O my Lord and true God! Whoever does not know You does not love You. What a great truth this is! But, alas, Lord, there are those who don’t want to know You! A dreadful thing is the hour of death. But, alas, my Creator, how frightful will be the day when Your justice will have to be exercised! I often consider, my Christ, how pleasing and delightful Your eyes are to one who loves You; and You, my God, want to look with love. It seems to me that only one such gentle glance toward souls that You possess as Yours is enough reward for many years of service. Oh, God help me, how hard it is to explain this unless to those who have already understood how gentle the Lord is.1
2. Christians, Christians! Behold the communion you have with this great God; recognize it and don’t despise it, for just as this glance is agreeable to His lovers, it is frightful with a terrifying wrath for His persecutors. Oh, how we fail to understand that sin is a battle pitched against God with all our soul’s senses and faculties. He who can commit more sins, invents more treachery against his King. You already know, my Lord, that recalling that I might see Your divine face angered with me on this frightful day of the final judgment caused me greater fear than all the pains and furies of hell shown to me. I beg You that Your mercy may protect me from a thing that would be so sad for me, and thus I beg it of You now, Lord. What can happen to me on earth that would resemble this? I want to possess all, my God. May I not fail to enjoy peacefully so much beauty. Your Father gave You to us, may I not lose, my Lord, so precious a jewel. I confess, eternal Father, I have kept it poorly. But there is still a remedy, Lord, there is still a remedy while we live in this exile.
3. O brothers, O brothers and sons of this God! Let us try hard, let us trust hard, for you know that His Majesty says that if we are sorry for having offended Him our faults and evils will not be remembered.2 Oh, compassion so measureless! What more do we desire? Is there by chance anyone who is not ashamed to ask for so much? Now is the time to take what this compassionate Lord and God of ours gives us. Since He desires our friendship, who will deny it to one who did not refuse to shed all His blood and lose His life for us? Behold that what He asks for is nothing, since giving it is for our own benefit.
4. O Lord, God, help me! Oh, what hardness! Oh, what foolishness and blindness! If when something is lost (a needle or a sparrow hawk that isn’t worth anything other than to give a little pleasure upon seeing it fly through the air) we feel sad, why don’t we feel sad upon losing this royal eagle of God’s majesty and a kingdom of endless enjoyment? What is this? I don’t understand it. My God, cure such a great foolishness and blindness.