O my Lord, how does anyone who has so poorly served You and so poorly known how to keep what You have given her dare ask for favors? What can be entrusted to one who has often been a traitor? What, then, shall I do, Consoler of the disconsolate and Cure for anyone who wants to be cured by You? Would it be better, perhaps, to keep still about my needs, hoping You will provide the remedy for them? Certainly not; for You, my Lord and my delight, knowing the many needs there must be and the comfort it is for us to rely on You, tell us to ask you and that You will not fail to give.1
2. I sometimes remember the complaint of that holy woman, Martha. She did not complain only about her sister, rather, I hold it is certain that her greatest sorrow was the thought that You, Lord, did not feel sad about the trial she was undergoing and didn’t care whether she was with You or not. Perhaps she thought You didn’t have as much love for her as for her sister. This must have caused her greater sorrow than did serving the one for whom she had such great love; for love turns work into rest. It seems that in saying nothing to her sister but in directing her whole complaint to You, Lord, that love made her dare to ask why You weren’t concerned. And even Your reply seems to refer to her complaint as I have interpreted it, for love alone is what gives value to all things; and a kind of love so great that nothing hinders it is the one thing necessary.2 But how can we possess, my God, a love in conformity with what the Beloved deserves, if Your love does not join love with itself? Shall I complain with this holy woman? Oh, I have no reason at all, for I have always seen in my God much greater and more extraordinary signs of love than I have known how to ask for or desire! If I don’t complain about the many things Your kindness has suffered for me, I have nothing to complain about. What, then, can so miserable a thing as I ask for? That You, my God, give to me what I might give to You, as St. Augustine says,3 so that I may repay You something of the great debt I owe You; that You remember that I am the work of Your hands; and that I may know who my Creator is in order to love Him.