35. How Sister Mechthild Thanks and Praises God and Prays for Three Kinds of People and for Herself
Ah, kind Father, God in heaven, draw my ever-flowing soul unimpeded into yourself and flow toward her, Lord, with all the delightful things you have within yourself. Then she can beg and demand and praise you to the fullest for your goodness.
Ah, and give me, Lord, the rapture of your Holy Trinity in the sweet soaring of love, Lord, so that I may enjoy with honor all your generous gifts and so that, sweet Lord, I may never ask you for something, Lord, which you do not want to give me for your glory. Amen.
Ah, Father of all goodness, I, a poor sinner, thank you for all your faithful concern for my ravaged body, for my forsaken soul, for my sinful heart, for my saddened senses, for my being, which is despised in this world-Lord Father, these are what belong to me and nothing else-and for your dear Son, Jesus Christ, and for the community of all creatures when they were as yet undepraved and as they shall come again into the most glorious state that they can and want to attain.
Ali, sweet Father, with all these things I praise you today for all your faithful protection that you granted to my poor body and my forsaken soul. With these same things, great God, I thank you, Lord, for all your generous gifts which you, Lord, have ever deigned to give me in body and soul. With this throng of all creatures, I desire today, Lord, your praise in all things and for all things that, Lord Father, have flowed spotless out of your sweet heart. But with all these things, my Dearest of all dear things, I beg you, Lord, to give honor to yourself by the true transformation and complete conversion of poor sinners who today lie in mortal sin. I beg you also, my true Love, for a holy increase in all virtues and in Christian constancy for all the blessed who live here free from mortal sin. I pray to you also, Dearest, for all the suffering souls who have gone to purgatory because of our sins, souls whom we should have kept safe by our good example. I beg you, Lord, for holy sanctification, for true protection, and for the fulfillment by the Holy Spirit for all those expressly who, for the sake of your love, have helped wretched me, Lord, endure my exile in body and soul.
I beg you, bountiful God, for the sake of your poor Son, Jesus, that you turn the pain of my spiritual poverty and the gall of my bitterness into honey on the palate of my soul. I pray to you, living God, on behalf of the eternal nobility of our Christian faith, that you, Lord, preserve it for us in your divine wisdom against all false testimony; and fortify, Lord, our spirit that it rest in your Holy Trinity. I pray to you, sweet Lord, for all my Christian torturers, that they may yet get to know you and love you in holiness. I pray to you, almighty God, for true support for false people in power to rule with good judgment and that the innocent in the community be mercifully spared. I beg you, eternal Consolation, that you come today to comfort all burdened souls who on this day in fear take leave of their bodies, that you, merciful-hearted God, may be their champion and mete out to them eternal life. I beg you, Lord, for the complete purification, spiritual constancy, and glorious preservation of divine truth in all things for all those especially who wear the garment of religious life and wield spiritual authority purely out of love for you.
I beg you, kind God, for true thankfulness at all times for all your gifts to help those who for love of you carry troublesome burdens. I beg you, holy God, for mercy when you consider my worthless life, and for constant union, Lord, of yourself with my soul and for the trusted viaticum of your holy body, that it may be at the end my last nourishment for soul and body. I also beg you, sublime, bliss-filled Trinity, at the last hour of that difficult separation of my poor soul from my sinful body, that you then, Lord, incline toward me so that all my enemies depart from me sad and I, Lord, according to your sweet pleasure and my long-felt desire, might unceasingly so gaze upon you that the eyes of my soul might sparkle in your Godhead and the sweet pleasure of your love might glide out of your breast and through my soul. Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son."$ Amen.
1. How a Prior or a Prioress or Other Religious Superiors Should Conduct Themselves Toward Those Under Them
reat fear is bound up with power. When one says, "You are now our superior or our prior or our prioress," God knows, my dear friend, you are in dire straits. You should then perform your venia' with great humility, turn immediately to prayer, and let God console you. You should so transform your heart in God's holy love that you love in a special way each and every brother or sister entrusted to you in all his needs. In all their difficulties you should show your subordinates and brothers loving cheerfulness or kind concern and compassion. With friendly words you should bid them go forth and preach boldly and hear confessions competently, for this is why God has sent them into this world-that they should be redeemers and helpers for poor sinners in the same way Christ was the Redeemer of the whole world, coming down from the lofty palace of the Holy Trinity into this stenchoozing world.
Thus shall you speak to each of your brothers in the deep humility of your pure heart: "Alas, my dear fellow, I, though unworthy of anything good, am your servant in all the ways I can be and not your master. Unfortunately, however, I have authority over you and send you forth with the heartfelt love of God. The difficulty of your task moves me deeply, and yet I make the decisions. I rejoice in the sublime honor the heavenly Father has prepared for you.
"I hereby send you forth in the same name, just as Jesus went forth from his Father, when he went searching for the one lost sheep for such a long time that he died of love. May God's true love go with you on holy paths and in productive efforts. I shall send along with you the longings of my soul, the prayers of my heart, and the tears of my sinful eyes, that as a favor to me God might send you back here holy and full of love. Amen."
Thus shall you encourage all your brothers as they go forth. You should also raise their spirits when they return. You should go in advance to the guest quarters and with God's liberality make all arrangements for the basic comfort of God's disciples as far as is in your power. Indeed, dear fellow, you should even wash their feet yourself. You still remain their master or mistress. And be subject to them in humility. You should not spend a long time with guests. You should keep good order in the religious community. The guests should not stay up late; this is a holy matter. You should visit the infirmary every day and comfort the sick with the consoling words of God and refresh them generously with earthly things, for God is rich beyond all accounting. You should clean for the sick and in God cheerfully laugh with them. You should yourself carry away their personal waste, lovingly ask them in confidence what their private infirmity is, and truly stand by them. Then God's sweetness shall flow into you in marvelous ways.
You should also go into the kitchen and see to it that the needs of the brethren of the community are well taken care of, that your own stinginess and the laziness of the cook do not steal from our Lord sweet song in the choir. For a starving cleric does not sing well. Also, a hungry man cannot study with concentration. And so God often loses the best through the worst.
At chapter meetings you should be just but with a gentle spirit, basing your judgments completely on the amount of guilt. You should be very careful not to use your authority contrary to the will of the brethren or the community, for that is the source of much dissension.
You should always bless yourself when prideful thoughts come to you. Unfortunately, these do come into the heart under the semblance of good and say, "Well, after all, you are prior (or prioress) in all matters. You can certainly do what you think is best." No, dear fellow, in so doing you disturb God's holy peace. With a submissive spirit and endearing cheerfulness you should say: "Dear brother (or sister), how does this suit you?" and then take action according to their best-intentioned wishes.
Whenever the brothers (or sisters) in your community offer you honor, you should be inwardly afraid with a sharp watch on your heart, and outwardly you should show moderate embarrassment. You should receive all complaints with sympathy and you should offer all advice with sincer
ity.
If your brothers are planning great building projects, turn it into something holy and say: "Oh, dearly beloved brothers, let's build the Holy Trinity a delightful palace in our souls with the Holy Scripture as the lumber and with noble virtues as the stones." Profound humility is the cornerstone of this glorious palace in which God eternal shall caress his love-starved bride without end with all the pleasure in his power according to her consuming desire. It has been chiseled in the sweet sufficiency of earthly transitoriness, where insatiable arrogance and cutting empty honor shall never provide the urge that we build something the way worldly lords or ladies do. Rather, we want to build on earth as heavenly princes do. Then, on the last day, we shall sit byJesus, who will still be poor, just like his holy apostles.2 Dear brothers, we want to build our dwellings in heaven with divine joy, and we want to build our huts on earth with concern,' for we have no certainty that we will live until tomorrow.
You should have an eagle's eyes, observing and seeing those under you lovingly in God, not with malice. If you find someone secretly suffering temptation, by all means stand by him with great love. Then God cannot help but be secretly close to you.
I want to tell those blessed brothers who have some office some words of truth that I saw in the Holy Trinity when I was alone in prayer. When a person prays in Christian faith with a heart so humble that one cannot endure a single creature to be beneath one, and with a soul so detached that all things but God alone disappear when one is praying, then a person is a divine God with the heavenly Father. But if a person then has a profound realization of how frail he is on his own, even in sweet embrace he will remain fearful to the extent that nothing will concern him but God's honor alone.
When, however, because of a real need and to achieve a practical result a person toils with the same love with which he prayed, then he is a human God with Christ. But what one botches up and does to no practical purpose and out of no real need is all dead before God.
When a person purely for the love of God and not for earthly reward instructs the ignorant, converts sinners, consoles the despondent, and brings those in despair back to God, then he is God the spirit with the Holy Spirit.
Ah, that is a very blessed person who does everything humanly possible that is praiseworthy in God's eyes with that same love for God's praise and with the constant good intention of his whole heart. That person is one whole person with the Holy Trinity.
But the dust of sin that settles upon us constantly, even against our will, is quickly annihilated by the fire of love when the glance of the eyes of our soul touches the Godhead with the lonely sighing of sweet desire that no creature can resist. When she begins to rise, the dust of sin falls away from her and she becomes one God with God in such a way that whatever he wills she wills as well, and they can be united in complete union no other way.
Indeed, dear fellow, you should readily offer our dear Lord God a free hour, day or night, during which you can pray lovingly and undisturbed. For heaven's gift with which God greets and instructs his chosen dear ones is in its nature so noble and so refined and flows so sweetly that when God eternal, gravely wounded by love for her, wants to visit the love-hungry soul in the cozy bridal bed, he would renounce for more than thirty years everything that he found pleasant if he might kiss her again and again and embrace her with his bare arms. If you were to think about this, how could you act so crudely as not to give him an hour a day in return for those thirty years?
When I, the most wretched of persons, go to my prayer, I deck myself out according to my worthlessness. I dress myself in the foul puddle that I myself am. Then I put on the shoes of precious time that I wasted day after day. Then I gird myself with the suffering I have caused. Then I put on a cloak of wickedness of which I am full. Then I put on my head a crown of secret shameful acts that I have committed against God. After this I take in my hand the mirror of true knowledge. Then I look at myself in it and see who I really am. Alas, I see nothing but utter misery. I prefer to wear these clothes rather than to have my wish regarding all earthly possessions. And yet they cause me such distress in my wretched fury that I would rather be clothed with hell and crowned with all the devils if this could happen through no fault of mine. Alas, how very often do robbers-our own ficklenesscome and strip these clothes from us when we are pleased with ourselves and in our guilt declare ourselves innocent?' Then we have been robbed by vain honor and struck down by pride. Then we are more naked than naked. Alas, how deeply must we then be ashamed before God, his friends, and all creatures!
If we want to overcome our shame with great honors, we must clothe ourselves with ourselves. So adorned, I seek Jesus, my sweet Lord, and I find him so quickly by no other means as by those things that are repugnant and burdensome. One should very eagerly step forward with intense desire, ashamed of one's guilt, and with flowing love and humble fear. Then the filth of sin disappears from the divine sight of our Lord. And then lovingly he begins to cast his radiance toward the soul and she begins to dissolve out of deeply felt love. The soul loses all her guilt and all her sorrow, and he begins to teach her his complete will. Then she begins to taste his sweetness and he begins so to greet her with his Godhead, that the power of the Holy Trinity penetrates fully her soul and her body; and she receives true wisdom. And then he begins so to caress her that she becomes weak. She so begins to drink it all in that he becomes lovesick. Then he begins to limit the intensity, because he knows better her limits than she herself does. And then she begins longing to show him great faithfulness. And then he begins to give her full knowledge. And then she begins to taste with delight his love on her flesh. And then he begins to strengthen with holy feeling in her soul all his gifts. If she then guards against the ignoble love of her flesh and the alluring sweetness of all earthly things, she will be able to love to perfection and gain much praise for God in all things.
Now, dear fellow, there are still two more things that you must guard against with holy zeal, for they have never borne fruit. The first is that a man or woman wants to accomplish much in pursuing good deeds and fine conduct in order to achieve a high church office. Such an attitude vexes my soul. When such people have then achieved power, their baseness becomes so many-faceted that no one who voted for them with great enthusiasm is happy with them. They then become misguided by honors and their false virtues turn into vices.
The second is when a person is chosen rightfully with no meddling on his part and he then changes so completely that he never feels the urge to leave this office. This is a sign of many failings. For even if he is irreproachable in it, he should still be fearful and humble.
A sincere woman and a good man who after my death would have liked to talk with me but cannot should read this little book.
2. The Rule of a Canon: How He Should Conduct Himself. This Came from God
We should greet people in the Holy Spirit with his divine fullness, and we should thank them for their merciful gifts. But even more, in union with all creatures, we should thank the heavenly Father for his holy favor that he unceasingly pours out of his Holy Trinity day after day into the hearts of sinners. That the eagle flies so high, it has no need to thank the owl for that.
I prayed for a noble cleric at his wish.' This is the holy answer from God which he spoke to me: "His wish is to sink to a humble life, the favor I give him is great, and his will is holy. Nevertheless, he should remain right where he is." God, the sublime pope of heaven, has sent him this rule, and it reads as follows: "He should pray always and without ceasing according to the rules for clerics. In addition, I shall grant him my divine sweetness. This he shall enjoy in the solitude of his heart. Whenever he is tempted, he should call out to me with great vigor and I shall come quickly to his aid. He should fulfill his duties completely but should keep expenses small. He should keep no one in his pay for the sake of power or as a return for favors. Rather, he should retain honest servants in proportion to his rightful needs. He should not occupy himself with the concerns of
his relatives. But if one of them wants to follow him, he should help him. He should wear simple, comfortable clothes, as he presently does; but next to his skin he should wear coarse clothing to combat the various pleasures he has received in his skin. In addition, he should sleep on straw between two woolen blankets, and he should have two pillows for under his head. During the day he should cover his bed with a fine quilt, and his bed should remain exactly where it was before for all to see. In front of his bed he should lay a mat and a kneeler. Thus, with humble heart he should give good example against an evil life. He should also have two switches next to his bed to chastise himself with upon awakening.
"Once a day, while he lies fully prostrate, his prayer should be as follows: `Lord, eternal Father, God of heaven, I, a worthless human being, thank you, Lord, that you have let your grace descend upon me. I ask you now, dearest Father, together with all those close to you, that your sweet heavenly flood that ever pours down out of the inexhaustible living spring of the whole Holy Trinity may cleanse my soul continually of all stains through our Lord. "'6
At this point I asked: "Lord, how shall he preserve himself in earthly honor without sinning?"
Our Lord said: "He should keep himself in constant fear, just like a mouse that is caught in a trap and awaits its death. The bottom part of the trap is earthly honor; the upper part is my almighty power." This is the explanation our Lord gave: "Whoever desires that I taste good to him should tremble in fear at all times in all things at the taste of his own flesh, where the heart plays with hidden lust. Therefore, when he eats, he should be easily satisfied and selfless. When he sleeps, he should be disciplined and alone with me. When he is out in the world, he should be a mouse in his heart. When he goes to confession, he should be truthful and obedient and act in all matters as his confessor advises."
The Flowing Light of the Godhead Page 20