Scripture Verse

Yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend. Song of Solomon 5:16

Introduction

portrait
Alfonso M. de’ Liguori (1696–1787)

Words: Al­fon­so M. de’ Li­guo­ri (1696–1787) (O bel­lo Dio, Si­gnor del Pa­ra­di­so). Trans­lat­ed from Ita­li­an to En­glish by Ed­mund Vaugh­an in Hymns and Vers­es on Spi­ri­tu­al Sub­jects: Be­ing the Sac­red Po­et­ry of S. Al­phon­so Ma­ria Li­gu­ori, Trans­lat­ed from the Ita­lian and Ed­it­ed by Ro­bert A[ston] Cof­fin (Lon­don: Burns and Lam­bert, 1863), page 118.

Music: Cru­sa­der’s Hymn Schles­ische Volks­lied­er (Si­le­si­an Folk Songs), 1842 (🔊 pdf nwc). The mu­sic­al score of the 1938 film Boy’s Town (where Spen­cer Tracy won an Aca­de­my Award for his por­tray­al of priest Ed­ward Fla­na­gan) is cen­tered around this tune.

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Vaugh­an (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),

Lyrics

O God of love­li­ness, O Lord of Hea­ven above,
How wor­thy to pos­sess my heart’s de­vot­ed love.
So sweet Thy coun­te­nance,
So gra­cious to be­hold
That one, one on­ly glance to me were bliss un­told.

Thou art blest Three in One, yet un­di­vid­ed still,
Thou art the One alone, whose love my heart can fill.
The heav’ns and earth be­low
Were fa­shioned by Thy Word,
How ami­able art Thou, my ev­er dear­est Lord.

To think Thou art my God—O thought for­ev­er blest!
My heart has ov­er­flowed with joy with­in my breast.
My soul so full of bliss,
Is plunged as in a sea,
Deep in the sweet abyss of ho­ly cha­ri­ty.

O Love­li­ness su­preme, and Beauty in­fi­nite,
O ev­er flow­ing Stream and Ocean of de­light,
O Life by which I live,
My tru­est Life above,
To Thee alone I give my un­di­vid­ed love.