 |
jabez's blog
| Saturday, March 15th, 2008
New Website: come see!
http://www.sustainyourspirit.com-a.googlepages.com/home
Posted By jabez @ 1:18 PM | Comments: 0 |
| Friday, December 15th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XXIII, ii) by Richard Rolle
Friday, December 15th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XXIII, ii) by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the medieval exhortation to holiness set as a book length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
The Fire of Love (XXIII, ii) by Richard Rolle
Truly as you desire after your death
To ascend to full and perfect joy,
So it behooves you in this earthly life
To love God with a whole and perfect heart.
Else as now, you are not giv’n to God,
So then shall you not have your perfect joy,
But endless torment be your bread and meat.
For truly while you heed not here your Maker
With whole love and mind, you are proved soothly
To love some creature more than it is lawful.
A soul can not have reason without love
Whilst it is in this life finding its way:
Wherefore the love thereof is the soul’s foot,
By which it shall be borne to God or fiend;
Subject to him whose will it has served here.
Nothing truly can be loved complete,
But for the goodness that it has, or seems,
Which goodness is either in the one beloved
Or thought to be in that, that is beloved.
Herefore truly is it, that they who love
Bodily beauty or worldly riches, fall,
Beguilèd as it were by strong witchcraft;
For truly delight is not part of those things
The which we think we feel or see in them,
Nor is the joy we feign when we behold them,
Nor the good name we give to what we see,
But only as we tell ourselves they are.
No man therefore more damnably forgets
His own soul than the one who sets his eye
On woman, however innocent, for lechery;
Truly, the eye’s taper kindles the soul,
Anon, from things we see, then thought comes in,
Engendering desire within the heart,
Together, these defile the inward beauty.
Wherefore suddenly with a noyous burning
In fire we are enfolded and made blind,
That we see not the sentence of the Judge.
And thus the soul, taken from heavenly sight
By countenance of evil, unclean love,
Stints not to show the tokens of her error:
Unless she may bring forth the filth conceived,
She is mistrustful of her own prosperity.
Filth your soul has conceived, and wicked desire;
Thereby shall wickedness thrust him ahead;
That sooner the soul may slide in slippery lust,
Inasmuch as she then takes no heed
To the great peril in which she errs,
The sooner does God’s countenance withdraw;
Whilst truly she begins to take her pleasure
In copious fleshly desires, then she sees not
Into how great a pit of wretchedness,
From small conception, she has cast herself.
He who has so willingly despised God,
Casting himself down into deadly sin,
God shall reject unwillingly after this life.
Truly his soul cannot defend herself,
In the time to come, from pains of hell;
That, set in this life, would not, when he could,
With all his power, forsake those deadly sins.
Posted By jabez @ 2:11 PM | Comments: 0 |
| Thursday, December 7th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XXIII, i) by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation to Holiness, set as a book length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
CHAPTER XXIII
THAT PERFECT LOVE MINGLES NOTHING WITH GOD:
AND WHY.
AND THAT IT IS NEEDFUL TO LOVE:
AND OF THE BLINDNESS OF FLESHLY LOVE
Perfectly forsaking the filth of sin,
And leaving back the vices of this world,
We find we may love nothing else but God.
How truly should God be our all in all
If nothing were in us beside His love?
No man has joy unless he so has love.
The more therefore that we have love in God,
The more and plenteously he shall joy in us;
Because we busily, fervently desire,
In what we get, more heartily we joy.
Therefore we joy because we reach for God;
And that God truly is the Joy we are:
The which forsooth none have, that seek aught other.
If I would grasp at anything for myself,
And make not God the end of my desire,
I certain make a traitor of myself,
My hidden guilt more openly is shown.
God truly will become us in this wise:
That none be mingled with Him in His love.
For if you fracture and divide your heart,
Dread not to love another thing with Him,
Know well, your love will be forsook of God;
For God will not behold a part of love.
All the whole truly, or the nought, He takes;
For when he died, then He gainbought the whole.
And in the sin, forsooth, of Father Adam
Your body and your soul were damnèd all;
Wherefore God came down to a Maiden’s body
And gave the price of your deliverance,
That He might deliver you your soul,
Taken from the power of the fiends,
And He might make your body with your soul
Blessèd at the ending of the world.
Therefore also you have ten commandments
Which mark your path to find eternal life.
If you will enter in that kingdom, lost,
And after, will be cleaned with Christ’s own blood,
It behooves you now keep God’s commandments.
Posted By jabez @ 6:53 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Wednesday, December 6th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XXII, ii), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation to Holiness set as a book length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
Thus shall the perfect have sweetness in mind
Such as the angels have up in their heav’n;
Although this earthly sweetness, not so much.
Soothly in this wise are we made perfect;
And we need not be purged with ghostly fire
After this life, who, being in the flesh,
Burn whispering with the fire of th’ Holy Ghost.
And yet this perfect love makes not a man
Ay not to sin; but that his sin lasts not,
As it is strifed forthwith by fire of love.
Truly such a lover of Jesus Christ
Says not his prayers like other righteous men;
For, set in righteous mind continually,
And ravished above himself by love of Christ,
He is taken into marvellous mirth,
And a goodly sound is shed within him,
So that he as it were sings prayers with notes;
And offers with his mouth a melody
That, though hidden from the human sense,
Is full bright heard to God and to himself.
Strength and ghostly virtue have now truly
So much overcome the flesh’s heaviness
That he can be ay glad in Christ forever,
Whose very heart, turned into fire of love,
Feels heav’nly heat, that he can scarcely bear,
Before the greatness of such burning love.
But the goodness of God keeps him alive
Until the time ordained for his departure;
The strength God gave him, so that he this much
Might love, and truly say, ‘I languish here.’
As the Seraphim burned, he burns, and loves;
He sighs and joys, he praises and grows warm;
And the more heated he is from very love,
Then the hotter he burns in very love.
He dreads not death, but he is glad to die,
As the Apostle told us long before:
Mihi, inquit, Christus vivere vita est, et mori gaudium,
‘Christ to me is life; to die, great joy’.
Posted By jabez @ 9:04 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Tuesday, December 5th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XXII, i), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation set as a book length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
CHAPTER XXII
THE BURNING OF LOVE PURGES VICES AND SINS:
AND OF THE TOKENS OF TRUE FRIENDSHIP
Love’s burning, truly taken by a soul
Purges all vice and plants all virtue’s beauty;
It voids in souls too much, prevents too little,
It never stands with deadly sin again,
And if it does with venial, nevertheless,
The moving and desire for love in God
Is still so hot, it strifes with venial flesh,
Without however thinking of the deed
That would make manifest that venial sin:
For whilst the lover is borne up to God,
Carried by strong and ever fervent desire,
All things displease him that might draw him back,
And sight of God will end his petty deeds.
Truly whilst gladdened by this songly joy,
His heart may not express what he then feels
Of heavenly things, in languishing for love.
Perfect men also never bear from earth
What may be burned by perfect life to come,
For in the heat of Christ’s love, all their sins
Are strifed and burned and made as never were.
But lest a person think himself so perfect,
Perfect in vain when he is not in earnest,
Let him hear what true perfection is:
This truly is the life of perfect souls:
Casting away all charge of worldly errands;
Forsaking father and mother and all your goods,
And following Christ always, without question;
Despising all passing things, for endless life;
Destroying worldly desires with fervent labor;
As far as it is possible, refraining
From lechery and all unlawful movings;
Burning only in the love of our Maker;
After knowing bitter sorr’ws and pains,
And finding busyness in ghostly works,
Feeling heavenly contemplation’s sweetness;
From these traits, finding joy in God’s love,
And being taken up by contemplation
Into ghostly song or heavenly sound,
Biding sweetly in an inward rest,
Where all disturbances are put aback;
And in so much that whilst it may be lawful
For souls in God to labor nothing outward,
Going within, to sing the heav’nly sweetness
Of eternal love forevermore,
In songs delightful of unmeasured mirth
But all in silent music unimagined.
Posted By jabez @ 7:22 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Monday, December 4th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XXI, iii) by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation to Holiness, set as a book length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
Some truly do alms of their righteous goods;
Others to their death defend the truth;
Others clearly, strongly preach God’s word,
And others tell their preaching in their writing;
Others suffer for God greater penance
And live in wretchedness throughout this life;
And others, by the gift of contemplation,
Are only busy to find converse ghostly,
And set themselves to narrowly loving Christ.
Without doubt, mongst all of these estates,
They that by their gift would be contemplative
Joy with a special joy that cannot fade;
And they are now all worthy with their singing
To joy in God’s great love forevermore.
Truly if any man might get both lives,
That is to say, contemplative and active,
Keep and fulfill them, he would be full great;
Imagine that he might do bodily service,
And nevertheless still feel that heavenly sound
Welling in him as he performs his labors,
Melted in singing within, of heavenly love.
I know not ever any mortal had this.
To me it seems they could not be together.
Christ truly in this way is not like men,
Nor His blest Mother is like other women.
For Christ was not led off by wandering thoughts;
Not contemplative in a common manner,
As saints who live this life are contemplative;
And truly He needed not to toil as others,
Striving for years to rise above the earthly,
Because, from onset of His own conceiving,
He saw God, needing not to labor more.
No marvel by great exercises ghostly
There comes to some of us a songful joy,
And we receive the sweetest sound from heaven;
And so henceforward wish to stand in rest,
That with great sweetness we may joy in God.
Therefore the one that serves well active life,
Is busy to rise to contemplative.
He who is truly raised up in this manner,
With the gift of heavenly contemplation,
Comes down never again to labor active;
Unless p’radventure he is so compelled
To take some form of governance of Christians;
And that I pledge has seldom, or never happened.
But faulty contemplatives can be seen,
For they are less imbued with heat of love.
Forsooth the lesser saints are sometimes better
Than greater saints, to take a place of prelacy,
For they who could not manage inward desires,
Do better in transacting outward business.
Posted By jabez @ 8:51 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Sunday, December 3rd, 2006
The Fire of Love (XXI, ii) by Richard Rolle
Interpreted and voiced by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
A person is not holier or higher
For the outward works that she may do,
For truly God, the Beholder of the heart,
Rewards willingness more than sentient deeds.
For the more burningly that a person loves,
By so much more he climbs to high reward.
In true contemplatives, there is sweet heat
The plenteousness of God’s own love abiding,
From the which a joyful sound is sent
Into them there above, with unthought mirth;
And this is never found in active orders;
For they turn not alone to heav’nly things.
Contemplatives do turn only to these things,
So that they might more worth’ly joy in Jesus.
And therefore active life is put behind;
The contemplative, in this noisome present,
And in the life to come, is well preferred.
Wherefore in the litter of King Solomon,
The pillars are silver; the resting place is gold.
The pillars of the chair are strong upbearers;
The goodly governors of the holy church;
These are of silver, for in conversation
They’re clear, and in their preaching filled with sound.
The golden resting place contemplative
Is the place where, being in high rest,
Christ, He most especially, lays His Head,
And they in Him right singularly rest.
These are of gold, for they are purer, dearer,
In honesty of living incorruptible,
And redder in burning love and contemplation.
God forsooth has forordained His chosen
Fulfilling divers services for them.
It is not given truly to each one
To execute or enter all his offices,
But each has that, that most accords his state.
Wherefore the Apostle says of this:
‘Unicuique nostrum data est gracia
secundum mensuram donationis Christi;’
‘To each one of us is grace then given
after the measure of Christ’s gift to us.’
Posted By jabez @ 7:14 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Tuesday, November 28th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XXI, i), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation to Holiness set as a book length poem in Modern English, by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
CHAPTER XXI
THAT CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE
IS WORTHIER AND REWARDFULLER THAN ACTIVE:
AND OF BOTH PRELACY AND PREACHING
Which life is it better to aspire to?
Many think that active brings reward,
Because of many deeds and teachings there.
But those who think so, cheat themselves unknowing,
For they have not the virtue of contemplatives.
Though many deeds may help atone for sin,
The best contemplatives are closer pure;
Therefore we say the life of sequestration
Is altogether better, sweeter, worthier,
And the more fertile in its true reward,
That is, the joy of finding unwrought good,
Because the soul that thrives in lonely thought
She loves our God that much more burningly.
And more of grace is asked if solitaries
Would lead life rightly, than is asked of active.
The reason that more fervent love is needed
By contemplative, than by active life,
Is that solitude takes both minds and bodies:
Therefore these quiet, thoughtful souls will taste
The sweetness of the eternal, before they die.
The active truly service God in labor,
Running about, and tarrying but little,
Finding no inward rest, making good way,
Wherefore they cannot take time for delight,
Save seldom and in shortness even there.
Contemplatives love as if continually
Within embrace of their own true Beloved.
Forsooth some say that active life is fruitful,
For it does works of mercy for the poor,
It preaches and it works other such deeds;
Wherefore the doer builds up certain merit.
I say, rewards for works are accidental,
That is, they bring joy of the thing that’s wrought.
And so, one might be taken with the angels
And have reward that cherubim shall not;
That is, remembered joy, of some good deed
Done in this life, of the which another—
Without compare surpassing in God’s love—
Did not, for being lost in contemplation.
It also ofttimes happens that some one
Of less reward does good, and preaches of it;
Another, who preaches not, that much more loves.
Is not the first one better, because he preaches?
No; the one that loves the more is better,
Although he do the less of preaching on it;
He shall have some reward, though he preached not,
That the loud preacher was not worthy of.
Posted By jabez @ 9:02 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Monday, November 27th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XX,ii), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation to Holiness set as a book length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
Therefore it follows and we see full well:
‘Et servus tuus dilexit illud;”
‘And he Your servant takes delight in it.’
Therefore truly is his spirit burned,
Because your word, Lord, is the thing he loved;
He took to ponder, and after that, to work.
You he sought, sooner than what was yours,
And has received of You both You and yours.
Others serve You in order to have yours,
And for You they really care but little.
Truly they feign they would be in Your service,
To get some worldly honor among men;
But whilst they joy to have in hand few truths,
They lose the many more they might have had,
Because of You and yours, themselves and theirs.
It behooves us pray we may be saved;
Therefore th’ apostle James warns, saying to us:
‘Orate pro invicem ut salvemini,’
‘Pray for yourselves, that ye will be saved.’
Also that we be not made slow in prayer,
And be continually occupied in good:
‘Vigilate et orate ne intretis in temptationem,’
‘Wake ye and pray, to enter not temptation.’
Truly we ought ever to pray or read
Or meditate, with other holy deeds,
That our enemy never find us idle.
But it must be taken heed to, here,
With all the busyness we wake in prayer,
That we will not be lulled by vainer thoughts
The which withdraw the mind, and it forgets
Whither it’s truly bound and always strained,
And if they can, they overcome devotion;
Devotion which the mind would sure perceive,
Praying with wakefulness, busyness, and desire.
Posted By jabez @ 9:46 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Saturday, November 25th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XX,i), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation to Holiness, set as a book length poem in blank verse, by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
CHAPTER XX
OF THE PROFIT AND WORTHINESS
OF PRAYER AND MEDITATION
Constant prayer conditions us to get,
And hold, to stableness of holy mind;
Grounded in mind it undoes sloven’s work.
And though God knows all things, and how they end,
And even before we ask God any thing,
He knows already just what we will ask;
Still, we ought to pray it constantly.
Because Christ has instructed to us to pray;
And He went out alone at night, for prayer.
And because He so commanded us,
‘Sine intermissione orate. Oportet enim orare, et non deficere.’
‘Without ceasing shall you pray, always.
You should pray, and never fail to pray.’
And that we may be worthy of his grace,
Joy in this life, bliss in time to come,
Therefore He says, ‘Ask and ye shall receive.
He that asks receives, it shall be opened.’
Also because the angels offer prayers
To God, to help accomplish their fulfillment.
Truly all our raw desires are bare
And open thus to God; and angels know
When saints express these high and holy things,
And they burn with love of life eternal,
By God’s showing, and by their outward deeds,
Because they see these busy saints at work.
Wherefore the angel said to th’ prophet Daniel:
‘Vir desideriorum es.’
‘A man you are of various desires.’
Also because by constancy of prayer
The soul burns in the fire of Godly love;
As our Lord truly says here by His prophet:
‘Nonne verba mea quasi ignis, et quasi malleus conterens petras?’
‘Are not my words to you as burning fire,
and as a mallet shattering the stones?’
And here the psalmist so declares to us:
‘Ignitum eloquium tuum vehementer;’
‘Your speech has kindled up a mighty fire.’
But there are many now that would cast out
The word of God from mouth and heart and soul,
Not suffering it there to rest in them;
And therefore they are not burnt with a heat
Nor comfort, but bide them in cold and sloth,
Even after mouthing prayers innumerable
And claiming meditation of a scripture,
Because forsooth they neither pray nor think,
But make a motion where no substance is;
Whilst others that put back all cold and sloth
Within a short while they are greatly burned,
And in Christ’s love chase after Him full strong.
Posted By jabez @ 11:56 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Thursday, November 23rd, 2006
The Fire of Love (XIX, iii) by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation to Holiness, here set as a book length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
But it may not incongruously be asked
Whether this perfect place in love, once had,
May at any time by souls be lost.
Truly whilst man can sin he can lose charity;
But not to be able to sin belongs not here;
On earth we sin, but not in that far country:
Wherefore each person, howsoever holy,
Yet still can sin, and often mortally;
For the dregs of sin are fully slakened
Never, in any pilgrim of this life.
Truly if there were a soul so purified
That she no more desire nor could be tempted,
She should already have the state of heaven;
So it would not reward her to default.
I know not aught if any such be living.
Speaking for myself, my flesh desires
Against my spirit, my spirit against my flesh;
My inward man may gladly observe God’s law,
But I know not yet, so much Godly love
That I could utterly slake fleshly desire.
Nevertheless I promise that there is
A high degree of perfect love, the which
Who has it, he may never after lose.
Forsooth, it is one manner of such love
That one person might contrive to lose it,
And quite another always have it by,
That love he will not leave although he can.
The perfect truly do abstain themselves,
As much as in them is, from ev’ry thing
By which perfection can be quick destroyed.
Truly with the freedom of their choice
They are fulfilled with flowing grace of God,
With which they now are busily stirred to love,
To speak love, and do service with their love;
And they show love in heart, and mouth, and work.
When such a person perfect turns to Christ
He despises worldly passing things,
And fastens body and soul immovably
To the desire only of his Maker,
As far as this he may, by his mortality,
Because of the corruption of his flesh.
And then, no marvel, manly in his might,
First as ’t were the heavens being opened
With the open eye of his understanding,
He beholds the citizens of heaven;
And afterward he feels the sweetest heat,
As it were a burning fire within him;
And then he is imbued with marv’lous sweetness,
And henceforth he is joyed by songly noise.
All this therefore is perfect charity,
Which no man knows but he that has received it;
And he that has received, should never leave it:
Sweetly he lives, securely shall he die.
Posted By jabez @ 11:00 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006
The Fire of Love (XIX, ii) by Richard Rolle
The Fire of Love
Continuation of Richard Rolle's Medieval Exhortation set as a book length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
All them that we may love and be loved by—
All them to God, the source of love, we yield:
Because He wants that all the heart of man
Be housed within Himself and in his love.
All desires, all movings of the mind,
He wants these also all be fastened in Him.
Forsooth, the person that loves God completely,
Can feel nothing in his heart but God,
And if he feel nought else, nought else has he;
But whatsoe’er he has, he loves for God,
And he loves nought, but what God wills he should;
Wherefore he loves no thing that is not God,
And so he is, and all his love is God.
Forsooth the love of such a soul is true,
For she conforms herself to fit her Maker,
The which has wrought all things to please Himself.
When love eternal flares up in our souls,
Then fades the vain pomp of this painted world,
And fleshly love is held but foulest filth;
And whilst the soul finds her intent devotion,
Desiring nothing but the Maker’s pleasure,
Marv’lously she burns herself with fire:
The fire of love that slowly spreads within her;
And growing in ghostly good, she falls not back
Into that broad and slipp’ry way, to death,
But rather, raised up by that heavenly fire,
Ascends into a life contemplative.
That life contemplative cannot be got
By any person in this vale of tears,
Even a little, unless at first his heart
Flames up from in its depth a torch of love,
So that he feels it burn the fire of love,
And knows his conscience melt with heav’nly sweetness.
A person’s truly made contemplative
Whilst tasting sweetness and whilst feeling burning,
He nearly dies for greatness of his love.
And therefore he is fastened in embrace,
As it were bodily, of endless love;
Seeing unceasingly all of his desire,
He busies him to go in heaven higher,
And to perceive that light still unperceived.
Forsooth such people know not how to find
Comfort for the soul; they seek God’s comfort,
God in whose love now languishing they are;
They come to desire the ending of this life,
And grievous cry out therefore with the psalmist:
Quando veniam et apparebo ante faciem Dei?
‘When shall I come before the face of God?’
And this cry grievous, is their perfect love.
Posted By jabez @ 10:46 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Tuesday, November 21st, 2006
The Fire of Love (XIX, i) by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation set as a book length poem in Modern English by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
CHAPTER XIX
OF FAIRNESS OF MIND:
VANITY OF THE WORLD:
LOVE OF GOD: AND UNION WITH OUR NEIGHBOR:
AND WHETHER PERFECT LOVE
CAN BE LOST AND GOTTEN IN THIS WAY
If you be glad in fairness, know it well,
For the fairness of your gladdened mind
Shall be belovèd of the highly Fair,
If for His love you keep it undefiled.
Flesh corruptible, with all its beauty
All too soon gone, beguiling all its lovers,
Is ever feeble and to be despised.
Therefore the virtue of our life stands here:
That vanity should be despised and spurned,
And we cleave ever closer to God’s truth.
All things which we desire in earth are vain;
The true things are the heav’nly and eternal:
Things which we know, but which cannot be seen.
Each Christian person shows a Christian self,
A man or woman truly chos’n of God,
By setting all these earthly things at nought;
When our desire is fully spread in God,
We then can hear a secret sound of love
That none still in their worldliness would know,
Wretchedly withdrawn from heav’nly joy.
No marvel that the soul, shining in silence,
Utterly intent to love eternal,
And inwardly all hungering for Christ,
Would have her heart’s capacity fulfilled
With plenteousness of sweetness, without end;
So that, in feeding, is this flesh made merry,
Aloft in flight, as ’t were with angels’ life;
And they are gladdened with that songful mirth.
Therefore if our love is pure and perfect,
Whatever thing our heart loves, becomes God.
Truly if we love ourselves in Spirit,
And love all other creatures that there are,
Only in God, for God, and after God,
What else is there in us or them, but Him?
For when our God is truly loved by us,
With a whole heart, and with all virtue,
Then, without doubt, do we love our neighbor:
All that could be loved, is loved most rightly.
If we shed forth our heart before God fully,
And in our love of God are bound with Him,
So we are one with God, and with God’s love,
What more is there by which we can love any?
Truly in love of God is love of neighbor.
Therefore as he that loves God, knows no other,
And is by this compelled to love his neighbor,
Just so he is compelled to love himself,
For there is in himself nothing but God.
Posted By jabez @ 8:50 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Monday, November 20th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XVIII, ii) by Richard Rolle
The Fire of Love
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation set as a book length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
Nevertheless should every mortal soul
Know that she comes not to the heavenly kingdom
By way of riches, fleshliness and lust;
Since, it is said of Christ himself forsooth,:
Quod oportuit Christum pati, et ita intrare in gloriam suam;
‘That Christ chose to suffer, and enter His joy.’
If we are members of our Maker’s body,
Then we shall follow Him however he goes;
If we with Him go not as He has gone,
We are no longer members of that body,
For from the Head we have ourselves divided.
Truly if we are sundered, head from body,
This is a thing that’s greatly to be dreaded,
For then by flesh we are joined to the fiend,
And in the end, God says: ‘I know you not.’
He, truly, by a noyous and strait way
Entered into heaven to find glory;
So how should we, all we, wretches and sinners,
Be then made rich by taking from the poor,
Feed our lust with soft unlawful things,
Crave the flitting flatteries of this world,
Stroke the pale, vain softness of our flesh,
And grieve alone, desiring for delight,
While nevertheless expecting we will reign
In life to come with Jesus Christ our Lord?
Christ, when He was rich for us, was poor;
Yet when we craven souls are strait and starved,
Then there is nothing that we so much covet
As to be seen, as rich and plenteous.
Christ, when He was Lord of all, was servant;
Yet we, whilst we are shiftless and unprofitable,
Unworthy servants to our humble Lord,
Yet would we in our hearts be lords of all.
He who was greater God, became meek Man;
Yet we, though we are sick and simple men,
Because of pride, exalt ourselves as gods.
He was conversant with the ways of men
That He might better raise us to the heavens;
Yet we, through all this life, cling to the earth.
Therefore has it been shown, we love Him not;
We struggle not to meek our will to His;
And balk to have what ev’ry day we ask:
Fiat voluntas tua sicut in coelo et in terra;
‘Your will be done in heaven as in earth.’
In vain forsooth we all make empty promises
To join ourselves with them that have been chosen;
But we have giv’n allegiance to the earthly,
Who are not partners in Christ’s own redemption;
The which, by sundry wicked, unclean works,
Despise the blood by which we are gainbought,
And freely take the bondage of the fiend.
Posted By jabez @ 8:39 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Saturday, November 18th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XVIII, i) by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation set as a book length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
CHAPTER XVIII
OF THE PRAISE AND MIGHT OF CHARITY:
AND OF FORSAKING THE WORLD:
AND OF THE WAY OF PENANCE TO BE TAKEN
Charity is the very queen of virtues;
The fairest star; the beauty of the soul;
And yet she is the soul’s own intimate,
That does all things by which the soul is wrought:
That is to say, she wounds her, makes her languish,
Moistens and melts her, and makes fair her face;
She gladdens and enflames the need for caring,
Whose ordinate deed is full fair loving habit.
It should be without doubt that all of virtue,
If any of it be truly called a virtue,
Is rooted and it thrives in charity.
No virtue can be truly held to be
That has not found itself in love of God.
They who toss forth their virtues and their deeds
Without God’s love, cast as ’t were precious stones
Into the bottomless privy of this world.
Shown it is, and known, that all we do
Will help us not at last to get our health,
If it’s not done in charity of God.
Wherefore, since it is char’ty makes us blessed,
We should desire rather to lose our lives,
Than mind, or mouth, or deed, defile that charity.
In this, strivers with mighty sin enjoy;
In this, sin’s mightier conquerors are crowned.
Truly each Christian soul has imperfection,
That cleaves with love to phantom earthly riches,
Joining itself to any worldly solace;
For she forsakes not, all she seemed to have,
Yet if it be not shed, none find perfection.
When any one aspires to love God perfectly,
He learns to do away with all those things,
Inward as well as outward, that are contrary
To love of God, that hinder from God’s love.
And ever, that anyone may do this truly,
They have great business to rehearse themselves,
For they shall find great strife in doing it;
Before at length they shall find sweetest rest,
In the purer intention that they seek.
We have heard truly that the way is strait
That leads to life eternal, after this.
This is the way of penance that few find,
The which therefore is called narrow, or strait;
For by it, if it is right, the flesh is stripped
From its unlawful solace of this world,
The soul is leashed and her mouth is withheld
From all shrewd pleasures, and all unclean thoughts,
And she is only dressed to love of God.
But this is seldom found in men or women,
For nearly none can taste the whole of God:
But they seek earthly joys and are delighted,
Wherefore then, following bodily appetite,
Despising any ghostly nourishment,
They forsake the way that would be healthful,
And they abhor that path as strait and sharp,
Untenable for comforting their lust;
And leave their souls to starve and suffer want.
Posted By jabez @ 8:52 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Friday, November 17th, 2006
The Fire of Love, by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation Recreated as a book length poem in Modern English, written and voiced by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
Forsooth some men have loved each other so
That they have nearly promised that they were
Two bodies with one soul in them both.
But truly, the man who’s poor in worldly goods,
Though rich in mind, is far from such a love.
For it were very marvel if one took
That which he seldom or never can give back,
And had a friend in which he might put trust,
To have his trust returned in all such things.
While others, therefore, judge him so unworthy,
He has a steadfast friend in Jesus Christ;
And of Him he can faithf’ly ask all things.
Truly where man’s help fails to succor him,
Without doubt God’s is near, and strong enough.
Nevertheless it profits more the rich
To choose a holy poor man as his friend,
With whom he would share property in common
And gladly give him ev’rything he had,
Yea, try to give him more than the poor wills,
And love him as his best and kindest friend.
Therefore Christ said unto the earnest rich,
‘Make you friends,’ meaning, forsooth, the poor,
Those who already are the friends of God;
And gladly God gives true lovers of such poor,
For their true love, the joys of Paradise.
Soothly I promise that such rich should be
Well pleased with their return upon that friendship!
And yet this verse is ever true, that says:
‘Pontus erit siccus cum pauper habebit amicum;’
‘The sea shall dry when poor folk find a friend.’
Some rich folk soothly I have found were giving
Portions of meat out to the holy poor,
Yet who would not give clothes or other necessaries,
Saying it were enough if they gave meat;
And so they make themselves half friends, or part;
And make distinction, helping the good poor,
Denying help to those, called evil poor.
And all things any price that might be given,
They save themselves, and give out to their children.
Equal to these are others who give aught,
That give the poor folk clothing or other goods,
And yet, regardless, tell them which to wear,
Attending to their needs, but with conviction
That poor folk are great burden to the rich.
Posted By jabez @ 2:05 PM | Comments: 0 |
| Thursday, November 16th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XVII,iv), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation set as a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
It is of love also to melt the mind;
Anima mea liquefacta est, ut dilectus locutus est;
‘My soul was made to melt as my Love spake.’
As truly, a sweet and full devoted love
Melts the very heart in God’s own sweetness,
So is the will of man made one with God,
Flowing together in a wonderful friendship.
In which onehood such liking heat and song
Is inshed sweetly into loving souls,
In how great much, the feeler cannot tell.
Love also has its own strength in its spreading,
In knitting, and in turning, and embracing:
It casts light beams out over all its goodness,
Not only shining forth to friends and neighbors,
But also lighting enemies and strangers.
In knitting truly: it makes lovers one
In deed and will; in children, in the flesh,
In Christ and every holy soul, makes one.
He that draws near to God is one in spirit,
In grace and pow’r, and in onehood of will.
Love has also a turning strength, for change,
For love can turn the loving to the loved,
Ingrafting branches to a single tree.
Wherefore the heart that truly feels the fire
Of the Holy Ghost, is burned all wholly
And beating still, turns as ’t were into fire;
And beating more, is shapen to that form
That is most like God; else it were not said:
‘Ego dixi dii estis et filii Excelsi omnes;’
‘I have said of you, that you are gods,
and are all children of a higher God.’
Posted By jabez @ 10:06 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Wednesday, November 15th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XVII,iii), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation set as a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
What is love, but such desire transformed
Into the thing belovèd of the lover?
Love is a great desire for fair good things,
Which sends continuance of thought to go
On to enjoy those things that it may love,
The which, when it has found them, then it joys;
For joy is not caused ever, save by love.
All they who love they truly become love,
And love makes them like to that, that they love.
Truly neither God nor other creature
E’er disdains, refusing to be loved,
But gladly all things say they would be loved,
And are made glad by love when they receive it.
They who love are never sad in loving
Unless in truth, they loved an unkind thing;
Or if by circumstance they made a promise
That they would have the one, they loving sought.
This is never so with love of God,
But ofttimes this may happen in the love
Of objects in this world, or of a woman.
I dare not say that ev’ry love is good,
For that love that would more delight in creatures
Than revel in the Maker of all things;
That sets the lust of transient earthly beauty
Before a ghostly fairness; such a love
Is ill and futile, and it should be hated;
For it draws effort from eternal love
And turns to temporal things, which cannot last.
Yet peradventure it shall be less punished;
For we joy more, loving and being loved,
Than in defiling or in being defiled.
The fairer creature is that much more lovable.
Therefore some are busily getting health,
That to their shapely forms they will draw love
Rather than repel from forms despised;
Although in my experience of it,
Both beautiful and ugly have occasion
Through lechery, of bringing something ill.
But nature teaches us, the fairer the thing,
The more and sweetly is it to be loved.
Nevertheless, an ordinate charity says,
The greater the good, the more it shall be loved;
For ev’ry fleshly beauty is as hay,
Fair for a day, and lightly vanishing,
But beauty of godliness more truly bides;
And ofttimes does God choose the sick, misshapen,
Housing within the despisèd of this world,
And so forsakes the strong and straight and fair.
Wherefore it is shown us in the psalm:
Tradidit in captivitatem virtutem eorum, et pulcritudinem eorum in manus inimici;
‘Their strength he gave to bondage, and their fairness
into the hands of all their enemies.’
Habens fiduciam in pulcritudine tua, fornicata es;
‘Having received a trust upon your fairness,
you have given yourself to fornication.’
Posted By jabez @ 1:59 PM | Comments: 0 |
| Tuesday, November 14th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XVII,ii), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation to Holiness, set as a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
Lord Jesus, now I ask you, give to me
Movement in your love without a measure;
Desire without a limit; longing without order;
Let me burn within, without discretion.
Truly the better that my love of you is,
The greedier it is, and without fetter;
For neither by reason will it be restrained,
Nor by dread distressed, nor by doom tempted.
No man shall ever be more blest than he
That for a greater love, can waste and die.
No creature truly e’er can love too much.
In all the other things of mortal ken,
All that is too much turns into vice,
But the more the strength of love surpasses,
That much the more all-glorious it shall be.
And I the lover truly languish here
If I have not in me the Maker’s likeness.
Therefore to comfort lovers it is said:
Nunciate dilecto quia amore langueo,
‘Show to my love how that I languish for love.’
As who should say: ‘Because I have not love,
For love I wax me slow also in body.’
Forsooth now turned to Christ with all my heart,
I am tied first to Christ by true penance,
And so forsaking things that long to vanity,
After the taste of rare and ghostly sweetness,
I am ravished to sing in godly praise:
‘Ego cantabo dilecto meo; In te cantatio mea semper.’
‘To my precious love now I shall sing;
In you my love is ever my love’s song.’
No marvel therefore they who lived God’s love,
And sweetly burned inside that inward flagrance
Without dread, in their death shall pass from light,
And after death ascend to heav’nly kingdoms.
Therefore it takes the mind to wound the flame,
To fillet thus the flame of God’s true love.
‘I am wounded by charity, made to languish’;
Amore langueo, ‘for this love I languish’;
And it takes the heart to moisten it,
That it goes out towards the true Beloved,
That it forgets the self and other things.
Therefore the lover in the psalm declares:
Pone me ut signaculum super cor tuum;
‘As a token set me on Your heart.’
Posted By jabez @ 4:28 PM | Comments: 0 |
| Monday, November 13th, 2006
The Fire of Love by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation to Holiness, set as a book length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef
CHAPTER XVII
HOW PERFECT LOVE IS GOTTEN BY CLEANNESS AND LOVE:
AND OF IMPERFECT LOVE AND FAIRNESS,
AND OF THREE MIGHTS OF GOD’S LOVE:
AND OF THE RICH AND POOR:
AND OF ALMS
Clean of conscience, plenteous in ghostly gladness,
Fully bathed with inward and Godly mirth,
Rises the song of joy in loving minds,
And rises the burning flame of endless love.
I marvel not that, loving in this manner,
I spoke my joy and was in great desire,
With moving altogether dressed to God,
And by no hindrance fended from His love;
Without vain thoughts, constantly cleaving to Christ;
In Jesus ever joying; never distracted;
With ill not moved, nor with taint polluted.
The world, the flesh, the devil do not noy him,
They prick him; but he treads them underfoot,
He sets their strength at nought; with heat he boils;
He loves with great desire; he sings with sweetness;
He shines with heat; he sheds a glowing love;
He delights in God without gainstanding;
He contemplates his way with strong upgoing.
He vanquishes all things and overcomes;
And of all things he likes, they all are his,
And nothing will seem to him impossible.
Truly whilst any man would follow Christ
With all his strength, he feels it in himself:
The greater sweetness of eternal life.
We are already truly turned to Christ,
If we strive to love with all our being.
Certain, God is such a marvelous thing,
So liking is this marvel that we see,
I wonder that any man could be so mad,
That he should take no heed, to leave His way,
And lose the sight of God he may have had.
He that does great things is not as great
As he that loves God much; and he that is
Beloved of God, is greater than all others.
Philosophers forsooth have travailed heavy,
And yet without remembrance they have vanished.
And many that seemed Christian did great things,
Showing forth marvels, yet they were not saved;
For radiance of this, the heavenly crown,
Is not for doers, but them who gaze on God.
Posted By jabez @ 6:09 PM | Comments: 0 |
| Friday, November 10th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XVI, ii)
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation to Holiness, set as a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
O Death, how good your judgement is to me!
My soul, in spite of death, made sweet by love;
A man, forsooth, truly in love of Christ
Ever contemplating heav’nly things,
Sweetly burned with fire of the Holy Ghost.
After death will I be took on high,
Hearing the songs of angels in my soul;
Because now being purged, and profiting,
I dwell within the music of the spirit.
And in melody marvelous shall I die,
The which when living thought so pithily
Upon that sweet and omnipresent Name;
And with the companies of angels meet Him,
With heavenly hymns and honors of a sweetness,
I shall be taken to the Eternal hall,
And rest among the heavenly dwellers there.
To this has charity truly brought his soul,
That she should thus receive inward delight,
And should thus gladly suffer all that happens,
And should think there on death, but not with bitterness,
But with the sweetness of her own salvation.
Soothly then he promises truly to live,
When it is giv’n him to pass from this light.
O Charity, you are the dearest sweetness;
That catch and take a mind into your love;
And so clearly you moisten it, that quickly
You make it to despise all passing things,
And marvelously to yearn for your desires.
You have come into me, and now behold,
Is all my inward soul complete, fulfilled
By the sweetness of a heav’nly mirth,
And plenteous fervour of a ghostly joy.
Therefore and truly, now I long for love,
The fairest of flowers awaits my outstretched hand,
And I am inwardly consumed by fire.
Would to God I might go from this exile!
Thus it warms, and watchers think not how,
Save that he feels some solace in himself;
His heart sings ditties that he gives no voice;
He’s taken captive with the charge of charity.
Soothly now, this that I get is merry;
I nearly die while it is thus made steadfast
With burning, within, without, with burning love.
Now grant, my best Belovèd, that I cease;
For death, that many dread, shall be to me
As heavenly music ringing through the spheres.
Although I sit alone here in the wilderness,
Yet I am now set stable in a Paradise,
And there all sweetly sounds a loving song,
Speaking delights my Love has given me.
Posted By jabez @ 7:35 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Thursday, November 9th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XVI)
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation set as a book length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
CHAPTER XVI
THE PRAYER OF THE POOR,
AND THE LOVING AND DESIRING TO DIE:
AND OF THE PRAISING OF GOD’S CHARITY
When the devout poor man is all afflicted
And called by God to account for his defaults,
He can, if he will, offer up this prayer:
Lord God, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me,
And vouchsafe to behold the grievous yoke
That is put on my body by my sin,
That tarries not to cast down this my soul.
For my flesh truly fails under the grief;
Wherefore my ghostly virtue is made weary.
For all I had here, in or of this world
Is ended; nought is left but that You come
And lead my soul into another world
Where my soul’s treasure will be the most precious,
My substance richest, and may ever abide.
Wherefore shall I live without default;
And I shall joy, without thinking of sorrow;
And I shall love without aught irksomeness;
And loving, seeing, joying in your way,
I shall be well, and endlessly well fed.
You truly are my Treasure, the Desire
Of all my heart and soul and mind together,
And You ordained that I shall perfect see You,
And that for my soul, I shall have You.
And I spoke thus to death: O Death, where are you?
Why come you late to me, living but mortal?
Why kiss you not the lover who desires you?
Who is holy enough to think your sweetness?
You that are the end of any sighing,
Beginning of desire, and gate of yearning?
You are the end of woe, the mark of labors,
Beginning of first fruits, and gate of joys.
Behold I grow hot and desire to have you:
For if you come I shall forthwith be safe.
Ravished I will be, truly, because of love;
I cannot fully love what I desire,
Until I taste the joy that You shall give me.
If it behooves me, while I am yet mortal—
Because forsooth desire so befalls—
To pass through you as all my fathers have,
I pray you tarry not much waiting me;
O Lord from me do not abide too long!
Behold, I truly languish for your love;
Now I desire to die; for you, I burn;
Yet truly not for you, I burn for Jesus,
In whom I pledge to be without an end.
Posted By jabez @ 8:30 PM | Comments: 0 |
| Tuesday, November 7th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XV,iv)
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation to Holiness, set as a book length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
In the meanwhile, wonder caught at me
That I should be took up to so great mirth
Whilst in my lonely exile before God;
Wonder because God gave such gifts to me
That I knew not to ask for, or to thank;
Nor promised I that any, even the holiest,
Could have received such things in this poor life.
Therefore I promise this I got from God
Is giv’n to none rewardfully, for praying,
But freely giv’n it is to whom Christ will;
Nevertheless I say, no one will have it
Unless he specially love the name of Jesus,
And in so much will honor this name, that
He never lets it pass forth from his mind
Except perhaps in sleep, and seldom then.
I promise whom it may be giv’n do that,
May sometime reach the same place I have been.
Wherefore from the beginning of my change
To the high degree of loving Christ,
The which, God granting, I may now attain—
In which degree I might now sing continually
God’s praises with a joyful silent song—
My soul was four years and about three months.
Here forsooth, with the first flame of love
Gathered in this degree, she bides with me
To the very end of mortal life;
And after death she shall sing yet more perfect:
Because herein the very joy of love,
Or burning of perfect charity is begun,
And in the heavenly kingdom it shall find
Its most glorious continuation.
And though my soul, she profits not a little,
Set in degrees whichever in this life,
Yet she ascends not to another degree;
But, as it were, she is confirmed in grace,
As far as mortal can, and she finds rest.
Wherefore without ceasing I desire
To give all grace and praises to our God,
The which both in disease and heaviness,
And persecution, finds and gives me solace;
And in prosperity and flatterings
Makes me secure await an endless crown.
Therefore, in Jesus joying, I yield praise;
Who vouchsafed me, though I was least and wretched,
To mingle with sweet ministers on high,
From whom these songs of melody, yet heavenly,
Spring forth through me to sing me of the Spirit.
I give shall thanks continually with joy
Because my Maker made my soul in clearness:
Clearness of conscience, clearness of expression,
Like to singers clearly singing of love;
And whiles she loves and seethes in songs of burning,
The changed soul rests, and being warmed by heat,
And the true beauty of a loving virtue,
Blossoms without a taint of vice or strife,
Opening in the chamber of our Maker;
And thus beats drums of praise within herself,
Gladdens the longer with her merry song
And refreshes all the angels’ labors.
Many and great are these bright marv’lous gifts,
But among the many along this way,
None are as those which in their dearer figure
Confirm the shapeliness of an unseen life
In the loving soul prostrate before God;
Or which so sweetly comfort the ravisht one,
Which being comforted, ravishes him again,
To reach the very height of contemplation,
And the fuller accord of angels’ praise.
Behold, brothers, I have told you how
I came to be amidst the burning of love,
Not so that you should praise me for my doing,
But so that you should glorify our God,
Of whom I got each good deed that I had;
And you who think that all things under the sun
Are vanity, may be stirred to follow here.
Posted By jabez @ 7:53 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Monday, November 6th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XV,iii)
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation to Holiness, set as a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
I was sitting that day, in a dim chapel,
And whilst I was this time so much delighted
With sweetness of my prayer and meditation,
Suddenly, I felt within me merrily,
An unknown heat sprang up around my heart.
At first I wavered, for a long time doubting
What it could be that flared my blood within.
I knew that it was not from any creature
But came in me directly from my Maker,
For it grew hot and glad with Godly strength.
Truly in this unhoped for Godly heat,
Ever in sense, wholesome and sweet-smelling,
Nine months and some weeks had run their ways,
Until came the inshedding and receiving
Of a heav’nly silent, ghostly sound;
The which belongs to praises everlasting,
And sweetness of an unseen melody;
Because it may not e’er be known or heard
Except by blessed souls that may receive it,
Whom it behooves to be already clean,
And striving for departure from the earth.
Whilst then I sat at prayer in this same chapel,
In the evening, before I took my supper,
And as I could, I sang aloud some psalms,
I heard above me noise, as ’t were of readers,
Or rather singers. Whilst I took heed praying,
Looking to heaven with my whole desire,
Suddenly, I know not in what manner,
I felt in me upwelling noise of song,
A surging, most liking heav’nly melody
Which dwelt thereafter with me in my mind.
For after this, my thought was forsooth changed
To become continual song of mirth,
And I had praises in my meditation,
And praises in my prayer and saying of psalms;
I uttered the same sound praying, yet henceforth,
For plenteousness of inward song and sweetness,
I burst out singing what before I said;
But forsooth privily, for I was alone,
Intent on meekness, there before my Maker.
I was not known by them that saw me there;
Peradventure, if they had seen in me,
They would have honored me above all measure,
And so I should have lost part of the flower,
And might have fallen into desolation.
Posted By jabez @ 4:12 PM | Comments: 0 |
| Friday, November 3rd, 2006
The Fire of Love (XV, ii), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation, set as a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
I was wont forsooth to seek a rest,
And I went supplicant from place to place.
For hermits may leave cells with reasonable cause,
And afterwards, turn them back to the same.
Truly the holy Fathers have done thus,
Although they suffered murmurings of men;
Murmuring, nevertheless, not for the good:
The evil, truly speak they ill of others;
And if the Fathers had abode right there,
The murmurers would still have said their say,
For speaking thus is customary to them.
Yea, if a privy’s cover is put by,
Nothing but stink flies out and floats abroad;
Ill speech is spoken from the heart’s own plenty,
In which the venom of adders often lurks.
This have I known, that the more men have raved
Against me, with subtle words of backbiting,
So much the more I’ve grown in ghostly profit.
Forsooth, the worst backbiters I have known
Are those which I knew first as faithful friends.
Yet I ceased not because I heard their words,
From those things that were profit to my soul;
Truly, I used more study to continue,
And ever after found God favorable.
In this I called to mind what has been written:
‘Maledicent illi, et tu benedices,’
‘They shall curse him, and then, you shall bless.’
And in time’s process ghostly joy was giv’n me.
Forsooth three years, except three or four months,
Were run from the beginning of the change,
In my life, and of my soul and mind,
To the first opening of the heav’nly door;
So that, once open, and the Face being shown,
The eyes of my heart might now behold and see
By what way they might seek to find my Love,
And unto Him continually desire.
The heav’nly door, forsooth yet biding open,
Nearly a year had passed until the time
In which the heat of everlasting love
Was verily first felt within my heart.
Posted By jabez @ 11:24 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Wednesday, November 1st, 2006
The Fire of Love (XV)
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation Recreated as a book length poem in Modern English by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
CHAPTER XV
HOW AND IN WHAT TIME I CAME TO SOLITARY LIFE:
AND OF THE SONG OF LOVE:
AND OF CHANGING OF PLACE
When that I was prospering unhappily,
And to my youth of wakeful age had come,
The grace of my good Maker was near me,
The which restrained my lust for temporal shape
And turned it to unbodily embracing,
That I above all other things desired;
And lifting up my soul from lower things
Took it to heaven, where I might truly burn
In great desire for everlasting mirth,
More than I ever was gladdened before
By any flower of fleshly company,
Or any coverlet of worldly softness.
If I will truly show this my procession
Then I must preach a solitary life.
The spir’t forsooth has set my mind on fire
To have, and love, this way of contemplation,
The which henceforth I lead as best I can,
According to the measure of my sickness.
Nevertheless, I have dwelt out among them,
They that have flourished in the fleshly world,
And I have taken things to eat from them,
Flatterings also, that ofttimes might allure
Worthy fighters, from high things down to low.
But these all out-cast by the grace of God,
My soul was taken up to love my Maker;
And I, desiring endless hot delight,
With sweetness upon sweetness upon song,
Gave up my soul so that in endless devotion
She should love Christ and I no longer be.
The which she has received of her Beloved,
So that now loneliness appears most sweet,
And solace, where the error of man abounds,
She counts for nought, in binding her to Christ.
I was wont forsooth to seek a rest,
And I went supplicant from place to place.
For hermits may leave cells with reasonable cause,
And afterwards, turn them back to the same.
Truly the holy Fathers have done thus,
Although they suffered murmurings of men;
Murmuring, nevertheless, not for the good:
The evil, truly speak they ill of others;
And if the Fathers had abode right there,
The murmurers would still have said their say,
For speaking thus is customary to them.
Yea, if a privy’s cover is put by,
Nothing but stink flies out and floats abroad;
Ill speech is spoken from the heart’s own plenty,
In which the venom of adders often lurks.
Posted By jabez @ 12:24 PM | Comments: 0 |
| Tuesday, October 31st, 2006
The Fire of Love (XIV, vi), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation set as a poem in modern English by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
This manner of soul forsooth, that may be taken
To so high love, and find translation there,
Ought to be chosen neither from an office,
Nor by the badge of outward prelacy;
Nor, chosen, be then called for secular errands.
Truly such souls are like the stones called topaz,
The which are seldom found, and held most precious,
In which there are two colors: one is gold,
The other clear as heaven when it’s bright.
This overcomes the clearness of all stones;
And nothing may be fairer to behold.
But if any would polish, it is made dim,
Yet truly if it is left to itself
Its brightness flashes forth, then is withheld.
So holy souls, of whom we spoke before,
Are also rare and therefore held most dear.
Their gold displays surpassing heat of charity;
They look to heav’n to find clearness of discourse;
Using a sentence formed of words or not.
In this way pass the lives of all the saints,
And therefore they are clearer, they are brighter
Among these stones, that is to say the chosen,
Because in loving, and having this lonely life,
They are clearer than all other souls,
That are, or were, or else have ever been.
But any who would polish such a soul,
That is to say, would honor them with dignities,
Are busy only lessening their heat,
And in a manner with this industry,
They make their fairness and their clearness dim;
For truly if these simple, shining souls
Get honor of some principality,
They shall forsooth be made fouler thereby
And of far less exemplary reward.
Therefore they shall be left to take good heed
To study, that their clearness may increase.
Posted By jabez @ 9:45 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Monday, October 30th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XIV, v), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Late Medieval Exhortation retold as a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
Soothly, heat I call it when the mind
Is truly kindled into love e’erlasting;
And the heart upkindles, the same manner,
Not hopingly, but verily felt to burn.
For the heart that has been turned to fire
Gives me the feeling of a burning love.
Song I call it, when in a soul the sweetness
Of everlasting praise accords with burning,
And thought is turned into a silent song;
And the mind is changed into sweet sound.
These first two are not got in idleness,
But come after high devotion and ardor;
To which the third is near, that is to say,
Sweetness, appears unbid, in form unthought.
For heat and song together truly cause
The birth of marvelous sweetness in the soul;
And are themselves caused by this full great sweetness.
There is not any flaw within this plenteousness,
It is the perfect ending of all deeds.
Yet some, all ignorant of contemplation,
And deceived by fiends in the midday hour
Into a noisome, false, and feignèd sweetness,
Promise themselves full high, when they are low.
The soul in which the foresaid three great things
Run together, bides together, impenetrable,
By any arrows of our enemy.
This soul, she is all times in thought of Him,
With mind unsmit, who raises her to heaven,
And stirs herself to love without adultery.
And marvel not, if melody be sent
Into the soul thus overcome in love,
For she continually receives this music,
Comfortable songs in tune with her Beloved;
And she lives not as if for vanity,
But as it were clad with the heavenly,
Yea so that she may burn without an end
In unwrought heat and never fall again.
She also loves unceasingly and burning,
And feels most happy heat throughout herself,
And knows herself more subtly burnt with fire,
The fire of endless love and pure communion,
Plainly feeling her most beloved sweetness,
Where meditation turns to songs of joy,
And nature is renewed to its creation,
And we enfolded in the heav’nly mirth.
Wherefore her Maker whom she has desired
With all her heart and will and thought and reason
Has granted her to pass without a dread
Or heaviness, from the corrupted body,
That without any heaviness of death
She may forsake this world, and find a better;
The which now being closest friend of light,
And foe of darkness, as loved nought but life.
Posted By jabez @ 3:28 PM | Comments: 0 |
| Friday, October 27th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XIV, iii), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation as a book-length poem by Jabez L. VanCleef.
Jeremiah commends life solitary
And he says: ‘Good it is to be a man;
When he has borne the yoke of God from youth,
He shall sit solitary and in peace;
For by desire and thoughtful contemplation
Of things invisible but everlasting,
He raises up himself above himself.’
Whence it is written in the holy scripture:
‘Natus non est in terra quasi Enoch;’
‘None is born on earth as Enoch was,’
Because Enoch was taken from the earth:
For contemplative men are higher than others
Both in their excellent work and hearty love.
Love lives in the heart of the solitary
If he seeks nothing from vain worldly lordship.
Alone, he utterly burns and longs for light,
Whilst he thus clearly savors something heav’nly;
And sings with honey-sweetness, without heaviness;
As like to seraphim as he can bring himself—
To whom he is like in his loving mind—
He cries and calls out to his noble Lover:
‘Behold, I burn in love, all hot, desiring.’
Thus with a fire unthought and thirling flame
The soul of the ghostly lover is burned on high.
It gladdens all things there, and heav’nlike sparkles.
And happily desiring, I make an end,
Always going forward to that I love,
For death to me is near, and sweet, and safe.
The holy solitary, clad in rags,
Because he suffered to sit in wilderness,
All to express his love for his dear Savior,
Shall receive a golden seat in heaven,
And excellence amongst orders of angels.
And because, for loving thus his Lord
He was clad in vile and threadbare clothing,
He shall do on a kirtle to his heels,
An everlasting garment of pure light,
Wrought with the clearness of his Lord and Maker.
And because he, taming his flesh, shamed not
To have a pale and lean and hungry face,
He shall receive full marv’lous shining face;
Fair mantle, woven in with precious stones,
Will he wear, for his despisèd clothes,
Among the mighty ones of Paradise.
And truly as he voided any vice,
Burgeoning not in jollity of this life,
He has cast out the species of all sin,
By ever burning love of God Almighty,
And has received into himself a sound,
Of all, most sweet and heavenly a sound;
The sound of singing songs, all full of charity
Worthily inshed, sweetly, to his mind.
Therefore bodily, without dread, he goes,
Out from this exile, hearing angels’ songs;
And he that loved our Savior Christ, most burning,
Now goes up to the Everlasting Hall,
And there he shall full worthily be taken
To a degree most joyful, with the seraphim.
Posted By jabez @ 7:05 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Thursday, October 26th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XIV, ii), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation set as a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
The house of God established in the wilderness
May thus be said to be the rest of sinners;
For holy hermits lost in contemplation
Are sundered from all worldly strifes and sins;
And, Christ allowing, they receive the sweetness
Of a clear conscience, through which shines His glory,
And singing the joys of everlasting love,
They rest, refreshed by the most merry heat;
Although with sharpness they are pricked in body,
Nevertheless they resolutely hold
Within their souls, the voice of praise and burning.
There is another wilderness of pride:
Where man may see him rise above all others,
Or what he has ascribed to his own might:
The pow’r of his free will; of whom, ’tis said:
Vae soli: ‘Woe to the man alone’;
For if he falls, he has no helper up.
In the very beginning of their turning—
I speak not of wayward runners about
That are the slander of a truer hermit—
They are made weary with divers temptations;
But after the early tempest of ill movings,
God insheds the glow of holy desires,
That if these hermits use themselves with vigor,
In weeping and meditating, and in praying,
And seeking only the sure love of Christ,
After a little while they shall all seem
To live more in delight within themselves,
Than in weeping, or narrowness of labor.
They shall have Him with them, whom they have loved;
Him whom they sought; and whom they have desired:
Then shall they joy and they shall not be heavy.
What is it truly to have joy in a thing,
Except to have the good that you desired?
And of this good, to think; and in it, rest?
No marvel mirth is sweet, where loves accord,
And where a merry solace touches love;
Truly the tongue of humans cannot tell
The satisfied desire of burning lovers,
And the sight and speech of each to th’ other
Is sweeter to them, than honey or honey-comb.
Posted By jabez @ 10:46 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Wednesday, October 25th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XIV, i), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of Medieval Exhortation made into a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef
CHAPTER XIV
OF THE PRAISE OF SOLITARY LIFE
AND OF THE FIRST LOVERS THEREOF:
AND THAT LOVE OF GOD STANDS IN HEAT, SONG, AND SWEETNESS:
AND THAT REST IS NEEDFUL:
AND THAT SUCH ARE SAVED FROM DECEITS,
AND ARE NOT SET IN PRELACY
Saint Job, in state of lowest tormentry,
Was taught by Holy Ghost this commendation
Of many manner of hermits knit to one:
Quis dimisit onagrum liberum,
‘Who let the wild ass free, and loosed her bands?’
First, therefore, he commends freedom of grace,
When he inquires, ‘Who let the wild ass free?’
Second, the putting away of fleshly desires;
When he declares, ‘and his bands loosed.’
He praises solitary conversation:
‘To her he gave a house in the wilderness.’
He commends desire of endless bliss:
‘And his tabernacle in the land of salt,’
For salt slakes not, but it increases thirst;
And so the more these hermits have received
Anything of the sweetness everlasting,
The more they strive to have, the more to taste.
Forsooth John Baptist, who is, after Christ,
The prince of hermits, eager in his desire,
Chose solitary life for proclamation;
And others also chose it, like to gadflies,
The which, says Solomon, have no governor,
But go by companies of gifts and virtues.
For there are bands of nature and of sin,
Which, though our Lord has loosed in supplicants,
He still confirms in bands of charity.
The house of God established in the wilderness
May thus be said to be the rest of sinners;
For holy hermits lost in contemplation
Are sundered from all worldly strifes and sins;
And, Christ allowing, they receive the sweetness
Of a clear conscience, through which shines His glory,
And singing the joys of everlasting love,
They rest, refreshed by the most merry heat;
Although with sharpness they are pricked in body,
Nevertheless they resolutely hold
Within their souls, the voice of praise and burning.
Posted By jabez @ 11:45 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Monday, October 23rd, 2006
The Fire of Love (XIII, iii), by Richard Rolle
Wherefore a heavenly noise now sounds within them,
And full sweet melody makes them ever merry;
For clatterings distract them ’mongst the many,
Which seldom suffer them to think or pray.
Of virtue solitary speaks the psalmist
In the Song of Love, wherein he sings:
‘I will go up alone into the place,
The marvellous chamber, into the house of God.’
And the psalmist tells the manner of going,
Rejoicing with songs of praise, then self-denial:
In voce exultationis et confesionis;
‘In voice of exultation and of shrift.’
That loneliness without a bodily song
Is needful that they get their songfelt joy,
And hold it long, in joying and in singing—
The psalmist shows this in another place:
Elongavi, inquit, fugiens; et mansi in solitudine;
‘Fleeing by myself, I have withdrawn,
and in the wilderness I make my house.’
For in this life the postulant will burn
In the very fire of Holy Ghost;
And into joy of love he will be taken
And, comforted by God, he will be glad.
For perfect lonely seekers hugely burn
Within the greater hugeness of God’s love;
And in surpassing of their minds, are rapt
Above themselves by singular contemplation,
They are all lift up, and joying lightly
Unto that sweet sound and heav’nly noise.
And such a one is likened to the seraphim,
A burning anchorite without comparison,
Steadfast, whose heart is wrought by godly fire;
And in full light and burning he is borne
Up into his love where time suspends,
And forsooth after this life he shall be
Suddenly taken up to the highest seats,
The seats where rest the heavenly citizens,
That in the place of fallen Lucifer,
Contemplative and singing silent inward,
He may full brightly shine with them forever.
For so great is the burning of his love
And more than can be shown us by his burning;
For he has sought only the Maker’s glory,
And going meekly, made his soul pure light,
And never raised himself above a sinner.
Posted By jabez @ 1:56 PM | Comments: 0 |
| Sunday, October 22nd, 2006
The Fire of Love (XIII,ii), by Richard Rolle
These righteous hermits have a single purpose:
They live in charity of God and neighbor,
Despising ev’ry form of worldly praise;
As much as they can flee, they flee man’s sight;
They hold all else more worthy than themselves;
They give their minds continually to devotion;
They shun all inattention and mere idleness;
They manly gainstand any fleshly lusts;
They savor and they burningly seek heavenly;
Earthly they covet not, but all forsake;
In sweetness of pent prayer they are delighted.
And truly some of them do come to feel
God’s sweetness of refreshment overflowing;
And with chaste heart and body they embrace it,
With undefilèd eye of mind behold it,
Truly see God, as citizens of heaven.
Because before, by bitter drink of penance,
They have so loved and learned to use great labor,
They are now set afire with other love,
The love of high and highest contemplation,
And lone are worthy to take heed to God,
And to bide living in the realm of Christ.
Therefore great and good’s the hermit’s life
But only if it’s greatly, goodly done.
Truly the blessed Maglorius, full of miracles,
Was from childhood gladdened seeing angels.
Made archbishop to fulfill a prophecy,
He long and worthily governed in God’s church;
Then, cautioned by the visit of an angel,
He left his place and chose a hermit’s life.
And at his passing, Maglorius was sainted.
Saint Cuthbert also lived as anchorite.
Therefore if men of such a great authority
Have shed it, for to have yet more reward,
Who of good mind would ever be so hardy
To set estates ’fore solitary life?
Truly do these hermits weight themselves
With nothing outward, only contemplation;
That they may always warm to love of Christ,
And set all worldly business perfectly after.
Posted By jabez @ 3:28 PM | Comments: 0 |
| Friday, October 20th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XIII,i), by Richard Rolle
CHAPTER XIII
THAT SOLITARY OR HERMIT’S LIFE
PASSES COMMON AND MIXED LIFE.
AND HOW IT COMES TO FIRE OF LOVE:
AND OF SWEETNESS OF SONG.
Some have been, perhaps are yet alive
That always set the common life before,
And never knew a solitary moment;
They say we ought to run to gatherings
If we desire to come to high perfection.
Against them there is not much to dispute,
Because they only grace that life with praise
The which they have, and they covet to keep,
Or at the least, know not how to condemn.
Truly they praise not solitary life,
For they know it not enough to praise.
There is a life which no man now in flesh
Can know, lest it is giv’n of God to have;
And no man judges truly of this thing,
Unsure what, and in what mann’r, it works.
No doubt, I know that if they knew it more,
They would praise it, even amongst themselves.
Others err worse that cease not to reprove;
They sneer and slander solitaries, saying:
Vae soli; ‘Woe be to a man alone;’
Not expounding ‘alone’ as ‘without God’,
But taking it to mean, ‘without a fellow.’
He truly is alone where God is not;
For when he comes into his time of death
Then he is tak’n alive to tormentry,
And shut away from any sight of God.
Who chooses living solitary life,
And leads it in a conscientious manner,
Is never near to woe, but fairer virtue;
And here the name of Jesus shall delight;
And the more they find the courage inward
To undertake this life without man’s solace,
That much the more shall it be given them
To be regladdened with God’s comforting.
Ghostly visitations they receive;
The which, when set in comp’ny, they know not.
Therefore ’t is said to a beloved soul:
Ducam cam in solitudinem, et ibi loquar ad cor ejus;
‘I shall lead her into the wilderness,
and there shall I speak love unto her heart.’
Some truly God has taught to love the desert
And to desire the wilderness for Christ,
To go there, and to hold a single purpose;
The which forthwith, that they may converse there,
More freely and devoutly serving God,
Forsake the common clothing of the world,
Despise and cast away all temporal things,
And there excelling in great height of mind,
Desiring only everlasting joy,
With only their intent and contemplation,
In every effort of their lives they strive,
And cease not their abandoned love of Christ.
Of whom full many stave off ghostly ruin,
Because from worldly men they dwell full far;
And yet they stumble not from heav’nly effort,
Because they’re far from wicked conversation.
Posted By jabez @ 9:48 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Thursday, October 19th, 2006
THE FIRE OF LOVE
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation, set as a book-length poem by Christian Poet Jabez L. Van Cleef.
Lord God, have mercy on me, pity me!
My youth was fond; and my childhood was vain;
My young age willful, and a thing unclean.
But now Lord Jesus see my heart enflamed
With holy love, for now my reins are changed;
My soul will not now touch for bitterness
What flesh before was my food night and day:
And my affections now are such that I
Hate nothing but to sin or think of sin.
Now I dread nought, nor fear, but to grieve God:
And I joy not, nor mirth, but to please God:
I sorrow not, but sins, not yet repented:
I love not anything, except for God:
For nothing joys my heart but Jesus Christ.
Forsooth myself I now bring praise to God,
Because by words of others He has saved me,
And showed a sweeter way to come to him;
With Christ’s grace so much working now in me,
He shall not find me worthy of reproof
In any way before the world’s temptation.
Posted By jabez @ 8:22 PM | Comments: 0 |
| Wednesday, October 18th, 2006
The Fire of Love by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation set as a poem in Modern English by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
CHAPTER XII
THAT NO ONE SHALL JUDGE ANOTHER,
BUT ALL GIVE GOD PRAISE:
AND OF EIGHT AFFECTIONS OF THE LOVE OF GOD:
AND THAT WORLDLY COMPANY BE ESCHEWED
If any person lives in holiness,
Righteously, he despises not the sinner.
Truly they, being tempted, fall away
Because they have no friend to stand beside,
Even if it’s by their own dark malice
They turned themselves at first from good to ill.
No person can work well, love God, be chaste,
Except God gives the power for it to him.
You swell in pride because you have done well,
For you restrained yourself from fleshly lusts,
And for your sins, you suffered sharper penance,
Wherefore you took praise from the mouth of man:
Have mind: without the goodliness of Christ
Which overcovered and protected you,
You should have fallen into many ills,
Or into worse state than they that are fallen.
Truly of yourself you had no grace,
No helper, but the One, to Whom is said:
Diligam te Domine, fortitudo mea;
‘You, O Lord my strength, You I shall love.’
Wherefore, if you have nought but what God’s grace,
God’s infinite acceptance, offered you,
And then were saved by that you have received,
Why pride yourself as if it were your birthright?
Daily do I do thanks to this my God;
The which, without my merit, has me chastened—
Restrained, governed, for my good and His honor—
So made His servant fear, that it seems sweet
To me to flee from all these worldly pleasures,
That are in truth both few and too soon slipping;
In so much restrained that I might be
Worthy to escape the pains of hell,
That are both many and shall never end.
And yet again my God has so taught me,
Giv’n to me the virtue of this teaching,
That I should gladly bear this present penance;
In so much that I might come full lightly
To everlasting love and delectation.
For if we will, lightly, without great sharpness,
We can repent and cleanse ourselves perfectly;
As long as we destroy vice where we find it;
And if we are not cleansed here on this earth,
Truly in times to come, we shall find cleansing
As the Apostle warned us, with these words:
Horrendum est incidere in manus Dei viventis.
‘How horrible is it to fall therein,
into the hands of the one and living God.’
Posted By jabez @ 9:39 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Tuesday, October 17th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XI, 3) by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation Recreated as a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
DESIRING TO DIE, I WILL BE LOOSED FROM SIN
For the death of ill affections lives
In him that takes all heed to contemplation;
Whose soul is therefore turned within his breast
Into another joy and another form.
For he lives now not only to himself,
But Christ himself now truly lives in him;
Wherefore he melts and languishes in love,
And nearly failed for sweetness, scarcely lives:
Nunciate dilecto quia amore langueo:
‘Show my Beloved, that I languish for love.’
Desiring to die, I covet to be loosed:
Full greatly now I yearn to go to heav’n.
Behold! For love I die! Lord, come to me!
Come, my Belovèd, lift me from my heaviness.
Behold I love: I sing: I am full hot:
I burn within myself a burning fire.
Have mercy upon me, I am wretched here;
I beg you, I be brought before Your face.
He that has this all-consuming joy,
Is in this life thus gladdened by desire,
He cannot err; inspired of the Holy Ghost,
Whatever he may choose to do is lawful.
No mortal man can give him counsel better
Than that he has himself from God immortal.
If others truly would give words to him,
Without doubt they shall err because he follows
Desire that cannot take the form of words,
And because they have not known his mind;
And if he would assent to use their skills,
God who constrains him shall not suffer this,
For God to His will holds him fast secure,
And he must follow this and pass it not.
Wherefore of such constraint is truly said:
Spiritualis omnia judicat, et a nemine judicatur;
‘The spiritual person judges all these things,
and will not be judged by any person.’
But no one is of such a great presumption
That he suppose himself to be this one:
Although he’s perfectly forsook the world,
And leads a perfect solitary life,
And therefore he cannot well be reproved;
There may be them who claim they have gone up
To utter contemplation of heav’nly things;
Yet this grace truly is not meant for all;
Contemplatives, but seldom; others, few:
The which, taking great rest of body and mind,
Are only drawn by strength of Godly love.
Full hard it is to find us such a person;
Because they’re few, full dear may they be held,
Desirable, and belovèd of God and man.
Angels joy when they pass from this world,
Whom angels’ company these dead become.
Many forsooth there are that oft would offer,
In great devotion and sweetness, prayers to God;
And praying and meditating they feel sweetness,
The silent singing burn of contemplation,
That comes from seeing God’s face very near;
And these run not about, but bide in rest.
Posted By jabez @ 1:03 PM | Comments: 0 |
| Monday, October 16th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XI,2), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation interpreted as a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
THAT THE LOVER OF CHRIST KNOWS TOO MUCH BEFORE HE KNOWS TOO LITTLE
Therefore it helps him that will sing God’s love,
And in his singing great rejoice and burn,
To find his silent voice out in the wilderness,
And not to live too much in abstinence;
Nor to be giv’n to superfluous strife.
Nevertheless ’t were even better for him
In little things to pass restraint unknowingly,
Eating with good intent, to sustain nature,
For too much fasting may lead him to fail,
In feebleness of flesh he could not sing.
Without doubt, he that chooses this way,
Neither in eating nor in abstinence
Is overcome by falsehood of the fiend.
Truly the lover of Christ, well taught of Christ,
With no less work of study and application,
Knows too much before he knows too little.
Without comparison he shall be more worthy,
When with song and prayer, and contemplation,
He eats and drinks well but does this discreetly;
Than if he fast forevermore without this,
Or eat a crust of bread alone, or herbs,
And should continually pray and read aloud.
I have eaten and drunk of what seemed best,
Not only because I loved the pleasantness,
But also so my nature would be sustained
In service to God and praise of Jesus Christ;
And in this I conformed myself in manner
To them with whom I dwelt for Christ in God;
And watched that I should not feign holiness
Where none is, nor that men should give me praise
Where I was all too little to be praised.
From divers company, also, I have gone,
Not because they fed me commonly,
Starved or bedded me in harder measure,
But because we differed in our manners,
Or for some other reasonable cause.
Nevertheless I say, with blessèd Job:
‘Fools have despised me;’ for then, I have seen,
That when I’m gone they make a false report,
And have backbitten and malignèd me;
Nevertheless they shall be full ashamed
When they see me after my privation,
That have made claim that I would not abide
Save where I might be delicately fed.
It is better I see what I despise,
Than to desire that which I may not see.
No marvel fasting is a full good thing,
To cast down the desires of the flesh,
And to make tame wild wantonness of mind.
Truly then, do fleshly desires lie prone
In him who goes to heights of contemplation
By silent song and th’inner burn of love.
Posted By jabez @ 10:35 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Monday, October 16th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XI,2), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation interpreted as a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
THAT THE LOVER OF CHRIST KNOWS TOO MUCH BEFORE HE KNOWS TOO LITTLE
Therefore it helps him that will sing God’s love,
And in his singing great rejoice and burn,
To find his silent voice out in the wilderness,
And not to live too much in abstinence;
Nor to be giv’n to superfluous strife.
Nevertheless ’t were even better for him
In little things to pass restraint unknowingly,
Eating with good intent, to sustain nature,
For too much fasting may lead him to fail,
In feebleness of flesh he could not sing.
Without doubt, he that chooses this way,
Neither in eating nor in abstinence
Is overcome by falsehood of the fiend.
Truly the lover of Christ, well taught of Christ,
With no less work of study and application,
Knows too much before he knows too little.
Without comparison he shall be more worthy,
When with song and prayer, and contemplation,
He eats and drinks well but does this discreetly;
Than if he fast forevermore without this,
Or eat a crust of bread alone, or herbs,
And should continually pray and read aloud.
I have eaten and drunk of what seemed best,
Not only because I loved the pleasantness,
But also so my nature would be sustained
In service to God and praise of Jesus Christ;
And in this I conformed myself in manner
To them with whom I dwelt for Christ in God;
And watched that I should not feign holiness
Where none is, nor that men should give me praise
Where I was all too little to be praised.
From divers company, also, I have gone,
Not because they fed me commonly,
Starved or bedded me in harder measure,
But because we differed in our manners,
Or for some other reasonable cause.
Nevertheless I say, with blessèd Job:
‘Fools have despised me;’ for then, I have seen,
That when I’m gone they make a false report,
And have backbitten and malignèd me;
Nevertheless they shall be full ashamed
When they see me after my privation,
That have made claim that I would not abide
Save where I might be delicately fed.
It is better I see what I despise,
Than to desire that which I may not see.
No marvel fasting is a full good thing,
To cast down the desires of the flesh,
And to make tame wild wantonness of mind.
Truly then, do fleshly desires lie prone
In him who goes to heights of contemplation
By silent song and th’inner burn of love.
Posted By jabez @ 10:35 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Sunday, October 15th, 2006
The Fire of Love (XI,1), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of 14c. English Mystic's Spiritual Exhortation, recreated in Modern English by Christian poet Jabez L. Van Cleef.
CHAPTER XI
THAT LOVERS OF GOD SHALL DEEM WITH HIM: AND OF THE LOVE OF KNOWLEDGE GOTTEN BY LABOR, AND OF GOD:
AND THAT A TRUE LOVER ERRS NOT, NOR IS BEGUILED
NEITHER WITH FASTING NOR ABSTINENCE,
COUNSEL NOR PRESUMPTION
The human soul is God’s own resting place;
Anything less than God cannot fulfill it:
Wherefore are earthly lovers not fulfilled.
The rest therefore of Christ’s true loves comes, when
Their hearts are fastened by desire and thought
In love of God entwining flesh and spirit;
And loving, burning, singing, contemplate Him.
Sweetest of all is rest the spirit takes
Whilst sweeter godly sound comes down to wake it,
In which it is delighted and aroused,
And in most sweet and playful silent songs
The mind is ravishèd to sing delights.
And forsooth praise of God sounds yet again
In the mouth and breast of the blest Maiden,
In whom it joys us more than may be thought.
No marvel that this happens, whilst the heart
Is utterly burnt with heav’nly singing fire,
The flame all figured into God’s own likeness,
From which is all more sweet and merry song,
Moistening our hearts with heav’nly savor.
So contemplation yields inward delights,
In song and thought, and joys in burning love.
This truly is a thing unpromiseable;
Mortals may eat the bread of angels, but
He that hears this, promises not that anything
So passing sweet and ever full of sweetness
Can be perceived by man, by any person,
Being yet here in bodies that will rot,
And grievèd with the fetters of mortality.
They who perceive this marvel, they are gladdened,
Because of goodness, which cannot be told,
Of God, that gives His goodness plenteously,
Stinting not them who would know what he is.
Forsooth when supplicants want such great things—
And truly these are callèd great because
To souls still toiling here, they are unknown—
God never yields himself in our prosperity,
But always when we languish here in love;
Then whilst I wake, I sing continually,
My mind thinks all of love and of my lover,
And if I am alone, more sweetly sing.
Truly from the time that I received it,
Never after, shall I go fully from it;
But evermore for heat, sweetness, and singing—
If all these be not near—I bide in wait.
But all these truly bide together in me,
Unless they are oppressed by full great sickness
Of the head, or breast, or throat, or side;
Or by great hunger or thirst that eat the flesh;
Or by too much of cold or heat or travel.
Posted By jabez @ 6:34 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Saturday, October 14th, 2006
THE FIRE OF LOVE, STILL BURNING
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation as interpreted in modern English poetry by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
ON THOSE WHO FEIGN THEIR HOLINESS
Yet when these actors, who abound in riches,
Are fed with riches, sleep in the lap of riches,
Then they say that they have eat but little,
And that the greatness of their deprivation
Gives them thought this world is only vanity;
That, as they say, they scarcely breathe, for feebleness.
Deceitful they are, and they have worldly wisdom;
And they beguile the innocent with that,
So they are not perceived as lying in wait
(In as much as they are aware they are);
They hide their covetousness under false title
Of ghostly rest, midst sacred self-denial.
The which do alms, or any deed they do,
That it may well be seen of other men.
And so their deeds provoke the wrath of God,
For they want, not to be, but be seen holy;
But such, although they lurk here for a time,
Soon shall appear of what kind they have been,
Before the end, or at least, in the end.
Within, where God sees, wanting in true charity,
They challenge their own share of joy, not God’s.
Truly, full hard it is to have great riches,
And not to love them; also it is hard
To work for winning craft or offices,
And not be covetous of the ones who have them.
Wherefore ofttimes are priests defamed by people:
That though they’re chaste, they are found covetous,
Or if they’re gen’rous they are made out lechers.
And ofttimes so it happens that in having
The benefits of priesthood and position,
They fall as much deep mired down into sin
As the degree unworth’ly took is high.
Truly, I have noticed not a few,
Set all afire with noisome covetousness,
Who under color of sickness or of poverty
Will say that they must gather up their goods
So that they may eschew some sudden wretchedness.
But they, beguiled by fiends, have lost their goods,
And run into the darkness they must dread,
Because they heed not God and find humility,
God that delivers His servants, in His sight:
What is worst of all, that whilst within
They are fulfilled with worldly covetousness,
Without they seem in their own eyes to shine
As tokens of pure love and holiness.
Our Lord’s own servant trusts him in our Lord;
And gives the goods which he has, over his need,
To them that need he gives what he needs not.
The servant of the world more truly studies
To keep all that he has, because he covets,
And his covetousness never is fulfilled:
So great a niggard he, that he eats nought,
Save foully, secretly, and ever scarcely,
So that, being close, he gathers more of money.
And these are they the psalmist shames, saying:
‘Inimici ejus terram lingent;’
‘His enemies shall lick the very earth.’
Posted By jabez @ 7:54 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Friday, October 13th, 2006
The Fire of Love (X), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the book-length poem of medieval exhortation, adapted by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
CHAPTER X
THAT GOD’S LOVER FORSAKES THE WORLD,
IDLENESS AND IRKSOMENESS:
AND OF HYPOCRITES AND THE COVETOUS
Sing the Canticle: ‘Love is strong as death;
And love is hard as hell;’ This also sing.
Death truly kills the quick; and hell spares not;
So, certainly, the love of God will kill,
Not only quick’ning love of this ripe world
In the good soul that it has perfect ravisht;
But also, being slain to this dead world,
And quickened once again to sit in heav’n,
It stirs him suffer certain tribulation
And worldly wretchedness to merit God.
Wherefore all, whosoever you may be,
That hope that you love Christ, now this take heed;
For if you yet see earthly things delightful,
And also find your soul too high to suffer
The wrongs of earth, or else, down unto death,
You show forsooth you are not God’s true lover.
Such lover neither turns eyes to this world,
Nor dreads to suffer all that seems so heavy
Or hard upon his body, for his God;
And whatsoever thing may come to him
Yet he is never hindered from the thought
Of Jesus his Beloved, waiting friendly.
You also that expect to be God’s lover,
Or with your whole mind you desire to be,
Study alway, as much by grace you can,
And learn not to be noyed by irksomeness,
Nor to be taken off with idleness.
And if it sometimes happen that sweet ease
Be not to you in praying, or good thinking,
And that you are not made ready in mind
By the song of holy contemplation,
And you cannot sing silent as you did;
Yet cease not there, to read or pray, or else
Do some other good deed, whatsoever,
But slide not into idleness or sloth.
Irksomeness has drawn many down to idleness,
And idleness, to negligence and wickedness.
Wherefore have zeal as much as in you is;
And have not your desire bowed to other:
Anything of this world that may be had.
No man truly is perfectly knit to God,
Whilst his desire binds any worldly creature.
There are some, seeming outward oned to God,
Who are within all given o’er to fiends.
These are simulators and false men,
That challenge with their masque the wrath of God.
Feigners forsooth they are, with artful mien
Despising the world with their lamenting words,
As with their deeds they love it far too much.
They will often be seen speaking of God,
And are so much compelled by love of money
That they strive for the weight of two halfpence.
The which, when opening their mouths to God,
Are utterly wanting any charity;
And whilst they have no heat of faith and love,
They show themselves most holy in their gait,
Somber in clothing, and severe in speech.
These also boast themselves right strong and steadfast
When faced with light disease or deprivation,
But when they come thereto where they should stick,
There they are soonest broken, there they fall.
Then, what before was hid, is widely shown.
Posted By jabez @ 9:39 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Thursday, October 12th, 2006
The Fire of Love (IX,3), by Richard Rolle
Interpretation of Medieval Exhortation by Christian Poet Jabez L. Van Cleef.
HOW TO KNOW WHAT MEEKNESS IS
Here let us tell what traits of meekness are:
To hold the eyes down low, not lift them high;
To have a meas’re in speech, and not to pass it;
To hear gladly from betters and those more wise;
To will that wisdom should be heard from others,
Rather than prideful ranting from themselves.
Not to be urgent and give speech too soon.
Not to go too far from the common life.
To set the needs of others before their own;
To know their frailties and to judge themselves
More closely than their betters would judge them.
And if they wished to come among society,
To ask that they might sit last in their number,
And might be held least in the main opinion.
In these things, all their joy should be in Jesus;
And thus they should not heed the voice of praising,
But with devotion should aspire to God.
I see how many that would speak with me
Were in their count’nance like to scorpions;
For they have fawned and flattered with their head,
And with backbiting tail they have me smitten;
These from whose wicked lips and sorr’wful tongue
God shall give my soul the joy of rest.
But whence is come this madness to man’s mind
That none are blamed, and none will be reproved,
And all seek truly to be praised in all?
They joy in honor, and they laugh in favour.
They also bear the name of holier life;
Such claim they are above all measure holy,
Or else, deluding their companions, mad,
Although they all be callèd wise and taught.
For who of good mind is there leaves himself,
Not taking heed to cover or feed himself,
And gladdens in void words of vanity?
Truly if they behold themselves right busily,
To know what kind they are in thought and deed,
They may soon understand their own demeanor,
And find it worthy of praise, or of reproof.
When therefore they see themselves and judge,
In much blameworthy, and in little praised,
They should not take this judgement with such gladness,
Honor, or favor, of which they are not worthy;
Unless they have gone mad or erred in mind.
Truly, if I consider myself carefully,
And find I’m waxing marvellously warm
In the heat and sweetness of God’s love,
And I rise highly into contemplation,
And in this region continually I stand;
And have in mind I have not done great sins,
Or if I have, I promise they are cleansed:
Then truly it behooves me not to sorrow
For that I lost or gained honor of men.
More worthy was the fellowship of angels.
Whosoever is thus disposed to seek God’s love,
Should no more joy to sit beside a king
Than tarry and converse with a poor man;
He takes no heed to riches and to honors,
But finds life and rewards with every one.
I praise not them who shine their breasts in gold,
Or are enfolded with great panoply,
Or go in purple and in glad array,
As bishops in their vast processions do:
But truly set myself a holier path:
Conscience before, pleasures and riches after.
Posted By jabez @ 8:23 PM | Comments: 0 |
| Wednesday, October 11th, 2006
The Fire of Love (IX,2), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef, based on the medieval exhortation of Richard Rolle, 14c. English mystic and hermit.
HOW THEY WHO NOW LIVE IN WANT WILL THEN JOY IN HEAV'NLY GLORY
Wherefore no tribulation, no disease,
No wretchedness, no shame, and no reproach,
Is to be dreaded by the righteous man
As long as he sins not and always profits
In contemplative life and love of God.
Truly before we come into his mansion,
In which we shall be glad, and filled with sweetness,
With the angels of God and all His saints,
It befalls us here to be reproved
By flatterers, wrong sayers, fawners, praisers,
By blamers and backbiters, pow’rs and toadies,
So that, when all of us shall be examined,
Our conduct may be righteous, always given
To Christ’s precepts and His redeeming counsel,
In patient meekness, and in charity;
‘Tanquam aurum in fornace probavit eos;’
‘As gold he proved them in the fiery furnace,’
For they survived fire on whatever side,
And He has found them worthy for Himself.
Thus let us go through all adversity,
Let us prosper us through fire and water,
Unto the time we come to the refreshing
And slake our thirsting of the heavenly life.
Have in mind also that you never grumble,
In all disease and need and poverty,
Nor speak too fondly nor shout loud and willful—
But in all things remember thanks to God.
Thereby in truth you shall be lifted up
More joyf’lly to the kingdom of the saints,
If in this world you suffer these things gladly.
O my soul, among all things before us,
Praise you your Lord with liking and devotion;
And praising, feel a sweetness and a singing;
And taste the words of honeysweet devotion:
‘Laudabo Dominum in vita mea,’
‘I shall worship the Lord in all my life,’
Whether I be diseased or eased in mind;
Whether I get me earthly honor or shame;
As long as I am, I shall sing to God.
For if I rest, still I shall sing in Jesus;
And still sing if I suffer persecution,
I sing, forgetting not the love of God.
Truly it is enough to sing my God,
To come to Him; since I can do no other.
And yet, I come not, with my love of God,
With as great love as did my mother and father,
Who also did so many another good thing;
Whereof I shame myself, and am confused.
Therefore, O Lord, make broad my heart again,
That it may be quick to get Your love.
For the more I am prepared to taste it,
So much the more of charity I savor,
And the less I care for this my flesh;
But I deny myself with some discretion,
So that it is with me, as this sentence:
‘Modicum mihi laboravi et inveni mihi multam requiem;’
‘A little have I travailèd with myself,
and I have found great rest within myself.’
For after years of life in moderation,
The righteous have found rest for everlasting.
The holy love of God so shows himself
Neither too merry, nor full heavy in humor,
As in this habitation of our exile
We wait, in cheer, with gathering of ripeness.
Forsooth, some reprove laughter and some praise it.
Laughter therefore which is from lightness only,
And vanity of mind, shall be reproved;
But laughter that is gladness of a conscience,
Laughter, ghostly mirth, is to be praised;
The which is only in a righteous soul,
And it is called mirth in the love of God.
Wherefore if we be glad and merry, then
The wicked look at us and call us, wanton;
And if we be sad and heavy, hypocrites.
Seldom, soothly, can anyone find in others
A good that he finds not within himself;
And he believes another has the sin
That likewise into which, himself, he stumbles.
Here is the deed foreseen of wicked souls:
If any righteous follow not their life,
They trust this one goes wrong and is deceived;
This is because they have forsaken meekness.
Posted By jabez @ 11:11 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Tuesday, October 10th, 2006
The Fire of Love (IX,1), by Richard Rolle
14c. Medieval Exhortation interpreted as a book-lenth poem by Christian poet Jabez L. Van Cleef. The blog is updated every day.
CHAPTER IX
THAT GOD IS TO BE LOVED AND WORSHIPPED
IN DISEASES:
AND ALSO OF THE MIRTH
AND MEEKNESS OF THE GOOD
If temporal honor is destroyed by shame,
And worldly praise withered by villainy,
Then you may see, without a trace of doubt,
Reproach is better for your soul than worship:
Shame conquers high degree; and misery, praise.
For by these worldly works we ofttime slide
Into vainglory’s vast, deceiving web;
By trial always, if we bear it patiently,
We in this life shall be well taught of meekness,
And in the time to come, suffer no pain—
For God will never punish the righteous twice—
And when they come on high they shall be crowned:
The patience of the poor will never perish.
Truly to holiness do these things belong:
First, to think, and then to speak and do
In no manner, what displeases God;
And then, to think, and then to speak, and work
What may please God in all your worldly way.
Do this after the knowledge that you have,
So that you neither fall into quick slander,
Nor feign too much of holiness with others:
It’s foolishness to show yourself as holy,
And cruelty to seem evil, when you’re good.
Some things there are that when one sees them right,
In themselves, are neither good nor evil,
For in their purest nature they are not
Either rewardful, nor yet unrewardful;
And if such things are done, displease not God;
Nor if they’re left undone, they please not God.
For much there is we may see, smell, and touch,
And yet earn no reward or unreward.
All sin truly is done to God’s displeasing,
Our neighbor’s noying, or to our own harm.
But many things there are, are none of these.
Only, to be by earth despised, or lost,
Makes souls ascend to reach the joy of angels.
O my good Jesus, here chastise, here cut,
Here smite, here burn; yea, whatsoever please
Your goodness, do to me; so that in time,
In time to come I find I have none ill,
But still may feel Your love here everlasting.
To be despised by all the rank of men,
Lost in confusion, shamed and scorned for You,
Is sweeter to me than to be called a brother
By all these earthly emperors and kings,
Or to be honored mongst all host of men.
May wretchedness fall on me, whatever side
In this life, so God spare me in the other.
I will to be chastised, corrected here;
And Christ my teacher, please that grant to me,
If otherwise I void not pain to come.
The truly proud, and those glutted of wrath,
Seem to themselves so worthy in their blindness
That they can suffer nothing; they are moved
Ofttimes at light words, and without a cause.
Therefore, by honest meek and mendicant,
They should be fled more than be overcome;
For what they take up, that they will defend,
No matter if it be false or untrue;
And neither with authority nor reason
Will they in obstinance be overcome,
For they are watchful they should not be heard
To say a word that may be unaccording.
And when they are untaught—and that they know—
They will behave as if they were inspired
In all things that they speak in God’s behalf,
So that they may declare in every place
Without the gainsaying of any person;
And that they would prefer stay still in error
Than be by others openly reproved.
Brethren, leave proud madness and mad pride,
And let us strive greatly to meek ourselves
Whiles we are in this contemplative way:
For it is better, lovelier, and sweeter,
That after we find death, Christ says to us,
‘Friend, come uppermore,’ than that He say,
‘Churl, go downermore,’ at his long table.
So truly shall it be of meek and proud.
Posted By jabez @ 10:32 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Monday, October 9th, 2006
The Fire of Love (VIII,2), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the medieval exhortation interpreted as a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
ON THE DIFFICULTY IN YOUTH OF AVOIDING FLESHLY ENTANGLEMENTS
This also you may see without a doubt:
That no young man stays holy among flatterings,
Languishing in sweet words of fair young women,
Scheming for plenteousness of liking things,
Where so great things will stir so many to fall,
And holy men have ofttimes lost their way;
Unless, it is by unthought work of grace.
Wherefore I promise, that it is a miracle
When youth, by grace of God and love of Christ,
Perfectly despises all these cherishings,
And manfully passes twixt these enemies—
Like swords, although they seem soft to the flesh—
To reach the seat of heavenly contemplation.
Each without fail, the holier he may be,
The more he may be filled with God’s own love,
With solace of the contemplating flame;
Though set in worldly fire, he may not burn;
And the foul lusts of any unclean life
Off’ring themselves, he perfectly dismisses.
It is no marvel, though it’s seldom seen,
Christ works to bring his own beloved to Him:
‘Expandit nubem in protectionem eorum, et ignem ut luceret eis per noctem;’
‘He has spread a cloud of God’s own grace,
for their defense against fleshly desires,
and the fire of great and endless love
to give them light within their darkened mind,
through the long night of this earthly life,’
That they may not be taken by th’ abandoned,
The vicious, smooth corruption of vain beauty.
Would that Christ’s love burn in all these innocents,
With so great sweetness, that all fleshly liking
May not only seem, but be unlawful;
That they find it foul, and they despise it.
Therefore youth, touch you not lecherously
That which is lawful neither to want nor have.
Have in mind also to withhold your hand,
Your tongue, your body, your imagination;
And displease not your conscience about women.
Truly, stirrings of lechery are the array
Of men and women striving for attraction;
Also hot lectuaries, and other foods,
That with their warmth too much enflame the flesh.
O nourishers of bodies, stay your hand,
That Pander makes you killers of their souls!
Such meat should be eschewed by all the chaste.
Posted By jabez @ 8:14 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Sunday, October 8th, 2006
The Fire of Love (VIII), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation of a recluse soul, interpreted as a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
CHAPTER VIII
THAT THE PERFECT LOVER OF GOD
HAD LIEVER RUN INTO GREAT PAIN
THAN BY SIN ONCE GRIEVE GOD:
AND WHY GOD TORMENTS THE RIGHTEOUS
BY THE WICKED
From the great fire of ghostly love unwrought,
Such great beauty of virtue grows in souls
That the righteous would rather choose to suffer
All tribulation, than once to sorrow God;
Although we knew we might rise up by penance
And afterward God deem us the more holy.
For each one perfect understands this thing:
Nothing is more dear to God than innocence,
Nothing more pleasing than unspoiled good will.
For truly if we love God as we ought,
We’d sooner lose our great reward in heav’n
Than once sin venially by proud intention;
It is most righteous to ask no reward
Of righteousness, but being friend of God;
The friendship, that of God, is God Himself.
Therefore it is better, suffer tormentry,
Than once, all wilfully and knowingly,
Be led from righteousness to wickedness.
Wherefore it is that they who follow Christ
Will in no wise sin, and shall be free
From pain, enjoying endlessly with angels.
They truly that would serve their wicked needs,
And think that world and fleshly solace is
To be so loved, to have what they desire,
Forsooth they lose the joy that they are after,
And find the wickedness they should have lost.
But it is likely to be asked by some,
Why God almighty sees it fit to chastise
The wicked and the righteous all together?
You see under the flail, both corn and chaff;
But in the winnowing, out the chaff is cast,
And corn is busily gathered to man’s use.
If all men lived right truly, there’s no doubt
We’d dwell in peace and great tranquility,
Flourishing without debate and battle;
But since among few good are many evil,
Diseases come that evil may be chastised:
And thus do evil things fall on good men
Because each kind is mingled with the other.
The righteous also, are right keen to sin:
So that their readiness be not brought to deed,
They’re taught to take a lighter scrubbing here,
That they may ’scape the bitterer scouring later.
Therefore if you should suffer persecution,
Wretchedness, oppression, and disease,
You have just that you would expect to have
From the narrow place in which you dwell.
Is this world not still called the vale of tears?
How would you now, therefore, be glad in prison?
Flourish in all prosperity, in your exile?
Or make your pilgrimage without diseases?
Have mind what Christ and His apostles suffered,
And you by bliss seek now to come in joy!
Either now, that fire, that love of God,
Shall loose and scrape the rust of all our sins,
And cleanse our souls and give them wings to flee
To bliss; or else, when this life ends, the fire
Of purgat’ry shall purify our souls,
So when death comes, we ’scape the fire of hell:
If strength of Godly love be that much in us
That fire would never altogether burn us,
Then it behooves us to be cleansed and tried
With tribulation, sickness, and diseases.
Posted By jabez @ 6:55 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Saturday, October 7th, 2006
The Fire of Love (VII-2), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation interpreted as a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
HOW CHARITY MAKES US PERFECT AND HOW THE POOR ARE GLORIFIED.
He forsooth that loves greatest is greater,
Loves less is less, and who loves least is least:
After the size of charity within us,
Shall we be praised when we stand before God.
So it is not, before small human judgement,
Where they that have most riches or fine goods
Are most considered and especially dreaded;
But they who think thus, ought not so to do,
Instead most honoring and dreading them
That they suppose be the best in knowledge.
Truly the mighty of this world do nothing
But for their bodies or their transient goods.
Holy mendicants demonstrate more worthiness;
For they have power to shut fast heav’n’s gate
To them that did them ill and withheld penance:
And they have power to open the lock of heav’n
To those that honored them with charity,
And fed them in the exile of this world;
Who whilst they were arrayed with gen’rous deeds,
Would not receive vainglory in return.
Wherefore we should travail to get, to have,
To hold to charity with all our might
And all our strength, that when we meet temptation
We may unstinting stand against the enemy;
And when we shall be proved, we may receive
The crown of life in heav’n everlasting.
Charity truly makes us perfect souls;
And only those who practice loving perfectly
May come to th’ highest contemplative life.
Truly the poor, although they may be clad
With heaviness, uncleanness, dirt and stink,
Yet they should never for this be despisèd;
For they are friends of God, brethren of Christ,
If they bear poverty with deeds of praise.
Then surely persons you despised without,
You honor in your heart as heav’nly citizens;
And in so much you honor them for God,
In so much He priv’ly works His Godhead;
The which, to comfort them, He tells them:
‘Beati pauperes quoniam vestrum est regnum Dei,’
‘Blessed you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.’
For the great need they suffer in this life,
After they die, are purged of all their sins.
For whilst the poor man suffers so with hunger,
Thirst, and cold, and nakedness and other,
He’s purged in soul from sin and worldly filth.
And truly in the time to come, poor men
Shall feel the sweeter rest of everlasting.
And in as much as in this life they’ve borne
Most grievous labors, they may truly say:
‘Laetati sumus pro diebus quibus nos humiliasti, annis quibus vidimus mala;’
‘Gladdened are we for all the days of joy
in which O Lord You have rewarded us,
for the years in which we have seen grief.’
Wherefore embrace your poverty with joy,
And have mind to bear goodly wretchedness;
That by the sufferance of your tribulation
You may be worthy to come to the joy
Of everlasting peace, after you die!
Posted By jabez @ 6:58 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Friday, October 6th, 2006
The Fire of Love (VII), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation, interpreted as a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef. The poet declares and describes the mystery of the Holy Trinity.
CHAPTER VII
THAT IN THE GODHEAD
WE OUGHT NOT TO SAY THREE GODS OR THREE ESSENCES,
AS WE SAY THREE PERSONS:
AND THAT EACH OF US SHALL BE CALLED GREAT OR SMALL
AFTER THE QUANTITY OF LOVE WITHIN US
If any, erring, say the Trinity
Are three in Essence, for they are three Persons,
Why should they also not declare, three Gods?
We say truly that the Father is God;
The Son is God; the Holy Ghost is God;
The Father also is, His self-same Essence;
The Son His Essence; the Holy Ghost His Essence:
Yet not three Gods, three Essences, we say;
But rather one God and three Persons are
To be one Essence: this in faith we grant.
One Godhead truly is there, in three Persons,
Full and perfect; each one, in itself,
Contains itself the whole of that one Godhead;
Evenhood and onehood, all forsooth,
Having after Substance of the Godhead;
Not lacking in distinction of diversity
After the property of the Person’s Name.
They also are three Persons and one god;
One Essence; and one Substance; and one Godhead:
And, though each One is token of the Essence,
And, though there are three Persons, and one God,
Yet from this we see not three Essences.
And as our God, the Father, and the Son,
And the Holy Ghost, we call one Essence,
So do we say of Holy Trinity:
It is three Persons, and not one alone.
The Father is so called, for of Himself
He gat a Son whom we call Jesus Christ;
The Son so called, because the Father got him;
The Holy Ghost, is called because of both
The Holy Fath’r and Son, He is inspired.
The Father, Life, who got the Son, Life,
Has giv’n to Him His whole and living Substance:
So that the Father should be as much in th’ Son
As the Father is within Himself,
(The Son not less in th’ Father than in Himself).
The Father takes His Essence of no other;
The Son takes in His birth truly His Father;
The Holy Ghost takes of the Father and Son;
And with Them, and in Them, endlessly being,
Is no more in Himself than is in them:
For He is even, everlasting with Them,
Of whom He is; since He is of same Substance,
Of the same Essence, and of the same Godhead;
And the third Person in the Trinity.
Truly the everlasting Son of God the Father
Is become Man, born of a maid, in time,
That He might gainbuy from fiendish power
These souls and bodies of God’s willful creature.
This is our Lord whom we name Jesus Christ:
The which we fasten in our minds secure;
As He for us was nailed upon the cross.
Nothing is so sweet as to love Christ.
Therefore we ransack not too much those things
That we in this life may not well conceive.
Truly in heaven they shall be clear as light,
If we give all our hearts to loving God.
For we shall ready then be taught of God;
And we shall joy in marv’llous melody,
And in high mirth we shall then praise our Maker,
In full sweet easiness, without constraint.
Posted By jabez @ 6:51 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Thursday, October 5th, 2006
The Fire of Love (VI-2), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation interpreted as a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
The mystic tells of the incomprehesible nature of God, and of how this limit to our understanding commends us to perfect himulity.
Nothing can be perfect known, unless
The cause thereof, how it has come to be,
Were perfect known and also clearly said.
In this life here, we know only in part;
We understand in part, less than we know.
In the life to come we shall know fully,
As may be lawful or may help such creatures.
Forsooth he that desires to know of God,
Above what may be helpful, lawful, useful,
Without doubt falls that much the farther off
From perfect knowledge of Himself and God.
You ask what God is? And I answer shortly:
Such a one, so great is He, that none
Other is or ever may be like.
If you know properly to speak of God,
You’ll never find an answer to this question.
I have not known; the angels, they know not;
Archangels, pow’rs, dominions, have not heard.
Wherefore how would you know what is unknown
Cannot be spoke, and is unteachable?
Truly, God almighty may not teach you
What He Himself is, howso you may plead.
For if you knew what God is, you should be
As wise as God is, not just think you are;
And that, not you nor other creature may be.
Friend, be strong therefore in your degree,
Desire not high things which you may not have;
For if you want to know all that God is,
You would be God; the which becomes you not.
Know that God knows Himself, and God knows you.
And truly it is not of God’s unpower
For God to teach Himself as is Himself,
For all of His inestimable worthiness;
For such a one as He is, is none other.
And if He might make Himself truly known,
Then were He not incomprehensible.
It is enough for you, therefore, to know
That God is; and it were that much ’gainst you
If you would strive to know more, what God is.
Yet you shall be praised to know God perfect;
That is to say, in spite of your own limit,
Although He cannot be fully conceived:
Yet what we know of Him we love in Him;
And what we love in Him we sing in Him;
And as we sing, we come to rest in Him,
And by our inward rest, find endless rest.
And let it not move you to protest here,
That I have said to know God perfectly,
And yet denied that God may be full known:
Because the prophet in the psalm has said:
‘Praetende misericordiam tuam, scientibus te,’
‘Your mercy show to them, who know of You.’
Thus understand this psalm and do not err:
‘To them, who know of You,’ that is to say:
‘To them, O God, who love, and praise, and worship,
And glorify You, Maker of all things;
Above all things, and through, and in all things;
That may be blessèd in the world of worlds.’
Posted By jabez @ 8:51 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Wednesday, October 4th, 2006
The Fire of Love (VI), by Richard Rolle
CHAPTER VI
CONCERNING HERETICS:
AND FAITH IN THE TRINITY
The mystic explains the mysterious unity of the the Holy Trinity.
CHAPTER VI
The bounty and the whole of holy truth
Shows itself to them that seek in earnest;
And to the children of that Unity
Hidden mysteries are easily open.
Wherefore, soothly, springs the heretic,
But from an untaught and inordinate mind,
Blinded by desire of its own excellence?
For truly they cease not resisting God
Within themselves, by forming vain desires;
But it is also by their getting praise,
When with their open arguments they strive
To gainstand truth and speak out falsehood plain.
When the Christian religion cuts away
All that is contrary to its truth,
And fully accords, in unity of love,
The manner of the heretic and proud
Is to get themselves some new opinions,
And speak abroad to make known sundry questions,
Unwont and counter to the holy church;
And all those things that Christians hold most holy
They joy to scatter with their vanities.
Now we these errors cast away, declaring:
Truly the Son of God, even the Father,
Who is without beginning, nor an end,
Is evermore now thought and understood;
For if the Father had not begotten Him
Without beginning, then the entire Godhead
Should not have been in Him when he appeared.
Soothly if God had been at some time Father
Yet then He had no Son, it is no marvel
That then He was less than He became afterward,
When He had gotten for Himself a Son;
And that, no man of good mind shall now say.
Therefore God, Father and unchangeable
Begets God Son, also unchangeable;
And whom He has begotten from eternity
He ceases not now, also to beget.
For neither might the substance of the Son
Be called at any time thus, unbegotten,
Nor might the being of the Great Begetter
Ever be conscious of Himself without
His only Son, begotten of Himself.
And as Godhead’s beginning is not found
Of reas’n or wit, for it has not beginning,
So does the generation of the Son
With God forev’r, unchangingly abide.
When truly shows itself the marv’l and worship
Of God, so clearly and into the infinite,
Almighty, without beginning nor an end,
To what end shall our folly raise itself
In striving to make known to ears of mortals,
A sacrament unable to be spoken?
Who truly knows God perfectly, feels God
Incomprehensible, not to be known.
Posted By jabez @ 7:05 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006
The Fire of Love (V-3), by Richard Rolle
HOW THE POOR ARE JOINED IN HEAVEN BY SOULS OF ALL THE FAITHFUL DEAD
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation by Richard Rolle in the the form of a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
The reader is warned not to engage in too much learning and disputation at the expense of true charity and love of other people, which proceeds from meekness and faith.
And though now they behold the cheer of truth,
And they are moistened with delectable sweetness
Of the Godhead, yet it is no marvel
That soon they shall be made more marvellous:
At judgment, when the bodies of these saints,
That are from all time holden in the earth,
Shall be raised up, enfleshed, from all their graves,
Their souls reknit in th’last examination;
Then shall they be princes of the peoples,
Th’ unrighteous shall they judge them to be damned;
And they shall show that all the meanly good
Were blessed by God to come to blissfulness.
The general judgment, when it thus is done,
Soothly they shall have everlasting song,
Go up with Christ to find the height of truth,
Enjoying the face of God in love, no end.
That everlasting sweetness in their minds
Binds the bands of char’ty round their souls,
Entwined within, unable to be loosed.
Wherefore let us seek, for love of Christ,
To burn within us, kindled by such sweetness,
And not take heed to learnèd disputation.
Whilst truly we take heed to such a seeking,
We know no sweetness of the eternal savor.
Wherefore so many now so much find heat
In the flame of knowledge, and not of love,
That plainly they know not what love is for,
Or of what heat, or savor, it is made;
Although the labor of persistent study
Ought to help them understand this love,
That they might burn more in the love of God.
Alas, for shame! Study, dispute at leisure!
An old wife is more expert in God’s love,
And less conversant in her worldly pleasure,
Than great divines, whose study is in vain.
For why? For vanity they study books,
That they appear more learnèd, and be known,
And so they may get rents and dignities:
The which are worthy fools, and not the wise.
Posted By jabez @ 6:51 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Monday, October 2nd, 2006
The Fire of Love (V-2), by Richard Rolle
Coninutation of the medieval exhortation here interpreted as a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef. Today's passage comments on the intrinsic holiness of the poor and how they will find their place in Heaven.
Truly they have found delights aplenty
Here where the way is slippery and broad;
Where is no place of gladness, but of labor,
Wherefore in torments without stop, they sorrow.
Then the poor, which were arrayed with virtues,
Shall be reborn to everlasting peace,
Shall be made glad in knowing your delight,
Full face to face in worshiping your Godhead;
And in that ghostly heat they happily flourish,
Although these poor had never found their solace
In the worthy heights of this mixed world,
Nor had sown pride among some high authority;
But they have borne their griefs from wicked men,
And have excluded from their souls, temptations,
That here they might be holden in this peace,
Before the throne of th’very Trinity.
And in their simple lives they truly voided
The old unthriftiness of venomous life,
Clearly and gladly praising ghostly beauty;
The plays of softness, which brash youth accepts
And unwise worldly men desire, and purchase,
These poor have right judged worthy of reproof,
Thinking to make continuance of their song
Filled with charity, rising to our Maker:
All we, receivers of the joy of love,
Conceiving heat that may not be consumed,
Join now together, singing in clear chorus;
In lovely harmony and friendly mirth,
We set a heav’nly shadow as a shield
Against all heat of lechery and sin.
Wherefore upon our flame of sweetest love
Our souls are taken up into beholding
The face of God, and in this flame we flourish;
And in the contemplation of our Maker,
Our minds, now changed, now pass to melody;
And from henceforth our thoughts become all song,
And heaviness, and dearth, are all cast out;
The great hall of our soul is filled with music,
It has entirely lost its former torment,
And evermore abides whole, in high sweetness,
And singing, in sweet heav’nly meditation.
So, when they rise and go from earthly hardness,
And shed the diseases that they suffered here,
Then the time comes that they shall all be taken,
Borne without sorrow to abide in God,
And have their seats among the seraphim;
For they are altogether set on fire
And know the most high fire of love in God,
Burning on within and without their souls.
So sweetly and devoutly have they loved,
That whatsoever they felt in themselves
Was ghostly heat, and heav’nly song, and sweetness.
Herefore it is, truly, that they may die
Without heaviness, soothly, brimmed with joy;
They are lift up so high in endless worship,
That they are crowned in perfect contemplation
Of God’s glory, singing with clearest choirs;
All one, more burningly desiring after
Th’ eternal God, creator of all things.
Posted By jabez @ 8:43 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Sunday, October 1st, 2006
The Fire of Love (V-1), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of Medieval Exhortation set as a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
In this section it is shown that the joy we seem to take in being quick or learned about religion is nothing, compared to love of God and the way we show this love without exception, in our dealings with our fellow human beings.
CHAPTER V
WHEREFORE IT IS BETTER TO TAKE ENTENT
TO THE LOVE OF GOD
THAN TO KNOWLEDGE OR DISPUTATION
In all things that on earth we work or think,
We should take heed to loving God with diligence,
More than to practicing learnèd disputation.
Love delights the soul, makes conscience sweet,
Diverting us from dark things here beneath,
And from desire for our expedience.
Knowledge without a source in charity
Builds not to endless health, but leads us off,
Puffing up pride to get a wretched undoing.
Our souls shall therefore be held strong enough,
Taking hard labors on themselves for God;
If they are wise in things heav’nly, not worldly.
I would be lightened with that endless wisdom,
And I would be inflamed by that same fire
With which some souls are stirred to love God only,
And might’ly are made strong, to the despising
Of all those comely, transitory things.
Let them not count their greatest solace here
In garb and creatures that do not abide,
For with these things they have no dwelling place;
But let them seek a place not made with hands:
‘Mihi vivere Christus est, et mori lucrum.’
‘Christ to me is life, great winning to die.’
True love of God consents to nothing wicked;
And you are just as far from loving God
As you delight yourself in worldly things.
Wherefore, if you love God, your work reveals it;
For you make poor example for God’s love,
If you consent to follow wickedness.
Therefore to all that are in exile here
I dare show this: you shall be cast in darkness,
All you that will not love your own Creator.
And you that would not here be filled with light,
Or have the love of your wounded Redeemer,
Will feel the burning without any end
Of fire in hell, from God in isolation.
You shall be sundered from the company
Of those who sing in char’ty with their Maker;
And busily shall you sorrow there in hell,
Cast out from the mirth of those who sing,
Wanting in all the clearness and the joy
Of them that shall be crowned in heav’n forever.
For you would rather tarry a little while
In worldly softness, moist with sliding flesh,
Than suffer penance that your sins be cleansed,
And then come full of piety before
The great Defender of all good there is.
Posted By jabez @ 7:38 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Saturday, September 30th, 2006
The Fire of Love (IV-3), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the medieval exhortation as a book-length poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef.
Truly, the one who stirs with busy love,
And sees Jesus continually in his thought,
Full soon perceives his own deceits and faults,
The which correcting, henceforward he heeds them;
And so brings righteousness in time to birth,
Until he is led certainly to God,
And sits with heav’nly citizens everlasting.
Therefore he stands now clear in his own conscience,
And is steadfast in all good ways on earth,
And is not noyed with worldly heaviness,
Nor gladdened with vainglory for his works.
Truly those obstinate in their unclean works
Know not the love of Christ, for they are burned
With other fire, the flame of fleshly likings;
And they may yield devotion not to God,
Because the burden of their heavy riches
Thrusts them down continually on the earth.
They who will not have delight in paradise,
Go on in obstinacy toward their death;
And therefore, worthily, their heaviness
Shall not be lessened as they near their goal,
Nor shall damnation’s grief be kept from them;
Because they wilf’lly walk in lusts and sin,
And have recklessly, for a falser love,
Lost them the love of their One endless lover.
Wherefore after, in perpetual pains,
They plaintively repent that they have sinned;
And yet they never shall be cleansed from sin,
But endlessly consumed by other fires.
Posted By jabez @ 7:15 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Friday, September 29th, 2006
The Fire of Love (IV), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of the Medieval Exhortation as a Book-Length Poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef. We update this blog every day.
Therefore no one should ever dare presume,
Nor rise himself by pride when he’s despised
To his reproach, or when insults are cast him;
Nor should a sinner mouth his own defense,
For ill words, giving back more ill again;
But all things, praise as well as sore reproof,
The mind that’s turned to God bears evenly.
Truly, only by doing in this wise,
Shall we, without an end, with Christ be glad,
If in this life we love Him without ceasing;
Whose love, rooted within and made secure,
Makes each of us like to His very likeness.
One other joy, a godly joy, He puts in us:
Mirthing our minds complete with burning love,
For his love is a fire, and makes souls fiery,
Purging each one from all degrees of sin,
Making the soul alight within and burning;
Which fire, flamed up in them that have been chosen,
Ever makes look up, the eyes of mind,
And hold fast the desire for knowing Him.
Wherefore, whilst still we know the chance of sin,
Let us then charge ourselves to flee in haste
This world’s prosperity, and bear want gladly.
An evil mind in joy is lost in joy,
And while it seeks its gladness in a creature,
It kills itself as ’twere with flattering venom,
Whose contagion we would well eschew,
Eating the ghostly food that is ordained
At heav’n’s board, to nourish burning lovers.
And so, Christ granting, we are comforted
By sweet consuming songs of charity,
And are delighted in so sweet devotion;
While the wicked sleep in horrible darkness,
And after, full of sins, go down to pain.
Great marv’l it is that mortal man may come,
Be taken up to such high love for God
That he feels nothing but a heav’nly solace,
A comforting in his most privy substance;
And after, as if he were noise of an organ,
Ascend on high to contemplate desire.
And that which may have seemed to others, sorrow,
Then turns to joy, and joy is turned to rest;
So that he seems, he cannot suffer pain;
Cannot be troubled with the dread of death,
Nor moved from rest to unease in his soul.
Posted By jabez @ 8:52 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Thursday, September 28th, 2006
The Fire of Love (IV), by Richard Rolle
Continuation of Medieval Exhortation Set as a Book-Length Poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef
CHAPTER IV
THE DIFFERENCE BETWIXT GOD’S LOVERS
AND THE WORLD’S:
AND THEIR REWARDS
CHAPTER IV
The human soul felt nothing of the burning
Of the endless love of Jesus Christ,
Which, before this, had not perfect forsaken
All worldly vanity and love of opulence,
Studying busily only heavenly things,
Thirsting for God’s love, and never ceasing,
And mannerly loving creatures to be loved.
For truly if we love all things in God,
We love the God in them, more than love them;
So not in them, but all in God we joy,
Whom to enjoy we shall be glad always.
The wicked truly love things of this world,
Setting within their lust, their delectation;
And without ceasing do the wicked covet
Things that belong to this world’s errant joy;
How may a person do a love more fondly,
More wretchedly, or in the ending, damnably,
Than fully to love, and seek for themselves only,
These transitory, ripe and failing things?
The Trinite God is loved for Himself only.
We put therefore our mind full into it,
Busy to bear all thoughts unto that end,
That without end we may be gladdened by it;
So that ourselves and all things that we love,
We love for that alone, the Trinite God.
The sinner lies, that says he can love God,
And yet, is not afraid to follow sin.
Each person truly slave to God is free,
Nor binds himself to bondage under sin,
But steadfastly he serves in righteousness.
Whilst we love earthly things or sometime comforts,
We love not God, and we serve not God’s pleasure;
And if we are delighted in such creatures,
So that we set our God behind, below them,
And will not follow things that are eternal,
We shall be judged in time, as hating God.
Full willful truly is it for the soul,
A token of damnation, endless death,
When a man falls entirely to this world;
And in divers desires and fleshly whims,
He goes out bluntly as his lust may list.
Thus, no marvel, many a wretch is lost;
Who, while he seems to sail an ocean’s pleasure,
Hies to the everlasting pit of hell.
Posted By jabez @ 9:20 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Wednesday, September 27th, 2006
The Fire of Love, by Richard Rolle
Poetic Interpretation of the Medieval Exhortation written by Jabez L. Van Cleef
Truly all saints have not done miracles,
Either in their lives or after death;
Nor have all damnèd souls lacked miracles,
Either in their lives or after death.
God’s judgement is not known before it comes,
Lest sinners by seen tokens be made worse,
And lest the chosen would despise those things
That they may have in common with the sinners,
That help them to discern the love of God.
Some damnèd souls forsooth have wrought good deeds;
Not God’s, but man’s, the honor they have sought;
And this sparse laurel perishes when they die,
Only attaining what they sought: man’s praise.
Ofttimes, it happens that the meanly good
And less than perfect have done miracles;
Full many of these, spotted, yet devoted,
Are placed in heav’nly seats, before God’s majesty,
And altogether they are resting there,
Having their high reward among the heav’ns;
For is Saint Michael not so specially honored?
Was he not once the highest of the angels?
Some also, turned to God and doing penance,
Forsaking worldly errands, joy in mind
If, after death, their name may be remembered;
To which Christ’s servants should supply no heed,
As they by this may lose all that they work for.
Truly those things common to good and ill
Are not to be desired by the saints;
But charity and ghostly virtue planted
To flourish without ceasing in their hearts;
The which not only keep the soul from sins,
But in the time of judgement, raise the body
To life again, and endless memory.
All things done here on earth soon cease, and flee.
There truly, either in honor or confession,
All things that are, shall last without an end.
The active therefore, and conniving prelates,
Eminent for their cunning and their virtue,
Should set contemplatives before themselves,
Acknowledging them their betters before God;
Not promising themselves as worthy, yet,
To take themselves the yoke of contemplation,
Unless God’s grace inspire them to this work.
Posted By jabez @ 8:50 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Tuesday, September 26th, 2006
The Fire of Love, by Richard Rolle
Modern Retelling of the Medieval Exhortation as a Book-Length Poem by Jabez L. Van Cleef
CHAPTER III
THAT EACH ONE CHOSEN OF GOD
HAS BEEN SEEN BEFOREHAND
Contemplatives are the ones most fully burnt
With raging fire for everlasting life,
And therefore hottest in their ghostly flame,
And most belovèd of Jesus everlasting;
So that they seldom go to worldly business,
And get no dignity of grants and honors;
But they withhold themselves within themselves,
With silent song of praise, intent on Christ,
For truly here the soul makes haste to follow
The hierarchy of angels and their ways,
In which the highest reaches go not outward,
But are kept evermore nearest to God.
They are held high in Christ’s own contemplation,
And, kept so busy in sight of God alone,
They take not to sovereignty mongst men;
Pride in earthly mindfulness is for others,
That are more turnèd toward business of man,
And so enjoy less of inward delight.
For each of our souls is chosen in degree,
Ordained before we knew it, from our God;
So, whilst this one turns to prelacy,
This other takes a heed to God within,
And God within uplifts the soul thereto,
Leaving behind all outward occupations.
Surely such are made most precious holy
And yet of worldly men are held the lowest,
Because they only dwell and move within the mind,
And seldom they go outward to do miracles.
Others may submit themselves both ways,
To service God and govern sundry subjects.
Others may live their lives in fleshly penance,
And are unseen by any sight of men;
And ofttimes they are granted or shown tokens
Of coming bliss, before or after death,
And may be punished for a time in purgatory.
Posted By jabez @ 9:04 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Monday, September 25th, 2006
The Fire of Love by Richard Rolle
CONTINUATION OF MEDIEVAL EPIC POEM ADAPTED BY JABEZ L. VAN CLEEF
O God, ravish Your lovers from earthly things!
Take them above desire of worldly things!
Make them takers of Your perfect love!
Show them full great workers in their loving!
Wherefore in ghostly song, burning up, bursting,
To You they ever offer up their praises,
And with such sweetness feel the dart of love.
Hail therefore, lovely Everlasting Love!
Love that raises us from these lowly things
Presents us with so frequent ravishings
Here in the sight of God’s own Majesty!
Come into me, come in, my Beloved!
All that I had I gave it out for You;
What I should have, for You I have forsaken,
That You might have a mansion in my soul!
Never forsake You him that You feel now
So sweetly glow desire within for You;
So that of this, my most pent-in desire,
Its flame may ever burst in Your embrace.
So grant me grace to love You in this fire,
And in You rest, that here I may be worthy
To be so joined in You without an end.
Posted By jabez @ 6:51 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Sunday, September 24th, 2006
THE FIRE OF LOVE
CHECK HERE FOR DAILY INSTALLMENTS OF MEDIEVAL BOOK LENGTH POEM BY JABEZ L. VAN CLEEF: THE FIRE OF LOVE...
Nevertheless it is more marvellous
That any contemplative soul should be perceived
As striving for another way to God;
For the psalmist sings so of the soul,
Transformed into the person contemplative,
’Transibo in domum Dei in voce exultationis et confessionis,’
‘I shall go into God’s house in the voice of gladness and shrift’;
Singing the song of him that feasts, that is,
Singing of him made glad with heavenly sweetness.
The perfect ones, forsooth, now taken up
Into surpassing plenteous endless friendship,
Imbued with sweetness that shall not make strife,
Live anew there in the clear high chalice
Of full sweet charity and endless love;
And in the holy counsel of God’s mirth
They draw into their souls a happy heat,
And greatly gladdened, there have greater comfort
Of ghostly lectuary than our thought can know.
This pure refreshment is their heritage
The food of them who have become all love,
To whom, in earthly exile, came disease,
That in the meanwhile did not seem an evil,
Notwithstanding they be punished here,
For they would be lift up on high to sit,
Without departing, in a heavenly seat.
Of all flesh are they chosen as most dear
In sight of God, there to be clearly crowned.
So as the seraphim in highest heaven
Truly are they made sublime, and burnt,
Who sit forgot, in solitude of body,
Yet their minds walk out among the angels
To Christ Beloved, whom they have desired:
The which also most sweetly have they sung
This prayer of endless love, in Jesus joying:
O honey sweet heat,
than all delight sweeter,
than all riches more delectable.
O my God! O my Love!
into me glide; with Your charity thirled;
with Your beauty wounded:
Slide down and comfort me, heavy;
give medicine to me, wretched;
show Yourself to Your lover.
Behold!
In You is all my desire,
and all my heart seeks.
After You my heart desires;
after You my flesh thirsts.
And You open not, but turn Your Face.
You spar Your door, and hide Yourself;
and at the pains of the innocent
You laugh.
Posted By jabez @ 10:57 AM | Comments: 0 |
| Friday, May 27th, 2005
social action/lomax
http://www.lomaxarchive.com/index.html/
Alan Lomax as some of you know was a persistent and discriminating folklorist who captured thousands of traditional voices on tape mostly in the Southern USA. In 2004, Alan Lomax’s original recordings and papers were united with recordings he and his father had made from 1933–1942 to reside at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress. Besides Alan Lomax’s own recordings of folk music, interviews, oral histories, and folk tales from the United States, Caribbean, and Europe, The Alan Lomax Collection contains some 3,000 hours of field recordings made by other scholars; a library of dance and human movement consisting of 115,000 feet of ethnographic film from 400 cultures; field diaries, notes, and correspondence; discographies and filmographies; thousands of photos of folk performances; and reference works on folklore and literature, world ethnography, human ecology, and ethnology. Also see http://www.loc.gov/folklife/lomax/. And
Posted By jabez @ 12:50 PM | Comments: 1 |
| Thursday, May 26th, 2005
Feedback
June Melton\'s site
This site is a compendium of many kinds of obscure Christian music as practiced by people mostly in rural places in the southern, midwestern, and western parts of the USA. The section on shape note singing alone offers an astounding variety of sounds with remarkable authenticity and sincerity. I have recorded a long spoken word version of the Gospel of Mark which can be accessed on June's site under the heading "The Spoken Word."
Posted By jabez @ 3:47 PM | Comments: 0 |
|
|
|
Facebook
Twitter
