Visita XVI
The Physician of the Soul
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the divine physician who invites the suffering and sinful to find healing and refreshment in Him.
Oh, if only people always turned to the Most Holy Sacrament to seek a remedy for their ills, they certainly wouldn't be as miserable as they are! Isaiah was weeping: Is there no resin—or as the Chaldean version puts it: Is there no balm—in Gilead; or is there no physician there?✦1 (Jer. 8) Gilead, a mountain in Arabia rich in aromatic ointments, as Bede notes, is a figure of Jesus Christ, who keeps ready in this Sacrament every remedy for our ills. Why then, it seems the Redeemer is saying, do you complain, children of Adam, about your ills, when in this Sacrament you have the physician and the remedy for every one of your ills? Come to me, all of you. . . and I will refresh you. So I want to say to you, with the sisters of Lazarus: Look, the one you love is sick.✦ Lord, I am that wretched one whom you love; my soul is so wounded by the sins I have committed. My divine Physician, I come to you so that you may heal me; you can heal me, and you will: Heal my soul, for I have sinned against you.✦✦
Total Surrender to Love
The soul expresses a desire to renounce all worldly attachments and offer itself entirely to the love of Jesus.
Draw me entirely to yourself, my sweetest Jesus, with the most lovable attractions of your love. I’d rather be bound to you than be made lord of the whole earth. I desire nothing else in the world but to love you. I have little to give you, but if I could have all the kingdoms of the world, I would want them only so I could renounce them all for love of you. So I renounce for your sake what I can: all relatives, all comforts, all pleasures, even spiritual consolations; I renounce to you my freedom and my will. To you I want to give all my loves. I love you, infinite Goodness; I love you more than myself, and I hope to love you forever. — Giac.2 My Jesus, I give myself to you; accept me out of pity. Spiritual Communion.
The Mother of Mercy
A prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary, invoking her powerful intercession and mercy to heal the soul and lead it to sanctity.
To Mary. My Lady, you said to St. Bridget: No matter how much a person may sin, if with true amendment he turns back to me, I am ready at once to receive the one who returns; I do not look at how much he has sinned, but with what will he comes. For I do not disdain to anoint and heal his wounds, because I am called, and truly am, the Mother of Mercy. So if you can heal me and desire to heal me, see—I turn to you, heavenly physician: heal so many wounds of my soul; with one word you speak to your Son, I will be healed.✦ James.3 O Mary, have pity on me.✦ A prayer of St. Peter Damian. O holy Virgin, help those who beg for your assistance. Turn toward us. And have you, perhaps, because you have been deified, forgotten humankind?4 Ah no, certainly not: you already know the dangers you've left us in, and the wretched state of your servants. No, it doesn't befit a mercy as great as yours to forget a misery as great as ours. Turn toward us with your power, because the One who is powerful has given you omnipotence in heaven and on earth. Nothing is impossible for you, since you can lift even the despairing to hope for salvation.✦5 The more powerful You are, the more merciful You must be. James.6 O Mary, You can make me a saint; I hope for it from You.
Read the original Latin
Oh se gli uomini ricorressero sempre al SS. Sacramento a cercar rimedio de' loro mali, certo che non sarebbero così miserabili come sono! Piangeva Isaia: Numquid resina - o come volta il Caldeo: Numquid balsamum - non est in Galaad; aut medicus non est ibi? (Ierem. VIII) Galaad monte dell'Arabia, ricco di unguenti aromatici, come nota Beda, è figura di Gesù Cristo che tiene apparecchiati in questo Sacramento tutti i rimedi per i nostri mali. Perché dunque, par che dica il Redentore, vi lagnate, o figli di Adamo, de' vostri mali, quando voi avete in questo Sacramento il medico e 'l rimedio d'ogni vostro male? Venite ad me omnes. .
. et ego reficiam vos. Voglio dunque dirvi colle sorelle di Lazaro: Ecce quem amas infirmatur. Signore, io son quel miserabile che voi amate, tengo l'anima così impiagata per gli peccati fatti; medico mio divino, vengo a voi acciocché mi saniate; voi potete e volete guarirmi: Sana animam meam, quia peccavi tibi.
Tiratemi tutto a voi, Gesù mio dolcissimo, colle amabilissime attrattive del vostro amore. Io amo più l'essere ligato con voi che l'esser fatto signore di tutta la terra. Io non desidero altro nel mondo che l'amarvi. Io poco ho che darvi, ma se potessi avere tutt'i regni del mondo, solamente li vorrei per rinunziargli tutti per amor vostro. Vi rinunzio dunque quel che posso, tutt'i parenti, tutte le comodità, tutt'i gusti, anche le consolazioni spirituali: vi rinunzio la mia libertà, la mia volontà. A voi voglio donare tutti gli amori miei. V'amo, bontà infinita, v'amo più di me stesso e spero di amarvi in eterno. - Giac.
Gesù mio, mi dono a voi, voi accettatemi per pietà. La comunione spirituale.
A Maria. Signora mia, voi diceste a S. Brigida: Quantumcumque homo peccet, si ex vera emendatione ad me reversus fuerit, statim parata sum recipere revertentem; nec attendo quantum peccaverit, sed cum quali voluntate venit. Nam non dedignor eius plagas ungere et sanare, quia vocor et vere sum mater misericordiae. Se dunque potete sanarmi ed avete desiderio di sanarmi, ecco a voi ricorro, medica celeste, sanate tante piaghe dell'anima mia: con una parola che diciate al vostro Figlio io sarò guarito. Giac. O Maria, abbi pietà di me.
Orazione di S. Pier Damiano. O santa Vergine, soccorrete coloro che implorano la vostra assistenza. Rivolgetevi a noi. E che forse, per essere stata deificata, vi siete scordata degli uomini? Ah no certamente, Voi già sapete in quali pericoli ci avete lasciati, e lo stato miserabile de' vostri servi. No, non conviene ad una misericordia sì grande qual'è la vostra, lo scordarsi d'una sì gran miseria com'è la nostra. Rivolgetevi colla vostra potenza, perché colui ch'è potente, vi ha data l'onnipotenza in cielo ed in terra. A Voi non è impossibile alcuna cosa, mentre Voi potete sollevare anche i disperati a sperar la salute.
Quanto più siete potente tanto più dovete esser misericordiosa. Giac. O Maria, Voi mi potete far santo, da Voi lo spero.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Jer.8.22 — Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my people not been restored?
- ↩John.11.3 — So the sisters sent word to him, saying, 'Lord, the one you love is ill.'
- ↩Ps.41.5;Ps.42.4 — I said, "Lord, be gracious to me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against you." Ps.42.4 — My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
- ↩John.11.3 — So the sisters sent word to him, saying, 'Lord, the one you love is ill.'
- ↩Matt.8.8;Luke.7.7 — But the centurion replied, "Lord, I am not worthy for you to come under my roof. Only say the word, and my servant will be healed." Luke.7.7 — Therefore I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you; but say the word, and my servant will be healed.
- ↩Ps.51.1;Matt.15.22 — To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Matt.15.22 — And behold, a Canaanite woman from those regions came out and cried out, saying, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely tormented by a demon."
- ↩Gen.18.14 — Is anything too wonderful for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Italian names Isaiah as the speaker, but the Latin citation that follows is Jeremiah 8:22 (Ierem. VIII in s4–s5). The translation keeps the source’s attribution.
- 2 ↩Abbreviated Italian source attribution ("Giac."); left unresolved rather than expanded, since the full referent is not supplied in the section payload.
- 3 ↩Source is the bare Italian biblical abbreviation 'Giac.' (Giacomo = James), with no chapter/verse attached in this section payload.
- 4 ↩Italian deificata rendered as deified, preserving the traditional Marian exaltation language of the source rather than softening it to 'glorified' or 'made divine.'
- 5 ↩Italian salute rendered as salvation (spiritual rescue), the usual sense in this devotional context, not physical health.
- 6 ↩Abbreviated Italian source attribution left unresolved; likely an author or work citation (e.g. Giacomo / similar), not a full sentence to expand without a witness.
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