To thee, therefore, I offer my heart and my whole self, and humbly devote and consecrate to thee all that I have, do, and am.
Purify, I beseech thee, my heart and senses, by the outpouring of thy gifts and graces upon me, that I may ever be able to serve thee with a chaste body, and to please thee by a clean heart. And because without thee no good can ever be accomplished, or even devised, let thy grace, I beseech thee,
Illumine our senses And make our heart With patience firm, The weakness of out ever precede and follow me; make me to be continually intent on good works; and because these of themselves are unworthy to please thee, mercifully accept them in union with the most holy works and merits of Christ Jesus, that as he, by thy overshadowing, was conceived of a most pure Virgin and became our Saviour, so from his grace, charity, and infinite merits, our wants and infirmities may be supplied.
Illumine our senses from above,
And make our hearts o’erflow with love;
With patience firm, and virtue high,
The weakness of our flesh supply. Amen.
CHAPTER V.
A METHOD OF ASPIRING TO AN INTIMATE UNION WITH GOD BY INWARD ACTS OF VIRTUE;
OR EXERCISES MOST PROPER FOR THE TRUE WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD, AND THE ATTAINMENT OF CHRISTIAN PERFECTION.
Taken from Blasius Palma, Canon Regular of St. Paul,
And published repeatedly in Italian with great approbation.
PREFACE.
The Christian who would not be wanting to his name and vocation, ought to strive continually for intimacy with God, who is his last end, and possible, his soul.
S. Dionysius the Areopagite is of opinion, that the shortest and easiest way to do this, is for the faithful soul continually to lift itself up to God by ardent aspirations and frequent acts of love, afthus to unite to him, as far as fection, and desire; as well as by panting for him, in the heart within, by speaking and conversing with him,
