Hou fier of love wasteth alle fleischli lustes, as othir fier wasteth alle bodili thynges here.
The Consuming Fire of Divine Love
The love of God acts as a spiritual fire that purifies the soul and overflows into the body with overwhelming grace.
Of this kind of feeling the prophet Jeremiah speaks this way: "And it became in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones, and I failed, unable to bear it" (Jeremiah 20:9).✦ This means that the love and the sense of God in my heart became not just a fire, but a glowing fire. Just as physical fire burns and consumes everything it touches, this spiritual fire—the love of God—burns and consumes fleshly loves and pleasures in a person's soul. As the prophet says, this fire is shut up within my bones.1 In other words, this love fills the powers of the soul—mind, will, and reason—with grace and spiritual sweetness, just as marrow fills a bone; it is an inward experience, not an outward one involving the senses.2 Nevertheless, it is so mighty within that it strikes out into the body and makes the whole body quake and tremble, for it is so far from bodily nature and so strange that he can make no sense of it and cannot bear it, but fails and falls down, as the prophet said.
The Fruit of Spiritual Fervor
God tempers this intense fervor to foster spiritual growth, which yields more virtue than bodily penance alone.
Therefore our Lord tempers it and withdraws the fervor and lets the heart fall into a sobriety of greater sweetness.3 Anyone who can pray this way often makes swift progress in his labor. He will gain more of the virtues in a little time than some person without this—or another gift as good—will gain in a long time, for all the bodily penance that person might do; and anyone who has this need not burden the bodily nature with more penance than he already bears, if he has it often.4
Read the original Latin
Of this maner of felynge speketh the prophete Jeremye thus: Et factus est in corde meo quasi ignis estuans, claususque in ossibus meis, et defeci, ferre non sustinens (Jeremiah 20:9). This is thus mykil to undirstonde: The love and the felynge of God was maad in myn herte not as fier, but as fier glowand; for as bodili fire brenneth and wasteth al bodili thyng where it cometh, right so gosteli fier, as is love of God, brenneth and wasteth fleischli loves and likynges in a mannys soule, and this fier is stokyn so in my boonys, as the prophete seith of himsilf. That is for to seie, this love filleth ful the myghtes of the soule, as mynde, wille, and resoun, of grace and goostli swettenesse, as marwe filleth fulle the boon; and that is withinne, not withouten in the wittis. Neverthelees, it is so myghti withinne that it smyteth oute into the bodi, and dooth al the bodi quake and tremble, for it is so feer from the bodili kynde and so uncouthe that he can no skile of it and mai not bere it, but faileth and falleth doun, as the prophete seide. Therfore oure Lord temprith it and withdraweth the fervour and suffreth the herte for to falle into sobirté of mor swettenesse. Whoso can preie thus ofte, he spedeth swithe in his travaile. He schal gete more of vertues in a litil tyme thanne sum man withoutyn this, or anothir as gode schal doo in a longe tyme, for al the bodili penaunce that he myght doo; and whoso hath this, it nedeth not to charge the bodili kynde with more penance than he bereth yif he have it ofte.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Jer.20.9 — And I said, 'I will not mention him, nor will I speak in his name anymore.' But it was in my heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones, and I was weary of holding it in, and I could not.
Notes
- 1 ↩"stokyn" rendered as "shut up," matching the Jeremiah parallel (claususque in ossibus) and ME stocken/stoken, "enclosed/shut in."
- 2 ↩"mynde, wille, and resoun" kept as the soul's powers/faculties (memory/mind, will, reason), Hilton's standard interior triad.
- 3 ↩"sobirté of mor swettenesse" kept close as sobriety of greater sweetness: a calmer, moderated state that holds more/deeper sweetness once the extreme fervor is withdrawn.
- 4 ↩"for al the bodili penaunce" taken as "for all" = notwithstanding all, not as causal "because of".
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A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
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