Verba virginis ad filiam, qui modus tenendus sit inter seruos Dei contra impacientes et qualiter superbia per dolium designatur.
The Metaphor of the Fermenting Cask
The Mother uses the image of a fermenting wine cask to illustrate how volatile vapors rise and subside, warning against leaning too close to such agitation.
The Mother says: "When a wine cask heats up and swells as it ferments, certain vapors and foam rise to the top—sometimes larger, sometimes smaller—and then suddenly subside again." Everyone standing around the vat sees those vapors quickly subside, and they understand that this rising comes from the strength of the wine working to cool its heat. Therefore, they patiently wait for the end and for the perfection of the wine or ale. For everyone standing around the vat who leans in too close to smell the fumes, one of two things will happen: either they'll suffer a fit of sneezing or agitation, or their head will be severely affected.
Patience as a Spiritual Conqueror
Spiritual pride and impatience are likened to the fermenting cask, and the reader is encouraged to practice the superior virtue of patience over reactive speech.
It's the same way in the spiritual life. For it sometimes happens that the hearts of certain people swell up and rise from the pride of their own minds and from impatience; when men of virtue notice this rising, they recognize that it proceeds either from an instability of spirit or from a movement of the flesh. That is why they patiently endure words and look toward the end, knowing that after the storm, calm will follow; and because patience is a greater conqueror than those who take cities, since it conquers a person within themselves—which is the hardest thing of all.✦ But those who are too impatient and pay back word for word, failing to consider the glorious reward of patience or how contemptible worldly favor is, These people bring weakness of mind upon themselves through their own temptations because of their impatience; they bring their nostrils too close to the agitation of the barrel—that is, to words, which are nothing but air—and they take them too much to heart.
Guarding the Heart and Mouth
The reader is instructed to guard their speech and remain steadfast in goodness when encountering the impatience of others.
Therefore, when you see that some people are impatient, use God’s help to keep a guard over your mouth; don't abandon the good things you've started because of their impatient words, but instead, as much as is right, act as if you haven't heard them, until those who are looking for an excuse speak out whatever they've been harboring in their hearts.✦
Read the original Latin
Mater loquitur: "Vbi dolium vini incalescit et intumescendo excrescit, ascendunt quedam exalaciones et spume, quandoque maiores quandoque minores, et subito iterum decrescunt.
Omnes autem circumstantes dolium considerant tales exalaciones cito detumescere et quod tales eleuaciones proueniunt ex fortitudine vini ad minuendum calorem eius. Ideo pacienter spectant finem et vini seu ceruisie perfeccionem.
Omnes autem circumstantes dolium, qui nimis applicant nares ad feruorem dolii, contingent eis duo: aut nimia externutacio vel commocio aut cerebrum grauius pacietur.
Sic est eciam spiritualiter. Nam contingit aliquando, quod quorundam corda intumescunt et ascendunt ex superbia mentis sue et impaciencia; quem ascensum viri virtutum attendentes considerant aut ex instabilitate animi aut motu carnalitatis procedere.
Ideo pacienter verba sustinent et attendunt finem scientes, quod post tempestatem fiet tranquillitas, et quia paciencia maior est expugnatore urbium, quia vincit hominem in se ipso, quod difficillimum est.
Illi vero qui nimis impacientes sunt verbaque reddunt equipollencia non attendentes retribucionem gloriosam paciencie nec quam contemptibilis est fauor mundanus,
isti incurrunt infirmitatem mentis suis temptacionibus propter impacienciam, quia nimis appropinquant nares ad commocionem dolii, id est verba, que non sunt nisi aer, nimis apponunt cordi suo.
Ideo, quando videritis aliquos esse impacientes, ponite adiutorio Dei custodiam ori vestro, nec dimittatis bona incepta vestra propter verba impaciencie, sed dissimulate, in quantum iustum est, audita tamquam non audita, donec illi qui inuenire volunt occasionem exprimunt verbo quidquid notant corde."
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