XV
Glory by the Cross
The sick soul asks to conform to God’s will and glorify him in suffering, for glory comes only by the cross and disciples are known by its marks.
So grant, Lord, that just as I am, I may conform to your will; and that, sick as I am, I may glorify you in my sufferings. Without them I cannot come to glory; and you yourself, my Savior, would not reach it except through them.✦1 It is by the marks of your sufferings that you were recognized by your disciples; and it is by sufferings that you also recognize those who are your disciples.✦✦
Make Mine Become Yours
Acknowledged as a disciple in body and spirit, the soul asks Christ to join its will and pains to his, fill it with himself, and give the Holy Spirit.
So acknowledge me as your disciple in the afflictions I endure both in body and in spirit for the offenses I have committed; and because nothing is pleasing to God unless it is offered to him through you, unite my will to yours, and my pains to those you have suffered.✦2 Make mine become yours.3 Unite me to yourself; fill me with yourself and with your Holy Spirit.✦
You Who Suffer in Me
Christ is asked to finish his passion in the soul until he alone lives and suffers there, then fill it with the glory won by those sufferings, forever—Amen.
Enter my heart and my soul, to bear my sufferings there, and to keep enduring in me what remains for you to suffer of your passion, which you are completing in your members until the perfect consummation of your body, so that, filled with you, it may no longer be I who live and suffer, but you who live and suffer in me, O my Savior!✦✦4 and that, having in this way some small share in your sufferings, you may fill me entirely with the glory they have won for you, in which you live with the Father and the Holy Spirit, forever and ever.✦ Amen.
Read the original Latin
Faites donc, Seigneur, que tel que je sois je me conforme à votre volonté : et qu’étant malade comme je suis, je vous glorifie dans mes souffrances. Sans elles je ne puis arriver à la gloire ; et vous-même, mon Sauveur, n’y avez voulu parvenir que par elles. C’est par les marques de vos souffrances que vous avez été reconnu de vos disciples ; et c’est par les souffrances que vous reconnoissez aussi ceux qui sont vos disciples. Reconnoissez moi donc pour votre disciple dans les maux que j’endure et dans mon corps et dans mon esprit, pour les offenses que j’ai commises, et parce que rien n’est agréable à Dieu s’il ne lui est offert par vous, unissez ma volonté à la vôtre, et mes douleurs a celles que vous avez souffertes. Faites que les miennes deviennent les vôtres. Unissez-moi à vous ; remplissez-moi de vous et de votre Esprit saint. Entrez dans mon cœur et dans mon âme, pour y porter mes souffrances, et pour continuer d’endurer en moi ce qui vous reste à souffrir de votre passion, que vous achevez dans vos membres jusqu’à la consommation parfaite de votre corps, afin qu’étant plein de vous, ce ne soit plus moi qui vive et qui souffre, mais que ce soit vous qui viviez et qui souffriez en moi, ô mon Sauveur ! et qu’ainsi ayant quelque petite part à vos souffrances, vous me remplissiez entièrement de la gloire qu’elles vous ont acquise, dans laquelle vous vivez avec le Père et le Saint-Esprit, par tous les siècles des siècles.
Ainsi soit-il.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Luke.24.26 — Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?
- ↩John.20.20 — And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. So the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
- ↩Matt.16.24;Acts.14.22 — Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Acts.14.22 — strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to remain in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.
- ↩John.14.6;Heb.13.15;1Pet.2.5 — Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.' Heb.13.15 — Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God—that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. 1Pet.2.5 — and you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house, for a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
- ↩Eph.5.18;Eph.3.19 — And do not get drunk with wine, in which there is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. Eph.3.19 — to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God
- ↩Col.1.24 — Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and I am filling up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of his body, which is the church.
- ↩Gal.2.20 — I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
- ↩Rom.8.17;1Pet.4.13;2Tim.2.12 — And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. 1Pet.4.13 — But rejoice insofar as you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may rejoice with exultation at the revelation of his glory. 2Tim.2.12 — If we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us.
Notes
- 1 ↩elles = the sufferings of s1; kept as them to preserve Pascal's tight anaphoric chain from souffrances.
- 2 ↩Source has «mes douleurs a celles»; read as «à celles» (to those).
- 3 ↩les miennes / les vôtres continue the chain of douleurs/souffrances: my pains made Christ's own by union.
- 4 ↩«consommation parfaite de votre corps» rendered consummation of your body, meaning the Mystical Body brought to completion, not a bodily ending.
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