De dulcedine et felicitate amoris Dei, et de cantico philomene, et oracio pro perseuerancia cantici spiritualis et realis, quern amatores mundi non habent

De dulcedine et felicitate amoris Dei, et de cantico philomene, et oracio pro perseuerancia cantici spiritualis et realis, quern amatores mundi non habent

I don't know a sweeter pleasure than singing to you, Jesus, whom I love, in my heart. I don't know a greater happiness or a more abundant joy than feeling the sweet fervor of love in my heart. I consider it the greatest good to fix Jesus in my heart and to desire nothing else. He truly has a good beginning of love who has tears of longing, with a sweet languor and a desire for eternal things. Indeed, Christ Himself languishes for our love, hastening to the cross with such great fervor to win us over; but it is truly said that love prevails in triumph and leads the heart. What Christ has set down in such a humble way is nothing but love. Come, my Savior, console my soul! Make me steadfast in love, so that I may never cease to love! Take away my pain as I must pass through it, for there is no sinner who cannot rejoice if he turns to you perfectly. Remember your mercy, sweetest Jesus, that my life may shine with virtue and be filled with grace, so that I may overcome my strong enemy and be granted salvation! This is how I pray to you, that I may not be lost with the son of perdition. Because my mind is set ablaze by holy love, I find myself in a languor as I behold your majesty, made a bearer [REDACTED] poverty, I despise the dignity of the earth, and I care nothing for any honor. For my glory is in my friendship with you. When we began to love, your love took hold of my heart, and it allowed me to desire nothing but love; then you, God, made my soul burn with sweet light, from which I can die through you and in you, and not feel sadness. Therefore, delightful ardor is in the heart of the lover, who has devoured the sorrowful burden in the fire of fervent love. Then sweetness is given, especially through music, soothing the soul, because there You are, my God and my comforter, having prepared Your temple. Indeed, the glory I long for is so delightful that no one can resist such desire. Therefore, my loving soul speaks to the King of the kingdom, adorning herself like a bride. Love holds my heart in its unbreakable bonds, and in such a commitment and effort, it embraces me with a wondrous mastery, so that I find it more pleasing to contemplate dying than to live. A flower cannot wither; it is a friend burning with love, and its joy brings death and melody. At the beginning of my conversion and unique purpose, I thought I wanted to be like a little bird that languishes with love for its beloved, but even while languishing, it rejoices in the arrival of what it loves and sings in joy, and while singing, it also languishes, but in sweetness and fervor. The nightingale is said to indulge in song and melody all night long, so that it may please the one to whom it is united. How much more sweetly would I sing to my Christ Jesus, who is the bridegroom of my soul, throughout this present life, which is night in comparison to the future clarity, if I could languish and grow faint with love. But while I’m failing, may I be restored and nourished in fervor, and may I sing joyfully and jubilantly of the delights of love with sweetness, as if a melodious pipe were pouring forth a fervent devotion, and may it send forth praises to the Most High, kindled within me. But also, from the offerings made with the mouth in the array of divine praise, may the eager soul always remain steadfast in love, and may it never falter in sadness or sluggishness from the desire it has received. The integrity of intention, the readiness of will, the fervor of actual desire, and the turning toward God, through the continuation of thought, which are present in the holy souls, do not allow them to sin mortally. But if they sin through weakness or ignorance, they are immediately stirred by those prompts to true repentance, and they won’t remain long in their sins, even if they have clung to pleasures. Those who commit venial sins are completely consumed in the fire of love, unless perhaps some are weighed down by such negligence that they do not consider the sin they commit to be sin at all, and love is not enough to remove all the debt owed for punishment, or at least no trial is inflicted by which the guilt can be completely purged. In the fire of love, the heart of the lover is consumed. A fire more fervent is a wonderful heat, which sweetly delights the mind and cools and shades it from the heat of vices. Good Jesus, grant me the heavenly instrument of the angelic song, so that in this I may be caught up to sing your praises continually; which you have given to the ignorant and to those who do not know, now repay to the one who seeks. Let me be charmed in the joy of divine love, so that I may be found on fire in the extremes; and with melodious joy, descend into my soul! Show me your sweet delights in your favor, so that my excesses may be punished and purified here, in the way you know in your mercy, so that I may cling to you, not as you flatter those flourishing in this world, to whom you grant temporal prosperity, while reserving eternal torments! The lovers of this world can know the words or songs of our hymns, but they can't grasp the melodies and tones or the sweetness of the odes; they read the words, but they can't learn the meaning and beauty of the songs. O good Jesus, you have bound my heart in the thought of your name, and now I can no longer sing that song! So have mercy on me, completing what you have prepared! Your true lover is caught up in the joyful song of longing, making it impossible for such sweetness to come from the devil, such fervor from any created being, or such melody from human ingenuity; in these things, if I persevere, I will be saved. However, anyone who wants to achieve the greatest things perfectly must not willingly commit even the smallest sins. For whoever knowingly and willingly falls into small sins often carelessly stumbles into greater ones. It’s more fitting to desire to fall into great misery than to sin even once. It’s certainly not necessary for him; in fact, it would be ridiculous for him to seek pleasures and riches, strength and beauty, when he will be established as an eternal soldier in the judgment of the eternal king, adorned with perfect decency of body and beauty of color, where there will be neither excess nor deficiency; and he will serve in the heavenly court of the supreme emperor, forever and ever. Amen.