PRIMA VISIO, cap. V
Wings of Love and the Lost Garment
The visionary wings of love for God and neighbor rise together above the circle of faith, bound by desire until the lost heavenly garment is restored.
And on each side of the neck, of the same form, a single wing extends, and rising upward they join together above the aforementioned circle — because the love of God and of neighbor, advancing through the power of love in the unity of faith, and embracing that same faith within themselves through deepest desire, are not separated from one another — as long as holy Divinity veils from people the countless splendor of its own glory, while they are destitute of the heavenly garment that they lost in Adam.123
Humble Devotion Overcomes
The one who humbly submits to God, aflame with the Holy Spirit, conquers vice and the devil while angels rejoice and praise God's omnipotence.
Anyone who submits to God with humble devotion, set aflame by the help of the Holy Spirit, overcomes himself in whatever is vicious and overcomes the devil, and the angels, rejoicing over the good works of the just, join together in praising God's omnipotence.
Read the original Latin
Et ex utraque parte colli ejusdem formae ala una procedit, quae supra praefatum circulum ascendentes se ibi invicem conjungunt, quia dilectio Dei et proximi per virtutem charitatis in unitate fidei procedentes, et per summum desiderium eamdem fidem intra se comprehendentes ab invicem non separantur, cum sancta Divinitas innumerabilem splendorem gloriae suae hominibus obnubilat, quandiu in umbra mortis, coelestis vestimenti, quod in Adam perdiderunt, expertes sunt.
Quod quilibet Deo humili devotione subditus, Spiritu sancto juvante ignitus, et se ipsum in eo quod vitiosus est et diabolum superet, et quod angeli de bonis justorum exsultantes, Dei omnipotentiam collaudent.
Notes
- 1 ↩The passage is visionary-exegetical: 'neck,' 'wing,' and 'circle' describe a symbolic figure (likely the living creature from Ezekiel/Rev or an allegorical image of divine love). 'Holy Divinity' (sancta Divinitas) is personified as the subject of 'obnubilat' — God veils the full splendor of glory from mortals still clothed in mortality.
- 2 ↩obnubilat (token 52) is a rare verb meaning 'covers/obscures/veils.' The sense is that God's glory is hidden from people as long as they remain in the 'shadow of death' without the heavenly garment lost in Adam — i.e., the prelapsarian robe of glory.
- 3 ↩dilectio rendered 'love' (not 'affection'); charitas rendered 'love' in the phrase 'virtutem charitatis' — the power of love/charity. The Latin uses both dilectio and charitas in close proximity; English 'love' covers both, but the theological force of charity as a virtue is preserved by the phrase 'power of love in the unity of faith.'
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