endless delight to me, there were shown to me three heavens, and in this way. By 'joy' I understood that the Father was pleased, by 'bliss' that the Son was honoured, and by 'endless delight' the Holy Spirit. The Father is pleased, the Son is honoured, the Holy Spirit takes delight. Jesus wants us to pay heed to this bliss for our salvation which is in the blessed Trinity, and to take equal delight, through his grace, whilst we are here. And this was shown to me when he said: Are you well satisfied? And by what Christ next said: If you are satisfied, I am satisfied, he made me understand that it was as if he had said: This is joy and delight enough for me, and I ask nothing else for my labour but that I may satisfy you. Generously and completely was this revealed to me. So think wisely, how great this saying is: That ever I suffered my Passion for for in that saying was given you; exalted understanding of the love and the delight that he had in our salvation. Chapter xiii Tery merrily and gladly our Lord looked into his side, Vand he gazed and said this: See how I loved you; as if he had said: My child, if you cannot look on my divinity, see here how I suffered my side to be opened and my heart to be split in two and to send out blood and water, all that was in it; and this is a delight to me, and I wish it to be so for you. Our Lord showed this to me to make us glad and merry. And with the same joyful appearance he looked down on his right, and brought to my mind where our Lady stood at the time of his Passion, and he said: Do you wish to see her? And I answered and said: Yes, good Lord, great thanks, if it be your will. Often times I had prayed for this, and I expected to see her in a bodily likeness; but I did not see her so. And Jesus, saying this, showed me a spiritual vision of her. Just as before I had seen her small and simple, now he showed her high and noble and glorious and more pleasing to him than all creatures. And so he wishes it to be I known that all who take delight in him should take delight in her, and in the delight that he has in her and she in him. And when Jesus said: Do you wish to see her? it seemed to me that I had the greatest delight that he could have given me in this spiritual vision of her which he gave me. For our Lord showed me no particular person except our Lady, St. Mary, and he showed her to me on three occasions. The first was as she conceived, the second was as she had been in her sorrow under the Cross, and the third as she is now, in delight, honour and joy. And after this our Lord showed himself to me, and he appeared to me more glorified than I had seen him before, and in this I was taught that every contemplative soul to whom it is given to look and to seek will see Mary and pass on to God through contemplation. And after this teaching, simple, courteous, joyful, again and again our Lord said to me: I am he who is highest. I am he whom you love. I am he in whom you delight. I am he whom you serve. I am he for whom you long. I am he whom you desire. I am he whom you intend. I am he who is all. I am he whom Holy Church preaches and teaches to you. I am he who showed himself before to you. I repeat these words only so that every man may accept them as our Lord intended them, according to the grace God gives him in understanding and love. And after this our Lord brought to my mind the longing that I had for him before; and I saw that nothing hindered me but sin, and I saw that this is true of us all in general, and it seemed to me that if there had been no sin, we should all have been pure and as like our Lord as he created us. And so in my folly before this time I often wondered why, through the great and prescient wisdom of God, sin was not prevented; for it seemed to me that then all would have been well. The impulse to think this was greatly to be shunned; and I mourned and sorrowed on this account, unreasonably, lacking discretion, filled with pride. Nonetheless in this vision Jesus informed me about everything needful to me. I do not say that I need no more instruction, for after he revealed this our Lord entrusted me to Holy Church, and I am hungry and thirsty and needy and sinful and frail, and willingly submit myself among all my fellow Christians to the teaching of Holy Church to the end of my life. my He answered with these words, and said: Sin is necessary. In the word 'sin', our Lord brought generally to mind all which is not good: the shameful contempt and the complete denial of himself which he endured for us in this life and in his death, and all the pains and passions, spiritual and bodily, of all his creatures. For we are all in part denied, and we ought to be denied, following our master Jesus until we are fully purged, that is to say until we have completely denied our own mortal flesh and all our inward affections which are not good. And the beholding of this, with all the pains that ever were or ever will be-and of all this I understood Christ's Passion for the greatest and surpassing pain¹5-was shown to me in an instant, and quickly turned into consolation. For our good Lord God would not have the soul frightened by this ugly sight. But I did not see sin, for I believe that it has no kind of substance, no share in being, nor can it be recognized except by the pains which it causes. And it seems 15. 'And of all this...surpassing pain': omitted by the short text, supplied from the long. See Showings, I, 245. to me that this pain is something for a time, for it purges us and makes us know ourselves and ask for mercy; for the Passion of our Lord is comfort to us against all this, and that is his blessed will for all who will be saved. He comforts readily and sweetly with his words, and says: But all will be well, and every kind of thing will be well. These words were revealed very tenderly, showing no kind of blame to me or to anyone who will be saved. So it would be most unkind of me to blame God or marvel at him on account of my sins, since he does not blame me for sin. So I saw how Christ has compassion on us because of sin; and just as I was before filled full of pain and compassion on account of Christ's Passion, so I was now in a measure filled with compassion for all my fellow Christians, and then I saw that every kind of compassion which one has for one's fellow Christians in love is Christ in us. Chapter xiv ut 116 shall study upon this, contemplating it generally, Bheavily and mournfully, saying in intention to our Lord with very great fear: Ah, good Lord, how could all things be well, because of the great harm which has come through sin to your creatures? And I wished, so far as I dared, for some plainer explanation through which my mind might be at ease about this matter. And to this our blessed Lord answered, very meekly and with a most loving manner, and he showed me that Adam's sin was the greatest harm ever done or ever to be done until the end of the world. And he also showed me that this is plainly known to all Holy Church upon earth. 16. : ms: 'you'. 147 Chapter xxiii fter this the devil returned with his heat and his stench, A and this the devil retsy, ed with his heat and his painful, and the physical heat was fearful and oppressive; and I could also hear in my ears chattering and talking, as if between two speakers, and they seemed to be both chattering at once, as if they were conducting a confused debate, and it was all low muttering. And I did not understand what they said, but all this, it seemed, was to move me to despair; and I kept on trusting in God, and spoke words aloud to comfort my soul, as I should have done to another person who was so belaboured. It seemed to me that this commotion could not be compared with anything on earth. I fixed my eyes on the same cross in which I had seen comfort before, and I occupied my tongue in speaking of Christ's Passion and in repeating the faith of Holy Church, and I fixed my heart on God with all the trust 165 And I wish to say what wretchedness is, as and the strength that was in me. And I thought privately to myself: Now you have plenty to do; if from now on you would be so busy in keeping yourself free of sin, that would be a most excellent occupation. For I truly believe that if I were safe from sin I should be very safe from all the devils of hell and the enemies of my soul. And so they occupied me all that night and into the morning, until it was a little after sunrise; and then all at once they had all gone and disappeared, leaving nothing but their stench, and that persisted for a little while. And I despised them, and so I was delivered from them by the strength of Christ's Passion. For it is so that the fiend is overcome, as Christ said before to me. O, wretched sin, what are you? You are nothing. For I saw that God is in everything; I did not see you. And when I saw that God has made everything, I did not see you. And when I saw that God is in everything, I did not see you. And when I saw that God does everything that is done, the less and the greater, I did not see you. And when I saw our Lord Jesus Christ seated in our soul so honourably, and love: and delight and rule and guard all that he has made, I did not see you. And so I am certain that you are nothing, and all those who love you and delight you and follow you and deliberately end in you, I am sure that they will be brought to nothing with you and eternally confounded. Amen, for love of him. And I wish to say what wretchedness is, as I am taught by God's revelation. Wretchedness is everything which is not good, the spiritual blindness that we fall into by our first sin, and all that follows from that wretchedness, sufferings and pains, spiritual or physical, and everything on earth or elsewhere which is not good. And then concerning this it may be asked: What are we? and to this I answer: If everything were separated from us which is not good, we should be good. When wretchedness is separated from us, God and the soul are wholly at unity and God and man are upon wholly one. What is everything on earth which divides us? I answer and say that in the respect in which it serves us it is good, and in the respect in which it will perish it is wretchedness, and in the respect that a man sets his heart it otherwise than thus it is sin. And so long as man or woman loves sin, if there be such, he is in pain beyond all pains; and when he does not love sin, but hates it and loves God, all is well. And he who truly does so, though sometimes he sin through weakness or ignorance in his will, he does not fall, because he wishes to exert himself to rise again and look upon God, whom he loves in all his will. God has made things to be loved by men or women who have been sinners; but always he loves and longs to have our love, and when we have a strong and wise love for Jesus, we are at peace. All the blessed teaching of our Lord God was shown to me in three parts, as I have said before, that is to say by bodily vision, and by words formed in my understanding, and by spiritual vision. About the bodily vision I have said as I saw, as truly as I am able. And about the words formed, I have repeated them just as our Lord revealed them to me. And about the spiritual vision, I have told a part, but I can never tell it in full; and therefore I am moved to say more about this spiritual vision, as God will give me grace. Chapter xxiv od showed me two kinds of sickness that we have, of Gwhich he wants us to be cured. One is impatience, because we bear our labour and our pain heavily. The other is despair, coming from doubtful fear, as I shall say afterwards. And it is these two which most belabour and assail us, by what our Lord showed me, and it is most
endless delight to me, there were shown to me three heavens, and in this way. By 'joy' I understood that the Father was pleased, by 'bliss' that the Son was honoured, and by 'endless delight' the Holy Spirit. The Father is pleased, the Son is honoured, the Holy Spirit takes delight. Jesus wants us to pay heed to this bliss for our salvation which is in the blessed Trinity, and to take equal delight, through his grace, whilst we are here. And this was shown to me when he said: Are you well satisfied? And by what Christ next said: If you are satisfied, I am satisfied, he made me understand that it was as if he had said: This is joy and delight enough for me, and I ask nothing else for my labour but that I may satisfy you. Generously and completely was this revealed to me. So think wisely, how great this saying is: That ever I suffered my Passion for for in that saying was given you; exalted understanding of the love and the delight that he had in our salvation. Chapter xiii Tery merrily and gladly our Lord looked into his side, Vand he gazed and said this: See how I loved you; as if he had said: My child, if you cannot look on my divinity, see here how I suffered my side to be opened and my heart to be split in two and to send out blood and water, all that was in it; and this is a delight to me, and I wish it to be so for you. Our Lord showed this to me to make us glad and merry. And with the same joyful appearance he looked down on his right, and brought to my mind where our Lady stood at the time of his Passion, and he said: Do you wish to see her? And I answered and said: Yes, good Lord, great thanks, if it be your will. Often times I had prayed for this, and I expected to see her in a bodily likeness; but I did not see her so. And Jesus, saying this, showed me a spiritual vision of her. Just as before I had seen her small and simple, now he showed her high and noble and glorious and more pleasing to him than all creatures. And so he wishes it to be I known that all who take delight in him should take delight in her, and in the delight that he has in her and she in him. And when Jesus said: Do you wish to see her? it seemed to me that I had the greatest delight that he could have given me in this spiritual vision of her which he gave me. For our Lord showed me no particular person except our Lady, St. Mary, and he showed her to me on three occasions. The first was as she conceived, the second was as she had been in her sorrow under the Cross, and the third as she is now, in delight, honour and joy. And after this our Lord showed himself to me, and he appeared to me more glorified than I had seen him before, and in this I was taught that every contemplative soul to whom it is given to look and to seek will see Mary and pass on to God through contemplation. And after this teaching, simple, courteous, joyful, again and again our Lord said to me: I am he who is highest. I am he whom you love. I am he in whom you delight. I am he whom you serve. I am he for whom you long. I am he whom you desire. I am he whom you intend. I am he who is all. I am he whom Holy Church preaches and teaches to you. I am he who showed himself before to you. I repeat these words only so that every man may accept them as our Lord intended them, according to the grace God gives him in understanding and love. And after this our Lord brought to my mind the longing that I had for him before; and I saw that nothing hindered me but sin, and I saw that this is true of us all in general, and it seemed to me that if there had been no sin, we should all have been pure and as like our Lord as he created us. And so in my folly before this time I often wondered why, through the great and prescient wisdom of God, sin was not prevented; for it seemed to me that then all would have been well. The impulse to think this was greatly to be shunned; and I mourned and sorrowed on this account, unreasonably, lacking discretion, filled with pride. Nonetheless in this vision Jesus informed me about everything needful to me. I do not say that I need no more instruction, for after he revealed this our Lord entrusted me to Holy Church, and I am hungry and thirsty and needy and sinful and frail, and willingly submit myself among all my fellow Christians to the teaching of Holy Church to the end of my life. my He answered with these words, and said: Sin is necessary. In the word 'sin', our Lord brought generally to mind all which is not good: the shameful contempt and the complete denial of himself which he endured for us in this life and in his death, and all the pains and passions, spiritual and bodily, of all his creatures. For we are all in part denied, and we ought to be denied, following our master Jesus until we are fully purged, that is to say until we have completely denied our own mortal flesh and all our inward affections which are not good. And the beholding of this, with all the pains that ever were or ever will be-and of all this I understood Christ's Passion for the greatest and surpassing pain¹5-was shown to me in an instant, and quickly turned into consolation. For our good Lord God would not have the soul frightened by this ugly sight. But I did not see sin, for I believe that it has no kind of substance, no share in being, nor can it be recognized except by the pains which it causes. And it seems 15. 'And of all this...surpassing pain': omitted by the short text, supplied from the long. See Showings, I, 245. to me that this pain is something for a time, for it purges us and makes us know ourselves and ask for mercy; for the Passion of our Lord is comfort to us against all this, and that is his blessed will for all who will be saved. He comforts readily and sweetly with his words, and says: But all will be well, and every kind of thing will be well. These words were revealed very tenderly, showing no kind of blame to me or to anyone who will be saved. So it would be most unkind of me to blame God or marvel at him on account of my sins, since he does not blame me for sin. So I saw how Christ has compassion on us because of sin; and just as I was before filled full of pain and compassion on account of Christ's Passion, so I was now in a measure filled with compassion for all my fellow Christians, and then I saw that every kind of compassion which one has for one's fellow Christians in love is Christ in us. Chapter xiv ut 116 shall study upon this, contemplating it generally, Bheavily and mournfully, saying in intention to our Lord with very great fear: Ah, good Lord, how could all things be well, because of the great harm which has come through sin to your creatures? And I wished, so far as I dared, for some plainer explanation through which my mind might be at ease about this matter. And to this our blessed Lord answered, very meekly and with a most loving manner, and he showed me that Adam's sin was the greatest harm ever done or ever to be done until the end of the world. And he also showed me that this is plainly known to all Holy Church upon earth. 16. : ms: 'you'. 147 Chapter xxiii fter this the devil returned with his heat and his stench, A and this the devil retsy, ed with his heat and his painful, and the physical heat was fearful and oppressive; and I could also hear in my ears chattering and talking, as if between two speakers, and they seemed to be both chattering at once, as if they were conducting a confused debate, and it was all low muttering. And I did not understand what they said, but all this, it seemed, was to move me to despair; and I kept on trusting in God, and spoke words aloud to comfort my soul, as I should have done to another person who was so belaboured. It seemed to me that this commotion could not be compared with anything on earth. I fixed my eyes on the same cross in which I had seen comfort before, and I occupied my tongue in speaking of Christ's Passion and in repeating the faith of Holy Church, and I fixed my heart on God with all the trust 165 And I wish to say what wretchedness is, as and the strength that was in me. And I thought privately to myself: Now you have plenty to do; if from now on you would be so busy in keeping yourself free of sin, that would be a most excellent occupation. For I truly believe that if I were safe from sin I should be very safe from all the devils of hell and the enemies of my soul. And so they occupied me all that night and into the morning, until it was a little after sunrise; and then all at once they had all gone and disappeared, leaving nothing but their stench, and that persisted for a little while. And I despised them, and so I was delivered from them by the strength of Christ's Passion. For it is so that the fiend is overcome, as Christ said before to me. O, wretched sin, what are you? You are nothing. For I saw that God is in everything; I did not see you. And when I saw that God has made everything, I did not see you. And when I saw that God is in everything, I did not see you. And when I saw that God does everything that is done, the less and the greater, I did not see you. And when I saw our Lord Jesus Christ seated in our soul so honourably, and love: and delight and rule and guard all that he has made, I did not see you. And so I am certain that you are nothing, and all those who love you and delight you and follow you and deliberately end in you, I am sure that they will be brought to nothing with you and eternally confounded. Amen, for love of him. And I wish to say what wretchedness is, as I am taught by God's revelation. Wretchedness is everything which is not good, the spiritual blindness that we fall into by our first sin, and all that follows from that wretchedness, sufferings and pains, spiritual or physical, and everything on earth or elsewhere which is not good. And then concerning this it may be asked: What are we? and to this I answer: If everything were separated from us which is not good, we should be good. When wretchedness is separated from us, God and the soul are wholly at unity and God and man are upon wholly one. What is everything on earth which divides us? I answer and say that in the respect in which it serves us it is good, and in the respect in which it will perish it is wretchedness, and in the respect that a man sets his heart it otherwise than thus it is sin. And so long as man or woman loves sin, if there be such, he is in pain beyond all pains; and when he does not love sin, but hates it and loves God, all is well. And he who truly does so, though sometimes he sin through weakness or ignorance in his will, he does not fall, because he wishes to exert himself to rise again and look upon God, whom he loves in all his will. God has made things to be loved by men or women who have been sinners; but always he loves and longs to have our love, and when we have a strong and wise love for Jesus, we are at peace. All the blessed teaching of our Lord God was shown to me in three parts, as I have said before, that is to say by bodily vision, and by words formed in my understanding, and by spiritual vision. About the bodily vision I have said as I saw, as truly as I am able. And about the words formed, I have repeated them just as our Lord revealed them to me. And about the spiritual vision, I have told a part, but I can never tell it in full; and therefore I am moved to say more about this spiritual vision, as God will give me grace. Chapter xxiv od showed me two kinds of sickness that we have, of Gwhich he wants us to be cured. One is impatience, because we bear our labour and our pain heavily. The other is despair, coming from doubtful fear, as I shall say afterwards. And it is these two which most belabour and assail us, by what our Lord showed me, and it is most
Social Psychology (10th Edition)
10th Edition
ISBN:9780134641287
Author:Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers
Publisher:Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers
Chapter1: Introducing Social Psychology
Section: Chapter Questions
Problem 1RQ1
Related questions
Question
In chapters 13 and 23 she returns to the notion of sin. What does she say about sin
(XXIII)? How do we recognize it? What is her message of consolation, about the future.
(XIII)?
Transcribed Image Text:endless delight to me, there were shown to me three
heavens, and in this way. By 'joy' I understood that the
Father was pleased, by 'bliss' that the Son was honoured,
and by 'endless delight' the Holy Spirit. The Father is
pleased, the Son is honoured, the Holy Spirit takes delight.
Jesus wants us to pay heed to this bliss for our salvation
which is in the blessed Trinity, and to take equal delight,
through his grace, whilst we are here. And this was shown
to me when he said: Are you well satisfied? And by what
Christ next said: If you are satisfied, I am satisfied, he made
me understand that it was as if he had said: This is joy and
delight enough for me, and I ask nothing else for my labour
but that I may satisfy you. Generously and completely was
this revealed to me.
So think wisely, how great this saying is: That ever I
suffered my Passion for for in that saying was given
you;
exalted understanding of the love and the delight that he had
in our salvation.
Chapter xiii
Tery merrily and gladly our Lord looked into his side,
Vand he gazed and said this: See how I loved you; as if
he had said: My child, if you cannot look on my divinity,
see here how I suffered my side to be opened and my heart
to be split in two and to send out blood and water, all that
was in it; and this is a delight to me, and I wish it to be so
for you.
Our Lord showed this to me to make us glad and
merry. And with the same joyful appearance he looked
down on his right, and brought to my mind where our Lady
stood at the time of his Passion, and he said: Do you wish to
see her? And I answered and said: Yes, good Lord, great
thanks, if it be your will. Often times I had prayed for this,
and I expected to see her in a bodily likeness; but I did not
see her so. And Jesus, saying this, showed me a spiritual
vision of her. Just as before I had seen her small and simple,
now he showed her high and noble and glorious and more
pleasing to him than all creatures. And so he wishes it to be
I known that all who take delight in him should take delight in
her, and in the delight that he has in her and she in him.
And when Jesus said: Do you wish to see her? it seemed to
me that I had the greatest delight that he could have given
me in this spiritual vision of her which he gave me. For our
Lord showed me no particular person except our Lady, St.
Mary, and he showed her to me on three occasions. The first
was as she conceived, the second was as she had been in her
sorrow under the Cross, and the third as she is now, in
delight, honour and joy.
And after this our Lord showed himself to me, and he
appeared to me more glorified than I had seen him before,
and in this I was taught that every contemplative soul to
whom it is given to look and to seek will see Mary and pass
on to God through contemplation. And after this teaching,
simple, courteous, joyful, again and again our Lord said to
me: I am he who is highest. I am he whom you love. I am
he in whom you delight. I am he whom you serve. I am he
for whom you long. I am he whom you desire. I am he
whom you intend. I am he who is all. I am he whom Holy
Church preaches and teaches to you. I am he who showed
himself before to you. I repeat these words only so that
every man may accept them as our Lord intended them,
according to the grace God gives him in understanding and
love.
And after this our Lord brought to my mind the
longing that I had for him before; and I saw that nothing
hindered me but sin, and I saw that this is true of us all in
general, and it seemed to me that if there had been no sin,
we should all have been pure and as like our Lord as he
created us. And so in my folly before this time I often
wondered why, through the great and prescient wisdom of
God, sin was not prevented; for it seemed to me that then all
would have been well.
The impulse to think this was greatly to be shunned;
and I mourned and sorrowed on this account, unreasonably,
lacking discretion, filled with pride. Nonetheless in this
vision Jesus informed me about everything needful to me. I
do not say that I need no more instruction, for after he
revealed this our Lord entrusted me to Holy Church, and I
am hungry and thirsty and needy and sinful and frail, and
willingly submit myself among all my fellow Christians to
the teaching of Holy Church to the end of my life.
my
He answered with these words, and said: Sin is
necessary. In the word 'sin', our Lord brought generally to
mind all which is not good: the shameful contempt and
the complete denial of himself which he endured for us in
this life and in his death, and all the pains and passions,
spiritual and bodily, of all his creatures. For we are all in
part denied, and we ought to be denied, following our
master Jesus until we are fully purged, that is to say until
we have completely denied our own mortal flesh and all our
inward affections which are not good.
And the beholding of this, with all the pains that ever
were or ever will be-and of all this I understood Christ's
Passion for the greatest and surpassing pain¹5-was shown to
me in an instant, and quickly turned into consolation. For
our good Lord God would not have the soul frightened by
this ugly sight. But I did not see sin, for I believe that it has
no kind of substance, no share in being, nor can it be
recognized except by the pains which it causes. And it seems
15. 'And of all this...surpassing pain': omitted by the short text, supplied from the
long. See Showings, I, 245.
to me that this pain is something for a time, for it purges us
and makes us know ourselves and ask for mercy; for the
Passion of our Lord is comfort to us against all this, and that
is his blessed will for all who will be saved. He comforts
readily and sweetly with his words, and says: But all will be
well, and every kind of thing will be well.
These words were revealed very tenderly, showing no
kind of blame to me or to anyone who will be saved. So it
would be most unkind of me to blame God or marvel at him
on account of my sins, since he does not blame me for sin.
So I saw how Christ has compassion on us because of sin;
and just as I was before filled full of pain and compassion on
account of Christ's Passion, so I was now in a measure filled
with compassion for all my fellow Christians, and then I saw
that every kind of compassion which one has for one's fellow
Christians in love is Christ in us.
Chapter xiv
ut 116 shall study upon this, contemplating it generally,
Bheavily and mournfully, saying in intention to our Lord
with very great fear: Ah, good Lord, how could all things be
well, because of the great harm which has come through sin
to your creatures? And I wished, so far as I dared, for some
plainer explanation through which my mind might be at ease
about this matter. And to this our blessed Lord answered,
very meekly and with a most loving manner, and he showed
me that Adam's sin was the greatest harm ever done or ever
to be done until the end of the world. And he also showed
me that this is plainly known to all Holy Church upon
earth.
16. : ms: 'you'.
147
Transcribed Image Text:Chapter xxiii
fter this the devil returned with his heat and his stench,
A and this the devil retsy, ed with his heat and his
painful, and the physical heat was fearful and oppressive;
and I could also hear in my ears chattering and talking, as if
between two speakers, and they seemed to be both
chattering at once, as if they were conducting a confused
debate, and it was all low muttering. And I did not
understand what they said, but all this, it seemed, was to
move me to despair; and I kept on trusting in God, and
spoke words aloud to comfort my soul, as I should have
done to another person who was so belaboured. It seemed to
me that this commotion could not be compared with
anything on earth. I fixed my eyes on the same cross in
which I had seen comfort before, and I occupied my tongue
in speaking of Christ's Passion and in repeating the faith of
Holy Church, and I fixed my heart on God with all the trust
165
And I wish to say what wretchedness is, as
and the strength that was in me. And I thought privately to
myself: Now you have plenty to do; if from now on you
would be so busy in keeping yourself free of sin, that would
be a most excellent occupation. For I truly believe that if I
were safe from sin I should be very safe from all the devils
of hell and the enemies of my soul.
And so they occupied me all that night and into the
morning, until it was a little after sunrise; and then all at
once they had all gone and disappeared, leaving nothing but
their stench, and that persisted for a little while. And I
despised them, and so I was delivered from them by the
strength of Christ's Passion. For it is so that the fiend is
overcome, as Christ said before to me.
O, wretched sin, what are you? You are nothing. For I
saw that God is in everything; I did not see you. And when
I saw that God has made everything, I did not see you. And
when I saw that God is in everything, I did not see you.
And when I saw that God does everything that is done, the
less and the greater, I did not see you. And when I saw our
Lord Jesus Christ seated in our soul so honourably, and love:
and delight and rule and guard all that he has made, I did
not see you. And so I am certain that you are nothing, and
all those who love you and delight you and follow you and
deliberately end in you, I am sure that they will be brought
to nothing with you and eternally confounded. Amen, for
love of him.
And I wish to say what wretchedness is, as I am taught
by God's revelation. Wretchedness is everything which is
not good, the spiritual blindness that we fall into by our first
sin, and all that follows from that wretchedness, sufferings
and pains, spiritual or physical, and everything on earth or
elsewhere which is not good. And then concerning this it
may be asked: What are we? and to this I answer: If
everything were separated from us which is not good, we
should be good. When wretchedness is separated from us,
God and the soul are wholly at unity and God and man are
upon
wholly one. What is everything on earth which divides us? I
answer and say that in the respect in which it serves us it is
good, and in the respect in which it will perish it is
wretchedness, and in the respect that a man sets his heart
it otherwise than thus it is sin. And so long as man or
woman loves sin, if there be such, he is in pain beyond all
pains; and when he does not love sin, but hates it and loves
God, all is well. And he who truly does so, though
sometimes he sin through weakness or ignorance in his will,
he does not fall, because he wishes to exert himself to rise
again and look upon God, whom he loves in all his will.
God has made things to be loved by men or women who
have been sinners; but always he loves and longs to have our
love, and when we have a strong and wise love for Jesus, we
are at peace.
All the blessed teaching of our Lord God was shown to
me in three parts, as I have said before, that is to say by
bodily vision, and by words formed in my understanding,
and by spiritual vision. About the bodily vision I have said
as I saw, as truly as I am able. And about the words
formed, I have repeated them just as our Lord revealed them
to me. And about the spiritual vision, I have told a part, but
I can never tell it in full; and therefore I am moved to say
more about this spiritual vision, as God will give me grace.
Chapter xxiv
od showed me two kinds of sickness that we have, of
Gwhich he wants us to be cured. One is impatience,
because we bear our labour and our pain heavily. The other
is despair, coming from doubtful fear, as I shall say
afterwards. And it is these two which most belabour and
assail us, by what our Lord showed me, and it is most
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