Book IV, Chapter XVI

That We Ought to Lay Open Our Necessities to Christ, and Crave His Grace

The Voice of the Disciple,

1. O most sweet and loving Lord, whom I now desire to receive with all devotion, thou knowest my weakness, and the necessity which I endure; in how great evils and vices I am immersed; how often I am oppressed, tempted, troubled, and defiled; to thee I come for remedy; I pray to thee for comfort and succor. I speak to him that knows all things, to whom all that is within me is manifest, and who alone can perfectly comfort and help me. Thou knowest what good I stand most in need of, and how poor I am in virtues.

2. Behold, I stand before thee poor and naked, begging thy grace, and imploring thy mercy: feed thy hungry beggar; inflame my coldness with the fire of thy love; enlighten my blindness with the brightness of thy presence; turn all earthly things to me into bitterness; aU things grievous and cross into patience; all things below and created, into contempt and oblivion; lift up my heart to thee in heaven, and suffer me not to wander upon earth; be thou only sweet to me from henceforth for evermore; for thou only art my meat and my drink, my love and my joy, my sweetness and all my good.

3. O that with thy presence thou wouldst inflame, burn, and transform me into thyself, that I may be made one spirit with thee, by the grace of internal union, and by the melting of ardent love! Suffer me not to go from thee hungry and dry; but deal with me in thy mercy, as thou hast dealt wonderfully with thy saints. What marvel if I should be wholly set on fire by thee, and should die to myself; since thou art a fire always burning, and never decaying; a love purifying the heart, and enlightening the understanding.

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