Let none ask me why, unless ye will err, but believe it, for this is truth. . It is this life of God in himself which is the object of her worship and love, and her treasure being thus hid with Christ in God, even the possession of God within herself becomes a secondary love.It is because the souls very Being is thus focussed in the divine life that she can be indifferent to all lower material and spiritual desires and wills; indifferent as to whether pain or pleasure, mortification or prosperity befall her. I have said, saith this soul, that for this that God did to them, they had neither shame nor worship, nor will of themselves to answer for any; this ye see well., Ah, without fail, saith Truth, they had no occasion for it, for they were unencumbered of themselves., Oh, saith this soul, since it is so that God did them this, is he not yet the same, hath he made an end with them of the gifts of his bounty?[247], Oh, without fail, no, saith Courtesy. Not work of bounty that ever I did, nor that ever I might do; that giveth me neither comfort nor hope, but my wickedness only, for I have by them this certifying. Understand these words for love, auditors of this book, and principally of this far night, that we call celestrum esclistrum,[218] a manner of a swift opening and a hasty shutting, that taketh the soul in the fifth estate, and putteth her in the sixth estate, as long as the work endureth. Adds. Lords hearing, Lords loving! It is, nevertheless, from Methleys version of the Authors Prologue that we derive certain definite indications concerning the three censors who are less fully characterised in the Vatican MSS.[8]. But if ever I knew you, now excuse me of your courtesy, for need hath no law. I wot forsooth, that no more than men may tell the waves of the sea, when the wind bloweth hard and strong, no more may any creature write or say the comprehendings of the spirit, how little it comprehendeth of God. If I believed them, in such dread I should abandon this work, by their counsel. Now shall mine heart be more free and more in peace than it hath been before. This soul, saith Love, hath not held[266] doubt nor trust., Certain confidence, saith Love, and true agreement[267] to will only [and wholly] the divine ordering; thus it is that she is perfectly free.. And [though] the world, the flesh and the enemy, the fiend, and the four elements, the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth tormented her and despised her and devoured her, if it might so be, what might she lose, if God dwelled with her? Ah, soul, alas! saith Love, what evil ye have for little gain! He is not praised by any direct and conscious effort of the soul, but by indirect modes of love and praise, of which the soul is largely unconscious. This bounty given, it is in God himself. [202] This soul, saith Love, liveth in the sweet country of passing peace, there is nothing that may help nor grieve them that live there, neither creature wrought, nor thing given, nor nothing that God commandeth., This, that never was, nor is, nor shall be given, that none here maketh, saith Love, this hath put her at naught. This soul hath no will, nor is she troubled about what God may do, but only that she do his will alway. (READ) PDF The Mirror of Simple Souls. Nevertheless he is far from depreciating Understanding, as a separate faculty from the rationalising Reason, and the tenor of his argument brings him into line with the great mystics who have held together the value of Knowledge and the value of Love as means towards the apprehension of God. God is divine; so have I a being that is divine., When this soul, saith Love, is thus drawn out of herself, without herself, by God, for him, in him, in this divine work, she cannot never work works of charity of human body;[239] nor can any who attains to this work., O understand holily, saith this soul, the sweet words of Love, for these words be hard to understand for them that desire the meaning of the gloss., This is sooth, saith Love, for work of creatures may not be compared to divine work made of God in creatures, of his bounty, for creature., O God, saith this soul, how far is the country of the Perished and the country of the Marred from the country of freeness and of fulfilled peace, there where the Settled dwell!, That is sooth, saith Love, and I shall say one word soothly, saith this soul, against Will, in which the perished and the marred dwell, that lead life of perfection. To it he attributes certain purgative and illuminative effects which become more marked as advance is made. In this I [should] love myself if I lacked anything since he lacks nothing. Therefore I may say the words of the prophet: My teeth be not white to bite of this bread, but [may] Almighty Jesu, God that feedeth the worm and giveth sight to the blind and wit to the unwitty, give me grace of wit and wisdom in all times wisely to govern myself, following alway his will, and [may he] send me clear sight and true understanding, well to do this work to his worship and pleasaunce; profit also and increase of grace to ghostly lovers, that be disposed and called[14] to this high election of the freedom of soul. O My Lord God, mercy, mercy. Then is she mistress and lady over the virtues, for she hath them all within herself, ready at her commandment, without bitterness or painfulness of feeling to the soul. This is the life [of the first] of them, who in all, mortify the body, in doing works of charity. but ye Love, say it yourself![195], Dear friend, saith the Person of God the Father, this ought to be done to mine eldest daughter, who is out of my realm,[196] so that she may know the secrets of my Son through the love of the Holy Ghost, that to this soul hath given this [knowledge] from him., It behoveth, saith Love, that this soul be like to the Deity, for she is drawn into him, so she hath taken his very form, which to her was granted without beginning, and given of him that alway hath loved her., O Love, saith this soul, he only hath made me [to be] no-one; and this naught of this none hath put me in a low deepness, under less than naught, without measure; and the knowing of my naught hath given me all, and this naught and this all, saith this Soul, hath taken prayer from me. N. And this soul that is become naught, she wotteth all and she wotteth naught, and she willeth all and she willeth naught. [303] Where lieth the gloss of these words, I ask you? Download The Mirror of Simple Annihilated Souls Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle Taking a dark turn, this important New Zealand poet explores the legacy of a heretic who was burned at the stake in 1310 for writing a thesis called Simple Annihilated Souls. MS. ne werke ye it, also schalle the deire but if ye lette him to dethe, werke. Lat. This description marks him as an Augustinian who holds the possibility of the immediate vision of God; and though he may have learned much from St Bernards affective theology, he does not accept the theories of his mystical theology. As the knowledge of her naught deepens, her knowledge of Gods bounty grows. By this way, saith this soul that is free; if she holdeth all without care or without heart[285] and all giveth without heart, and all taketh without heart, and all hath without heart; and if her heart feel it, this is she not.[286] for the inward life of spirit, they shall yet come to all lordship and sovereignty., Oh, saith the spirit that this same seeketh in life marred,[287] tell me how?, Forsooth, saith this soul that standeth in freedom, none can see it but he only that is this thing in creatures, of his bounty for creature. And here beginneth the Prologue, in two chapters, upon the same book, that Love nameth The Mirror of Simple Souls. The text reveals a vibrant evangelical-mystical spirituality, making it an authentic treatise of perfection. And always he assailed me for to have an answer, and so much I loved myself [together] with him, that I might not for nothing have discretion in this, and thus I was in distress. But the Espoused of me may not be with herself, for though she had done as much sin as all the creatures of the world have done, and has as many gifts of grace as all those of paradise have, and that all this good and all this evil were shown before all this people, this lady should have neither shame nor worship in her thereof nor will to justify herself. Adds. And Truth said to me this, that none shall ascend but he only that should reflect[383] the Son of God himself. St John of the Cross, two last books). [291] If they be come into the state of freedom, that is, if they be fallen[292] from virtues into Love, and from Love into Naught, they do nothing except it please them and if they do [otherwise], they rob themselves of peace, freedom, noblesse. It will be seen that the second part of the book, from Division VI approximately, is more obscure, more subtle in thought, often monotonous in expression and repetition of phrase and word. She is so far from the works of virtue that she may not understand their language. Methley to the 'Mirror of Simple Souls'" (357#382). In this video we talk about the fascinating writer & possibly beguine Marguerite Porete (d. 1310).Support Let's Talk Religion on Patreon: https://www.patreon. [186] This soul hath in all places her peace, for she beareth always peace with her, so that for this peace, all places be convenient to her, and all things also. Between these themes is fitly set the plea of Fine Love, that she is above the Law but not against the Law. For all those that be planted of the Father and come into this world be descended of perfect into imperfect, that they may attain to the more perfect. And for this I say it is low and right little, however great the showing of this being seemed to me at the beginning, and the truth of them that such be, in the person of one, where all the others may be understood.. Therefore near lieth the peace of the far night, which disencumbers her of work; speech and thought it maketh all shadow; for her far night disencumbereth her so that nothing shadoweth her.. In this life of spirit for these souls so called, there must still be active mortification of all that affects the will; the spirit must overcome the will as well as the flesh.Truth protests with the observation that such a spirit will sorely wear out the body. Nothing of this kind exists in French literature until we come to the spiritual writings of the early seventeenth century, and the mystical parts of St Francis de Sales Amour de Dieu. What emerges from this new approach is the Mirror and its author's unambiguous didactic intent - a fact long . Naught is of such a nature, that naught must be naught. It is said, saith Love, and I say it myself, that there is also as great difference among angels of some orders compared with others, as there is of men and asses. He has not passed the stage of visions and auditions, and reminds us at his best of the sweetness of Rolles Love of Jesus, at his worst of the Cornish: Yet this proves nothing. Now is this soul, saith Love, in him, of him, for him; that is, without receiving any but only from him., Then is she in God the Father, saith Truth, for we know well that there is no person in the Trinity that hath not received something from another person beside his own person, save only the person of God the Father., Ye say sooth, saith Love, for God the Father hath divine might in him without receiving might of any other but of himself. He had none other beholding in that doing, but the will of God his Father solely. And so have your questions lengthened[205] this book, through the examples that cannot be explained but in plain and hasty words. And then, this fault troubleth us unto bitterness and driveth to a madness[327] against ourselves. Some- thing must be allowed throughout for the form of the. She seeth also her wretched nature by inclination of naught, to which nature she is inclined, and her willd[366] hath put me in less than naught. And she may do all that she will without making a return for his gifts, who, of his proper being, hath set her thus. This fire brenneth of him in him, in all places and in all moments of time, without taking any substance from Will, but of himself. She ought to dwell within, and there loseth the soul pride and play, for the spirit is become bitter,[369] that suffereth her no more to be playing nor jolly. She hath neither bottom nor floor, therefore hath she no place, and if she hath no place, then hath she not love for herself. Thus they lead as they did in work of youth, and dwell so long in works till[395] they have affection of spirit.. The Sum of all[399] hath acquit her of her debts that she owed Jesu Christ. But if I might amend it, I would amend it, and if I had as much might as he[142] hath, I would love him as much as you are worth!, Ah right sweet soul, saith Love, ye may no more say! This meekness that is tutor and mother is daughter of divine majesty. [368] But mercy hath made peace with justice, firm and stable. And [she] so dwelleth in standing, for she is alway in sight of God; and sitting, for she dwelleth alway in the divine will of God. This meekness is true meekness and profit in a soul naughted, and none other but this. And this that is mine is that [whereby] I fell[278] you with love and wound you to death. Sooth, saith Love, of that holiness that Reason understandeth, but of none other.. And our even-Christian as ourselves, is that we should not think, nor say, nor do against our even-Christian, otherwise than we would they did to us. She feeleth no joy, for she herself is joy. . The most is the greater part of God, unknown and unknowable; the soul loves better the infinitely greater hidden Deity than that small part of him of which she has had experience. This is a great privilege, and this sufficeth you, sweet soul, if you believe me.. Thus she loveth God in all things and all things for God, so that for this love is this soul alone, or all-one in the pure love of the love of God. This fact suggests that, if the work was not popular, it was at least appreciated by those whose opinion might be valued. on February 27, 2021, There are no reviews yet. 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