Of meditacion of synful men, aftir that thei ben turned hooli to God.
The Purgative Fire of Compunction
The soul newly turned to God is often led through a period of intense sorrow and biting conscience, which serves as a merciful cleansing for past sins.
Our Lord places various meditations into a person's heart. I'll share some of them with you as I understand them, so that if you experience any of them, you can work through them more effectively. When someone who has been deeply defiled by worldly or fleshly sins first turns to God, their thoughts are usually fixed on those sins—filled with great compunction and sorrow of heart, heavy weeping, and many tears—as they humbly and earnestly ask God for mercy and forgiveness.1 If they are touched deeply because our Lord wants to cleanse them quickly, their sins will seem so foul and horrible in their sight that they can barely bear the weight of them. And no matter how clearly they confess, they will still feel a biting and fretting of conscience, making it seem as though they haven't confessed properly.2 They can barely find any rest—so much so that they wouldn't endure such labor if our Lord, in His mercy, didn't sometimes comfort them as He wills, through great devotion to His Passion or in some other way. In this way, our Lord works in people's hearts, more or less as He wills. It is a great mercy of our Lord that He will not only forgive the sin and the trespass, but He will also forgive both the trespass and the punishment due in purgatory, all in exchange for such a little pain here from the biting of conscience.3 Also, if He wants to prepare a person to receive a special gift of His love, that person must first be scoured and cleansed by a fire of compunction for all the great sins committed in the past. David speaks of this kind of labor in many psalms of the Psalter, and especially in the psalm Miserere mei Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam (Psalms 50:3).✦4
The Gift of Devotion to the Humanity of Christ
Following the initial cleansing, God grants the soul the grace to meditate deeply upon the humanity of Christ and the compassion of the Blessed Virgin.
Then after this labor—and sometimes right alongside it—our Lord gives such a person, or perhaps someone else whom God's grace has kept in innocence, a meditation filled with great compunction and an abundance of tears regarding His humanity: His birth, His passion, or the compassion of our Lady Saint Mary.
Read the original Latin
Sundrie meditacions ther aren whiche oure Lord putteth in a mannys herte. Sum schal y telle thee, as me thenketh, for this entent, yif thou fele ony of hem, that thou schulde the betere travaile in hem. In the bigynnynge of conversioun of siche a man as hath ben mykil foulid with worldli or fleschli synnes, comounli his thought is most upon his synnes, with gret conpuccion and sorwe of herte, grete wepynges and many teeris of the iye, mekeli and bisili askynge merci and forgyvnesse of God for hem. And yif he be touchid scharpeli, for oure Lord wole make him soone clene, hym schal thenke that in his sight his synnes aren ai so foule and so horrible that unnethes schal he mowe bere himsilf for hevynesse of synne. And though he schryve him never so cleerli, yit schal he fynde bitynge and fretynge of conscience, that him schal thynke that he is not schriven aright. And unnethe schal he mowe have ony reste, in so mykil that he schulde not endure in siche traveile, ne were it that oure Lord of his merci comforteth him sum tyme as He wole, bi grete devocioun of His passioun or bi sum othir wai. Upon this maner werketh oure Lord in sum mennys hertis, more or lasse as He wole. And this is the grete merci of oure Lord, that not oonli wole forgyve the synne and the trespace, but He wole forgyve bothe trespas and peyne for it in purgatorie, for siche a litil peyne here of bitynge of conscience.
And also yif He wole dispose a man for to receyve ony special gift of His lofe, him bihoveth first to be scourid and clensid bi siche a fier of conpunccioun for alle the grete synnes bifore doon. Of this maner of travaile speketh David in many psalmes of the sautier, and speciali in the psalme Miserere mei deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam (Psalms 50:3).
Thanne after this traveile, and sum tyme with alle, sich a man or ellis anothir, whiche bi grace of God hath ben kepid in innocence, oure Lord gyveth a meditacion with gret conpunccioun and with plenté of teeris of His manhede, as of His birthe or of His passioun, or of the compassioun of oure Ladi Seynt Marie.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.50.3 — Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before him, and around him a great tempest rages.
Notes
- 1 ↩compunction (source: conpuccion): kept as the durable term for grace-pierced sorrow for sin, not mere guilt or shame.
- 2 ↩schryve/schriven: sacramental confession (shriving), not mere private admission of fault.
- 3 ↩for siche a litil peyne here: read as exchange/remission—the present pain of conscience is accepted as a small temporal penance that remits purgatorial penalty, not as mere emotional discomfort.
- 4 ↩The supplied citation follows Vulgate numbering (Ps 50); modern Bibles usually number the Miserere as Psalm 51.
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