PART III.
Penance; or, the sinner’s conversion, and its exercises.
FOR TUESDAY.
CHAPTER I.
Colloquy between Christ and Man on the way to do Penance.
I. The sinner lamentation over his miserable condition.
Man. Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Why do I still live, or why do I cumber the ground? I who am a dry and unfruitful tree; I, who am ever thankless and hurtful to my God, while I do nought but heap sin upon sin, and so treasure up to myself wrath against the day of wrath, and the just judgment of God? Too well I know by experience, alas, that there dwells not in me that which is good, and that the corruptible body is a load upon the soul. Therefore it is that I do evil, and sin daily; and what, is worse, I seldom or never reflect, how dreadful a thing it is, that I commit sin, and yet endeavour not with adequate tears and groans to propitiate God my Creator, whom I so often provoke to anger.
How much cause, alas, I have to weep, while I have no just cause to laugh! With a darkened heart, and a treacherous conscience; with relapses into sin and rejection of grace; with so many entanglements and occasions of sinning, what can I do but weep and groan because of them? Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes, and I will weep day and night for the losses of the time past, the dangers of that to come, and the miseries of my soul, which are multiplied without number. Ah, my Lord God! what will ever become of me, when I fail daily, and cease not to offend thee? When shall I be cured of my infirm-
