Free English Translation
Epigram
Epigramma
~1 min read · by Sedulius
About Epigram
The Epigram is a brief four-line prayer that Sedulius, active around 425 to 450 AD, appended to his verse writing on the everlasting life won through Christ. He asks that the teachings he has just set down remain within his own heart, not merely on the page. He prays further that, working through Christ's grace, he may seek out what is pleasing to God, and so, with Christ as his guide, come at last to the joys of heaven. Short as it is, the poem turns the act of writing itself into an occasion of personal devotion.
By Sedulius. Collected in Patrologia Latina, Volume 19.
These teachings of thy everlasting life which I have written,
Grant, I beseech thee, O Christ, that they remain within my heart:
That, seeking, by thy working, the things which please thee,
I may reap, with thee as guide, O Christ, the joys of heaven.
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