owards the
sanctuary of Thy gracious favors and the adored tabernacle of Thy glory.
Purify me of all that is not of Thee, and strengthen me to love Thee and
to fulfill Thy pleasure, that I may delight myself in the contemplation of
Thy beauty, and be rid of all attachment to any of Thy creatures, and may,
at every moment, proclaim: "Magnified be God, the Lord of the worlds!"

Let my food, O my Lord, be Thy beauty, and my drink the light of Thy
presence, and my hope Thy pleasure, and my work Thy praise, and my
companion Thy remembrance, and my aid Thy sovereignty, and my
dwelling-place Thy habitation, and my home the seat which Thou hast
exalted above the limitations of them that are shut out as by a veil from
Thee.

Thou art, in truth, the God of power, of strength and glory.

LXXVIII: "PRAISED BE THOU, O LORD MY GOD! EVERY TIME I..."

Praised be Thou, O Lord my God! Every time I am reminded of Thee and muse
on Thy virtues, I am seized with such ecstasies and am so enravished by
Thee that I find myself unable to make mention of Thy name and to extol
Thee. I am carried back to such heights that I recognize my self to be the
same as the remembrance of Thee in Thy realm, and the essence of Thy
praise among Thy servants. As long as that self endureth, so long will Thy
praise continue to be shed abroad among Thy creatures and Thy remembrance
glorified by Thy people.

Every man endued with insight among Thy servants is persuaded that my self
liveth eternally and can never perish, inasmuch as remembrance of Thee is
eternal and will endure so long as Thine own Self endureth, and Thy praise
is everlasting and will last as long as Thine own sovereignty will last.
By its means Thou art glorified by such of Thy chosen ones as call upon
Thee and by the sincere among Thy servants. Nay, the praise wherewith any
one, in the entire creation, praiseth Thee proceedeth from this exalted
self and returneth unto it, even as the sun which, while it shineth,
sheddeth its splendor upon whatsoever may be exposed to its rays. From
this sun is generated, and unto it must return, the light which is shed
over all things.

Exalted, immeasurably exalted art Thou above any attempt to measure the
greatness of Thy Cause, above any comparison that one may seek to make,
above the efforts of the human tongue to utter its import! From
everlasting Thou hast existed, alone with no one else beside Thee, and
wilt, to everlasting, continue to rema