Young and old are glad with an exceeding joy. Oh! Thou
gentle God, how fair art Thou in Thy creatures! Oh! fields and meadows,
how surpassing is your beauty!" Or: "My dear brethren, what more shall I
say to you than that my eyes have seen many gladsome sights. I walked
across the flowering meadows and listened to the heavenly harps of the
little birds praising their gentle and loving Creator so that the woods
echoed with their songs." And, more compassionate even than St. Francis:
"I will say nothing of the children of man; but the misery and sorrow
of all the beasts and little birds, and all created things, is well-nigh
breaking my heart; and having no power to help them, I sighed, and
prayed to the Most High, Most Merciful Lord, that He would deliver
them." His description of a paradisean meadow sounds like the
description of a picture by Fra Angelico: "Now behold with your own eyes
the heavenly meadow! Lo! What summer joy! Behold the kingdom of sweet
May, the valley of all true joy! Glad eyes are gazing into glad eyes!
Hark to the harps and fiddles, the singing and laughter! Young men and
maidens are leading the dance! Love without sorrow shall reign for
ever.
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