A letter of St Cyprian

 

A letter of St Cyprian

A faith that is eager and firm

Cyprian to his brother Cornelius.

  My very dear brother, we have heard of the glorious witness given by your courageous faith. On learning of the honour you had won by your witness, we were filled with such joy that we felt ourselves sharers and companions in your praiseworthy achievements. After all, we have the same Church, the same mind, the same unbroken harmony. Why then should a priest not take pride in the praise given to a fellow priest as though it were given to him? What brotherhood fails to rejoice in the happiness of its brothers wherever they are?

  Words cannot express how great was the exultation and delight here when we heard of your good fortune and brave deeds: how you stood out as leader of your brothers in their declaration of faith, while the leader’s confession was enhanced as they declared their faith. You led the way to glory, but you gained many companions in that glory; being foremost in your readiness to bear witness on behalf of all, you prevailed on your people to become a single witness. We cannot decide which we ought to praise, your own ready and unshaken faith or the love of your brothers who would not leave you. While the courage of the bishop who thus led the way has been demonstrated, at the same time the unity of the brotherhood who followed has been manifested. Since you have one heart and one voice, it is the Roman Church as a whole that has thus borne witness. Dearest brother, bright and shining is the faith which the blessed Apostle praised in your community. He foresaw in the spirit the praise your courage deserves and the strength that could not be broken; he was heralding the future when he testified to your achievements; his praise of the fathers was a challenge to the sons. Your unity, your strength have become shining examples of these virtues to the rest of the brethren. Divine providence has now prepared us. God’s merciful design has warned us that the day of our own struggle, our own contest, is at hand. By that shared love which binds us close together, we are doing all we can to exhort our congregation, to give ourselves unceasingly to fastings, vigils and prayers in common. These are the heavenly weapons which give us the strength to stand firm and endure; they are the spiritual defences, the God-given armaments that protect us.

  Let us then remember one another, united in mind and heart. Let us pray without ceasing, you for us, we for you; by the love we share we shall thus relieve the strain of these great trials.

From the homilies of St Bernard of Clairvaux on the glories of the Virgin Mother

 

From the homilies of St Bernard of Clairvaux on the glories of the Virgin Mother

Think of Mary and invoke her in all situations

“And the Virgin’s name was Mary”. Let us speak a little about this name, which is said to mean “star of the sea,” and which so well befits the Virgin Mother. Rightly is she likened to a star. As a star emits a ray without being dimmed, so the Virgin brought forth her Son without receiving any injury. The ray takes naught from the brightness of the star, nor the Son from His Mother’s virginal integrity. This is the noble star risen out of Jacob, whose ray illumines the whole world, whose splendor shines in the heavens, penetrates the abyss, and, traversing the whole earth, gives warmth rather to souls than to bodies, cherishing virtues, withering vices. Mary is that bright and incomparable star, whom we need to see raised above this vast sea, shining by her merits, and giving us light by her example.

  All of you, who see yourselves amid the tides of the world, tossed by storms and tempests rather than walking on the land, do not turn your eyes away from this shining star, unless you want to be overwhelmed by the hurricane. If temptation storms, or you fall upon the rocks of tribulation, look to the star: call upon Mary! If you are tossed by the waves of pride or ambition, detraction or envy, look to the star, call upon Mary. If anger or avarice or the desires of the flesh dash against the ship of your soul, turn your eyes to Mary. If troubled by the enormity of your crimes, ashamed of your guilty conscience, terrified by dread of the judgement, you begin to sink into the gulf of sadness or the abyss of despair, think of Mary.

  In dangers, in anguish, in doubt, think of Mary, call upon Mary. Let her name be ever on your lips, ever in your heart; and the better to obtain the help of her prayers, imitate the example of her life. Following her, you do not stray; invoking her, you do not despair; thinking of her, you do not wander; upheld by her, you do not fall; shielded by her, you do not fear; guided by her, you do not grow weary; favoured by her, you reach the goal. And thus, you experience in yourself how good is that saying: “And the Virgin’s name was Mary”.

St. Basil: The Greater Rules 7

 

St. Basil: The Greater Rules 7

 

Those who are pursuing the same objective, if they live together, will find many advantages in this sharing of their life.

 

In the first place, none of us is self-sufficient when it is a question of material needs. We all need one another to procure the necessities of life.

 

The foot, for example, is capable of doing certain things on its own. If the absurd could happen and it was cut off from the other limbs, the owner would realize that the foot's capabilities are not enough to preserve its existence and acquire the things it must have.

 

This is what happens in the solitary life: what we have is no use to us and what we are lacking we cannot procure. Yes, it is God's will that we should be indispensable to one another so that we can be in unity with one another.

 

This is what happens in the solitary life: what we have is no use to us and what we are lacking we cannot procure. Yes, it is God's will that we should be indispensable to one another so that we can be in unity with one another.

 

Besides this, Christ's commandment to love does not allow us to be solely concerned with ourselves. 'Love does not seek its own interest.' [1 Cor. 13:5]

 

The solitary life, by contrast, seeks that, namely the advantage of the individual – an objective which is evidently the opposite of the law of love. Suffice to consider how Paul kept this law: “Not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.' [1 Cor. 10:33]

 

In the second place, it is difficult for solitaries to discover their faults. They do not have anyone to point them out. They have no one to correct them.

 

A reproof, even if it comes from an opponent, stirs up the desire for improvement if the soul is well disposed. But the person who is not living in community will find neither reproof nor improvement.

The Litany of Humility

 

Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val

This litany is commonly attributed to Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val (1865-1930), Cardinal Secretary of State of the Holy See under Pope Pius X. C. S. Lewis attributed its composition to Merry del Val in a March 1948 letter to Don Giovanni Calabria.

O Jesus, meek and humble of heart,

Hear me.

From the desire of being esteemed,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being loved,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being extolled,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being honored,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being praised,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being preferred to others,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being consulted,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the desire of being approved,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being humiliated,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being despised,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of suffering rebukes,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being calumniated,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being forgotten,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being ridiculed,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being wronged,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

From the fear of being suspected,

Deliver me, O Jesus.

That others may be loved more than I,

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I,

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease,

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be chosen and I set aside,

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be praised and I go unnoticed,

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be preferred to me in everything,

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should,

Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

From a sermon of St Bernard of Clairvaux

 

From a sermon of St Bernard of Clairvaux

I shall stand upon my watch-tower to see what the Lord will say to me

We read in the gospel that when the Lord was teaching his disciples and urged them to share in his passion by the mystery of eating his body, some said: This is a hard saying, and from that time they no longer followed him. When he asked the disciples whether they also wished to go away, they replied: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

  I assure you, my brothers, that even to this day it is clear to some that the words which Jesus speaks are spirit and life, and for this reason they follow him. To others these words seem hard, and so they look elsewhere for some pathetic consolation. Yet wisdom cries out in the streets, in the broad and spacious way that leads to death, to call back those who take this path. Finally, he says: For forty years I have been close to this generation, and I said: They have always been faint-hearted. You also read in another psalm: God has spoken once. Once, indeed, because for ever. His is a single, uninterrupted utterance, because it is continuous and unending.

  He calls upon sinners to return to their true spirit and rebukes them when their hearts have gone astray, for it is in the true heart that he dwells and there he speaks, fulfilling what he taught through the prophet: Speak to the heart of Jerusalem. You see, my brothers, how the prophet admonishes us for our advantage: If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts. You can read almost the same words in the gospel and in the prophet. For in the gospel the Lord says: My sheep hear my voice. And in the psalm blessed David says: You are his people (meaning, of course, the Lord’s) and the sheep of his pasture. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

  Hear also the prophet Habakkuk in today’s reading. Far from hiding the Lord’s reprimands, he dwells on them with attentive and anxious care. He says: I will stand upon my watch-tower and take up my post on the ramparts, keeping watch to see what he will say to me and what answer I will make to those who try to confute me. I beg you, my brothers, stand upon our watch-tower, for now is the time for battle. Let all our dealings be in the heart, where Christ dwells, in right judgement and wise counsel, but in such a way as to place no confidence in those dealings, nor rely upon our fragile defenses.

A letter of St Peter Claver

 

A letter of St Peter Claver

The arrival of a slave ship

Yesterday, May 30, 1627, on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, numerous blacks, brought from the rivers of Africa, disembarked from a large ship. Carrying two baskets of oranges, lemons, sweet biscuits, and I know not what else, we hurried towards them. When we approached their quarters, we thought we were entering another Guinea. We had to force our way through the crowd until we reached the sick. Large numbers of the sick were lying on wet ground or rather in puddles of mud. To prevent excessive dampness, someone had thought of building up a mound with a mixture of tiles and broken pieces of bricks. This, then, was their couch, a very uncomfortable one not only for that reason, but especially because they were naked, without any clothing to protect them.

  We laid aside our cloaks, therefore, and brought from a warehouse whatever was handy to build a platform. In that way we covered a space to which we at last transferred the sick, by forcing a passage through bands of slaves. Then we divided the sick into two groups: one group my companion approached with an interpreter, while I addressed the other group. There were two blacks, nearer death than life, already cold, whose pulse could scarcely be detected. With the help of a tile we pulled some live coals together and placed them in the middle near the dying men. Into this fire we tossed aromatics. Of these we had two wallets full, and we used them all up on this occasion. Then, using our own cloaks, for they had nothing of this sort, and to ask the owners for others would have been a waste of words, we provided for them a smoke treatment, by which they seemed to recover their warmth and the breath of life. The joy in their eyes as they looked at us was something to see.

  This was how we spoke to them, not with words but with our hands and our actions. And in fact, convinced as they were that they had been brought here to be eaten, any other language would have proved utterly useless. Then we sat, or rather knelt, beside them and bathed their faces and bodies with wine. We made every effort to encourage them with friendly gestures and displayed in their presence the emotions which somehow naturally tend to hearten the sick.

  After this we began an elementary instruction about baptism, that is, the wonderful effects of the sacrament on body and soul. When by their answers to our questions they showed that they had sufficiently understood this, we went on to a more extensive instruction, namely, about the one God, who rewards and punishes each one according to his merit, and the rest. We asked them to make an act of contrition and to manifest their detestation of their sins. Finally, when they appeared sufficiently prepared, we declared to them the mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Passion. Showing them Christ fastened to the cross, as he is depicted on the baptismal font on which streams of blood flow down from his wounds, we led them in reciting an act of contrition in their own language.

From a sermon on the Beatitudes by Saint Leo the Great

  

From a sermon on the Beatitudes by Saint Leo the Great

Christian wisdom

The Lord then goes on to say: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. This hunger is not for bodily food, this thirst is not for any earthly drink: it is a longing to be blessed with righteousness, and, by penetrating the secret of all mysteries, to be filled with the Lord himself.

  Happy is the soul that longs for the food of righteousness and thirsts for this kind of drink; it would not seek such things if it had not already savoured their delight. When the soul hears the voice of the Spirit saying to it through the prophet: Taste and see that the Lord is good, it has already received a portion of God’s goodness, and is on fire with love, the love that gives joy of the utmost purity. It counts as nothing all that belongs to time; it is entirely consumed with desire to eat and drink the food of righteousness. The soul lays hold of the true meaning of the first and great commandment: You shall love the Lord God with your whole heart, and your whole mind and your whole strength, for to love God is nothing else than to love righteousness.

  Finally, just as concern for one’s neighbour is added to love of God, so the virtue of mercy is added to the desire for righteousness, as it is said: Blessed are the merciful, for God will be merciful to them.

  Remember, Christian, the surpassing worth of the wisdom that is yours. Bear in mind the kind of school in which you are to learn your skills, the rewards to which you are called. Mercy itself wishes you to be merciful, righteousness itself wishes you to be righteous, so that the Creator may shine forth in his creature, and the image of God be reflected in the mirror of the human heart as it imitates his qualities. The faith of those who live their faith is a serene faith. What you long for will be given you; what you love will be yours for ever.

  Since it is by giving alms that everything is pure for you, you will also receive that blessing which is promised next by the Lord: Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. Dear friends, great is the happiness of those for whom such a reward is prepared. Who are the clean of heart if not those who strive for those virtues we have mentioned above? What mind can conceive, what words can express the great happiness of seeing God? Yet human nature will achieve this when it has been transformed so that it sees the Godhead no longer in a mirror or obscurely but face to face – the Godhead that no man has been able to see. In the inexpressible joy of this eternal vision, human nature will possess what eye has not seen or ear heard, what man’s heart has never conceived.

Mechthild of Magdeburg and the "Flowing Light of the Godhead"

 

Mechthild of Magdeburg and the "Flowing Light of the Godhead"

Mechthild of Magdeburg (Asteroid 873 Mechthild discovered 21 May 1917)

Because we do not know exactly when the Beguine mystic Mechthild of Magdeburg was born or when she died, I have chosen today to post about her--on this day in 1917, the German astronomer Max Wolf discovered an asteroid now known as 873 Mechthild, named after this thirteenth-century woman.

A nineteenth-century representation
of Mechthild of Magdeburg,
Church of St. Gordian and Epimachus,
Merazhofen,

What we know about Mechthild's life comes from the work for which she is principally known, The Flowing Light of the Godhead. The biographical details are few--she seems to have been born between 1207 and 1210, the child of a noble family, since she refers to court life and customs.

She writes that she has a brother, Baldwin, who joins the Dominican order and who receives an excellent scholastic education, though Mechthild refers to herself as a "simple spiritual creature" (her work is notable in that, unlike most of the spiritual writing of her contemporaries, it seems to have been written in the vernacular rather than Latin).

Mechthild also tells us that she began her remarkable visionary life at the age of twelve--and that, for the next thirty-one years, "the loving greeting" from the Holy Spirit came to her "every day."

In her work she reveals that when she was a young woman (perhaps about 1230) and "through God's word," she went to Magdeburg to live a life of "renunciation of the world." There she joined a Beguine community and seems also to have grown into a position of leadership within this community.

As I have written in an earlier post, the Beguines were a lay religious movement--Beguines were not associated with any religious order, nor did they live in any officially sanctioned community. They lived an ascetic, spiritual life, devoting themselves to poverty and chastity, working among the poor and ill and modeling their lives on the life of Jesus. To be a Beguine was to live a potentially dangerous life--in a few days I will post on Marguerite Porete, a French Beguine who was burned at the stake for heresy in 1310.

Mechthild writes that she "painfully conquered the body for twenty years"--always tired, weak, and ill, she devoted herself to "sighing, weeping, confession, fasting, watching," following in her life the "glorious suffering" of Jesus. It is at this point, after twenty years of rigorous self-discipline, that her confessor tells Mechthild what God expects of her:

Then he [her confessor] commanded me to do that about which I often weep for shame when I look at my unworthiness: write this book out of God's heart and mouth. This book has thus come lovingly from God and not from the human senses.

For the next fifteen (or so) years, Mechthild records her visions, conversations with God, and revelations. At some point, probably about 1270, she puts aside her "homeless life" and joins the monastery at Helfta, joining the remarkable Gertrude of Hackeborn, her sister Mechthilde of Hackeborn, and a woman we have met before, Gertrude the Great.

Helfta, where Mechthilde of Magdeburg lived at
the end of her life

The reasons for Mechthild's move are not clear--but she was old, she had become blind, and, perhaps more critically, increasing restrictions were being placed on Beguines in Germany and the Low Countries, and Mechthild's own religious claims and her criticisms of the institutional church had made her vulnerable. The date of her death is not certain--there are a wide ranges of dates suggested, from 1282 to 1297.

One of the best accounts of Mechthild as a visionary is Bernard McGinn's, in vol. 3 of his history of western Christian mysticism, The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism, 1200-1350. There is a very affordable edition of The Flowing Light of the Godhead, but you can find a good, manageable chunk in Henry Carrigan's Meditations from Mechthild of Magdeburg.

St. Catherine of Siena

 

St. Catherine of Siena 

• Learning the Faith, Living the Faith, Spiritual Development
 
• 3
 

Prayer can be difficult in the modern era: social media, twenty-four hour news coverage, and being constantly “connected” make it hard to be still and know God. The fourteenth-century Dominican mystic Saint Catherine of Siena has much to say that can help us when we come up against roadblocks to prayer.

1. "Holy Spirit, come into my heart, and in your power draw it to you."

In a single sentence, Saint Catherine of Siena captures the essence of prayer in a nutshell. It is about union with God, a heart-to-heart with Jesus, Who desires to be united with you. Saint Catherine prayed for the Holy Spirit to come into her heart, and draw her close to Him, and we should do the same. The Holy Spirit helps us to pray as we ought. God wants to come to our aid and help us to grow closer to Him. Do not be afraid to ask the Holy Spirit to help you in prayer.

2. "We've had enough exhortations to be silent. Cry out with a thousand tongues - I see the world is rotten because of silence."

Christians are not meant to be lukewarm (Revelation 3:15 - 16). Rather, we are to be like Christ, and set the world on fire (Luke 12:49). The world needs our prayers! So many graces are not given because we Christians do not pray as we ought. We shouldn’t be afraid to go to God in prayer, and to witness to the faith in public. Cry out to God in prayer, asking Him for your needs and for the needs of the world. In doing this, you are imitating Jesus (Hebrews 5:7), Who cried out to His Father, and the Father heard Him.

3. "You must believe in truth that whatever God gives or permits is for your salvation."

It is common for us to get discouraged or to have our faith in God shaken when we do not receive what we ask for in prayer. “God did not answer my prayer.” God is not listening,” “He doesn’t care about me.” On the contrary, Saint Catherine reminds us that God always answers our prayers with the answer that is the most conducive for our salvation. God wants our salvation even more than we do, and sometimes He has to say “no” to what we think we want, in order to give us what is really best for us, and what we want most deeply: eternal union with Him in heaven. Prayer should always be open to God’s wisdom, knowing that while we might think we are praying for the right thing, it is God Who knows and wills to give us what is best for us.

4. "There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers."

We human beings have two unfortunate, yet stubborn, tendencies: a tendency to want things that are bad for us, and a tendency to convince ourselves that what we want is objectively good for us. As a result, we often find that when we get what “we want,” we end up unpleasantly surprised. God, on the other hand, always knows and wants what is best for us, and He is always able to give us what will help us, rather than harm us. When it comes to you, God has one thing in mind: your salvation. All the good, all the inconveniences, the suffering, the blessings, the joys, the sorrows, are all for your salvation. That is what He cares about the most. He does us a great favor by not “answering” our prayers. When we get to heaven, we will be able to see the reason for all our unanswered prayers, and all the good that came about, and the evil that was avoided, by our not getting what we “want,” and we will be grateful to God for giving us what He knew would really help us.

5. "Prayer… unites with God the soul that follows the footprints of Christ Crucified, and thus, by desire and affection, and union of love, makes her another Himself."

In 1375, when she was in her late twenties, Saint Catherine received the stigmata - the five wounds of Christ in her body. In a very real, physical way, she bore the marks of Christ Crucified; she felt His pain. Although we do not literally receive the marks of Christ’s wounds, we can still be spiritually conformed to Him through prayer. We cannot be like Christ - and consequently, we cannot get to heaven - if we neglect our prayer life. Prayer is what makes us like God. Jesus even said that we must become like Him (Matthew 16:24) in carrying our cross if we want to be His disciples. Through a regular prayer life, we can become more like Christ, for by prayer we know Him better.

6. [The eternal Father to Catherine:] "I give spiritual consolation in prayer, now in one way, now in another. But it is not my intention that the soul should receive this consolation foolishly, paying more attention to the gift than to me.”

God often gives us consolation when we pray: a feeling of comfort, relief, hope, and love. What He really wants to give us, though, is not good feelings, but Himself. As a result, it sometimes happens that He takes away from us perceptible consolations, so that we will pray not because it makes us “feel good,” but solely for the sake of union with God: because He deserves it, and it benefits us. Many of the great saints - John of the Cross, Mother Teresa, Faustina - experienced periods of feeling separated from God. They often did not perceive His Presence or feel consoled in prayer. Nevertheless, they continued to believe in Him and to pray to Him regularly, knowing that their relationship with God did not depend on their feelings. We too are called to persevere in prayer, knowing that God rewards our faith in Him for praying even when we don’t feel consoled. When this happens, He is drawing us even closer to Himself.

7. "When the soul has passed through the doctrine of Christ crucified, with true love of virtue and hatred of vice, and has arrived at the house of self-knowledge and entered therein, she remains, with her door barred, in watching and constant prayer, separated entirely from the consolations of the world."

While it is not wrong to enjoy good things in this life - health, friendships, good food, a favorite pet - it is important that we remember that these are not the things we were made for. The more we cultivate our relationship with God, the less we will care about these external things, and the more we will see them in the light of our eternal salvation. We do not seek consolation from external goods, which are unable to satisfy. Rather, we use them for the sake of our eternal salvation, and the salvation of our neighbor. Prayer fortifies us against becoming too disappointed when we are stripped of the goods of the world, and allows us to say, (Job 1:21) “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the Name of the LORD!”

8. "You, eternal Trinity, are a deep sea. The more I enter you, the more I discover, and the more I discover, the more I seek you."

The more we know God, the more we can love Him. Each new reality we learn about God is another reason for us to love Him. In prayer, it is important that we listen at least as much as we speak (after all, we very rarely learn when we’re the one speaking!). In the silence of our prayer time, God reveals Himself to us. The good news, though, is that since God is infinite, it is never possible for us to learn everything about God. We can never completely “figure out” God. It is always possible to go deeper and to discover more of the hidden mysteries of God. Our prayer is never done. No matter how old we are, no matter how many years we have been praying, it always benefits us to pray more, in order to love God more.

9. "I do not beseech You for myself alone, Father, but for the whole world, and particularly for the mystical body of the holy Church…"

One of the greatest benefits that God has given us is the power of intercessory prayer. The Catholic Church is so universal that not only does it encompass those of us still living in the world (Church Militant), but it even extends after death into eternity (Church Triumphant), and to those in purgatory (Church Suffering). Before death, we can pray for the souls in purgatory, that God may speed their entry into heaven. We can also pray for people still on earth; our fellow travelers journeying to Heaven. The Church and the world desperately need our prayers! When we go to pray, it is important that we ask not only for our own needs, but also for those of our brothers and sisters in Christ. By doing this, we will be fulfilling Christ’s command to love our neighbors (Mark 12:31).

10. "But, in no way, does the creature receive such a taste of the truth, or so brilliant a light therefrom, as by means of humble and continuous prayer, founded on knowledge of herself and of God."

We cannot increase in holiness without prayer. The Church’s greatest prayer, of course, is the Mass. When we participate in Mass, we are experiencing Heaven on earth. By attending Mass and maintaining a regular prayer life, we can gain a preview of heaven. Saint Catherine speaks of “humble and continuous prayer.” Why continuous? Because we cannot love someone we do not know. When we pray without ceasing, we accustom ourselves to knowing God, and we make it easier for ourselves to love Him. We also gain greater knowledge of ourselves; how we must amend our lives to grow in holiness. Prayer is the lifeblood of a healthy spiritual life!

Mechthild of Magdeburg

 

• The soul is made of love and must ever strive to return to love. Therefore, it can never find rest nor happiness in other things. It must lose itself in love. By its very nature it must seek God, who is love.

  Mechthild of Magdeburg

  
  

  
  

• Prayer is naught else but a yearning of soul ... it draws down the great God into the little heart; it drives the hungry soul up to the plenitude of God; it brings together these two lovers, God and the soul, in a wondrous place where they speak much of love.

  Mechthild of Magdeburg

  
  

• A fish cannot drown in water,
  A bird does not fall in air.
  In the fire of creation,
  God doesn't vanish:
  The fire brightens.
  Each creature God made
  must live in its own true nature;
  How could I resist my nature,
  That lives for oneness with God?

  Mechthild of Magdeburg

  
  

• The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw and knew I saw all things in God and God in all things.

  Mechthild of Magdeburg

  
  

  
  

  
  

• If you love the justice of Jesus Christ more than you fear human judgment then you will seek to do compassion. Compassion means that if I see my friend and my enemy in equal need, I shall help them both equally. Justice demands that we seek and find the stranger, the broken, the prisoner and comfort them and offer them our help. Here lies the holy compassion of God that causes the devils much distress.

  Mechthild of Magdeburg

  
  

  
  

• Lord, you are my lover, my longing, my flowing stream, my sun, and I am your reflection.

  Mechthild of Magdeburg

  Reflection, Sun, Lovers

  90 Copy quote   

• Stupidity is sufficient unto itself. Wisdom can never learn enough.

  Mechthild of Magdeburg

  
  

• That prayer has great power which a person makes with all his might. It makes a sour heart sweet, a sad heart merry, a poor heart rich, a foolish heart wise, a timid heart brave, a sick heart well, a blind heart full of sight, a cold heart ardent. It draws down the great God into the little heart; it drives the hungry soul up into the fullness of God; it brings together two lovers, God and the soul, in a wondrous place where they speak much of love.

  Mechthild of Magdeburg

  
  

• I was created in love. For that reason nothing can express my beauty nor liberate me except love alone.

  Mechthild of Magdeburg

  
  

• A Light of utmost splendor glows on the eyes of my soul. Therein have I seen the inexpressible ordering of all things, and recognized God's unspeakable glory -- that incomprehensible wonder -- the tender caress between God and the soul...the unmingled joy of union, the living love of eternity as it now is and evermore shall be.

  Mechthild of Magdeburg

  
  

• How should one live? Live Welcoming to all.

  Mechthild of Magdeburg

  
  

• From suffering I have learned this: that whoever is sore wounded by love will never be made whole unless she embraces the very same love which wounded her.

  Mechthild of Magdeburg

  
  

• Those who would know much, and love little, will ever remain at but the beginning of a godly life.

  Mechthild of Magdeburg

  
  

• I cannot dance, O Lord, unless You lead me.

  Mechthild of Magdeburg

  
  

• God, give me by Your grace what You give to dogs by nature.

  Mechthild of Magdeburg

  
  

• Fish cannot drown in water. Birds cannot sink in air. This has God given to all creatures, to foster and seek their own nature. How then can I withstand mine?

  Mechthild of Magdeburg

  
  

• One day I saw with the eyes of my eternity in bliss and without effort, a stone. It tasted sweet, like heavenly herbs.

  Mechthild of Magdeburg

  
  

• I have seen a place-its name is Eternal Hatred It is built in the deepest abyss of the stones of mortal sin. Pride was the first stone-this was seen in Lucifer.

  Mechthild of Magdeburg