Saturday, April 19, 2014

Lent with St. Francis, Holy Saturday

Hail, Queen Wisdom, may the Lord protect you with your sister, holy pure Simplicity.
Lady, holy Poverty, may the Lord protect you with your sister, holy Humility.
Lady, holy Charity, may the Lord protect you with your sister, holy Obedience.
O most holy Virtues, may the Lord protect all of you, from Whom you come and proceed.
There is surely no one in the entire world who can possess any one of you unless he dies [to himself] first. Whoever possesses one and does not offend the others, possesses all.
And whoever offends one does not possess any and offends all.
And each one destroys vices and sins.
Holy Wisdom destroys Satan and all his subtlety.
Pure holy Simplicity destroys all the wisdom of this world and the wisdom of the body.
Holy Poverty destroys the desire of riches and avarice and the cares of this world.
Holy Humility destroys pride and all the people who are in the world and all things that belong to the world.
Holy Charity destroys every temptation of the devil and of the flesh and every carnal fear.
Holy Obedience destroys every wish of the body and of the flesh and binds its mortified body to obedience of the Spirit and to obedience of one’s brother and [the one who possesses her] is subject and submissive to all persons in the world and not to many only but even to all beasts and wild animals so that they may do whatever they want with him inasmuch as it has been given to them from above by the Lord.

- St. Francis, The Praises of the Virtues

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