-----------------------
A preacher once stood, after matins, before a crucifix, and complained
from his heart to God that he could not meditate properly on His torments
and passion, and that this was very bitter for him, inasmuch as, up to that
hour, he had in consequence suffered so much. And, as he thus stood with his
complaint, his interior senses were rapt to an unusual exaltation, in which
he was very speedily and clearly enlightened as follows: Thou shalt make a
hundred venias,[1] and each venia with a special meditation of My passion,
and each meditation with a request. And every one of My sufferings shall be
spiritually impressed on thee, to suffer the same again through Me as far as
thou art able.
And as he thus stood in the light, and would needs count the venias, he
only found ninety, upon which he spoke to God thus: Sweet Lord, Thou didst
speak of a hundred venias, and I find only ninety. Then he was reminded of
ten others which he had already made in the Chapter House, before
solemnizing, according to his custom, the devout meditation of the miserable
leading forth of Christ to death, and coming before that very crucifix; and
so he found that the hundred meditations had entirely included from
beginning to end His bitter Passion and death. And when he began to exercise
himself in this matter, as he had been directed, his former dryness was
changed into an interior sweetness.
Accordingly, he gained many a bright inspiration of divine truth,
whereof these meditations were a cause, and between him and the Eternal
Wisdom there sprang up a tender intercourse, and this took place not by a
bodily intercourse nor by figurative answers; it took place solely by
meditation in the light of Holy Writ whose answers can deceive in nothing;
so that the answers are taken either from the mouth of the Eternal Wisdom
who uttered them herself in the Gospel, or else from the highest doctors,
and they comprise either the same words or the same sense, or else such
truths as are agreeable to Holy Writ, out of whose mouth the Eternal Wisdom
spoke. Nor did the visions which hereafter follow take place in a bodily
way; they are but an interpreted similitude.
The answer touching our Blessed Lady's complaint he has given in the
sense of St. Bernard's words; and the reason why he propounds his doctrine
by question and answer is that it may prove the more attractive; that it may
not seem as though he were the person to whom the doctrine belonged, or who
had spoken it as coming from himself. His object is to give a general
doctrine, in which he and all persons may find every one what is suitable
for himself. He takes upon himself, as a teacher ought to do, the person of
all mankind: now he speaks in the person of a sinner; now under the image of
a love-sick soul; then, as the matter suggests, in the likeness of a servant
with whom the Eternal Wisdom discourses. Moreover, everything is expounded
with reference to our interior; much is given here as doctrine that a
zealous man should choose out for himself as devout prayer. The thoughts
which stand here are simple, the words simpler still, for they proceed from
a simple soul and are meant for simple men who have still their
imperfections to cast aside.
It happened that, as the same brother had begun to write on the three
matters, namely, the Passion, and the rest of it all, and had come to that
part on repentance: Now then, cheer up thou soul of mine! etc., he had
reclined himself one forenoon on his chair, and that in a bright sleep he
saw clearly, in a vision, how two culpable persons sat before him, and how
he chastised them very severely for sitting there so idly, and performing
nothing. Then was it given him to understand that he should thread a needle,
which was put into his hand. Now the thread was threefold; and two parts
were very fine, but the other part was a little courser, and when he would
needs twist the three together he could not well do it. Then he saw close to
him on his right hand our Lord, standing the same as when He was unbound
from the pillar, and He stood before him with a look so kind and fatherly
that he thought it was indeed his father. Now he perceived that His body had
quite a natural colour; it was not very white, but of the colour of wheat,
that is, white and red well mixed together (and this is the most natural
colour of all), and he perceived that His whole body was covered with
wounds, and that they were quite fresh and bloody, that some were round,
some angular, some very long, just as the whips had torn Him; and as He thus
stood sweetly before him, and kindly looked at him, the preacher raised his
hands and rubbed them to and fro on His bloody wounds, and then took the
three parts of the thread and twisted them easily together. Then was given
to him a power, and he understood that he was to complete his task, and that
God with His rose-coloured garment (which is wrought so delightfully out of
His wounds) would clothe all those in eternal beauty who should occupy their
time and leisure with it here below.
One thing, however, a man should know, that there is as great a
difference between hearing himself the sweet accords of a harp and hearing
another speak of them, as there is between the words received in pure grace
and that flow out of a living heart, through a living mouth, and those same
words when they come to be set down on dead parchment, especially in the
German tongue; for then are they chilled, and they wither like plucked
roses: for the sprightliness of their delivery, which, more than anything,
moves the heart of man, is then extinguished, and in the dryness of dry
hearts are they received. Never was there a string how sweet soever, but it
became dumb when stretched on a dry log. A joyless heart can as little
understand a joyful tongue as a German can an Englishman! Therefore let
every fervent soul hasten after the first out-pourings of this sweet
doctrine, so that she may learn to contemplate them in their origin, where
they were in all their loveliness and ravishing beauty; even there are the
in-pourings of the present grace, to the quickening of hearts that are dead!
And he who thus looks at this will hardly have read it through before
his heart will needs be deeply moved either to fervent love, or to new
light, or to a yearning towards God, and abhorrence of sin, or else to some
spiritual request, wherein the soul will presently be renewed in grace.
Here ends the Preface, and follows
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。