Verba sponse precancia ad Christum et ad Virginem laudes optimas inducendo; et responsio Virginis consolatoria ad filiam probans per exempla exposita, quod Deus iusto iudicio frequenter de mendacio Dyaboli permittit, ut virtus Dei sit manifestior; et quomodo tribulaciones inductiua sunt ad spiritualia bona.
A Prayer of Devotion
The bride offers a heartfelt prayer of praise to Christ and the Blessed Mother, seeking protection from the enemy.
Blessed are You, my God, my Creator and my Redeemer. You are the ransom by which we have been redeemed from captivity, by which we are guided toward all that is salutary, and by which we are joined to the Unity and the Trinity. And so, even though I blush at my own filthiness, I still rejoice that you, who once died for our salvation, will never die again.1 For you are truly the One who was before the ages; you are the One who holds the power of life and death; you alone are good and just; you alone are all-powerful and to be feared. Therefore, may you be blessed forever. But what can I say about you, O blessed Mary, the whole salvation of the world? You are like someone who, for a friend grieving over a lost possession, suddenly makes what was lost appear again, easing his sorrow, increasing his joy, and rekindling his whole mind with gladness. In this way, you, sweetest Mother, revealed to the world its God, whom humanity had lost, and you brought forth in time the One who was begotten before all time; at whose birth both heaven and earth rejoiced. Therefore, sweetest Mother, I ask you: help me, so that the enemy may not rejoice over me or prevail against me with his deceits.
The Nature of Spiritual Discernment
The Mother explains how God permits the devil's lies to manifest His own power, using the analogy of a bride and bridegroom.
The Mother answered: "I will help you, but why are you troubled that one thing was shown to you spiritually while another was heard physically—namely, that the soldier who is alive physically was shown to you as dead spiritually and in need of spiritual help?" But listen now to the certainty of it. For all truth comes from God, and every lie from the Devil, because he is the father of lies. Even though all truth comes from God, His power is still made more manifest through the malice and lying of the Devil—which God sometimes permits by His hidden judgment—as I will show you through an example.2 There was once a young woman who loved her fiancé very tenderly, and he loved her just as much; through their love, God was glorified, and both their parents were filled with joy. The enemy, observing them, thought to himself: 'I know,' he said, 'that the bridegroom and the bride come together in three ways: through letters, through mutual conversation, or through the union of their bodies.' Therefore, so that messengers and letter-carriers don't get through, I'll fill all the paths with logs, thorns, and hooks. And to keep them from meeting to talk, I'll create such a clamor and noise that they'll be distracted whenever they try to speak. And so they don't come together naked in bed, I'll station guards who will watch every crack, so they don't find any opportunity to meet. The Bridegroom, being craftier than the enemy and understanding these things, said to his servants, "My enemy is setting traps for me in such places." You, keep watch in those places, and if you find him there, let him work until he has set his snares. Afterward, when you rise, don't kill him, but mock him and call him out, so that your fellow servants, seeing the enemy's tricks, may become more alert in watching and guarding.
The Clamor of Temptation
The analogy is applied to the spiritual life, showing how the devil uses distraction and false reasoning to hinder prayer and penance.
It's the same way in spiritual matters. The letters that the Bridegroom and the bride—that is, God and a good soul—use to communicate are nothing but the prayers and sighs of the faithful. Just as a physical letter reveals the affection and intent of the person who sends it, so the prayers of good people enter into the heart of God and join the soul to God in a single bond of love. But the Devil sometimes blocks the hearts of men, so that they don't ask for things that are for the salvation of the soul, or for things that are contrary to carnal pleasure. He also hinders those who pray for other sinners from being heard; for these sinners don't ask for what is more useful for their own souls, nor do they pray for things that lead to eternal benefit. What are these mutual conversations, through which the Bridegroom and the bride are made one heart and one soul, if not penance and compunction? In these, the devil sometimes makes such a clamor that they cannot hear one another. And what is his clamor but his wicked suggestion, whispering to a heart that fruitfully desires to repent, saying through his own inspirations: 'O, delicate soul,' he says. It's hard to take on things that are unusual and unfamiliar; could everyone really be perfect? It's enough for you to be one of the many; why are you trying for more? Why do you do things that no one else does? You won't be able to keep it up, and you'll be mocked by everyone if you humble and submit yourself too much. Deluded by such inspirations, the soul thinks to itself: 'It's hard to leave behind what I'm used to, so I'll just make a confession about the past.' It's enough for me to follow the path of the many; I don't have the strength to be perfect. God is merciful, after all, and He wouldn't have redeemed us if He had intended for us to perish.' With such clamor, the devil hinders the soul, so that it doesn't listen to God. It isn't that God doesn't hear everything, but that He takes no pleasure in hearing such things when the soul chooses to consent to its own temptation rather than to its own reason.
Hindrances to Divine Love
The four ways the devil hinders the soul's love for God are detailed, along with how God breaks these snares through grace.
What is it, really, that unites God and the soul in such nakedness, if not heavenly longing and pure love—the very things the soul ought to be ablaze with at every hour? But this love is hindered in four ways. First, the devil tempts the soul to do something against God that, while it may not seem serious, still delights the mind. And this kind of delight is hateful to God because it is treated lightly and not taken care of. Second, the devil inspires the soul to do certain good things just to please people, and at other times to skip good things it could have done, out of a desire for honor or a fear of the world. Third, the devil makes the soul forget the good things it should do, and brings on a weariness that overwhelms the mind, making it discouraged from doing good.3 Fourth, the devil stirs up the soul with worldly concerns, empty joys and sorrows, or harmful fears. Things like these hinder the letters—that is, the prayers of the righteous—and the mutual conversations between the Bridegroom and the bride. But even though the devil is cunning, God is wiser and stronger; He breaks the enemy's snares so that the letters sent can reach the Bridegroom. The traps are broken, however, when God moves you to think about what is good, and your heart longs to gain the will to flee what is wrong and to do what is pleasing to God. The enemy's clamor is also silenced when the soul repents with discernment, having the will not to repeat what it has confessed.
Trials and the Crown of Righteousness
The Mother explains that trials are permitted to increase the crown of the righteous, using the bride's recent experience as a specific example.
Know also that the devil makes noise and creates a disturbance not only for those who are enemies of God, but for God's friends as well; you can understand this through an example: imagine a virgin who, while a man is speaking to her, has a screen appear between them that the man can see, but the virgin cannot.4 When the conversation ended, the virgin looked up, saw the screen, and in her fear thought to herself, "May God provide, so I'm not deceived by the enemy's traps." But the Bridegroom, seeing the virgin distressed, removed the screen and showed her the whole truth. Even perfect people are visited by divine inspirations, yet the devil stirs up clamor against them when they are lifted up by sudden pride, or cast down by excessive fear, or when they tolerate the sins of others by compromising in an undisciplined way, or when they are unraveled by excessive joy or sorrow. The same thing has happened to you. The devil, of course, stirred some people up to write to you that he was dead when he was actually alive, which caused you great sorrow. But God showed you his spiritual death, so that while what the writers said was false in a physical sense, God, in comforting you, showed you that it was true in a spiritual sense. It's true what they say, that trials lead to spiritual good; for if you hadn't been saddened by hearing that lie, such virtue and beauty of soul would not have been revealed to you. Furthermore, so you might understand God's hidden providence, there was a kind of veil between your soul and the God who was speaking, because the soul appeared as one needing help, and in every word, God kept to this conclusion: 'Whether he is dead or alive, you'll know in his own time.'5 But once the beauty and adornment of the soul—the very things by which it must be perfected to enter heaven—had been shown, the veil was removed and the truth was revealed: that the man was living in the body but was dead in spirit, and that anyone who intends to enter the heavenly homeland must be armed with such virtues.6 However, the devil's intention was this: to test you through a lie and to trouble you, and by making you grieve over the loss of such a dear friend, to distract you from the love of God. But after you said, 'May God grant that this isn't an illusion!' and you said, 'God, help me!' then the veil was lifted, and the truth, both physical and spiritual, was shown to you by God. That is why the devil is allowed to trouble the righteous, so that their crown may be increased.
Read the original Latin
"Benedictus sis tu, Deus meus, creator meus et redemptor meus. Tu es stipendium illud, quo a captiuitate redempti sumus, quo ad salutaria cuncta dirigimur, quo unitati et trinitati sociamur.
Propterea et si de feditate mea erubesco, gaudeo tamen, quod tu, qui semel pro salute nostra mortuus es, nunquam amplius morieris.
Tu enim vere ille es qui eciam ante secula eras, tu es qui potestatem habes vite et mortis, tu solus es bonus et iustus, tu solus omnipotens et metuendus. Ideo sis tu in eternum benedictus.
Sed quid de te dicam, o benedicta Maria, mundi tota salus? Tu es similis illi qui amico dolenti de perdita re subito fecit videri quod perditum erat, quo mitigabatur dolor, creuit gaudium et mens tota reaccendebatur leticia.
Sic tu, dulcissima Mater, ostendisti mundo Deum suum, quem homines perdiderant, genuistique eum in tempore, qui ante tempora genitus est; ex cuius natiuitate celestia et terrestria sunt gauisa.
Ideo, dulcissima Mater, rogo te, adiuua me, ne gaudeat inimicus de me nec preualeat aduersum me fraudibus suis."
Respondit Mater: "Ego iuuabo te, sed cur turbaris, quod aliud ostendebatur tibi spiritualiter et aliud audiebatur corporaliter, in eo scilicet, quod ille miles, qui viuit corporaliter, ostendebatur tibi mortuus spiritualiter et spirituali auxilio indigere?
Sed audi nunc certitudinem. Omnis namque veritas ex Deo est omneque mendacium a Dyabolo, quia pater mendacii est.
Ideo, quamuis veritas ex Deo est, tamen de Dyaboli malicia et mendaciuo, quod Deus quandoque permittit occulto iudicio, virtus Dei fit manifestior, sicut per exemplum indicabo tibi.
Virgo quedam fuit, que sponsum suum tenerrime diligebat et similiter sponsus virginem; ex quorum dileccione Deus glorificabatur et parentes amborum letabantur.
Quod inimicus eorum considerans cogitauit taliter: 'Scio,' inquiens, 'quod sponsus et sponsa per tria conueniunt, scilicet per litteras, per mutua colloquia aut per corporum unionem.
Ergo, ne nuncii et portatores litterarum aditum obtineant, implebo vias omnes stipitibus, spinis et uncinis. Ne vero appropinquent ad mutua colloquia, faciam clamores et strepitus, quibus distrahentur in colloquendo.
Ne vero conueniant nudi in lecto, statuam custodes tales, qui quamlibet rimam obseruabunt, ne aliquam occasionem obtineant conueniendi.'
Sponsus itaque astucior hoste intelligens ista dixit seruis suis: "Hostis meus ponit michi insidias in talibus. Et vos illis locis attendite, quod si ita inueneritis, sinite eum laborare, donec posuerit laqueos,
et postea consurgentes ne interficiatis eum sed deludendo inclamate eum, ut conserui vestri videntes astucias hostis efficantur solliciciores in vigilando et custodiendo.'
Simili modo est eciam in spiritualibus. Nam littere, quibus sponsus et sponsa id est Deus et anima bona conueniunt, nichil aliud sunt nisi oraciones et suspiria bonorum.
Sicut enim littere corporales indicant affectum et voluntatem mittentis eas, sic oraciones bonorum ingrediuntur ad cor Dei et coniungunt animam Deo in unum vinculum caritatis.
Sed Dyabolus impedit quandoque corda hominum, ne rogent ea que salutis anime sunt aut quod carnali voluptati contrarium est. Impedit quoque, ne rogantes pro aliis peccatoribus exaudiantur; qui peccatores pro se utiliora anime non petunt nec rogant ea que sunt ad utilitatem sempiternam.
Quid vero sunt mutua colloquia, quibus sponsus et sponsa efficiuntur cor unum et anima una, nisi penitencia et contricio? In quibus quandoque Dyabolus tantum facit clamorem, quod ad inuicem non audiuntur.
Quid autem est clamor eius nisi suggestio eius praua suggerens cordi fructuose volenti penitere, dicens inspiracionibus suis: 'O, anima,' inquiens, 'delicata. Durum est aggredi inconsueta et insolita; numquid omnes possent esse perfecti?
Sufficit tibi esse unum de multis; quid maiora attemptas? Cur facis quod nemo? Perseuerare enim non poteris; derideris ab omnibus, si te nimis humilias et submittis.'
Talibus igitur anima delusa inspiracionibus cogitat secum: 'Graue,' inquit, 'est consueta relinquere, ideo faciam confessionem de preteritis. Sufficit enim michi sequi viam plurium, non valeo esse perfecta. Deus quippe misericors est nec redemisset nos, si perire nos voluisset.'
Talibus clamoribus impedit Dyabolus animam, ne audiat Deus. Non quod non audit Deus omnia sed quia in audiendo talia non delectatur, quando anima consentit magis temptacioni sue quam proprie racioni.
Quid vero est quod Deus et anima coniunguntur nudi nisi desiderium celeste et caritas pura, quibus anima flagrare debet omni hora? Sed hec caritas impeditur quadrupliciter.
Primo instigat Dyabolus animam aliquid facere contra Deum, quod licet non reputatur graue, tamen delectat animum. Et huiusmodi delectacio, quia leuigatur nec curatur, odiosa est apud Deum.
Secundo inspirat Dyabolus anime aliqua bona facere propter placenciam hominum et omittere quandoque bona, que posset facere, propter honorem et timorem mundi.
Tercio Dyabolus immittit obliuionem faciendorum bonorum anime et tedium, per que animus absortus attediatur in faciendo bona.
Quarto Dyabolus sollicitat animam in curis mundialium aut in gaudio et dolore superuacuo seu in timore dispendioso.
Per talia itaque impediuntur littere id est oraciones iustorum et mutua colloquia sponsi atque sponse. Sed licet Dyabolus astutus est, tamen Deus sapiencior atque forcior comminuens laqueos hostis, ut littere misse peruenire valeant ad sponsum.
Tunc autem franguntur laquei, quando Deus immittit cogitare que bona sunt, et cor desiderat, ut obtineat voluntatem fugiendi que praua sunt et faciendi que placita sunt Deo. Dissipatur eciam clamor hostis, quando anima discrete penitet habens velle confessa non iterandi.
Scito eciam, quod Dyabolus non solum facit clamorem et strepitum hiis, qui sunt inimici Dei, sed eciam amicis Dei, sicut per exemplum intelligere poteris, quasi esset virgo, cui cum loqueretur vir apparuit quoddam antipendium inter eos, quod quidem vir vidit sed non virgo.
Finita autem collocucione virgo eleuatis oculis vidit antipendium et timens cogitauit secum: 'Prouideat,' inquit, 'Deus, ne forte laqueis hostis sim decepta.' Sponsus vero videns virginem contristatam remouit antipendium et ostendit ei omnem veritatem.
Sic eciam perfecti homines visitantur inspiracionibus diuinis, quibus Dyabolus facit tunc clamores, quando vel eleuantur subita superbia aut eiciuntur nimio timore seu inordinate condescendendo tolerant aliorum peccata aut nimia leticia vel tristicia dissoluuntur.
Similiter factum est tecum. Dyabolus quippe instigabat quosdam scribere tibi illum esse mortuum, qui viuebat, unde magnum concepisti dolorem. Sed Deus ostendit tibi spiritualem mortem eius, ut quod scriptores dixerunt corporaliter esse falsum, hoc Deus consolando te spiritualiter ostendit esse verum.
Ideo verum est quod dicitur, quod tribulaciones inductiue sunt ad spiritualia bona, quia, nisi propter mendacium auditum fuisses contristata, tanta virtus et pulchritudo anime ostensa tibi non fuisset.
Propterea et ut intelligeres occultam Dei dispensacionem, quasi quoddam antipendium erat inter animam tuam et Deum loquentem, quia anima apparuit in specie indigentis auxilio, et Deus in omni locucione sua istam obseruauit conclusionem: 'Vtrum,' inquit, 'mortuus est vel viuit, scies tempore suo.'
Ostensa vero pulchritudine anime et ornatu, quo anima perfici debet ad ingressum celi, ablatum est antipendium et ostensa veritas, quod scilicet homo ille corporaliter viuebat et spiritualiter erat mortuus, et talibus virtutibus armari debet quicumque patriam celestem est ingressurus.
Verumptamen Dyaboli intencio fuit ista, ut scilicet probaret te per mendacium et tribularet et ut dolendo de subtraccione tam cari amici distraheret te ab amore Dei.
Sed postquam dixisti: 'Prouideat Deus, ne forte istud sit illusio!' et dixisti: 'Deus, adiiua me!' tunc ablatum est velamen et ostensa est tibi veritas a Deo tam corporalis quam spiritualis.
Ideo ergo permittitur Dyabolo eciam tribulare iustos, ut eorum corona augeatur."
Notes
- 1 ↩The term 'feditate' (foeditas) carries a strong sense of moral ugliness or corruption; 'filthiness' is used here to capture the visceral sense of shame expressed in the context of the speaker's prayer.
- 2 ↩The Latin 'mendaciuo' is treated as a variant of 'mendacio'.
- 3 ↩The Latin 'tedium' and 'attediatur' describe a state of spiritual dryness or listlessness, often referred to as acedia.
- 4 ↩The term 'antipendium' (often a hanging or altar cloth) is used here metaphorically as a screen or veil obscuring vision.
- 5 ↩The Latin 'antipendium' (literally a hanging or altar cloth) is used here metaphorically to describe an obstacle or veil obscuring direct vision.
- 6 ↩The term 'antipendium' (veil or hanging) is used here metaphorically for the barrier or concealment mentioned in the previous section.
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