Iesù all’anima (Alma, che sì gentile)
The Invitation to the Wound of Love
Christ invites the soul to look upon His wounded side and find peace through the abandonment of sin.
Soul, so gentle, created for the love of my Father and so dearly loved by me: look on my breast with a humble heart.✦1 Let love overcome you, and let compassion move you.2 Ah— Leave your sin, since without me you won't find any peace. My blessed spirit, take from my side the sweet price of eternal life: love invites you to high heaven from a low and base place.34
The Path of Dying to Self
The soul is encouraged to renounce self-love and embrace the cross, finding sweetness in the labor of divine love.
Put out your self-love in my light—the love that breaks all your peace.5 My sweetness leads the soul to that living love which makes it fit for my glory among the blessed choirs. If you die for my love, you'll live for me in my heavenly sheepfold. For my love, no labor is hard, and a painful death is sweeter than the honeycomb, sweeter than honey. Stay constant and strong! You are blessed if, following me, you take up your cross, and my sweet voice always resounds in your brave heart.6
The Urgency of Divine Mercy
Christ pleads with the soul to return to Him with repentance before time runs out.
My goodness, which the earth cannot grasp, calls you gently: for you, my blood is poured out without ceasing. Ah, come back to me in sorrow!7 Woe to anyone who does not repent, and to anyone who does not look to me with living faith! So don't delay, for time is flying, my gentle soul.
Read the original Latin
Alma, che sì gentile Sei per amor del Padre mio creata, E da me tant’amata, Riguarda il petto mio col cor umile.
L’amor ti vinca, e la pietà ti mova. Deh! lassa il tuo peccato, Da poi che senza me pace non trova. Spirito mio beato, Levi dal mio costato El dolce prezzo dell’eterna vita: La carità t’invita All’alto ciel di loco basso e vile.
Spegni il tuo proprio amor nella mia luce, Che rompa ogni tua pace. La mia dolcezza l’anima conduce A quell’amor vivace, El qual la fa capace Della mia gloria coi beati Cori. Se per mio amor tu muori, Viverai a me nel mio celeste ovile.
All’amor mio fatica non è grave, E la penosa morte È più che ’l favo, e più che ’l mel suave. Deh sta costante e forte! Beata la tua sorte, Se me seguendo prendi la tua croce, E la mia dolce voce Sempre risuoni nel tuo cor virile.
La mia bontà, ch’in terra non s’intende, Ti chiama dolcemente: Per te ognora il sangue mio si spende. Deh torna a me dolente! Guai a chi non si pente, E a chi con viva fede a me non guarda! Dunque non esser tarda, Chè il tempo vola, anima mia gentile.
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.19.34;John.13.23-John.13.25 — But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. John.13.23 — One of his disciples—the one whom Jesus loved—was reclining at Jesus' side. John.13.24 — So Simon Peter motioned to him and said to him, 'Tell us who it is he is speaking about.' John.13.25 — So after reclining back against Jesus' chest, that one says to him, 'Lord, who is it?'
Notes
- 1 ↩Italian 'gentile' can mean gentle, kind, or noble/refined; rendered as 'gentle' to keep the address intimate without stilnovistic archaism.
- 2 ↩Italian pietà can mean compassion/pity or piety; after the call to look on Christ's breast (1.22.1), compassion for his Passion is the stronger sense.
- 3 ↩Spirito mio beato is read as Jesus addressing the soul ('my blessed spirit'); less likely, the Holy Spirit as agent who draws the price from Christ's side. Levi is a jussive/elevated imperative of levare.
- 4 ↩La carità kept as 'love' per default amor/charitas policy; personified theological charity is also viable.
- 5 ↩Italian proprio amor is self-love (amor proprio), not love of Christ. The relative Che rompa is read as modifying that self-love (it wrecks the soul's peace); less likely, it could be purpose or a relative on luce (my light that breaks your false peace).
- 6 ↩cor virile rendered as 'brave heart' (courageous/valiant interior resolve), not gendered 'manly' diction.
- 7 ↩dolente may be vocative ('you who grieve') or adverbial ('in sorrow/grieving'); either sense is a call to repentant return.
Lauds companion
Never lose the rhythm again
Chosen Portion delivers your morning, midday and night office to your phone — the Hours, without the bells.
Chosen Portion is a modern Book of Hours: it turns the fixed-hour structure this collection preserves into scheduled, tappable daily prayer on your phone.
- Three daily prayer moments scheduled around your real calendar, not a monastery's
- Psalms and historic prayers sequenced for you — no page-flipping or decision fatigue
- A visible streak of completed offices, so the rhythm compounds instead of collapsing