Quis sit diversarum compunctionum fructus, novitio interroganti exponitur.

God's Sweetness Draws the Soul

God mercifully uses inward sweetness to draw souls to salvation, just as honey kindles desire in one who has never tasted it.

This experience of sweetness, however, is a great stirring up to good works for the negligent, a necessary consolation for those laboring in good works, and a pleasant and secure refreshment for those standing firm at the summit of perfection. Therefore that wonderfully merciful one works our salvation in marvelous and ineffable ways: as wisdom he enlightens, as justice he terrifies, as the sweetness of pleasantness he allures. Just as if you wanted to kindle in someone ignorant of honey a desire for it, but seeing that he had been delighted by other flavors — less instructive, though he may think them wise — and that neither by speech nor by any praise of honey could he be inflamed with longing for it, you would take a small drop of that liquid and drip it into his throat; and he, having taken that taste, would burn with such desire for it that he would not shrink from undertaking even immense labors to obtain it; yet whenever you perceived him wearied by the enormity of the labor and growing lukewarm from the fervor he had begun, you would soothe him with a similar drop of sweetness: so the clemency of our most loving Savior allures to salvation those immersed in the allurements of the flesh, whom neither the light of reason nor the fear of future judgment can restrain from wickedly flattering pleasure, by a certain inward taste of sweetness — until, gradually drawn by their own delight, according to that line: "Each one is drawn by their own pleasure" (Virgil,¹² Eclogue 2, verse 65.) let him place the yoke of his servitude upon them.^✦³ But because someone approaching the service of God hears Scripture saying: "Stand strong and prepare your soul for temptation" (Sirach⁴

Compunction Bears Fruit in Conversion

Spiritual consolation during temptation leads to salutary self-knowledge, shame, and a burning conversion that yields the fruit of strict discipline.

Second: whenever the weight of temptation has pressed you down — you who are already wavering, nearly in despair — a certain spiritual sweetness must flow in; and refreshed by that sprinkling, you may take up the struggle against vices with a keener fire of mind, endure it magnanimously, and more easily overcome or avoid them. Look more carefully at yourself. After that experience of the sweetest affection, when you returned to empty amusements and came back to yourself again, weren't you ashamed — and, as I might say, set ablaze by a kind of salutary hatred against yourself?⁵ From this, consider how to take up a stricter life and set before yourself such a necessity that, even if your will were to consent to such things, there would still be no opportunity to return to them. "Absolutely," he said, "that's how it is." "So you see that your burning conversion, your very strict way of life is, as it were, the fruit of those tears?" For they were given for this purpose; they gradually brought it about — or rather, God worked through them. What wonder is it, then, if, their task — so to speak — completed, they ceased?

From Labor to the Sweetness of Virtue

The toiling soul is consoled by Christ's maternal sweetness through prayer and obedience, progressing from novice weariness to veteran rest in the hidden sweetness of God.

Now indeed the labors to be undertaken for Christ are yours: the virtue of patience is to be exercised, the flesh's arrogance chastised by frequent vigils and fasts, temptations endured, and the mind withdrawn from every earthly anxiety; but especially by the virtue of obedience your own will is to be put to death. And whenever the mind is wearied by these things beyond measure, with anxious devotion of prayers you must hasten to the maternal breasts of Jesus, from whose abundance, drawing out for you the milk of wonderful consolation, you may say with the Apostle: Blessed is God, who consoles us in every tribulation (2 Cor.^✦⁶⁷ And: Just as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so also through Christ does our consolation abound (ibid.).^✦ . So that pious affection, which had first roused the sluggish one lest he perish, will console the toiling one lest he fail, until after countless victories — now like a veteran soldier made seasoned by those temptations by which you, as it were a novice, are now wearied, thoroughly lulled to rest — you may repose in the sweetness of virtues. And admitted to that most sublime kind of consolation by the grace of divine piety, which is established as the reward of the just, you may say with the Prophet: How great is the multitude of your sweetness, Lord, which you have hidden from those who fear you!^✦⁸⁹ » (Psal. xxx.)¹⁰ Then he, with tears welling up: «It pleases, he says, and greatly pleases, what you say, because not only do I infer that these things are so by reason teaching, but in my own self I perceive them more clearly than light. For I have experienced that first kind of visitation entirely, just as you assert; the second, which is now beginning to be stirred up in me, I perceive as you instruct me; but that sublime and ineffable one, I trust I will at some time obtain.¹¹ »

Read the original Latin

« Haec tamen dulcedinis experientia, negligentibus quidem ad bona opera magna excitatio, in bonis operibus desudantibus necessaria consolatio, in culmine perfectionis consistentibus suavis et secura refectio est. Operatur ergo ille mirae misericors, miris et ineffabilibus modis salutem nostram; ipse sapientia illuminans, ipse justitia terrens, ipse dulcedo suavitatis illiciens. Velut si quemlibet ignarum mellis ad ejus velles appetitum accendere, sed cernens eum aliis speciebus, minus licet sapientibus, delectatum, nec sermone, nec ejus qualibet laude in illius desiderium inflammari, sumpta modica liquaminis illius gutta, ejus faucibus instillares; illeque sumpto gustu, ita in ejus aestuaret appetitum, ut pro ejus acquisitione, ne immensos quidem labores aggredi perhorreret, quoties tamen immanitate laboris cerneres fatigatum a coepto fervore tepescere, simili eum dulcedinis stilla mulceres: sic clementia piissimi Salvatoris nostri, illecebris carnis immersos, quos nec lumen rationis, nec futuri examinis timor, a male blanda praevalet suavitate compescere, quodam internae dulcedinis gustu allicit ad salutem; donec propria voluptate paulatim attracti secundum illud: Trahit sua quemque voluptas, (Virgil. , Eclog. 2, vers. 65.) jugum eis suae servitutis imponat. Sed quia accedens quis ad servitutem Dei, audit Scripturam dicentem: Sta fortiter et praepara animam tuam ad tentationem (Eccli.

ii), necesse est, ut quoties labor tentationis oppresserit, nutanti jam, peneque desperanti, spiritalis quidam sapor interfluat; cujus recreatus aspergine, vitiorum colluctationem acriori mentis aestu suscipiat, magnanimiter toleret; facilius superet, vel evitet. Teipsum diligentius intuere. Nonne post illam dulcissimi affectus experientiam, ad ludicra vanaque reversus, cum iterum redires in te, confundebaris, ac quodam, ut ita dixerim, odio salutari contra teipsum accendebaris? Hinc meditari arctiorem vitam arripere, tantamque tibimet opponere necessitatem; ut si etiam talibus consentiret voluntas, nulla tamen foret ad talia redeundi facultas. — Omnino, inquit, ita est. — Vides ergo quia illa fervens conversio tua, ista districta admodum conversatio tua, quasi illarum lacrymarum fructus est? Ad hoc enim datae sunt, hoc paulatim operabantur, imo per illas Deus. Quid ergo mirum, si suo, ut ita dixerim, negotio consummato cessarunt?

Nunc quidem labores tibi pro Christo subeundi sunt, virtus patientiae exercenda, carnis insolentia crebris vigiliis, ac jejuniis castiganda, perferendae tentationes, et ab omni terrena sollicitudine animus avocandus: praecipue autem virtute obedientiae propria mortificanda voluntas: quoties vero in his animus plus nimio fatigatur, sollicita orationum devotione, ad materna ubera Jesu properandum, ex quorum abundantia, lac tibi mirae consolationis eliciens, dicas cum Apostolo: Benedictus Deus, qui consolatur nos in omni tribulatione (II Cor. i); Et: Sicut abundant passiones Christi in nobis, ita et per Christum abundat consolatio nostra (ibid.) . Sic affectus ille pius, qui prius torpentem excitaverat ne periret, consolabitur laborantem ne deficiat, donec post innumeras victorias, quasi emeritus jam miles effectus, his tentationibus quibus nunc quasi novitius fatigaris, penitus consopitis, in virtutum suavitate repauses: ad illud quoque sublimissimum consolationis genus gratia divinae pietatis admissus, quod quasi praemium constat esse justorum, dicas cum Propheta: Quam magna multitudo dulcedinis tuae, Domine, quam abscondisti timentibus te! » (Psal. xxx.) Tum ille, obortis lacrymis: « Placet, inquit, et valde placet, quod dicis, quia non solum haec ita esse ratione magistrante conjicio, verum in me ipso luce clarius perspicio. Nam primum illud visitationis genus, sic prorsus, ut asseris, expertus sum; secundum vero, quod in me jam incipiat actitari, te instruente persentio; at sublime illud et ineffabile quandoque me adepturum confido.

Scripture echoes

↩Matt.11.29-Matt.11.30 — Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matt.11.30 — For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
↩2Cor.1.3-2Cor.1.4 — Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 2Cor.1.4 — who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
↩2Cor.1.5 — For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
↩Ps.31.19 — How great is your goodness that you have stored up for those who fear you, that you have worked for those who take refuge in you before the children of men! Let the lips of falsehood be silenced, those who speak against the righteous with arrogance and contempt.

Notes

1 ↩The simile describes God using experiential sweetness to draw souls progressively toward salvation, not as manipulation but as condescension to human weakness. The 'drop of sweetness' represents a taste of divine consolation.
2 ↩dulcedinis rendered as 'sweetness' throughout to preserve the sensory metaphor; 'pleasure' (voluptate) is used in a neutral/descriptive sense in the Virgil quotation context, not as endorsement of hedonism.
3 ↩The subjunctive imponat is jussive or purpose: God places the yoke of his service on those drawn by sweetness. 'Servitude' here means devoted service to God, not slavery in a pejorative sense.
4 ↩The quotation 'Sta fortiter et praepara animam tuam ad tentationem' is attributed to Eccli (Sirach/Ecclesiasticus). Exact verse identification deferred to Moses resolution.
5 ↩dulcissimi affectus experientia: the 'sweetest affection' likely refers to the prior experience of compunction described in section 1; the Latin leaves the referent implicit.
6 ↩materna ubera Jesu ('the maternal breasts of Jesus'): a bold medieval devotional image of Christ as nurturing mother; retained as a literal rendering of the Latin metaphor.
7 ↩The closing quotation 'Benedictus Deus, qui consolatur nos in omni tribulatione' is from 2 Corinthians 1:3–4; the parenthetical '(2 Cor.' is left open as in the source.
8 ↩gratia divinae pietatis ('by the grace of divine piety'): pietas here carries the sense of God's loving mercy toward his faithful, not merely human piety.
9 ↩The closing quotation 'Quam magna multitudo dulcedinis tuae, Domine, quam abscondisti timentibus te' echoes Psalm 31:19 (Vulgate 30:20); the source text's psalm reference is incomplete (see sentence s6).
10 ↩The psalm number 'xxx' is uncertain in the source; likely Psalm 30 (Vulgate numbering) = Psalm 31 (Hebrew), from which the preceding quotation is drawn.
11 ↩visitationis genus ('kind of visitation'): refers to distinct modes or stages of divine consolation visiting the soul; the novice distinguishes three such stages.

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