Chapter 80
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~ acknowledge it, but He does not will that we brood on it or that we be too full of wretchedness about ourselves.
But He wills that we hastily pay attention to Him, for He stands all alone and waits for us, continuously, sorrowfully and mournfully, until we come and He makes haste to have us with Him. For we are His joy and His delight, and He is our salvation and our life. (Where I say, "he stands all alone,"
I stop speaking about the blessed company of heaven and speak about His office and His working here on earth — as the condition of the showing demands.) Chapter 80 By three things God is worshiped and we are saved; how what we know now is only an ABC; that sweet Jesus does everything, waiting and mourning with us; but when we are in sin, Christ mourns alone; and that then it is our place, because of nature and reverence, hastily to turn again to Him.
Man stands by means of three things in this life, and by these three things God is glorified and we are helped, preserved and saved.
The first is the use of man's natural reason. The second is the common teaching of holy Church. The third is the inward, gracious working of the Holy Spirit. These three are all from one God.
God is the ground of our natural reason, God is the teaching of holy Church, and God is the Holy Spirit.
All these are different gifts, for which He wills we have great regard and to which He wills that we pay attention. For these three continuously work in us all together, entirely for God, and they are great things.
God wills that we have knowledge of this greatness here, like that in an ABC. That is to say, we can have a little knowledge here of what we shall know in its fulness in heaven, and that is in order to help us.
We know in our faith that God alone took our nature, and none but He. Furthermore we know that Christ, and none but
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He, did all the great works that belong to our salvation. Just so, He alone now accomplishes the last end, that is to Say,
He dwells here in us, He rules us, He governs us in our living, and He brings us to His bliss. And thus shall He do as long as any soul that shall come to heaven is on earth, to such an extent that if there were only one such soul on earth, He would be with that soul all alone until He had brought it to His bliss.
I believe and understand the ministration of the holy angels, as the clerks explain it, but that was not showed to me. For He Himself is nearest and meekest, highest and lowest, and does everything — not only what is necessary for us but also everything that is full of honor, for our joy in heaven.
Where I say, "He waits for us sorrowfully and mournfully," I mean all the true feeling that we have within ourselves, in contrition and in compassion, and in all moaning and mourning because we are not made one with our
Lord.
And all of this that is profitable is Christ in us.
Though some of us feel it seldom, this sorrow never passes from Christ until He has brought us out of all our woe. For love never allows Him to be without pity. When we fall into sin and abandon His mind and the preserving of our own soul, then Christ bears alone all the responsibility for us. That is why He stands "sorrowfully and mournfully."
It is our place, then, for reverence and on account of our own nature, to turn ourselves hastily back to our Lord and not leave Him alone. He is here alone with us all; that is to say, only for us is He here. When I am a stranger to Him by sin, despair or sloth, then I let my Lord stand alone, inasmuch as He is in me.
And so it goes with all of us who are sinners. But though it is true that we do this frequently, His goodness never allows us to be alone. Continuously He is with us, tenderly
He excuses us, and always He shields us from blame in His sight.
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™ Chapter 81 This blessed woman saw God in different ways; but she saw Him take no resting place except in man's soul; that He wills that we rejoice more in His love than sorrow for our frequent failings, remembering the everlasting reward and living gladly in penance; and why God allows sin.
Our good Lord showed Himself to His creature in different ways, both in heaven and on earth, but I saw Him take no place except in man's soul. He showed Himself on earth in the sweet Incarnation and His blessed passion. He showed
Himself in other ways on earth, as where I said, "I saw God in a point."
He showed Himself in still another way on earth, as if it were a pilgrimage. That is to say, He is here with us, leading us, and shall be until He has brought us all to His bliss in heaven.
He showed Himself at different times, reigning, as I have said before, but principally in man's soul. There He has made
His resting place and His glorious city. Out of this honorable seat, He shall never rise or remove Himself, without end.
Marvelous and solemn is the place where the Lord dwells, and therefore He wills that we readily pay attention to His gracious touching, more rejoicing in His complete love than sorrowing in our frequent failings. For the greatest honor we can pay Him of anything that we can do is to live gladly and merrily for His love, in our penance.
For He looks at us so tenderly that He sees all our living here as a penance. The natural longing in us for Him is a lasting penance in us, which He places in us and mercifully helps us to bear.
His love makes Him long, and His wisdom and His truth, with His rightfulness, make Him suffer in us here. In this way
He wills to see it in us, for this is our natural penance, and the highest kind, as I see it. For this penance will never leave us until the time when we are filled full and have Him for our reward. And therefore He wills that we set our hearts in that
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which endures — that is to say, that we move them from the pain that we feel into the bliss that we trust to receive.
Chapter 82 God sees the mourning of the soul with pity, and not with blame; yet we do nothing but sin, in which we are preserved in solace and in dread; for He wills we turn ourselves to Him readily, clinging to His love, seeing that He is our medicine; so must love in longing and in rejoicing; and whatsoever is contrary to this is not of God but of enmity.
But here our courteous Lord showed the moaning and the mourning of our souls, with this meaning: "I know well you will to live for My love, merrily and gladly suffering all the penance that may come to you. But inasmuch as you do not live without sin, therefore you are depressed and sorrowful.
And if you could live without sin, you would suffer, for My love, all the woe, all the tribulation and all the discomfort that could come to you. And this is the truth. But don't be too much vexed with the sin that falls to you against your will.
And here I understood that the Lord looked at the servant with pity and not with blame, for this passing life does not expect to be lived entirely without blame and sin. He loves us endlessly. We sin habitually, and He shows the sin to us most mildly. Then we sorrow and mourn prudently, turning ourselves inward to the contemplation of His mercy, clinging to His love and to His goodness, seeing that He is our medicine, and recognizing that all we do is sin.
Thus by the meekness we acquire from the sight of our sins, we please Him by faithfully being aware of His everlasting love, thanking and praising him.
"I love you and you love Me, and our love will never be separated in two. And I suffer for your profit." All this was showed me in a spiritual understanding, in His saying of the blessed words "I keep you most securely."
And by the great desire I saw in our blessed Lord, that we shall live in this way — that is to say, in longing and rejoic-
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~ ing, as this entire lesson of love shows — I understood that everything that is contrary to this [lesson] is not from Him but from enmity. And He wills that we know it by the sweet, gracious light of His natural love. If there is any such lover living on earth who is continually kept from falling, I know it not. For it was not showed me.
But it was showed that in falling and in rising we are ever preciously kept in our love. For we do not fall in the contemplation of God, and we do not stand in the contemplation of self — and both of these are true, as I see it. But the contemplation of our Lord God is the higher truth. Then we are much bound to God, because He wills, in this life, to show us this lofty truth.
And I understood that while we are in this life, it is most profitable for us that we see these truths both at once. For the noble contemplation keeps us in spiritual joy and true rejoicing in God. The other — that is, the lower contemplation — keeps us in dread and makes us ashamed of ourselves.
But our good Lord ever wills that we hold ourselves much more in the contemplation of the higher, while not abandoning the knowing of the lower, until the time we are brought up above, where we shall have our Lord Jesus for our reward and shall be filled full of joy and bliss without end.
Chapter 83 Of three properties in God: life, love and light; that our reason is brought into agreement with God, and it is the highest gift; how our faith is a light coming from the Father, measured out to us, and leading us in this night; that at the end of our woe, suddenly our eyes shall be opened in the complete light and clarity of sight that is our Maker: the Father and the Holy Spirit in Jesus our Savior.
[had in part a touching, sight and feeling in the three qualities of God in which the strength and the effect of the entire revelation stands. And these were seen in every showing, and most specifically in the twelfth, where He says frequently, "I am. it."
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The properties are these: life, love and light. In life there is marvelous homeliness; in love there is gentle courtesy; in light there is endless nature.
These three properties were seen in a single goodness. My reason wanted to be joined to this Goodness, clinging to Him with all its might. I gazed with reverent dread, greatly marveling at the sight, and at feeling the sweet agreement that our reason has with God, understanding that this agreement is the highest gift that we have received. It is grounded in nature.
; Our faith is a light naturally coming from our endless day; that is, our Father, God. In this light our Mother, Christ, and our good Lord, the Holy Spirit lead us during this passing life.
This light is measured prudently, staying with us in the night as we need it. The light is the cause of our life, and the night is the cause of our pain and of all our woe. In this condition we deserve reward and thanks from God, because we, with mercy and grace, deliberately know and live our light, walking in it wisely and mightily. And at the end of woe, suddenly our eyes shall be opened, and in rarity of sight our light shall be complete. This light is God, our Maker, the Father, and the Holy Spirit, in Christ Jesus, our Savior. Thus I saw and understood that our faith is our light in our night.
This Light is God, our endless Day.
Chapter 84 Charity is this light; that it is not so small as not to be necessary, with hard labor, for one to deserve the endless glorious thanks of God; for faith and hope lead us to charity, which is of three kinds.
This light is charity. The measuring of this light is done profitably for us by the wisdom of God. For the light is neither so large that we can clearly see our blissful day, nor is it entirely shut off from us. It is a light such that we can live in it rewardingly, deserving, with hard labor, the glorious thanks of God. And this was seen in the sixth showing, where He
THE REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE
says, "I thank you for your service and for your distressful labor." Thus, charity keeps us in faith and hope, and faith and hope lead us into charity — and at the end all shall be charity.
I had three kinds of understanding about this light, charity.
The first is uncreated charity. The second is created charity.
The third is given charity. Uncreated Charity is God. Created charity is our soul in God. Given charity is a virtue, and it is a gracious gift of the working by which we love God for Himself, and ourselves in God, and all that God loves for God.
Chapter 85 God has loved His chosen ones from eternity, and He never allows them to be hurt in a way that might lessen their bliss; how secrets, now hidden in heaven, shall be known; therefore we shall bless our
Lord that everything is so well ordained.
And I marveled greatly at this sight. For notwithstanding our simple living and our blindness here, yet our courteous
Lord beholds us endlessly, rejoicing in this working. And of all things, we can please Him best by believing it, wisely and truly, and by rejoicing with Him and in Him.
For as truly as we shall be in the bliss of God without end, praising Him and thanking Him, so truly have we been in the foresight of God, loved and known in His endless purpose from eternity. In this eternal love, He made us; in the same love He preserves us and never allows us to be hurt in any way by which our bliss might be lessened.
Therefore, when the judgment is given and we are all brought up above, then shall we clearly see, in God, the secrets that are now hidden to us. Then none of us shall be stirred to say about anything, "Lord, if it had been thus and so, it would have been completely well...." But we shall all say with one voice, "Lord, blessed may You be! Because it is this way, it is well. And now we see in truth that everything is done as You ordained it before anything was made."