Psalm 139 (138) DGB, Latin, Greek 'The Hound of Heaven'

 Exercise: compare Douai, Vulgate and Septuagint,
and Ps. 139 and Ps. 104. 

The Hound from Heaven

There can be little doubt that Francis Thompson (1859-1907) was inspired by the words of Psalm 139 when composing The Hound of Heaven. This will be evident from the opening lines:

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;

I fled Him, down the arches of the years;

I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways

Of my own mind; and the mist of tears

I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

Omniscience & Omnipresence  

 

  http://www.bibleinsong.com/Song_Pages/Psalms/Psalm139/Psalm139.htm 

The theme of Ps. 139 is God’s omniscience and omnipresence.  The psalmist recognizes God as present everywhere, One who is not only all-powerful, but also all-knowing, One who has formed man from the womb, and One whose presence man cannot escape.5

Ps.139 Compared to Psalm 104

This Psalm has often been admired for the grandeur of its sentiments, the elevation of its style, as well as the variety and beauty of its imagery. Bishop Lowth, in his 29th Prelection, classes it amongst the Hebrew idyls, as next to the 104th, in respect both to the conduct of the poem, and the beauty of the style. "If it be excelled," says he, "(as perhaps it is) by the former in the plan, disposition, and arrangement of the matter, it is not in the least inferior in the dignity and elegance of its sentiments, images, and figures." "Amongst its other excellencies," says Bishop Mant, "it is for nothing more admirable than for the exquisite skill with which it descants on the perfections of the Deity.

Douay-Rheims Bible You Have Searched Me and Know Me 1Lord, thou hast proved me, and known me: 2thou hast know my sitting down, and my rising up. 3Thou hast understood my thoughts afar off: my path and my line thou hast searched out. 4And thou hast foreseen all my ways: for there is no speech in my tongue. 5Behold, O Lord, thou hast known all things, the last and those of old: thou hast formed me, and hast laid thy hand upon me. 6Thy knowledge is become wonderful to me: it is high, and I cannot reach to it. 7Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy face? 8If I ascend into heaven, thou art there: if I descend into hell, thou art present. 9If I take my wings early in the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea: 10Even there also shall thy hand lead me: and thy right hand shall hold me. 11And I said: Perhaps darkness shall cover me: and night shall be my light in my pleasures. 12But darkness shall not be dark to thee, and night shall be light as day: the darkness thereof, and the light thereof are alike to thee. 13For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast protected me from my mother's womb. 14I will praise thee, for thou art fearfully magnified: wonderful are thy works, and my soul knoweth right well. 15My bone is not hidden from thee, which thou hast made in secret: and my substance in the lower parts of the earth. 16Thy eyes did see my imperfect being, and in thy book all shall be written: days shall be formed, and no one in them. 17But to me thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honourable: their principality is exceedingly strengthened. 18I will number them, and they shall be multiplied above the sand: I rose up and am still with thee. 19If thou wilt kill the wicked, O God: ye men of blood, depart from me: 20Because you say in thought: They shall receive thy cities in vain. 21Have I not hated them, O Lord, that hated thee: and pine away because of thy enemies? 22I have hated them with a perfect hatred: and they are become enemies to me. 23Prove me, O God, and know my heart: examine me, and know my paths. 24And see if there be in me the way of iniquity: and lead me in the eternal way. Douay-Rheims Bible

<< Psalmi 139 >> Psalm 139 Latin: Biblia Sacra Vulgata 1 (138-1) pro victoria David canticum Domine investigasti me et cognovisti 2 (138-2) tu cognovisti sessionem meam et surrectionem meam 3 (138-3) intellexisti malum meum de longe semitam meam et accubitionem meam eventilasti 4 (138-4) et omnes vias meas intellexisti quia non est eloquium in lingua mea 5 (138-5) ecce Domine nosti omnia retrorsum et ante formasti me et posuisti super me manum tuam 6 (138-6) super me est scientia et excelsior est non potero ad eam 7 (138-7) quo ibo ab spiritu tuo et quo a facie tua fugiam 8 (138-8) si ascendero in caelum ibi es tu si iacuero in inferno ades 9 (138-9) si sumpsero pinnas diluculo habitavero in novissimo maris 10 (138-10) etiam ibi manus tua deducet me et tenebit me dextera tua 11 (138-11) si dixero forte tenebrae operient me nox quoque lux erit circa me 12 (138-12) nec tenebrae habent tenebras apud te et nox quasi dies lucet similes sunt tenebrae et lux 13 (138-13) quoniam tu possedisti renes meos orsusque es me in utero matris meae 14 (138-14) confitebor tibi quoniam terribiliter magnificasti me mirabilia opera tua et anima mea novit nimis 15 (138-15) non sunt operta ossa mea a te quibus factus sum in abscondito imaginatus sum in novissimis terrae 16 (138-16) informem adhuc me viderunt oculi tui et in libro tuo omnes scribentur dies formatae sunt et non est una in eis 17 (138-17) mihi autem quam honorabiles facti sunt amici tui Deus quam fortes pauperes eorum 18 (138-18) dinumerabo eos et harena plures erunt evigilavi et adhuc sum tecum 19 (138-19) si occideris Deus impium viri sanguinum declinate a me 20 (138-20) qui contradicent tibi scelerate elati sunt frustra adversarii tui 21 (138-21) nonne odientes te Domine odivi et contra adversarios tuos distabui 22 (138-22) perfecto odio oderam illos inimici facti sunt mihi 23 (138-23) scrutare me Deus et cognosce cor meum proba me et scito cogitationes meas 24 (138-24) et vide si via idoli in me est et deduc me in via aeterna << Psalm 139 >> Latin: Biblia Sacra Vulgata

<< Psalms 139 >> Psalm 139 Greek OT: Septuagint with Diacritics 1εἰς τὸ τέλος ψαλμὸς τῷ δαυιδ κύριε ἐδοκίμασάς με καὶ ἔγνως με 2σὺ ἔγνως τὴν καθέδραν μου καὶ τὴν ἔγερσίν μου σὺ συνῆκας τοὺς διαλογισμούς μου ἀπὸ μακρόθεν 3τὴν τρίβον μου καὶ τὴν σχοῖνόν μου σὺ ἐξιχνίασας καὶ πάσας τὰς ὁδούς μου προεῖδες 4ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν λόγος ἐν γλώσσῃ μου 5ἰδού κύριε σὺ ἔγνως πάντα τὰ ἔσχατα καὶ τὰ ἀρχαῖα σὺ ἔπλασάς με καὶ ἔθηκας ἐπ' ἐμὲ τὴν χεῖρά σου 6ἐθαυμαστώθη ἡ γνῶσίς σου ἐξ ἐμοῦ ἐκραταιώθη οὐ μὴ δύνωμαι πρὸς αὐτήν 7ποῦ πορευθῶ ἀπὸ τοῦ πνεύματός σου καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ προσώπου σου ποῦ φύγω 8ἐὰν ἀναβῶ εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν σὺ εἶ ἐκεῖ ἐὰν καταβῶ εἰς τὸν ᾅδην πάρει 9ἐὰν ἀναλάβοιμι τὰς πτέρυγάς μου κατ' ὄρθρον καὶ κατασκηνώσω εἰς τὰ ἔσχατα τῆς θαλάσσης 10καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖ ἡ χείρ σου ὁδηγήσει με καὶ καθέξει με ἡ δεξιά σου 11καὶ εἶπα ἄρα σκότος καταπατήσει με καὶ νὺξ φωτισμὸς ἐν τῇ τρυφῇ μου 12ὅτι σκότος οὐ σκοτισθήσεται ἀπὸ σοῦ καὶ νὺξ ὡς ἡμέρα φωτισθήσεται ὡς τὸ σκότος αὐτῆς οὕτως καὶ τὸ φῶς αὐτῆς 13ὅτι σὺ ἐκτήσω τοὺς νεφρούς μου κύριε ἀντελάβου μου ἐκ γαστρὸς μητρός μου 14ἐξομολογήσομαί σοι ὅτι φοβερῶς ἐθαυμαστώθην θαυμάσια τὰ ἔργα σου καὶ ἡ ψυχή μου γινώσκει σφόδρα 15οὐκ ἐκρύβη τὸ ὀστοῦν μου ἀπὸ σοῦ ὃ ἐποίησας ἐν κρυφῇ καὶ ἡ ὑπόστασίς μου ἐν τοῖς κατωτάτοις τῆς γῆς 16τὸ ἀκατέργαστόν μου εἴδοσαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί σου καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ βιβλίον σου πάντες γραφήσονται ἡμέρας πλασθήσονται καὶ οὐθεὶς ἐν αὐτοῖς 17ἐμοὶ δὲ λίαν ἐτιμήθησαν οἱ φίλοι σου ὁ θεός λίαν ἐκραταιώθησαν αἱ ἀρχαὶ αὐτῶν 18ἐξαριθμήσομαι αὐτούς καὶ ὑπὲρ ἄμμον πληθυνθήσονται ἐξηγέρθην καὶ ἔτι εἰμὶ μετὰ σοῦ 19ἐὰν ἀποκτείνῃς ἁμαρτωλούς ὁ θεός ἄνδρες αἱμάτων ἐκκλίνατε ἀπ' ἐμοῦ 20ὅτι ἐρεῖς εἰς διαλογισμόν λήμψονται εἰς ματαιότητα τὰς πόλεις σου 21οὐχὶ τοὺς μισοῦντάς σε κύριε ἐμίσησα καὶ ἐπὶ τοῖς ἐχθροῖς σου ἐξετηκόμην 22τέλειον μῖσος ἐμίσουν αὐτούς εἰς ἐχθροὺς ἐγένοντό μοι 23δοκίμασόν με ὁ θεός καὶ γνῶθι τὴν καρδίαν μου ἔτασόν με καὶ γνῶθι τὰς τρίβους μου 24καὶ ἰδὲ εἰ ὁδὸς ἀνομίας ἐν ἐμοί καὶ ὁδήγησόν με ἐν ὁδῷ αἰωνίᾳ << Psalm 139 >>

The Hound of Heaven, Gelineau Ps 138. The Soul's Desire (Anon. 11c.)

Gelineau Psalm 138 (139)

The Hound of Heaven

1 O Lord, you search me and you know me,

2 you know my resting and my rising,

you discern my purpose from afar .

3 You mark when I walk or lie down,

all my ways lie open to you.

4 Before ever a word is on my tongue
you know it, O Lord, through and through.

3 Behind and before you besiege me,
your hand ever laid upon me.
6 Too wonderful for me, this knowledge,
too high, beyond my reach.

7 O where can I go from your spirit,
or where can I flee from your face?

8 If I climb the heavens, you are there.
If I lie in the grave, you are there.

9 If I take the wings of the dawn
and dwell at the sea's furthest end,

10 even there your hand would lead me,
your right hand would hold me fast.

11 If I say: "Let the darkness hide me
and the light around me be night,"

12 even darkness is not dark for you
and the night is as clear as the day.

13 For it was you who created my being,
knit me together in my mother's womb.

14 I thank you for the wonder of my being,
for the wonders of all your creation.

Already you knew my soul,
15 my body held no secret from you
when I was being fashioned in secret
and moulded in the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw all my actions,
they were all of them written in your book;
every one of my days was decreed
before one of them came into being.

17 To me, how mysterious your thoughts,
the sum of them not to be numbered!

I8 If I count them, they are more than the sand; 
to finish, I must be eternal, like you.

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Ballykanill Harbour, Connermara  

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The Soul's Desire

www.rc.net/wcc/ireland/early12.htm‎

 It were my soul's desire. To see the face of God; It were my soul's desire. 

To rest in His abode. It were my soul's desire. To study zealously; This, too, my soul's  ...

The Soul's Desire 

Anonymous verse from the 11th century (translated by Eleanor Hull)    

It were my soul's desire To see the face of God; It were my soul's desire To rest in His abode. It were my soul's desire To study zealously; This, too, my soul's desire, A clear rule set for me. It were my soul's desire A spirit free from gloom; It were my soul's desire New life beyond the Doom. It were my soul's desire To shun the chills of Hell; Yet more my soul's desire Within His house to dwell. It were my soul's desire To imitate my King, It were my soul's desire His ceaseless praise to sing. It were my soul's desire When heaven's gate is won To find my soul's desire Clear shining like the sun. Grant, Lord, my soul's desire, Deep waves of cleansing sighs; Grant, Lord, my soul's desire From earthly cares to rise. This still my soul's desire Whatever life afford -- To gain my soul's desire And see Thy face, O Lord.

13 November 1948 HE AND i, Gabrielle

HE AND I

1948

November 13  -  "You are all so ignorant of the power of your God. Are you afraid to know Him, you who seek Him so little. And yet the joy of your souls lies in constant communion with your Creator and Saviour in the Christ - consciousness. 

Path in search God

Abandon yourselves to God no matter what He does. Let His breath blow you along, fanned by your fervour. Come to Him eagerly, My child, since He has the answers to all your needs: of tenderness, rest and intelligence. Your thoughts are short, but at least prolong your desires so that you can reach a higher plane  -  the new heights where the Spirit is waiting for you to help you to climb even higher. 

And season everything with joy. It adds to God's glory. Would the father of a family be happy if his children came to serve him in fear, with long faces? When you approach Me, My little girl, be full of joy like a happy child. You are thinking, 'He's always asking me for inward smiles. ' Could you believe that even though I am God I need the smiles of My children, because your happiness is essential to Me? Who can comprehend this? Who can even bear such a thought? But believe. For it is My love that speaks, and you must listen to My voice in a way that you listen to no other. "

All Saints of the Order 13 November

Fr. Wilfrid Tunink, Vision of Peace, a study of monastic life.

SAN Nov 13

Monastic Saints-5

A Reading about the Monk's Love for Christ from a Book by Fr. Wilfrid Tunink*

A STORY told of St. Benedict illustrates the place of Christ in the life of the monk. St. Benedict, at Monte Cassino, sent the following message to a hermit ·who had bound himself by a chain to his cave. "If you are a servant of God, do not bind yourself by an iron chain, but by the love of Christ,"

The love of Christ is a chain that holds the monk's heart captive in the pursuit of. monastic perfection, lasting purity of heart. In this sense Christ is Himself the spirit of St. Benedict and of Benedictine life. The Benedictine monastic way of life is founded on Christ as on its foundation, and ends in Him as its completion and fulfilment. The life and love of Christ are the monk's sole desire and ambition. The reign of Christ in his heart is his aim and goal, the key to a successful and holy monastic life. To establish the sovereign rule of Christ's love in his heart is his daily hope, in order to solidify his monastic vocation, to safeguard and strengthen his monastic spirit, and to encourage him in striving for perfect charity. To establish this sovereign reign of Christ's love is the aim of the Abbot's teaching and direc­tion, the goal of all the labors of the novice master, procurator, and all the officials in the execution of their duties and responsibilities. Many a reason is strong enough to bring a man to the monastery; but only a supreme love for Christ, which begets a preference for Christ over everything else, can keep the monk ceaselessly engaged in the pursuit of his goal through the proper and wise use of all the necessary means. No chain of iron, only the chain of Christ’s love, can keep a monk stab le in the monastery, zealously working at the reformation of his life. Supreme love for Christ is the divine alchemy which, through the s low process of the common life, changes a man in to the true Benedictine monk.

But the monk cannot love Christ supremely unless in the darkness of faith he sees Christ alive in and identified with the members of the monastic community. For the monastic community is the Church, head and body, vine arid branches. The monastic community is Christ, the total Christ, Head and members. Christ lives on in the monastic family, and the supreme joy of the monk who loves Christ with a sovereign love is to know that by faith he can see, and touch, and reverence, and adore the object of his love in each and every one of his confreres. The Christ whom the monk loves sovereignly is indeed in glory; but that Christ lives on in and therefore is identified with His members on earth. Hence the sacrificial love which the monk wants to pour out on Christ's own person, he pours out on Christ's members. The monk finds his sovereign Lord as present not merely in heaven; the same faith which brings him in contact with the glorified Christ at the right hand of the Father places him in contact with Him present in his monastic confreres. Christ is not far from the monk. Christ is near at hand, very near at hand, for He is in the entire community and each member of it, and Him the monk loves all the affection of his heart. Thus by faith the monk penetrates the “mystery of Christ,” the secret, “kept hidden from the beginning. of .the time in the all-creating mind of God" but “now revealed by the spirit to his holy apostles and prophets, “–a secret which is essentially “Christ among, your hope of glory.” Christ in the Church of the monastic family is the monk’s hope of eternal glory.

* Vision of Peace" New York 1963, 81- 82.

In Festo

Omnium Sanctorum Ordinis.
Breviarium Cisterciense

Reformatum 1951

Cistercian Monks and Nuns
Who Appear in the Ordo

http://www.newmelleray.org/saints.asp

Friday, January 10, 2012
St. William of Bourges, Bishop of Our Order

William de Don Jeon was born at Nevers France. He was educated by his uncle Peter, archdeacon of Soissons, became a canon of Soissons and of Paris and then became a monk at Grandmont Abbey. He became a Cistercian at Pontigny, served as Abbot at Fontaine-Jean in Sens, and in 1187 became Abbot at Chalis near Senlis. He was named Archbishop of Bourges in 1200, accepted on the order of Pope Innocent III and his Cistercian superior, lived a life of great austerity, was in great demand as a confessor, aided the poor of his See, defended ecclesiastical rights against seculars, even the king, and converted many Albigensians during his missions to them. He died at Bourges on January 10, and was canonized in 1218 by Pope Honorius III. His feast day is January 10th.

Taken from http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=588

Sunday, January 12, 2012
St. Aelred, Abbot of Our Order

Born in Hexham, he was educated there and in Durham. As a young man, he lived at the Scottish court. He entered Rievaulx in 1134, became novice master, then first abbot of Revesby. In 1147 he was elected abbot of Rievaulx, which post he maintained, in spite of increasing ill-health, until his death. His writings include The Mirror of Charity, On Spiritual Friendship, Rule for a Recluse, Jesus at the Age of Twelve, Pastoral Prayer. His was a radiant and sympathetic personality, unique among the writers and abbots of that age. Highly gifted, strong both to do and to suffer, he was an abbot whose wisdom appeared primarily in his personal love and sympathy and his wise direction of souls. As his disciple and biographer Walter Daniel could say: "He who loved us all was deeply loved by us in return, and counted this the greatest of all his blessings." His last words were, "Festinate, for crist luve." Walter Daniel explains: "He spoke the Lord`s name in English, since he found it easier to utter, and in some way sweeter to hear in the language of his birth."

Taken from http://liamdevlin.tripod.com/nunraw/menjan.htm

Sunday, January 26, 2012
Our Holy Fathers St. Robert, St. Alberic and St. Stephen, Founders of the Cistercian Order

St Alberic

Nothing is known of his origins or early life. According to the Exordium Parvum he was "a man of letters, well versed in divine and human science." He became a disciple of St Robert, first at Colan and later at Molesme, where he was prior. He was a prime mover in the desire for reform which led to the foundation of Citeaux. There he was again prior, and shortly after Robert`s return to Molesme, was elected second abbot. It fell to Alberic to effect the consolidation of the New Monastery, both materially and morally. One of his first moves was to obtain a bull of papal protection for Citeaux from Pope Paschal II. Finding the original site unsuitable, he moved the location of the monastery a short distance away, and saw to the construction of the permanent buildings. He was probably responsible for the first "Institutes" of Citeaux. He died after ten years in office.

Taken from http://liamdevlin.tripod.com/nunraw/menjan.htm

St Robert of Molesme

Of noble parentage, in his early youth he entered the Benedictine abbey of Montier-la-Celle near Troyes, and sometime after 1053 became their abbot. During the following years he took part in several cenobitic and eremetical experiments, and in 1075 founded Molesme in the diocese of Langres. This community prospered and became one of the more successful reform abbeys of the late 11th century, dedicated to Robert`s ideals of the ascetic standards of the desert practised within a monastic framework. However, its very success and expansion made it difficult for the small group of founders to maintain their control, and it gradually became more and more like the neighboring Cluniac abbeys.

In 1097 Robert and some of his monks, among them Alberic and Stephen, obtained permission from Hugh, the papal legate, to make a new foundation and early in 1098 they set out for Citeaux. However, the monks of Molesme appealed to the Pope for Robert to return as their abbot, which he did, obediently if reluctantly, and he governed that house until his death.

Taken from http://liamdevlin.tripod.com/nunraw/menapril.htm

St Stephen Harding

St Stephen was born to noble Anglo-Saxon parents about 1060 and as a youth he spent some time in the Benedictine Abbey of Sherborne in Dorsetshire. At the Norman conquest he had to flee to Scotland and then to France where he completed his studies in Paris. With a fellow-refugee from England, Peter, he undertook a pilgrimage to Rome and there he became assured of his monastic vocation. On their return to France, they both entered Molesme and from there went to Citeaux in 1098.

On St Alberic`s death in 1109, the monks elected Stephen to succeed him. During his abbacy of twenty-five years, due in large part to his creative genius as organizer and legislator, Citeaux grew from a single reformed community to what was in effect the first "Order" in monastic history, held together by a firm legal framework and in the process of unprecedented expansion. His scholarly bent and his zeal for authencity led him to search for the true Ambrosian hymn texts and melodies, and to undertake the restoration of the Vulgate of St Jerome. He fostered the simplified liturgy and architecture which were to characterize the Cistercians. His concern for the unity of all Cistercian houses gave rise to the Charter of Charity, with its admirable balance between central authority and local autonomy. Not the least of his accomplishments was the spiritual formation of St Bernard, whom he received as a novice in 1113. In 1133, St Stephen resigned his office and in the following year he died at Citeaux in great peace and joy.

Taken from http://liamdevlin.tripod.com/nunraw/menmarch.htm