de profundis

1. not comparableFrom deep feelings of misery or despair.

   God can only be known de profundis.

   1934, Emil Brunner, The Mediator: A Study of the Central Doctrine of the Christian Faith, →ISBN

   4 more examples

   Carts go along the streets; full of stript human corpses, thrown pell-mell; limbs sticking up: --seest thou that cold Hand sticking up, through the heaped embrace of brother corpses, in its yellow paleness, in its cold rigor; the palm opened towards Heaven, as if in dumb prayer, in expostulation de profundis, Take pity on the Sons of Men !

   1838, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: a History - Volume 2, page 198

   They are acclamations de profundis, pilgrim odes of those who once again "lift their eyes unto the mountains" (Psalm 120 [121] : 1), trusting that "they who sow in tears shall reap in joy" (Psalm 125 [126] : 5),

   1988, Ron Jeffers, Translations and Annotations of Choral Repertoire: Sacred Latin texts, →ISBN

   Anti-Climacus culminates a little polemic against fatalism by speaking of prayer, particularly prayer in extremis, when all seems lost, or prayer de profundis, out of the depths of desperation, and just here he comes the closest to identifying God outright with possibility.

   2002, Daniel W. Conway, K. E. Gover, Søren Kierkegaard: Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers, →ISBN

   ... “turned back to the Indians, it is the saving gesture—but a gesture of despair. ... the ground to confront de profundis the inevitability and the reality of one's own despair (“All have to come from under and through a dead layer” [Williams 213]) .

   2011, John T. Irwin, Hart Crane's Poetry, →ISBN

1. alternativeAlternative form of De Profundis (psalm)

   This is the de profundis, one of the great penitential hymns of the Christian Church

   1922, John Punnett Peters, The Psalms as Liturgies: Being the Paddock Lectures for 1920

   2 more examples

   He had sung the de profundis of the psalmist in the hope of the vita nuova of Dante.

   2000, Joseph Pearce, The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde, →ISBN, page 360

   The de profundis attracted the ire of protestant polemicists including James Pilkington, Bishop of Durham, not merely because the speaking of the de profundis (usually by some boy) was a traditional feature of Roman Catholic funerals, but more specifically because of its association with Catholic belief in purgatory.

   2016, Gary Watt, Shakespeare's Acts of Will: Law, Testament and Properties of Performance, →ISBN

alternative De profundis · alternative de profundis

1. The 130th psalm, one of the seven penitential psalms of the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches.

   But the De profundis has only eight verses and so it is not surprising that all of it should have been adapted.

   1968, Patrick Gallagher, The Life and Works of Garci Sánchez de Badajoz, →ISBN, page 180

   2 more examples

   The De Profundis is therefore a cry of hope, a prayer of love coming forth from the Sacred Heart to be re-echoed by our own; and whilst hoping for ourselves, we must hope also for our suffering brethren in purgatory, and we have confidence that if we pray with our whole hearts, our merciful Lord will soon deliver these souls, still dearer to Him than ourselves, and will admit them perfectly purified into peace and eternal rest.

   1881, Louis Gaston A. de Ségur, Familiar instructions and evening lectures on all the truths of religion, page 102

   At 7:30 PM, back in my seminary days, the bell of St. Francis Chapel at Graymoor would toll, summoning us to recite the De Profundis on behalf of the dead.

   2005, Geoff Wood, Living the Lectionary, Year B: Links to Life and Literature, →ISBN, page 33

2. A letter to Lord Alfred Douglas written by Oscar Wilde while he was imprisoned for gross indecency (homosexual acts). The title is a reference to the 130th psalm.

   One of the most lyrical and powerful passages of the De Profundis can be heard towards its very conclusion.

   2017, Annette M. Magid, Quintessential Wilde, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   Some years later, in his Autobiography, Douglas gave a significantly different version of events: My own evidence on this point is obscured by the fact that, as I did not know of the existence of the De Profundis MS.

   2000, Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Ian Small, The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde, →ISBN

   Max Beerbohm, in a remarkably insightful review in Vanity Fair, specifically took on the "De Profundis is radically different" reading of Wilde: "Some of the critics, wishing to reconcile present enthusiasm with past indifference. . . have been suggesting that De Profundis is quite unlike any previous work of Oscar Wilde - a quite sudden and unrelated phenomenon.

   2004, F. Roden, Palgrave Advances in Oscar Wilde Studies, →ISBN, page 176

3. The name of various other works of art inspired by the feelings expressed in the 130th psalm. (see De Profundis)

1. alternativeAlternative form of De Profundis.

   Of particular interest is the fact that after Vespers the De profundis devotion was to follow immediately the performance of three polyphonic votive antiphons.

   1992, Alan Brown, Richard Turbet, Byrd Studies, →ISBN, page 30

   2 more examples

   They further engage, that the charity-boys of the priory, shall, every night forever, sing at the said chapel in the honour of the blessed Virgin Mary, the anthem Salve Regina, or Ave Regina, and after it say the psalm De profundis, with the prayer Fidelium, or Inclina, for the souls of the father and mother of the bishop, and for his soul after his decease, and for the souls of all the faithful deceased...

   1780, The Winchester Guide, page 50

   The great Psalm, the De profundis, speaks to the human condition whether or not one is a believer but the non-believer who reads it must radically reinterpret the One who is addressed.

   2013, Babette Babich, Hermeneutic Philosophy of Science, Van Gogh’s Eyes, and God, →ISBN