Caput 26. Spem sublevant jam praestita Dei beneficia.
Remembered Mercy Before Birth
The soul recalls God's ancient mercy that preceded even its own birth, preparing paths and foreordaining its life.
Remember your ancient mercy, by which from the beginning you went before us with the blessings of your sweetness. For before I, the son of your handmaid, was born — O Lord, my hope from my mother's breasts (Ps.✦1 21:10) — you went before me, preparing paths for me by which I might walk and come to the glory of your house.2 Before you formed me in the womb, you knew me; and before I came forth from the womb, you foreordained concerning me whatever pleased you.
Fear and Hope in the Dark Night
Acknowledging ignorance of God's hidden counsel and the dangers of life, the soul finds hope in God's past mercies and future kindness.
What those things written about me in your book are like, in the secret of your counsel, I for my part do not know, and so I am deeply afraid; but you know. For what I await through the succession of days and times from here out to a thousand years of this temporal life is already done in the sight of your eternity; and what is still to come is already done.3 But I, standing in this dark night and not knowing these things — fear and trembling came upon me as I see many dangers threatening me from every side, myself hunted by many enemies as well, and surrounded in this life by a throng of countless miseries. And if your help were not with me in such great evils, I would despair. But I have a great hope in you, most gentle Prince, my God; and the thought of the multitude of your mercies, which are with you, lifts up my mind; and the earlier signs of your mercy—which went before me before I was born and have now shone out especially in me—urge my hope for the better and more perfect gifts of your kindness that are still to come, which you reserve for your friends, so that it may rejoice in you, Lord my God, with a holy and living joy—you who always gladden my youth.4
Created in Love for Knowledge of God
The soul affirms that God loved it first, created it in His image, and set it above all creatures, a dignity preserved in knowing Him.
For you loved me, my only Love, before I loved you, and you created me in your image and set me above all your creatures: I keep that dignity then, when I have come to know you—the purpose for which you made me.
Read the original Latin
Recordare misericordiae tuae antiquae, qua nos a principio in benedictionibus tuae dulcedinis praevenisti. Antequam enim nascerer ego filius ancillae tuae, Domine spes mea ab uberibus matris meae (Psal. XXI, 10), tu me praevenisti praeparans mihi semitas, quibus incederem et venirem ad gloriam domus tuae. Priusquam me formares in utero, novisti me; et antequam exirem de vulva, quidquid tibi placuit, praeordinasti de me. Quae qualia sunt in libro tuo de me scripta, in secreto consistorii tui, ego quidem ignoro, unde et valde timeo; tu vero nosti; quoniam quod ego per successus dierum et temporum hinc ad mille annos hujus temporalitatis exspecto, in conspectu aeternitatis tuae jam factum est; et quod futurum est, jam factum est. Ego autem stans in hac nocte tenebrosa haec ignorans, timor et tremor venerunt super me, dum video mihi undique imminere multa pericula, a multis quoque hostibus venari, multitudineque innumerarum miseriarum in hac vita circumdatum. Et nisi in tantis his malis adforet mihi tuum adminiculum, desperarem. Sed spes mihi magna subest de te, mitissime princeps Deus meus; et consideratio multitudinis miserationum tuarum, quae apud te sunt, sublevat mentem meam; et praecedentia signa misericordiae tuae, quae antequam nascerer praevenerunt me, et nunc specialiter in me effulserunt, de futuris benignitatis tuae melioribus et perfectioribus muneribus, quae tuis amicis reservas, spem meam admonent, ut in te laetetur, Domine Deus meus, laetitia sancta et viva, quae semper laetificas juventutem meam.
Dilexisti enim me, unice amor meus, antequam diligerem te, et ad imaginem tuam creasti me, omnibus creaturis tuis praeposuisti me: quam dignitatem tunc quidem servo cum noverim te, propter quod fecisti me.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.22.10 — For you are the one who drew me from the womb, who made me trust at my mother's breast.
Notes
- 1 ↩Printed sentence ends mid-citation; sense completes in s3 with Ps 21:10.
- 2 ↩Opens by closing the Ps 21:10 citation begun in s2; main clause resumes with tu me praevenisti.
- 3 ↩consistorii tui rendered as 'your counsel' (secret divine council/consistory), not an ecclesiastical court.
- 4 ↩Final quae semper laetificas is 2nd-person address to God (psalm echo), not a neat grammatical match to laetitia; rendered as apposition to Domine Deus meus.
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