~
I see that you have endowed your vicar
by nature
with a fearless heart;
so I humbly, imploringly beg you
to pour the light beyond nature
into the eye of his understanding.
For unless this light,
acquired through pure affection for virtue,
is joined with it,
a heart such as his tends to be proud.
Today again let every selfish love be cut away
from those enemies of yours
and from the vicar
and from us all,
so that we may be able to forgive those enemies
when you bend their hardness.
For them, that they may humble themselves
and obey this lord of ours,
I offer you my life
from this moment
and for whenever you wish me to lay it down
for your glory. [pp.217-18]
From: The prayers of Catherine of Siena / edited by Suzanne Noffke. New York: Paulist Press, c1983. (vi, 257 p.)
LC#: BV245 .C3813 1983; ISBN: 0809125080
Bibliography: p. 249-250.
Taken from Other Women’s Voices