Verba Virginis gloriose ad filiam de modo induendi et qualia debent esse vestimenta et ornamenta, quibus debet esse ornata filia et induta.
The Call to Spiritual Adornment
Mary invites the soul to love her Son and prepares to teach the spiritual meaning of holy attire.
I am Mary, who gave birth to the true God and true man, the Son of God. I am the Queen of the angels. My Son loves you with all His heart. Therefore, you must love Him! You ought to be adorned with the most honorable garments. I will show you how they should be, and what they are.
The Garments of the Soul
The soul is instructed to clothe itself in compunction, firm affection, hope, and faith.
Just as you once wore a chemise, then a tunic, shoes, a cloak, and a necklace over your heart, so you must now possess these things spiritually. The chemise is compunction. For just as a chemise is closest to the flesh, so compunction and confession are the first path of conversion to God. Through it, the mind that once delighted in sin is cleansed, and the sordid flesh is restrained. The two shoes are two affections: the will to make amends for what you've done wrong, and the will to do good and abstain from evil. Your tunic is hope in God; just as a tunic has two sleeves, hope should encompass both justice and mercy, so that you may hope in God's mercy without neglecting His justice. Keep His justice and judgment in mind so that you don't forget His mercy, because He never performs an act of justice without mercy, nor an act of mercy without justice. The cloak is faith. For just as a cloak covers everything and everything is contained within it, so through faith a person can grasp and reach all things. This cloak should be embroidered with the signs of your Spouse’s love: how He created you, how He redeemed you, how He nurtured you, how He brought you into His Spirit, and how He opened your spiritual eyes.
The Jewels of Contemplation and Chastity
The soul is adorned with the necklace of Christ's passion and the crown of chastity to await the Bridegroom.
Your necklace is the contemplation of His passion. Let this be fixed constantly in your heart: how He was mocked and scourged; how He stood alive on the cross, bloodied and with every nerve torn; how His whole body trembled in death from the intensity of His agonizing pain; and how He commended His spirit into the hands of the Father. May this necklace always be in your heart. Let a crown be on your head—that is, chastity in your heart—so that you would rather suffer lashes than be defiled any further. Because of this, be modest and honest. Think of nothing and desire nothing except your God, your Creator; when you have Him, you have everything. And adorned in this way, you will wait for your Bridegroom.
Read the original Latin
"Ego sum Maria, que peperi verum Deum et verum hominem, filium Dei. Ego sum regina angelorum. Filius meus diligit te toto corde. Ideo dilige tu eum! Tu debes esse ornata honestissimis vestibus. Que quomodo et quales debeant esse, monstrabo tibi.
Sicut enim tu prius habuisti camisiam, inde tunicam, calceos, pallium et monile in pectore, sic nunc spiritualiter habere debes. Camisia est contricio. Sicut enim camisia propinquior est carni, sic contricio et confessio prima via est conuersionis ad Deum. Qua mens, que gaudebat in peccato, mundatur et caro sordida refrenatur.
Calcei duo sunt duo affectus, voluntas scilicet emendandi commissa et voluntas faciendi bona et abstinendi a malis. Tunica tua est spes ad Deum, quia sicut tunica habet duas manicas, sic in spe sit iusticia et misericordia, ut sic speres de misericordia Dei, quod non negligas iusticiam eius. Et sic cogita iusticiam eius et iudicium, ut non obliuiscaris misericordiam, quia nec iusticiam aliquam facit sine misericordia nec misericordiam sine iusticia.
Pallium est fides. Sicut enim pallium omnia operit et omnia in eo concludentur, sic fide homo omnia potest comprehendere et attingere. Hoc pallium debet esse respersum signis caritatis sponsi tui, quomodo scilicet creauit te, quomodo redemit te, quomodo enutriuit te et induxit te in spiritum suum et aperuit tibi oculos spirituales.
Monile est consideracio passionis eius. Hoc sit iugiter fixum in pectore tuo, quomodo derisus et flagellatus, quomodo sanguinolentus et omnibus neruis confossis viuus stabat in cruce, quomodo in morte ex passione doloris acutissimi totum corpus contremuit, quomodo in manus patris commendabat spiritum. Hoc monile semper sit in pectore tuo.
Corona sit in capite tuo, idest castitas in affectu, ut malles pati verbera quam inquinari amplius. Inde sis verecunda et honesta. Nichil cogita, nichil desidera nisi Deum tuum, creatorem tuum, quem cum habueris, omnia habes. Et sic ornata expectabis sponsum tuum."
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