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Chapter 25OrdV.1.25

Karitas

The Call of Love

Charity identifies herself as Love and the lovely flower, inviting all virtues to follow her into the radiant light of the blossoming rod.

I am Love, the lovely flower — come to me, you virtues, and I'll lead you into the bright white light of the flower of the rod.12

Read the original Latin

Ego Karitas, flos amabilis – venite ad me, Virtutes, et perducam vos in candidam lucem floris virge.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩'Virge' (of the rod/shepherd's staff/branch) is morphologically uncertain; the image may echo the 'rod' of pastoral guidance or the 'branch' of Isaiah 11:1.
  2. 2 ↩Karitas rendered as 'Love' (capitalized) to mark personification of the theological virtue of charity.

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