10. Concerning the Offerings of Laypersons According to Their Means
Laypersons who give an offering should keep themselves from evil parsimony when giving, as much as the priest should preserve himself from greedy cupidity. This is very important for both of us because the layperson should give his offering with great love and a cheerful soul into God's generous hand. The priest should take it in humble fear and quaking heart from God's hands and should in all his actions return it to God in a praiseworthy manner; for earthly goods are like slaves when one receives them, but they are like the freeborn when one gives them away.
11. Four Things Concerning How Christians Should Conduct Themselves in Dealing with Jews
Then God taught me how Christians should conduct themselves toward Jews. One should not observe their law. One should not reside with them. One should not even spend the night in their dwelling. One should buy and sell from them without acting too friendly and without cunning or greed.
12. How a Bride Who Is United with God Rejects Consolation from All Creatures Except for That from God Alone, and How She Sinks into Pain
So speaks God's bride who has taken her rest in the sealed treasury of the holy complete Trinity: "Oh, get up and depart from me, all you creatures! You cause me pain and you are not able to console me."
The creatures say: "Why?"
The bride says: "My Love left me as I slept, as I was resting in oneness with him.""
"Can't this beautiful world and all the good it contains console you?"
"No, I see the snake of deceit and how treacherous cunning slithers into all the pleasures of this world. I also see the hook of lust in the carcass of base sweetness with which she catches many."
"Can the kingdom of heaven console you at all?"
"No, in itself it would be dead if the living God were not there."
"Well then, Lady Bride, can't the saints console you?"
"No, if they were to be separated from the living God flowing through them, they would weep more bitterly than I; for they have ascended above me and dwell deeper in God."
"Can God's Son ever console you?"
"Yes, I certainly ask him when we stroll through the flowers of holy knowledge, and I beg him full of longing that he open up for me the playful flood flowing in the Holy Trinity from which alone the soul lives.
"I cannot endure that a single consolation touch me except my Lover. I love my earthly friends in the company of heaven and I love my enemies in holy aching for their happiness. God has enough of everything; caressing souls is the only thing he cannot get enough of."
After this marvel and this consolation had been going on for eight years, God wanted to console me way beyond what was due to my soul's nobility. "No, dear Lord, do not elevate me so much," said the unworthy soul. "It's much too good for me in the lowest part; for your honor's sake I am quite happy always to remain there."
Then the poor wretch sank down among those suspended 21 and among the damned souls, and she thought this was too good. After that our Lord pursued her as he does those who experience the lowest kind ofjoy,21 for God shines beautifully into all according to the degree of holiness they achieved here in love and according to how noble in virtues they became. St. John says: "We shall see God as he is."22 This is true. But the sun shines according to the weather. There are different kinds of weather on earth under the sun, and in like manner there are different kinds of dwellings in heaven. Hence, he is to me as I can bear him and see him.
Then our Lord said: "How long do you want to be here?"
The bride said: "Oh, leave me, dear Lord, and let me sink further for your honor."
After this both soul and body entered into such a great darkness that I lost knowledge and light, and I knew nothing of God's intimacies. Even blessed love went off on its own. The soul said: "Where are you now, Lady Trust? I now want to entrust to you the duties of love, and you must preserve God's honor in me."
Then this chambermaid took charge of her lady in such a holy spirit of suffering and cheerful patience that I was living without a care. But then disbelief came and enveloped me completely in such great darkness and screamed at me in such great rage that I shuddered at its voice. It said: "If this favor had been from God, he would not have so utterly forsaken you."
The soul said: "Where are you now, Lady Constancy? Command true faith to come to me!"
Then the Father of heaven said to the soul: "Remember what you experienced and what you saw while there was nothing between me and you."
And the Son said: "Remember what your body suffered from my pain."
This is what the Holy Spirit said: "Remember what you wrote."
Then both body and soul answered with the constancy of true faith: "As I have believed, loved, enjoyed, and known, so shall I go forth from here unshaken."
After this came constant estrangement from God and enveloped the soul so completely that the blessed soul said: "Welcome, very blessed Estrangement. Fortunate I am that I was born-that you, Lady, shall now be my chambermaid, for you bring me unusual joy and incomprehensible marvels and unbearable delight as well. But, Lord, you should take delight from me and let me have estrangement from you. Ah, how good I feel, darling God, that I may bear it because love is changeable. How it comes to me I dare not say; only that gall has become honey for the palate of my soul."
Then I desired that all creatures might praise our Lord with the Te deum laudamus.23 But they did not want to do this and turned their backs on me. Then the soul became happy beyond all bounds, and herself said: "That you now despise me and turn your backs on me-look, I'm glad. This praises our Lord immeasurably. Now his honor is accomplished through me, for now God is strangely with me, now his estrangement from me is more welcome to me than he is himself." The soul knew full well that God would console her even in great estrangement. She said: "Remember, Lord, who I am and avoid me."
Our Lord said to her: "Grant me this: that I might cool the heat of my Godhead, the longing of my humanity, and the pleasure of my Holy Spirit in you."
To this she replied: "Yes, Lord, but in such a way that it is only good for you and not for me."
After this the bride entered such a great darkness that her body sweated and writhed in painful cramping. The pain was asked by someone2" to be a messenger to God for her. She said: "Lady Pain, this I bid you: that you release me now, for you are now the most important thing about me."
Then pain arose from the soul and the body like a gloomy shine and ascended to God with judicious intent and called out in a loud voice: "Lord, you know well what I want."
Our Lord went to meet her before the door of the kingdom, saying: "Welcome, Lady Pain, you are the garment I wore next to my skin on earth and the whole world's contempt was my finest mantle. Despite how much I loved you there, you are not entering here. Rather, to the virgin who is willing to do two things I shall give two things. She should constantly prove herself well-bred and prudent. Then shall she help you be her messenger, and then shall I give her my embrace and union with my heart."
Then pain said this: "Lord, I make many blessed and yet am not blessed myself, and I consume many a holy body and yet myself am evil, and I lead many to heaven and yet do not enter it myself."
To this our Lord responded: "Pain, you were not born from the kingdom of heaven; therefore, you may not enter it. Rather, you were born from Lucifer's heart; there you shall return and shall dwell with him eternally."
Ah, blessed Estrangement from God, how bound I am to you in love! You strengthen my will in pain and make pleasant for me the difficult long wait in this miserable body. By whatever means I make myself more your companion, the more intensely and wondrously God falls over me. 0 Lord, in the depths of pure humility I cannot sink away from you; alas, in pride I easily stray away from you!
But the deeper I sink,
The sweeter I drink.
13. The Text of This Book Is Seen, Heard, and Felt in All Members
I do not know how to write, nor ca
n I, unless I see with the eyes of my soul and hear with the ears of my eternal spirit and feel in all the parts of my body the power of the Holy Spirit.
14. Of the Holy Trinity, of the Birth and the Name of Jesus Christ, and of Human Nobility
I saw and still see three Persons in the eternal heights before God's Son was conceived in the body of St. Mary. They were then known and seen by all the holy angels in their distinctness, in their completeness, in their name, and in how the Three were one God. No matter how good the angels' eyes were, they saw neither bone nor flesh nor color nor the glorious name Jesus. This was miraculously hidden from them in the breast of the eternal Father. They called the Father the uncreated eternal God, the Son wisdom with no beginning, the Spirit of them both they called right knowledge of truth. The fiery angels of the highest order, who are suspended opposite the loving Godhead in the breath of the whole Trinity, served and were witness to the blissful decision when God became man. Gabriel brought only the name down at the Annunciation. He was entrusted with neither bone nor flesh nor blood. The Second Person-that was always the eternal Son. Although he had not yet assumed human nature, he had always been ours but had not been given to us before Gabriel brought the message. If this same Second Person had been flesh, for the sake of redeeming us, before the Annunciation, then it would have to be a beginning; but this never took place.2' This same Second Person had become one nature with Adam's humanity before he debased himself in sin. Although Adam's nature was broken and changed and his inheritance lost forever, God never gave up on him. Hence we were and still are able to return. God has kept his noble loving nature intact. Hence he cannot withhold himself. God immediately cast Lucifer from himself into the eternal prison, but he pursued Adam, asked him where he was, and brought him back to the path. Lucifer had only a single nature in God. When he destroyed it, he could not return.
Man has a complete nature in the Holy Trinity, and God saw fit to fashion it with his own divine hands. When his holy efforts on our behalf went for naught, he was forced back within himself by a threefold delight. For this reason he wanted to restore us with his own feet and his own hands so that we would have great oneness with him. If man had remained in paradise, God would have been immediately visible to him, would have greeted his soul and refreshed his body. Thus did I see God come from heaven to paradise, like a great angel.
Also, this same nature forces God to greet us with knowledge and with holy intimacy to the extent that we are prepared through holy virtues and true innocence. When I reflect that divine nature now includes bone and flesh, body and soul, then I become elated in great joy, far beyond what I am worth. But angels are to some degree formed according to the Holy Trinity, but they are pure spirits. The soul alone with its flesh is mistress of the house in heaven, sits next to the eternal Master of the house, and is most like him. There eye reflects in eye, there spirit flows in spirit, there hand touches hand, there mouth speaks to mouth, and there heart greets heart. Thus does the Lord and Master honor the mistress at his side. But the princes and the vassals-these are the holy angels-these the Master keeps in full view. All service and all praise the angels engage in are offered totally to the mistress as well as to the Master. Our vassals rank in nobility according to how rich in holy virtues we are on earth.26
15. Genuine Pure Love Has Four Things; If You Surrender Yourself to God, God Will Also Surrender Himself to You
Genuine pure love of God has four things about it that never rest. The first is growing desire, the second is flowing suffering, the third: burning sensation in soul and body, the fourth: constant union bound to great vigilance. No one can achieve this unless one enters into a full exchange with God, such that you give God everything that is yours, both inwardly and outwardly, and he truly gives you everything that is his inwardly and outwardly.
When the hour of bliss has passed when God gave his most sublime consolation to the loving soul, ah, then the beloved is so content that she considers everything good that estranged souls feel as pain. If you are then cross, you might well fear that the devil has anointed you.
16. Great Love Has More than Ten Parts and of Two Kinds of Complaint
Great love gets its nature from this: It does not flow with tears; rather, it burns in the great fire of heaven. Within this it flows forth most lavishly and yet remains within itself in utter calm. It climbs up closest to God yet remains utterly interior to itself. It grasps the most and keeps the least.
"0 most blessed love, where are those who know you?"
"They are totally consumed in the fire of the Holy Trinity; they do not dwell in themselves. These blessed ones can never fall into mortal sin."
"Why?"
"They are so completely permeated with and absorbed in God; the more they are tempted, the stronger they become."
"Why?"
"The longer they are here in the struggle and keep on loving, the more noble does God seem to them and the more frail and wretched they seem to themselves."
"Why?"
"The holier the love, the greater the fear; and the more consolation, the more constant the fear. But the loving soul cannot cravenly fear; she fears nobly."
There are two things that I cannot condemn enough: the first, that God's kindness is so forgotten in the world; the second, that those in religious life are so imperfect. Because of this many a fall must occur, for the perfect have never fallen.
17. Concerning a Lady Who Liked Being at Court; Concerning Her Devil Who Recommended to Her Seven Kinds of Evil
A lady had retreated from the world" and yet still wanted to serve at court. I prayed for her with all my might, both day and night, for I saw that the damage to her was so great that, if she remained there, she would woefully become the devil's companion upon her death. Why? Because she loved her importance there to excess and did not strive for God's honor. Rather, she gave herself over to idle courtly manners and kept her eyes focused on the prestige of her lord and lady.
After this a huge devil came-fiery, bloody, black, with claws, with horns,28 and with glassy eyes. It came and stood before me. But I was not afraid of it. I just blessed myself and went to sleep. Then it trundled over me like a sack full of water and tormented me so much that I sought relief from our Lord. A white angel came to my aid. It was from the fourth choir of angels and was the guardian angel of this same lady. I asked him who this enemy was and why he was assailing me.
Ah, then the lovely angel said in a heavenly voice: "He is one of the most malicious devils that hell can muster. His task is to bind up with ruinous love the hearts of the pure who really do want to be good, and he is tormenting you because you are trying to push him away from this lady."
"Alas, is he going to torment me for a long time?"
"No, God shall soon show his mercy."
After this the devil came again and shot fiery rays at me that inflicted hellish pain on me in body and soul.
I said: "Do everything to me that God allows you."
At this the devil was weakened and said: "Since you humbly submit yourself to this suffering, I am losing all my power."
The soul said: "By the living God, I admonish you to tell me your name and what your business with this lady is."
"My name-ha! That I shall not tell you because that would do me too much harm."
"You must, by the last judgment!"
"I am fostering in her fierce arrogance, deceitful cunning, and powerful lust; and I fend off from her all mercy. My name is Raging Anger that destroys spiritual hearts."
18. A Spiritual Person Resembles an Animal in Thirty Things as to His Nature29
Thus does a despondent soul lament and speak forlornly to her Lover: "Ah, Lord, for a long time I have desired two things that have not yet been granted me. The first is a faithful spiritual life. Alas, Dearest to my heart, that has all been left undone. The second is a holy end. I am so looking forward to it that I am losing my doleful earnestness."
To this our Lord replied by showing me a frail, insignific
ant little animal and saying: "Look, you are like this tiny animal."
Then I saw how the animal was brought forth on an island in the sea out of the slime that had separated from the sea between the hot sun and the water in such a way that the sun was the animal's father, the sea its mother, and the slime its matter.
Thus was Adam created by God's power on earth out of weak matter. The animal signifies true spiritual people. When a person receives a spiritual spirit, he is begotten by the burning Godhead and is conceived in his mother, God's humanity. The matter he is made of is the Holy Spirit, who rubs out his sinful nature in all respects. The animal grows toward the warm sun. So does a spiritual person who has received" God's Spirit. This is such noble seed; it sprouts and grows till the blessed person's end.
This animal does not eat. Rather, it has a large tail that is full of honey. This it sucks on every day. It also has a golden beard that rings so delightfully when it is sucking that its sweet voice and cheerful sound echo playfully in its heart; and its body is nourished by drinking the sweet honey. This tail is the death of holy people, which they cheerfully and prudently keep before their eyes in their good works and constant practice of virtue, and they joyfully practice faithfulness in patient waiting. The golden beard is God's noble love that chimes through the loving heart into the noble soul. Fortunate is he to have become a human being who ever really experiences this!
This animal has at times a natural desire to drink from the sea because of a misguided sense of thirst. It cannot regain its health unless it voids and gives back the bitter seawater. Thus it is with us sinners: when we drink of the foul puddle of the world and make use of the baseness of our flesh according to the counsels of the evil spirit, we poison ourselves with our selves. If we ever want to survive, we have to leave ourselves and give back what we owe to the world.
This animal has big ears. They are exposed to the heavens, and it listens for the song of birds. It flees vicious animals and fears the snakes of the earth. This, indeed, is also what the loving soul does. It constantly flees evil company and detests false wisdom, and its ears are wide open to hear God's wisdom.
The Flowing Light of the Godhead Page 14