TheCityWorships 269
What is it that I should receive? This is the body and the blood of
my Creator. This is Jesus Christ in flesh and bone, made no more
and no less than he was, when he was in the body of his Mother,
when he came forth, when he was nailed to the wood of the cross,
when he was raised, and when he went gloriously to heaven. Who is
this? This is Jesus Christ, the son of God, the king of eternal life,
savior of heaven and earth, the creator of the world, God omnipo-
tent, the food of angels, the consolation of the saints. Who is this?
This is the Son of God, who is one with the Father and with the
Holy Spirit.^214The prayer adopts the same litanic recitation of messianic titles found in the
earlier elevation prayers. Meditating on it before sacramental Communion,
the believer stood in awe that such a great God and Savior might come to
dwell within him, a wretched sinner. No wonder Salimbene and others re-
marked on the many who abstained from Communion out of humility. Yet
when the author considered the condition of one who has just received Com-
munion, new perspectives opened. After the briefest acknowledgment of per-
sonal sin and unworthiness, this prayer moves to rapturous exaltation in the
sweetness and bliss of the gift, picking up the litanic form of the preparation
prayer:
O what a matchless gift is this that I, a miserable and vile sinner,
have received in my soul? How could I approach to receive such a
boon and so great a gift? With what devotion and with how many
tears, with how much fear, how much spirit, how much fervor to
receive the highest love, the delight of Our Lady, the food of angels,
the consolation of the saints, the glory of the blessed, the true light,
the true sweetness, the true hope, the true delight, the highest glory,
and the highest consolation. Now then enjoy, and be glad! Now
do not delay! Rejoice now and burn with devotion and fervor! Be
inebriated with love, and with pleasure and sweetness, thinking well
on these most sweet, pleasant, and lovely things!^215- Ibid.: ‘‘Che chosa e questa chio debbo ricevere? Questo e lo corpo el sangue del mio creatore.
Questi e Gesu Cristo in carne et in ossa, ne piu ne meno, fatto come egli era quando fu nel corpo della
madre, et come era poiche fu uscito, et come era quando fu confitto nelegno della croce, et quando fu
risuscitato, et quando nando in cielo glorioso. Chi e questi? Questi e Gesu Cristo, figliuolo di Dio, re di
vita eterna, signore del cielo et della terra, creatore del mondo, Idio omnipotente, cibo delli angeli,
consolatione de santi. Chi e questi? Questi e figliuolo di Dio, il quale e una cosa col Padre e collo Spirito
Santo.’’ - Ibid., fol. 71 r: ‘‘O che dono smisurato e questo, chio, misero et vilissimo peccatore, ricevo nella
anima mia. Chome mi douvrei apparrechiare a ricevere cosi fatto benificio et grande dono? Con quanta
devotione, con quante lacrime, con quanto timore, con quanto spirito, con quanto fervore, a ricevere il
sommo amore, il diletto della Donna, lo cibo delli angeli, la consolatione de santi, la gloria de beati, il
vero lume, la vera dolcezza, la vera speranza, vero diletto, soma gloria, et somma consolatione. Ora
adunque godi et ti ralegra! Ora ti non mora. Et ti diletta ora, ardi per divotione, et per fervore. Ora
tinebria damore, et di soavita, et di doleza, pensando bene in queste cose dolicissime, soavissime, et
amorose.’’