O bone Jesu

Updated on 24/08/2020
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O bone Jesu, illumina oculos meos, ne unquam obdormiam in morte, ne quando dicat inimicus meus, praevalui adversus eum. In manus tuas, domine, commendo spiritum meum. Redemisti me domine, deus veritatis. O messias! Locutus sum in lingua mea: notum fac mihi domine finem meum.
Notes

Text taken from a late Medieval prayer of unknown but surely lay origin consisting of a succession of seven, sometimes eight, verses from different Psalms, commonly called 'Verses of St Bernard'. Usually, the invocation 'O bone Jesu' introduces the first verse, and the Hebrew and Greek names of Christ, as apostrophes, preface the following ones. This version includes Psalms 12: 4-5, 30: 6, and 38: 5, but omits the first apostrophe (which is typically ‘O Adonai’) before the second verse. 

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