Christus dicit sponse, quod ipse est similis vitriario, qui, quamuis multa vasa franguntur, non cessat formare de nouo alia, idest animas, donec chorus celestis angelicus repleatur, et quod est similis api, quia eliget sibi aliam nouam herbam, idest conuertet paganos, vnde magnam dulcedinem extrahet, idest multas animas ad implendum apiarium regni celorum.
The Glassblower's Persistence
God compares His creative work to a glassblower who tirelessly forms new souls to fill the heavenly choir.
I am like a skilled glassblower who creates many vessels out of ash. Even though many are broken, he doesn't stop making new ones until the number of vessels is complete. This is how I work: I create a noble creature—man—out of lowly material. Even though many turn away from me through their evil deeds, I don't stop forming others until the angelic choir and the empty places in heaven are filled.
The Bee and the New Harvest
Christ describes Himself as a bee seeking sweetness in new places, turning from the withered faith of some to the potential of the pagans.
I am also like a good bee that leaves its hive and flies toward a beautiful plant seen from afar, seeking to gather its most beautiful flower and its sweet, fragrant, and elegant scent; but when it draws near the plant, it finds the flower withered, the scent changed and destroyed, and the sweetness completely drained away. But after this, it looks for another plant and finds one that's a bit rough, with a small flower and a faint scent—a sweetness that's pleasant, but slight. Yet the bee settles on this plant, draws out its sweetness, and carries it back to the hive until it's filled to its liking. I am that bee—the Creator and Lord of all—who left the hive when I took on human form and appeared visible within it. I sought out a beautiful plant; that is, I chose the Christian people for myself. They were beautiful through faith, sweet in charity, and fruitful in good conduct. But now, having fallen away from their former state, they appear beautiful in name but are deformed in their way of life; they are fruitful toward the world and the flesh, but barren toward God and the soul; they are sweet to themselves, but most bitter to me. Therefore, they will fall and be brought to nothing. But I, like a bee, will choose for myself another plant that is a bit rough—that is, pagans who are quite set against good ways, though some of them have a small flower and a tiny bit of sweetness, meaning they have the will to gladly convert and serve me if they only knew how and had someone to help them. I will draw so much sweetness from this plant until the hive is full, and I want to draw so near to it that the plant loses none of its sweetness, nor the bee any of the fruit of its labor. What is rough and worthless will grow miraculously into the highest beauty, while what seems beautiful will fade and turn into deformity.
Read the original Latin
"Ego sum sicut bonus vitriarius, qui de cinere facit multa vasa. Quamuis autem multa confringantur, tamen non cessat noua facere, donec impleatur numerus vasorum.
Sic ego facio, quia de ignobili materia nobilem facio creaturam, scilicet hominem, et quamuis multi discedunt a me per opera sua mala, non tamen cesso formare alios, donec chorus angelicus et loca in celo vacua repleantur.
Ego sum eciam similis bone api, que exiens de apiario suo volat ad herbam pulchram alonge visam, in qua querit recipere florem pulcherrimum et odorem redolentem suauissimum elegantem, sed cum appropinquat herbe, inuenit florem aridum et odorem immutatum et annichilatum, suauitatem penitus extractam.
Sed post hec inquirit aliam herbam et inuenit herbam aliquantulum asperam, cuius flos est modicus et odor non multum odorans, suauitas placens sed exigua. In hac autem herba figit apis pedem et extrahit inde dulcedinem et reportat ad apiarium, donec ad voluntatem suam est impletum.
Apis enim ista ego sum, omnium creator et Dominus, qui de apiario tunc exiui, cum formam humanam assumens apparui in ea visibilis. Quesiui autem herbam pulchram, idest genus christianum michi assumpsi. Qui pulchri erant ex fide, dulces caritate, fructiferi bona conuersacione.
Nunc autem a priori statu degenerantes ex nomine videntur pulchri sed conuersacione sunt deformes, fructiferi ad mundum et carnem sed steriles ad Deum et animam, dulces sibi sed amarissimi michi; propterea cadent et annichilabuntur.
Ego autem sicut apis eligam michi aliam herbam aliquantulum asperam, idest paganos moribus satis auersos, quorum aliqui habent florem modicum et suauitatem exiguam, idest voluntatem, qua libenter conuerterentur et seruirent michi, si scirent quomodo et si haberent adiutores.
Et ex hac herba tantum extraham dulcedinis, donec impleatur apiarium, et tantum ei appropinquare volo, vt nec herbe desit suauitas nec apis a fructu laboris euacuetur.
Et crescet hoc mirabiliter, quod asperum est et vile, ad summam pulchritudinem; quod autem pulchrum videtur, decrescet et deueniet ad deformitatem."
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