Chapter 43
THE REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE
we pray for — either in particular or in general. The joy and bliss this is to Him, and the thanks and honor we shall have for doing so, surpass the understanding of creatures, as I see it. For prayer is a just understanding of the fulness of joy that is to come, with intense longing and certain trust. The savoring of our bliss, to which we are by our proper nature ordained, makes us long; true understanding and love, with the sweet mentality of our Savior, graciously makes us trust.
In these two workings, our Lord sees us continuously, for this is our debt, and His goodness may assign us no less. Thus it is our part to do our duty diligently, and when we have done it, then we should still think that it is nothing — which is the truth.
But we are to do what we can, and truly ask mercy and grace, and all that we lack we shall find in Him. This is what
He means where He says, "I am the ground of your beseeching." And thus, in this blissful word, with this showing, I saw the complete overcoming of all our weakness and all our doubt-filled dreads.
Chapter 43 What prayer does, ordained to God's will; how the goodness of God has great delight in the deeds He does by us (as if He were beholden to us), doing all things most sweetly.
Prayer makes the soul one with God. For though the soul, restored by grace, is always like God in nature and substance, it is often unlike Him in condition, because of sin on man's part. Then prayer is a witness that the soul wills as God wills.
It comforts the conscience and fits a man for grace.
And thus God teaches us to pray, and to trust intensely that we shall receive what we ask for, for He looks at us with love and wills to make us the partner of His good deed. For this reason He stirs us to make the prayer that it delights Him to grant. In return for the prayer and good will that He wills us to have by His gift, He will reward us and give us end-
THE FOURTEENTH SHOWING
Bae less payment. This was showed in the word "And you do ask for it."
In this word God showed as much pleasure and delight as if He were beholden to us for every good deed we do; yet it is He who does it, because we ask Him intensely to do everything that delights Him. It is as if He said, "What could you do to please Me more than to ask Me, intensely, wisely and deliberately, to do the thing I will to do?" And thus the soul is brought into agreement with God by prayer.
But when our courteous Lord, of His special grace, shows Himself to our soul, we have what we desire. And for that time, we do not see what more we could pray for, because all our attention and all our powers are wholly fixed in looking at Him. This is a lofty prayer, beyond human conception, as I see it, for the whole cause of our prayer is joined to the sight and contemplation of Him to Whom we pray. Marvelously rejoicing with reverent awe, we have such great sweetness and delight in Him, for that time, that we can pray absolutely nothing except what He stirs us to pray. And well I know that the more the soul sees of God the more it desires Him, by His grace.
But when we do not see Him in this way, then we feel in our failure need and cause to pray, in order to ready ourselves for Jesus. For when the soul is tempted, troubled and left to itself in unrest, then it is time for it to pray, to make itself supple and obedient to God. But there is no kind of prayer that can make God supple to the soul, for He is always the same in love.
Thus I saw that when we see a need for which to pray, our good Lord follows us, assisting our desire. And when we, through His special grace, look at Him plainly, seeing no other need, then we follow Him and He draws us into Him by love. For I saw and felt that His marvelous and abundant goodness completely fills all our powers.
And then I saw that His continual working in every kind of thing is done so well, so wisely and so mightily that it surpasses all our imaginings and all that we can suppose and think. Then we can do no more than look at Him rejoicing,
THE REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE
with a noble, powerful desire to be entirely made one with Him — to be centered in His dwelling, rejoicing in His loving and delighting in His goodness. And then, with His sweet grace, we shall, in our own meek, continual prayer, come in to Him now, in this life, by many secret touchings of sweet, spiritual sights and feelings measured out to us in the degree that our simplicity can bear.
This is, and shall be, wrought by the grace of the Holy Spirit, until we die in longing for love. Then shall we all come in to our Lord, knowing ourselves clearly and possessing God most fully. We shall endlessly be completely possessed by God, seeing Him in truth, most fully feeling Him, spiritually hearing Him, delectably smelling Him, sweetly swallowing
Him. Then shall we see Him face to face, homely [familiarly] and most fully. The creature that is made shall see and endlessly gaze at God, Who is its Maker. No man can see God this way and continue to live afterward — that is to say, in this mortal life. But when God of His special grace wills to show Himself here, He strengthens the creature beyond its own self, and measures the showing according to His own will, as it is profitable for that time.
Chapter 44 Of the properties of the Trinity; how man's soul, a creature, has the same properties, doing what it was made for: seeing, contemplating, and marveling at its God; and that, by so doing, it seems as nothing to itself.
God frequently showed in all the revelations that man forever works His will and His honor, continually, without any stinting. What this work is was shown in the first revelation, and that was a marvelous foundation, for it was shown in the working of the most blessed soul of our blissful Lady Saint
Mary, as truth and wisdom. And how I hope by the grace of the Holy Spirit that I can say what I saw!
Truth sees God, and wisdom contemplates God. From these two comes the third, which is a holy, marvelous delight