On Cleaving to God
attributed to
Albertus Magnus
Contents
This famous and much loved little treatise, On
Cleaving to God, (De Adhaerendo Deo) has always been attributed to Saint
Albert the Great, who lived from about 1200 to 1280, and was one of the most
respected theologians of his time. He was moreover a voluminous writer in the
scholastic tradition, and, amongst other things, Bishop of Ratisbonne and one
of the teachers of Eckhart at Paris University. The Latin text of which this is
a translation is found in volume 37 of his Opera Omnia published in Paris in
1898.
However almost all modern scholars are agreed that
the work could not have been written by him, at least certainly not in its
present form. It contains many implicit references and quotations from writers
who lived well after Albert the Great. It is quite clear from the opening words
of the treatise that it is in essence the private anthology of a contemplative
or would-be contemplative, culled from many different sources, and including
thoughts of his own. From the references included, it would seem to belong, at
least in its present form to an unknown writer of the fifteenth century.
However, it has often been pointed out that the first
nine chapters seem to be of a somewhat different character to the remaining
seven. Indeed most of the directly contemplative and mystical material in the
work is contained in this first half, while the second section is concerned
largely with more general matters of ordinary Christian piety. It has therefore
been suggested that it is perhaps possible that a later hand has to some extent
reworked and extended an original, shorter text, that could perhaps even go
back to Albert the Great. Albert, we know, wrote a commentary on the teachings
of the famous St. Dionysius, and this work, particularly in the first nine
chapters is full of “Dionysian” themes. This could indicate that these chapters
at least may belong to Albert the Great, or, alternatively, it could explain
how it came to be attributed to him. The fact remains, whichever way round,
that the work stands on its own merits as a classic of Western contemplative
mysticism in the Via Negativa tradition. It has indeed been frequently
called a supplement to the Imitation of Christ.
In view of all these considerations, and in view of
the fact that the work has always been attributed to Albert the Great (and all
libraries and catalogues include it under his name), I have felt it best to
leave it attached to his name, though with the above reservations. After all,
Anonymous has dozens of works attributed to him that were actually written by
someone else, so perhaps for once it is only fair to attribute an anonymous
work to an actual person. Anyone who has ever tried to look for a work by
Anonymous in a big library catalogue will, I feel confident, be grateful to me!
Like Anonymous, I lay no claims to copyright on this
translation. I commit it, and a copy of the Latin original, to the deep in sure
and certain hope that it will do its own work.
John Richards
I have had the idea of writing something for myself
on and about the state of complete and full abstraction from everything and of
cleaving freely, confidently, nakedly and firmly to God alone, so as to
describe it fully (in so far as it is possible in this abode of exile and
pilgrimage), especially since the goal of Christian perfection is the love by
which we cleave to God. In fact everyone is obligated, to this loving cleaving
to God as necessary for salvation, in the form of observing the commandments
and conforming to the divine will, and the observation of the commandments
excludes everything that is contrary to the nature and habit of love, including
mortal sin. Members of religious orders have committed themselves in addition
to evangelical perfection, and to the things that constitute a voluntary and
counselled perfection by means of which one may arrive more quickly to the
supreme goal which is God. The observation of these additional commitments
excludes as well the things that hinder the working and fervour of love, and
without which one can come to God, and these include the renunciation of all
things, of both body and mind, exactly as one’s vow of profession entails.
Since indeed the Lord God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in
spirit and in truth, in other words, by knowledge and love, that is,
understanding and desire, stripped of all images. This is what is referred to
in Matthew 6.6, ‘When you pray, enter into your inner chamber,’ that is, your
inner heart, ‘and having closed the door,’ that is of your senses, and there
with a pure heart and a clear conscience, and with faith unfeigned, ‘pray to
your Father,’ in spirit and in truth, ‘in secret.’ This can be done best when a
man is disengaged and removed from everything else, and completely recollected
within himself. There, in the presence of Jesus Christ, with everything, in
general and individually, excluded and wiped out, the mind alone turns in
security confidently to the Lord its God with its desire. In this way it pours
itself forth into him in full sincerity with its whole heart and the yearning
of its love, in the most inward part of all its faculties, and is plunged,
enlarged, set on fire and dissolved into him.
Certainly, anyone who desires and aims to arrive at
and remain in such a state must needs above all have eyes and senses closed and
not be inwardly involved or worried about anything, nor concerned or occupied
with anything, but should completely reject all such things as irrelevant,
harmful and dangerous. Then he should withdraw himself totally within himself
and not pay any attention to any object entering the mind except Jesus Christ,
the wounded one, alone, and so he should turn his attention with care and
determination through him into him - that is, though the man into
God, through the wounds of his humanity into the inmost reality of his
divinity. Here he can commit himself and all that he has, individually and as a
whole, promptly, securely and without discussion, to God’s unwearying
providence, in accordance with the words of Peter, cast all your care upon
him (1 Peter 5.7), who can do everything. And again, In nothing be
anxious (Philippians 4.6), or what is more, Cast your burden upon the
Lord, and he will sustain you. (Psalm 55.22) Or again, It is good for me
to hold fast to God, (Ps. 73.28) and I have always set up God before me.
(Psalm 16.8) The bride too in the Song of Songs says, I have found him whom
my soul loves, (Canticle 3.4) and again, All good things came to me along
with her. (Wisdom 7.11) This, after all, is the hidden heavenly treasure,
none other than the pearl of great price, which must be sought with resolution,
esteeming it in humble faithfulness, eager diligence, and calm silence before
all things, and preferring it even above physical comfort, or honour and
renown. For what good does it do a religious if he gains the whole world but
suffers the loss of his soul? Or what is the benefit of his state of life, the
holiness of his profession, the virtue of his habit and tonsure, or the outer
circumstances of his way of life if he is without a life of spiritual humility
and truth in which Christ abides through a faith created by love. This is what
Luke means by, the Kingdom of God (that is, Jesus Christ) is within
you. (Luke 17.21)
Now the more the mind is concerned about thinking and
dealing with what is merely lower and human, the more it is separated from the
experience in the intimacy of devotion of what is higher and heavenly, while
the more fervently the memory, desire and intellect is withdrawn from what is
below to what is above, the more perfect will be our prayer, and the purer our
contemplation, since the two directions of our interest cannot both be perfect
at the same time, being as different as light and darkness. He who cleaves to
God is indeed translated into the light, while he who clings to the world is in
the dark. So the supreme perfection of man in this life is to be so united to
God that all his soul with all its faculties and powers are so gathered into
the Lord God that he becomes one spirit with him, and remembers nothing except
God, is aware of and recognises nothing but God, but with all his desires
unified by the joy of love, he rests contentedly in the enjoyment of his Maker
alone. Now the image of God as found in the soul consists of these three
faculties, namely reason, memory and will, and so long as they are not
completely stamped with God, the soul is not yet deiform in accordance with the
initial creation of the soul. For the true pattern of the soul is God, with
whom it must be imprinted, like wax with a seal, and carry the mark of his impress.
But this can never be complete until the intellect is perfectly illuminated,
according to its capacity, with the knowledge of God, who is perfect truth,
until the will is perfectly focused on the love of the perfect good, and until
the memory is fully absorbed in turning to and enjoying eternal happiness, and
in gladly and contentedly resting in it. And since the glory of the beatitude
which is achieved in our heavenly homeland consists in the complete fulfilment
of these three faculties, it follows that perfect initiation of them is
perfection in this life.
Happy therefore is the person who by continual
removal of fantasies and images, by turning within, and raising the mind to
God, finally manages to dispense with the products of the imagination, and by
so doing works within, nakedly and simply, and with a pure understanding and
will, on the the simplest of all objects, God. So eliminate from your mind all
fantasies, objects, images and shapes of all things other than God, so that,
with just naked understanding, intent and will, your practice will be concerned
with God himself within you. For this is the end of all spiritual exercises -
to turn the mind to the Lord God and rest in him with a completely pure
understanding and a completely devoted will, without the entanglements and
fantasies of the imagination. This sort of exercise is not practised by fleshly
organs nor by the exterior senses, but by that by which one is indeed a man.
For a man is precisely understanding and will. For that reason, in so far as a
man is still playing with the products of the imagination and the senses, and
holds to them, it is obvious that he has not yet emerged from the motivation
and limitations of his animal nature, that is of that which he shares in common
with the animals. For these know and feel objects by means of recognised shapes
and sense impressions and no more, since they do not possess the higher powers
of the soul. But it is different with man, who is created in the image and
likeness of God with understanding, will, and free choice, through which he
should be directly, purely and nakedly impressed and united with God, and
firmly adhere to him. For this reason the Devil tries eagerly and with all his
power to hinder this practice so far as he can, being envious of this in man,
since it is a sort of prelude and initiation of eternal life. So he is always
trying to draw man’s mind away from the Lord God, now by temptations or passions,
now by superfluous worries and pointless cares, now by restlessness and
distracting conversation and senseless curiosity, now by the study of subtle
books, irrelevant discussion, gossip and news, now by hardships, now by
opposition, etc. Such matters may seem trivial enough and hardly sinful, but
they are a great hindrance to this holy exercise and practice. Therefore, even
if they may appear useful and necessary, they should be rejected, whether great
or small, as harmful and dangerous, and put out of our minds. Above all
therefore it is necessary that things heard, seen, done and said, and other
such things, must be received without adding things from the imagination,
without mental associations and without emotional involvement, and one should not
let past or future associations, implications or constructs of the imagination
form and grow. For when constructs of the imagination are not allowed to enter
the memory and mind, a man is not hindered, whether he be engaged in prayer,
meditation, or reciting psalms, or in any other practice or spiritual exercise,
nor will they recur again. So commit yourself confidently and without
hesitation, all that you are, and everything else, individually and in general,
to the unfailing and totally reliable providence of God, in silence and in
peace, and he will fight for you. He will liberate you and comfort you more
fully, more effectively and more satisfactorily than if you were to dream about
it all the time, day and night, and were to cast around frantically all over
the place with the futile and confused thoughts of your mind in bondage, nor
will you wear out your mind and body, wasting your time, and stupidly and
pointlessly exhausting your strength. So accept everything, separately and in
general, wherever it comes from and whatever its origin, in silence and peace,
and with an equal mind, as coming to you from a father’s hand and his divine
providence. So render your imagination bare of the images of all physical
things as is appropriate to your state and profession, so that you can cling to
him with a bare and undivided mind, as you have so often and so completely
vowed to do, without anything whatever being able to come between your soul and
him, so that you can pass purely and unwaveringly from the wounds of his
humanity into the light of his divinity.
If your desire and aim is to reach the destination of
the path and home of true happiness, of grace and glory, by a straight and safe
way then earnestly apply your mind to seek constant purity of heart, clarity of
mind and calm of the senses. Gather up your heart’s desire and fix it
continually on the Lord God above. To do so you must withdraw yourself so far
as you can from friends and from everyone else, and from the activities that
hinder you from such a purpose. Grasp every opportunity when you can find the
place, time and means to devote yourself to silence and contemplation, and
gathering the secret fruits of silence, so that you can escape the shipwreck of
this present age and avoid the restless agitation of the noisy world. For this
reason apply yourself at all times to purity, clarity and peace of heart above
all things, so that, so far as possible, you can keep the doors of your heart
resolutely barred to the forms and images of the physical senses and worldly
imaginations by shutting off the doors of the physical senses and turning
within yourself. After all, purity of heart is recognised as the most important
thing among all spiritual practices, as its final aim, and the reward for all
the labours that a spiritual-minded person and true religious may undertake in
this life. For this reason you should with all care, intelligence and effort
free your heart, senses and desires from everything that can hinder their
liberty, and above all from everything in the world that could possibly bind
and overcome you. So struggle in this way to draw together all the distractions
of your heart and desires of your mind into one true, simple and supreme good,
to keep them gathered within yourself in one place, and by this means to remain
always joined to things divine and to God in your mind, to abandon the
unreliable things of earth, and be able to translate your mind continually to
the things above within yourself in Jesus Christ. To which end, if you have
begun to strip and purify yourself of images and imaginations and to simplify
and still your heart and mind in the Lord God so that you can draw and taste
the well of divine grace in everything within yourself, and so that you are
united to God in your mind by a good will, then this itself is enough for you
in place of all study and reading of holy scripture, and as demonstration of
love of God and neighbour, as devotion itself testifies. So simplify your heart
with all care, diligence and effort so that still and at peace from the
products of the imagination you can turn round and remain always in the Lord
within yourself, as if your mind were already in the now of eternity, that is
of the godhead. In this way you will be able to renounce yourself through love
of Jesus Christ, with a pure heart, clean conscience and unfeigned faith, and
commit yourself completely and fully to God in all difficulties and
eventualities, and be willing to submit yourself patiently to his will and good
pleasure at all times. For this to come about you must repeatedly retreat into
your heart and remain there, keeping yourself free from everything, so far as
is possible. You must always keep the eye of your mind clear and still. You
must guard your understanding from daydreams and thoughts of earthly things.
You must completely free the inclination of your will from worldly cares and
cling with all your being to the supreme true good with fervent love. You must
keep your memory always lifted up and firmly anchored in that same true supreme
good and only uncreated reality. In just this way your whole mind gathered up
with all its powers and faculties in God, may become one spirit with him, in
whom the supreme perfection of life is known to consist. This is the true union
of spirit and love by which a man is made compliant to all the impulses of the
supreme and eternal will, so that he becomes by grace what God is by nature. At
the same time it should be noted that in the very moment in which one is able,
by God’s help, to overcome one’s own will, that is to cast away from oneself
inordinate love or strong feeling, in other words so as to dare simply to trust
God completely in all one’s needs, by this very fact one becomes so pleasing to
God that his grace is imparted to one, and through that very grace one
experiences that true love and devotion which drives out all uncertainty and
fear and has full confidence in God. What is more, there can be no greater
happiness than to place one’s all in him who lacks nothing. So why do you still
remain in yourself where you cannot stay. Cast yourself, all of yourself, with
confidence into God and he will sustain you, heal you and make you safe. If you
dwell on these things faithfully within, they will do more to confer a happy
life on you than all riches, pleasures and honours, and above all the wisdom
and knowledge of this present deceitful world and its life, even if you were to
excel in them all that ever lived.
The more you strip yourself of the products of the
imagination and involvement in external, worldly things and the objects of the
senses, the more your soul will recover its strength and its inner senses so
that it can appreciate the things which are above. So learn to withdraw from
imaginations and the images of physical things, since what pleases God above
everything is a mind bare of those sorts of forms and objects, for it is his
delight to be with the sons of men, that is those who, at peace from such
activities, distractions and passions, seek him with a pure and simple mind,
empty themselves for him, and cleave to him. Otherwise, if your memory,
imagination and thought is often involved with such things, you must needs be
filled with the thought of new things or memories of old ones, or identified
with other changing objects. As a result, the Holy Spirit withholds itself from
thoughts bereft of understanding. So the true lover of Jesus Christ should be
so united through good will in his understanding with the divine will and
goodness, and be so bare of all imaginations and passions that he does not even
notice whether he is being mocked or loved, or something is being done to him.
For a good will turns everything to good and is above everything. So if the
will is good and is obedient and united to God with pure understanding, he is
not hurt even if the flesh and the senses and the outer man is moved to evil,
and is slow to good, or even if the inner man is slow to feel devotion, but
should simply cleave to God with faith and good will in naked understanding. He
is doing this if he is conscious of all his own imperfection and nothingness,
recognises his good to consist in his Creator alone, abandons himself with all
his faculties and powers, and all creatures, and immerses himself wholly and
completely in the Creator, so that he directs all his actions purely and
entirely in his Lord God, and seeks nothing apart from him, in whom he
recognises all good and all joy of perfection to be found. And he is so
transformed in a certain sense into God that he cannot think, understand, love
or remember anything but God himself and the things of God. Other creatures
however and even himself he does not see, except in God, nor does he love
anything except God alone, nor remember anything about them or himself except
in God. This knowledge of the truth always makes the soul humble, ready to
judge itself and not others, while on the contrary worldly wisdom makes the
soul proud, futile, inflated and puffed up with wind. So let this be the
fundamental spiritual doctrine leading to the knowledge of God, his service and
familiarity with him, that if you want to truly possess God, you must strip
your heart of all love of things of the senses, not just of certain creatures,
so that you can turn to the Lord your God with a simple and whole heart and
with all your power, freely and without any double-mindedness, care or anxiety,
but with full confidence in his providence alone about everything.
What is more, as is said in the book On the Spirit
and the Soul (of St. Augustine), to ascend to God means to enter into oneself.
He who entering within and penetrating his inmost nature, goes beyond himself,
he is truly ascending to God. So let us withdraw our hearts from the
distractions of this world, and recall them to the inner joys, so that we can
establish them to some degree in the light of divine contemplation. For this is
the life and peace of our hearts - to be established by intent in the love of
God, and to be sweetly remade by his comforting. But the reason why we are in
so many ways hindered in the practical enjoyment of this matter and are unable
to get into it is clearly because the human mind is so distracted by worries
that it cannot bring its memory to turn within, is so clouded by its
imaginations that it cannot return to itself with its understanding, and is so
drawn away by its desires that it is quite unable to come back to itself by
desire for inner sweetness and spiritual joy. Thus it is so prostrate among the
sense objects presented to it that it cannot enter into itself as the image of
God. It is therefore right and necessary for the mind to raise itself above
itself and everything created by the abandonment of everything, with humble
reverence and great trust, and to say within itself, He whom I seek, love,
thirst for and desire from everything and more than anything is not a thing of
the senses or the imagination, but is above everything that can be experienced
by the senses and the intellect. He cannot be experienced by any of the senses,
but is completely desirable to my will. He is moreover not discernable, but is
perfectly desirable to my inner affections. He cannot be comprehended, but can
be loved in his fullness with a pure heart, for he is above all lovable and
desirable, and of infinite goodness and perfection. And then a darkness comes
over the mind and it is raised up into itself and penetrates even deeper. And
the more inward-looking the desire for it, the more powerful this means of
ascent to the mysterious contemplation of the holy Trinity in Unity and Unity
in Trinity in Jesus Christ is, and the more interior the yearning, the more
productive it is. Certainly in matters spiritual the more inward they are the
greater they are as spiritual experiences. For this reason, never give up,
never stop until you have tasted some pledge, as I might say, or foretaste of
the future full experience, and until you have obtained the satisfaction of
however small a first fruits of the divine joy. And do not give up pursuing it
and following its scent until you have seen the God of gods in Sion. Do not
stop or turn back in your spiritual journey and your union and adherence to God
within you until you have achieved what you have been seeking. Take as a
pattern of this the example of those climbing an ordinary mountain. If our mind
is involved by its desires in the things which are going on below, it is immediately
carried away by endless distractions and side tracks, and being to some extent
divided against itself, is weakened and as it were scattered amongst the things
which it seeks with its desires. The result is ceaseless movement, travel
without an arrival, and labour without rest. If on the other hand our heart and
mind can withdraw itself by its desire and love from the infinite distraction
below of the things beneath it, can learn to be with itself, abandoning these
lower things and gathering itself within itself into the one unchanging and
satisfying good, and can hold to it inseparably with its will, it is
correspondingly more and more gathered together in one and strengthened, as it
is raised up by knowledge and desire. In this way it will become accustomed to
the true supreme good within itself until it will be made completely immovable
and arrive securely at that true life which is the Lord God himself, so that it
can now rest in him within and in peace without any changeability or
vicissitude of time, perfectly gathered within itself in the secret divine
abode in Christ Jesus who is the way for those who come to him, the truth and
life.
I am now completely convinced that you will recognise
from these arguments that the more you strip yourself of the products of your
imagination and all worldly and created things, and are united to God with your
intellect by a good will, the closer you will approach the state of innocence
and perfection. What could be better? And what could be more happy and joyful?
Above all it is important for you to keep your mind bare - without imaginations
and images and free of any sort of entanglement, so that you are not concerned
about either the world, friends, prosperity or adversity, or anything present,
past or future, whether in yourself or in others - not even your own sins. But
consider yourself with a certain pure simplicity to be alone with God outside
the world, and as if your mind were already in eternity and separated from the
body so that it will certainly not bother about worldly things or be concerned
about the state of the world, about peace or war, about good weather or rain,
or about anything at all in this world, but with complete docility will turn to
God alone, be empty for him and cleave to him. So now in this way ignore your
body and all created things, present or future, and direct the high point of
your mind and spirit directly, as best you can, naked and unencumbered on the
uncreated light. And let your spirit be cleansed in this way from all
imaginations, coverings and things obscuring its vision, like an angel (not)
tied to a body, who is not hindered by the works of the flesh nor tangled in
vain and wandering thoughts. Let your spirit therefore arm itself against all
temptations, vexations, and injuries so that it can persevere steadily in God
when attacked by either face of fortune. So that when some inner disturbance or
boredom or mental confusion come you will not be indignant or dejected because
of it, nor run back to vocal prayers or other forms of consolation, but only to
lift yourself up in your intellect by a good will to hold on to God with your
mind whether the natural inclination of the body wills it or not. The
religious-minded soul should be so united to God and should have or render its
will so conformed to the divine will that it is not occupied with any created
thing or cling to it any more than before it was created, and as if nothing existed
except God and the soul itself. And in this way it should accept everything
confidently and equally, in general and in particular, from the hand of divine
providence, agreeing in everything with the Lord in patience, peace and
silence. The thing is that the most important thing of all for a spiritual life
is to strip the mind of all imaginations so that one can be united in one’s
intellect to God by a good will, and conformed to him. Besides, nothing will
then be intermediary between you and God. This obvious, since nothing external
will stand between you when by the vow of voluntary poverty you will have
removed the possession of anything whatsoever, and by the vow of chastity you
will have abandoned your body, and by obedience you will have given up your
will and your soul itself. And in this way nothing will be left to stand
between you and God. That you are a religious person is indicated by your
profession, your state, and now your habit and tonsure and such like, but
whether you are only a religious in appearance or a real one, you will find
out. Bear in mind therefore how greatly you have fallen away and sin against
the Lord your God and all his justice if you behave otherwise and cling with
your will and love to what is created rather than to the Creator himself,
putting the created before the Creator.
Now since all things other than God are the effect
and work of the Creator himself, their having ability and being is a limited
power and existence, and being as they are created out of nothing, they are
circumscribed by the effects of their nothingness, while their tendency of
themselves towards nothingness means that we receive our existence,
preservation and activity moment by moment from the Creator himself, along with
whatever other qualities created things may have, just as we receive their
insufficiency to any action of themselves, both with regard to themselves and
to others, in relation to him whose operation they are, they remain as a
nothing before something which exists, and as something finite before what is
infinite. For this reason let all our actual contemplation, life and activity
take place in him alone, about him, for him and towards him who is able and
capable to produce with a single nod of his will things infinitely more perfect
than any that exist now. No contemplation and fruition of love, whether
intellectual or affective, is more useful, more perfect and more satisfying
than that which is of God himself, the Creator, our supreme and true Good, from
whom, through whom and to whom are all things. He is infinitely satisfying both
to himself and to all others, who contains within himself in absolute
simplicity and from all eternity the perfection of all things, in whom there is
nothing which is not himself, before whom and through whom remain the causes of
all things impermanent, and in whom dwell the unchanging origins of all
changing things, while even the eternal reasons of all temporal things,
rational and irrational, abide in him. He brings everything to completion, and
fills all things, in general and in particular, completely and essentially with
himself. He is more intimately and more really present to everything by his
being than each thing is to itself, for in him all things are united together,
and live in him eternally. What is more, if someone, out of weakness or from
lack of intellectual practice, is detained longer in the contemplation of
created things, this supreme, true and fruitful contemplation may still be seen
as possible for mortal man, so that there may take place an upward leap in all
his contemplations and meditations, whether about created things or the
Creator, and the appreciation of God the Creator himself, the One and Three,
may surge up within so that he come to burn with the fire of divine love and
the true life in himself and in others, in such a way as to make him deserving
of the joy of eternal life. Even in this one should bear in mind the difference
between the contemplation of faithful Catholics and that of pagan philosophers,
for the contemplation of the philosophers is for the perfection of the
contemplator himself, and consequently it is confined to the intellect and
their aim in it is intellectual knowledge. But the contemplation of the Saints,
and of Catholics, is for the love of him, that is of the God they are
contemplating. As a result it is not confined in the final analysis to the
intellect in knowledge, but crosses over into the will through love. That is
why the Saints in their contemplation have the love of God as their principal
aim, since it is more satisfying to know and possess even the Lord Jesus Christ
spiritually through grace than physically or even really but without grace.
Furthermore, while the soul is withdrawn from everything and is turned within,
the eye of contemplation is opened and sets itself up a ladder by which it can
pass to the contemplation of God. By this contemplation the soul is set on fire
for eternal things by the heavenly and divine good things it experiences, and
views all the things of time from a distance and as if they were nothing. Hence
when we approach God by the way of negation, we first deny him everything that
can be experienced by the body, the senses and the imagination, secondly even
things experienceable by the intellect, and finally even being itself in so far
as it is found in created things. This, so far as the nature of the way is
concerned, is the best means of union with God, according to Dionysius. And this
is the cloud in which God is said to dwell, which Moses entered, and through
this came to the inaccessible light. Certainly, it is not the spiritual
which comes first, but the natural, (1 Corinthians 15.46) so one must
proceed by the usual order of things, from active work to the quiet of
contemplation, and from moral virtues to spiritual and contemplative realities.
Finally, my soul, why are you uselessly preoccupied with so many things, and
always busy with them? Seek out and love the one supreme good, in which is all
that is worth seeking, and that will be enough for you. Unhappy therefore is he
who knows and possesses everything other than this, and does not know this.
While if he knows everything as well as this, it is not from knowing them that he
is better off but because of This. That is why John says, This is eternal
life, to know Thee, etc. (John 17.3) and the prophet says, I will be
satisfied when your glory becomes manifest. (Psalm 17.15)
Furthermore you should not be much concerned about
tangible devotion, the experience of sweetness or tears, but rather that you
should be mentally united with God within yourself by a good will in your
intellect. For what pleases God above everything is a mind free from
imaginations, that is images, ideas and the representations of created things.
It befits a monk to be indifferent to everything created so that he can turn
easily and barely to God alone within himself, be empty for him and cleave to
him. For this reason deny yourself so that you can follow Christ, the Lord your
God, in nakedness, who was himself poor, obedient, chaste, humble and
suffering, and in whose life and death many were scandalised, as is clear from
the Gospel accounts. After all, a soul which is separated from the body pays no
attention to what is done to its abandoned body - whether it is burned, hanged,
or reviled, and is in no way saddened by the afflictions imposed on the body,
but thinks only of the Now of eternity and the One Thing which the Lord calls
necessary in the Gospel. So you too should treat your body as if you were no
longer in the body, but think always of the eternity of your soul in God, and direct
your thoughts carefully to that One Thing of which Christ said, For one
thing is necessary. (Luke 10.42) You will experience because of it great
grace, helping you towards the acquisition of nakedness of mind and simplicity
of heart. Indeed this One Thing is very much present with you if you have made
yourself bare of imaginations and all other entanglements, and you will soon
experience that this is so - namely when you can be empty and cleave to God
with a naked and resolute mind. In this way you will remain unconquered in
whatever may be inflicted on you, like the holy martyrs, fathers, the elect,
and indeed all the saints who despised everything and only thought of their
souls’ security and eternity in God. Armed in this way within, and united to God
through a good will, they spurned everything of the world as if their souls
were already separated from their bodies. Consider from this how much a good
will united with God is capable of, when by means of its pressing towards God
the soul is effectively separated the body in spirit and looks on its outward
man as it were from a distance, and as not belonging to it. In this way it
despises everything that is inflicted on itself or on its flesh as if they were
happening to someone else, or not to a human being at all. For He that is
united with the Lord is one Spirit, (1 Corinthians 6.17) that is with him.
So you should never dare to think or imagine anything before the Lord your God
that you would blush to be heard or seen in before men, since your respect for
God should be even greater than for them. It is a matter of justice in fact
that all your thoughts and thinking should be raised to God alone, and the
highest point of your mind should only be directed to him as if nothing existed
but him, and holding to him may enjoy the perfect beginning of the life to come.
Now there is no one who approaches God with a true
and upright heart who is not tested by hardships and temptations. So in all these
temptations see to it that even if you feel them, you do not consent to them,
but bear them patiently and calmly with humility and long suffering. Even if
they are blasphemies and sordid, hold firmly on to this fact in everything,
that you can do nothing better or more effective against them than to consider
all this sort of fantasy as a nothing. Even if they are the most vile, sordid
and horrible blasphemies, simply take no notice of them, count them as nothing
and despise them. Don’t look on them as yours or allow yourself to make them a
matter of conscience. The enemy will certainly take flight if you treat him and
his company with contempt in this way. He is very proud and cannot bear to be
despised and spurned. So the best remedy is to completely ignore all such
temptations, like flies flying around in front of your eyes against your will.
The servant of Jesus Christ must see to it that he is not so easily forced to
withdraw from the face of the Lord and to be annoyed, murmur and complain over
the nuisance of a single fly, that is, a trivial temptation, suspicion,
sadness, distraction, need or any such adversity, when they can all be put to
flight with no more than the hand of a good will directed up to God. After all,
through a good will a man has God as his defender, and the holy angels as his
guardians and protectors. What is more, any temptation can be overcome by a
good will too, like a fly driven away from a bald head by one’s hand. So peace
is for men of good will. Indeed we can offer God nothing more valuable than
a good will, since a good will in the soul is the source of all good things,
and the mother of all virtues. If any one is beginning to possess that good
will, he undoubtedly has what is necessary for leading a good life. For if you want
what is good, but cannot do it, God will make good the deed. For it is in
accordance with this eternal law that God has established with irrevocable
firmness that deserts should be a matter of the will, whether in bliss or
torment, reward or punishment. Love itself is a great will to serve God, a
sweet desire to please God, and a fervent wish to experience God. What is more,
to be tempted is not a sin, but the opportunity for exercising virtue, so that
temptation can be greatly to a man’s benefit, since it is held that the
whole of a man’s life on earth is a testing. (Job 7.1)
All that is said above and whatever is necessary for
salvation cannot be better, more immediately and more securely achieved than by
love, through which whatever is lacking of what is necessary for salvation can
be made good. In love we possess the fullness of all good and the realisation
of our highest longing is not denied us. After all it is love alone by which we
turn back to God, are changed into God, cleave to God, and are united to God in
such a way that we become one spirit with him, and are by him and through him
made blessed here by grace and hereafter in glory. Now love is such that it
cannot rest except in the beloved, but it does when it wins the beloved in full
and peaceful possession. For love, which itself is charity, is the way of God
to men and the way of man to God. God cannot house where there is no love. So
if we have love, we have God, for God is love. Furthermore nothing is sharper
than love, nothing is more subtle, nothing more penetrating. It will not rest
until it has by its very nature penetrated the whole power, the depth and the
totality of the loved one. It wants to make itself one with the beloved, and
itself, if it were possible, to be what the beloved is too. Thus it cannot bear
that anything should stand between itself and the beloved object, which is God,
but presses eagerly towards him. As a result it never rests until it has left
everything else behind and come to him alone. For the nature of love is of a
unitive and transforming power which transforms the lover into what he loves,
or alternatively, makes the lover one with the other, and vice versa, in so far
as is possible. This is manifest in the first place with regard to the mental
powers, depending on how much the beloved is in the lover, in other words
depending on how sweetly and delightfully the beloved is recalled in the mind
of the lover, and in direct proportion, that is, with how much the lover
strives to grasp all the things that relate to the beloved not just
superficially but intimately, and to enter, as it were, into his innermost
secrets. It is also manifest with regard to the emotional and affective powers
when the beloved is said to be in the lover, in other words when the desire to
please the beloved is found in the will and established within by the happy
enjoyment of him. Alternatively, the lover is in the beloved when he is united
with him by all his desire and compliance in agreement with the beloved’s
willing and not willing, and finds his own pleasure and pain in that of the
beloved. For love draws the lover out of himself (since love is strong as
death), and establishes him in the beloved, causing him to cleave closely to
him. For the soul is more where it loves than where it lives, since it is in
what it loves in accordance with its very nature, understanding and will, while
it is in where it lives only with regard to form, which is even true for
animals as well. There is nothing therefore which draws us away from the
exterior senses to within ourselves, and from there to Jesus Christ and things
divine, more than the love of Christ and the desire for the sweetness of
Christ, for the experience, awareness and enjoyment of the presence of Christ’s
divinity. For there is nothing but the power of love which can lead the soul
from the things of earth to the lofty summit of heaven. Nor can anyone attain
the supreme beatitude unless summoned to it by love and yearning. Love after
all is the life of the soul, the wedding garment and the soul’s perfection,
containing all the law and the prophets and our Lord’s teaching. That is why
Paul says to the Romans, Love is the fulfilling of the law, (Rom. 13.8)
and in the first letter to Timothy, The end of the commandment is love.
(1 Timothy 1.5)
Besides this, since we are incapable of ourselves for
this and for any other good action whatsoever, and since we can of ourselves
offer nothing to the Lord God (from whom all good things come) which is not his
already, with this one exception, as he has deigned to show us both by his own
blessed mouth as well as by his example, that we should turn to him in all circumstances
and occasions as guilty, wretched, poor, beggarly, weak, helpless, subject
servants and sons. And that we should beseech him and lay before him with
complete confidence the dangers that are besetting us on all sides, completely
grief-stricken in ourselves, in humble prostration of mind, in fear and love,
and with recollected, composed, mature, true and naked, shamefaced affection,
with great yearning and determination, and in groaning of heart and sincerity
of mind. Thus we commit and offer ourselves up to him freely, securely and
nakedly, fully and in everything that is ours, holding nothing back to
ourselves, in such a complete and final way, that the same is fulfilled in us
as in our blessed father Isaac, who speaks of this very type of prayer, saying,
Then we shall be one in God, and the Lord God will be all in all and alone
in us when his own perfect love, with which he first loved us, will have become
the disposition of our own hearts too. This will come about when all our
love, all our desire, all our concern, all our efforts, in fact everything we
think, everything we see, speak and even hope will be God, and that unity which
now is of the Father with the Son, and of the Son with the Father, will be
poured into our own heart and mind as well, in such a way that just as he loves
us with sincere and indissoluble love we too will be joined to him with eternal
and inseparable affection. In other words we shall be united with him in such a
way that whatever we hope, and whatever we say or pray will be God. This
therefore should be the aim, this the concern and goal of a spiritual man - to
be worthy to possess the image of future bliss in this corruptible body, and in
a certain measure experience in advance how the foretaste of that heavenly bliss,
eternal life and glory begins in this world. This, as I say, is the goal of all
perfection, that his purified mind should be daily raised up from all bodily
objects to spiritual things until all his mental activity and all his heart’s
desire become one unbroken prayer. So the mind must abandon the dregs of earth
and press on towards to God, on whom alone should be fixed the desire of a
spiritual man, for whom the least separation from that summum bonum is to be
considered a living death and dreadful loss. Then, when the requisite peace has
been established in his mind, when it is free from attachment to any carnal
passion, and clings firmly in intention to that one supreme good, the Apostle’s
sayings are fulfilled, Pray without ceasing, (1 Thessalonians 5.17) and,
Pray in every place lifting up pure hands without anger or dispute. (1
Timothy 2.8) For when the power of the mind is absorbed in this purity, so to
speak, and is transformed from an earthly nature into the spiritual or angelic
likeness, whatever it receives into itself, whatever it is occupied with,
whatever it is doing, it will be pure and sincere prayer. In this way, if you
continue all the time in the way we have described from the beginning, it will
become as easy and clear for you to remain in contemplation in your inward and
recollected state, as to live in the natural state.
While we should strive for spiritual perfection of
mind, purity and peace in God, it will be found to be not a little beneficial
to this that we should return quietly into the inner secret place of the mind
in the face of everything said, thought or done to us. There, withdrawn from
everything else and completely recollected within ourselves, we can place
ourselves in the knowledge of the truth before us and undoubtedly discover and
understand that it does us absolutely no good, and rather the contrary, when we
are praised or honoured by others while we recognise by the knowledge of the
truth about ourselves within that we are blameworthy and guilty. And just as
nothing is any help if externally people praise someone if his conscience
internally accuses him, in the same way on the contrary it does a man no harm
to be despised, maligned and persecuted when he remains internally just as
innocent, blameless and without fault. On the contrary he has all the more good
reason to rejoice in the Lord with patience, in peace and silence. After all no
adversity can do any harm where evil is not in control, and just as no evil
goes unpunished, so no good goes unrewarded. Nor should we wish a reward with
hypocrites or expect and receive profit from men, but from the Lord God alone,
not in the present, but in the future, and not in fleeting time, but in
eternity. It is clear therefore that nothing is greater, and nothing better
than to enter into the inner secret place of the mind always and in every
tribulation and occurrence, and there to call upon the Lord Jesus Christ
himself, our helper in temptations and tribulations, and to humble ourselves
there by confession of sin, and praise God and Father himself, the giver of
correction and the giver of consolation. Above all one should accept
everything, in general and individually, in oneself or in others, agreeable or
disagreeable, with a prompt and confident spirit, as coming from the hand of
his infallible Providence or the order he has arranged. This attitude will lead
to the forgiveness of our sins, the deliverance from bitterness, the enjoyment
of joy and security, the outpouring of grace and mercy, introduction and
establishment into a close relationship with God, abundant enjoyment of his
presence, and firm cleaving and union with him. But let us not copy those who
from hypocrisy and Pharisaism want to appear better and different from what
they are, and to make a better impression and appearance before men of being
something special, than they know in truth inside to be so. For it is absolute
madness to seek, hunger for and aspire to human praise or renown, from oneself
or others, when one is in spite of it all inwardly full of cravings and serious
faults. And certainly the good things we have talked about above will flee him
who chases such vanities, and he will merely bring disgrace on himself. So
always keep your faults and your own incapacity before your eyes, and know
yourself, so that you can be humbled and not try to avoid being held as the
lowest, vilest and most abject scum by everyone when you are aware of the grave
sins and serious faults in yourself. For which reason consider yourself
compared to others as dross to gold, weeds to the wheat, chaff to the grain, a
wolf to the sheep, Satan to the children of God. And do not seek to be
respected by others and given precedence before others, but rather flee with
all your heart and soul the poison of this disease, the venom of praise, the
concern for boasting and vanity, lest, as the prophet says, The wicked is
praised in his own heart’s desires, (Psalm 10.4) and Isaiah, They who
speak good of you, deceive you and destroy the way of your feet, (Isaiah
3.12) and the Lord in Luke, Woe to you when men speak well of you! (Luke
6.26).
Furthermore the more a man recognises his own
insignificance, the more he fully and the more clearly he becomes aware to the
divine majesty, and the more a man is low in his own eyes for the sake of God,
the truth and justice, the more precious he is in the eyes of God. For this
reason let us strive with the whole strength of our desire to consider
ourselves the lowest of all and to consider ourselves unworthy of any favour.
We should strive to be displeasing to ourselves and pleasing only to God, while
regarded as low and unworthy of consideration by others. Above all not to be
moved by difficulties, afflictions and insults, and not to be upset by those
who inflict such things on us, or entertain evil thoughts against them or be
indignant, but to believe steadfastly and with equanimity in all insults,
slights, blows and dereliction that it is only appropriate. For in truth he who
is really penitent and grieving before God hates to be honoured and loved by
all, and does not try to manipulate things so as to avoid being to some degree
hated, neglected and despised right to the end, so that he can be truly humbled
and sincerely cleave to God alone with a pure heart. Indeed, for loving God
alone and hating oneself more than anything, and desiring to be despised by
others we do not require external work or physical strength, but rather
physical solitude, the labour of the heart, and peace of mind so that, as it
were, by labour of the heart and the disposition of the inmost mind, one may
rise up, casting off from oneself lower and physical things, and so soar up,
ascending to things heavenly and divine. For indeed in so doing we changed into
God, and this will especially take place when without judgement, condemnation
or contempt of our neighbour, we choose rather to be considered as scum and a
disgrace by everyone and to be despised as unclean filth by everyone than to
experience all sorts of different delicacies or to be honoured and exalted by
men, or enjoy all sorts of transitory physical forms of well-being and comfort.
We should not desire any pleasure of this present, mortal and physical life but
rather to mourn, bewail and lament our offences, faults and sins without
ceasing, and to perfectly despise and annihilate ourselves, and from day to day
to be considered more and more abject by others, while in all our
insignificance we become worthless even in our own eyes, so that we can be
pleasing to God alone, love him alone, and cleave to him alone. We should not
wish to be concerned about anything except the Lord Jesus Christ himself who
alone should reside in our affections, and we should not be concerned or
anxious about anything except him on whose dominion and providence everything
in general and individually depends. So from now on it should not be your aim
to seek enjoyment but to truly mourn with all your heart. For that reason, if
you do not mourn, mourn for that, while if you do mourn, mourn especially that
you have brought the cause of your pain on yourself by your own great offences
and infinite sins. For just as a condemned man on receiving his sentence does
not concern himself about the seating of the spectators, so he who laments and
is genuinely mourning is not interested in pleasures, resentment, fame or
wrongs or things of that sort. And just as townsfolk and contemned criminals
have different accommodation, the state and position of those who are mourning
and have committed offences deserving punishment ought to be completely
different from those who are innocent and under no obligation. Otherwise there
would be no difference between the guilty and the innocent in matters of
punishment and reward. The result would be great dereliction of duty, and evil
behaviour would have more freedom than goodness. So everything must be
renounced, everything despised, everything rejected and avoided, so that we can
lay a firm foundation of penitent grieving. Then, loving Jesus Christ in
reality, yearning for him, and holding him in one’s heart, in reality
experiencing pain for one’s sins and faults, in reality seeking to know the
coming Kingdom, while with true faith bearing in mind the reality of the
torments and eternal judgement, and firmly and fully taking up the recollection
and fear of one’s own death, we should be aware of nothing else, and not care
or be worried about anything else. For that reason, he who hurries towards the
blessed state of impassibility and towards God should reckon himself to have
experienced great loss every day that he is not insulted and despised. Impassibility
after all is freedom from vices and passions and purity of heart and the
adornment of all virtues. So consider yourself as already dead since there is
no doubt that you have got to die. And as a final thought let this be the test
for you of whether any thought, word or action of yours is of God, whether you
are made more humble because of it, more inward and more recollected and
established in God. If you find it is otherwise in yourself, you should be
suspicious about it, whether it be not according to God, unacceptable to you
and not to your benefit.
Certainly if we are to come directly, safely and
nakedly to our Lord God without hindrance, freely and peacefully, as explained
above, and be securely joined to him with even mind in prosperity or adversity,
whether in life or in death, then our job is to commit everything
unhesitatingly and resolutely, in general and individually, to his
unquestionable and infallible providence. This is hardly surprising since it is
he alone who gives to all things their being, their capacity and their action -
that is, their strength, operation, nature, manner and order in number, weight
and measure. Especially since just as a work of art presupposes a prior operation
of nature, in the same way the operation of nature presupposes the work of God,
creating, sustaining, ordering and administering it, for to him alone belong
infinite power, wisdom, goodness and inherent mercy, justice, truth, love, and
unchanging timelessness and omnipresence. So nothing can exist or act by its
own power unless it acts in the power of God himself, who is the prime mover
and the first principle, who is the cause of every action, and the actor in
every agent. For so far as the nature of the order of things is concerned, God
provides for everything without intermediary right down to the last detail. So
nothing, from the greatest to the smallest things, can escape God’s eternal
providence, or fall away from it, whether in matters of the will, of causal
events, or even of accidental circumstances outside of one’s control. But God
cannot do anything which does not fall under the order of his own providence,
just as he cannot do anything which is not subject to its operation. Divine
providence therefore extends to everything, in general and in particular, even
including a man’s thoughts. On which subject Scripture has this to say, Cast
all your worries upon him, for he takes care of you. (1 Peter 5.7) And
again the prophet says, Cast your care upon the Lord, and he will feed you.
(Psalm 55.22) And, Look at the nations of men, my son, and see that no one
ever put his trust in the Lord, and was disappointed. For who has been faithful
to his commandments and been abandoned? (Sirach 2.22) And our Lord himself
said, Do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? (Matthew 6.25) So
whatever and however much we can hope from God, we shall undoubtedly receive,
as Deuteronomy says, Every place where you feet tread shall be yours.
(Deuteronomy 11.24) For a man shall receive all that he is able to desire, and
so far as he can reach with his foot of faith, even so much shall he possess.
That is why Bernard says, “God, the maker of everything is so abounding in
mercy that whatever size grace cup of faith we are able to hold out to him, we
shall undoubtedly have it filled.” And so Mark has it, All that you ask in
prayer believing that you will receive it, will be given you. (Mark 11.24)
So the stronger and the more vehement our faith in God is, and the more reverently
and persistently it is offered up to God, the more surely, the more abundantly
and the quicker what we hoped for will be accomplished and obtained. Indeed if
in doing this our faith in God is weak and slow to rise to God on account of
the multitude and magnitude of our sins, we should remember this, that
everything is possible with God, and that what he wishes is bound to take
place, while what he does not wish cannot possibly happen, and that it is as
easy for him to forgive and cancel countless sins, however enormous, as to do
it with a single sin. While a sinner cannot, of himself, rise from innumerable
sins, and free and absolve himself from them, and not even from just one sin.
For we are unable not only to do, but even to think anything good, of ourselves,
but this is from God. Nonetheless it is much more dangerous, other things being
equal, to be ensnared in many sins than in a single one, since no sin is left
unpunished, and every mortal sin deserves infinite punishment, and this by the
rigour of justice since any such sin is against God who is indeed worthy of
infinite reverence, dignity and honour. What is more, according to the Apostle
Paul, God knows his own (2 Timothy 2.19), and it is impossible for any
of them to perish by the whirlwinds and floods of any error, scandal, schism,
persecution, heresy, tribulation, adversity or temptation, for he has foreseen
from eternity and unchangeably the number of his elect and the extent of their
merits in such a way that everything good and bad, what is theirs and not
theirs, prosperity and adversity, all work together for them for good, except
indeed that they appear even more glorious and commendable in adversity. So let
us commit everything with full assurance, in general and in particular,
confidently and unhesitatingly to divine providence, by which God permits
however much and whatever sort of evil to happen to us. For it is good and will
lead to good, since he permits it to exist, and it would not exist unless he permitted
it to exist. Nor could it exist otherwise or more than he permits it to,
because he knows how to, has the power to, and wills to change and convert it
into something better. For just as it is by operation of providence that all
good things exist, so it is by its permission that all bad things are changed
into good. In this way in fact God’s power, wisdom and mercy are shown forth
through Christ our redeemer - his mercy and his justice, the power of grace and
the weakness of nature, the beauty of everything in the association of
opposites, the approval of the good, and the malice and punishment of the
wicked. Similarly the contrition of the converted sinner, his confession, and
penitence, the kindness of God, piety, charity and his praise and goodness (all
show forth God’s power and wisdom). Yet it does not always lead to good in
those who do ill, but, as is usually the case, to great danger and extreme
evil, in the loss, that is, of grace and their place in glory, and in the
incurring of guilt and punishment, sometimes even eternal punishment, from
which may Jesus Christ defend us. Amen.
Indexes
Deuteronomy
11:24
Job
7:1
Psalms
10:4
16:8 17:15 55:22 55:22 73:28
Song
of Solomon
3:4
Isaiah
3:12
Matthew
6:6
6:25
Mark
11:24
Luke
6:26
10:42 17:21
John
17:3
Romans
13:8
1
Corinthians
6:17
15:46
Philippians
4:6
1
Thessalonians
5:17
1
Timothy
1:5
2:8
2
Timothy
2:19
1 Peter
5:7
Wisdom
of Solomon
7:11
Sirach
2:22