Monday, January 16, 2012

This makes me think... St Catherine's Prayer before the Eucharist

O boundless charity!
Just as you gave us yourself,
wholly God and wholly man,
so you left us all of yourself as food
so that while we are pilgrims in this life
we might not collapse in our weariness
but be strengthened by you, heavenly food.


O mercenary people!
And what has your God left you?
He has left himself,
wholly God and wholly man,
hidden under the whiteness of this bread.


O fire of love!
Was it not enough to gift us 
with creation in your image and likeness,
and to create us anew to grace in your Son's blood,
without giving us yourself as food,
the whole of divine being,
the whole of God?
What drove you?
Nothing but your charity,
mad with love as you are!


--St Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)
as found in Praying in the Presence of Our Lord, by Fr Benedict Groeschel, CFR

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