In puero puer
2 February 2009
Saint Augustine preached this morning at the Third Nocturn of Vigils. Amazing. It makes one want to applaud! Does anyone preach like this today? Read the Latin text aloud. Listen to the musicality of it, to the rhythm and rhyming of it.
Agnovit infantem senex,
factus est in puero puer.
Innovatus est in aetate,
qui plenus erat pietate.
Simeon senex ferebat Christum infantem;
Christus regebat Simeonis senectutem.
The old man recognized the infant,
and in the boy became a boy.
He who was full of fatherly tenderness
was made young again in his old age.
Simeon the old man carried the infant Christ;
Christ guided the old age of Simeon.
Sermon 128, 2-4: PL 39