The Te Deum (We Praise Thee, O God)

"We praise Thee, O God." The Church's ancient hymn of thanksgiving — sung after her greatest blessings — in Latin and English.

Some prayers ask. The Te Deum gives thanks — and it does so on the grandest scale the Church knows. When a pope is elected, when a saint is canonized, when a war ends or a year draws to its close, this is the hymn she sings. Older than most of the cathedrals it has echoed in, the Te Deum laudamus — "We praise Thee, O God" — gathers heaven and earth into one act of praise and hands it to you to pray.

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The Te Deum

The hymn

We praise Thee, O God: we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord. All the earth doth worship Thee, the Father everlasting. To Thee all Angels cry aloud, the heavens, and all the Powers therein. To Thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth. Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of Thy glory. The glorious company of the Apostles praise Thee: The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise Thee: The white-robed army of Martyrs praise Thee: The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge Thee: The Father of an infinite Majesty: Thine honourable, true and only Son: Also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. Thou art the King of glory, O Christ! Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father. When Thou tookest upon Thee to deliver man, Thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb: When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, Thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers: Thou sittest at the right hand of God, in the glory of the Father: We believe that Thou shalt come to be our Judge: We therefore pray Thee, help Thy servants, whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious Blood. Make them to be numbered with Thy Saints in glory everlasting.Te Deum laudamus: te Dominum confitemur. Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur. Tibi omnes Angeli; tibi caeli et universae Potestates; Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim incessabili voce proclamant: Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt caeli et terra maiestatis gloriae tuae. Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus, Te Prophetarum laudabilis numerus, Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus. Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur Ecclesia, Patrem immensae maiestatis: Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium; Sanctum quoque Paraclitum Spiritum. Tu Rex gloriae, Christe. Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius. Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem, non horruisti Virginis uterum. Tu, devicto mortis aculeo, aperuisti credentibus regna caelorum. Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes, in gloria Patris. Iudex crederis esse venturus. Te ergo quaesumus, tuis famulis subveni: quos pretioso sanguine redemisti. Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari.

The versicles and responses (added later; optional)

V. O Lord, save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance. R. Govern them, and lift them up for ever. V. Day by day we magnify Thee; R. And we worship Thy name, ever world without end. V. Vouchsafe, O Lord, this day, to keep us without sin. R. Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us. V. O Lord, let Thy mercy lighten upon us, as our trust is in Thee. R. O Lord, in Thee have I trusted: let me never be confounded.V. Salvum fac populum tuum, Domine, et benedic hereditati tuae. R. Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in aeternum. V. Per singulos dies benedicimus te. R. Et laudamus nomen tuum in saeculum, et in saeculum saeculi. V. Dignare, Domine, die isto sine peccato nos custodire. R. Miserere nostri, Domine, miserere nostri. V. Fiat misericordia tua, Domine, super nos, quemadmodum speravimus in te. R. In te, Domine, speravi: non confundar in aeternum.

English: the Marquess of Bute’s translation of the Roman Breviary (1879; edition of 1908), public domain. The Latin is the Breviary’s.

What the Te Deum is

The Te Deum is one of the oldest hymns of the Church still in daily use — a great song of praise and thanksgiving to the Holy Trinity. Like most ancient prayers it takes its name from its opening Latin words, Te Deum laudamus: "We praise Thee, O God." It is not a petition born of need but an overflow of gratitude, sweeping from the angels who cry "Holy, Holy, Holy" around the throne, through the apostles, prophets and martyrs, to the confession of Christ as King of glory — and only at the end does it turn to ask that we be numbered among His saints.

Where it came from

The Te Deum dates to the fourth or fifth century, and tradition long tied it to the great Latin fathers. A famous legend holds that St. Ambrose and St. Augustine improvised it together, verse answering verse, on the night Augustine was baptized — which is why it is still called the Ambrosian Hymn. Later scholarship also proposed St. Hilary of Poitiers and, most persistently, St. Nicetas of Remesiana as its author. Modern hymnologists leave the question open: its writer is uncertain. What is not in doubt is its antiquity and its endurance — it was already written into the earliest monastic rules, including the Rule of St. Benedict.

How and when to pray it

In the Liturgy of the Hours, the Te Deum crowns the Office of Readings on Sundays outside Lent, throughout the Octaves of Christmas and Easter, and on solemnities and feast days — the Church's most joyful mornings. Beyond the daily office, it is her hymn for the great public thanksgivings:

at the election of a pope and the consecration of a bishop;
at the canonization of a saint and the profession of religious vows;
after the close of a council or the safe end of a war;
and on the last night of the year, December 31, in thanksgiving for the year past.

The Church attaches an indulgence to it: a partial indulgence for those who recite it in thanksgiving, and a plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions, when it is sung or recited publicly on the last day of the year. You need no special occasion, though. Pray it after a great blessing, at the end of a hard day survived, or simply to lift your gratitude above your own small concerns.

Why it matters

Modern prayer curdles easily into a list of wants. The Te Deum is the discipline against that — praise offered because God is God, not because we need something from Him. Its very shape is a creed: it adores the Father of infinite majesty, confesses the true and only Son who "didst not abhor the Virgin's womb," names the Holy Spirit the Comforter, and only then turns to petition — help Thy servants, number them with Thy saints, let me never be put to shame. For the man learning to give thanks before he asks, there is no better school than the hymn the whole Church has sung for sixteen hundred years. Altar. Arms. Allegiance.