This animal has a noble temperament. It cannot remain in the sea when animals do their mating dance and the water is raging. It loves chastity and hurries up the highest mountain that it knows, and it picks out the most beautiful tree and climbs it with cheerful effort and clasps the lofty trunk; and so does it rest with great pleasure in lofty freedom. This is what the loving soul does. She finds vanity bitter and flees urgently what is merely passing that flows onward like water. She also knows how to work with great virtues and holy efforts on the highest mountain in the beautiful kingdom of heaven. Effortlessly, she climbs further into grace upon the fairest tree of the Holy Godhead. There she embraces the loftiest trunk and is herself embraced by the Holy Trinity.
This animal has two sharp horns with which it defends its body with such intelligence that it goes free among all the animals. 0 loving Soul, this you well understand. You drive the devil away from you through God's intelligence and you live in holy purity, free of all sin.
This animal has two beautiful human eyes that pour forth tears toward the beautiful mountain where it would like to be again. Ah, loving Soul, how fair are the eyes of your knowledge, for you have gazed into the eternal mirror and your sweet tears are ready to fall from love. And yet you willingly endure the bitterness of the sea of sin.
This animal has a soft mouth and a pure tongue, but it does not have teeth. It can neither snarl nor bite. The loving person also has a useful mouth; he eagerly teaches and instructs at all times. His tongue is far from and closed to all harmful words. He, too, has no teeth for biting. He willingly consoles those who are sad. There is also no viciousness in him except against sin and derision of God. Indeed, nothing hurts him as much as this. The mouth of this animal is wide open on top and small at the bottom. The large part of our mouth is the unrestrained praise that we should offer to God in the company of all creatures in all our actions and in all things at all times. The lower part of our mouth is all too ready to speak about the sinful earth. Woe to all empty phrases! What shall become of the impostor saints who fraudulently nourish their sinful bodies with gifts meant for holy people and comport themselves as though they gained complete knowledge of God's holy truth? May God in his trustworthiness, who alone has loved the truth, preserve his innocent friends from them!
This animal is swift of foot and has no voice. It is quiet by nature. The soul in rapture has this same nature: at the height of love she is both swift and at rest.
This animal's skin and hair are of a common color, and is faded and ugly to behold. No one hunts it for its present beauty. But after its death, when other animals rot, its skin becomes so ennobled and its hair so richly beautiful that all the most prominent people that can get it wear its coat rather than the finest sable. The peace, useful habits, and holy teachings of people striving for perfection receive, alas, little notice during their lifetime; but after their death, whenever we sinners come into need and we then remember how holy their lives were and how solicitously they warned us, as sinners we feel shame that we kept our distance from them. And so their life becomes a beautiful sable that in its full beauty we sinners keep before our eyes and in our hearts. And yet during their life, we always fear for our worthless copper, so that we willfully neglect reaching out for refined gold.
This animal's flesh is eaten on Friday. It does not die unless it is beaten to death by the waves of the sea. The lives of holy people consist only of Fridays, for they constantly fast because of sin and do not eat forbidden foods; rather, they live in a godlike manner. The great stormy swells of tempestuous love make them die to all things and live in God alone. Indeed, all things are not really theirs except as shared with God in love. Thus does their love have the valuable power of praising God in all things.
This animal's bones are the skeleton of a noble fish.' From it one can fashion beautiful jewels that noble persons wear in honor. What a precious jewel is a holy body full of love and free from sin! God shows us this through the example of his dearest friends when we discover the true signs in them. In his holy friends God has given us many a valuable jewel. If we do not praise him for this, we cannot become one with the saints, whom one here elevates from the earth.32
This animal's name is, in German: Valuable for Everything.33 Fortunate is he that he ever became man who has this name before God.
19. The Task of Blessed Love Is Manifold
20. The Six Virtues of St. Dominic
On the feast of St. Dominic I prayed to our Lord for the whole Order of Preachers. Our dear Lord deigned to come to me himself and he brought along St. Dominic whom, if I dare say it, I love above all the saints.
Our Lord said: "My son Dominic had four things about him while on earth that all priors should have about them. He loved his fellow Dominicans so much that he could never bear to trouble them with things arising from some whim of his own. The second is that he often improved the food to help and show affection for his brethren, so that the young brothers might not think back on the world and so that the older ones might not succumb on the way. The third is that in holy wisdom he provided for them the model for being moderate, for the sake of God, in their whole being, in all their customs, and in all their wants. The fourth is that he was so merciful that he never wanted to burden his dear brethren with any kind of penance that the order did not require for wrongdoing."
And our Lord continued: "I shall mention two more things. Whenever Dominic laughed, he did so with true delight of the Holy Spirit. But when he wept, he wept with such sincerity that first and foremost among his desires he always put his brethren before my eyes and, in addition, with all his strength, Holy Christianity." Before this I did not know that any laughing could be free of frivolity and not wrong.
21. Sixteen Reasons Why the Order of Preachers Is Dear to God'
After this our dear Lord said: "I love two things in the Order of Preachers so much that my divine heart unceasingly smiles upon it. The first is the holiness of their life; the second is their great value for the church. In addition, they greet my Holy Trinity with seven things. These are: deep sighs, sincere weeping, intense longing, strict discipline, distressful exile, genuine humility, and joyous love."
Our Lord spoke again: "They also glorify my three names externally in seven ways: with hymns of praise, with sincere preaching, with correct remission," by lovingly consoling, with friendly help, by being models of holiness. They are also a wholesome bond of Christian faith."
In addition, our darling Lord said: "The alms they give to the poor for love of me are so holy that the sins of the poor people who receive them are reduced and, then too, the devil is not able to remain where their gifts are being eaten. This is because of the holiness of their pleasing poverty."
Ah, eternal spring of the Godhead, out of which I and all things flowed, I, unworthy creature, praise you with everything that is below you that, in spite of everything, Lord, I have been consoled by you. Amen.
22. Brother Heinrich's Fourfold Crown and of the Dignity of St. Dominic3e
In the Order of Preachers a brother died on the solemn feast of Easter after he had preached, sung mass, and had given people the holy body of our Lord. And when he had taken care of all his duties, he had himself anointed and departed toward nightfall. After he was buried, a certain person37 went to where his dead body was and greeted both soul and body. She did this regularly upon the death of religious people. There God celebrated in her soul a divine feast, and his soul was shown to her in God's embrace in great glory. She saw clearly that his glory was not yet complete, and she asked our Lord how long he was going to remain like that and whether he had suffered at all in purgatory. Our Lord said: "He shall remain like this for a week."" That is, seven days and seven nights. He had rested himself on God's breast in untold bliss of spiritual fervor that he had not experienced on earth. Very quickly had he come there without suffering,just as a mother takes up her dear child out of the ashes onto her lap. He said: "Tell my sister39 I shall console her with God in fourteen days."
It happened. She died fourteen nights later.
Then he invited me to his feast, where he was going to receive his glory. The whole heavenly army prepared for it and joined together in a beautiful procession. St. Dominic came with a whole throng. They were all preachers, and they all wore the golden crowns of those who died in the order, crowns that differed in value according to how holy they had been in the order. St. Dominic brought a shining crown toward Brother Heinrich that sparkled as beautifully as the sun at its brightest. He gave it to him as a reward from God, because he had followed his holy example in the Dominican order.
St. Dominic is indescribably more beautiful than the others because he receives a special honor from each brother as a reward. I saw him especially well clothed because of three qualities. He wears a white garment of innate purity; in addition, a green garment of growing wisdom of God, and also a red garment decorated with clasps because he had suffered spiritual martyrdom. They carry a military standard displaying the order's honor, one that no one else carries. A fine banner precedes them that all follow who on earth have lived according to their teaching.
Our Lord sat in his omnipotence and crowned this brother with three kinds of honors. They were: simple obedience, voluntary poverty, constant humiliation. Brother Heinrich thanked our Lord thus: "I thank you, Lord, that you found me, preserved me, and received me." He then bowed to our Lord and turned to his brothers. St. Dominic said: "Welcome, dear son, now enter into the glory of your Lord, alleluia!"
That I might experience this favor and might see this was especially due to my being lonely for the love of God and to being constantly treated with malicious contempt by the friends of God.
23. About the Burial of St. John the Evangelist40
I actually saw the body of St. John the Evangelist with the eyes of my unworthy soul. He lies unburied in great bliss above all corruptible things beneath the creation of the eternal kingdom." His body has now taken on so much of divine eternity that it glows like a fiery crystal. He lies there so lovely in his human form, as though his spirit had fallen asleep in the midst of a heavenly rapture. His eyebrows are still brown; his eyes are closed and he is lying on his back. Beneath, above, and all around him everything is bright, and every seven hours the holy angels come to his body with a song of praise that goes like this: "Holy, pure, simple, wise, and dear to God's heart." The song has a sweeter melody than the sound of a thousand strings or harps. Between his body and the creation of the kingdom of heaven exists only a thin wall, like the membrane of an egg, and yet it is forever tough, so that no body is able to pass through it until the last day.
24. How God Receives the Souls in Heaven; How He Crowns Three Kinds of People; How He Greets, Adorns, Praises, and Thanks Them
The kingdom of heaven has many beautiful gates and yet it has none. The many doors are the glorious different rewards with which God receives each soul, and all of heaven opens up for God's lovely bride. God descends through all the choirs toward the soul, and the whole heavenly host follows him with everything beautiful in proportion to what she may receive as her reward. Thus does the soul joyfully leave purgatory or her exile on earth. Many a fair angel follows her as well. At the gates of heaven the two lovers meet-God and the soul. The noble look with which he receives her and the holy reflection of his splendor that she receives from him have such power in her that she can never again think of what has caused her harm or interior sorrow.
The usual crown of the kingdom is placed upon her head at the gate; that is God's will. With it he leads her in with honor. That is why it is called the crown of the kingdom. That sinner who was evil to the end and to whom God then sends sorrow receives no other honor as his reward. God crowns three kinds of people with his fatherly hands: virgins, widows, and married people. Just as he receives them with all praise, so does he then crown them. Widows and married people are crowned by our Lord as he sits in almighty glory. But for the virgins he rises and crowns them, standing like the son of an emperor. He greets them inwardly with his living Godhead; he honors them outwardly with his almighty humanity; he adorns them with the generosity of the Holy Spirit; he also rewards them everlastingly according to rank with the whole Trinity in his kingdom for all that which they bring along. He thanks them all individually for coming, and they praise God fervently that he saved them from eternal death.
25. How We Are Now Present in Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell
We are now present in heaven. Just as we are now on earth clothed with virtues and adorned and permeated with holy love of God, so are we now visible to all the blessed, and they praise God and rejoice because of us, as though we were now with them there. They do not see in advance what is happening to us, but they do see that we are growing in nobility, increasing in splendor, and ascending to the heights. This is what is happening hour after hour to the blessed who are still on earth. Because of it the joy of the saints and angels increases. Alas! If we sink into great venial sins, our fair heavenly radiance is extinguished. Then the angels beseech and the saints beg our dear Lord that we turn back and become pure again.
We are also present in purgatory as soon as we have earned it on earth. This pains all those who are there, but they cannot help us because they are themselves burning in such torment. There are many poor souls in this purgatory with such guilt that they cannot know whether they are ever going to be redeemed." Why? Because they never wanted to confess with their fleshly mouth. We have seen how they may be saved in a different chapter.4"
The sinner's presence is also manifest in hell. God's mercy follows him. Hence they are there today, and tomorrow they are the angels' companions.
Thus does our presence go in and out of heaven, purgatory, and wretched hell according to where our own free will seeks to align itself.
26. God Consoles the Depressed Brother Baldwin'
A brother in the Order of Preachers was so weighed down by an important office accepted under obedience-as happens to many-that his youthful vigor was drained from him and he lost his natural strength; yet he still carried on with good intentions. So I begged our Lord that he might turn his favor in that direction. Our Lord instructed me and said: "I have heard and seen all the distress he is suffering, and what he reads and writes. All this shall become the following song of love praising me before my eternal court: Great God, eternal, mighty, marvelous, alleluia. And I shall lift up his head and increase all his might, just as I have done for you-not just by nature, but rather even more by grace."
27. Concerning the End of the Order of Preachers and the Antichrist; Concerning Enoch and Elias
The Order of Preachers was under severe attack from false teachers and, in addition, from many greedy sinners. So I prayed to our dear Lord that he might protect in them his own honor. God said: "As long as I want to keep them, no one can destroy them."
I asked: "0 dear Lord, will the order exist until the end of the world?"
Our Lord said: "Yes, they shall continue until the end of the world. But another kind of people shall come." They shall then instruct these people who then come so that they shall be wiser, mightier, and poorer in earthly needs, and made more fervent by the Holy Spirit because of the wretched ill fortune that is approaching for Holy Christianity."
Then I saw these people, their garb, their manner of life, and that there were a great number of them. They had no more than two garments; the undergarment is white and the outer garment red, signifying the pure humanity of our Lord and his holy death. Their hair and their beards were let grow as long as they would. Their belt is fashioned of woven material from an olive tree signifying holy mercy, which they bring to misguided Christianity. They all go barefoot, but in regions where it freezes they wear red shoes with white laces but no stockings. They wash their faces in summer with water, even in the woods, but not in winter, for they have no dwellings of their own. They are strangers in all places and suffer much distress. They have neither house nor home, and neither silver nor gold stored anywhere. Each of them walks with a
white staff colored red. The staff has a curved upper part that is a span long and made of ivory. The ivory means they should be chaste and pure in all things. The staff is white and red; thereby they call to mind Christ's death. Into one side of the staff is carved the passion of our Lord; on the other side his ascension into heaven. They must keep this staff with them in all places, when eating or sleeping, praying or preaching, celebrating mass or hearing confessions. And when they put the staff aside, they must stick it into the ground before their eyes, so that they might constantly behold the passion of Christ.
When their journey is thirty leagues long and they must go to be of help or out of necessity, so may the two of theme take along a donkey they may sometimes ride. In such cases they may not carry their staff at their side but must carry it upright in front of them in their hand as God's cross. They must ride this lowly animal so that they might resemble God in humility. Also, their feet shall cause them such pain that they cannot complete the whole distance. But they may not wear shoes any longer than from All Saints until the day on which St. Peter became pope.47 They shall ask no one for breeches or other clothing, but when no one offers them bread, they should humbly ask for it and should eat and drink with the common people all the food that is given them with the exception of meat. Also, they should not fast any more than Christian law already commands, and they should find such shelter that they might pray and sleep under a separate roof away from other people.
As people come to recognize and acknowledge their holy way of life, they will be so improved because of it that they shall give them willingly what they need in great love. They should also not dwell under the same roof with any widow. People should wash their calloused feet with great tenderness, and they should thank God profusely that they go forth and anoint misguided Christianity, just as Mary Magdalene did for our Lord.48 They anoint them also, but only men should do it because they are not God.49 When people notice that their clothing is worn out, they should give them new clothing. If someone freely wants to give them much, they should not accept it. Rather, they should advise people to give with compassion wherever it does some good.
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