The Memory Sweet of Jesus' Name

For The Weeks After Epiphany

Words: Jesu dulcis memoria, Cento from Hymn of St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Twelfth Century.

Translation:  Very Rev. Prior James A. Dominic Aylward, Order of Preachers, 1843-1850.

Source: Orby Shipley, Annus Sanctus: Hymns of the Church for the Ecclesiastical Year. Vol. 1. (London and New York: Burns and Oates, 1884), pp. 45-46.

The memory sweet of Jesus' name 
	True joy brings to the breast ; 
But far above all honied sweets 
	Is his dear presence blest. 

No tuneful song, no pleasant sound, 
	No fancy ever won 
Upon the senses, like the name 
	Of Jesus, God's dear Son. 

Jesu, the contrite sinner's hope 
	To suppliants how kind; 
How good art thou to those who seek —
	But what to those who find ? 

No tongue can tell, no pen can write 
	How sweet it is to love 
This sweetest Lord ; the hearts that try 
	Alone this sweetness prove. 

Jesu, thy love delights the soul, 
	With sweets that never tire ; 
They fill, yet cloy not, but enhance 
	The keenness of desire.

Note from Shipley:

48, Jesu, dulcis memoria. Vespers Hymn for the Holy Name, from the Breviary. Cento from Hymn of St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, Twelfth Century. The memory sweet of Jesus' name. Very Rev. Prior James A. Dominic Aylward, Order of Preachers, 1843-1850.

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