Since one of the things that please thee most, and most deeply touch thy heart, is to have eyes that know how to gaze upon thee, give me, Lord, such eyes as these that I may contemplate thee: eyes of the dove, simple; eyes chaste and modest; eyes humble and loving; eyes filled with devotion and with tears; eyes attentive and discerning, to know thy will and do it. May I, gazing upon thee with such eyes as these, be myself regarded with those eyes of thine with which thou didst look upon Peter when thou didst lead him to weep for his sin; with those eyes with which thou didst look upon the prodigal son when thou didst go forward to welcome him and give him the kiss of peace; with those eyes which thou didst turn towards the Publican, when he dared not raise his own towards heaven; with those eyes with which thou didst gaze upon the Magdalen, when she washed thy feet with the tears from her own; those eyes, in fine, with which thou didst gaze upon the Spouse, in the Canticles, saying to her, Behold thou art fair, thy eyes are as those of doves. Thus, well pleased with the eyes and with the beauty of my soul, adorn me with those virtues and graces with which I shall always appear beautiful in thy sight. – – St Peter Alcantara ‘Treatise on Prayer and Meditation’

St Peter of Alcantara