My sweet Lord, look with mercy upon your people and especially upon the
mystical body of your Church. Greater
glory is given to your name for pardoning a multitude of your creatures than if
I alone were pardoned for my great sins against your majesty. It would be no consolation for me to enjoy
your life if your holy peoples stood in death.
For I see that sin darkens the life of your bride the Church-my sins and
the sins of others.
It is a special
grace I ask for, this pardon for the creatures you have made in your image and
likeness. When you created man, you were
moved by love to make him in your own image.
Surely only love could so dignify your creatures. But I know very well that man lost the
dignity you gave him; he deserved to lose it, since he had committed sin.
Moved by love and
wishing to reconcile the human race to yourself, you gave us your only-begotten
Son. He became our mediator and our
justice by taking on all our injustice and sin out of obedience to your will,
eternal Father, just as you willed that he take on our human nature. What an immeasurably profound love! Your Son went down from the heights of his
divinity to the depths of our humanity.
Can anyone’s heart remain closed and hardened after this?
We image your
divinity, but you image our humanity in that union of the two which you have
worked in a man. You have veiled the
Godhead in a cloud, in the clay of our humanity. Only your love could so dignify the flesh of
Adam. And so by reason of this immeasurable
love I beg, with all the strength of my soul, that you freely extend your mercy
to all your lowly creatures. From a dialogue On Divine Providence by
Saint Catherine of Siena, virgin.
Saint
Catherine prays the prayer we should be praying. God grant us your mercy. Grant your mercy on us and on your
Church. We sin, all of us. None of us are worthy of your salvation. And yet,
You died for all of us, all of us who sin. Give us the grace to recognize our sin and
the mercy of your forgiveness. For the
Church, for all those who attempt to follow in your footsteps, grant us your
grace and mercy. For all those who would
accept your love if they had the will to believe, grant them grace and mercy to
do so. Amen. kvs
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