De Adhaerendo Deo: On Cleaving to God
A bilingual edition in Latin and English
Attributed to Albertus Magnus (Albert the Great). Written by Johannes von Kastl. Transcribed and Translated by John Richards.
First edition, 2022. Dundee: Evertype. ISBN 978-1-78201-140-8 (paperback)Click on the book cover on the right to order this book from Amazon.co.uk!
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| Fortificet ergo se spiritus contra quascumque tentationes, vexationes, injurias, ut æquanimiter inconcusse in utraque fortuna perseveret in Deo. Et cum adest turbatio, aut acedia, vel mentis confusio, non propterea insolescas, aut pusillanimis sis, nec propter hoc curras ad orationes vocales, aut alias consolationes: sed hoc solum ut resuscites te per voluntatem bonam in intellectu, ut adhæreas Deo mente, velit nolit sensualitas corporis. (Caput VIII) | Let your spirit therefore arm itself against all temptations, vexations, and injuries so that it can persevere steadily in God when attacked by either face of fortune. So that when some inner disturbance or boredom or mental confusion come you will not be indignant or dejected because of it, nor run back to vocal prayers or other forms of consolation, but only to lift yourself up in your intellect by a good will to hold on to God with your mind whether the natural inclination of the body wills it or not. (Chapter VIII) | |
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This famous and much-loved little treatise, De Adhaerendo Deo (On Cleaving to God), has been attributed to Albert the Great, but the identification of Albert as the author has long been disputed, and it has been shown that it was written by Johannes von Kastl, a Benedictine monk from Kastl in Bavaria who was perhaps prior there c.1399. The Latin text of which this is a translation is found in volume 37 of Albert's Opera Omnia published in Paris in 1898. The Rev. John Henry Richards, MA, BD, was an Anglican priest born in 1934 who was ordained a deacon in Llandaff in 1977 and a priest there in 1978. He served in Maesteg, Cardiff, Penmark, and Stackpile Elidor until his retirement in 1999, and died in 2017. He is known for his English translations of the Sanskrit Ashtavakra Gita and Vivekachudamani, of the Pali Dhammapada, and of the medieval Latin De Adhaerendo Deo, all of which he put in the public domain and distributed on the Internet in the late 1990s. |
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