Secret Harbour - Portus Secretioris: Present unto Me a pure heart

01 February 2011

Present unto Me a pure heart

Diligently examine yourself, and look most nearly and narrowly into yourself, that you may know what is in you, which is an impediment to you, for the receiving of My grace, that is to say, what is in you which displeases Me, that you may correct and amend it. Consider to what things, and by what means, you are tempted, and where you see yourself most sharply and often tempted, there seek to resist them with greatest diligence, and most earnestly endeavour. Where you find yourself weaker, there apply more forcible remedies quickly to vanquish them. Where you perceive any occasion which moves you to sin, or not to profit in this spiritual course, there cut off that scandal and impediment from you.

Have special care to present unto Me a pure heart; free from all uncleanness, and neither infected with any inordinate love to My creatures, nor occupied with any unnecessary business in this world, and labour evermore with all that you are able wholly to cleave unto Me, and still to rely upon Me. The cause why I do exhort you to a continual exercise of compunction is that by it you may keep yourself free from foreign or wandering thoughts, which you can never attain unto, except you be recollected in your mind. Neither can you come to be thus recollected, unless you lead an internal and solitary life, private to yourself and withdrawn from all worldy affairs. Wherefore mark with a watchful eye those vices, concupiscences, and wicked inclinations which reign in you, that you may never cease with all your might to persecute them, and willingly to mortify in yourself all inordinate affections.

~ Alloquia Iesu Christi ad Animam Fidelem, by Lanspergius ~

(Latin)
Credo firmiter in Patrem et Filium et Spiritum Sanctum: Patrem ingenitum, Filium unigenitum, Spiritum Sanctum ex utroque procedentem; et has tres Personas unum Deum.

Credo quod idem Dei Filius conceptus sit de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine. Credo quod Virgo castissima fuerat ante partum, virgo in partu, et post partum virgo in æternum permansit. Credo quod idem Dei Filius conceptus sit inter homines ut verus homo sine peccato. Credo quod idem Dei Filius invidiose captus est a Iudæis, injuriose tractatus, injuste ligatus, consputus, flagellatus, mortuus, sepultus. Descendit ad inferos, ut captivos suos inde liberaret. Descendit propter redemptio nem nostram, et resurrexit, ascendit ad cœlos, inde venturus judicare vivos et mortuos.

Credo Sacramenta quæ catholica credit et veneratur Ecclesia, et nominatim quod consecratur in altari verum Corpus esse, veram Carnem et verum Sanguinem Domini nostri Iesu Christi, quem et nos accipimus in remissionem peccatorum nostrorum, in spem salutis æternæ. Credo carnis resurrectionem, vitam æternam.

Confiteor et credo sanctam atque ineffabilem Trinitatem, Patrem et Filium et Spiritum Sanctum, unum Deum naturalem, unius substantiæ, unius naturæ, unius maiestatis atque virtutis. Et Patrem quidem non genitum, non creatum, sed ingenitum profitemur. Ipse Pater a nullo originem ducit, ex quo et Filius nativitatem, et Spiritus Sanctus processionem accepit. Fons ipse igitur et origo est totius Divinitatis. Ipse quoque Pater, essentia quidem ineffabilis, substantia sua Filium genuit ineffabiliter, nec tamen aliud quam quod ipse est genuit, Deus Deum, lux lucem. Ab Ipso ergo est omnis paternitas in cœlo et in terra. Amen.

(English)
I firmly believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: the Father unbegotten, the only begotten Son, the Holy Spirit proceeding from them both; and I believe that these three Persons are but one God.

I believe that the same Son of God was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. I believe that the Virgin was chaste before she bore her Child, that she remained a Virgin while she bore her Child, and continued a Virgin ever after. I believe that the same Son of God was conceived among men, a true Man with no sin. I believe the same Son of God was captured by the hatred of some of the Jews who did not believe, was bound unjustly, covered with spittle, and scourged. I believe that He died, was buried, and descended into hell to free those of His who were held there. He descended for our redemption, He rose again, He ascended into heaven, and from there He will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe also in the sacraments that the Church believes and holds in reverence, and especially that what has been consecrated on the altar is the true Flesh and the true Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we receive for the forgiveness of our sins and in the hope of eternal salvation. I believe in the resurrection of the flesh and everlasting life.

I acknowledge and believe the holy and ineffable Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to be but only one God, of only one substance, of only one nature, of only one majesty and power. We profess that the Father was neither begotten nor created but that He has begotten. The Father takes His origin from no one; of Him the Son is born and the Holy Spirit proceeds. He is the Source and Origin of all Divinity. And the Father, ineffable by His very nature, from His own substance has begotten the Son ineffably; but He has begotten nothing except what He is Himself: God has begotten God, Light has begotten Light, and it is from Him that all Fatherhood in heaven and on earth proceeds. Amen.