Precationes Duae Hactenius Ambrosio Attributae

Two Prayers Hitherto Attributed to Ambrose. First Prayer. In Preparation for Mass. O Most High Priest and true Pontiff, Jesus Christ, who offered Yourself to God the Father on the altar of the cross as a pure and spotless sacrifice for us wretched sinners, and who gave us Your flesh to eat and Your blood to drink, and established the mystery by the power of the Holy Spirit, saying, “As often as you do this, you will do it in memory of Me” (1 Cor. 11:25); I ask by Your precious blood, the great price of our salvation; I ask by this wondrous and ineffable love, by which You deigned to love us wretches and unworthy ones so much that You washed us from our sins with Your blood; teach me, Your unworthy servant, whom among Your other gifts You have deigned to call to the priestly office, not by any merits of mine, but solely by the condescension of Your mercy; teach me, I beseech You, through Your Spirit, to handle so great a mystery with that reverence and honor, and with that devotion and fear, with which it is necessary and fitting.

Make me, Lord Jesus Christ, through your grace, always believe and understand, feel and firmly hold, speak and think concerning so great a mystery that which pleases you and is expedient for my soul. Let your good Spirit enter my heart, to sound there without sound, and without noise of words to speak all the truth of such great mysteries. They are too deep, and covered by a sacred veil. 3. On account of your great mercy, grant me today and always to celebrate the solemnities of the Mass with a pure heart and a pure mind. Free my heart from impure and unspeakable, vain and harmful thoughts. Fortify me with the pious and faithful protection of the blessed angels, and with the strongest guard, so that the enemies of all good may be put to confusion and depart through the power of so great a mystery, and through the hand of your holy angel. Repel from me, Lord Jesus Christ, and from all your servants, the very harsh spirit of pride, vainglory, envy, anger, fornication and impurity, doubt and blasphemy. Let those who persecute us be confounded, let those who hasten to destroy everything perish. King of virtues, lover of chastity and integrity, God, extinguish in my body with the heavenly dew of your blessing the whole burning tinder of lust, so that the tenor of complete chastity of soul and body may remain in me.

Mortify in me the goads of the flesh and all the stirrings of lust, and grant me true and perpetual chastity together with your other gifts, which may please you in truth; so that I may be able to offer you the sacrifice of praise with a chaste body and a pure heart. For with how great a contrition of heart and fountain of tears, with how great reverence and trembling, with how great chastity of body and purity of mind is that divine and heavenly sacrifice to be celebrated; where your flesh is truly taken, where your blood is truly drunk, as the highest is joined to the lowest, where the presence of the holy angels is present, where you are wonderfully and ineffably constituted both priest and sacrifice! Who can worthily celebrate this, unless you, almighty God, have made the offerer worthy? I know, and truly know, and confess to your piety, that I am not worthy to approach so great a mystery on account of my excessive sins and my infinite negligences. But I truly know, and believe with my whole heart and confess with my mouth, that you can make me worthy: you who alone can make the world clean from an unclean conception, from sinners make the just and the holy. Through this your omnipotence I ask you to grant me, a sinner, to celebrate this heavenly sacrifice with fear and trembling, with purity of heart and a fountain of tears, with spiritual joy and heavenly gladness.

Let my mind feel the sweetness of your most blessed presence, and the watchful protection of your holy angels around me. For I, Lord, mindful of your venerable passion, approach your altar, though a sinner, to offer you the sacrifice which you instituted and commanded to be offered in commemoration of you for our salvation. Therefore accept this, I pray, most high God, most sweet Jesus Christ, for your holy Church and for all your people, whom you have purchased with your precious blood. And since you have willed me, a sinner, to be a mediator between you and that same people, although you recognize in me no testimony of good work, do not refuse the office of the entrusted stewardship, nor let the price of salvation perish through me, your unworthy servant, for those for whom you deigned to become a saving victim and redemption. Therefore I beg you, Lord, if you deign to look favorably upon the tribulations of the peoples, the perils of the populations, the groans of captives, the misery of orphans, the needs of pilgrims, the poverty of the weak, the despair of the sick, the failings of the elderly, the sighs of the young, the vows of virgins, the laments of widows; for you have mercy on all, Lord, and hate nothing of all that you have made. Remember what our substance is, because you are our Father; do not be angry with us, nor withhold the multitude of your bowels of mercy from us. For we do not lay our prayers before your face in our justifications, but in your many mercies.

Take away from us, Lord, our iniquities, and kindly kindle in us the fire of the Holy Spirit. Take away the stony heart from our flesh, and give us a heart of flesh that fears you, loves and honors you, delights in you, follows you, and fully enjoys you. We pray, Lord, for your mercy, that you may deign to look with a serene countenance upon your household awaiting the offices of your sacred name. And that no one's vow may be in vain, no one's petition empty, suggest to us the prayers which you yourself may be pleased to hear favorably and to grant. We also ask you, holy Father, for the spirits of the faithful departed, that there may be for them eternal salvation, perpetual health, joy and everlasting refreshment, this great sacrament of piety. My Lord God, let there be for them today great and full joy from you, the living and true bread, who came down from heaven and give life to the world, from the holy and blessed flesh, namely of the immaculate lamb who takes away the sin of the world, and let them drink from the fountain of your piety, which flowed from the side of our crucified Lord through the soldier's lance; so that, consoled, they may exult in praise and in your holy glory.

We ask, Lord, for your mercy, that the fullness of your divinity may descend upon this bread and this chalice. May that invisible form of your Holy Spirit and incomprehensible majesty also descend, Lord, as once it descended upon the sacrifices of the Fathers, which may render our offerings your body and blood, and teach me, your unworthy priest, to handle so great a mystery in such a way that you may accept the sacrifice from my hands peacefully and kindly for the salvation of all, both the living and the dead. I ask you, Lord, through this most sacred mystery of your body and blood, by which we are daily fed and watered, washed and sanctified in your Church, and made partakers of your one and highest divinity, that you grant me your holy virtues, with which filled, I may approach your altar with a good conscience, so that these heavenly sacraments may become for me salvation and life. For you have said with your holy and blessed mouth: "The bread which I give, my flesh is for the life of the world." And, "He who eats me, lives life through me; he remains in me, and I in him. I am the living bread which descended from heaven: if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever" (John 6:51).

Most sweet bread, heal the palate of my heart, that I may taste the sweetness of your love; heal it from every weakness, that I may love no beauty but you. Most white bread, having in you every delight and the sweetness of every flavor, who always refreshes us; let my heart eat you, and let the inmost depths of my soul be filled with the sweetness of your taste. The angel eats you with a full mouth; let the pilgrim man eat you according to his small measure, that he may not be able to fail on the way, being refreshed by such a viaticum. Holy bread, living bread, beautiful bread, pure bread, who descended from heaven and gives life to the world, come into my heart and cleanse me from every defilement of flesh and spirit. Enter into my soul and sanctify me within and without. Be the protection and perpetual health of my body and soul. Drive away from me those who lie in wait for me. Let enemies withdraw far from your presence, so that, fortified by you without and within, I may by a straight path arrive at your kingdom; where we shall see you not through mysteries, as is done in this time, but face to face, when you have delivered us to God the Father, and God will be all in all. Then you will satiate me with you in perpetual fullness, so that I shall neither hunger nor thirst for eternity: you who with the same God the Father and the Holy Spirit live and reign through all the ages of ages, amen.

Second Prayer. Likewise, in preparation for Mass. O highest and incomprehensible nature, power, life, and blessedness; inaccessible light, true, singular, and one wisdom; immutable truth; holy, incomparable, and eternal love; creator of temporal things without time; invisible and eternal maker of visible and invisible things; Father and Son and Holy Spirit, one and true Lord God in Trinity: Father, having no one from whom you are, yet having wisdom, that is, the Son, than whom you are neither greater nor prior; Son, having the Father from whom you are, yet having no one than whom you are lesser or posterior; Holy Spirit, having the Father and the Son from whom you are, yet having no one to whom you are either unequal or unlike; because everything in this your divinity, to which time never attaches, is eternal and coeternal, equal and coequal, in which the Father is one, the Son another, the Holy Spirit another: but the Father is in the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Son in the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit in the Father and the Son; because just as our God, your nature receives persons, so it admits parts not at all: to which neither above nor below, nor before nor behind pertains, because it does not receive the lineaments of bodies.

Whence it is wholly possessed by all without place, yet not wholly comprehended; wholly indeed possessed by each, because truly no part is found in it: wholly, however, not comprehended, because evidently when it is wholly present to each one among creatures, it is also found wholly beyond creatures. Wherefore, when it fills heaven and earth, it is whole; when it fills one man, it is whole; nor is it varied through individual things, in which it is whole in each; nor does it pass from place to place, when, deserting one, it seeks another, which moves itself without place and time. Hence you are rightly worshipped, hence adored, O immutable Light; hence you are acknowledged as uncircumscribed: hence the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, according to the essence of divinity, wholly with men on earth, was wholly with the Father in heaven, when he said: No one ascends into heaven, unless he who descended from heaven, the Son of man, who is in heaven (John 3:13). Who, evidently, when he was in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal to God: but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and found in habit as a man. He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, death moreover of the cross (Philippians 2:6).

Through you, blessed Trinity, by the garment of humanity, by the humility of this subjection I entreat; through this most sacred obedience, through this most blessed death I beseech first of all: that I may love you, my Lord God, that I may thirst for you, that I may seek you with my whole heart; then, that I may always regard my neighbor as dear and beloved in this same love of yours, according to men and measure. But this love, Lord, you will grant to no one unless you have first given him to hate the vices. Therefore I beseech you, pious and true mercy, my solid and only hope, that you remove the kingdom of pride from my soul. Horrible, Lord, and fearful is that greatest evil, which cast the angels from heaven, which drove men from paradise, and which is the beginning of every sin, and to it pertains whatever there is of vice and iniquity, whose first offspring, the seven principal vices, are indeed brought forth from this poisonous root, namely vainglory, envy, anger, sadness, avarice, gluttony, and lust. But a numerous crowd of progeny is generated from each one.

Therefore, when vainglory has fully seized the mind, it soon gives birth to a sevenfold wickedness in it, namely, disobedience, boasting, hypocrisy, contention, obstinacy, discord, and presumption of novelties. But if true humility is opposed to it, all its wickedness is nullified. I therefore implore you, master of humility, that you may implant it in my heart, and that once implanted you may guard it, which, while it shows itself inferior to all, immediately gives birth to submission, extinguishes boasting, excludes hypocrisy, shuns contention, softens obstinacy, prevents discord, and abhors presumption of novelties. You foresaw that the disease of pride was to be healed by this medicine of blessed humility. Through the man assumed, the author of our salvation, you would say to those coming to you: “Learn from me, because I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matt. 11:29). And again: “Unless you are converted and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:5).

From envy also are propagated hatred, whispering, detraction, rejoicing in a neighbor's adversities, and grieving in his successes. O evil offspring, which, if admitted into the mind and begins to dominate, extinguishes every shoot of sanctity! Therefore, whoever envies or hates kills no one else before himself; whoever whispers and detracts uproots his own roots before those of others; whoever rejoices in a neighbor's adversities and is afflicted in his successes first strikes himself with another's sword. This second shoot of pride first arose when the one of whom it is written, "Through the devil's envy, death entered the world" (Wisdom 2:24), persuaded Cain to shed his brother's blood out of the hatred of envy. But indeed, that same envious Cain first destroyed his own soul before another's flesh, for it is written: "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer" (1 John 3:15). And you know that every murderer does not have eternal life remaining in him. Hence, O Lord, it is clear whose first murderer is the one who hates another, in whom there is no life. Against this, the most gentle Moses admonishes, saying: "Do not hate your neighbor in your heart" (Leviticus 19:17). And because he who envies and hates consequently whispers and detracts, Holy Scripture denounces this evil as to be guarded against: "You shall not be a whisperer among the people" (Leviticus 19:16); and: "Do not detract one another, brothers" (James 4:11). For whoever detracts a brother...

detracts from the law; for he who whispers and detracts, it follows that he rejoices in a neighbor's adversities, and in his successes contracts sadness of mind. But the blessed Apostle intervenes and says: Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep (Rom. 12:15). And behold, one person, for the sake of earthly things and earthly honors, another for the sake of the successes of virtues, envies anyone, hates anyone, whispers against anyone, detracts from anyone, rejoices in anyone's adversities, and saddens his mind over their successes. But so that this manifold evil may be overcome in all things, may that multiform good, O Lord, I pray, intervene, which by its powerful virtue, resisting, gives no place to envy: namely, charity, which is the foundation of all virtues and goods; which does not envy, but rejoices with; does not hate, but loves; does not whisper, but rebukes; does not detract, but argues; does not rejoice in a neighbor's adversities, but grieves; does not contract affliction from successes, but receives consolation. And rightly has it received such a name, because nothing more dear can be found; he who has it, certainly has you. God, it is said, is charity; and he who abides in charity abides in God, and God in him (1 John 4:8). So that the aforementioned evil of envy may be overcome, a twofold guard of heart and mouth must be joined: of the heart, namely, that it not envy, that it not rejoice in a neighbor's adversities, that it not contract sadness in successes; of the mouth, indeed, that it not whisper, that it not detract.

It is written: "Keep your mouth with all vigilance; keep your heart, because from it life proceeds" (Prov. 4:23). And again it is written: "Death and life are in the hands of the tongue" (Prov. 18:21). Moreover, the evil that rages within is more quickly extinguished if the tongue is restrained from wicked speech without. Place, O Lord, a guard upon my mouth, and a barrier of circumstances upon my lips; so that my heart may not incline to an evil word (Ps. 140:5). Free my soul from iniquitous lips and from a deceitful tongue (Ps. 119:2). Anger, however, follows envy, than which among other vices nothing harsher, nothing more bitter is found: which, when it boils over beyond measure, cruelly corrupts the mind, dulls the sense, alters the tongue, darkens the eyes, and disturbs the whole body. From this immediately arise quarrels, insults, clamor, indignation, swelling of the mind, and blasphemies. Concerning this, indeed, Holy Scripture testifies, saying: "Anger rests in the bosom of a fool" (Eccl. 7:10), and: "The anger of a man does not work the justice of God" (James 1:20).

But interpose, Lord, against the most bitter evil of wrath the most sweet good of patience, in which especially the salvation of our souls is placed, since it is said to us through the Gospel: "In your patience you will possess your souls" (Luke 21:19). This, indeed, when it has taken up the citadel and principate in the mind, immediately restrains all disturbances: it turns quarrels and insults into exhortation, suppresses confused clamor under ordered silence, conquers indignation and swelling of the mind with gentleness, repels blasphemies with thanksgiving. But if by chance, with anger kindled to excess, patience should for a time succumb, will there be no remedy, Lord? There will indeed be one. For when the Gospel announces the condemnation of this evil, saying: "He who is angry with his brother will be guilty before the judgment; but he who says to his brother 'racha' will be guilty before the council; but he who says 'fool' will be guilty of the fire of Gehenna" (Matt. 5:22), it immediately adds recovery, when it says: "If you offer your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to your brother, and then coming you will offer your gift" (Ibid., 23). And this: "When you stand to pray, forgive, if you have anything against one another in your hearts" (Mark 11:13). Grant me, Lord God, this second victory, if, blinded by fury, I have lost the first, when not by your zeal but by my own fault I offend anyone's spirit.

Sadness also follows anger: which, as it penetrates the hidden places of the heart, immediately generates in its chamber malice, rancor, pusillanimity, despair, torpor concerning precepts, and wandering of the mind toward unlawful things. How detestable this is among other vices, the blessed Paul indicates: "The sadness of the world," he says, "works death" (2 Cor. 7:90). But I beseech you, my God and Lord, oppose against the sadness of the world the joy of future blessedness, which may overcome malice contracted from grief with benevolence, drive away rancor produced by tedium with sincerity, strengthen pusillanimity with fortitude, raise up despair with the confidence of hope, repel torpor concerning precepts with spiritual exercise, and restrain the wandering of the mind toward unlawful things with unshaken stability. But if, for a moment, spiritual joy being withdrawn, the evil of sadness should prevail, I will do, I ask, what the blessed James advises: "Is anyone sad among you? Let him pray with an even mind, and sing psalms" (James 5:13).

Avarice follows sadness, which is marked with equal execration in both Testaments. For in the Old it is said: "There is nothing more wicked than a miser" (Eccl. 10:9); but in the New: "and avarice, which is the servitude of idols" (Eph. 5:5). From it, indeed, seven wickednesses are engendered, namely: betrayal, fraud, deceit, perjury, restlessness, violence, and hardening against mercy. And, O Lord God, any lover of the world, and not of You, on account of precious metals, burning and gleaming stones, slaves and maidservants, estates and lands, betrays his neighbor to death, incurs fraud, puts on deceit, commits perjury: and one is restless and violent on account of a villa, another on account of a hen; another is hardened against mercy so as not to repay gold, another so as not to offer a drink. But I beseech You, my God, chaste and true lover, that I, to whom no possession on earth is owed except You, may covet nothing on earth that is not You; that I may always remember that saying: "Naked I came out of my mother's womb, naked I shall return there" (Job 1:21). And that other: "We brought nothing into this world, nor can we carry anything away" (1 Tim. 6:7). Which sayings, when piously considered, seem to bring contempt for the world, which is contrary to avarice.

After this, the gluttony of the belly remains, which indeed begins from necessity, but exceeding the measure of necessity, it passes over into pleasure; and when it has come from lawful things to unlawful ones, it soon gives birth to inappropriate joy, buffoonery, uncleanness, talkativeness, and dullness of the senses regarding understanding: whose deadly poison is then somehow emptied, when not the qualities, but the lust in foods is guarded against. For the first woman brought death into the world not by exquisite feasts, but by the mere delight of an apple (Gen. 3:6): and the ancient enemy tempted our King not with meat, but with bread (Matt. 4:3): and Sodom perished by fire and sulphur for this reason, because among other evils it ate bread to satiety (Gen. 19:24). Therefore, I implore your mercy, O God, that just as a sick person approaches medicine, so I may approach taking meals; that is, by no means seeking pleasure in them, but relieving necessity. Remove from me, by your great mercy, all harmful desire for foods, and graciously grant to your servant a fitting abstinence from provisions; so that I may temper my own appetite within the necessary measure, and with all surfeit and drunkenness completely removed from me, may I know how to abound in your strength, may I know how to suffer scarcity, and may I also know in what things I can be sufficient for myself.

Thus, O Lord, O good Father, when the harmful juices of gastrimargy have been dried up, unseemly mirth and scurrility will not sprout forth, which especially drive those to madness in whom gluttony and drunkenness hold sway: For the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play (Exod. 32:6). Against them comes that saying: Woe to you rich, who have your own abundance! And woe to you who laugh now; because you will weep and be mournful (Luke 6:25)! But on the contrary, those who have crucified their own flesh with its vices and lusts (Gal. 5:24) hear: The world will rejoice, but you will be saddened; yet your sadness will be turned into joy, and your joy no one will take from you (John 16:20). And again: Blessed are those who mourn, for they themselves will be comforted (Matt. 5:5). Also, uncleanness, which according to the Apostle closes the entrance to the heavenly kingdom for some, will never defile the vigilant, but will more slowly defile the sleeping with its own filth. Loquacity, oppressed by fasting, will be silent: dullness of mind concerning the understanding of spiritual sharpness will yield to talent, which holy frugality will propagate in the mind; for the belly, contracted by abstinence, raises human senses to the heights.

Luxury follows gastrimargy, which, when it exceeds the bounds of license, soon engenders from itself blindness of mind, thoughtlessness, inconstancy, precipitation, love of self, hatred of God, affection for the present age, and horror or despair of the future. But I ask, O Lord, that You, who willed me to be alien from the embrace of carnal union from the very time of puberty, may not let me be touched by consent to its pleasure. For what good is it, O Lord God, to be a virgin in body, if it happens that the mind is corrupted? For he who has looked upon a woman with a view to desiring her has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matt. 5:28). For this man, indeed, not yet having professed chastity, it is better, according to the Apostle, to marry than to burn (1 Cor. 7:9): but I beseech You, O Lord, that it may not happen that he to whom it is not permitted to marry should be burned. Behold, while I, anxious for myself, ask such things, I must remember charity, so that I may also entreat for others. Therefore I beseech You, O God, lover of Your Church, for her priests; that by words and by the merits of their life they may invite the people entrusted to them to the heavenly homeland. For kings, dukes, and those who are placed in high station; that they may show themselves fathers of orphans and judges of widows, may grieve at the miseries of the needy and the groans of the poor, may seek nothing in judgment except what is just, and may so administer present things that they do not lose future goods. For virgins, continent persons, and those renouncing the world; that they may despise present things and seek future ones.

nor do they entangle themselves in secular affairs, so that they may please you, to whom they have proven themselves, as they serve you. For the married, let them so render the debt of the flesh to one another that they do not stray from the desire for the heavenly fatherland. But what am I doing, Lord? As if forgetful of my own sins, I presume to pray for others, I who have offended and still offend in so many ways! Yet despair does not steal in, when I consider the publican justified in the temple, when I behold the thief confessing on the cross and passing from the cross to Paradise, when I see Mary washed clean of many stains of sin by the font of mercy, when I observe Peter after his denial recovering the grace of the apostolate. But I ask, O ineffable mercy, that you grant to me, to whom you have given the presumption from such great examples, the groans of the publican, the confession of the thief, the tears of the harlot, and the weeping of the denying apostle. For if you provide that my crimes be avenged by a temporal scourge, I implore you with tears: that while you rage in anger against these things, you may always remember mercy in your anger; for you chastise whom you love; you flog every son whom you receive (Heb. 12:6). By these words, indeed, even if the rod of the punisher threatens, yet the fatherly affection of mercy is shown. Therefore, Lord, grant me endurance amid the scourges, lest I incur the mark of murmuring, like a bad servant; but rather, like a good son, I may render thanks.

I also earnestly ask that I may always remember the day of my death, the day of the final judgment, the damnation of eternal punishment, and the blessedness of the future kingdom: which no one can do without ceasing, unless he is predestined for eternal life. Without ceasing, O Lord, that day must be recalled, in which light fights with darkness, mercy struggles with cruelty, in which our adversary will unroll the evils we have done, spoken, or thought, the most violent accuser will demand your justice to punish these things. What am I, O Lord, unless you, who justly judge, also mercifully defend? Remember, I pray, that you yourself, who judge, are my advocate. But if even in that age you still reserve something to be avenged in me, I ask that you not hand me over to the power of demons, while you cleanse my crime with purgatorial punishment. Never, O Lord, is that day to be consigned to oblivion, of which the prophet said: "A day of wrath, that day, a day of tribulation and anguish, a day of calamity and misery, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of mist and whirlwind, a day of trumpet and blast" (Zephaniah 1, and following): in which, with heavens and earth burning, angels will go forth and separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire (Matthew 13:49): in which the reapers, having gathered the tares, will bind them into bundles for burning. In which those placed on the left will hear the impious: "Depart from me.

cursed, that eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41). In that place, when the doors of life are already barred, and the foolish virgins with their lamps extinguished weep, shut out from the bridal chamber, and groaning in lament cry out: 'Lord, Lord, open to us' (ibid., 11); and then you will say to them: 'I do not know you.' In that place, even those who shone with miracles will likewise lament, repulsed, and say: 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many wonders' (Matt. 7:22)? And then you will also confess to these that you have never known them, adding: 'Depart from me, all you who work iniquity' (Ps. 6:9). Who, Lord God, terrible in your counsels, wonderful in your majesties, and working prodigies: who, I say, would not fear these things, and not tremble from the depths of his heart, when he hears that even those who in this life happened to shine with miracles are condemned? To which that saying certainly applies, which states: 'Man does not know whether he is worthy of love or hate, but all things are reserved uncertain for the future' (Eccles. 9:1). In that place, if even the just man is scarcely saved, where will the sinner and the impious appear?

Elijah, O Lord God, incessantly meditating upon the punishment of eternal damnation, in which whatever torments can now be devised, and whatever cannot, are always present. Its worm is immortal, its fire inextinguishable, its stench intolerable: its land is dark and covered with the gloom of death, a land of misery and shadows: its torrents are turned into pitch, and its soil into sulphur, and it will burn forever; its lake is mingled with blood and fire, and whoever it receives, it drowns and burns at once. How horrible! O how astounding are these things! But greater, O Lord, will be the torment, the loss of your glory. For it is enough for complete misery not to enjoy your blessedness, in which the just, having received their bodies, and equaled to the height of the holy angels, gazing into the eternal light, will shine like the sun. And not undeservedly will they lack need of the sun and moon; because they will have you as their perpetual light. They will not hunger nor thirst, they will not labor nor fail, they will not grieve nor mourn; because whatever of patience, whatever of rest, whatever of joy there is, your visitation will provide, which will be all things in all. Nor will time approach them any longer, because eternity will possess everything: nor will they fear to die any more, who have merited to be clothed in blessed immortality. But what more can I, a wretched man, say about this blessedness? I, who, whatever I say about it, am restrained by that sentence.

which I understand to have been spoken through the prophet and the Apostle: "What the eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, are the things that God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Cor. 2:9). In that blessed life, there will indeed be these goods which I have set forth, but in an ineffable and, for us, still incomprehensible manner. Desiring this, O Lord God, my former and reformer, and loving this, I will accomplish whatever you command me to do in this life. Let fear no longer exist alongside that charity, but let perfect charity cast out fear (1 John 4:18). 19. And that my prayer may be effective, I seek the intercession of the blessed Virgin Mary, whom you made to be of such great merit that she was the first among women to offer a new gift, and no one besides her received so new a gift: that is, she was the first to offer a new gift, in that she as a mother remained a virgin; no one besides her received so new a gift, in that she, a virgin, gave birth to God, and after childbirth remained a virgin. I implore the intercession of the Apostles, who, following in the footsteps of the most blessed poverty of the Mediator and his passions, arrived at such a height of eminence that whatever they bound on earth would be bound also in heaven, and whatever they loosed on earth would be loosed also in heaven (Matt. 18:18), and that in the end they would sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt. 19:28). I beseech the prayers of the martyrs.

who did not hesitate to shed their blood for the truth, nor did they love their own souls unto death, so that they might overcome the author of death. I beg the prayers of the confessors, who waged unholy wars while living piously in Catholic peace, or who also endured the conflict of heretics in a long struggle, and, to tell the truth, received the palms of a longer and hidden martyrdom. O my God, never spurn the prayers of another, if you yourself have inspired them to plead for me, you who live in eternal perpetuity and reign through all ages, and in all ages, amen.