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Chapter 24Ansl.1.24

ORATIO XXIV AD CHRISTUM, Pro inimicis.

The Heart Laid Bare Before God

The soul confesses its utter dependence on God, acknowledging that only the Lord can sow, complete, and guard any good within, and pleads for mercy rather than judgment.

Almighty and merciful Lord Jesus Christ, I ask you to be gracious to my friends before you — and my heart's desire for my enemies is also known to you. For you, God, searching hearts and penetrating the depths, you pierce the secrets of my mind.✦1 For it is plain to you if you have sown anything in the soul of your servant that should be offered to you, nor can it be hidden from you — if my enemy and I have together sown anything there that ought to be burned away with fire.2 Do not despise, most gracious God, what you have sown — but cherish it, and increase it. Bring it to completion, and guard it. Because just as I was able to begin nothing good without you, so neither can I bring it to completion or keep it safe without you. Do not judge me, merciful God, on account of what displeases you in me, but take away what you did not plant, and save my soul, which you created. For I cannot correct myself without you, since when we are good, it is you yourself who make us so — and not we ourselves.✦3

Prayers Shaped by Love, Not Malice

The soul asks God to grant only those desires for enemies that arise from love, invoking Christ as light, truth, and life to heal their blindness and error.

My soul can't bear it if you judge it by its wickedness. So then, Lord — you alone are powerful, you alone are merciful — whatever you yourself lead me to desire for my enemies, grant it to them, and repay it to me. And if at any time I want something for them that goes beyond the rule of love — whether out of ignorance, or weakness, or malice — good Lord, don't grant it to them, and don't repay it to me.4 You are the true light — shine on their blindness.✦ You are the highest truth — set right their error.✦ You are the true life — give life to their souls.✦ For you said through your beloved disciple that whoever does not love remains in death.✦5 I pray, then, Lord, that the measure of love you command us to practice — love of you and of neighbor — you would grant to them, so they don't stand guilty before you on account of their brother.✦6

The Vengeance of Love

The soul recoils from being a stumbling block to others and redefines vengeance as the mutual love and reconciliation of all servants under their common Lord.

Far be it, O merciful Lord — far be it that I should be an occasion of death to my brothers, that I should be a rock of stumbling and a stone of offense to them!✦ It is enough for me, Lord — more than enough — that I am a stumbling block to myself; my own sin is sufficient for me. Your servant begs you for his fellow servants: don't let them stumble over the kindness of so great and so good a Lord because of me, but let them be reconciled to you and brought into harmony with me, according to your will, for your sake. This is the vengeance that the secret of my heart demands — concerning my fellow servants, my enemies, and my fellow sinners. This is the punishment my soul prays for concerning my fellow servants and my enemies: that we may love you and one another, just as you wish and as is good for us; that we may make satisfaction to the good Lord for one another, just as he did for us — for the common Lord, that we may obey the common Lord together in the common good, in harmony, under the guidance of love.7 This is the vengeance that this sinner of yours demands be prepared for all the malicious and all his evildoers here. Prepare this, you who are most merciful, Lord — for your sinner. Come then, good Creator and my merciful judge — come, through your immeasurable mercy, forgive me all my debts, just as I, before you, forgive all who are in debt to me.✦

An Imperfect Offering Made Perfect in God

The soul offers its imperfect striving to God, trusting that divine mercy will complete what human weakness cannot.

And if my spirit does not yet bring this to perfection under your scrutiny — indeed, precisely because it does not yet — it still wills to do it, and by its own effort, through you, it accomplishes what it can; and this very thing I offer to you, so that you too may will to forgive my sins perfectly, and, as you are able, may grant pardon to my soul.8910

The Insatiable Hunger for God

The soul confesses that no word or name can satisfy its longing for God, and surrenders all requests — for friends, enemies, the living, and the dead — to the merciful wisdom of the Savior.

Hear me, hear me, great Lord, and good Lord, whose love desires to feed itself by its own affection, but my famished soul cannot satisfy itself from you; my mouth finds no name by which to call upon you that is enough for my heart.11 For no word tastes sweet to me that my affection does not receive from you, granting it.12 I prayed, Lord, as best I could, but I wanted more than I was able. Hear me, hear me — you who can do all that you will.13 I prayed as one weak and sinful — hear me, hear me, you who are powerful and merciful — and grant not only to my friends and my enemies the things I have asked for, but as you know what is best for each one, and what does not conflict with your will, distribute the remedies of your mercy to all the living and the dead; and do not answer me as my heart desires, nor as my mouth requests, but as you know and will that I ought to desire and to ask — hear me always, Savior of the world, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit live and reign, God through all ages of ages.14 Amen.

Read the original Latin

Omnipotens et pie Domine Jesu Christe, quem opto propitium amicis meis, coram te est etiam quid exoptet cor meum inimicis meis. Tu enim scrutans corda et renes Deus, tu penetras secreta mentis meae. Tibi enim patet si quid in anima servi tui seminasti quod tibi sit offerendum, nec latere te potest, si quid et ego et inimicus homo seminavimus ibi quod igne sit comburendum. Ne despicias, benignissime Deus, quod tu seminasti, sed fove, et auge. et perfice, et conserva. Quia sicut nihil boni potui incipere sine te, ita nec possum consummare vel custodire absque te. Ne me judices, misericors Deus, propter id quod tibi displicet in me, sed aufer quod non posuisti, et salva animam meam quam creasti. Non enim ego corrigere me possum sine te, quia cum boni sumus, tu ipse facis nos, et non ipsi nos.

Nec tolerare poterit anima mea, si secundum suam nequitiam judicaveris eam. Tu ergo, Domine, qui solus es potens, tu qui solus es misericors, quidquid ipse facis me desiderare inimicis meis, et illis tribue, et mihi retribue. Et si quid aliquando exopto illis extra regulam charitatis, aut ignorantia, aut infirmitate, aut malitia, bone Domine, hoc ne illis tribuas, nec mihi retribuas. Qui es lux vera, illumina caecitatem illorum. Qui es summa veritas, corrige errorem illorum. Qui es vita vera, vivifica animas illorum. Tu enim dixisti per dilectum discipulum tuum quia qui non diligit, manet in morte. Oro ergo, Domine, ut quantam jubes haberi, dones eis tui et proximi charitatem, ne habeant coram te super fratre suo peccatum.

Absit, o pie Domine, absit ne sim fratribus meis occasio mortis, ne sim illis petra scandali et lapis offensionis! Satis enim et plusquam satis est mihi, Domine, quod mihi ipsi sum scandalum, sufficit mihi meum peccatum. Obsecrat te servus tuus pro conservis suis, ne offendant benignitatem tam magni, tam boni Domini propter me, sed reconcilientur tibi, et concordent mihi secundum voluntatem tuam propter te. Haec est vindicta, quam vult exigere secretum cordis mei de conservis et inimicis et compeccatoribus meis. Haec est poena quam orat anima mea de conservis et inimicis meis, ut te et invicem, sicut tu vis et nobis expedit, diligamus, ut bono Domino, sicut pro nobis ipsis, ita et pro invicem satisfaciamus, ut communi Domino; ut communi Domino in commune bonum magistra charitate concorditer obsequamur. Hanc ultionem poscit praeparari omnibus malevolis et malefactoribus suis hic peccator tuus. Hanc praepara tu, Domine clementissime, peccatori tuo. Age ergo, bone Creator, et misericors judex meus, age per inaestimabilem misericordiam tuam, dimitte mihi omnia debita mea, sicut et ego coram te dimitto omnibus debitoribus meis.

Et si nondum, imo quia nondum id perfecte ad tuum examen facit, sed facere vult, et vim sibi faciendo, per te quod potest efficit spiritus meus, et hoc ipsum tibi offero, ut et tu velis perfecte dimittere mihi peccata mea, et sicut potes indulgeas animae meae.

Exaudi me, exaudi, magne Domine, et bone Domine, cujus amoris affectu sese pascere desiderat, sed satiare se de te non potest famelica anima mea; ad quem invocandum non invenit os meum nomen quod sufficiat cordi meo. Nullum enim verbum hoc mihi sapit quod te donante affectus meus de te capit. Oravi, Domine, ut potui, sed plus volui quam potui. Exaudi, exaudi tu, sicut potes, qui quod vis potes. Oravi ut infirmus et peccator, exaudi, exaudi, tu, sicut potens et miserator et non solum amicis et inimicis meis, quae precatus sum, tribuas, sed sicut scis unicuique expedire, et voluntati tuae non disconvenire, omnibus vivis et defunctis misericordiae tuae remedia distribuas, et me non sicut vult cor meum, nec sicut petit os meum, sed sicut scis et vis me debere velle et petere, semper exaudias, Salvator mundi, qui cum Patre et Spiritu sancto vivis et regnas Deus per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ps.7.10 — Let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and establish the righteous one — the One who tests hearts and kidneys, O righteous God.
  2. ↩2Cor.3.5 — Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God.
  3. ↩John.1.9;John.8.12 — The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. John.8.12 — Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'
  4. ↩John.14.6 — Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'
  5. ↩John.14.6 — Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'
  6. ↩1John.3.14 — We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.
  7. ↩Matt.22.37-Matt.22.39 — And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' Matt.22.38 — This is the great and first commandment. Matt.22.39 — And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
  8. ↩1Cor.10.32 — Become blameless both to Jews and to Greeks and to the church of God;
  9. ↩Matt.6.12 — And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩renes rendered as 'depths' to capture the biblical idiom of the innermost self; Latin literally 'kidneys/reins.'
  2. 2 ↩The agricultural metaphor (sowing, offering, burning) contrasts what God has planted (to be offered) with what the enemy and the self have planted (to be consumed by fire).
  3. 3 ↩The contrast between divine agency (tu ipse facis nos) and human self-effort (non ipsi nos) underscores the grace-centered anthropology of the passage.
  4. 4 ↩charitatis rendered as 'love' per lexeme policy default; 'charity' is an allowed alternative in theological-virtue contexts. The phrase extra regulam charitatis means 'beyond the rule/measure of love.'
  5. 5 ↩The quotation 'whoever does not love remains in death' echoes 1 John 3:14 (qui non diligit manet in morte). The source anchor is per dilectum discipulum tuum — 'through your beloved disciple' — which could point to John the Evangelist (author of 1 John) or possibly the Gospel of John. Final resolution deferred to tx-08 Moses stage.
  6. 6 ↩charitatem rendered as 'love' per lexeme policy default. The phrase tui et proximi charitatem combines love of God (tui) and love of neighbor (proximi), echoing the double commandment of love (Matt 22:37–39). Super fratre suo peccatum rendered as 'guilty on account of their brother' — the sense is that they should not hold sin against their brother before God.
  7. 7 ↩The repeated phrase communi Domino is rendered as 'the common Lord' to preserve the sense of shared ownership and shared good among believers; it could also be read as 'our common Lord.'
  8. 8 ↩spiritus meus rendered 'my spirit' rather than 'my soul' to preserve the distinction from animae meae ('my soul') later in the same sentence.
  9. 9 ↩The initial 'Et' functions as a discourse connective linking to the preceding prayer section rather than as a simple additive conjunction; it is rendered with 'And' to preserve the prayer's flowing cadence.
  10. 10 ↩The 'ut' clause (ut et tu velis) is treated as purpose ('so that you may will'), which fits the prayer context, though a result reading ('with the result that you will') is also grammatically possible.
  11. 11 ↩The phrase 'cujus amoris affectu sese pascere desiderat' is rendered to capture the paradox that love itself hungers to nourish itself through affection, yet finds no satisfaction apart from God.
  12. 12 ↩The ablative absolute 'te donante' is rendered 'you, granting it' to preserve the sense that all genuine spiritual taste is a gift of grace.
  13. 13 ↩The relative clause 'qui quod vis potes' is compressed into a participial phrase to preserve natural English cadence while keeping the theological force of divine omnipotence aligned with will.
  14. 14 ↩The doxology 'qui cum Patre et Spiritu sancto vivis et regnas Deus per omnia saecula saeculorum' is kept in full as a liturgical closing formula.

Orationes sive Meditationes — Collection for Princess Adeliza of Normandy companion

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