Have compassion, O Lord, on the creatures thou hast made

"My Lord and my God, how truly hast thou the words of eternal life wherein we may find whatever we stand in need of, if we will but be at the pains of searching for it. But what wonder is it, if we forget thy sacred words, in that state of folly and spiritual misery into which our sins have cast us? O my God, thou Creator of the Universe, in whose presence all that thou hast yet created is no- thing in comparison with what thou art able to create: Thou, omnipotent God, who canst do infinitely more more than I am able to understand, make me the subject of thy infinite power, and grant that thy words may never be effaced from my mind.

Thou has said, Come to me all you that labor and are oppressed and I will refresh you. What can we wish for, what can we ask for more than thou hast here promised us? And why are worldlings lost but for seeking, elsewhere than in thee, for their comfort and repose? Alas, my God, how wretched and blind are those who seek for repose out of thee? Have compassion, O Lord, on the creatures thou hast made: Remember that we are strangers to ourselves, that we know not what we wish for, and that we wander far from the happiness we are in search of. Give light, O God, to souls. We are in a still more deplorable deplorable state of blindness than the man born blind was, whom we read of in the Gospel : for he earnestly wished and prayed for his sight, but we are in total darkness, and are contented to remain so. How desperate, alas, is our condition! Here, O my God, is need, at the same time, of thy omnipotent power, and of thy inexhaustible mercy.

Thou Lord of my heart, and only true God, how great a favor do I now presume to ask thee! It is no other than that thou wouldst deign to love those who do not love thee, that thou wouldst open to those who do not so much as knock, and that thou wouldst afford a cure to those who are delighted with their malady, and who studiously endeavour to encrease it. Thou hast said, my God, that thou didst come on earth, to call sinners. These, O Lord, are in the real sense sinners. Do not have regard to our blindness, but cast thine eyes on the streams of blood thy Son has poured forth for our salvation. Make the light of thy mercy shine forth through the thick cloud of our sinful passions. Consider us, O God, as the work of thy hands, and save us for thy mercy's and goodness' sake."

-- The Exclamations of the Soul to God by St Teresa of Avila