heart sighing again for His body; 5. The constant fidelity which you alone
of sorrow; 9. Your most gracious figure was so steeped in affliction; 10. Your woeful heart was without consolation from all mankind. Oh, pure Lady, on this account forget not to be a constant protector of my whole life, and my faithful guide. Turn your eyes, your mild eyes, at all times, with compassion on me. Watch over me like a mother in every temptation. Protect me faithfully against my enemies, protect me beneath your tender arms. Let your faithful kissing of His wounds be to me as a tender reconciliation with Him; Let the wounds of your heart obtain for me a cordial repentance of my sins; Your fervent sighing procure for me a constant yearning; And let your bitter tears soften my hard heart; Be your lamentable words even as a renunciation to me of all voluptuous speeches; Your weeping form as a casting away of all dissolute conduct; Your disconsolate heart as a despising of all perishable affections.
ON SATURDAY, OR AT COMPLINE.
1. O, You ravishing brightness of eternal light, how are You at this moment, when my soul embraces You under the cross as dead in Your sorrowful mother's lap, with lamentations and thanksgiving, how are You utterly extinguished! Extinguish in me the burning desire of all vice. 2. O, You pure clear mirror of the Divine Majesty, how are You defiled for very love of me! Wash out the great stains of my evil deeds. 3. O, fair and shining Image of the Fatherly goodness, how grievously disfigured You art! Restore the disfigured image of my soul. 4. O, innocent Lamb, how piteously are You abased! Atone and reform for me my guilty sinful life. 5. O, King of all kings, O, Lord of all lords, vouchsafe me, since my soul embraces You with sorrow and lamentation in Your abasement, that it may be embraced by You with joy in Your eternal glory. O, pure Mother, worthy of all love, remember to-day, 1. The forlorn condition in which you found yourself when they tore your murdered Son from your breast; 2. Remember your separation from Him; 3. Your faltering steps; 4. Your heart sighing again for His body; 5. The constant fidelity which you alone evinced for Him in all His woe till He was laid in the grave. Obtain for me, from your tender Son, that in your sorrow and His sufferings I may subdue my own. Moreover, that I may shut myself up with Him in His sepulchre from all temporal anxieties; That I may be inspired with disgust for all this world; That I may only cherish a perpetual desire of
Him, and may persevere in His praise and service to the grave. Amen.
When all this was ready and written out, there still remained a little to make up at the end of a chapter, appertaining to our Blessed Lady, and in that very part he had left a blank space until he should be inspired with it by God, for he had been many months in a state of spiritual dereliction, so that he could not finish the chapter. Then he besought our Blessed Lady, the Mother of God, that she would do it. And, on the eve of St. Dominic, at night, after he had sung matins, it seemed to him in his sleep, as if he were in a chamber; and as if, while he was sitting there, a very fair youth entered with a ravishing harp, and with him four other youths with flutes. Then the youth with the harp sat down by the brother, and began to touch his harp, and play upon it very sweetly. This was pleasant for the brother to hear, and he said to him, O, when will you come to the place where I dwell, and lift up my heart a little with your music? Then the youth asked the brother if he was still busy with what he had for a long time been occupied with? To which he said, Yes. Then the youth answered and said: It is hard to play. So he turned to the four with flutes, and bid them blow. Then one of them answered and said that if two of them blew it would be enough. But the other said, that two would not be enough, and that they must all blow their flutes together, and he gave them a certain tune, which was well known to him, but of which the brother knew nothing, and it was done accordingly.
Meanwhile he presently neither saw nor heard any harp or flute, but saw that the youths had in their hands a picture, above all measure lovely, of our Blessed Lady, and that it was worked in cloth, and the mantle of the picture was red and purple, with damask embroidery, which it was delightful to behold, and the ground was as white as snow. Then the brother marvelled greatly, and took pleasure in the sight; and he perceived that they would needs complete it, and, first of all, fill up the empty space. Then they said, See how it grows! Presently he saw it completed. And then one of them took a needle and thread, and made on the fore part of the mantle very skilful cross stitches, and they were very finely done, and wonderfully adorned our Blessed Lady. And now his eyes were opened, and he understood that he should no longer doubt that it was given him to complete the ground, the blank space, and the
spiritual picture, which had so long been denied to him; for he was accustomed to have all that he had hitherto performed clearly manifested to him by God in the way of some similitude like the above, and so, on the morrow, he finished his work to the end.