Ercole de’ Roberti, cir. 1490
Translation of the Holy Gospel According to John (John 6:55-58)
At that time Jesus said to the multitudes of the Jews: My Flesh is meat indeed, and My Blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, abideth in Me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth Me, the same also shall live by Me. This is the bread that came down from Heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. He that eateth this Bread shall live for ever.
A Message From Thérèse of Lisieux’s “Jesus, My Well Beloved, Remember Thou!”
1.
Recall, O Christ! the Father’s glories bright,
Recall the splendors of Thy heavenly home,
Which Thou didst leave, to come to earth’s dark night,
And save poor sinners who in exile roam!
Dear Jesus! bending down at Mary’s humble word,
In her Thou didst conceal Thy majesty adored.
Now that maternal breast,
Thy second heaven, Thy rest,
Remember Thou!
2.
Remember, now, the day of Thy blest birth,
How angels, quitting heaven, sang joyously:
“To God be power, glory, lasting worth;
And peace to men of good-will ever be!”
For [twenty-one] hundred years Thy promise Thou hast kept;
Thy children in that peace have waked, and worked, and slept.
To taste forever here
Thy peace, divinely dear,
I seek Thee now.
10.
…
Thou art “the Gift of God,” the Life, the Truth the Way.
Thou wilt not pass me by.
I hear Thy tender cry:
“Come to Me now!” (Jn 7,37-38)
11.
“Come unto Me, poor souls with sorrow lost!
Your heavy load My hands shall take away;
Your griefs and pains shall be forever lost,
Within the depths of love I feel for aye.”
I thirst, I thirst, O Christ! Nought else I seek, save Thee.
Borne down beneath my cross, I cry: “O comfort me!”
Be Thy dear love my home!
I come! Yes, Lord, I come!
Receive me now!
12.
Remember Thou that, though a child of light,
Too oft, alas! I have neglected Thee.
Take pity on me in life’s dreary night;
Oh, pardon all my sin and misery!
Make my sad heart rejoice Thy holy will to do;
My soul to those delights, hid in Thy gospels, woo!
That I that book of gold
Ever most dear did hold,
Remember Thou!
21.
Recall Thine awful hour of agony
When blood and tears bore witness to Thy woe.
O pearls of love! O rubies fair to see!
Thence virginal blooms of beauty ever grow.
An angel, showing Thee what harvest Thou shouldst reap,
Gave gladness to Thee, then, even while Thou didst weep.
Then truly didst Thou see,
Amongst those lilies, me!
Remember now!
23.
Remember Thou, that, steeped in direst woe,
Condemned by men, to heaven Thine eyes were raised;
And Thou didst cry: ” Soon ye My power shall know.
Soon shall ye hear My name by angels praised! “
Yet who believed Thee, then, the Son of God to be,
Thy glory veiled and hid in our humanity?
Fairest of sons of men!
My God! I knew Thee then!
Remember now!
26.
Remember, O my Jesu! Word of life!
That Thou hast loved me, dying e’en for me.
Oh, let me be with holy folly rife!
So would I, also, live and die for Thee!
Thou knowest, Lord! my wish, my loving heart’s desire, —
To make Thee loved, and then, in martyrdom expire.
I long of love to die.
O hear my ardent cry.
Remember Thou!
28.
Remember that ascending unto God,
Thou wouldst not leave us orphans sad and lone,
But didst, a Prisoner still, where we abode,
Veil on our altars all Thy pomp, my Own!
The shadow of Thy veil is, oh! how pure and bright,
Thou Living Bread of faith, heaven’s Food, my heart’s Delight.
O mystery of love!
My Bread from heaven above,
Jesus, ‘tis Thou!
29.
Remember Thou, in spite of insults hurled
Against this sacrament of love divine,
Thou dost remain in this dull, weary world,
And fix Thy dwelling in a heart like mine.
0 Bread of exiled souls! holy and heavenly Host!
No more I live — not I! in Thee my life is lost.
Thy chosen ciborium Am I.
Come, Jesu, come!
My Love art Thou.
30.
Thy sanctuary here, dear Lord, am I,
That evil men shall never dare molest.
Rest in my, heart! Oh, do not pass me by!
Thy garden I, each flower an offering blest.
But if from me Thou turn, white Lily of the vale!
I know too well those flowers would wither and would fail.
Ever, Thou Lily rare!
Bloom in my garden fair.
My life art Thou!
33.
Remember how I often long and sigh
For that last day when angels shall proclaim:
“Time is no morel The judgment draweth nigh.
Rise thou, to face thy judge! He calls thy name.”
Then swiftly shall I fly, past bounds of earth in space,
To live at last within the Vision of Thy Face.
That it alone can be
My joy eternally,
Remember Thou!
October 21, 1895.