The Book of Divine Consolation of the Blessed Angela of Foligno

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Chapter VI. How All the Ways of the Passion Must Be Digested Within the Heart, or at Least Be Repeated by the Mouth


My beloved son, I do entreat thee, and with all mine heart do supplicate thee, that thou turn not away the eyes of thy soul from gazing upon this God, this Man of Sorrows. For this sight and this consideration do enlighten the soul and inflame it with love and the fervour of devotion, keeping it there fixed. And if thine eyes should stray, do thou use all thine endeavour to bring them back and hold them there with good attention. Further do I exhort and pray thee that, if thy mind be not exalted to behold the Man of Sorrows, thou do inquire and meditate upon all the ways of the Passion and the Cross.

And even if thou art not able to do this with thine heart, at least with thy mouth shalt thou earnestly and diligently repeat those things which belong unto the said Passion, because when a thing is ofttimes spoken with the mouth it doth in the end impart warmth and fervour unto the heart. If any person were perfectly to behold this One, so often called the Man of Sorrows, as He truly was, and were to consider how He became most poor and despised, and upon every side filled with unspeakable and unceasing pain and grief, consumed and cast down for our sake (which beholding cometh only of grace), he would assuredly follow after Christ, and cheerfully bear alike poverty, scorn, reviling, and unceasing pain.

None can excuse themselves for not having found and obtained divine mercy, for the Lord is generous and doth most abundantly give it unto all who do seek and desire it. I desire, oh my son, that thou fill thine heart with naught else save with God uncreated and the knowledge and love of Him, and that naught else be found therein save God uncreated. Nevertheless, if thou canst not have this, do thou hold fast to the love and knowledge of Christ crucified, and if this should be taken from thee, then rest thou not, oh my son, until thou hast verily filled thine heart with one of these two things, which do entirely fill and satisfy both heart and mind. Wherefore, my son, do thou hold fixedly unto me and believe my words concerning that which is needful unto him who would follow the way of God, and draw nigh unto God and enjoy His benefits in this world and the next.

Before all things it is necessary that he should know God in very truth, and not only outwardly and superficially, as though it were through the colour of writing, or the sound of words, or the likeness of some creature; which manner of knowing Him, according to the common way of speech, is assuredly a simple knowledge of God. But man must know Him in very truth; he must understand His supreme worthiness, His supreme beauty, sweetness, exaltedness, virtue, goodness, liberality, mercy, and pity, and he must understand that God is the supreme good and highest of all. True it is that these things are understood of a wise person otherwise than of a simple person, for the wise doth verily understand the matter as it is, whereas the simple understandeth it only as it doth appear outwardly. It is like unto a precious stone which hath been found and which the wise and the simple do covet in different ways. The simple man knoweth not its virtue and desireth to possess it only for its beauty and its brightness, and for no other reason; but beyond the splendour and the brightness of the precious stone, the wise man knoweth its virtue and its worth, and when he hath found it he loveth it with the utmost intelligence and fervour.

In like manner doth the wise soul seek to know God, not only according to the outward appearance and with only careless reflection, but using all its endeavour to know Him in very truth, to taste of His supreme goodness and to know His worth. For not only is He good, but He is the Supreme Good — and knowing Him, man doth in all ways love Him for His goodness — and loving Him, seeketh to possess Him — and He, who is supremely good, giveth Himself unto the lover, and the soul feeleth Him and tasteth of His sweetness and enjoyeth that greatest of all delights. Then doth the soul participate in that supreme good, the which is supreme love; it entereth into it with affection, and being enamoured of the love of its Beloved, it desireth to hold Him fast, wherefore it embraceth Him and presseth Him unto itself; it uniteth itself with God and draweth Him unto itself with the utmost sweetness of love.

Then, by the virtue of love, is the lover transformed in the beloved and the beloved is transformed in the lover, and like unto hard iron which so assumeth the colour, heat, virtue, and form of the fire that it almost turneth into fire, so doth the soul, united with God through the perfect grace of divine love, itself almost become divine and transformed in God. Nevertheless, it changeth not its own substance, but its whole life is transformed in the love of God, and thus doth it almost become divine in itself.

Behold, how greatly it doth profit us to possess a knowledge of God. And truly is it needful, as hath been said, that man must know God before he can walk in His ways and desire to possess Him. Thereafter cometh love, which doth transform the lover in the beloved, and of this nature is the soul who knoweth God in very truth, and fervently loveth Him whom it knoweth so well.