"God seeth all our living a penance: for nature-longing of our love is
to Him a lasting penance in us." "His love maketh Him to long"
Our Good Lord shewed Himself in diverse manners both in heaven and in
earth, but I saw Him take no place save in man's soul.
He shewed Himself in earth in the sweet Incarnation and in His blessed
Passion. And in other manner He shewed Himself in earth [as in the
Revelation] where I say: _I saw God in a Point_.[1] And in another
manner He shewed Himself in earth thus as it were in pilgrimage: that
is to say, He is here with us, leading us, and shall be till when He
hath brought us all to His bliss in heaven. He shewed Himself diverse
times reigning, as it is aforesaid; but principally in man's soul. He
hath taken there His resting-place and His worshipful City: out of
which worshipful See He shall never rise nor remove without end.
Marvellous and stately[2] is the place where the Lord dwelleth,
and therefore He willeth that we readily answer to[3] His gracious
touching, more rejoicing in His whole love than sorrowing in our often
fallings. For it is the most worship to Him of anything that we may
do, that we live gladly and merrily, for His love, in our penance.
For He beholdeth us so tenderly that He seeth all our living [here] a
penance: for nature's longing in us is to Him aye-lasting penance in
us[4]: which penance He worketh in us and mercifully He helpeth us to
bear it. For His love maketh _Him_ to long [for us]; His wisdom and His
truth with His rightfulness maketh _Him_ to suffer us [to be] here: and
in this same manner [of longing and abiding] He willeth to see it in
us. For this is our natural penance,--and the highest, as to my sight.
For this penance goeth[5] never from us till what time that we be
fulfilled, when we shall have Him to our meed. And therefore He willeth
that we set our hearts in the Overpassing[6]: that is to say, from the
pain that we feel into the bliss that we trust.
[1] ch. xi.
[2] "solemne."
[3] "entenden to" = turn our attention, respond to.
[4] or, at in S. de Cressy, "For kind longing in us to him is a lasting
penance in us."
[5] "cometh."
[6] The exceeding Bliss. "Our light affliction, which is but for a
moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory."--2 Cor. iv. 17.