O my God and my true Fortitude! What is this, Lord, that we are cowards about everything except being against You? In opposing You, all the strength of the children of Adam is used up. And if their reason weren’t so blind, the reasonings of all together wouldn’t suffice for them to dare to take up arms against their Creator, and sustain a continual war against one who in a moment can plunge them into the abyss. But since they are blind, they are like mad people seeking their death because in their imagination it seems to them that by death they gain life. In sum, they are like people without reason. What can we do, my God, with those who have this infirmity of madness? It is said that evil itself brings them great strength. Thus, those who withdraw from my God are sick people because all their fury is turned against You who give them every good.
2. O incomprehensible Wisdom! How necessary is all the love You have for creatures in order to endure so much madness and to wait for our cure and strive to bring it about through a thousand ways and means and remedies! It is something frightening to me when I consider that we lack the strength to be restrained in some very light matter (for they are truly convinced that they are unable to give up an occasion and withdraw from a danger where they may lose their souls), and yet we have strength and courage to attack a Majesty as great as Yours. What is this, my God? What is this? Who gives this strength? Isn’t the captain, whom they follow in this battle against You, Your slave damned to eternal fire? Why does one rise up against You? How does the conquered one give courage? How is it they follow one so poor that he is driven away from the heavenly riches? What can anyone give who has nothing himself, other than a lot of unhappiness? What is this, my God? What is this, my Creator? Where does all this strength against You come from, and all this cowardice against the devil? Such an attitude would be the wrong way to attain what You have kept for us eternally and to realize that all the devil’s joys and promises are false and traitorous, even if You, my Prince, did not favor Your own, even if we owed something to this prince of darkness. What can we expect from him who was against You?
3. Oh, great blindness, my God! What extraordinary ingratitude, my King! What incurable madness, that we serve the devil with what You, my God, give us! Shall we repay the great love You bear us by loving the one who so abhors You and must abhor You forever? After the blood You shed for us, and the blows and great sorrows You suffered, and the severe torments You endured, do we, as a substitute for avenging Your heavenly Father (since He doesn’t want vengeance, and pardons the great disrespect with which His Son was treated), accept as companions and friends those who disrespectfully treated Him? Since we follow their infernal captain, it is clear we shall all be one and live forever in his company, if Your compassion does not provide a remedy and bring us back to our senses and pardon us for the past.
4. O mortals, return, return to yourselves! Behold your King, for now you will find Him meek; put an end to so much wickedness; turn your fury and your strength against the one who makes war on you and wants to take away your birthright. Turn, turn within yourselves, open your eyes, with loud cries and tears seek light from the one who gave it to the world. Understand for love of God that you with all your strength are about to kill the one who to give you life lost His own. Behold that it is He who defends you from your enemies. And if all this is not enough, let it be enough for you to know that you cannot do anything against His power and that sooner or later you shall have to pay through eternal fire for such great disrespect and boldness. Why is it you see this Majesty bound and tied by the love He bears us? What more did those who delivered Him to death do, but inflict blows and wounds on Him after He was bound?
5. Oh, my God, how much You suffer for one who grieves so little over Your pains! The time will come, Lord, when You will have to make known Your justice and whether it is the equal of Your mercy. Behold, Christians, let us consider it carefully and we shall never finish understanding the splendor of our Lord’s mercies and what we owe Him. For if His justice is so great, alas, what will become of those who have deserved that it be carried out and that it shine forth in them?