VISIO QUARTA, cap. LIX
The Air, the Sea, and the Soul
The natural world of air, sea, rivers, and veins mirrors the soul's work: through the Holy Spirit's grace, the soul sets a person's deeds before him so that surging thoughts may discern the useful from the useless.
This too: the air, mingled with moist vapor, moves the sea, from which the branching rivers flow, and they water and strengthen the earth — just as the veins, joined one to another and strengthening the whole person with blood, make this clear. The soul too — being itself a kind of airy reality, and the medium through which all human works are brought to completion, just as every fruit of the earth comes about through the air — through the grace of the Holy Spirit sets a person's own works before him, so that by his thoughts, which surge in like a sea, he may distinguish the useful from the useless.
Shipwreck of the Mind and the Rock of Christ
When a person rejects the soul's good thoughts about sin, he suffers inner confusion and labors painfully unless Christ the Rock, by the Holy Spirit's inspiration, rebuilds him.
The same person often suffers shipwreck when, not consenting to good thoughts of the soul about his sins, he is plunged into great confusion, and so he rows painfully in the deepest labor with the boat of his thoughts, unless through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Christ — who is the rock — builds them up upon himself.
A Firm Foundation: Humility Binds the Virtues
The mind raised up in virtue builds on the unshakable rock, and humility binds good works together so they are not scattered by pride, just as veins and nerves hold the body together.
For when the mind of a person is enlarged through various virtues and raised up to the praise of God, it builds a firm foundation on the rock, which cannot be shaken by winds — that is, by the various temptations of the devil — because just as the veins strengthen the human body along with the nerves so that it does not fall apart, so the virtue of humility binds up and strengthens good works so that they are not scattered through pride.
Soul and Body United in Holy Works
As rivers nourish the earth through the air's heat and moisture, so the soul ruling the body stirs up charity, obedience, humility, and the strongest virtues, leading the whole person into the praise of God through good works.
For rivers lead out streams, helping the earth with their greenness, and all these are moved by the aforementioned air, which by its heat and moisture makes everything sprout. So when the soul, overcoming the flesh's desire, establishes the foundation of its longings in the person, soul and body together accomplish its works as one, and from this, rejoicing in holy works, it rises in the sweet fragrance of the virtues. And just as greater rivers send out various streams that make the earth sprout, so the soul, ruling the body, stirs up within it charity, obedience, and humility along with the other strongest virtues, and through these it leads a person, by the practice of good works, into the praise of God.
The Inner Struggle: Fruit of Virtues or Vices
As earth dissolved by heat and cold is impregnated for whatever it will bring forth, so a person in the clash of soul and flesh now bears the fruit of virtues, now the fruit of vices.
Because just as earth, broken down into mud by summer heat and winter cold, is primed to produce whatever it will yield, so too a person — when soul and flesh clash within — now bears the fruit of virtues, now the fruit of vices.
Read the original Latin
Iste etiam aer cum aquoso aere mare movet, a quo flumina divisa fluunt, quae terram irrigant et confirmant, quod etiam venae sibi connexae totum hominem cum sanguine confortantes ostendunt. Anima quoque, quae aerea est, et per quam omnia opera hominis quemadmodum per aerem omnes fructus terrae perficiuntur, per gratiam Spiritus sancti homini opera sua proponit, ut per cogitationes, quae velut mare inundant, utilia et inutilia discernat. Idem etiam homo naufragium saepe patitur, cum per bonas cogitationes animae non consentiens, de peccatis suis in magnam confusionem dimergitur, et sic in gravissimo labore cum nave cogitationum remigat, nisi per inspirationem Spiritus sancti supra petram, qui Christus est, eas aedificet. Cum enim mens hominis per varias virtutes dilatata ad laudem Dei erigitur, stabile fundamentum supra petram aedificat, quod ventis, id est variis tentationibus diaboli, moveri non possit, quia quemadmodum venae cum nervis humanum corpus ne dissolvatur confirmant, sic virtus humilitatis bona opera ne per elationem dissipentur connectit et confirmat. Flumina namque rivulos educunt, terram viriditate sua adjuvando, quae omnia per praedictum aerem moventur, qui calore et humiditate sua omnia germinare facit. Ita cum anima carnis delectationem superans desideriorum suorum fundamentum in homine constituit, ipsa et corpus opera sua unanimiter perficiunt, unde et in sanctis operibus gaudens in dulci odore virtutum volat. Et quemadmodum majora flumina diversos rivulos emittunt, qui terram germinare faciunt, sic anima corpori dominans, charitatem, obedientiam et humilitatem cum aliis fortissimis virtutibus in eo suscitat, quibus hominem in laude Dei per exercitium bonorum operum introducat.
Quia sicut terra, calore aestatis et frigore hiemis in lutum resoluta ad quaelibet germinanda impraegnatur, ita et homo, anima et carne inter se confligentibus, nunc virtutum, nunc vitiorum fructus afferat.
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