Chapter 6
THE REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE
God wills to be-known, and it pleases Him that we rest in Him, because nothing less than He can satisfy us. This is why no soul can be at rest until it has judged all created things as nothing. When one has deliberately valued all things as nothing in order to possess Him who is all, then is He able to receive spiritual rest.
Our Lord also showed that it is a very great pleasure to Him when a simple soul comes to Him nakedly, plainly and unpretentiously, for He is the natural dwelling of the soul touched by the Holy Spirit. This is what I understand from this showing, at any rate.
God, of Your goodness, give me Yourself, for You are enough for me. I can ask for nothing less that is completely to Your honor, and if I do ask anything less, I shall always be in want. Only in You I have all.
These words, by the goodness of God, are of great delight to the soul, and touch the will of God and His goodness directly, for His goodness encompasses all His creatures and all
His blessed works, and passes beyond them without end. For He is endlessness, and He has made us only for Himself, restores us by His blessed passion and keeps us in His blessed love. And all this He does of His goodness.
Chapter 6 How we should pray; and of the great tender love that our Lord has for man's soul — willing us to be occupied in knowing and loving
Him.
This showing was given, to my understanding to teach our souls wisely to cleave to the goodness of God. And at that same time our custom of praying was brought to my mind, how, for lack of understanding and experiencing love, we use many means [intercessors, reasons for God to grant our prayers]. And then I truly saw that it is more to the honor of God and more real pleasure to Him to have us pray, full of faith, to Him in Himself, of His goodness, and cleave to Him by His grace, with real understanding, made steadfast
THE FIRST SHOWING
by love, than if we used all the means the heart can think of. For if we use all these means it is still too little and not full honor to God. But His goodness encompasses all of them, and in it nothing at all is lacking.
Concerning this, the following example came to my mind at the same time. We pray to God, asking Him to hear us for the sake of His holy flesh, His precious blood, His holy passion, His most valuable death and glorious wounds, all His blessed kindness and the endless life we have. All this is given us through His goodness.
Again, we pray to Him to hear us for the sake of the love of the sweet mother who bore him; all the help we have from her is from His goodness.
And we pray asking Him to hear us for the sake of the holy cross He died on; all the help and all the strength we have from that cross is from His goodness. In the same way, all the help we have from particular saints and from the whole blessed company of heaven, all their most precious love and their holy, unending friendship for us is from His goodness.
God, of His goodness, has ordained many lovely means to help us. The chief and principal one among them is the blessed nature He took from the maiden. With this are included all the means that come before and follow after, which belong to the process of our redemption and eternal salvation. For this reason it pleases Him that we seek Him and worship Him using means, while understanding and knowing that He is the goodness of all of them.
For the loftiest prayer is to God of His goodness, and it comes down to the lowest part of our need. It quickens our soul and brings it to life; it makes us grow in grace and in virtue. It is nearest to our nature and readiest to give grace, for it is the same grace that the soul feels and ever shall feel until we know in reality Him who has us all enclosed in Himself.
A man walks upright and his soul is enclosed in his body as in a beautiful purse. In time of necessity, the purse is opened and closed again, quite properly. And that it is God who does this work is shown where He says He comes down
THE REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE
to us to the lowest part of our need, for He has no contempt for what He has made. Further, He does not disdain to serve us in the simplest requirements the nature of our body demands, for love of the soul He has made in His own likeness.
For as the body is clad in the clothes, and the flesh in the skin, and the bones in the flesh, and the heart in the whole, so are we, soul and body, clad and enclosed in the goodness of God. Yes, and more intimately than this, for all these may waste and wear away, but the goodness of God is ever whole and closer to us than any comparison can show. Truly, our heavenly lover desires that our soul cleave to Him with all its might, and that we continuously cleave to His goodness. For of all the things the heart may think, that most pleases God, and soonest succeeds.
Our soul is so specially loved by Him Who is the highest that it goes far beyond the ability of any creature to realize.
That is to say, there is no creature made who can realize how much, how sweetly and how tenderly our Maker loves us.
And therefore we may, with His grace and His help, stand in spirit, gazing with endless wonder at this lofty, unmeasurable love beyond human scope that Almighty God has for us because of His goodness. And therefore we may ask our Lover, with reverence, all that we will.
Our natural will is to have God, and the good will of God is to have us, and we may never cease willing or longing for Him until we have Him in the fulness of joy, and then we shall will no longer. For He wills that we be occupied in knowing and loving until the time that we shall find fulfillment in heaven.
And that is the reason this lesson of love was shown, with all that shall follow, as you shall see. For the strength and ground of everything was shown in the first vision.
For all things, the beholding and loving of the Maker most makes one's soul become less in its own sight and most fills one with reverent dread, true meekness and fulness of charity toward one's fellow Christians.