De laude Dei in paupertate
Praising God in Spiritual Dryness
The believer is encouraged to maintain a spirit of praise and humility even when experiencing dryness or abandonment in prayer.
The poor and needy will praise your name, Lord. When you feel dry, cold, and sad while praying or meditating on the goodness of God, don't despair or stop calling on Jesus with humility; instead, praise God in the poverty of your spirit, give thanks, and gladly read this little verse for comfort. The poor and needy will praise your name, Lord; for many saints and devout people have also been dry at times, and for a long time abandoned by God, so that they might learn patience and how to sympathize with others through the experience of pain and need, and so they wouldn't presume too much about themselves in times of devotion and joy. Read also the following verse with the prophet in the psalm. I, however, am a beggar and poor; but the Lord is concerned for me. I trust in the Lord, because he is my strength and my salvation. It is true: for every good thing comes from God. Don't be presumptuous, then, when you're happy, nor let yourself be cast down when burdened by sadness; but just as it pleases the Lord in his own eyes, so be content in all things.
The Gift of Holy Humility
True spiritual growth requires recognizing that all gifts come from God and accepting the withdrawal of grace as a means to cultivate humility.
You have nothing good of your own; everything comes from God. When the grace of devotion is given, the sun shines from heaven, the soul is enlightened, and it exults as if in riches. But you are miserably deceived if you become arrogant and puffed up. When, however, grace is quietly withdrawn and taken away from the ungrateful, you are truly poor and weak; you can endure little, and you grow weary of prayer. But accept this as a benefit: that God makes you poor and humbles you alongside His chosen ones, and strikes your back with a father's rod for your secret faults and many daily negligences, so that you may become lowly in your own eyes and never think too highly of yourself, just as Saint Paul advises the Romans. Do not, he says, think too highly of yourself, but fear. It is a great gain for the soul to think humbly of itself and to attribute every good entirely to God.
Read the original Latin
Pauper et inops laudabunt nomen tuum Domine. Quando sentis te aridum frigidum et tristem in orando meditando bona de Deo: non debes propterea desperare nec desistere Iesum humiliter invocare; sed in paupertate spiritus tui Deum lauda et gratias age: et istum versiculum pro sconsolatione libenter lege. Pauper et inops laudabunt nomen tuum Domine, multi enim sancti et devoti fuerunt etiam quandoque aridi, et per longum tempus a Deo derelicti; ut discerent patientiam et aliis compati, per doloris et inopiae experientiam: et non praesumerent nimis de se ipsis in tempore devotionis et iubilationis. Lege etiam versum istum sequentem cum propheta in psalmo. Ego isautem mendicus sum et pauper: et Dominus sollicitus est mei. In Domino confido: quia ipse virtu et salus mea. Verum est: nam omne bonum a Deo. Noli ergo praesumere cum laetus fueris: nec te deicere tristitia gravatus; sed sicut Domino placuerit in oculis suis: sic esto contentus in omnibus.
Nil enim boni habes a te ipso, sed totum est a Deo. Cum gratia devotionis datur; sol de caelo aslucet, et anima illuminatur et quasi in divitiis exultat. Sed miser deciperis: si praesumis et inflaris. Cum vero occulte subtrahitur gratia et ab ingrato tollitur; tunc vere pauper es et infirmus: et parum potes sustinere, et taedet orare. Sed hoc pro beneficio accipe, quod Deus te pauperem facit et humiliat cum electis suis: et percutit dorsum tuum filiorum virga pro excessibus tuis occultis et neglegentiis multis cotidianis; ut tibi ipsi vilescas et numquam alte de te sapias: sicut consulit sanctus Paulus ad Romanos. Noli inquit altum sapere: sed time. Magnum lucrum animae, de se viliter sentire et Deo omne bonum funditus ascribere.
The Little Garden of Roses & The Valley of Lilies companion
Fourteen readings down. The other 39 chapters are waiting.
Chosen Portion serves the complete Little Garden and Valley of Lilies — plus the Imitation — as daily portions.
These treatises were composed as brief daily counsels for a community's rhythm of reading, and Chosen Portion delivers them the same way: one short chapter each morning.
- All 53 chapters of both treatises in modern readable English
- A new short reading delivered every morning, no deciding what's next
- Complete both treatises in under two months at one chapter a day