terra, et lápides duri scindúntur.

  It was a divine decree that permitted one of the soldiers to open his sacred side with a lance. This was done so that the Church might be formed from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death on the cross, and so that the Scripture might be fulfilled: ‘They shall look on him whom they pierced’. The blood and water which poured out at that moment were the price of our salvation. Flowing from the secret abyss of our Lord’s heart as from a fountain, this stream gave the sacraments of the Church the power to confer the life of grace, while for those already living in Christ it became a spring of living water welling up to life everlasting.

  Porro ut de látere Christi dormiéntis in cruce formarétur Ecclésia, et Scriptúra implerétur quæ dicit: Vidébunt in quem transfixérunt, divína est ordinatióne indúltum, ut unus mílitum láncea latus sacrum illud aperiéndo perfóderet, quátenus sánguine cum aqua manánte, prétium effunderétur nostræ salútis, quod a fonte, scílicet cordis arcáno, profúsum, vim daret sacraméntis Ecclésiæ ad vitam grátiæ conferéndam, essétque iam in Christo vivéntibus póculum fontis vivisaliéntis in vitam ætérnam.

  Arise, then, beloved of Christ! Imitate the dove ‘that nests in a hole in the cliff’, keeping watch at the entrance ‘like the sparrow that finds a home’. There like the turtledove hide your little ones, the fruit of your chaste love. Press your lips to the fountain, ‘draw water from the wells of your Saviour; for this is the spring flowing out of the middle of paradise, dividing into four rivers’, inundating devout hearts, watering the whole earth and making it fertile.

  Surge ígitur, amíca Christi, esto sicut colúmbanidíficans in summo ore foráminis, ibi ut passer invéniens domum, vigiláre non cesses, ibi tamquam turtur casti amóris pullos abscónde, ibi os appóne, ut háurias aquas de fóntibus Salvatóris. Hic enim estfons egrédiens de médio paradísi, qui in quáttuor divísus cápita et in corda devóta diffúsus, fecúndat et írrigat univérsam terram.

  Run with eager desire to this source of life and light, all you who are vowed to God’s service. Come, whoever you may be, and cry out to him with all the strength of your heart. “O indescribable beauty of the most high God and purest radiance of eternal light! Life that gives all life, light that is the source of every other light, preserving in everlasting splendour the myriad flames that have shone before the throne of your divinity from the dawn of time!

  Ad hunc fontem vitæ et lúminis curre, cum desidério vivo, quæcúmque es, ánima Deo devóta, et cordis íntima vi ad eum clama: «O ineffábilis decor Dei excélsi et puríssima cláritas lucis ætérnæ, vita omnem vitam vivíficans, lux omne lumen illúminans et consérvans in splendóre perpétuo multifórmia lúmina fulgéntia, ante thronum divinitátis tuæ a primǽvo dilúculo!

Eternal and inaccessible fountain, clear and sweet stream flowing from a hidden spring, unseen by mortal eye! None can fathom your depths nor survey your boundaries, none can measure your breadth, nothing can sully your purity.

O ætérnum et inaccessíbile, clarum et dulce proflúvium fontis abscónditi ab óculis ómnium mortálium, cuius profúndum sine fundo, cuius altum sine término, cuius amplitúdo incircumscriptíbilis, et cuius púritas imperturbábilis.

From you flows ‘the river which gladdens the city of God’ and makes us cry out with joy and thanksgiving in hymns of praise to you, for we know by our own experience that ‘with you is the source of life, and in your light we see light’.

  Ex quo flúvius procédit, qui lætíficat civitátem Dei, ut in voce exsultatiónis et confessiónis decantémus tibi cántica laudis, experiéntia teste probántes,quóniam apud te est fons vitæ, et in lúmine tuo vidébimus lumen».