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When I hear from within the recesses of my heart a friendly voice echoing these kind words: "Look again, thoughtless woman see Whom your evil has nailed to the cross!" I lift my eyes and pained nearly beyond endurance dread overwhelms hope, but soon my faith helps--it secures me from fear and all the harm fear can cause; it is on faith and real thought the heart relies: these tell me it is fitting to take pride in each act of noble pity, that impulse from God; that He scorns the sin but not the sinner if her heart, soul, and mind live in and on God's goodness, and shut out everything else. |
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Notes: From B S2:34:194; first printed Tordi. 1:36 (MSs L, V2, Ve2). A third with Bernardino Ochino in mind: Tordi thinks the poem is based on a sermon by Ochino meditating the Psalmist line "Cor contritus et humiliatus Deus non despicias." Key |