That which a person acquires by contemplation, they should spend in love. All that God asks you most pressingly is to go out of yourself and let God be God in you.
As long as I am this or that, or have this or that, I am not all things and I have not all things. Become pure until you neither are, nor have either this or that. Then you are omnipresent, and being neither this nor that, are all things. Your own efforts do not bring it to pass, only God. But rejoice if God found a use for your efforts, in God’s work.
The soul at its highest is found like God, but an angel gives a closer idea. That is all an angel is, an Idea of God.
God is always ready, but we are very unready. God is near to us, but we are far from Him. God is within, but we are without. God is at home, but we are strangers.
If He let go of my hand, I would weep so loudly. I would petition with all my might. I would cause so much trouble that I bet God would come to his senses, and never do that again.
What keeps us alive? What allows us to endure? I think it is the hope of loving, or being loved. I heard a fable once about the sun going on its journey to finds its source, and how the moon wept without her lover’s warm gaze. We weep when light does not reach our hearts. We wither like fields if someone close does not rain their kindness upon us.
The prophet said, God guides the redeemed through a narrow way, into the broad road, so that they come into the wide and broad place. That is to say, into true freedom of the spirit, when one has become a spirit with God.
God, who is faithful, allows his friends to fall frequently into weakness, only in order to remove from them any prop on which they might lean. It is precisely these props which our Lord wishes to take from them, so that He alone will be their help and support. In no way do our works serve to make God give us anything, or do anything for us. Our Lord wishes his friends to be freed from such an attitude, and thus God removes their support from them, so that they must henceforth find their support only in God.
Even now, one rarely hears of people achieving great things, unless they first stumble in some respect. Remember this, all suffering comes to an end. And whatever you suffer authentically, God has suffered from it first.
Truly, to have committed a sin is not sinful if we regret what we have done. Indeed, not for anything in time or eternity should we want to commit a sin. Whoever knows the ways of God should always be mindful of the fact that God, who is faithful and loving, has led us from a sinful life into a Godly one; thus making friends of us who are previously enemies, which is a greater achievement even than making a new earth. This is one of the chief reasons why we should be wholly established in God, and it is astonishing how much this enflames us with so great and so strong a love, that we strip ourselves entirely of ourselves.
Now some people are of the opinion that they are altogether holy and perfect, and go around the place with big deeds and big words, and yet they strive for and desire so many things. They wish to possess so much, and are so concerned both with themselves and with this thing and that. They assert that they are seeking great piety and devotion, and yet cannot accept a single word of reproval without answering back. Be certain of this, they are far from God and are not in union with God. In this way, they seek wrongly, and the further they range, the less they find what they are looking for. They proceed like someone who has lost their way. The further they go, the more lost they become.
But what, then, should they do? First of all, they should renounce themselves, and then they will have renounced all things. Truly, if someone were to renounce a kingdom, or the whole world, while still holding onto themselves, then they would have renounced nothing at all. And indeed, if someone renounces themselves, then whatever they might keep, whether the kingdom, or honor, or whatever it may be, they still will have renounced all things.
For whoever does not truly have God within themselves, but must constantly receive God in one external thing after another, seeking the divine in diverse ways, whether by particular works, people or places — such a person does not possess God. The least thing can impede them, for they do not have God and do not seek God and intend God alone. It is not only bad company, but also good company that can obstruct them. Not only the street, but also the church. Not only evil words and deeds, but also good words and deeds. For the obstruction lies within themselves. Since in them, God has not become All Things.
We should be able to recognize true and perfect love, by whether or not someone has great hope and confidence in God. For there is nothing that testifies more clearly to perfect love than trust.
It is written, ‘They have become rich in all virtues.’ Truly, this cannot happen unless they first become poor in all things. Whoever desires to be given everything must first give everything away.
You should not imagine that your reason can evolve to the extent of understanding God. Rather, if God is to shine divinely within you, your natural light cannot assist this process, but must become a pure nothingness, going out of itself. Only then can God enter with his light, bringing back within him all that you have renounced, and a thousand-times more, including a new form which contains all things in itself.
A free mind is one which is untroubled and unfettered by anything, which is not bound its best part to any particular manner of being or devotion, and which does not seek its own interest in anything, but is always immersed in God’s most precious Will, having gone out of what is its own. There is no work which men and women can perform, however small, which does not draw from this its power and its strength. We should pray with such intensity that we want all the members of our body, and all its faculties — eyes, ears, mouth, heart and all our senses — to turn to this end. And we should not cease in this until we feel that we are close to being united with That, which is present to us, and to whom we are praying.
The outward person is the swinging door, the inward person is the steel hinge. Only those for whom God is present in all things, and whom make the very best use of their reason, know what true peace is and truly possess heaven. They speak most beautifully of God, who can maintain the deepest silence concerning the divine in the fullness of their inner wealth.
Let God work in you. Give the work to God, and have peace. Don’t worry if God works through your nature or above your nature, because both are God’s — nature and grace.
All beings are words of God: God’s music, God’s art. Sacred books we are — for the Infinite camps in our souls. Every act reveals God and expands the divine being. I know that may be hard to comprehend. All creatures are doing their best to help God in the birth of the divine.
Enough talk for the night… God is laboring in me. I need to be silent for a while. Worlds are forming in my heart.