Tractatus Alter, Pars Altera, Cap. 4. Oratio ad regratiandum Christo pro sua

Tractatus Alter, Pars Altera, Cap. 4. Oratio ad regratiandum Christo pro sua

I give you thanks, O Lord, for your great love and mercy, because you willed to become human for me, to take on my nature, and to be conceived by the Holy Spirit and born miraculously of the pure Virgin Mary, to be nourished and cared for, to be circumcised and offered in the temple, so that you might purify me from all impurity of mind and body and teach me to live soberly, piously, and chastely at all times. Most sweet Lord Jesus Christ, lover of my eternal salvation, I, a poor and weak man, unworthy of all consolation and every good thing, bless you and glorify your most holy name with all the saints and your chosen ones forever. And especially I thank you, my God, because out of great love and mercy you chose to become a man for me, to take on my nature, and to be conceived by the Holy Spirit beyond the ordinary use of nature, and to be miraculously born of the pure Virgin Mary, to be nourished and cared for, to be circumcised and offered in the temple, so that you might purify me from all impurity of mind and body and teach me to live soberly, piously, and chastely at all times. I’m even more grateful to you for your most sacred and bitter passion every single day and every hour of my life, because you deemed it worthy to suffer, to be crucified, to die, and to be buried for me, so that through your innocent death you might free me from eternal death and strengthen me to endure hardships by your example. Once again, I joyfully thank you, because for my consolation you rose from the tomb on the third day and appeared to your disciples in the closed room with great joy, so that I wouldn’t despair in my tribulation or in any harm and danger, but that I might have good confidence in you to be freed from present evil and firm hope on the last day to be raised to eternal life with the elect. Once again, I joyfully thank you from the depths of my heart and voice for your solemn procession and glorious ascension into heaven in the presence of your holy mother and your other disciples; for you went before me to prepare a place with you and to open for me the gate of the heavenly kingdom through your passion and cross, where you now live and reign in the eternal glory of your Father with the angels, until you return again to judge the living and the dead at the end of the age, just as the two holy angels in white garments taught us for the joy of this holy feast, who then appeared to your disciples as they looked up after you toward the stars of heaven. O how blessed are the eyes that have seen you in the flesh, and how blessed are the ears that have heard you speaking about the kingdom of God, which nothing more delightful can be heard or possessed. For me, therefore, you ascended to the heights of heaven above all the orders of angels, where the dwelling place of the blessed who reign with you in the greatest glory is, so that all my hope may rise up to you and long for you, and not remain in the lowly things nor seek delight in them. For everything is vain and slippery, completely lost and nothing, that is not of my God. Everything that distracts me from my God is to be rejected and cast aside, for it keeps me from praying devoutly and contemplating heavenly things. Therefore, I beseech you, most merciful Jesus, King of eternal glory, remember me, a poor man, in the kingdom of your Father, and now send me from heaven the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, for true comfort with new fervor and a more abundant outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Amen.