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| St Bonaventure Receiving the Banner of St Sepulchre from the Madonna, by Francesco Solimena (1710). The Cathedral of San Paolo in Aversa, Italy. Public domain. |
I offer this annotated presentation of St Bonaventure’s Psalter as a small gift to our gentle Queen and Mother in gratitude for her many graces and favours, praying for her continued help and protection for the author and his family.
This presentation of St Bonaventure’s Marian Psalms will include: an English translation based upon that of Sr Mary Emmanuel O.S.B. in the 1932 edition published by Herder; the Latin text as published in the Psalterium B. Virginis Mariæ of 1679; the text of the Douay-Rheims Psalms; with footnotes and occasional notes translated from Fillion’s Bible (1900 edition).
Reminder: I began posting an annotated and illustrated version of St Bonaventure's Life of St Francis on the 4th October (his feast day) this year, the 800th anniversary of his death in 1226. To read these posts, please click on our sister blog:
Psalm 72
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| “Stand for me in the day of judgment.” Assumption of the Virgin, by Titian (1516-18). Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice. Public domain (Wiki). |
2. For she is our comfort[3]: she is the most excellent of help to those in difficulties.
3. The enemy hath overspread my soul with darkness[4]: O Lady, make light arise within me[5].
4. Let the wrath of God be turned away from me by thee[6]: placate him by thy merits and thy prayers.
5. Stand for me in the day of judgment: in His presence take up my cause, and be my advocate[7].
Glory be to the Father etc.
1.Quam bonus Isræl Deus: his qui colunt matrem suam, et venerantur!
2. Ipsa est enim solatium nostrum: in laboribus subventio optima.
3. Obtexit caligine animam meam hostis: in visceribus meis, Domina, lumen fac oriri.
4. Avertatur a me ira Dei per te: placa eum meritis et precibus tuis.
5. In judicio pro me assiste: coram eo suscipe causam meam, et mea sis advocata.
Gloria Patri, etc.
Footnotes
[1] Cf. “How good is God to Israel, to them that are of a right heart!”: Davidic Ps. LXXII, 1.
[2] On venerating the Mother of God: see: “. . . latria is due to God alone, it is not due to a creature so far as we venerate a creature for its own sake. . . Since, therefore, the Blessed Virgin is a mere rational creature, the worship of latria is not due to her, but only that of dulia: but in a higher degree than to other creatures, inasmuch as she is the Mother of God. For this reason we say that not any kind of dulia is due to her, but hyperdulia.” Aquinas: ST III, Q. 25, A.5.
[3] Cf. “per adversa iuge solatium largiaris / through adversities grant unfailing consolation”: From the hymn Flos Carmeli, said to have been composed by St Simon Stock (c. 1165-1265).
[4] Cf. “For the enemy hath persecuted my soul: he hath brought down my life to the earth. He hath made me to dwell in darkness as those that have been dead of old”: Ps. CXLII, 3.
[5] Cf. “For . . . being compared with the light, she is found before it.” Wisdom vii, 26 & 29.
[6] Cf. “I will give thanks to thee, O Lord, for thou wast angry with me: thy wrath is turned away, and thou hast comforted me”: Is. xii, 1.
[7] Cf. “Turn then, most gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us. And after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” From the Salve Regina, attributed to Herman Contractus (1013-1054).
Davidic Psalm LXXII
1 A psalm for Asaph. How good is God to Israel, to them that are of a right heart! 2 But my feet were almost moved; my steps had well nigh slipped. 3 Because I had a zeal on occasion of the wicked, seeing the prosperity of sinners. 4 For there is no regard to their death, nor is there strength in their stripes. 5 They are not in the labour of men: neither shall they be scourged like other men. 6 Therefore pride hath held them fast: they are covered with their iniquity and their wickedness. 7 Their iniquity hath come forth, as it were from fatness: they have passed into the affection of the heart. 8 They have thought and spoken wickedness: they have spoken iniquity on high. 9 They have set their mouth against heaven: and their tongue hath passed through the earth. 10 Therefore will my people return here and full days shall be found in them. 11 And they said: How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High? 12 Behold these are sinners; and yet abounding in the world they have obtained riches. 13 And I said: Then have I in vain justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent. 14 And I have been scourged all the day; and my chastisement hath been in the mornings.
15 If I said: I will speak thus; behold I should condemn the generation of thy children. 16 I studied that I might know this thing, it is a labour in my sight: 17 Until I go into the sanctuary of God, and understand concerning their last ends. 18 But indeed for deceits thou hast put it to them: when they were lifted up thou hast cast them down. 19 How are they brought to desolation? they have suddenly ceased to be: they have perished by reason of their iniquity. 20 As the dream of them that awake, O Lord; so in thy city thou shalt bring their image to nothing. 21 For my heart hath been inflamed, and my reins have been changed: 22 And I am brought to nothing, and I knew not. 23 I am become as a beast before thee: and I am always with thee. 24 Thou hast held me by my right hand; and by thy will thou hast conducted me, and with thy glory thou hast received me. 25 For what have I in heaven? and besides thee what do I desire upon earth? 26 For thee my flesh and my heart hath fainted away: thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion for ever. 27 For behold they that go far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that are disloyal to thee. 28 But it is good for me to adhere to my God, to put my hope in the Lord God: That I may declare all thy praises, in the gates of the daughter of Sion.
Notes
1: A psalm for Asaph. A celebrated Levite who was contemporary with David and was one of the three principal directors of music in the Temple. See Ps. XLIX, 1.
We find in this psalm a treatment of the great problem already covered in Psalms XXXVI and XLVIII: how to reconcile the happiness of the wicked with the justice and goodness of God? Asaph, aiming for his part to justify Providence, considers the problem in a more subjective manner ; he describes his own feelings and previous failings on the point in question. His answer is no less complete thann that given in Psalm XLVIII, in terms of the great consolation derived by the just amidst the trials of this life in contemplating the perspective of a blessed eternity. His conclusion is even more holy and more sweet, as he plunges more deeply into the divine love which helps him to bear with everything joyfully.
Structure: the psalm may be divided into two equal parts:
1. The doubts and temptations aroused in the poet’s soul at the sight of the temporal prosperity enjoyed by the wicked : verses 1-14;
2. The solution to this difficulty, or the explanation of the prosperity enjoyed by the wicked and the consolation of the just: verses 15-28.
1: “them that are of a right heart!” Cf. “Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.” Matt. v, 8.
2: The metaphor here describes very well the power of the temptation arising from the sight of wicked men’s happiness.
7: “as it were from fatness”: their iniquity arises from their sensual and corrupt hearts.
27-8: To distance oneself from God leads to ruin; to dwell united with him leads to true happiness.
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SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.
The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting. Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) xxiv. 30-31.30-31.
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