ON SATURDAY, OR AT COMPLINE
1. O, Thou ravishing brightness of eternal
light, how art Thou at this moment, when my soul embraces Thee under the cross
as dead in Thy sorrowful mother's lap, with lamentations and thanksgiving, how
art Thou utterly extinguished! Extinguish in me the burning desire of all vice.
2. O, Thou pure clear mirror of the Divine Majesty, how art Thou 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 Thou art!
Restore the disfigured image of my soul. 4. O, innocent Lamb, how piteously art
Thou 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 Thee with
sorrow and lamentation in Thy abasement, that it may be embraced by Thee with
joy in Thy eternal glory. O, pure Mother, worthy of all love, remember today,
1. The forlorn condition in which thou foundest thyself when they tore thy
murdered Son from thy breast; 2. Remember thy separation from Him; 3. Thy
faltering steps; 4. Thy heart sighing again for His body; 5. The constant
fidelity which thou alone didst evince for Him in all His woe till He was laid
in the grave. Obtain for me, from thy tender Son, that in thy 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 wilt thou come to the place where
I dwell, and lift up my heart a little with thy 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 skillful
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.