Orations

^23. Better, I know well, and far more precious than eye can see, is your present lot, the song of them that keep holy-day, the throng of angels, the heavenly host, the vision of glory, and that splendour, pure and perfect beyond all other, of the Trinity Most High, no longer beyond the ken of the captive mind, dissipated by the senses, but entirely contemplated and possessed by the undivided mind, and flashing upon our souls with the whole light of Godhead: May you enjoy to the full all those things whose crumbs you did, while still upon earth, possess through the reality of your inclination towards them. And if you take any account of our affairs, and holy souls receive from God this privilege, do you accept these words of mine, in place of, and in preference to many panegyrics, which I have bestowed upon Cæsarius before you, and upon you after him— since I have been preserved to pronounce panegyrics upon my brethren. If any one will, after you, pay me the like honour, I cannot say. Yet may my only honour be that which is in God, and may my pilgrimage and my home be in Christ Jesus our Lord, to Whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be glory for ever. Amen.