Visita III
The King's Delight
Jesus finds his joy in dwelling among us in the Eucharist, inviting us to treat his presence as a royal audience.
My delights are to be with the children of men.✦ Proverbs 8:31. Look at our Jesus: not content with having died on earth for love of us, even after death he wanted to remain with us in the Most Holy1 Sacrament, declaring that he finds his delights among human beings. Saint Teresa exclaims, 'O people, how can you offend a God who declares that he finds his delights in you?'✦2 Jesus finds his delights with us—and won't we find them with Jesus? Especially us, who have had the honor of living in the palace.3 How honored those vassals consider themselves to whom the king gives a place in the palace! Here is the king's palace: this house where we live with Jesus Christ. Let us know how to thank him and make use of our conversation with Jesus Christ.4
A Sinner's Prayer
A personal act of contrition and spiritual communion offered before the Blessed Sacrament.
Here I am, my Lord and God, before this altar where you remain night and day for me. You are the fountain of every good, the physician of every ill, and the treasure of every poor person. Here at your feet today is a sinner, the poorest and most infirm of all, who seeks your pity; have compassion on me. No, I will not let my misery discourage me, when I see you in this Sacrament come down from heaven to earth only to do me good.5 I praise you, I thank you, and I love you. If you want me to ask you for some alms, this is what I ask—hear me: I no longer want to offend you, and I want you to give me light and grace to love you with all my strength.6 Lord, I love you with my whole soul; I love you with all my affections. Grant that I may say it truly, and say it always in this life and for all eternity. Most Holy Mary, my holy advocates, angels, and all you blessed of paradise, help me to love my most lovable God. Ejaculation.7 Good Shepherd, true Bread, Jesus, have mercy on us; feed us, guard us; grant that we may see good things in the land of the living.8 Spiritual Communion.
The Maternal Bond
An appeal to the Blessed Virgin Mary as the guide and refuge of the soul in its journey toward God.
To Mary. Her bonds are a saving bond (Ecclus.9 6:31). The devout Pelbart says that devotion to Mary is a chain of predestination.10 Let us pray to our Lady that she may bind us ever more tightly with chains of love to confidence in her protection. Ejaculatory prayer.11 O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. A prayer of St. Germanus. My only Lady, you are the one consolation I receive from God; you are the only heavenly dew that brings cool relief to my pains; you are the light of my soul when it's surrounded by darkness; you are my guide on my journeys, my strength in my weaknesses, my treasure in my poverty, my medicine in my wounds, my consolation in my tears; you are my refuge in my miseries and the hope of my salvation: hear my prayers; have pity on me, as befits the Mother of a God who has such love for humankind.12 Grant me what I ask of you. An aspiration.13 O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
Read the original Latin
Deliciae meae esse cum filiis hominum. Prov. VIII, 31. Ecco il nostro Gesù che non contento di esser morto in terra per nostro amore, anche dopo la morte ha voluto restarsene con noi nel SS. Sacramento, dichiarando che tra gli uomini trova le sue delizie. O uomini, esclama S. Teresa, come potete offendere un Dio, che si dichiara che in voi trova le sue delizie? Gesù trova le delizie con noi, e noi non le troveremo con Gesù? Noi specialmente che abbiamo avuto l'onore di abitare in palazzo.
Come si stimano onorati quei vassalli a cui il re dà luogo in palazzo! Ecco il palazzo del re, questa casa dove abitiamo con Gesù Cristo. Sappiamo ringraziarlo ed avvalerci della conversazione di Gesù Cristo.
Eccomi dunque, mio Signore e Dio, avanti a quest'altare, dove voi vi trattenete notte e giorno per me; voi siete la fonte d'ogni bene, Voi il medico d'ogni male, Voi il tesoro d'ogni povero; ecco a' piedi vostri oggi un peccatore fra tutti il più povero, il più infermo che vi cerca pietà; abbiate compassione di me. Io non voglio no che mi disanimi la mia miseria, vedendovi in questo Sacramento sceso dal cielo in terra solo per farmi bene. Io vi lodo, io vi ringrazio, io v'amo; e se volete che vi cerchi qualche limosina, questa cerco, sentitemi: io non vi voglio più offendere, e voglio che mi diate luce e grazia d'amarvi con tutte le mie forze. Signore, io v'amo con tutta l'anima mia, v'amo con tutti gli affetti miei. Fate voi che lo dica davvero, e lo dica sempre in questa vita e per tutta l'eternità. Maria Santissima, santi miei avvocati, angeli, beati tutti del paradiso, aiutatemi ad amar il mio amabilissimo Dio. Giac. Bone Pastor, panis vere, Iesu, nostri miserere; tu nos pasce, nos tuere, tu nos bona fac videre in terra viventium.
La comunione spirituale.
A Maria. Vincula illius alligatura salutaris (Eccli. VI, 31). Dice il divoto Pelbarto che la divozione a Maria è una catena di predestinazione. Preghiamo la Signora nostra che sempre più ci stringa con catene d'amore alla confidenza della sua protezione. - Giac. O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria.
Orazione di S. Germano. O mia unica Signora, che siete l'unica consolazione ch'io ricevo da Dio, Voi che siete la sola celeste rugiada, che date refrigerio alle mie pene; Voi che siete la luce dell'anima mia, allorch'è circondata da tenebre, Voi che siete la mia guida ne' miei viaggi, la mia fortezza nelle mie debolezze, il mio tesoro nella mia povertà, la mia medicina nelle mie piaghe, la mia consolazione nelle mie lagrime; Voi che siete il mio rifugio nelle mie miserie e la speranza di mia salute, esaudite le mie preghiere, abbiate pietà di me, come conviene alla Madre d'un Dio, che ha tanto affetto verso gli uomini. Concedetemi quanto vi domando. Giac. O clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria.
Scripture echoes
Notes
- 1 ↩SS. is the Italian abbreviation for Santissimo, completed by 'Sacramento' in the next sentence; rendered as 'Most Holy' to preserve the title sequence.
- 2 ↩Italian 'si dichiara che' is slightly redundant; rendered as a single clear 'declares that' without adding meaning.
- 3 ↩In context, 'palazzo' is the royal court of Christ's presence (the church/house of the Blessed Sacrament), developed in the next section.
- 4 ↩Italian conversazione here means living companionship and spiritual converse with Christ in the Sacrament, not mere casual talk.
- 5 ↩Italian emphatic 'non voglio no' rendered as refusal-with-force ('No, I will not'); 'disanimi' as discourage rather than merely dishearten.
- 6 ↩'Limosina' kept as alms in the spiritual-beggar sense of the colloquy: not material charity, but the petition that follows (not to offend; light and grace to love).
- 7 ↩Abbreviated Italian heading 'Giac.' almost certainly stands for 'Giaculatoria' (ejaculatory prayer), labeling the Latin verse that follows.
- 8 ↩Latin stanza from the sequence Lauda Sion (Thomas Aquinas); kept as solemn prayer English, not flattened into paraphrase.
- 9 ↩Latin biblical lemma from Ecclesiasticus/Sirach: Vincula illius alligatura salutaris. Rendered 'saving bond' to keep the chain/bond image that the following Marian gloss develops; traditional English also has 'healthful binding'.
- 10 ↩Italian Pelbarto is Pelbart of Temesvár (Pelbartus de Themeswar), the Franciscan preacher often cited in Marian devotion manuals.
- 11 ↩Italian rubric Giac. abbreviates Giaculatoria, a short fervent prayer; rendered with the traditional English devotional rubric 'Ejaculation.'
- 12 ↩Italian salute rendered as salvation (spiritual), not physical health, as required by speranza di mia salute in a prayer for deliverance.
- 13 ↩Giac. expands the Italian heading Giaculatoria (short ejaculatory prayer / aspiration), matching the same label pattern in the neighboring section.
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