VISIO NONA, cap. VIII
The Lord Wonderful in the Deep Places
The vision opens by declaring the Lord wonderful in the deep places of the sea and signals that its meaning is to be received mystically.
Wonderful are the upheavals of the sea; wonderful is the Lord in the deep places. The meaning of this sentence is to be understood in this way.
The Firmament as a Heavenly Mirror
God ordered the adornments of the firmament like a mirror reflecting heavenly mysteries, for passing signs cannot accomplish anything apart from the eternal secrets that endure.
God, who is the way and the truth, under the secrets of his right ordering placed all the adornments of the firmament with the wonderful upheavals of the sea, and with the wonderful upheaval of the sea he poured through the adornments of the firmament, and he set these in some part according to heavenly mysteries in the likeness of a mirror; but just as a shadow in a mirror can have nothing without its form, so neither can the adornments of the firmament accomplish anything of themselves except through heavenly secrets. Indeed, the adornments of the firmament shine forth from the highest secrets, just as brightness proceeds from fire, because fire is the matter of lightning, and lightning passes through but fire remains; so also the adornments of the firmament pass away, but the heavenly harmony endures by remaining. And so the Lord is wonderful in the deep places of the heavens, because no passing thing can look upon those things that will never pass away, since they exist in lacking perfection.
Signs Given for Faith and the Darkness of the Fallen
God revealed heavenly things through the firmament's signs so that people might know his miracles in the mirror of faith, while the devil's ruin left him in utter darkness.
But God showed heavenly things to people in the adornments and in the signs of the firmament, so that through these his miracles might be known in the mirror of faith; and if they were unable to see the aforementioned adornments, their knowledge of them would be blind, just as the north wind too, deprived of all light, never shone clearly after the ruin of the devil, who because he mocked the honor of the Most High, therefore himself kept no light.
The Lord Wonderful in the Depths of Virtue
Just as the sea's upheavals are wonderful when the Holy Spirit lifts restless souls toward heaven, so the Lord is wonderful in the deep places of virtue, strengthening them against vice, as Scripture testifies that God established the unshakable world.
The upheavals of the sea are also wonderful when people who surge back and forth in this instability, kindled by the Holy Spirit, raise themselves from earthly things to heavenly things; and so the Lord is also wonderful in the deep places of the virtues, when by that Spirit he strengthens them for every good thing, so that they refuse henceforth to submit to the filths of vices. Whence Scripture also has it: Then there are words from the same person, in the same psalm, where it says: "For he established the world of the earth, which will not be shaken." "
Read the original Latin
« Mirabiles elationes maris, mirabilis in altis Dominus. » Hujus sententiae intellectus hoc modo accipiendus est. Deus, qui via et veritas est, sub arcanis rectae constitutionis suae omnia ornamenta firmamenti cum mirabilibus elationibus maris posuit et cum mirabili elatione maris ornamenta firmamenti perfudit, eaque in aliqua parte secundum coelestia arcana in similitudine speculi posuit; sed sicut umbra in speculo nihil absque forma sua potest, sic nec ornamenta firmamenti quidquam per se nisi per superna secreta operari praevalent. Ornamenta quippe firmamenti de supremis arcanis resplendent, quemadmodum fulgor ab igne procedit, quia ignis materia fulguris est, et fulgur pertransit, ignis autem permanet; ita et ornamenta firmamenti pertranseunt, coelestis autem harmonia manendo perdurat Quapropter et mirabilis in altis coelorum Dominus est, quoniam nulla transitoria res perfecte potest ea respicere, quae nunquam transibunt, quia illa in deficiente perfectione sunt. Sed Deus in ornamentis et in signis firmamenti hominibus coelestia demonstravit, quatenus in speculo fidei miracula sua per haec cognoscant; et si praedicta ornamenta videre non valerent, scientia eorum caeca esset; sicut etiam aquilo omni luce privatus, post ruinam diaboli nunquam claruit, qui quoniam honorem Altissimi subsannavit, ideo et ipse nullum lumen retinuit. Mirabiles quoque elationes maris sunt, cum homines qui in instabilitate hac et illac inundant, Spiritu sancto accensi a terrenis ad coelestia se elevant; et sic etiam mirabilis in altis virtutibus Dominus, cum illo ad quaeque bona ita confortat, ut sordibus vitiorum deinceps se subdere recusent. Unde etiam Scriptura habet:
Item verba ejusdem ex eodem psalmo ubi dicit: « Etenim firmavit orbem terrae qui non commovebitur. »
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