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"Then that soul, thirsting and burning with the very
great desire that she had conceived on learning the
ineffable love of God, shown in His great goodness,
and, seeing the breadth of His charity, that, with
such sweetness, He had deigned to reply to her
request and to satisfy it, giving hope to the sorrow
which she had conceived, on account of offenses
against God, and the damage of the Holy Church, and
through His own mercy, which she saw through
self-knowledge, diminished, and yet, at the same
time, increased her sorrow.
"For, the Supreme and Eternal Father, in manifesting
the way of perfection, showed her anew her own guilt,
and the loss of souls, as has been said more fully
above. Also because in the knowledge which the soul
obtains of herself, she knows more of God, and
knowing the goodness of God in herself, the sweet
mirror of God, she knows her own dignity and
indignity.
"Her dignity is that of her creation, seeing that she
is the image of God, and this has been given her by
grace, and not as her due. In that same mirror of the
goodness of God, the soul knows her own indignity,
which is the consequence of her own fault. Wherefore,
as a man more readily sees spots on his face when he
looks in a mirror, so, the soul who, with true
knowledge of self, rises with desire, and gazes with
the eye of the intellect at herself in the sweet
mirror of God, knows better the stains of her own
face, by the purity which she sees in Him.
"Wherefore, because light and knowledge increased in
that soul in the aforesaid way, a sweet sorrow grew
in her, and at the same time, her sorrow was
diminished by the hope which the Supreme Truth gave
her, and, as fire grows when it is fed with wood, so
grew the fire in that soul to such an extent that it
was no longer possible for the body to endure it
without the departure of the soul; so that, had she
not been surrounded by the strength of Him who is the
Supreme Strength, it would not have been possible for
her to have lived any longer.
"This soul then, being purified by the fire of divine
love, which she found in the knowledge of herself and
of God, and her hunger for the salvation of the whole
world, and for the reformation of the Holy Church,
having grown with her hope of obtaining the same,
rose with confidence before the Supreme Father,
showing Him the leprosy of the Holy Church, and the
misery of the world, saying, as if with the words of
Moses, 'My Lord, turn the eyes of Your mercy upon
Your people, and upon the mystical body of the Holy
Church, for You will be the more glorified if You
pardon so many creatures, and give to them the light
of knowledge, since all will render You praise when
they see themselves escape through Your infinite
goodness from the clouds of mortal sin, and from
eternal damnation; and then You will not only be
praised by my wretched self, who have so much
offended You, and who am the cause and the instrument
of all this evil, for which reason I pray Your divine
and eternal love to take Your revenge on me, and to
do mercy to Your people, and never will I depart from
before Your presence until I see that you grant them
mercy.
"For what is it to me if I have life, and Your people
death, and the clouds of darkness cover Your spouse,
when it is my own sins, and not those of Your other
creatures, that are the principal cause of this? I
desire, then, and beg of You, by Your grace, that You
have mercy on Your people, and I adjure You that You
do this by Your uncreated love which moved You
Yourself to create man in Your image and similitude,
saying, "Let us make man in our own image," and this
You did, oh eternal Trinity, that man might
participate in everything belonging to You, the most
high and eternal Trinity.'
"Wherefore You gave him memory in order to receive
Your benefits, by which he participates in the power
of the Eternal Father; and intellect that he might
know, seeing Your goodness, and so might participate
in the wisdom of Your only-begotten Son; and will,
that he might love that which his intellect has seen
and known of Your truth, thus participating in the
clemency of Your Holy Spirit.
"What reason had You for creating man in such
dignity? The inestimable love with which You saw Your
creature in Yourself, and became enamored of him, for
You created him through love, and destined him to be
such that he might taste and enjoy Your Eternal Good.
I see therefore that through his sin he lost this
dignity in which You originally placed him, and by
his rebellion against You, fell into a state of war
with Your kindness, that is to say, we all became
Your enemies.
"Therefore, You, moved by that same fire of love with
which You created him, willingly gave man a means of
reconciliation, so that after the great rebellion
into which he had fallen, there should come a great
peace; and so You gave him the only-begotten Word,
Your Son, to be the Mediator between us and You. He
was our Justice, for He took on Himself all our
offenses and injustices, and performed Your
obedience, Eternal Father, which You imposed on Him,
when You clothed Him with our humanity, our human
nature and likeness.
"Oh, abyss of love! What heart can help breaking when
it sees such dignity as Yours descend to such
lowliness as our humanity? We are Your image, and You
have become ours, by this union which You have
accomplished with man, veiling the Eternal Deity with
the cloud of woe, and the corrupted clay of Adam. For
what reason? -- Love. Wherefore, You, O God, have
become man, and man has become God. By this ineffable
love of Yours, therefore, I constrain You, and
implore You that You do mercy to Your creatures."
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