The Flowing Light of the Godhead Read online




  President and Publisher

  Kevin A.Lynch, C.S.P.

  EDITORIAL BOARD

  Editor-in-Chief

  Bernard McGinn-Donnelly Professor of Historical Theology and the History of Christianity, Divinity School, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.

  Editorial Consultant

  Ewert H.Cousins-Professor of Theology, Fordham University, Bronx, N.Y.

  John E.Booty-Professor of Anglican Studies, School of Theology, University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn.

  Joseph Dan-Professor of Kabbalah, Department ofJewish Thought, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.

  Louis Dupre-T. L.Riggs Professor of Philosophy of Religion, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.

  Rozanne Elder-Executive Vice-President, Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, Mich.

  Michael Fishbane-Nathan Cummings Professor, Divinity School, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.

  Anne Fremantle-Teacher, Editor, and Writer, NewYork, N.Y.

  Karlfried Froehlich-Professor of the History of the Early and Medieval Church, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ.

  Arthur Green-Professor ofJewish Thought, Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass.

  Stanley S.Harakas-Archbishop lakovos Professor of Orthodox Theology, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Seminary, Brookline, Mass.

  Moshe Idel-Professor of Jewish Thought, Department of Jewish Thought, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.

  Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia-Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, Spalding Lecturer in Eastern Orthodox Studies, Oxford University, England.

  George A.Maloney-Spiritual Writer and Lecturer, Seal Beach, Calif.

  Seyyed Hossein Nasr-Professor of Islamic Studies, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

  Heiko A.Oberman-Professor for Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation History, University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.

  Raimundo Panikkar-Professor Emeritus, Department of Religious Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara, Calif.

  Jaroslav Pelikan-Sterling Professor of History and Religious Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.

  Sandra M.Schneiders-Professor of New Testament Studies and Spirituality,Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley, Calif.

  Michael A.Sells-Emily Judson Baugh and John Marshall Gest Professor of Comparative Religions, Haverford College, Haverford, Penn.

  Huston Smith-Thomas J.Watson Professor of Religion Emeritus, Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.

  John R.Sommerfeldt-Professor of History, University of Dallas, Irving, Tex.

  David Steindl-Rast-Spiritual Author, Benedictine Grange, West Redding, Conn.

  David Tracy-Greeley Professor of Roman Catholic Studies, Divinity School, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.

  The Rt. Rev. Rowan D.Williams-Bishop of Monmouth, Wales.

  PREFACE BY

  MARGOT SCHMIDT

  Foreword

  Preface

  Key to Abbreviations

  Introduction

  Notes to the Introduction

  THE FLOWING LIGHT OF THE GODHEAD

  Prologue to the Lux Divinitatis

  Latin Foreword with Table of Contents and Middle High German Translation

  BOOK I

  1. How Love and the Queen Spoke to Each Other

  2. Concerning Three Persons and Three Gifts

  3. The Handmaids of the Soul and the Blow of Love

  4. The Soul's journey to Court During Which God Reveals Himself

  5. The Torment and the Praise of the Soul

  6. The Nine Choirs: How They Sing

  7. God's Curse in Eight Things

  8. The Most Lowly Praises God in Ten Things

  9. With Three Things You Dwell on the Heights

  10. Who Loves God Triumphs over Three Things

  11. Four Battle for God

  12. The Soul Praises God for Five Things

  13. How God Comes to the Soul

  14. How the Soul Receives and Praises God

  15. How God Receives the Soul

  16. God Likens the Soul to Four Things

  17. The Soul Praises God About Five Things

  18. God Likens the Soul to Five Things

  19. God Caresses the Soul in Six Ways

  20. The Soul Praises God in Return in Six Ways

  21. Of Knowledge and Enjoyment

  22. St. Mary's Message and How One Virtue Follows Another. How the Soul Was Made in the Jubilus of the Trinity, and How St. Mary Nursed All the Saints and Nurses Them Still

  23. You Should Ask That God Love You Passionately, Often, and Long; Then You Shall Become Pure, Beautiful, and Holy

  24. How God Responds to the Soul

  25. The Way to Suffer Pain Willingly for God's Sake

  26. The Path upon Which the Soul Draws the Senses and Is Free of Suffering of the Heart

  27. How You Become Worthy of This Path and Keep to It and Become Perfect

  28. Love Shall Be Deadly, Boundless, and Unceasing; This Is the Folly of Fools

  29. The Beauty of the Bridegroom and How the Bride Should Follow Him in Twenty-Three Steps of the Cross

  30. The Seven Hours

  31. You Should Ignore Scorn

  32. You Should Ignore Honors, Suffering, and Possessions. Be Sad After Sinning

  33. Concerning Food, Consolation, and Love

  34. In Suffering You Should Be a Lamb, a Turtledove, and a Bride

  35. The Desert Has Twelve Things

  36. Concerning Malice, Good Works, and Concerning a Marvel

  37. The Soul Responds to God Saying She Is Unworthy of These Favors

  38. God Boasts That the Soul Has Overcome Four Sins

  39. God Asks the Soul What She Is Bringing

  40. She Replies: Something That Is Better than Seven Things

  41. God Asks in Praise What the Precious Stone Is Called

  42. The Precious Stone Is Called Heart's Delight

  43. Put Your Delight into the Trinity

  44. The Sevenfold Path of Love, the Three Garments of the Bride, and the Dance

  45. The Eight Days in Which What the Prophets Longed For Was Accomplished

  46. The Diverse Adornments of the Bride; How She Comes to Her Bridegroom; and How the Retinue Is Composed, Which Is Ninefold

  BOOK II

  1. Love Brings Elevation to the Soul, Not Inhuman Toil; That Comes from Self-Will

  2. Two Songs of Love of Him Who Was Seen in Love

  3. The Tongue of the Godhead, the Light of Truth, the Four Rays of God Shining into the Nine Choirs, the Trinity, and St. Mary

  4. The Poor Girl, the Mass of John the Baptist, the Transformation of the Host into the Lamb, the Beauty of the Angels, Four Kinds of Sanctified People, and the Golden Penny

  5. A Song of the Soul About Five Things, and How God Is a Garment of the Soul and the Soul of God

  6. God's Singing Response in the Soul in Five Things

  7. In Suffering Praise God; Then He Will Appear to You. The Two Golden Chalices of Suffering and Consolation

  8. Of Purgatory; a Person Freed a Thousand Souls from It with the Tears of Love

  9. God Praises His Bride in Five Things

  10. The Bride Praises God in Return in Five Things

  11. Seven Kinds of Love for God

  12. Seven Kinds of Perfection

  13. Between God and the Soul There Should Be Love

  14. Where Bitterness, Low Spirits, Sickness, Terror, Sensitivity, Distress, Forsakenness, and Inconsolability Come From

  15. How One Wounded by Love Is Restored to Health

  16. The Seven Gifts of a Brother

  17. How God Woos the Soul and Makes Her Wise in His Love

  18. How the So
ul Interprets God's Wooing in Eight Things

  19. How Knowledge and the Soul Converse and How the Latter Says That She Is Threefold. Of the Three Heavens

  20. How Sister Hildegund Is Adorned in Heaven with Three Mantles, with Seven Crowns, and How the Nine Choirs Praise Her

  21. If You Would Behold the Mountain, You Should Have Seven Things

  22. How Contemplation Asks the Loving Soul About the Seraphim and the Least of Men

  23. How Love Questions and Instructs Dull Souls and Would Like to Bring Them to Their Lover and Begins to Speak; and How the Dull Soul Responds

  24. How the Loving Soul Joins the Company of God and His Chosen Dear Ones and Shall Be Equal to All the Saints. How the Devil and the Soul Talk to Each Other

  25. The Lament of the Loving Soul; How God Protects Her and Withdraws His Gift from Her. Concerning Wisdom, How the Soul Asks God How She Is and Where He Is. Concerning the Orchard, Flowers, and the Song of the Virgins

  26. About This Book and the Writers of This Book

  BOOK III

  1. Of Heaven and the Nine Choirs and Who Is Supposed to Fill the Breach. Of the Throne of the Apostles and St. Mary and on Which Christ Sits. Of the Reward of Preachers, Martyrs, and Virgins, and of the Unbaptized Children

  2. How the Soul Praises God and God the Soul for Seven Things. Of Balsam and Waiting

  3. A Lament That the Soul Is a Maidservant for the Love of God

  4. How Our Lady St. Mary Can Sin and How Not; the Holy Spirit Teaches This

  5. How the Soul Complains That She Hears No Mass Nor Hours and How God Praises Her in Ten Things

  6. If You Would Follow God Rightly, You Should Have Seven Things

  7. Concerning Seven Obvious Enemies of Our Happiness That Cause Seven Kinds of Harm

  8. Seven Things That All Priests Should Have

  9. Concerning the Beginning of All Things That God Created out of Love

  10. The Passion That the Loving Soul Has from God, and How She Rises and Ascends into Heaven

  11. Between God and the Loving Soul All Things Are Beautiful

  12. You Should Praise, Thank, Desire, and Beg. Concerning the Lantern and the Light

  13. Sixteen Kinds of Love

  14. Concerning False Virtues; Whoever Dwells Therein Lives in Lies

  15. You Should Approach God's Table with Eight Virtues. By Ransom a Person Released Seventy Thousand Souls from Ghastly Purgatory, Which Is of Many Kinds

  16. After a Gift There Follows a Scourge and After Disgrace Honor

  17. The Purgatory of a Religious Person, His Five Kinds of Help out of the Torment, and the Nobility of the Order of Preachers

  18. A Knight's Battle in Full Armor Against Sensual Desires

  19. Two Kinds of Poor People: Those Who Are Cheerfully Poor and Those Who Are Unhappily So

  20. The Five Prophets Who Illumine This Book

  21. Hell: How It Has Three Parts; How Lucifer and Sixteen Kinds of People Are Tormented; There Is No Help for Them. Lucifer's Garment

  22. Of God's Mercy, His Concern, and Justice.

  23. The Intensity of Yearning Takes Away Words; God Cannot Do Without Virgins; God's Countenance, His Embrace, and His Joy Overcome a Thousand Deaths

  24. Two Kinds of Spirits-from God and from the Devil-Are Offered to Two Kinds of Religious People. The Seven Kinds of Love

  BOOK IV

  1. Pure Virgins Should Have Five Things

  2. This Book Has Come from God; the Soul Praises Herself for Many Things; She Is Given Two Angels and Two Evil Devils. With Twelve Virtues She Does Battle Against the Flesh

  3. Sinners Fall Away from God; of Three Gifts of

  Wisdom; of the Stone; of the Praise of the Virgin Who Is Christianity

  4. Two Dissimilar Paths: the First Descends into Hell; the Second Ascends to Heaven

  5. Our Sin, Future Fall, Earthly Being, the Kingdom of Heaven. God's Gifts Should Be Clearly Before Our Eyes

  6. Being Chosen by God Cannot Hurt Anyone; True Repentance Earns Remission and God's Grace, and Frees from Purgatory

  7. How a Free Soul Speaks to God in Total Love

  8. Concerning God's Body, Which a Sick Person Vomits Up, and Concerning Power

  9. Four Kinds of Offerings to Priests

  10. Concerning the Offerings of Laypersons According to Their Means

  11. Four Things Concerning How Christians Should Conduct Themselves in Dealing with Jews

  12. How a Bride Who Is United with God Rejects Consolation from All Creatures Except for That from God Alone, and How She Sinks into Pain

  13. The Text of This Book Is Seen, Heard, and Felt in All Members

  14. Of the Holy Trinity, of the Birth and the Name of Jesus Christ, and of Human Nobility

  15. Genuine Pure Love Has Four Things; If You Surrender Yourself to God, God Will Also Surrender Himself to You

  16. Great Love Has More than Ten Parts and of Two Kinds of Complaint

  17. Concerning a Lady Who Liked Being at Court; Concerning Her Devil Who Recommended to Her Seven Kinds of Evil

  18. A Spiritual Person Resembles an Animal in Thirty Things as to His Nature

  19. The Task of Blessed Love Is Manifold

  20. The Six Virtues of St. Dominic

  21. Sixteen Reasons Why the Order of Preachers Is Dear to God

  22. Brother Heinrich's Fourfold Crown and of the Dignity of St. Dominic

  23. About the Burial of St. John the Evangelist

  24. How God Receives the Souls in Heaven; How He Crowns Three Kinds of People; How He Greets, Adorns, Praises, and Thanks Them

  25. How We Are Now Present in Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell

  26. God Consoles the Depressed Brother Baldwin

  27. Concerning the End of the Order of Preachers and the Antichrist; Concerning Enoch and Elias

  28. The Fivefold Power of Love. Because of the Weakness of People and the Treachery of the World One Must Remain Silent About the Truth

  BOOK V

  1. Three Kinds of Sorrow, Ten Kinds of Benefits, and the Path of Angels and Devils

  2. Two Kinds of Suffering, Four Kinds of Benefits, and the Manifold Host of Sins

  3. God Shall Weigh All Innocent Suffering and Also the Blood of Three Kinds of People

  4. The Power of Marvelous Love Is Manifold; How the Soul Sinks. Four Kinds of Humility. The Sevenfold Beauty of the Loving Soul

  5. The Purgatory of a Beguine Whom No Prayer Helped Because of Her Selfishness

  6. How the Soul Praises the Holy Trinity

  7. How God Praises the Soul in Return

  8. A Good Person Should Have Three Children for Whom to Pray

  9. Concerning the Glory of Seventy Men Who Arose with Christ as Testimony

  10. How Sin Is Like God's Greatness

  11. A Religious Name Shall Be Exalted. Concerning the Conduct of Sisters. How They Should Pray and Toil with God

  12. How God Responds to a Brother Concerning What Is Written in This Book

  13. Ten Kinds of Benefit a Good Person's Prayer Has

  14. The Purgatory of Bad Priests

  15. The Purgatory of a Good Priest

  16. It Is Diabolical to Sin

  17. This Is a Greeting, Praise, and Prayer of a Sinner

  18. How God Responds to This

  19. How Seventeen Kinds of Sin Pursue a Person

  20. Praise of God in Eight Things. An Offering for Sins

  21. Why Man Is Rejected and Yet Loved, and How You Should Bless Yourself

  22. The Seven Things of Judgment; Shame and Good Will

  23. St. Mary's Prayer, Gabriel's Light, the Child's Blanket, Where the Milk Came from, the Gifts for the Child, the Devils, and the Hunger Cloth

  24. The Six Kinds of Children of Our Lord God and the Virtues of St. Dominic and How God Has Honored His Order in Four Ways

  25. Something That One Misses in Heaven in Seven Things; Thereafter Follow Seven Things; the Praise of a Disheartened Person Is Beneficial in Seven Ways

  26. How God Pr
aises Himself and Celebrates Himself in Song

  27. The Heavenly Father Received His Son, Jesus, with Twelve Words

  28. The Seven Crowns of Brother Albert. Disposition Is One Thing, Choice Is Another

  29. After Ecstasy with God a Person Would Be Like an Angel If He Were to Follow It, and Concerning the Wickedness of the Devil

  30. Twenty Powers of God's Love and Many Kinds of Names

  31. Of Ten Powers of Love and That No Creature Can Fully Imagine the Longing of the Soul for God

  32. The Sublime End of Sister Mechthild

  33. How Small Sins Harm Perfection and How Through Them the Devil Draws Close to the Soul

  34. Five New Saints Sent for the Sake of Bad People and How God Will Hereafter Wash Christianity in His Own Blood

  35. How Sister Mechthild Thanks and Praises God and Prays for Three Kinds of People and for Herself

  BOOK VI

  1. How a Prior or a Prioress or Other Religious Superiors Should Conduct Themselves Toward Those Under Them

  2. The Rule of a Canon: How He Should Conduct Himself. This Came from God

  3. God Gives Authority. How Billy Goats Become Lambs

  4. Discernment and Fear That Preserve the Senses from Earthly Things

  5. After Love and Desire the Beauty of Creatures Gives Knowledge Along with Sadness

  6. At the End You Should Have Love, Longing, Fear, and Three Kinds of Sorrow

  7. Our Self-Will Can Resist the Barbed Hook. The Good Soul Comes Swiftly to God

  8. Between God and Lucifer There Are Two Kinds of Purgatory. How the Devil Tortures Souls

  9. The Saints Honor Those Who Honor Them and They Console Them at Their Death

  10. Prayer, Masses, God's Word, the Lives of Good People, Fasting, and Carenae Free Souls from Purgatory

  11. How a Student Is Dead and a Dominican Was Seen

  12. HowYou Should ConductYourself as to Fourteen Things

  13. How Religious out of Blindness Fend Off Inwardness from Themselves. The Sixfold Power of God's Gift

  14. Those Who Complain in Suffering Lack Six Things; How One Should Bear Sickness and Contempt

  15. The Sufferings of Enoch and Elijah, the Last Preachers, and the Wickedness of the Antichrist

  16. How the Soul of Our Lord Dwells in the Trinity and What Its Task Is; How It Speaks for the Sinner and Concerning the Task of Our Lady

  17. God Considers the Sinner Good; What a Good Right Will Is; Concerning a Good Burden

  18. You Should Scrutinize Your Heart at All Times