The man who wishes to experience the rays of the eternal sun, which
is Christ Himself, will be seeing; and will dwell on the mountains
of the East, by concentrating all his faculties, and lifting up his
heart to God, free, and indifferent to joy and pain and all the
creatures. There shines Christ, the sun of righteousness, on the
free and exalted heart, and this is what I mean by the mountains.
Christ, the glorious sun and divine effulgence, shines through and
fires by his internal coming, and by the power of His Spirit, the
free heart and all the powers of the soul. This is the first work of
the internal coming in the exercises of desire. Just as fire
inflames things which are thrown into it, so Christ inflames the
hearts offered to Him in freedom and exultation at His internal
coming, and He says in this coming: "Go forth by the exercises
appropriate to this life."
ON UNITY OF HEART
FROM this heat is born unity of heart, for we cannot obtain true
unity, unless the Spirit of God lights His flame in our heart. For
this fire makes one and like unto itself all that it can overtop and
transform. Unity gives a man the feeling of being concentrated with
all his faculties on one point. It gives internal peace and repose
of heart. Unity of heart is a bond which draws and binds together
the body and the soul, and all exterior and interior forces, in the
unity of love.
HOW THE VIRTUES PROCEED FROM UNITY
FROM this unity of heart is born inwardness or the internal life,
for none can have inwardness unless he is one and united in himself;
fervour or inwardness is the introversion of a man into his own
heart, to comprehend and experience the internal operation or speech
of God. Inwardness is a sensible flame of love, which the Spirit of
God lights and kindles in a man, and a man knows not whence it
comes, nor what has happened to him.
ON SENSIBLE LOVE
FROM inwardness is born a sensible love which penetrates the heart
of man and the highest faculties of the soul. This love and delight
none can experience who has not inwardness. Sensible love is the
desire and appetite for God as for an eternal good in which all is
contained. Sensible love renounces all the creatures, not as needs
but as pleasures. Interior love feels itself touched from above by
the eternal love which it must practise eternally Interior love
willingly renounces and despises everything, in order to obtain that
which it loves.
ON DEVOTION
FROM this sensible love is born devotion to God and His glory. For
none can have a hungry devotion in his heart, unless he possesses
the sensible love of God. Devotion excites and stimulates a man
internally and externally to the service of God. It makes the body
and soul abound in glory and merit in the eyes of God and men. God
exacts devotion in all that we do. It purges the body and soul from
all that might hold us back; it shows us the true path to
blessedness.
ON GRATITUDE
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