From the Reading Office for Friday of the eighteenth week of Ordinary Time:
Blessed, indeed, is he to whom it is given to feed at the sacred banquet and to unite in the depths of his heart with him whose beauty the heavenly multitudes ceaselessly admire, whose affection produces affection, whose contemplation gives new strength, whose benignity satisfies, whose softness fills the soul, whose memory gently illuminates, whose fragrance will bring the dead back to life, and whose glorious vision will make happy the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem: he is the brightness of eternal glory, a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror, the mirror that you must look at every day, oh queen, wife of Jesus Christ, and see your face reflected in it, so that you can dress and adorn yourself inside and out with all the variety of flowers of the various virtues, which are what must constitute your dress and your adornment, as befits a most chaste daughter and wife of the supreme King. In this mirror shines blessed poverty, holy humility and ineffable charity, as you can observe if, with the grace of God, you go through its various parts.
Pay attention to the beginning of this mirror, I mean to the poverty of the one who was placed in a manger and wrapped in swaddling clothes. Oh admirable humility, oh astonishing poverty! The King of angels, the Lord of heaven and earth, is reclining in a manger. In the middle of the mirror he considers humility, at least blessed poverty, the innumerable labors and hardships that he suffered for the redemption Email Data of the human race. At the end of this same mirror he contemplates the ineffable charity for which he wanted to suffer on the cross and die on it with the most infamous kind of death. This same mirror, nailed to the cross, invited those who passed by to these considerations, saying: O you, all you who pass by on the road, look and see if there is pain like my pain! Let us respond to their cries and groans, with one voice and one spirit: My soul remembers it and melts with sadness within me. In this way, your charity will burn with ever renewed strength, oh queen of the heavenly King.
Contemplating also its ineffable delights, its riches and perpetual honors, and sighing for the intense desire of your heart, you will proclaim: " Drag me after you, and we will run attracted by the aroma of your perfumes, heavenly husband ." I will run without fainting, until you bring me into the feast room, until your left hand is under my head and your right hand embraces me happily and you kiss me with the delicious kisses of your mouth.
Contemplating these things, deign to remember this your insignificant mother, and know that I have your pleasant memory engraved indelibly in my heart, since I love you more than anyone.
From the Letter of Saint Clare, Virgin, to Saint Agnes of Prague
The soul in love with Christ that receives the gift of speech is a source of salvation for souls destined to fall in love with the Lord. Few things suit the Christian as much as reading the saints talking about their relationship with God.