HEAVEN

Book IV

On humility

Your streets, Jerusalem, are paved with pure gold and clear glass (Rv 21.21). Si says the witness of the divine mysteries, John, in his book of theology. The pure gold tested in the furnace of poverty and patience and the clear glass of a pure mind light up the streets they pave, so that by them humility, after Egypt and deserts, and the trampling down of her enemies, may run the way of God’s commandments, and may rise to the city of heavenly peace with heart enlarged (Ps 118.32), where both walls of gold and turrets of gems rise above the stars from a humble foundation. To this place, O special soul, I wish you to be led through the streets of humility, and although I know that in your devoted conscience you are zealous of your own accord for lowliness, and say in supplication: ‘My soul has cleaved to the pavement; revive me according to your word, O Lord’ (Ps 118.25), yet I take care to make you cautious against the hazard of human fickleness. For because we are vessels of clay, we are impatient of the blessings of God, and we are the more ready to slip into insolence from our small estimation of his good, the more we are unaccustomed to virtues; and this is robbery, that we claim the credit for the free gifts of God for ourselves.

For just as we do not subsist from our own resources alone, so we have nothing from ourselves except sin. But the ignobility of the flesh and the unworthiness of our earthy corruption, being inflated with an unclean spirit of pride, has this quality, that the more mercifully it is punished by the Lord, the more insolently it is raised up. Wherefore we read on the contrary: ‘Whoever thinks himself to be something, although he is nothing, deceives himself (Gal 6.3).’ And thus pride is the occasion of all ruin. Whence David: ‘Let not the foot of pride come to me, and let not the hand of the sinner move me. There the workers of iniquity are fallen; they are cast out and could not stand (Ps 35.12-13).’ And: ‘When they were lifted up, you have cast them  down (Ps 72.18).’ Humility is the guardian of the vírtues; whoever has lost it has lost the virtues, and he has given up his vineyard unguarded to plunderers (Mt 21.33-43, Mk 12.1-11, Lk 20.9-17). But when someone is beginning to live piously and is, so to speak, rising from his own land to the promised land, the impious Pharaoh, the king of the secular Egypt, is accustomed to pursue them. He mounts his chariot and incites his horses, that is, puffed-up souls, against such a one; he arms them with mockeries and rebukes, and with them he hurries to tread underfoot the growing crops. ‘Oh, how he prays, how he fasts, how he pays out alms, that now the servant of God, the holy one of God may leave us men, may go to heaven.’ So a certain scorner spoke, when he saw St Trudgaudus only as an adult study the alphabet for the first time; he said then: ‘I hope the toothache will strike me, when you know the Psalter.’ And indeed the holy one learned the Psalter within a year, and toothache attacked the attacker to the point of killing him.

But if the recruit of Christ persists in her determination, then that winding Leviathan (Is 27.1), that Prometheus transformable into all things, [ ... _]5 whispers deceptive blandishments, so that he might (subvert) the mind that persecution had not broken, and the soul, which had been victor in the open field, might be killed inside the walls, as it were, of a good conscience: ‘Little one, you are blessed, you are a saint, you are very close to heaven.’ But on the other hand let the voice of the Lord be heard: ‘Daughter, those who call you blessed deceive you (Is 3.12).’ But the fact that this people welcomes you, O sweetest one, the fact that the affection of this very pious mother and all the sisters overflows on you, the fact that the dignity of fathers and bishops visits you, the fact that this blessed lady, who obtained this place for you, who followed Christ, and who is now more truly a very close companion, loves you and has affection for you, to whom may the Lord make the recompense of piety in the eternal kingdom—indeed I believe all these things to be the breath of God’s kindness, who, taking you up as an exile, brings consolation in all these things.

So often he benefited even heathen kings themselves for his elect; so he has glorified Abraham, Isaac and Jacob under foreign princes, so Joseph under Pharaoh, so Daniel under Nebuchadnezzar or Darius, so the children of Israel under Cyrus, under Ahaesuerus, under Ptolemy, and with other tyrants their own captives, because the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord (Pry 21.1), who has formed each single thing, and the Lord will give grace and glory to his own (Ps 83.12). How much more mercifully the piety of the faithful of God, breathed from heaven, will refresh you! But when it has been necessary, the Lord has hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Ex 9.12); he has hardened it because he has not freed it from hardness, and he has turned their hearts to hate his people, and to deal deceitfully with his servants (Ps 104.25); he turned it so that they hated, because he did not turn it so that they loved, so that the elect might advance in faith by persecutions, and the persecutors perish. Therefore see to this, that there be no detraction from your devotion, that in the peace of Christ you establish yourself on a foundation of humility, and that amid either exterior or interior temptation you arm yourself with fortitude, and, lest you abuse the compassion of God, that the tricks of the enemy are always suspected.

The top must be made firm from the bottom

Therefore humility is both the foundation and the fortification of good works (i Tm 6.18-19). The wisdom of Solomon, intending to raise the top of the temple very high, sank down the foundations to very deep depths. And the Lord said in the Gospel: ‘The one who hears my words and does them, I will compare to a wise man building a house, who digs down deep, which house all the attack of storms cannot ever move, because it has been founded on firm rock (Mt 7.24-25; Lk 6.48).’ A lofty tree is raised from deep roots to the heights. Grains are broken for bread; grapes are pressed for wine; seed put underground springs into fruit. Rome was founded as the least of all cities; she advanced to be the greatest of all. The church came from a small beginning with twelve apostles and has spread to all the ends of the earth. By military action, Rome took possession of the citadel of the world; by the patience of the martyrs, the church subjugated both the world and Rome itself. _[93] For by God’s disposition of all things, this earthly monarchy was prepared for the apostles and Christianity. So true it is that scarcity has grown into greatness, humility has transcended eminence, endurance has conquered the strong. Benedict, the teacher of the virtues, erects for you the twelve steps of humílity.

Now I will set out for you some arrangements of divine dispensation, which must be both feared by those who are whole and embraced by those who have been injured, on account of which no righteousness should presume, no guilt lack faith, no innocence is safe, no jetsam is abandoned to the waves. The one who created all things (Eph 3.9; Heb 3.4) rules all things justly and faithfully and, scrutinizing the affections and hearts of all (Ps 7.10; Ter 17.10; Rv 2.23), he distributes individually to individuals,’ and according to his true and hidden judgements, which from eternity provide for all things, he tests the various weights of various qualities and minds in his scales. Unmoved himself, he moves all things; unchanged himself, he changes all things, but he does not change his opinion or his counsel. Most tranquil himself, he disturbs and mixes all things; most stable, he turns and overturns all things; he gives now the highest greater weight than the lowest, now the lowest greater weight than the highest. He throws down those who are standing; he raises up those who have fallen; he afflicts the vigorous; he heals the broken; he weakens the strong, strengthens the weak, blames the righteous, justifies the wicked, brings the exalted low, raises up the humble. The virgin falls; the prostitute rises; the modest woman is dishonoured; the harlot is made pure.

Why is this? So that no flesh shall glory in the sight of the Lord (1 Cor 1.29) of majesty, and one who is nothing without the blessing of the Creator claims nothing for his own strength. He himself destroys and scatters, plucks out and tears down, so that he may build and plant (Jer 1.10). Many fall by the amazing dispensation of such a great Maker, either because they were proud or lest they should be proud and, having been raised from their condition, fall lower, or even so that they may rise more gloriously. For after the Fall of the first man, the redeemer raised up the human race so much higher than it had stood before the Fall, that that fault is justly called fortunate, which deserved the honour of such a great redeemer, through whom it triumphed in a nobler victory. He does well to destroy, who builds better. I, a mere little man, who only occupy the earth, usually disdain small buildings, and without resources as I am conceive great ideas, so that if I had been given the power, I would not suffer temples to stand, however respected, unless, namely, they were glorious in accordance with my wishes, magnificent, lofty, full of space and light and beauty. What will that very elegant architect of the eternal palace do, who builds his houses only with pure gold or silver tried in the furnace, and raises up the walls and towers of his Jerusalem with gems and precious stones? How much more readily will he overthrow useless and ruined things and things less worthy of himself, and will restore them to a fitting state for his glory, where his seat may be prepared, because what befits his house is holiness that will remain for length of days (Ps 92.5)? Α master had ordered an unfruitful tree to be cut down; a stay of execution was requested, dung was sent, and from the richness of dung sterility was fertilized (Lk 13.6-8). So the good cultivator makes the neglectful soul grow rich from the dung of sins and bear fruit. So he turns our sins to arms of virtue for us, and from our evils makes health or remedy for us. _[94]

St Gregory asks, in the matter of the adultery and murder committed by David, why the omnipotent God subjects to such great disgrace those whom he has decided to glorify for eternal ages: clearly, so that they should be greatly humbled who will be greatly exalted, and the vileness of their abjection is the occasion of their sublimity. Peter said: ‘O Lord, why can I not follow you? I lay down my life for you (Jn 13.37).’ 0 the presumption of one who was a man! Will you come before him who came to redeem the world? Or will you redeem it when it is lost? If the redeemer had taken your advice that he should not die, neither you nor the world would have been redeemed. Why are you in haste, Peter? You will not lay down your life for the Lord unless he himself has first laid down his for you. Before that, you will know who you are, what you can do without that one who said: ‘Without me you can do nothing (Jn 15.5).’ Before that, you will deny him three times, a denier before you are a martyr. There are sick ones who consider themselves healthy, but the doctors see them to be in danger of death. Hence these words in the verse of St Augustine: ‘The sick man believed himself to be in health, but the doctor was feeling the pulse.’ He therefore knows how each is ailing, what is harming each, what medicine he needs. What wonder if truth (Jn 14.6) has spoken truth and lying man (Ps 115.11; Rom 3.4) has fallen from his own place? Night came, and he who had presumed denied the one for whom he had promised to die so that he should not die, and the cock crowed and refuted the denier (Mt 26.69-75, Mk 14.66-72, Lk 22.55-62, Jn 18.15-18, 25-27). Thence the prince of the faith learned from his fall to stand more strongly, so that he could raise up others also, and on him the foundations of the church (Mt 16.18)^ί might be made firm.

Paul, after his rapture to the third heaven, was tested, but did not fall in temptation, and a sting of the flesh was given to him, an angel of Satan. Why? He says: ‘Lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me (π Cor 12.2, 7).’ And the Lord, who says to his hearers: ‘Before you call me, I will say “Behold, I am here” (Is 58.9), when his very faithful martyr, who was carrying about in his body Christ’s sufferings also, asked in tribulation of spirit a third time, did not accede, but said: ‘My grace, Paul, is surncient for you (2 Cor 12.9). For I know what you seek, what you want, and I know what is better for you.’ This disease expels a greater disease; that weakness brings about health in you, for power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor 12.9). An antidote is made from snakes, which is called theriac. The bite of the snakes drives out even the deadly draughts, and in an amazing way the poison draws out the poison. So, in Paul, the poison of the sting drove out the poison of pride. Moreover, in the division of his graces he so shares out his gifts, that each may see in another what he may admire, in himself what may make him humble. John revered in Peter the rule of the apostles and of the church, Peter in John the privileges of virginity and the love of Christ. _[95] The first called blessed him who loved the Lord more than the rest (Jn 21.15), the second, in turn, him who lay on the breast of the Lord (Jn 13.23, 25, 21.20), by the grace of a greater familiarity. John honoured the key-bearer of heaven, Peter the one drawing the gospel from the heart of Christ. One put before himself him who went after Christ by the cross (Jn 21.19), the other the grace of prerogative that spared him who was beloved (Jn 21.23). ‘So I will have him remain; you follow me (Jn 21.22).’ Paul admired Peter presiding over all; Peter admired Paul working more than a11. One honoured him who was first; the other honoured him who was more learned. I have read also about the pious strife between John and Andrew, when John put before himself the one who was chosen earlier by the Lord, while Andrew put before himself the one who was loved more greatly by the Lord. And to speak briefly, the Lord made the denier a ruler, the persecutor a teacher, the tax-collector an evangelist, the prostitute his friend. Many possessed of innocence, integrity of life and the greatest fame for their gifts he has ennobled with the greatest humility also. Just as the proud note in others what they may despise, in themselves that in which they may take pride, so the purity of the humble, putting all the variety of virtues before itself, is put in the last place (Lk 14.10) in its own estimation. David, after he had overcome the lion and the bear, after he had laid low Goliath, as a fugitive from Saul compared himself to a flea. He remembered that he had been raised to the throne from among his sheep, and amid the great fame of his virtues, he humbled himself to such a degree before the majesty of God that he was despised by his wife as if he were one of the buffoons (π Kgs 6.20). When all the sick were healed by the shadow of Peter (Acts 5.15), he did not forget whence earlier he fell, how he rose from the nets to the apostolate. Whenever the Roman generals returned victorious, a crowd of people meeting them filled the earth with choirs, the stars with songs as they made triumph. As the victor triumphed in his golden chariot with vain glory, someone used to sit beside him to admonish him (and) at each expression of praise from the crowds he would disturb him by striking him with a golden rod. He would say: ‘Remember that you are a man and a beast.’ Therefore it was brought about that he thought he could be conquered and made subject, just as he had conquered, lest human light-mindedness forget its condition, and by the tyranny of pride fall headlong. But it is said more purely to the Christian: ‘Remember that you are dust and you will return to dust (Gn 3.19).’ Man was created for freedom of his own will; from freedom he slipped into the vice of arrogance and fell through himself, so that, lifted from abasement through his Creator, he should learn to stand.

The reward of pride and the reward of humility

But the foulness of earthly exaltation, in the sight of God on high, is always evident from its fall. Hence the Lord threatens, through the prophet, souls which abuse their condition of freedom. He says: ‘Because the daughters of Zion were haughty, and have walked with stretched-out necks, and wanton glances of their eyes, and clapped their hands, and moved in a stately tread with their feet, the Lord will make bald the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the Lord will strip their hair. In that day the Lord will take away the ornaments of shoes, _[96] and little moons, and chains, and necklaces, and bracelets, and head-dresses, and anklets, and tablets, and scent-bottles, and earrings, and rings, and jewels hanging on the forehead, and changes of apparel, and short cloaks, and fine linen, and pins, and looking-glasses, and lawns, and headbands, and fine veils. And instead of a sweet smell there shall be stench, and instead of a girdle, a cord, and instead of curled hair, baldness, and instead of a stomacher, hair-cloth. And her gates shall lament and mourn, and she shall sit desolate on the ground (Is 3.16-24, 26).’ All these things were fulfilled in the captivity of Jerusalem under King Nebuchadnezzar, as Judea migrated to Babylon. These things still happen generally when the daughters of Zion, that is, virginal souls, which by innocence and natural integrity were daughters, and were adorned and ordered with the beauty of purity, not bearing their felicity nor revering the majesty of the Creator, playing, clapping, moving with necks stretched out in a type of pride, fall headlong into the snare, and are shorn of their hair, when they lose their chastity and are stripped of the ornaments of virtues. For the feminine ornaments that the prophet numbers are the outward signs of virtues. Then there is, instead of the sweet smell of good estimation and reputation, the stench of ignominy and infamy, and the matter of pride is taken away, and bald, confused, and desolate she sits humbly on the ground, remembering that she is ashes, lamenting and mourning in place of empty joy. In her arrogance, she would have been punished by the Lord’s anger; now, better, when she is prostrate she is taken up by the Lord’s pity, which is better than life, so that he might console the unhappy and make the mourner rejoice, he who looks upon the humble (Ps 112.6) and does not despise the contrite and humble heart (Ps 50.19), and his place of rest is the humble and quiet and the one who fears him (Is 66.2), as he lifts up the poor from the dust (τ Kgs 2.8) and raises the pauper from the dunghill (Ps 112.7).

Concerning this captivity, Jeremiah also makes this lament among many: ‘The Lord has thrown down Jerusalem; he has thrown down all her walls (Lam 2.5). She is wonderfully cast down, not having a comforter (Lam 1.9). And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed (Lam 1.6)’, etc. But the Lord will console Jerusalem, and all her destruction will be consoled (Is 51.3), and the destruction will be restored (Is 36.10). Again, just as through Isaiah the Lord frightens her in her pride, so, when she is ruined, he consoles her in her humility. The Lord says: ‘Fear not, for you shall  not be confounded nor blush, for you shall not be put to shame, because you shall forget the shame of your youth, and furthermore you shall remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. For he who made you shall rule over you, the Lord of Hosts is his name, and your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, shall be called the God of all the earth. For the Lord will call you as a woman forsaken and mourning in spirit, and as a wife cast off from her youth, said the Lord your God. In a moment of indignation I have hid my face from you for a little while, but with everlasting kindness I have had mercy on you. For the mountains shall be moved and the hills shall tremble; but my mercy shall not depart, and the covenant of my peace shall not be moved, said the Lord, who has mercy on you. O poor little one, tossed by a tempest without any comfort, behold I will lay _[97] your stones in order and will lay your foundations with sapphires, and I will make your bulwarks of jasper and your gates of graven stones and all your borders of desirable stones (Is 54.4, 8, 10-12).’

So the grace of the Lord raises higher those who have been thrown down (Ps 145.8), having compassion after the punishment of the prostration of their pride. So the temple of Solomon after four hundred and thirty years was burned down to ashes by Nebuchadnezzar, which signifies modesty burned by the devil, but then after seventy years it was rebuilt much more magnificently (iv Kgs 25.9-18; π Chi 36.19; Ez 1). 0 pride, which overthrows such greatness! O humility, which guards such greatness or restores it! For that reason David, from royal pre-eminence, was willingly humbled as a little one: he says: ‘The Lord is the keeper of little ones; I was humbled, and he delivered me (Ps 114.6). Before I was humbled, I offended, having fallen from the windy chariot into the abyss that awaits pride, therefore I have kept your word (Ps 118.67), having learned by humility to go more cautiously. For that reason it is good for me, O Lord, that you have humbled me, so that I may learn your commandments (Ps 118.71), which are: “Unless you are converted and become like little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven”, and: “Whoever humbles himself like this little child is great in the kingdom of heaven (Mt 18.3-4).”

Therefore whoever glories, let him glory in the Lord (τ Cor 1.31), and let him be humbled in himself, because no one can receive anything, unless it has been given to them from heaven (7n 3.27). The Lord says: ‘And no one can come to me, unless it has been given to them by my father (Jn 6.66).’ But if you have received, why do you glory as if you have not received it (τ Cor 4.7), but as if you have the divine gift from yourself? No one can have what the Lord has not given; no one can preserve what the Lord has not preserved. Unless the Lord builds and unless the Lord guards what has been built, the builders labour in vain, and the guardians watch in vain (Ps 126.1). The good Lord has made all things good, and has done all things well (Lk 7.37), but good perishes for them for whom the giver has not preserved it. But he has given it to all to be born as virgins; he has given perseverance (in virginity) to those for whom he has preserved it for the merit of humility. As he has anticipated all things from eternity, many, wanting to persevere, have not obtained it even by prayers, and many, not wanting, have been saved either by whips or by rule. Others, either by the ignorance of their age or the curiosity of Dinah (Gn 34.1 2), have run upon the bite of the serpent, but with the Lord’s healing have soon shaken off the poison, who are more able to be healed the more quickly they recover their senses. So some, seeking martyrdom, have not found it, while others, fleeing from it, have taken it on themselves. So man cannot become an angel, but, through the Creator who took human form, can be made a companion of the angels. _[98] One who has not borne a persecutor is not called a martyr, but he takes part with martyrs, who has lived as a martyr. A widow is joined also with vírgins if she has emulated virginal chastity, even after her loss. John Chrysostom, which is ‘golden mouth’, says: ‘The Lord found a shepherd and made a prophet (Am 7.14-15). He found a lute-player and made a king. He found a fisherman and made an apostle. He found a tax-collector and made an evangelist. He found a prostitute and made her equal with virgins.’

Again, others have preserved virginity among all the persecutors of chastity, and quite amazingly have escaped intact from the very jaws of perdition. So the splendid Agnes, so the glorious Lucy, so the valiant Potamíana have taken the palm from the pit of the maw of lions and lechers. Potamiana, after all kinds of torments, was given over to a brothel, as we see in the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Young men, the devil’s bird-catchers, gather quickly for the prey. Basilides, who was in charge of the torturers, drove them back, zealous for the dignity of the virgin, as the Lord brought help to his loved one from her enemies themselves. The virgin, welcoming that very much, said: ‘Believe, Basilides, that you will not lose the reward for this service.’ Thus Potamíana, drenched with burning pitch, triumphed with the twin palms of virginity and martyrdom. After this, she appeared to Basilides in a vision and placed a crown on his head, with these words: ‘Christ says “Whoever receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive the reward of a prophet” (Mt 10.41); so you, having defended my chastity, shall share my crown.’ Soon, he was woken from sleep and from error; he confessed Christ and was even crowned by beheading.

Here also it seems pious to remind you of what St Ambrose attests concerning the glory of virgins. But as I am without that book and without such worthy eloquence, I touch on such a worthy subject in an unpolished narrative. A certain virgin, for her faith in Christ, was destined for a brothel, since neither torturer nor butcher nor  examiner pitied her enough to burn her, to tear her apart, to cut her down, nor did the executioner allow her to be killed in innocence, more merciful than to be violated, nor did the killer have that respect to snatch her from the ravisher. Groaning very deeply about this, she broke out in these laments: ‘Two crowns, Lord Jesus, were owed to me, one for virginity, one for martyrdom. If virginity must be exposed as the price of martyrdom, and one crown must be bought by the loss of the other, your liberating mercy will see to it, O Lord, on whose account this injury is prepared. Whatever must be borne for your holy name, it is certain that I will not be able to deny you, O Lord God, because in such a terrible choice between two very great evils, it is better to die in the body than in faith. But the enemy denies martyrdom, and prefers to destroy me by dishonour rather than the sword, prefers that I live as a harlot rather than die as a martyr. But it is for you, O Lord, both to preserve virginity and to give martyrdom. And if I am not worthy to be either your spouse or your martyr, I will remain even as your harlot in your confession.’ As she made such laments, they threw her into the brothel. A pig-like herd of debauchers grunted for her around about; the victim of the Lord stands inside, like a dove beset by ravens, like a lamb beset by wolves. _[99] How much more grievously she feared defilement than torture! How much greater the danger to her chastity than to her life! O Lord, a helper in due time, in tribulation (Ps 9x10)! A very young man still beardless, who surpassed the others in his still-soft beauty and in influence, than whom no one seemed more lustful, entered first as if to attack her. But the Lord was looking upon this man in his wolf’s form as a lamb, by whom he might preserve his lamb. Now he said: ‘Do not fear, my lady, I have come to save you, not to destroy you; only obey my advice. We are of the same age, stature and appearance; only let us exchange clothes, and be dressed, you as a man, I as a woman; so go out in my place and escape, while I remain in your place and deceive the fornicators. You will not be detected easily, because from such a place you will go out shamefacedly, with your head covered.’

By such a trick, the virgin escaped through the middle of her enemies. And when with the next fornicator that deception, that was so holy, was discovered, a cry was raised; the young man was dragged off to slaughter in the virgin’s clothes. The girl, clothed in a man’s garb and spirit, ran to meet them in their rage and called out, ‘Strike me, me. I am the one who is guilty of this deed: the innocent ought not to be punished for the guilty.’ On the other side the young man contended to be killed for the virgin, arguing that he was the deviser of this plan. In this struggle of goodwill, on their way to adorn the heavenly choir of virgins with their own roses and lilies, they were cut down together, sacrificed for Christ together. O in what inseparable love, in what blessed embraces they were then going to cling to one another in heaven eternally! Who, O gracious Jesus, glorious in your saints, will sing your praises worthily? She had feared being shipwrecked by wickedness: you have not only caused her to triumph gloriously without corruption, but you have given her also a companion of the same age and worth forever. Hence, as mediator of the two, you bind together each of them, joined most closely in your love, on your right and left hand. Blessed be your mercy forever.

It is by humility that we must rise

What more do you sigh for, you who are human? Is it not enough for you that you will be received by the grace of God and given as a citizen to the supernal homeland, unless you are also first in the order? Or are the riches of divine goodness not enough for your condition? Will you be indignant that you are human, and that you cannot receive the angelic nature, when Christ did not disdain to profess that he was the Son of Man, and feasted even with sinners? First go and compare your virtuousness with the tax-collectors who were evangelists. Tears for guilt will be more righteous than vaunting of righteousness. Or will you ascend above the height of the clouds, and will you be like the Most High (Is 14.14)? But ascend by descending, lest by ascending you fall. Be the image and similitude of the one who said: ‘Learn from me, because I am gentle and humble of heart (Mt 11.29).’ Is it your ambition to sit on the right hand or the left hand of Christ? This seat is not for ambition, but for love, which is not puffed up. Make yourself like those for whom preparations have been made by the father of Christ, not those whom at that time he refused when they advanced themselves above others (Mt 20.20-23). He said: ‘It is not for me _[100] to give to the proud what has been prepared for the very humble. Therefore, whoever wishes to be first, must be last of all by his abjection of himself, so that he believes with his whole heart that he is inferior to all (Mt 20.26_27). ^, So the last will be first (Mt 20.16), because no one can be worthy of the fellowship of heaven, unless he has believed himself unworthy, as St Augustine writes.

Winnoc, the renowned champion of God, was serving under my holy father Bertin, and when he was now very far advanced my father had put him at the head of brothers in a certain cell. And although he was distinguished for his royal pedigree, exalted in the purity of his modesty, worthy to be glorified for obedience, thrift and all sanctity, the Lord had given him such great grace of humility, as we read, that he believed himself less in value than all men. He used to turn the millstone with his own hands, and he used to work for all in this rustic duty, after the Lord, who had come to serve, not to be served (Mt 20.28). But by the will and favour of God, the millstone used to run by itself continually, and used to complete the labours of many, but he himself, as we sing, ‘fixed on heaven, holding up eyes and hands, was singing psalms and praying’ . When someone covertly spied that out, the running wheel was stopped, and he was struck by blindness and a tremor of his whole body, but was healed by the mercy of that holy man, and the running of the millstone was restored. This grace was earned by the purity of humility, because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble (Jas 4.6; τ Pt 5.5). So if even his spouse grows insolent, she will not go unpunished. Immediately the spouse who took her up will be angry, and he will cast her from himself with fulminations like these: ‘Go away, go away after the footsteps of the flocks’ (Sg 1.7), after the extravagance of worldly things, ‘feed your goats’ (Sg 1.7), that is, the wanton delights of desire. The queen is thrown out of the bedchamber of the king, and the handmaiden is taken up.

The righteous must fear, and the fallen must hope

In the face of such great judgements and mercies of Him who rules above, let the innocent fear, the fallen be refreshed, the virgin be afraid, the married woman trust, the spouse beseech in supplication: ‘Cast me not away from your face, O Lord, and take not your Holy Spirit, that is, your love, from me’ (Ps 50.13), for the one who discerns the intentions of the heart and examines the marrow of the thoughts (Heb 4.12; Ps 7.10) brings one low and raises another, for in the hand of the Lord there is a cup of strong wine full of mixture (Ps 74.8-9). Humility alone, as it is fearful, thereby is safe under such a great examiner. _[101] Let no one be puffed up; let no one be forsaken. Before the redeemer of all, we can all be saved by believing: both the righteous and the guilty, both celibate and married. Mary conceived him; Anna took him up; the virgin bore him; the widow carried him; of the married couple, Zacariah and Elizabeth, one prophesied of him, the other welcomed him at his conception with a blessing.

I will say more: when he was now a mature man, now declared to be God by miracles, the prostitute took him, washed his feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, cherished them with her kisses (Lk 7.37-38), and in these feet, as she wept, dried, kissed, she pierced through all her sins, washed them away, blotted them out. At that the Pharisee, who deceived himself that he was righteous, was indignant, saying: ‘If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what kind of woman this is who touches him, that she is a sinner’ (Lk 7.39); but even she deserved to be praised, by preference, by her very kind protector, and to be put before pharisaical righteousness, because she was more ardently zealous to follow. The Lord said: ‘Many sins have been forgiven her, because she has loved much’ (Lk 7.47), because love covers a multitude of sins (τ Pt 4.8). She was healed by the word of the Lord from all the wounds of her sins, she who had given herself over to him as a doctor (Mt 9.12), with a tax-collector in the Gospel as well (Mt 9.9, 10.3), while that one was 111, who had arrogated to himself the soundness of righteousness out of the malady of an unsound mind. Then she advanced to such great grace and familiarity with the Lord that she cherished even his very sweet head with most pleasing ointments. Who will understand the mercies of the Lord (Ps 106.43)? Event worthy of wonder, worthy to be a spectacle not so much for humans as for all the celestial powers! The Baptist, than whom no greater has risen among those born of women (Mt 11.11), trembles, and does not dare to touch the holy head of God (Mt 3.14-15), and that sinful woman, whose touch the unclean Pharisees abhorred as if it were uncleanness, not only touches the feet of the Lord but also anoints his head with nard from the greater fragrance of her heart; she anoints him from full hands. She covers his hair with very sweet odours; she pours; she strokes; she pleases him; she combs; she arranges, and the sweetness spread out from the head of the Saviour and filled the whole house (Jn 12.3).

O how great you are, O Lord, and how small, how powerful and how mild, how exalted and how humble! The most holy among men, your Baptist and more than prophet (Mt 11.9), does not dare to touch you, and an evil-doing woman dares to confidently! Dominations adore, powers and all the hierarchy of heaven tremble, and this head is embraced boldly by a mere prostitute! O Lord, so lofty over all, so gentle to the lowest! He, incomprehensible to the high, is comprehended by the lowest, and transcends the highest and condescends to the lowest, feels with them, yields to them. Nor did these hands, which had served for obscenity, stain the Lord of purity, but made entirely holy by the touch of him, who makes holy all things, she followed him in holy love, not now contaminated, but holy. And what wonder if the very devoted handmaid poured very pleasing ointment on that head, which the wicked struck with blood-stained hands and crowned with wounding thorns? Where was the holy one, where the righteous, where the innocent, where the virgin, where the beauty of the spotless life? _[102] Behold, one who was the pit of seven demons (Mk 16.9; Lk 8.2), the lurking-place of that many chief vices with their armies, had the demons cast out and was made the sacred place of sevenfold grace, filled with the spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord (Is 11.2-3). In dens in which dragons lived earlier, the verdure of the reed and bullrush sprang up (Is 35.7), so that when the devil had been expelled, the law of the Lord might be written by a divine pen in her purified heart, on which she might meditate day and night (Ps 1.2), with perseverance to bear fruit in its time (Ps 1.3), and upright rectitude, and, as discipline was diminished, the holiness of the Lord might grow green in her castigated body, and the flesh might flourish again (Ps 27.7) with the vigour of modesty. And when the filth of the enemy has been exterminated, let the habitation of God be adorned.

When I first came to the bishop at Potter or Canning as a very young man, when you were only a little girl, the lodging assigned to me was so deserted, dirty, filthy and fetid that it seemed to be a wallowing-place for pigs rather than a habitation of men. Although I did not say anything, I considered it unworthy, and I did not think I would be able to enter it. Suddenly, all the filth was cleared away; the dirty walls and ceilings were cleaned; it was made pleasant with leafy branches, green reeds and fragrant herbs; the walls and ceiling were covered with curtains and hangings and the benches with tapestries, and when all had been duly prepared, I was installed as a guest. I did not think it was the same house I had seen earlier. It differed as much from the earlier house as beauty does from ugliness, loveliness from repulsiveness, splendour from frightfulness, adornment from squalor, incense from stench. What I had recoiled from earlier, I loved; what I had fled from, I dwelled in willingly.

Therefore, corruptible man hates deformity and loves things changed into beauty. Is it not much more likely that the omnipotent one will deign to inhabit what he has formed as an image of himself, or what, even when it has been defiled, he has reformed more worthily? When human beauty is fashioned from the trunk of a tree, this beautification is achieved by human genius; when the image of the divine is rendered from one who from impiety has been made holy, this change is achieved by the hand of God on high. Let him who does not believe that what has been made well can be remade better, take care that he does not detract from his Maker’s goodness

God is not a regarder of persons (Acts 10.34). Jew and Greek, Barbarian and Scythian, slave and free, virgin and prostitute are distinguished not by condition, nor person, but by the merits of faith, of love, of humility: and Christ is all and is in all (Col 3.11). Have you been called a slave? Care not for it, but even, if you are able, set yourself free (τ Cor 7.21): a slave, that is one serving in conjugal chains; free, that is one released from marriage. In that blessed kingdom of Christ and the saints there will be no sadness, no repentance, no penalty, no loss or reproach for past sins. David said: ‘So that my glory may sing to you, and I may not be pricked (Ps 29.13) by the thorn of conscience (Ps 31.4), receiving perfect joy.’ Nor will anyone desire more than he will have amid such plenitude of all good things, such satisfaction of all desires. Nor will it be possible for anything to be lacking even to the least among them all, because, although there will be different rewards of merits, yet everything belonging to individuals will belong to all, because just as one joining of members makes one body, 103 so one love will make what belongs to individuals belong to all. O if I should deserve to be the least at that feast, now I will not seek anything further, because I will possess all things with all, for God will be all in all (I Cor 15.28).

Give me, O Lord, in the place of my lack of virtues the virtue of humility, so that I may presume from your beneficence what I cannot from my merits, that you will deign to enrol me together with the least among those who are yours. I truly have no merit, but that redemption of the world, of more value than the whole glory of the world, has very much more merit than that a sinner should be redeemed. Would that my sins may be weighed in the balance (Jb 6.2) of the cross with this victim worth more than all the value of the redemptίon; superabundant grace will outweigh my sins, although they are very great; that goodness will be greater than all wickedness. Satan with his accusation will be confounded and thrown out. And when he undertakes to accuse the guilty he will condemn himself, before that one who has not sinned and who has conquered our sin. The intervention of his benignity can forgive more than the world can sin. Therefore, O Lord, let me worship your cross, my redeemer; let me worship your mercy, my sustainer; let me fall at the feet of all your saints, so that those whom I cannot imitate by virtue, I may obtain as patrons for myself by veneration.

With these exhortations, not polished, indeed, by art, but excellent in faith, I have laboured to construct for you, O very sweet pledge of my soul, a bulwark of all virtue. Humility itself is accompanied by hope, so that confident in fear, and fearful in hope, it remains always unshaken, that which neither the pleasant breeze may raise and toss about, nor the storm break and undermine. In everyone let that mercy of infinite kindness of the Lord be honoured and loved, as much in the case of those whom he has saved amazingly as in the case of those whom he has revived powerfully from a fall and has renewed to the youth of an eagle (Ps 102.5). If one to whom much is forgiven loves much, how much ought one to love for whom much is preserved! If you are tempted by the breeze of human favour, for the life of man on earth is temptation (Jb 7.1), whether in prosperity or in adversity, put your sins in the way, for no innocence lacks sins. For who understands sins? ‘Cleanse me from my secret sins, O Lord, and spare your servant from those of others, which ensnare me through flatterers, and let me be purified from the greatest sin of pride (Ps 18.13-14). O God, you know my folly, and my sins are not hidden from you. May those who wait for you, O Lord, not blush for me (Ps 68.6-7). Since I am able to see no heart except for my own, let me think that all others are better.’

Just as in a fleet on the sea, or in a race at a race-course, now the one who was behind comes before the one who was ahead, now the one who was running ahead yields exhausted, so in the campaign of this life the one who is constantly overcome is victorious over the one who constantly overcomes, and the evening worker takes the rewards ahead of the one who had come in the morning (Mt 20.1-16). A wise man does not observe to whom he is preferred, but what sort of people are preferred to himself for their merits. When the temple of Solomon was built, no hammer, axe nor any iron tool was heard there, because, of course, the stones were hewed and cut beforehand (r Kgs 6.7). Think, then, that those who are now prepared through monastic discipline under another’s rule are stones to be set in the celestial building without the breaking of a second purgatory; think that you are a useless creature, fed by the alms of the world, and that you owe 104 prayers for all; yet you should not turn aside from the part of Mary. Once, you thought it unworthy to be called a nun; do not disdain now to be called an enclosed one, and the pauper of Christ, and the almswoman of Christ.

But so that you have confidence in supernal goodness, not in your own constancy, just as I told above about innocence miraculously preserved, so read here about holiness undermined by temptation, made good by falling. What I tell, I have learned by song and report, not by reading.

St Alexander was living as a solitary anchorite in a vast wood. Now he was great; now with his virtues he could reach heaven. The old serpent (Rev 12.9) looked on with malice, and see at what a long range he stretched out his snare to entangle the man. He stole secretly from her cradle by divine dispensation a squalling baby girl, the daughter, as the outcome established, of a provincial king, and, putting on the form of a monk, entrusted her to the hermit with the following story: ‘This is the daughter of my sister, who has been deprived of both parents, and I took her in out of compassion for her in her danger. For this reason I have anguish in my soul, that it is both irregular to keep her in the cloister under my abbot, and entirely impious to abandon her. You, in your fraternal holiness and famous solitude, are her sole refuge, (her only hope is) that you, out of pity, should act as her foster father and take and nurture her, until she is able to provide for herself.’ I shall be brief. He took her, brought her up, and when she was now old enough, debauched her and made her pregnant. As she bore the crime in her swelling womb, the devil, the author and inciter of evil, presented himself in his previous form, and asked how his charge was. The hermit, groaning very deeply from the suffering of his conscience, confessed his dire crime to the evil betrayer. And why delay with many words? The enemy, pretending to feel compassion for such a great calamity, persuaded that miserable man to commit a greater crime: he was famous for sanctity and advanced in age; nothing was worse than an elderly man who turned from his faith; if such foul disgrace were to burst upon the people, from the former odour of sanctity, immediately everything would be disturbed with uproar and scandals; the whole world would be armed with hatreds, detractions, curses, mockeries, and reproaches, not so much against him as against all holy men; everything holy would be cursed by all; he would be guilty of the perdition of many others, more than of his own crime; there remained for him one remedy, that by one evil he might extinguish so many evils: let him kill the unhappy woman, and bury her with the crime in the earth, away from the sight of heaven and all human notice; he could more easily be penitent and satisfy divine mercy, than human madness.

After he, relying on that excellent teacher of perditíon, had perpetrated everything, and had killed his spouse and buried her, then suddenly, with hair-raising shock, the seducer appeared and seized him, and trying to oppress him with this terror, said: ‘Ah, most evil of men, now you have become entirely mine; no one has obeyed my suggestions more cruelly. Well, lost one, was it not enough for you to have engaged in defilement, without also staining your brothel with blood?’ In terror the man called out to Christ, and the enemy, not bearing that great name, abandoned his prey and vanished, and the one whom he was intending to destroy by terror fled from terror to the Saviour. Casting himself on the ground, for three days continuously he overflowed with such violent tears that blood ran from the weeping. At last standing up, he had before his eyes an oak-tree, open and shining from within as if with a golden metal. He approached with the desire of trying it, and when he put both hands into it, the tree closed itself up and held the sinner against God bound. There, not to make a long story of it, for fifteen years he is said to have stood, _[105] content with no other food or drink than the falling nuts and leaves, than the dew and rain gave.

When the time of tribulation (Ps 36.39) had passed, and the time of supernal mercy came, it happened that King Gundofor, who was the father of the girl who was killed, was hunting in the same wood, and, wandering from the company of those who were with him, came to the place where the captive of the Lord was standing and had endured long days of summers and stormy nights of winters. At first the king was astonished, as if at something out of nature, but the old man, a loyal subject, reassured him in humble tones, and set out all the narrative of his life and of the deception, and showed with a nod the grave of the murdered woman. The king reckoned the years and did not doubt, from the agreement of time and the story, that it had been his daughter, whom he had lost as a baby. When he dug the woman up with a sword or a stake, he found a great miracle of supernal grace: for after so many years she shone forth all whole, as she had been when living. When the murderer saw it, he asked the king with great sorrow that he might obtain forgiveness for himself from his daughter. The father, praying, placed the rod of forgiveness in the uncorrupted fingers of his daughter; she, having taken it, cast it from her in the manner of forgiveness. At the same moment the oak, parting, set the captive free, and having been released from the guilt and the long grip, St Alexander sprang forth at liberty. In the same way the Lord first forgave the paralysed man in the gospel his sins, which had caused his sickness, then loosened the chains of bodily infirmity (Mt 9.2-8; Mk 2.3-12; Lk 5.18-26). So, whatever adversity we suffer, let us ask first that the debt of the penalty be remitted by the Lord, and so let the penalty be relaxed, and let outer salvation follow inner salvation. For one who has been desperate, salvation comes with greater grace, and the mercy of the Lord follows as much more copiously, as it follows more slowly. Blessed Alexander rejoiced that, from the crime of a corrupter and murderer, he had made the fruit of a martyr, and that she would triumph in heaven for him, in the inseparable bond of love. Therefore the king built on this spot a huge monastery; he adorned it with royal wealth; he distinguished it with a college of three hundred monks, and further he himself, having given up his throne, struggled for God in monastic sanctity in that same place. Therefore the holy hermit, the holy girl and the holy king are celebrated, and a very numerous fruit of the holy life was produced, and where the devil went about the perdition of one, Christ gained that very one too with many more.

So the Lord makes his mercies marvellous (Ps 16.7), and shapes again his good from our evil. You, also, say with the Psalmist: ‘I will exult and rejoice in your mercy, O Lord (Ps 30.8), not in my own strength.’ The palm of victory over the vices and the inviolate crown of the virtues suffer greater wars of vainglory than the sinner, whom the very cause of his humility oppresses. Good conscience is an enemy inside the walls and an internal dagger, and it is more greatly threatened because it does not know that God has more and better. But the prophet Elijah, who was worthy to be snatched up to the heavens in a fiery chariot (iv Kgs 2.11), when he thought himself to be the only worshipper of God, immediately heard from God: ‘I have left to me seven thousand men who have not bowed their knees before Baal (1 Kgs 19.18).’ When St Antony, among most excellent matter for praise in his merits and signs of miracles, _[106] judged himself to be the best or the first hermit in the world, he was ordered by a divine voice to seek Paul, whom he would find to be his predecessor and better than himself. Zozimas, a veteran in the war-service of Christ from infancy to his hundredth year, finally thinking that no one had lived more holily, no one had filled every rule of life more perfectly, received this response from heaven: ‘O Zozimas, indeed you have fought well, for a man; but never have you met with a greater contest than lately, in which you must struggle with a boastful conscience as with an inner enemy.ί So by the heavenly command he left his monastic famíly, and he found the sinful woman, to whom he did not dare to compare himself as well as the world.

What remains, O sweetest soul, but that, fired by examples, how many indeed more instructive, you trample the vanity of the world beneath your feet and you are snatched by eternal love to the eternal joys of Christ? Therefore coming here as the hart panting after the streams of water (Ps 41.2), pour out your heart like water in the sight of the Lord (Lam 2.19). Be like the watered garden of the Lord, whose waters do not fail (Is 58.11; Jer 31.12), from which the true gardener may make his young trees bud forth. Dig for yourself the wells of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Gn 21.25-32, 26.15-33, 29.2-11), throwing away the mass of earthly desire with all earthly hope, thinking always over past and future, the new and the old, purifying very carefully your inmost being, until you find the Lord, the vein of living waters (Jer 17.13), so that from the depths of your heart and from the abyss of heavenly desires, in all kinds of compunctíon you may make an aqueduct of tears, in which you may wash and whiten your clothing, and you may bless the Lord from the fountains of Israel (Ps 67.27), seeing God. For Israel is understood as ‘seeing God’. You will sigh with the daughter of Caleb, seeking the watered land (Jo 15.16-19; Jgs 1.12-15) from your heavenly father, so that he may give tears of compunction from the fountain of mercy, he who, from the rock that prefigured Christ (τ Cor 10.4), produced a fountain of living water (Ex 17.6; Nm 20.7-11). You will say: ‘Will you feed us the bread of tears, and will you give us for our drink tears in measure (Ps 79.6)? And let my eyes shed tears night and day, and let them not cease (Jer 14.17).’

You have great matter for tears. Every worldly joy has been shut out; the crowd of your neighbours and friends has been put far away; you have been left to Christ as a ward, so that in him you may rejoice in being a fellow-citizen and companion of the holy angels. Hence, in a humble spirit and with a contrite heart (Dn 3.39), offer yourself as a sacrifice to God, because an afflicted spirit is a sacrifice to God (Ps 50.19). In a humble spirit and with a contrite heart, I say, serving the Lord in fear, and exulting to him with trembling, with all the sighs of desire pour out your heart to God your salvation, desire him in your very marrow, take hold of him, embrace him. Think how sweet he is, how pleasant, how kind, how meek, how mild, how yielding, how loveable, furthermore how beautiful, how rich, how delightful, how glorious, how lively, how agreeable, how joyful, how easily entreated, _[107] and gladdening all things with his countenance, how full he is of an infinite treasury of all good things.

In loving uniquely one so worthy of love conceive him, carry him, give birth to him, feed him. Let him deign in you from infancy to be born and to grow to the fullness of love. If, from humility, in the presence of his beauty you blush for your deformity, in loving him in his very great beauty you will be adorned. No woman of Ethiopia is so black, none so ugly, so foul, if she love him purely, that she does not draw grace and splendour from his beauty. When the Lord looked on Moses, his face became horned from splendour, with rays shining all around as from the sun. Moreover, himself surpassing human grace in beauty, he had as a type of Christ and the church an Ethiopian as his wife (Ex 2.15-21; Nm 12.1), a queen of Ethiopia, which is to say black, but when Christ makes her fair, beautiful (Sg 1.4): ‘O Lord, turn away your face from my sins’ (Ps 50.11), and ‘lake your face shine’ (Ps 118.135), and ‘May the Lord cause his countenance to shine upon us’ (Ps 66.2), and ‘Look upon me’ (Ps 21.2; 24.16; 85.16), and ‘The light of your countenance is a sign upon us, O Lord’, and ‘Give gladness in my heart (Ps 4.7).’ See therefore how he stretches out loving arms on the cross, inviting us to himself with that kindness by which he redeemed us, prepared as we come to take us up of his own will, to gather, embrace, cherish us. He says: ‘Come to me, all who labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you (Mt 11.28).’ He will expend himself for you, in great or small measure, in proportion to your faith and love. He says: ‘As you have believed, let it be so for you (It 8.13).’ For one trusting in the Lord, nothing is difficult. Recollect what I was accustomed to sound in your ear: ‘The things that are impossible with men, are possible with God’ (Lk 18.27), and ‘All things are possible to the one who believes (Mk 9.22).’ Hear and dare. He spoke, and in speaking he acted. The one who sits above the cherubim (Ps 98.1) can also be held as a child by those who desire him, in their arms and in their bosom.

Speyer is a place of fame and opulence, the seat of a bishop. There a statue of the holy Mother of God with her Infant is adored, which is so placed at a low level that it is accessible to children. Here a certain little one, while his mother was praying at a distance, approached, carrying a slice of bread in his hand, and breaking off a morsel, he offered it to the statue of the wailing Christ, and with these words, such as German children babble, he began to implore: ‘Bat, child, eat, child.’ And when the holy statue was not moved at all, the host began to urge his guest with embraces and anxious tears, and to repeat often: ‘Bat, child.’ At last, the statue of the all-powerful little one is said to have embraced him in return as he was insistent with him, and to have addressed him with these words: ‘Don’t cry, child, after three days you will eat with me.’ His mother heard and trembled, and when a senior cleric appeared, she told him of the miracle. He, understanding the thing wisely, said: ‘Observe, now you will not have your child from the aforesaid day.’ _[108] Immediately the child was seized by fever and died within three days, so that there was no doubt that he dined with the little promise-maker among the innocents of Bethlehem. I heard these things from learned bishops of the church, which innumerable miracles of this kind of the mercy of the Lord encourage us to believe. O happy purchase of the kingdom of heaven under such a great giver! It is bought with a mite; it is bought with a cup of cold water (Mt 10.42); it is bought with a morsel of bread; it is bought with a prayer of good will. When he offers himself in such simplicity to those who love him in simplicity, embrace him with all the purity of a loving heart.

And consider in this further example how blessed also it is to come to him. A Christian Jew, when he was dying, said to his two brothers, whom he had often invited to faith, that on the third night after his death he would appear to them, so that they might believe. When he had died, then, after three years and three days, when they were now entirely disbelieving, he appeared to them, and thus, full of the joy of heaven, with a serene face he spoke to both through the apparition: ‘I did promise that I would appear to you three days after my death, and behold I come at last after three years and three days. Nor have I deceived you, although I was quite slow in coming. For note this as the third day after my third anniversary. For I am in such great glory with my Christ, that before this I was unable to turn my sight to you, and for happiness this period of three years seemed briefer to me than three days are to the world. But now I have come to you by necessity. Therefore if you wish to be blessed forever with me, hurry to believe in Christ and to be baptized, knowing certainly that you will die in fifteen days time.’ In the morning, reporting the same vision to one another, encouraged by such a certain sign, they were baptized together, and together, on the predicted day, in a riot, had the good fortune to be slain. Blessed are those whom you have chosen, O Lord (Ps 64.5). And so, sweetest one, hurry to such a good God with all your heart, run, fly, and in longing for him rage, be mad, rave, die, with the impatience of holy love, yet with fear and with rational reverence, growing with use and with most humble devotion.

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