Greco-Christian stream·Beguine Mystics·The Flowing Light of the Godhead — Books I-VII (complete)·Book II

Book II

This is Book II of Mechthild's Flowing Light of the Godhead (Book I is on this site as a sibling work). The glossary anchors and source-chain disclosed in the Book I translator's note apply unchanged here. Book II introduces a few new anchors that did not appear in Book I:

Köpf is rendered "chalice" or "golden cup." In medieval German, Kopf (archaic) means a drinking-bowl, not the head; Mechthild's zwei guldin köpfe (two golden cups) of pain and consolation (Chapter VII) and the köpf mit gallen (cup of gall) shared with the martyrs (Chapter XXIV) are eucharistic-passion images, not anatomical ones. Schenke is rendered "cupbearer." Sister Hiltegund — the named figure of Chapter XX — was almost certainly a Beguine companion of Mechthild's whose death-day she here commemorates; no further biographical record survives. Chapter XXIV includes a long litany in which Mechthild addresses individual saints (Mary, Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, Peter, Paul, Stephen, Lawrence, Martin, Dominic, Catherine) and speaks her own life through theirs; the structure follows late-medieval personal Litanies (cf. the Litany of the Saints in Office books) rather than canonical liturgical form.

Two Latin liturgical fragments appear in Chapter IV (Gaudeamus omnes in domino; Liber generationis) and one in Chapter VII (Gloria in excelsis Deo); all are preserved in Latin and footnoted.

Book II is denser theologically than Book I — particularly Chapter XIX's three-heavens schema (the devil's false heaven, the senses' partial heaven, the true heaven of the inner light) and Chapter XXII's questioning of Contemplation about the relative status of Seraphim and the lowest human person. These passages anticipate the Eckhart-Tauler-Suso problem of whether the soul as Bride is higher than the angels; Mechthild answers yes, and on relational grounds (the soul as daughter / sister / trutine of the Trinity).

This is the second part of this book.

I. The Love raises the soul high — not by human sense; that [counterfeit] comes from self-will.³⁸

The height of the soul happens in Love, and the adornment of the body happens in holy Christian baptism. Above Love there is no height, and outside of Christendom there is no adornment. Therefore they greatly delude themselves who, with grim, inhuman labours, imagine they will scale the heights, and yet bear a fierce heart — for they have not the virtue of holy humility, which alone can lead the soul into God. And there false sanctity gladly steals in, where self-will carries the mastery in the heart.

II. Of two songs of love that one who was in love saw.

I would gladly die of love, if it could happen to me. Him whom I love, I have seen standing in my soul with my own bright eyes. Whatever bride has lodged her Beloved need not go far. Love cannot well pass away where the maidens often go after the Youth. His noble nature is so ready that he gladly receives her, and follows her from the heart. This may easily escape the dull, who unwillingly stand near to love.

III. Of the tongue of the Godhead, of the light of truth, of the four rays of God into the nine choirs and the Trinity, and of Saint Mary.¹

O noble eagle! O sweet Lamb! O fire of glow, kindle me! How long shall I be so dry? An hour is too heavy for me. A day is to me a thousand years. Should you be strange to me, should it last eight days, I would rather go to hell — yet there I already am when God is strange to the loving soul. That is a pain beyond human death and beyond all pain; believe me. The nightingale must always sing, for her nature is wholly the play of love. Take that from her, and she dies. Ah, great Lord, consider my distress.

Then the Holy Spirit spoke to the soul: Ah, noble maidens, make ready! Your Beloved will come. Then she was startled and inwardly glad, and said: Ah, dear messenger, would it might be so! I am so wicked and so unfaithful that without my Beloved I find no rest anywhere. When I feel that I cool myself a little from his love, then it pains me on every side, and it is welcome to me that I must go yearning after him. Then the messenger said: You should wish, and pour out, and pray, and strew flowers. Then said the exiled soul: When I wish, I must be ashamed. When I pour, I must weep. When I pray, I must hope. When I gather flowers, I must love. When my Lord comes, I come out of myself, for he brings me so many sweet sounds of strings that he takes from me every quivering of the flesh. And his string-play is so full of all sweetness that he takes from me all heart-sorrow.

The great tongue of the Godhead has spoken to me many a mighty word which I have received with the small ears of my baseness. And the very greatest light has opened itself toward the eyes of my soul. There have I seen the unspeakable ordering and known the uncountable honour, the incomprehensible wonder and the singular intimacy with discernment, the all-sufficient on its highest reach and the great breeding within knowing, the enjoyment with the withdrawing according to the strength of the senses, the unmingled joy in the union of the fellowship, and the living love of eternity, as it is now and ever shall be.

There you shall see four rays which shoot all together from the most noble crossbow of the holy Trinity, from the divine throne, through the nine choirs. There hovers none so poor nor so rich that they do not strike him in love. The ray of the Godhead encloses him with an incomprehensible light. The loving manhood greets him in brotherly fellowship. The Holy Spirit moves him with the flowing-through of the marvellous shaping of the eternal bliss. The undivided God feeds him with the glance of his lordly face and fills him with the suffering-free breath of his flowing mouth. And how they go without labour, as the birds in the air who stir no feather; and how they journey wherever they will with body and with soul, and yet remain unmingled in their ordering; and how the Godhead reasons, the manhood sings, and the Holy Spirit finds the strings of the heavenly kingdom, so that all the souls must reason who are made spouse in love.²

Then was seen the same lordly Trinity-throne on which Christ now sits³ with body and with soul, as he shall ever remain, except for the great adornment which the heavenly Father will give to all blessed bodies on the last day. That our Lady must yet do without, while this earth still floats upon the sea.

Then was seen how fair our Lady stood at the throne at the left hand of the heavenly Father, unveiled in all maidenly shaping; and how the human body is tempered and formed into the noble brightness of the soul of our Lady; and how her delightful breasts are unveiled, full of sweet milk, so that the drops flow down — to the honour of the heavenly Father, and to the love of the human person, so that the human is welcome above all creatures. For the high princes, the archangels, marvel greatly that other princes — the humans — have come over them. It is praiseworthy that our full company is there.

At the foremost hand of our Lord stands Jesus, our Redeemer, with open wounds, bleeding, unbound, to overcome the Father's justice, which presses on many a sinner closely.⁴ For as long as sin endures on earth, Christ's wounds shall remain open, bleeding without pain. But after the judgment, Christ shall put on such a garment as was never seen, that even God, ungenerated, would marvel at. Then the sweet wounds shall heal as if a rose-petal had been laid upon the wound's place. There one will then see them in joyful love-colour, which shall never pass away. Then the uncreated God will make all his shapings new, and so new that they may never grow old.

Now German fails me, and Latin I do not know.⁵ So if anything here is lacking, it is not my fault. For there was never a dog so wicked that it would not gladly come, if its master called it with a white loaf.

IV. Of the poor maid, of the mass of John the Baptist, of the changing of the wafer into the Lamb, of angel-beauty, of the four kinds of people sanctified, and of golden pennies.

Ah, dear Lord, how useful it is that a person be of good will, even when they cannot manage the works! Our dear Lord showed this to a poor maid, who could no longer be alone, and yet, alas, was unfit for his service. She spoke thus to God:

Ah, my dear Lord, shall I be today without Mass?

In this longing God took from her all her earthly senses, and brought her wondrously into a fair church. She found no one there. She thought: alas, you poor lazy one; now you have come too late, that you did not rise. That may avail you little here. Then she saw a Youth come who brought a sheaf of white flowers, which he strewed below in the tower, and then went away. Then came another and brought a sheaf of violets, which he strewed in the middle of the church. Then came yet another and brought a sheaf of roses, which he strewed beautifully before our Lady's altar. Then came a fourth and brought a sheaf of white lilies, and strewed them in the choir. When they had done this, they bowed gracefully and went away. These youths were so noble and beautiful to behold that no human's pain in body could be so great but that, could he look on them, all his pain must pass.

Then came two scholars in white vestments, who brought two candles; these they set upon the altar. Then they went gracefully and stood in the choir. Then came a man of uneven height, very lean, and yet not old. His clothes were so poor that his arms and legs showed bare. He carried a white lamb before his breast, and two cruets in his fingers. He went to the altar and set the lamb upon it and bowed lovingly. This was John the Baptist, who was to sing the Mass. Then came a youth, beautifully tempered in bearing, who carried an eagle before his breast. That was John the Evangelist. Then came a simple man — Saint Peter. Then came a tall youth, who brought a bundle of vestments, with which the three lords vested themselves. Then came a great company — that was the mighty retinue of the heavenly kingdom — and so filled the church that the poor maid could find no place to remain. So she went and stood below in the tower.

There she found one sort of people in white vestments, who had no hair, but bore plain crowns upon their heads. These were they who had not lived according to marriage. The adornment of hair — that is good works — they had not. With what then had they come to the heavenly kingdom? With contrition and with good will at their end. Further she found yet fairer people clothed in manifold-coloured⁸ garments, adorned with the fair hair of the virtues and crowned with the marriage-vow of God.³⁹ Yet further she found fairer people clothed in rose-coloured garments, who bore the fair sign of the widows and a crown of accepted chastity.

The poor maid was ill-clothed and weak in body, and could remain among the three ranks nowhere. So she went and stood before the choir and looked in, where our dear Lady stood in the highest place, and Saint Catherine, Cecilia, bishops, martyrs, angels, and very many maidens. When this poor person saw this great lordship, she also looked upon herself, whether for her baseness she dared remain. She had about her a red-brown mantle made of love and after the brown-burning of the senses — for God and for all good things. The mantle was adorned with gold and also with a song; the song sang thus: I would gladly die of love.

She saw herself also like to a noble maiden, and bore upon her head a lordly chaplet of gold, on which was laid yet another song; it sang thus:

His eyes in my eyes, his heart in my heart, his soul in my soul, embraced and without weariness.

And her face she saw like to the angels.

Ah! I, unblessed mire,³⁶ how has this now happened to me? Truly I am, alas, not so blessed as I there saw myself.

All who were in the choir looked upon her with a sweet laughter. Then our Lady beckoned her to stand above Catherine. Then she went and stood beside our dear Lady, for it could seldom happen that she should speak with and see God's Mother. Ah, you dear gracious one! She took it for a good thing that the base crow stood near the turtledove.¹⁰

All who were in the choir were clothed with shining gold, and were wrapped in a soaring bliss, brighter than the sun.

Then they began a Mass thus: Gaudeamus omnes in Domino.⁶ And as often as our Lady was named, they knelt, and the others bowed, for to her God has given the greatest honour. Then said the base one, who had come to that Mass: Ah, Lady, might I here receive God's body, for it does not stand here in jeopardy. Then said God's Mother: Yes, dear one, make your confession. Then the heavenly Queen beckoned John the Evangelist, who went out and heard the sinner's confession. Then she asked him to tell her how long she should live. Then said John: I must not tell you, for God does not will it; for if the time were long, you might from your manifold trouble fall into a peevishness, and if the time were short, you might out of the sorrow of your heart fall into a longing to live long.

Then John went to read the gospel: Liber generationis.⁷ Then said the poor one to our Lady: Shall I make an offering? Then said our Lady: Yes, if you will not take it back. Then said the poor one: Ah, Lady, that grace you must give me from God. Then said our Lady: Now take this golden penny, that is your own will, and offer it to my Lord Son in all things. With great breeding and with holy fear the little man received the great penny. Then she looked upon the penny, how it was struck. There stood upon the penny how Christ was loosed from the cross. On the other side stood all the heavenly kingdom: in the centre the nine choirs, and above them the throne of God. Then God's voice spoke to her: If you offer me this penny so that you do not take it back, then will I loose you from the cross and bring you to me in my kingdom.

Then the same priest celebrated the still Mass — he who was sanctified in his mother's womb with the Holy Spirit. When he took the white wafer in his hands, the same lamb rose up that stood upon the altar, and joined itself, with the words, under the figures of his hand, into the wafer, and the wafer into the lamb — so that I saw the wafer no more, but a bleeding lamb hung on a red cross.

With such sweet eyes it looked upon us that I can never forget it.

Then the poor maid begged our dear Lady thus: Ah, dear Mother, beg your Lord Son that he himself give himself to me, poor one. Then she saw that a shining ray gleamed from our Lady's mouth onto the altar, and stirred the lamb with her prayer, so that God himself spoke out of the lamb: Mother, I will gladly lay myself in the place of your desire. Then the poor maid went to the altar with great love and with an open soul. Then Saint John took the white lamb with its red wounds, and laid it in the recess of her mouth. Then the pure lamb laid itself in its own image upon her stall, and sucked her heart with its sweet mouth. The more it sucked, the more she gave to it.

Now she to whom this happened is dead and gone hence. May God help us that we may yet see her in the company of angels. Amen.⁹

V. A song of the soul to God in five things, and how God is a garment of the soul, and the soul of God.¹¹

You shine into my soul as the sun upon gold. When I must rest in you, Lord, my bliss is manifold. You clothe yourself with my soul and you are also her closest garment, so that a parting must happen between us¹² and never have I known greater heart-sorrow. Would you love me more sorely, then would I surely come hence, where without ceasing I could love you as I wish. Now have I sung to you; yet have I not prevailed. Would you sing to me, then must I prevail.

VI. A counter-song of God in the soul in five things.

When I shine, you must light up. When I flow, you must rise. When you sigh, you draw my divine heart into you. When you weep after me, I take you in my arms. When you love, the two of us become one. And when we two are thus one, no parting may ever happen there; rather, a delightful waiting dwells between us both. Lord, then I wait with hunger and with thirst, with hunting and with delight, until the playful hour when from your divine mouth flow the chosen words which by no one are heard except by the soul alone that has unclothed herself from earth and laid her ear to your mouth — yes, the very one whom the discovery of love grasps.

VII. In suffering, praise — and he appears to you. Of two golden chalices, of pain and of consolation.

I, sinful, slothful: I should have prayed at one hour, but God acted as though he would give me no grace at all. Then I would gladly have grieved miserably about my fleshly sickness, which seemed to me a hindrance to spiritual enjoyment. Ah, no, said my soul, think now of all faithfulness, and praise your Lord thus: Gloria in excelsis Deo.¹³

In this praise a great light appeared to my soul, and with the light God showed himself in great honour and uncountable clarity. Then our Lord raised up two golden chalices¹⁴ in his hands, which were both full of living wine. In his left hand was the red wine of pain, and in his front hand the most precious consolation. Then our Lord said: Blessed are those who drink this wine; for although I alone pour both out of divine love, the white is yet the more noble in itself, and most noble of all are they who drink both — white and red.

VIII. Of purgatory wholly; how a person freed a thousand souls with the tears of love.

A person should pray with great desire, very simply, for the poor souls, to God in heaven. Then God showed her the dreadful purgatory all together, and there so many a torment as the sins were in them. Then the person's spirit became so fierce-fervent that she clasped purgatory wholly in her arms. Then she endured grievously and longed lovingly. Then God in heaven said: Do not let this woe come now to you; it is too heavy for you. Then said the spirit in lament: Ah, dearest one, release some of them. Then our Lord said: How many would you have? The spirit said: Lord, as many as I can with your goodness repay. Then our Lord said: Now take a thousand, and bring them where you will. Then they rose out of the pain — black, fiery, foul, burning, bloody, stinking. Then the person's spirit said again: Ah, my dear Lord, what shall now happen to these poor ones? For in such dreadful state they will never come into your kingdom. Then God inclined immeasurably his nobility, and spoke a word that to us sinners stands as great consolation: You shall bathe them in the love-tears that now flow from the eyes of your body. Then there was seen a round great vessel. There they rose with a single sweep into it, and bathed themselves in love, clear as the sun. Then the person's spirit received uncountable bliss, and said: Praised be you, dearest, by all creatures eternally! Now they please you well in your kingdom. Then our Lord inclined himself toward them from the height and set upon them a crown of love which they had won from there, and said: This crown you shall wear eternally, as a sign to all in my kingdom that you were freed with love-tears, nine years before your rightful time.

IX. God praises his bride in five things.

You are a light of the world, you are a crown of the maidens, you are a salve of the wounded, you are a fidelity to the false, you are a bride of the holy Trinity.

X. The bride praises God in return in five things.

You are a light among all lights, you are a flower above all crowns, you are a salve above all wounds, you are an unchangeable fidelity without falseness, you are a host in all inns.

XI. Of sevenfold love of God.

The right love of God has seven beginnings. The joyful love steps into the way. The fearing love takes up the labour. The strong love can do much. The loving love takes up no boasting. The wise love has knowing. The free love lives without heart-sorrow. The powerful love is ever after merry.

XII. Of sevenfold perfections.

Gladly unhonoured, gladly unfeared, gladly alone, gladly still, gladly low, gladly high, gladly common.

XIII. Between God and the soul shall be love.

Between you and God shall ever be love. Between earthly things and you shall be anxiety and fear. Between sins and you shall be hatred and battle. Between the heavenly kingdom and you shall be steady hope.

XIV. Whence comes purity, weakness, sickness, certainty, swiftness, necessity, exile, seldom-comfort.

Bitterness of the heart comes from the manhood, weakness of the body comes from the flesh alone, swift mind comes from the nobility of the soul, anxiety before pain comes from guilt, sickness of the body comes from nature, exile-necessity comes from self-will, seldom-consolation comes from unrest.

XV. How the one wounded by love becomes whole.

Whatever person at one hour becomes truly wounded by true love shall never more become wholly whole, unless they yet kiss the very mouth by which their soul was wounded.

XVI. Of seven gifts of a brother.

The soul is groundless in longing, burning in love, lovely in presence, mirror of joy, weak before the great, faithful in helping, gathered in God.

XVII. How God woos the soul and makes her wise in his love.

Thus God woos the simple soul and makes her wise in his love. Ah, dear dove, your feet are red, your wings are smooth, your mouth is rightly set, your eyes are fair, your head is fine, your bearing is delightful, your flight is swift, and you are all too swift to the earth.

XVIII. How the soul touches God's freedom in eight things.

Lord, my feet are coloured with the blood of your true redeeming; my wings are smoothed with your noble choosing; my mouth is set right by your Holy Spirit; my eyes are clarified in your fiery light; my head is given sight by your faithful shielding; my bearing is delightful from your mild gift; my flight is swiftened by your unresting delight; my earthly sinking comes from your union with my body. The greater the redeeming you give me, the longer I must hover in you.

XIX. How Knowing and the soul speak together, and she says she is threefold from three heavens. Knowing speaks first.¹⁵

KNOWING: O loving soul, I have looked upon you; you are made marvellously lovely. A light was lit to me so that I might behold you; otherwise it would never have been done for me. You are threefold in yourself — you may well be God's image. You are a manly man in your battle. You are a well-adorned maiden in the palace before your Lord. You are a delightful bride in your love-bed. God's loving soul, in the battle you are armed with immeasurable strength, and with so great a gathering of your mind that all the multitudes of the world, nor all the help of your flesh, nor all the hosts of the devils, nor the strength of hell may not bring you down from God.

You arm yourself as with flowers. Your sword — that is the noble rose, Jesus Christ — with this you arm yourself. Your shield is the white lily, Mary. It does not avail [the enemy] that they assail you, but only that they adorn you and increase in you immeasurably God's honour. All who stand purely in this battle shall receive rich pay from the Emperor.

Ah, distinguished soul, in your palace of the holy Trinity, where you stand so lovingly adorned before your Lord — what is your honour?

SOUL: Lady Knowing, you are wiser than I am; why do you ask me?

KNOWING: Lady Soul, God has chosen you above all things; you are my Lady and my Queen.

SOUL: Lady Knowing, I am of noble and free birth; I must not be without honour for him whom I alone love. So I must win him who loves me, comforts me, and honours me.

You holy Trinity, and all that heaven and earth bear, must be eternally subject to me. If I now let Love rule mightily over me, so that I give her place to bind me into holy patience so that I add not to my guilt, then she leads me into the noble gentleness, so that I be ready for all good things; and she yokes me into the strong obedience, so that to God and all creatures I must lovingly be subject.

KNOWING: Ah, Lady Bride, will you yet say to me a sign-word of the unspeakable secret things that lie between God and you?

SOUL: Lady Knowing, that I do not. The brides must all be silent of what happens to them. The holy beholding and the most precious enjoyment you shall have from me. But the chosen experience of God shall always remain hidden from you in all creatures, save only to me.

KNOWING: Lady Soul, your marvel-seeing and your high word — which you in God have seen and heard — if you compel me thereto that I should bring forth a small part of it, then I set the Emperor's light in a dark, foul stable. The cattle indeed eat their straw well. For some who seem to be God's children yet butt themselves like unbound cattle in the dark stable, and ask what such German is supposed to mean, saying it is thought up from self-will and brought forth in false sanctity.

SOUL: Lady Knowing, one finds it so written, that Saint Paul was carried into the third heaven.¹⁶ It would never have happened to him, had he remained Saul. Had he found the truth in the first or the second heaven, he would never have climbed into the third.

There is one heaven that the devil has made with his fair, false cunning. There thoughts wander in with sorrowful senses, and the soul lies still, for she finds not her natural love. There the soul remains without comfort, and she beguiles the simple senses. In this heaven the devil shows himself like to a shining angel — yes, even by his five wounds, like to God. Simple soul, beware!

The other heaven is made from the holy longing of the senses, and from the first part of love. In this heaven there is no body. The soul does not see God here. She tastes an incomprehensible sweetness that goes through all her members. She also hears a voice of certain things which she yet gladly hears, for it is mixed with earthly senses. If the depth of all humility is not there, then the devil sets his light upon it; what then happens there is not of God.

But if full humility is there, then must the soul further journey into the third heaven; there is given to her the true light. — Then say the senses:

Our Lady, the soul has slept from childhood; now she is awakened in the light of open love. In this light she sees herself all around, who he is who shows himself to her, and what it is one says to her. She sees truly and knows how God is all things in all things. Now I lay down all trouble and journey with Saint Paul into the third heaven. When God lays my sinful body lovingly down there, this third heaven is vaulted and ordered and shines beautifully with the three Persons, who begin thus: The true greeting of God, that comes from the heavenly flood…¹⁷

XX. How Sister Hiltegund is adorned in the heavenly kingdom with the mantles, with seven crowns, and how she praises the nine choirs.

On the day of a blessed maiden — Saint Barbara — Sister Hiltegund received her honour.¹⁸ This God showed to a lame dog, who still licks his wounds with sorrow.¹⁹ In my prayer it happened so, that I do not know whether the heavenly kingdom was inclined toward me, or whether I was drawn into the marvel-rich house of God. There Hiltegund stood before the throne of the heavenly Father, adorned as a new bride whom the King has fetched home. She had about her three mantles, and bore upon her head seven crowns, and the nine choirs especially praised her. When I saw her, I knew her in all the gifts she had received from God. Yet I delighted to speak with her, and asked her in the enjoyment, so that I might be longer with her. Ah, whence have you this rose-coloured mantle? Then said Hiltegund: I was a martyr in fiery love, so that often my heart-blood poured out over my head. Then I asked her further: Whence have you this golden mantle that shines so beautifully? Then she said: From the image of good works. Then I said: Whence have you this blossoming white mantle? Then she answered: From the distinguished love³⁷ which I bore secretly in my soul and in my senses.

These were the seven crowns: the Crown of Steadfastness, the Crown of Holy Belief, the Crown of Fidelity, the Crown of Mild Mercy, the Crown of Holy Reasonableness, the Crown of Love, the Crown of Maidenhood. Then I asked further: Dear one, where is the Crown of Humility, which so well befits spiritual people? Then she answered: That I have not as a separate crown, nor ever won one, but only so much that God took from me by it all pride. These seven crowns are adorned, each particularly, with the chaplet of the nobility of pure, lordly²⁰ chastity.

Thus they praise her, the choirs, in nine virtues: We praise you in your contrition, in your good will, in your truth, in your wisdom, in your sweet sorrow, in your willing poverty, in your strength, in your justice. Thus the Seraphim praise her, for they are her companions: We praise you in the love of God, O Queen. The Thrones praise thus: We praise the Bridegroom in the beauty of the bride.

I asked her many things, which I now eternally hold, except only that the heavenly kingdom is love-coloured. But the earthly kingdom is, alas, very changeable — in me, and in many another, who has not yet come to heaven,²¹ where one shall behold the truth.

XXI. If you would behold the mountain, you must have seven things.

A mountain have I seen, and it happened to me wholly fittingly,²² for no body might bear that the soul should be there even one hour.

The mountain was below white, cloud-coloured, and above, in its height, fiery sun-clear. Its beginning and its end I could not find, and within it played in itself, flowing gold-coloured in uncountable love. Then I said: Lord, blessed are the eyes that shall eternally behold this love-soaring and know this wonder. I may never take it in. Then said the mountain: Your eyes, which shall thus see me, must be adorned with seven things; otherwise it can never be. They are these: gladly to pay their pledged debts, and not to hold to oneself, unfaithful toward hatred and loving toward what is fearful, pure of guilt and ready for the receiving.

XXII. How Contemplation asks the loving soul about the Seraphim and the lowest person.

CONTEMPLATION: Lady Soul, would you rather be an angel of the Seraphim, or a human with body and soul in the lowest choir of the angels?

SOUL TO CONTEMPLATION: Lady Contemplation, you have well seen that the angels of the Seraphim are high princes, and that they are one love and one fire and one breath and one light with God.

CONTEMPLATION: Lady Soul, you have well seen that the angels are simple persons, and that they praise God no further, and love and know him no further, than is born into them; whereas the lowest human person may move forward with Christian belief, with contrition, with longing, and with good will — though indeed the human soul cannot burn so deeply in the Godhead.

SOUL: Lady Contemplation, you have well seen that the angels of the Seraphim are God's children and yet his servants. The least soul is daughter of the Father, sister of the Son, friend of the Holy Spirit, and truly a bride of the holy Trinity.

When the play goes over and above, then one sees the weight of most worth most heavily — the worthiest angel, Jesus Christ, who hovers above the Seraphim, who must with his Father be one undivided God. Him I, the least soul, take into my arms, and eat him and drink him, and do with him what I will. That may never happen to any angel, however high he dwells above me. And his Godhead can never be so precious to me²³ that I do not without ceasing in all my members feel her. So I may never more grow cool. What then troubles me, what the angels feel?

XXIII. How Love asks and teaches the dull soul, and would gladly bring her to her Beloved; and Love speaks first, and the dull soul answers.

LOVE: Ah, foolish soul, where are you, or what is your dwelling and on what do you live? Where do you rest now, since you do not love your delightful God above your own will and above all your might?

SOUL: Let me unwakened. I do not know what you say to me.

LOVE: One must wake the Queen well when her King will come.

SOUL: I am in a holy order, I fast, I keep vigil, I am without mortal sin. I am sufficiently bound.

LOVE: What avails it that one binds an empty vessel much, and yet the wine runs out? Then must one fill it with stones of outward labour and with ashes of perishability.

SOUL: I dwell in the pleasure of my kin and of my dear spiritual friends; and how could I delightfully love him whom I do not know?

LOVE: O woe! Can you not know the Lord whom one so often names to you? You are more burdened with your hound-like body than with Jesus, your sweet Lord. For this you win before his eyes no honour.

SOUL: I live my own will, that I gladly carry it out.

LOVE: Would you keep right faith with God, then must you in his love follow his Spirit.

SOUL: I rest in the world of my body.

LOVE: Of that you may today be ashamed before God, that you yet bear a spiritual name, and yet go about always with your body.

SOUL: With what should I nourish myself if I were to burden myself with you?

LOVE: Ah, faithless one — he who made the soul so noble that she may eat nothing but God, he will not leave her body to waste.

SOUL: You scold me sorely; did I but know where he was, I might yet turn round.

LOVE: Would you dwell with him in noble freedom, then must you first leave this dwelling of evil habit.

SOUL: O woe! Many a one of wise teaching does this not, nor of natural sense, that they dare lay themselves into the power of the naked love.

LOVE: But the simple, the pure, who in all their doing purely intend God — toward those God must by nature incline.

SOUL: I had thought that when I gave myself to God, I had then climbed very high.

LOVE: What avails it that one finely clothes a sleeping man, and sets noble food before him while he sleeps, when he yet cannot eat? Ah, dear, let him be wakened.

SOUL: Ah, now tell me, where is his dwelling?

LOVE: There is no other Lord who dwells together in all his houses, save only he. He dwells in the peace of holy love-fellowship and whispers with his Beloved in the narrow tight-space of the soul. He also embraces her in the noble pleasure of his love. He greets her with his bodily eyes when the lovers truly behold one another. He kisses her through with his divine mouth. Ah, well are you — more than well — beyond all lordly stations! If she goes with full strength in the bed of love, then she comes into the highest weal and into the most loving woe, when she becomes his rightful love.

SOUL: Ah dear, now let me love and arm yourself not with fierceness.

SOUL: Who are those who arm themselves with fierceness?²⁴

LOVE: They are those who burden other people and themselves with their wickedness. Now I tell you who he is: he is the very highest height, and the same highest height has bowed himself into the very lowest valley; and this lowest valley has set itself into the very highest height. Dull soul, look about you, all around, and open your blind eyes.

SOUL: If he is from the highest height come down to me, his beloved, and has suddenly given himself to me with all creatures — yes, would not deny me his goodness — then could I ever be ashamed before his eyes if I would give my unpleasing copper for his precious gold. O woe, where have I been, I unblessed blind one, that I have lived so long without strong love, with which truly I should have overcome all my distress without thanks to my enemies? Now though I have, alas, neglected much good, yet will I go out from all things into God. Ah Love, will you yet receive me?

LOVE: Yes, God has refused himself to no one; that is a fair measure. If you would have Love, then must you let love.

XXIV. How the loving soul joins God and his chosen Beloved, and shall be like to all the saints. How the devil and the soul speak together.²⁵

Ah, Lord Jesus Christ, the guiltless pain comforts me,²⁶ for I am in all my pains guilty; and your holy death keeps my bow-leaning living³⁵ in you, and your unstained blood has flowed through my soul.

Mary, dear Mother, I stand by you beside the cross with all my Christian belief, and the sword of holy sorrow cuts through my soul, because so many are changeable who appear spiritual.

John the Baptist, I am captured with you, for the unfaithful in their falseness have killed God's word in my mouth.

John the Evangelist, I have fallen asleep with you in heart-loving love upon the breasts of Jesus Christ, and from there have I seen and heard such weighty wonders that my body has often come away from itself.

Peter, I have wept with God with you, for to me it is never humanly well, and to me it is often spiritually woeful for the praise of Jesus Christ.

Paul, I have been wondrously caught up with you and have seen such a house that nothing has ever so amazed me — so that ever since then I have been able to be a living person. When I think that the heavenly Father is there the blessed cup-bearer, and Jesus the chalice, the Holy Spirit the pure wine, and how the whole Trinity is the full chalice, and Love the mighty cellarer — God knows, I would gladly that Love had me there at home. But here I yet will gladly drink gall.

Ah, dear Jesus, now reward bodily all those who pour out bitterness to me here, for they make me grace-rich. There came to me a chalice with gall, which was so strong that it went through my body and my soul. Then I prayed especially to God for my cup-bearer, that he might pour to him the heavenly wine. Truly he did so, and said: You maiden, take heart. The greatness of my wonder shall come over you; the lions shall fear you, the bears shall hold you safe, the wolves shall flee you. That shall be your companion. I am certain of this, and as it has happened to me until now, that I shall yet drink out many a chalice of gall, for, alas, the devil has yet among spiritual people many a cup-bearer who is so full of poison that they cannot alone drink it; they must bitterly pour it to God's children.

Stephen, I kneel by you before the Jewish heart under the sharp stones, for they fall on me both great and small. Those who appear good people stone me from behind, and flee, and would not that I should know it had come to me from them. God yet has seen it.

Lawrence, I was with you bound more than twenty years upon a dreadful grill, yet God preserved me unburned, and has now for more than seven years quenched me.

Martin, I dwell with you in the unworthiness, and the true love of God has martyred me beyond all labour.

Dominic, dear father of mine, I have a little part with you, for I have desired it many a day.

Yet shall my sinful heart-blood flow under the feet of the unbelieving heretics.

Catherine, I go with you to the battle, for the masters of hell would gladly have brought me down. There one came to me, fair, as it were a shine from the sun, that I should know he was an angel. And he brought a shining book and said: Take this Pater [noster],²⁷ since you cannot come to Mass. Then the soul said with well-bred wisdom: He who himself has no peace can give peace to none. Then he went away and was transformed and came back like to a very poor sick mole, whose entrails are coming out, and said: Ah, you are so holy, make me whole. Then the soul said again: He who is himself sick cannot heal anyone. It is written: Whoever is better able shall help the other. It is also written: One shall help no one against God; what one does well is not against God. Where there is no good, no one can do good. You have an eternal sickness; if you would recover, then go and show yourself to a priest, or a bishop, or an archbishop, or the Pope. I have no power but only that I may sin. Then he said with fierceness: That will I never do. Then he became like a black smoke, and showed himself ill-bred and went away. I yet fear him not.

Mary Magdalene, I dwell with you in the wilderness, for to me all things are exile, save only God. — Lord, heavenly Father, between you and me passes without ceasing an incomprehensible breath, in which I know and see much wonder and unspeakable things, and yet receive, alas, little benefit; for I am so base a vessel that I cannot endure your least spark. The unbound love dwells in the senses, for it is yet mixed with earthly things; so that a person may cry: In grace love has settled in the senses, and yet has, alas, not climbed the soul. Of such people many have fallen, for their soul remained unwounded. Solomon and David received the Holy Spirit in their human senses; but when the senses changed, then they fell into the false love. God knows, their soul was not sunk into the lowest depth beneath all creatures, nor wounded with the mighty part of love.

He who has never tasted of the best wine groans most often the loudest.

The bound love dwells in the soul, and climbs above human senses, and grants the body none of its will. It is well-bred and very still. It lets its wings down and listens to the unspeakable voice, and sees into the incomprehensible light, and labours with great longing after its Lord's will. If the body then beat its wings, the soul may yet bear that no human can ever endure.²⁸ In this bound love the wounded soul becomes rich, and her outward senses very poor; for the more wealth God finds in her, the more she from right nobility of love humbles herself deeper. Whatever person becomes thus bound with the ground-stirring of strong love — in such a one I can find no falling into mortal sins, for the soul is bound: she must love. God must bind us all thus!

XXV. Of the complaint of the loving soul, how God spares her and withholds his gift; of wisdom; how the soul asks God who he is and how he is. Of the garden of joy, of the flowers, and of the song of the maidens.²⁹

O you uncountable treasure in your riches! O you incomprehensible wonder in your manifoldness! O you endless honour in the lordship of your nobility! How woe it then is to me after you, when you would spare me.

That all creatures could never fully tell you, if they must complain on my behalf, for I suffer inhuman distress; a human death would be far gentler to me.

I seek you with thoughts, as a maiden does her hidden Beloved; of that I must greatly sicken, for I am bound with you.

The bond is stronger than I am; of this I may not be free from love. I call you with great desire in an exiled voice. I wait for you with heart-pain; I may not rest, I burn, unextinguished in your hot love. I hunt you with all my power. Had I a giant's strength, you would be lost to me quickly, should I come truly upon your scent.

Ah dear, now run not too long before her, and rest a little lovingly that I may grasp you.

Ah Lord, as you have taken from me all that I have from you, so leave me yet of grace that same gift which you have by nature given to a dog — that is, that I be faithful to you in my distress without any cross-vexation; that I desire surely more deeply than your heavenly kingdom.

GOD: Dear dove, now hear me. My divine wisdom is so great over you that I order all my gifts upon you as you may bear them on your poor body. Your hidden seeking must find me; your heart's sorrow may compel me; your sweet hunting makes me so tired that I desire to cool myself in your pure soul, where I am bound. Your sore heart, sighing, has driven my justice from you; this is most fitting for you and for me. I may not be one without you. However widely we are parted, we may yet not be sundered. I cannot touch you ever so slightly without doing immeasurable woe to your body. Were I to give myself to you at all times after your desire, then must I do without my sweet lodging in the earth in you; for a thousand bodies could not fully grant the desire of a single loving soul. Therefore: the higher the love, the holier the martyr.

SOUL: O Lord, you spare too much my mire-dungeon, where I drink the world's water and eat with great sorrow the ash-cake of my frailty; and I am wounded unto death with the fiery arrow of your love. Now you let me, Lord, lie unanointed in great torment.

GOD: Dear heart, my Queen, how long will you thus be impatient? When I have most sorely wounded you, then will I most lovingly anoint you in that same hour. The greatness of my riches is yours alone, and over myself you shall be mighty. I am lovingly devoted to you; have you the weight, I have the gold.

All that you have for my sake done, let go, and suffered — that will I all weigh again to you and will give myself to you eternally according to all your will, to give.

SOUL: Lord, I will ask you of two things; of those instruct me by your grace: When my eyes mourn in exile and my mouth is simply silent and my tongue is bound with sorrow and my senses ask me from hour to hour how it is with me, then it is with me, Lord, all according to you; and my flesh fails me, my blood dries up, my bones grow cold, my breath grows cramped, and my heart melts after your love, and my soul burns with the voice of a hungry lion³⁰ — how it then is with me, where then you are, dearest, that tell me.

GOD: It is to you as to a new bride from whom her one dear has slipped away while asleep, to whom she had inclined herself with all faithfulness, and may not bear that he leaves her even one hour. When she then awakes, she may no longer have him than as much as she can carry in her senses; from this rises all her lamentation.

While the Youth has not given his bride home, she must often be sundered from him. I come to you after my delight when I will; be you well-bred and still and hide your trouble where you can, so that the strength of love increases in you. Now I tell you where I then am.

I am in myself in all places and in all things, as I was without beginning, and I wait for you in the garden of joy,³¹ and break for you the flowers of sweet union and make there a bed for you of the delightful grass of holy knowing, and the bright sun of my eternal Godhead shines upon you with the hidden wonder of my delight of which you have a little secretly seen. And there I incline to you the highest bough of my holy Trinity, so that you may break the green, white, red apples of my gentle manhood, and the shadow of my Holy Spirit shields you from all earthly drying. You can no longer think of your heart-sorrow.

When you go around the bough, I teach you the song of the maidens — the wise, the worthy, the sweet sound, which the ones cannot in themselves understand who are gone through with unchastity; they too shall have sweet exchange. Dear, now sing now, and let me hear how you can.

SOUL: O woe, my dearest, I am hoarse in the throat of my chastity, but the sugar of your sweet generosity has loosened my throat that I may now sing — thus, Lord:

Your blood and mine is one unsullied; your love and mine is one undivided; your garment and mine is one unspotted; your mouth and mine is one un-kissed³³³⁴ (etc.).

These are the words of the song of love's voice, and the sweet heart-sound must remain, for that no earthly hand can write.

XXVI. Of this book and of the scribe of this book.

I was warned of this book, and was told by people thus: if one would not keep it watched over, a fire might run over it.³² Then I did as I have done from childhood: whenever I was troubled, I had to pray. Then I inclined toward my Beloved and said: Ah Lord, now am I troubled. For your honour shall I now remain without consolation from you? Have you so misled me, for you bade me yourself to write it? Then God showed himself at once to my sorrowful soul, and held this book in his front hand, and said: Dear of mine, do not grieve yourself overmuch. The truth no one may burn. He who would take it from my hand must be stronger than I am. The book is threefold and signifies only me. This parchment that surrounds it signifies my pure white righteous manhood which for you suffered death. The words signify my marvellous Godhead. They flow from hour to hour into your soul out of my divine mouth. The voice of the words signifies my living Spirit and fulfils with itself the right truth. Now look at all these words, how praiseworthily they make known my secret things, and doubt not yourself.

SOUL: Ah Lord, were I a learned spiritual man, and had you done these great wonders in him, you might receive eternal honour from him. How shall one now trust you for this, that you have built a golden house in the foul mire, and dwell there truly within, with your Mother and with all creatures and with all your heavenly retinue? Lord, the earthly wisdom I cannot find in this.

GOD: Daughter, many a wise man loses his precious gold through carelessness on the great highway, on which he could have gone to high school; someone must find it. I have by nature done this many a day. When I gave special grace, I have ever sought the lowest, least, and most hidden place; the highest mountains cannot receive the revelations of my grace, for the flood of my Holy Spirit flows by nature into the valley. One finds many a wise master of Scripture who, in himself, is a fool before my eyes. And I tell you yet more: it is to me great honour over them, and strengthens holy Christendom in them very greatly, that the unlearned mouth teaches the learned tongues out of my Holy Spirit.

SOUL: Ah, my Lord, I sigh and desire and beg for your scribe, who has written this book down after me, that you also will choose the grace to give him in reward which never has been granted to a person; for, Lord, your gift is a thousand times more than your creatures may take.

Then our Lord said: They have written it with golden letters, so shall all these words of the book on his uppermost garment stand eternally revealed in my kingdom, in heavenly shining gold, written above all his other adornment. For the free love must ever be the highest thing in a person.

While our Lord said these words to me, I saw the lordly truth in eternal worth.

Ah Lord, I beg you that you will keep this book from the eyes of false fear, which is come up from hell among us. She was never taken from the heavenly kingdom. She is begotten in Lucifer's heart, and is born in spiritual pride, and is reared in hatred, and has grown so great in violent wrath that she thinks no virtue is her companion. Then must God's children go under and must let themselves be pressed down with disgrace, if they would receive the highest honour with Jesus.

A holy fear should we in ourselves at all times bear, that we keep ourselves from falling. A loving fear should we have toward our fellow Christians, when they err, that we faithfully say so; then may we many a useless speech avoid. Amen.

Here ends the second part of this book.

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