Scripture Verse

Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee. John 21:15

Introduction

portrait
Edward Caswall
(1814–1878)
National Portrait Gallery

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Words: Au­thor un­known (O De­us, ego amo te). Trans­lat­ed from La­tin to Eng­lish by Ed­ward Cas­wall, Ly­ra Ca­tho­li­ca 1849.

Music: St. Ful­bert Hen­ry J. Gaunt­lett, 1849 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

portrait
Henry Gauntlett
(1805–1876)
National Portrait Gallery

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The orig­in­al is re­port­ed­ly a Span­ish son­net which be­gins, No me mueve, mi Di­os, pa­ra quer­er­te. It ap­peared in Die­pen­brock’s Geist­lich­er Blu­men­strauss (1829), at­trib­ut­ed to Fran­cis Xa­vi­er.

It al­so ap­peared in the Po­esi­as of The­re­sa de Je­sus (1515–1582), show­ing her as the au­thor, but was not in her Li­bros (Lis­bon: 1616), Obras (Lis­bon: 1654), or Op­era (Co­logne, Ger­ma­ny: 1686).

Ju­li­an be­lieved the Lat­in form was prob­ab­ly by Xa­vier or by a Ger­man Je­su­it. A trans­la­tion of the La­tin lyr­ics was pub­lished in 1668 in Heil­ige Seel­en­lust, by Jo­hann Scheff­ler, cre­dit­ing Xa­vi­er as the au­thor.

Lyrics

My God, I love Thee; not be­cause
I hope for Heav’n there­by,
Nor yet be­cause who love Thee not
May eter­nal­ly die.

Thou, O my Je­sus, Thou didst me
Upon the cross em­brace;
For me didst bear the nails and spear,
And ma­ni­fold dis­grace.

And griefs and tor­ments num­ber­less,
And sweat of ago­ny;
E’en death it­self; and all for man
Who was Thine ene­my.

Then why, O bless­èd Je­sus Christ
Should I not love Thee well?
Not for the hope of win­ning Hea­ven,
Nor of es­cap­ing hell.

Not with the hope of gain­ing aught,
Nor seek­ing a re­ward,
But as Thy­self hast lovèd me,
O ev­er­last­ing Lord!

E’en so I love Thee, and will love,
And in Thy praise will sing,
Solely be­cause Thou art my God,
And my eter­nal king.