How the truly obedient receive
a hundredfold for one, and also eternal lift; and what is meant by this one,
and this hundredfold.
"In them is fulfilled the saying of the sweet
and amorous Word, My only-begotten Son, in the gospel when He replied to
Peter's demand, 'Master, we have left everything for your love's sake, and have
followed You, what will you give us?' My Truth replied, 'I will give you a
hundredfold for one, and you shall possess eternal life.' As if My Truth had
wished to say, 'You have done well, Peter, for in no other way could you follow
Me. And I, in this life, will give you a hundredfold for one.' And what is this
hundredfold, beloved daughter, besides which the apostle obtained eternal life?
To what did My Truth refer? To temporal substance?
"Properly speaking, no. Do I not, however,
often cause one who gives alms to multiply in temporal goods? In return for
what do I this? In return for the gift of his own will. This is the one for
which I repay him a hundredfold. What is the meaning of the number a hundred? A
hundred is a perfect number, and cannot be added to except by recommencing from
the first. So charity is the most perfect of all the virtues, so perfect that
no higher virtue can be attained except by recommencing at the beginning of
self- knowledge, and thus increasing many hundredfold in merit; but you always
necessarily arrive at the number one hundred. This is that hundredfold which is
given to those who have given Me the unit of their own will, both in general
obedience, and in the particular obedience of the religious life. And in
addition to this hundred you also possess eternal life, for charity alone enters
into eternal life, like a mistress bringing with her the fruit of all the other
virtues, while they remain outside, bringing their fruit, I say, into Me, the
eternal life, in whom the obedient taste eternal life. It is not by faith that
they taste eternal life, for they experience in its essence that which they
have believed through faith; nor by hope, for they possess that for which they
had hoped, and so with all the other virtues, Queen Charity alone enters and
possesses Me, her possessor. See, therefore, that these little ones receive a
hundredfold for one, and also eternal life, for here they receive the fire of
divine charity figured by the number of a hundred (as has been said). And
because they have received this hundredfold from Me, they possess a wonderful
and hearty joy, for there is no sadness in charity, but the joy of it makes the
heart large and generous, not narrow or double. A soul wounded by this sweet
arrow does not appear one thing in face and tongue while her heart is
different. She does not serve, or act towards her neighbor with dissembling and
ambition, because charity is an open book to be read by all. Wherefore the soul
who possesses charity never falls into trouble, or the affliction of sadness,
or jars with obedience, remains obedient until death."
Of the perversities, miseries,
and labors of the disobedient man; and of the miserable fruits which proceed
from disobedience.
"Contrariwise, a wicked disobedient man dwells
in the ship of a religious order with so much pain to himself and others, that
in this life he tastes the earnest of hell, he remains always in sadness and
confusion of mind, tormented by the sting of conscience, with hatred of his
order and superior, insupportable to himself. What a terrible thing it is, My
daughter, to see one who has once taken the key of obedience of a religious
order, living in disobedience, to which he has made himself a slave, for of
disobedience he has made his mistress with her companion impatience, nourished
by pride, and his own pleasure, which pride (as has been said) issues from
self-love. For him everything is the contrary to what it would be for the
obedient man. For how can this wretch be in any other state than suffering, for
he is deprived of charity, he is obliged by force to incline the neck of his
own will, and pride keeps it erect, all his desires are in discord with the
will of the order. The order commands obedience, and he loves disobedience; the
order commands voluntary poverty, and he avoids it, possessing and acquiring riches;
the order commands continence and purity, and he desires lewdness. By
transgressing these three vows, My daughter, a religious comes to ruin, and
falls into so many miseries, that his aspect is no longer that of a religious
but of an incarnate devil, as in another place I related to you at greater
length. I will, however, tell you something now of their delusion, and of the
fruit which they obtained by disobedience to the commendation and exhortation
of obedience. This wretched man is deluded by his self-love, because the eye of
his intellect is fixed, with a dead faith, on pleasing his self-will, and on
things of the world. He left the world in body, but remained there in his
affections, and because obedience seems wearisome to him he wishes to disobey in
order to avoid weariness; whereby he arrives at the greatest weariness of all,
for he is obliged to obey either by force or by love, and it would have been
better and less wearisome to have obeyed by love than without it. Oh! how
deluded he is, and no one else deceives him but himself. Wishing to please
himself he only gives himself displeasure, for the actions which he will have
to do, through the obedience imposed on him, do not please him. He wishes to
enjoy delights and make this life his eternity, but the order wishes him to be
a pilgrim, and continually proves it to him; for when he is in a nice pleasant
resting place, where he would like to remain for the pleasures and delights he
finds there, he is transferred elsewhere, and the change gives him pain, for
his will was active against his obedience, and yet he is obliged to endure the
discipline and labors of the order, and thus remains in continual torment. See,
therefore, how he deludes himself; for, wishing to fly pain, he on the contrary
falls into it, for his blindness does not let him know the road of true
obedience, which is a road of truth founded by the obedient Lamb, My
only-begotten Son, who removed pain from it, so that he walks by the road of
lies, believing that he will find delight there, but finding on the contrary
pain and bitterness. Who is his guide? Self-love, that is his own passion for
disobedience. Such a man thinks like a fool to navigate this tempestuous sea,
with the strength of his own arms, trusting in his own miserable knowledge, and
will not navigate it in the arms of his order, and of his superior. Such a one
is indeed in the ship of the order in body, and not in mind; he has quitted it
in desire, not observing the regulations or customs of the order, nor the three
vows which he promised to observe at the time of his profession; he swims in
the tempestuous sea, tossed to and fro by contrary winds, fastened only to the
ship by his clothes, wearing the religious habit on his body but not on his
heart. Such a one is no friar, but a masquerader, a man only in appearance. His
life is lower than an animal's, and he does not see that he labors more
swimming with his arms, than the good religious in the ship, or that he is in
danger of eternal death; for if his clothes should be suddenly torn from the
ship, which will happen at the moment of death, he will have no remedy. No, he
does not see, for he has darkened his light with the cloud of self-love, whence
has come his disobedience, which prevents him seeing his misery, wherefore he
miserably deceives himself. What fruit is produced by this wretched tree?
"The fruit of death, because the root of his
affection is planted in pride, which he has drawn from self-love. Wherefore
everything that issues from this root -- flowers, leaves, and fruit -- is
corrupt, and the three boughs of this tree, which are obedience, poverty, and
continence, which spring from the foot of the tree; that is, his affections are
corrupted. The leaves produced by this tree, which are his words, are so
corrupt that they would be out of place in the mouth of a ribald secular; and
if he have to preach My doctrine, he does so in polished terms, not simply, as
one who should feed souls with the seed of My Word, but with eloquent language.
Look at the stinking flowers of this tree, which are his diverse and various
thoughts, which he voluntarily welcomes with delight and pleasure, not flying
the occasions of them, but rather seeking them in order to be able to
accomplish a sinful act, the which is the fruit which kills him, depriving him
of the light of grace, and giving him eternal death. And what stench comes from
this fruit, sprung from the flowers of the tree? The stench of disobedience,
for, in the secret of his heart, he wishes to examine and judge unfaithfully his
superior's will; a stench of impurity, for he takes delight in many foul
conversations, wretchedly tempting his penitents.
"Wretch that you are, do you not see that
under the color of devotion you conceal a troop of children? This comes from
your disobedience. You have not chosen the virtues for your children as does
the truly obedient religious; you strive to deceive your superior when you see
that he denies you something which your perverse will desires, using the leaves
of smooth or rough words, speaking irreverently and reproving him. You can not
endure your brother, nor even the smallest word and reproof which he may make
to you, but in such a case you immediately bring forth the poisoned fruit of
anger and hatred against him, judging that to be done to your hurt which was
done for your good, and thus taking scandal, your soul and body living in pain.
Why has your brother displeased you? Because you live for your own sensual
pleasure, you fly your cell as if it were a prison, for you have abandoned the
cell of self-knowledge, and thus fallen into disobedience, wherefore you can
not remain in your material cell. You will not appear in the refectory against
your will whilst you have anything to spend; when you have nothing left
necessity takes you there.
"Therefore the obedient have done well, who
have chosen to observe their vow of poverty, so that they have nothing to
spend, and therefore are not led away from the sweet table of the refectory,
where obedience nourishes both body and soul in peace and quiet. The obedient
religious does not think of laying a table, or of providing food for himself
like this wretched man, to whose taste it is painful to eat in the refectory,
wherefore he avoids it; he is always the last to enter the choir, and the first
to leave it; with his lips he approaches Me, with his heart he is far from Me.
He gladly escapes from the chapter-house when he can through fear of penance.
When he is obliged to be there, he is covered with shame and confusion for the
faults which he felt it no shame to commit. What is the cause of this?
Disobedience. He does not watch in prayer, and not only does he omit mental
prayer, but even the Divine office to which he is obliged. He has no fraternal
charity, because he loves no one but himself, and that not with a reasonable
but with a bestial love. So great are the evils which fall on the disobedient;
so many are the fruits of sorrow which he produces, that your tongue could not
relate them. Oh! disobedience, which deprives the soul of the light of obedience,
destroying peace, and giving war! Disobedience destroys life and gives death,
drawing the religious out of the ship of the observance of his order, to drown
him in the sea, making him swim in the strength of his own arms, and not repose
on those of the order. Disobedience clothes him with every misery, causes him
to die of hunger, taking away from him the food of the merit of obedience, it
gives him continual bitterness, depriving him of every sweetness and good,
causing him to dwell with every evil in life it gives him the earnest of cruel
torments to endure, and if he do not amend before his clothes are loosened from
the ship at death, disobedience will lead the soul to eternal damnation,
together with the devils who fell from heaven, because they rebelled against
Me. In the same way have you, oh! disobedient man, having rebelled against
obedience and cast from you the key which would have opened the door of heaven,
opened instead the door of hell with the key of disobedience."
How God does not reward merit
according to the labor of the obedient, nor according to the length of time
which it takes, but according to the love and promptitude of the truly
obedient; and of the miracles which God has performed by means of this virtue;
and of discretion in obedience, and of the works and reward of the truly
obedient man.
"I have appointed you all to labor in the
vineyard of obedience in different ways, and every man will receive a price,
according to the measure of his love, and not according to the work he does, or
the length of time for which he works, that is to say, that he who comes early
will not have more than he who comes late, as My Truth told you in the holy
gospel by the example of those who were standing idle and were sent by the lord
of the vineyard to labor; for he gave as much to those who went at dawn, as to
those who went at prime or at tierce, and those who went at sext, at none, and
even at vespers, received as much as the first: My Truth showing you in this
way that you are rewarded not according to time or work, but according to the
measure of your love. Many are placed in their childhood to work in the
vineyard; some enter later in life, and others in old age; sometimes these
latter labor with such fire of love, seeing the shortness of the time, that
they rejoin those who entered in their childhood, because they have advanced
but slowly. By love of obedience, then, does the soul receive her merit,
filling the vessel of her heart in Me, the Sea Pacific. There are many whose
obedience is so prompt, and has become, as it were, so incarnate in them, that
not only do they wish to see reason in what is ordered them by their superior,
but they hardly wait until the word is out of his mouth, for with the light of
faith they understand his intention. Wherefore the truly obedient man obeys
rather the intention than the word, judging that the will of his superior is
fixed in My will, and that therefore his command comes from My dispensation,
and from My will, wherefore I say to you that he rather obeys the intention
than the word. He also obeys the word, having first spiritually obeyed in
affection his superior's will, seeing and judging it by the light of faith to
be Mine. This is well shown in the lives of the fathers, where you read of a
religious, who at once obeyed in his affection the command of his superior,
commencing to write the letter o, though he had not space to finish it;
wherefore to show how pleasing his prompt obedience was to Me, My clemency gave
him a proof by writing the other half of the letter in gold. This glorious
virtue is so pleasing to Me, that to no other have I given so many miraculous
signs and testimonies, for it proceeds from the height of faith.
"In order to show how pleasing it is to Me,
the earth obeys this virtue, the animals obey it -- water grows solid under the
feet of the obedient man. And as for the obedience of the earth, you remember
having read of that disciple who, being given a dry stick by his abbot, and
being ordered by obedience to plant it in the earth and water it every day, did
not proceed to ask how could it possibly do any good, but, without inquiring
about possibilities, he fulfilled his obedience in such virtue of faith that
the dry wood brought forth leaves and fruits, as a sign that that soul had
risen from the dryness of disobedience, and, covered by the green leaves of
virtue, had brought forth the fruit of obedience, wherefore the fruit of this
tree was called by the holy fathers the fruit of obedience. You will also find
that animals obey the obedient man; for a certain disciple, commanded by
obedience, through his purity and virtue caught a dragon and brought it to his
abbot, but the abbot, like a true physician of the soul, in order that he might
not be tossed about by the wind of vainglory, and to prove his patience, sent
him away with harsh words, saying: 'Beast that you are, you have brought along
another beast with yourself.' And as to fire, you have read in the holy
scripture that many were placed in the fire, rather than transgress My obedience,
and, at My command were not hurt by it. This was the case of the three
children, who remained happily in the furnace -- and of many others of whom I
could tell you. The water bore up Maurus who had been sent by obedience to save
a drowning disciple; he did not think of himself, but thought only with the
light of faith of how to fulfill the command of his superior, and so walked
upon the water as if he had been on dry land, and so saved the disciple. In
everything, if you open the eye of the intellect, you will find shown forth the
excellence of this virtue. Everything else should be abandoned for the sake of
obedience. If you were lifted up in such contemplation and union of mind with
Me, that your body was raised from the earth, and an obedience were imposed on
you (speaking generally, and not in a particular case, which cannot give a
law), you ought, if possible, to force yourself to arise, to fulfill the
obedience imposed on you, though you should never leave prayer, except for
necessity, charity, or obedience. I say this in order that you may see how
prompt I wish the obedience of My servants to be, and how pleasing it is to Me.
Everything that the obedient man does is a source of merit to him. If he eats,
obedience is his food; if he sleeps, his dreams are obedience; if he walks, if
he remains still, if he fasts, if he watches -- everything that he does is
obedience; if he serve his neighbor, it is obedience that he serves. How is he
guided in the choir, in the refectory, or his cell? By obedience, with the
light of the most holy faith, with which light he has slain and cast from him
his humbled self-will, and abandoned himself with self-hatred to the arms of
his order and superior. Reposing with obedience in the ship, allowing himself
to be guided by his superior, he has navigated the tempestuous sea of this
life, with calm and serene mind and tranquillity of heart, because obedience
and faith have taken all darkness from him; he remains strong and firm, having
lost all weakness and fear, having destroyed his own will, from which comes all
feebleness and disordinate fear. And what is the food of this spouse obedience?
She eats knowledge of self, and of Me, knowing her own non- existence and
sinfulness, and knowing that I am He who is, thus eating and knowing My Truth
in the Incarnate Word. What does she drink? The Blood, in which the Word has
shown her, My Truth, and the ineffable love which I have for her, and the
obedience imposed on Him by Me, His Eternal Father, so she becomes inebriated
with the love and obedience of the Word, losing herself and her own opinions
and knowledge, and possessing Me by grace, tasting Me by love, with the light
of faith in holy obedience.
"The obedient man speaks words of peace all
his life, and at his death receives that which was promised him at his death by
his superior, that is to say, eternal life, the vision of peace, and of supreme
and eternal tranquillity and rest, the inestimable good which no one can value
or understand, for, being the infinite good, it cannot be understood by
anything smaller than itself, like a vessel, which, dipped into the sea, does
not comprehend the whole sea, but only that quantity which it contains. The sea
alone contains itself. So I, the Sea Pacific, am He who alone can comprehend
and value Myself truly. And in My own estimate and comprehension of Myself I
rejoice, and this joy, the good which I have in Myself, I share with you, and
with all, according to the measure of each. I do not leave you empty, but fill
you, giving you perfect beatitude; each man comprehends and knows My goodness
in the measure in which it is given to him. Thus, then, the obedient man, with
the light of faith in the truth burning in the furnace of charity, anointed
with humility, inebriated with the Blood, in company with his sister patience,
and with self- contempt, fortitude, and enduring perseverance, and all the
other virtues (that is, with the fruit of the virtues), receives his end from
Me, his Creator."
This is a brief repetition of
the entire book.
"I have now, oh dearest and best beloved
daughter, satisfied from the beginning to the end your desire concerning
obedience.
"If you remember well, you made four petitions
of Me with anxious desire, or rather I caused you to make them in order to
increase the fire of My love in your soul: one for yourself, which I have
satisfied, illuminating you with My Truth, and showing you how you may know
this truth which you desired to know; explaining to you how you might come to
the knowledge of it through the knowledge of yourself and Me, through the light
of faith. The second request you made of Me was that I should do mercy to the
world. In the third you prayed for the mystical body of the holy Church, that I
would remove darkness and persecutions from it, punishing its iniquities at own
desire in your person. As to this I explained that no penalty inflicted in
finite time can satisfy for a sin committed against Me, the Infinite Good,
unless it is united with the desire of the soul and contrition of the heart.
How this is to be done I have explained to you. I have also told you that I
wish to do mercy to the world, proving to you that mercy is My special
attribute, for through the mercy and the inestimable love which I had for man,
I sent to the earth the Word, My only-begotten Son, whom, that you might
understand things quite clearly, I represented to you under the figure of a
Bridge, reaching from earth to heaven, through the union of My divinity with
your human nature.
"I also showed you, to give you further light
concerning My truth, how this Bridge is built on three steps; that is, on the
three powers of the soul. These three steps I also represented to you, as you
know, under figures of your body -- the feet, the side, and the mouth -- by
which I also figured three states of soul -- the imperfect state, the perfect
state, and the most perfect state, in which the soul arrives at the excellence
of unitive love. I have shown you clearly in each state the means of cutting
away imperfection and reaching perfection, and how the soul may know by which
road she is walking and of the hidden delusions of the devil and of spiritual
self-love. Speaking of these three states I have also spoken of the three
judgments which My clemency delivers -- one in this life, the second at death
on those who die in mortal sin without hope, of whom I told you that they went
under the Bridge by the Devil's road, when I spoke to you of their
wretchedness. And the third is that of the last and universal judgment. And I
who told you somewhat of the suffering of the damned and the glory of the
blessed, when all shall have reassumed their bodies given by Me, also promised
you, and now again I repeat my promise, that through the long endurance of My
servants I will reform My spouse. Wherefore I invite you to endure, Myself
lamenting with you over her iniquities. And I have shown you the excellence of
the ministers I have given her, and the reverence in which I wish seculars to
hold them, showing you the reason why their reverence towards My ministers
should not diminish on account of the sins of the latter, and how displeasing
to me is such diminution of reverence; and of the virtue of those who live like
angels. And while speaking to you on this subject, I also touched on the
excellence of the sacraments. And further wishing you to know of the states of
tears and whence they proceed, I spoke to you on the subject and told you that
all tears issue from the fountain of the heart, and pointed out their causes to
you in order.
"I told you not only of the four states of
tears, but also of the fifth, which germinates death. I have also answered your
fourth request, that I would provide for the particular case of an individual;
I have provided as you know. Further than this, I have explained My providence
to you, in general and in particular, showing you how everything is made by
divine providence, from the first beginning of the world until the end, giving
you and permitting everything to happen to you, both tribulations and
consolations temporal and spiritual, and every circumstance of your life for
your good, in order that you may be sanctified in Me, and My Truth be fulfilled
in you, which truth is that I created you in order to possess eternal life, and
manifested this with the blood of My only-begotten Son, the Word.
"I have also in My last words fulfilled your
desire and My promise to speak of the perfection of obedience and the
imperfection of disobedience; and how obedience can be obtained and how
destroyed. I have shown it to you as a universal key, and so it is. I have also
spoken to you of particular obedience, and of the perfect and imperfect, and of
those in religion, and of those in the world, explaining the condition of each
distinctly to you, and of the peace given by obedience, and the war of
disobedience, and how the disobedient man is deceived, showing you how death
came into the world by the disobedience of Adam, and how I, the Eternal Father,
supreme and eternal Truth, give you this conclusion of the whole matter, that
in the obedience of the only- begotten Word, My Son, you have life, and as from
that first old man you contracted the infection of death, so all of you who
will take the key of obedience have contracted the infection of the life of the
new Man, sweet Jesus, of whom I made a Bridge, the road to Heaven being broken.
And now I urge you and My other servants to grief, for by your grief and humble
and continual prayer I will do mercy to the world. Die to the world and hasten
along this way of truth, so as not to be taken prisoner if you go slowly. I
demand this of you now more than at first, for now I have manifested to you My
Truth. Beware that you never leave the cell of self-knowledge, but in this cell
preserve and spend the treasure which I have given you, which is a doctrine of
truth founded upon the living stone, sweet Christ Jesus, clothed in light which
scatters darkness, with which doctrine clothe yourself, My best beloved and
sweetest daughter, in the truth."
How this most devout soul,
thanking and praising God, makes prayer for the whole world and for the Holy
Church, and commending the virtue of faith brings this work to an end.
Then that soul, having seen with the eye of the
intellect, and having known by the light of holy faith the truth and excellence
of obedience, hearing and tasting it with love and ecstatic desire, gazed upon
the divine majesty and gave thanks to Him, saying, "Thanks, thanks to You,
oh eternal Father, for You have not despised me, the work of Your hands, nor
turned Your face from me, nor despised my desires; You, the Light, have not
regarded my darkness; You, true Life, have not regarded my living death; You,
the Physician, have not been repelled by my grave infirmities; You, the eternal
Purity, have not considered the many miseries of which I am full; You, who are the
Infinite, have overlooked that I am finite; You, who are Wisdom, have
overlooked my folly; Your wisdom, Your goodness, Your clemency, Your infinite
good, have overlooked these infinite evils and sins, and the many others which
are in me. Having known the truth through Your clemency, I have found Your
charity, and the love of my neighbor. What has constrained me? Not my virtues,
but only Your charity. May that same charity constrain You to illuminate the
eye of my intellect with the light of faith, so that I may know and understand
the truth which You have manifested to me. Grant that my memory may be capable
of retaining Your benefits, that my will may burn in the fire of Your charity,
and may that fire so work in me that I give my body to blood, and that by that
blood given for love of the Blood, together with the key of obedience, I may
unlock the door of Heaven. I ask this of You with all my heart, forevery
rational creature, both in general and in particular, in the mystical body of
the holy Church. I confess and do not deny that You loved me before I existed,
and that Your love for me is ineffable, as if You were mad with love for Your
creature. Oh, eternal Trinity! oh Godhead! which Godhead gave value to the
Blood of Your Son, You, oh eternal Trinity, are a deep Sea, into which the
deeper I enter the more I find, and the more I find the more I seek; the soul
cannot be satiated in Your abyss, for she continually hungers after You, the
eternal Trinity, desiring to see You with light in Your light. As the hart
desires the spring of living water, so my soul desires to leave the prison of
this dark body and see You in truth. How long, oh! Eternal Trinity, fire and
abyss of love, will Your face be hidden from my eyes? Melt at once the cloud of
my body. The knowledge which You have given me of Yourself in Your truth,
constrains me to long to abandon the heaviness of my body, and to give my life
for the glory and praise of Your Name, for I have tasted and seen with the
light of the intellect in Your light, the abyss of You -- the eternal Trinity,
and the beauty of Your creature, for, looking at myself in You, I saw myself to
be Your image, my life being given me by Your power, oh! eternal Father, and
Your wisdom, which belongs to Your only-begotten Son, shining in my intellect
and my will, being one with Your Holy Spirit, who proceeds from You and Your
Son, by whom I am able to love You. You, Eternal Trinity, are my Creator, and I
am the work of Your hands, and I know through the new creation which You have
given me in the blood of Your Son, that You are enamored of the beauty of Your
workmanship. Oh! Abyss, oh! Eternal Godhead, oh! Sea Profound! what more could
You give me than Yourself; You are the fire which ever burns without being
consumed; You consume in Your heat all the soul's self-love; You are the fire
which takes away all cold; with Your light You do illuminate me so that I may
know all Your truth; You are that light above all light, which illuminates
supernaturally the eye of my intellect, clarifying the light of faith so
abundantly and so perfectly, that I see that my soul is alive, and in this
light receives You -- the true light. By the Light of faith I have acquired
wisdom in the wisdom of the Word -- Your only-begotten Son. In the light of
faith I am strong, constant, and persevering. In the light of faith I hope,
suffer me not to faint by the way. This light, without which I should still
walk in darkness, teaches me the road, and for this I said, Oh! Eternal Father,
that You have illuminated me with the light of holy faith. Of a truth this
light is a sea, for the soul revels in You, Eternal Trinity, the Sea Pacific.
The water of the sea is not turbid, and causes no fear to the soul, for she
knows the truth; it is a deep which manifests sweet secrets, so that where the
light of Your faith abounds, the soul is certain of what she believes. This
water is a magic mirror into which You, the Eternal Trinity, bid me gaze,
holding it with the hand of love, that I may see myself, who am Your creature,
there represented in You, and Yourself in me through the union which You made
of Your godhead with our humanity. For this light I know to represent to myself
You -- the Supreme and Infinite Good, Good Blessed and Incomprehensible, Good
Inestimable. Beauty above all beauty; Wisdom above all wisdom -- for You are
wisdom itself. You, the food of the angels, have given Yourself in a fire of
love to men; You, the garment which covers all our nakedness, feed the hungry
with Your sweetness. Oh! Sweet, without any bitter, oh! Eternal Trinity, I have
known in Your light, which You have given me with the light of holy faith, the
many and wonderful things You have declared to me, explaining to me the path of
supreme perfection, so that I may no longer serve You in darkness, but with
light, and that I may be the mirror of a good and holy life, and arise from my
miserable sins, for through them I have hitherto served You in darkness. I have
not known Your truth and have not loved it. Why did I not know You? Because I
did not see You with the glorious light of the holy faith; because the cloud of
self-love darkened the eye of my intellect, and You, the Eternal Trinity, have
dissipated the darkness with Your light. Who can attain to Your Greatness, and
give You thanks for such immeasurable gifts and benefits as You have given me
in this doctrine of truth, which has been a special grace over and above the
ordinary graces which You give also to Your other creatures? You have been
willing to condescend to my need and to that of Your creatures -- the need of
introspection. Having first given the grace to ask the question, You reply to
it, and satisfy Your servant, penetrating me with a ray of grace, so that in
that light I may give You thanks. Clothe me, clothe me with You, oh! Eternal Truth,
that I may run my mortal course with true obedience and the light of holy
faith, with which light I feel that my soul is about to become inebriated
afresh."
