Thou hast given me all things that I should give thee myself

…8. Though O merciful God has preserved him by thy providence who hath thought of no other thing, but how to violate thy commandments, and to set up the kingdom of sin against thee. 9. Thou hast moved that tongue which dishonored thee, thou hast governed those members which offended thee. 10. In so much as I have not only been ungrateful for thy benefits, but used thy benefits also themselves as weapons against thee. 11. Thou hast made all creatures for my use to allure me to love thee, I have abused them, and of them have divers times taken occasion of sin. 12. I have made a choice rather of the gift, than the giver. 13. I have been blinded by them, and have not lifted up mine eyes at the sight of them. 14. I have not considered how much more beautiful the Creator is, than the creature. 15. Thou hast given me all things that I should give thee myself; and all things have served me, but I never have given thee glory, or paid thy tribute.

— Penitential exercises from “The Holy Practises of a Divine Lover, or the Saintly Idiot’s Devotions” by Sister Gertrude Helen More OSB.

Gertrude Helen More (1606–1633) was a Benedictine nun and the great-great-granddaughter of St. Thomas More (1478-1535). After attending the English College at Rheims, established in response to the English revolt of King Henry VII, she took minor orders as a Benedictine at age 17, entering the Benedictine Order at Cambrai, France, as one of the founding members of what would eventually be known as Stanbrook Abbey, the abbey on which Rumer Godden based her 1969 novel In This House of Brede.