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The Servant.--Oh, the great riches of the Divine knowledge and
wisdom! how very inscrutable are Thy judgments, and how unknown
Thy ways. How many a strange way hast thou of bringing poor souls
back to Thee!
What were Thy thoughts, or how glad at heart must
Thou not have been in Thy eternal immutability, when Thou didst so
nobly create the pure, tender, illustrious creature above all pure
creatures! Lord, then couldst Thou indeed say: I think the
thoughts of peace.[8] Lord, Thou hast, out of the abyss of Thy
essential goodness, reflected Thy glory interiorly to Thyself
again, inasmuch as Thou hast led back to their origin all beings
gone astray in their divine emanation.
Yes, Heavenly Father, how
should a sinful creature dare to approach Thee, unless Thou hadst
given him Thy own elected child, Eternal Wisdom, for a guide? Yes,
Eternal Wisdom, how should a sinful creature dare at all times to
discover his uncleanness before such purity, unless indeed he took
the mother of all compassion for his protectress?
Eternal Wisdom!
if Thou art my brother, Thou art also my Lord; if Thou art truly
man, woe is me! so art Thou also truly God, and a very severe
judge of evil deeds. For this reason, when our poor souls are in
the narrow prison-house of fathomless sorrow of heart, and we can
neither stir here nor there, nothing remains for us except to lift
up our miserable eyes to thee, O chosen Queen of Heaven.
Therefore, thou mirror reflecting the brightness of the eternal
sun, thou hidden treasure of infinite compassion, this day do I
and all penitent hearts salute thee! O ye exalted spirits, ye pure
souls, stand forth, extol and praise, commend and exult in the
ravishing paradise of all delight, the sublime Queen! for I am not
worthy to do so, unless in her goodness she vouchsafe to allow me.
O thou chosen bosom friend of God, thou fair golden crown of
Eternal Wisdom, permit me, a poor sinner, even me in my weakness,
to speak to thee a little in confidence. With a trembling heart,
with a countenance of shame, with dejected eyes, my soul falls
down before thee. O thou mother of all graces, methinks neither my
soul nor any other sinful soul requires permission or a passport
to repair to thee. Art thou not the immediate mediatrix of all
sinners? The more sinful a soul is, the more reasonable it seems
to her that she should have free access to thee; the deeper she is
in wickedness, the more reason she has to press forwards to thee.
Therefore, my soul, step joyfully forth! If thy great crimes drive
thee away, her unfathomable goodness invites thee to draw near. O,
therefore, thou only consolation of all sinful hearts, thou only
refuge of guilty mortals, to whom so many a wet eye, so many a
wounded, miserable heart is raised up, be a gracious mediatrix and
channel of reconciliation between me and the Eternal Wisdom.
O
think, think, thou mild Queen elect, that thou derivest all thy
merits from us poor sinners. What was it made thee God's mother,
made thee a casket in which the Eternal Wisdom reposed? O Lady, it
was the sins of us poor mortals! How couldst thou becalled a
mother of graces and compassion, except through our wretchedness,
which has need of grace and compassion. Our poverty has made thee
rich, our crimes have ennobled thee above all pure
creatures. O turn hither then the eyes of thy compassion, which
thy gentle heart never turned from a sinner, from a forlorn
mortal!
Take me under thy protection, for my consolation and
confidence are in thee. How many a guilty soul, after having bid
farewell to God and all the heavenly host, by denying God and
despairing of Him, and being lamentably separated from Him, has,
by still clinging to thee, been sweetly detained, till at length,
through thy intercession, it has again attained to grace.
Who is
the sinner, how great soever his crimes, to whom thy overflowing
goodness has denied assistance?
Lo, when my soul seriously
reflects within herself, methinks it were only right, if it were
possible, that while my eyes wept for joy, my heart should leap
out of my mouth; so does thy name dissolve in my mouth like honey
from the comb. Even thou art called the mother, the Queen of
Compassion, yes, tender mother, yes, gentle mother of compassion!
O what a name! O how unfathomable is the being whose name is so
rich in grace!
Did ever the melody of song resound as soothingly
in an agitated heart as thy pure name in our penitent hearts? At
this exalted name all heads in reason ought to incline, all knees
to bend. How often hast thou not put to flight the hostile powers
of wicked spirits, how often hast thou not allayed the angry
justice of the severe judge! How often hast thou not obtained from
Him grace and consolation!
Yes, poor sinful mortals as we are,
what have we to say to it? How shall we ever acknowledge such
great goodness? If all angelic tongues, all pure spirits and
souls, if heaven and earth and all that is contained in them
cannot properly praise her merits, her ravishing beauty, her
graciousness and immeasurable dignity, alas! what shall we sinful
hearts be able to do? Let us do our best, and express to her our
acknowledgements, our thanks; for indeed her great kindness does
not look at the smallness of the gift, it looks at the purity of
intention.
Ah, sweet Queen, with what justice may not thy sex
rejoice in thy sweet name; for cursed was the first Eve that she
ever eat of the bitter fruit of the tree of knowledge; blessed be
the second Eve that she brought us again the sweet fruit of
heaven! Let no one lament over Paradise; one paradise we lost, and
have won two others. For is she not a paradise in whom grew the
fruit of the living tree? in whom all delight and joy are
contained together? And is not that also a paradise above every
paradise in whom the dead again live, if they only taste His fruit
from whose hands,feet, and side the living fountains which
irrigate all the earth flow,[9] the fountains of inexhaustible
mercy, fathomless wisdom, overflowing sweetness, ardent love, the
fountains of eternal life?
Truly, Lord, whoever tastes of this
fruit, whoever has drunk of this fountain, knows that these two
gardens of paradise far surpass the earthly paradise.
But thou, O
Queen elect, art the gate of all grace, the door of compassion,
that never yet was shut. Heaven and earth may pass away, ere thou
wilt permit anyone who earnestly seeks thy assistance to depart
from thee without obtaining it. Behold, for this very reason art
thou the first object my soul sees when I awake, the last when I
lie down to sleep. How should anything which thy pure hands
present before God and commend unto Him, how small soever in
itself, be rejected?
Take, O take, therefore, the smallness of my
works and present it, so that, in thy hands it may appear
something before the eyes of God Almighty. Even thou art the pure
vessel of red gold, melted down with graces, inlaid with precious
emeralds, and sapphires, and all virtues, whose single aspect, in
the sight of the heavenly King, surpasses that of all other
creatures. O, thou lovely divine spouse elect, if King Ahasuerus
was captivated by the beauty of Esther, if she was found pleasing
in his eyes above all women, if she found favour above them all,
so that he did for her whatever she desired, O thou, all red roses
and lilies, surpassing beauty, how justly may the King of Heaven
be captivated by thy spotless purity, thy meek humility, by
the sweet smelling nosegay of all thy virtues and graces!
Or, who
has ever caught the wild and noble unicorn, if not thou?[10] How
infinitely pleasing, above all mortals, in His eyes is thy
delicate and love-inspiring beauty, before which all other beauty
fades like a glow-worm before the brightness of the sun. What
overflowing grace hast thou not found before Him for thyself and
us mortals who are without grace! How should, how can, then, the
Heavenly King deny thee anything? Truly mayest thou say, My
Beloved is mine, and I am His.
Ah! thou art God's, and God is
thine, and ye two have an eternal and unfathomable reciprocation
of love which no duality can divide. Think of us poor needy ones,
who continue to wander so wretchedly in sorrowful affliction. Yes,
exalted Lady of heaven and earth, arise now and be to us a mediatrix, and an obtainer of grace with thy tender Child, the
Eternal Wisdom.
Ah, Eternal Wisdom, wilt Thou deny me anything?
Even as I present Thee before Thy heavenly Father, so do I present
Thy pure tender mother before Thee. Look at her mild eyes which so
often looked kindly on Thee; behold Those fair cheeks which she so
often affectionately pressed to Thy infant face. O look at her
sweet mouth which used to kiss Thee so fondly and tenderly again
and again. Look at her pure hands which so often ministered to
Thee. O Thou goodness above all goodness, how canst thou deny
anything to her who suckled Thee so affectionately and bore Thee
in her arms; who laid Thee to rest, wakened Thee and tenderly
reared Thee!
O Lord, let me remind Thee of all the love Thou ever
didst experience from her in Thy childhood's days, when Thou didst
sit in her motherly lap, and with Thy playful eyes didst laugh so
pleasantly and tenderly in her face with that fathomless love Thou hadst
for her above all other creatures! Think, too, of the
heart-rending woe which her maternal heart endured with Thee under
the gibbet of Thy miserable cross, where she saw Thee in the agony
of death, and when her heart and soul so often died away in sorrow
and distress with Thee.
Lord, I entreat Thee, for her sake, to grant me every means of
shaking off my sins, of acquiring Thy grace, and never losing it
again.
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