THE TRANSFIGURATION AND THE HEART OF JESUS
(composed by Saint Francis de Sales, August 6-15, 1598. Translated by a Visitandine many years ago and found in a Breviary.)
We have seen, O Lord, your shining face
Brighter a thousand times than the fair sun
When at its highest noon-day, in full light,
It gazes wide-eyed on the universe.
But if your body is so luminous,
How much more so the glory of your Heart,
So blessed, with a felicity complete
That made it, from conception, glorious.
O Heart so full of splendors that it pours
Them out on all your vesture, making it
So white and radiant that never sky
Dropped snow more pure before our wondering eyes.
Ah, who will doubt then that it gleams anew
Upon the servant, humbly following,
Who honors it amid the toils of life,
Clinging as though he were its very robe?
Come then, all you who see what glory bathes
This head divine in full felicity;
Learn that the prize of such a beauteous crown
Is given only to humility.
From Oeuvres, XXII, 106 f.