De pura mente et simplici intentione.
Two Wings of the Soul
Simplicity and purity are the two wings that lift the soul from earthly things to God.
A person is lifted up from earthly things by two wings — simplicity and purity. Simplicity should be in your intention, purity in your affection.1 Simplicity aims at God; purity grasps him and tastes him.
The Power of a Pure Heart
A pure and inwardly good heart penetrates all things, judges rightly, finds true joy, and is transformed by turning wholly to God.
If you were inwardly good and pure, then everything would come to you without hindrance, and you'd grasp it well. A pure heart penetrates heaven and hell. As each person is within, so they judge outwardly. If there is joy in this world, the person with a pure heart surely possesses it. And if there is tribulation and distress anywhere, a troubled conscience knows it all too well. Just as iron cast into fire loses its rust and becomes entirely white-hot, so a person who turns wholly to God is stripped of sluggishness and transformed into a new person.✦✦2
From Lukewarmness to Courage
The lukewarm soul fears hardship and seeks outward comfort, but the self-conqueror walking in God's way grows light under former burdens.
When a person begins to grow lukewarm, then he fears hardship only slightly and reaches for outward consolation. But when he begins to conquer himself completely and to walk courageously in the way of God, he regards as less important the things he once felt were burdensome to him.
Read the original Latin
Duabus alis homo sublevatur a terrenis, scilicet simplicitate et puritate. Simplicitas debet esse in intentione, puritas in affectione. Simplicitas intendit deum, puritas apprehendit et gustat.
Si tu esses intus bonus, et purus, tunc omnia sine impedimento, et caperes bene. Cor purum penetrat cælum, et infernum. Qualis unusquisque est intus, taliter iudicat exterius. Si est gaudium in mundo, hoc utique possidet cordis puri homo. Et si est alicubi tribulatio et angustia, hoc melius novit mala conscientia. Sicut ferrum missum in ignem amittit rubiginem et totum candens efficitur, sic homo ad Deum integre se convertens, a torpore exuitur, et in novum hominem transmutatur.
Quando homo incipit tepescere, tunc parvum metuit laborem, et externam accipit consolationem. Sed quando perfecte incipit se vincere, et viriliter in via Dei ambulare, tunc minus ea reputat, quæ sibi prius gravia esse sentiebat.
Scripture echoes
Notes
- 1 ↩affectio rendered as 'affection' per lexeme policy: attachment/disordered affection in negative contexts, affection/heart's desire in prayerful positive contexts. Here the context is devotional and positive.
- 2 ↩The iron-in-fire simile is a traditional ascetical image for purifying conversion; 'new person' echoes Pauline renewal language (cf. Eph 4:24, Col 3:10).