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27O Queen of our heavenly King, may you, therefore, be inflamed ever more strongly with the fire of love! 28As you further contemplate His ineffable delights, riches and perpetual honors, 29and, sighing, may you cry out from the great desire and love of your heart:
30”Draw me after you,
let us run in the fragrance of your perfumes,a
O heavenly Spouse!
31I will run and not tire,
until You bring me into the wine-cellar,
32until Your left hand is under my head
and Your right hand will embrace me happily,b
You will kiss me with the happiest kiss of Your mouth.”
33Resting in this contemplation, may you remember your poor little mother, 34knowing that I have inscribed the happy memory of you indelibly on the tablets of my heart, holding you dearer than all others.
35What more? In your love may the tongue of the flesh be silent; may the tongue of the Spirit speak and say this: 36”O blessed daughter, because the love that I have for you can never be fully expressed by the tongue of the flesh,” 37it says, “what I have written is inadequate. I beg you to receive my words with kindness and devotion, seeing in them at least the motherly affection that in the fire of charity I daily feel toward you and your daughters to whom I warmly commend myself and my daughters in Christ.”
38On their part, these daughters of mine, especially the most prudent virgin Agnes, our sister, recommend themselves in the Lord to you and your daughters as much as they can.
- Insights into these passages should be sought in the rich spirituality of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries which delighted in commenting on the Canticle of Canticles, e.g., Bernard of Clairvaux, William of Saint Thierry. For an excellent discussion of this aspect, see Jean Leclercq, Monks and Love in Twelfth-Century France: Psycho-Historical Essays (Oxford: Oxford at Clarendon Press, 1979).
- It is helpful to remember that this passage also appears in the Privilege of Poverty given to Clare by Pope Gregory IX, cf. infra 86-88.
Epistola Ad Sanctam Agnetem De Praga III, Fontes Franciscani, p. 2283
27Hinc igitur caritatis ardore accendaris iugiter fortius, o regina caelestis Regis! 28Contemplans insuper indicibiles eius delicias, divitias et honores perpetuos 29et suspirando prae nimio cordis desiderio et amore proclames:
30Trahe me post te,
curremus in odorem unguentorum tuorum,
sponse caelestis!
31Curram, nec deficiam,
donec introducas me in cellam vinariam,
32donec laeva tua sit sub capite meo
et dextera feliciter amplexabitur me,
osculeris me felicissimo tui oris osculo.
33In hac contemplatione posita, habeas memoriam pauperculae matris tuae, 34sciens quod ego tuam felicem memoriam descripsi inseparabiliter in tabulis cordis mei, habens te prae omnibus cariorem.
35Quid plura? Sileat in dilectione tua lingua carnis; hoc inquit, et loquatur lingua spiritus. 36O filia benedicta, quoniam dilectionem, quam ad te habeo, nullatenus posset exprimere plenius lingua carnis, hoc inquit quae semiplene scripsi. 37Oro benigne ac devote suscipias attendens in eis saltem affectum maternum, quo circa te ac filias tuas caritatis, ardore afficior omni die, quibus me ac filias meas in Christo plurimum recommenda.
38Ipsae vero filiae meae, sed praecipue virgo prudentissima, Agnes, soror nostra, se tibi et filiabus tuis, quantum possunt, in Domino recommendant.