Exclamación XIII
The Blessedness of the Saints
The author expresses envy for the saints in heaven and pleads for their intercession in our current misery.
Oh, souls who now enjoy your happiness without fear and are forever absorbed in praising my God! How blessed your lot has been. You have every reason to devote yourselves forever to this praise, and how my soul envies you! You're already free from the pain caused by the terrible offenses committed against my God in these wretched times, from seeing such ingratitude, and from seeing how no one is willing to face the multitude of souls Satan is carrying away. Oh, blessed souls in heaven! Come to the aid of our misery and intercede for us before divine mercy, so that it may give us something of your joy and share with us some of the clear knowledge you possess.1
The Folly of Earthly Attachment
The author laments the human tendency to trade eternal joy for fleeting, worldly pleasures.
My God, help us understand what you give to those who fight courageously through the dream of this miserable life. O loving souls, obtain for us some understanding of the joy you feel when you see that your joys are eternal, and how delightful it is to know for certain that they will never end. How wretched we are, my Lord! We know these things well and believe them; but because we are so deeply accustomed to giving these truths no thought, they have become so foreign to our souls that we neither recognize them nor want to recognize them.2 Oh, you selfish people, greedy for your own pleasures and delights! Because you won't wait a little while to enjoy them in such abundance—won't wait a year, a day, an hour, or perhaps no more than a moment—you lose everything just to enjoy the misery you see before you now.3
The Priceless Gift of the Son
The author reflects on the immense, unmerited gift of Christ's life and death as a treasure entrusted to humanity.
Oh, oh, oh—how little we trust you, Lord! How much greater were the riches and treasures you entrusted to us: you gave us your Son, after thirty-three years of tremendous suffering and then a death so unbearable and heartrending—and you did this so many years before we were even born!4 And even though you knew we would never repay you, you still chose to entrust this priceless treasure to us, so that nothing would be lacking on your part and, by putting it to good use, we might gain what we can possess with you, merciful Father.56
A Plea for Living Water
The author asks the saints to share the secret of their success and to intercede for those still suffering on earth.
Oh, blessed souls, how well you knew how to use this precious price to purchase such a delightful and everlasting inheritance! Tell us: how did you use it to gain such an endless good? Help us, since you're so near the spring; draw water for those of us down here who are dying of thirst.
Read the original Latin
—¡Oh almas que ya gozáis sin temor de vuestro gozo y estáis siempre embebidas en alabanzas de mi Dios! Venturosa fue vuestra suerte. Qué gran razón tenéis de ocuparos siempre en estas alabanzas y qué envidia os tiene mi alma, que estáis ya libres del dolor que dan las ofensas tan grandes que en estos desventurados tiempos se hacen a mi Dios, y de ver tanto desagradecimiento, y de ver que no se quiere ver esta multitud de almas que lleva Satanás. ¡Oh bienaventuradas ánimas celestiales! Ayudad a nuestra miseria y sednos intercesores ante la divina misericordia, para que nos dé algo de vuestro gozo y reparta con nosotras de ese claro conocimiento que tenéis.
—Dadnos, Dios mío, Vos a entender qué es lo que se da a los que pelean varonilmente en este sueño de esta miserable vida. Alcanzadnos, oh ánimas amadoras, a entender el gozo que os da ver la eternidad de vuestros gozos, y cómo es cosa tan deleitosa ver cierto que no se han de acabar. ¡Oh desventurados de nosotros, Señor mío! , que bien lo sabemos y creemos; sino que con la costumbre tan grande de no considerar estas verdades, son tan extrañas ya de las almas, que ni las conocen ni las quieren conocer. ¡Oh gente interesal, codiciosa de sus gustos y deleites, que por no esperar un breve tiempo a gozarlos tan en abundancia, por no esperar un año, por no esperar un día, por no esperar una hora, y por ventura no será más que un momento, lo pierden todo por gozar de aquella miseria que ven presente!
—¡Oh, oh, oh, qué poco fiamos de Vos, Señor! ¡Cuántas mayores riquezas y tesoros fiasteis Vos de nosotros, pues treinta y tres años de grandes trabajos, y después muerte tan intolerable y lastimosa, nos disteis y a vuestro Hijo, y tantos años antes de nuestro nacimiento! Y aún sabiendo que no os lo habíamos de pagar, no quisisteis dejarnos de fiar tan inestimable tesoro, porque no quedase por Vos, lo que nosotros granjeando con Él podemos ganar con Vos, Padre piadoso.
—¡Oh ánimas bienaventuradas, que tan bien os supisteis aprovechar y comprar heredad tan deleitosa y permaneciente con este precioso precio! , decidnos: ¿cómo granjeabais con él bien tan sin fin? Ayudadnos, pues estáis tan cerca de la fuente; coged agua para los que acá perecemos de sed.
Notes
- 1 ↩The grammatical subject of “may give” and “share” is divine mercy.
- 2 ↩Rendered as “but because” to preserve the corrective contrast and its causal force.
- 3 ↩The older Spanish expression denotes people governed by self-interest; “selfish people” preserves its moral force in contemporary English.
- 4 ↩The Spanish construction is syntactically difficult; the translation follows the contextually likely sense that the Father entrusted his Son to humanity after the Son’s life of suffering and death.
- 5 ↩An idiom meaning that no failure or omission could be attributed to God.
- 6 ↩The phrase uses the language of trading or investing profitably; here it means putting the entrusted treasure—Christ—to fruitful spiritual use.
Exclamations of the Soul to God companion
A prayer for every moment, already on your phone
Chosen Portion puts a curated historic prayer in front of you each day — so the words are there before the moment arrives.
Chosen Portion is the digital descendant of the carried prayer book: the short daily prayers this collection preserves, delivered one a day to your pocket.
- One short, memorable prayer delivered daily — build your repertoire a card at a time
- Prayers matched to real situations: fear, gratitude, decisions, grief, sleep
- Save favourites into your personal pocket collection you can open anywhere