Anima Christi and Commentary

Anima Christi, sanctifica me.
Corpus Christi, salva me.
Sanguis Christi, inebria me.
Aqua lateris Christi, lava me.
Passio Christi, conforta me.
O bone Jesu, exaudi me.
Intra tua vulnera absconde me.
Ne permittas me separari a te.
Ab hoste maligno defende me.
In hora mortis meae voca me.
Et iube me venire ad te,
Ut cum Sanctis tuis laudem te.
In saecula saeculorum. Amen

Soul of Christ, sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me.
Passion of Christ, strengthen me.
O good Jesus, hear me.
Within Thy wounds hide me.
Suffer me not to be separated from Thee.
From the malignant enemy, defend me.
In the hour of my death, call me.
And bid me come to Thee.
That with Thy saints I may praise Thee
Forever and ever. Amen

This ancient prayer has long been one of my favorite devotional poems, and while its author is unknown it appears in various documents around the end of the fourteenth century. You will notice just by casual observation that the original Latin form has both a poetic form and rhythm not captured by the English translation, yet the English translation carries well enough the power and inspiration of the original prayer.

Soul of Christ, save me. Anima Christi, sanctifica me. Do you think in terms of Christ Jesus having a soul? Of course He does, we’re just not very analytical when we think of Him. The soul is the interior core of our nature that responds to God, even as Christ Jesus responded to his Father and exulted in the Holy Spirit. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 A.D. confesses that Jesus Christ is “at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body.” He is God through and through, and man through and through, He is truly God and He is truly man, and He has a reasonable soul and a body. If He didn’t He wouldn’t truly be man. When we pray “Soul of Christ, save me,” we are acknowledging that His suffering on our behalf was not just a suffering of the exterior body, but an agony and dying of the inner man. What an awesome thing He has done for us in giving Himself, soul, blood and body, that we might be reconciled to God.

Body of Christ, save me. Corpus Christi, salva me. We are now on more familiar terms. The body is a precious thing to us. I mean our own bodies, and when we suffer in the body it affects not only the physical realm but also the interior person. He gave His body to be nailed to the tree. A late medieval poem, the Holy Rood, is written as a memoir of the Cross itself as it recalls the horrifying events:

I saw the Lord of the world
Boldly rushing to climb upon me
And I could neither bend, nor break
The word of God. I saw the ground
Trembling. I could have crushed them all,
And yet I kept myself erect.
The young Hero God/
Himself, threw off his garments,
Determined and brave. Proud/
in the sight of men He mounted
The meanest gallows, to make/
men’s souls eternally free.
I trembled as His arms went round me./
And still I could not bend,
Crash to earth, but had/
to bear the body of God.

What is captured here is the utter willingness of Jesus Christ the Hero God to die for you and for me. O, how He loves us so.

Blood of Christ, inebriate me. Sanguis Christi, inebria me. Christ Jesus says to those who would follow him, “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him”(John 6:56). Many of his earlier followers said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” (John 6:60b). But what Jesus is referring to is that deep koinonia, fellowship, intense intimacy between Himself and those who love him and are one with Him. “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (I Corinthians 10:16-17). That is why it is such a grievous thing to break the unity of the body of Christ. John, the beloved disciple testifies, “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). There is in this loving union with the Father and the Son an intense intimacy, and intoxication of love priceless beyond all measure. Drink deeply and be intoxicated with the love of Him who died for you.

Water from the side of Christ, wash me. Aqua lateris Christi, lava me. It was embarrassing for Peter and perhaps for some of the other Apostles to have Jesus lay aside His outer garments, take a towel and tie it around his waste, and begin to wash his disciples feet and dry them with the towel. Peter cries out, “You shall never wash my feet” (John 13:8). Jesus responds, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Surrender yourself and stand under the cleansing stream water and of blood that flows copiously down from the side of the crucified Lover of your soul. Humble yourself. Be cleansed. But not all whose feet are washed are automatically cleansed. To be washed by the water from the side of Christ is to be truly penitent, surrendered, and aware of both who you are, and Who He is. It is the Lord God Jesus Christ who seeks to wash you.

Passion of Christ, strengthen me. Passio Christi, conforta me. Let the testimony of St. Paul be your testimony, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live . It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. By faith we acknowledge that we have been crucified with Christ and our life is hid with him in God (Colossians 3:3). Only in the strength of that can we take seriously to heart the exhortation of James, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2). I have discovered the fundamental spiritual truth, that I am shut in so that I cannot escape, that I am a man who has no strength, and that I am helpless. Initially no-one really wants to go there, but lay your hands to the wood and be one with Him. After you have died once, or twice, or a dozen times or more, you will discover what a relief it is not to have to control everything. Carry the yoke with him, His yoke is easy. His burden is light. That is when you will say with the Psalmist, “On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased” (Psalm 138:3). Strength is given only to the surrendered heart.

O good Jesus, hear me. O bone Jesu, exaudi me. The petition is warm and personal. This Christ who surrenders His soul, whose Body was broken, whose Blood was shed, is after all my Jesus. My friend and my familiar companion. He has sworn His love to me, and I trust His words, “whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37). He who died for me is alive, He has taken His place at the right hand of the Father and through the gracious ministry of the Holy Spirit, He is with me always. I am not berift or alone. He is the Vine, and I am a branch. O good Jesus, none is good but God alone, and You are my God. I know that You hear me!

Within Thy wounds hide me. Intra tua vulnera absconde me. Why should we pray to be hidden within the wounds of Jesus the Christ? There are three reasons that immediately come to mind; and the first is perhaps the most important. It is the heart’s desire of the lover of God to see His face, indeed we are commanded to do so. “You have said, "Seek my face." My heart says to you, "Your face, LORD, do I seek." But like Moses we are faced with a very real obstacle. Moses says to the Lord, “Please show me your glory,” the Lord replies, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” But, "behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen" (Exodus 33:18-23). We have lost the sense of reverent awe before the Sovereign and Holy God. The simple truth is, that in our flesh, we cannot see God, save for being hidden in the cleft of the Rock. That leads to the second reason; we desire to be hidden in the wounds of Christ Jesus that our sins may be covered, indeed for that purpose he died so that we may be forgiven and reconciled to the Father of Lights. The third reason has to do with a very simple safety factor. There is an enemy that pursues our souls (Psalm 143:3) who seeks our very life. He is a liar and a murderer and desires nothing better than the death of our peace, the death of our joy, the very death of our souls. Within Thy wounds hide me. Intra tua vulnera absconde me.

Suffer me not to be separated from Thee. Ab hoste maligno defende me. There was a time when “the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world- he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Revelation 12:9). “Woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!" (Revelation 12:12 ). There is a reason to be hidden within the wounds of the Christ. There is a reason to put on our Holy armour. There is an Adversary, an Accuser. and that wily one is a schemer, a trickster who never tells the truth except to turn it into a lie. The enemy prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (I Peter 5:8). You just might be his favorite meal.

In the hour of my death, call me. In hora mortis meae voca me. There will come a time for each of us when the race will draw close to the goal. Not only are we called to die now to self-centeredness, we will eventually be called die to our bodies also. We will take nothing from this life to the next that has not been founded upon the Rock. At the hour of my, death call me. And bid me come to Thee. Et iube me venire ad te. I long to come to Thee. All the days of my life I have longed to come to Thee. Before I knew Thee, even when I fled from Thee, I longed to come to Thee. “Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides Thee” (Psalm 73:25). But there is more that You give to us, more than we could have dreamed.

That with Thy saints I may praise Thee. Ut cum Sanctis tuis laudem te. So often we have a limited idea of whom we will see in heaven. Certainly there are some saints of our own from our faithful families and friends who have gone on before. Beyond that a few of the saints from the history of the Church may come to mind. But the roll call of the blessed is more glorious than we could ever imagine. A hint of the awesome prospect ahead is given in the Letter to the Hebrews, “You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:22-24).

Forever and ever. Amen. In saecula saeculorum. Amen. There we will dwell with blessed for endless ages. Forever and ever hardly brings into the focus the endless ages rolling down through eternal time. There we will see “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. There He will dwell with us, and we will be his people, and God himself will be with us and be our God. There He will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things will have passed away, and there love and joy will abide forevermore (Rev. 21:2-4).

Amen. Amen. So be it. So be it.