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The Servant.--Lord, let me reflect on that divine passage, where
Thou speakest of Thyself in the Book of Wisdom: "Come over to Me,
all ye that desire Me, and be filled with My fruits. I am the
Mother of fair love; My Spirit is sweet above honey and the
honeycomb. Wine and music rejoice the heart, but the love of
wisdom is above them both.[3]
Ah, Lord! Thou canst show Thyself so lovely and so tender, that
all hearts must needs languish for Thee and endure, for Thy sake,
all the misery of tender desire; Thy words of love flow so sweetly
out of Thy sweet mouth, and so powerfully affect many hearts in
their days of youthful bloom, that perishable love is wholly
extinguished in them. O my dear Lord, this it is for which my soul
sighs, this it is which makes my spirit sad, this it is about
which I would gladly hear Thee speak. Now, then, my only elected
Comforter, speak one little word to my soul, to Thy poor handmaid;
for, lo! I am fallen softly asleep beneath Thy shadow, and my
heart watcheth.
Eternal Wisdom.--Listen, then, my son, and see, incline to
Me thy ears, enter wholly into thy interior, and forget thyself
and all things. I am in Myself the incomprehensible good, which
always was and always is, which never was and never will be
uttered. I may indeed give Myself to men's hearts to be felt by
them, but no tongue can truly express Me in words. And yet, when
I, the Supernatural, immutable good, present Myself to every
creature according to its capacity to be susceptible of Me, I bind
the sun's splendour, as it were, in a cloth, and give thee
spiritual perceptions of Me and of My sweet love in bodily words
thus: I set Myself tenderly before the eyes of thy heart; now
adorn and clothe thou Me in spiritual perceptions and represent Me
as delicate and as comely as thy very heart could wish, and bestow
on Me all those things that can move the heart to especial love
and entire delight of soul.
Lo! all and everything that thou and all men can possibly imagine
of form, of elegance, and grace, is in Me far more ravishing than
any one can express, and in words like these do I choose to make
Myself known. Now, listen further: I am of high birth, of noble
race; I am the Eternal Word of the Fatherly Heart, in which,
according to the love-abounding abyss of My natural Sonship in His
sole paternity, I possess a gratefulness before His tender eyes in
the sweet and bright-flaming love of the Holy Ghost.
I am the throne of delight, I am the crown of salvation, My eyes
are so clear, My mouth so tender, My cheeks so radiant and
blooming, and all My figure so fair and ravishing, yea, and so
delicately formed, that if a man were to lie in the glowing
furnace till the day of judgment, only to have one single glance
at My beauty, he would not deserve it. See, I am so deliciously
adorned in garments of light, I am so exquisitely set off with all
the blooming colours of living flowers, that all May-blossoms, all
the beautiful shrubs of all dewy fields, all the tender buds of
the sunny meads, are but as rough thistles compared to My
adornment.
In the Godhead I play the game of bliss,
Such joy the angels find in this,
That unto them a thousand years
But as one little hour appears.
All the heavenly host follow Me entranced by new wonders, and
behold Me; their eyes are fixed on Mine; their hearts are inclined
to Me, their minds bent on Me without intermission. Happy is he
who, in joyous security, shall take Me by My beautiful hand, and
join in My sweet diversions, and dance for ever the dance of joy
amid the ravishing delights of the kingdom of heaven!
One little word there spoken by My sweet mouth will far surpass
the singing of all angels, the music of all harps, the harmony of
all sweet strings. My faithfulness is so made to be loved, so
lovely am I to be embraced, and so tender for pure languishing
souls to kiss, that all hearts ought to break for My possession. I
am condescending and full of sympathy and always present to the
pure soul. I abide with her in secret, at table, in bed, in
the streets, in the fields. Turn Myself whichever way I will, in
Me there is nothing that can displease, in Me is everything that
can delight the utmost wishes of thy heart and desires of the
soul.
Lo! I am a good so pure, that he who in his day only gets one drop
of Me regards all the pleasures and delights of this world as
nothing but bitterness; all its possessions and honours as
worthless, and only fit to be cast away; My beloved ones are
encompassed by My love, and are absorbed into the One Thing alone
without imaged love and without spoken words, and are taken and
infused into that good out of which they flowed. My love can also
relieve regenerate hearts from the heavy load of sin, and can give
a free, pure, and gentle heart, and create a clean conscience.
Tell Me, what is there in all this world able to outweigh this one
thing? For he who gives his heart wholly to Me lives joyfully,
dies securely, and obtains the kingdom of heaven here as well as
hereafter.
Now, observe, I have assuredly given thee many words, and yet My
beauty has been as little touched by them as the firmament by thy
little finger, because no eye has ever seen My beauty, nor ear
heard it, neither has it ever entered any heart. Still let what I
have said to thee be as a device to show thee the difference
between My sweet love and false, perishable love.
The Servant.--Ah! Thou tender, delicious, wild flower, Thou
delight of the heart in the embracing arms of the pure loving
soul, how familiar is all this to him who has even once really
felt Thee; but how strange is it to that man who knows Thee not,
whose heart and mind are still in the body! O, Thou most
heart-felt incomprehensible good this is a precious hour, this is
a sweet moment, in which I must open to Thee a secret wound which
my heart still bears from Thy sweet love.
Lord, plurality in love
is like water in the fire. Lord, Thou knowest that real fervent
love cannot bear duality. Alas! Thou only Lord of my heart and
soul, my heart desires that Thou shouldst have a particular love
for me, and that I should be particularly pleasing to Thy divine
eyes. O Lord, Thou hast so many hearts that ardently love Thee,
and are of much account with Thee. Alas! my sweet and tender Lord,
how stands it with me in this matter?
Eternal Wisdom.--My love is of that sort which is not diminished
in unity, nor confounded in multiplicity. I am as entirely
concerned and occupied with thee alone, with the thought how I may
at all times love thee alone, and fulfill everything that
appertains to thee, as though I were wholly disengaged from all
other things.
The Servant.--O rare! O wonderful! whither am I borne, how am I
gone astray! how is my soul utterly dissolved by the sweet
friendly words of my beloved! Oh, turn away Thy bright eyes from
me, for they have overcome me.[4] Wherever was there a heart so
hard, a soul so lukewarm, so cold as, when it heard Thy sweet
living words, so exceedingly fiery as they are, was not fain to
melt and kindle in Thy sweet love!
O wonder of wonders! that he
who thus sees Thee with the eyes of his soul, should not feel his
very heart dissolve in love. How right blessed is he who bears the
name of Thy Spouse, and is so! What sweet consolations and secret
tokens of Thy love must not he eternally receive from Thee! O thou
sweet virgin St. Agnes, thou fair wooer of Eternal Wisdom! how
well couldst thou console thyself with thy dear Bridegroom, when
thou didst say, "His blood has adorned my cheeks as with roses." O
gentle Lord, that my soul were but worthy to be called Thy wooer!
And were it indeed possible that all delights, all joy and love,
that this world can afford, might be found united in one man, how
gladly would I renounce him for the sake of that name! How blessed
is that man, that ever he was born into the world who is named Thy
friend, and is so! Oh, if a man had even a thousand lives, he
ought to stake them at once for the sake of acquiring Thy love.
Oh, all ye friends of God, all ye heavenly host, and thou dear
virgin St. Agnes, help me to pray to Him: for never did I rightly
know what His love was.
Alas! thou heart of mine, lay aside, put
away all sloth, and see if, before thy death, thou mayest advance
so far as to feel His sweet love. O thou tender beautiful Wisdom!
O my elected One! What a truly right gracious love Thou canst be
above all loves else in the world! How very different is Thy love
and the love of creatures! How false is everything that appears
lovely in this world and gives itself out to be something, as soon
as one really begins to know it.
Lord, wherever I might cast my
eyes I always found something to disgust me; for, if it was a fair
image, it was void of grace; if it was fair and lovely, it had not
the true way; or if it had indeed this, still, I always found
something either inwardly or outwardly, to which the entire
inclination of my heart was secretly opposed. But Thou art beauty
with infinite affability, Thou art grace in shape and form, the
word with the way, nobility with virtue, riches with power,
interior freedom and exterior brightness, and one thing Thou art
which I have never found in time, namely, a power and faculty of
perfectly satiating every wish and every ardent desire of a truly
loving heart.
The more one knows Thee, the more one loves Thee;
the more acquainted one is with Thee, the more friendly one finds
Thee. Ah me! what an unfathomable, entirely pure, good Thou art!
See how deceived all those hearts are that fix their affections on
anything else! Ah! ye false lovers, flee far from me, never come
near me more. I have chosen for my heart that one only love in
which my heart, my soul, my desire, and all my powers can alone be
satiated with a love that never dissolves away.
Oh Lord, could I
but trace Thee on my heart! could I but melt Thee with characters
of gold into the innermost core of my heart and soul, so that Thou mightest never be eradicated out of me! Oh, misery and desolation!
that ever I should have troubled my heart with such things! What
have I gained with all my lovers, but time lost, forfeited words,
an empty hand, few good works, and a conscience burdened with
infirmity? Slay me, rather, in Thy love, O Lord, for from Thy feet
I will never more be separated.
Eternal Wisdom.--I go forth to meet those who seek Me, and I
receive with affectionate joy such as desire My love. All that
thou canst ever experience of My sweet love in time, is but as a
little drop to the ocean of My love in eternity.
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