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Revelations of Divine Love · 9 of 127 · tr. Grace Warrack

Chapter VIb

And therefore we may with grace and His help stand in spiritual beholding, with everlasting marvel of this high, overpassing, inestimable Love that Almighty God hath to us of His Goodness. And therefore we may ask of our Lover with reverence all that we will. For our natural Will is to have God, and the Good Will of God is to have us; and we may never cease from willing nor from longing till we have Him in fullness of joy: and then may we no more desire. For He willeth that we be occupied in knowing and loving till the time that we shall be fulfilled in Heaven; and therefore was this lesson of Love shewed, with all that followeth, as ye shall see. For the strength and the Ground of all was shewed in the First Sight. For of all things the beholding and the loving of the Maker maketh the soul to seem less in his own sight, and most filleth him with reverent dread and true meekness; with plenty of charity to his even-Christians.
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Themes
◆Active Contemplationpraxis

A form of meditation that uses imagery, imagination, or symbolic thought rather than purely empty stillness.

The passage explicitly mentions 'spiritual beholding' and being 'occupied in knowing and loving' as active practices of the soul.

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◆Bhakti

The path of loving devotion and self-surrender to a personal deity as itself sufficient means of liberation — the Gita's 'to those constantly devoted, I come forward as their deliverer,' Kabir's and the Sant poets' love-religion, the devotional stream that parallels Sufi love-mysticism. Distinct from mystical_union (the resulting state), fana_annihilation (the ego's unmaking at the path's end), ladder_of_love (eros staged toward Beauty), and prayer (the practice of address): bhakti names devotion as the soteriological road itself.

The text frames the entire spiritual path as a relationship of loving devotion to a 'Lover,' where willing and longing for God are the primary means of salvation.

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◆Living Godtheology

The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.

God is personified as a 'Lover' with a 'Good Will' who actively desires to have humanity, presenting the divine as a dynamic, responsive personal reality.

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◆Love Of Neighbourethics

Active compassionate care for others as a central spiritual obligation or expression of divine love.

The passage states that beholding and loving the Maker fills the soul with 'plenty of charity to his even-Christians,' linking divine love directly to love for others.

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◆Mystical Unionsoteriology

The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.

The passage centrally describes the soul's longing to 'have Him in fullness of joy' and the state where desire ceases upon being fulfilled in Heaven.

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◆Prayerpraxis

Direct address to the divine, whether petitionary, contemplative, or liturgical; speech and silence offered upward.

The text encourages asking the 'Lover' with reverence for all that one wills, framing petitionary prayer as a natural outcome of the relationship.

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◆Return To Sourcesoteriology

The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.

The narrative arc describes the soul's journey from longing to being 'fulfilled in Heaven,' representing a return to the divine origin.

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Related passages · 3 parallels
◆hermeticism|Corpus Hermeticum XVIII: The Encomium of Kings|Section 1c
“Just as the Sun, the nurse of all the things that grow, on his first rising, gathers unto himself the first-fruits of their yield with his most mighty hands, using his rays as though it were for plucking off their fruits—yea, [for] his rays…”
Both passages emphasize the reciprocal relationship between the divine and humanity, focusing on love, reverence, and the natural will to seek and unite with the divine. They share a conceptual parallel in the idea of the soul's longing for God and the divine's love for humanity, expressed through different traditions and vocabulary.
◆neoplatonism|Select Works of Plotinus|Select Works, Section 68
“Section 7 7. Therefore we must ascend again towards the Good, the desired of every Soul. Anyone that has seen This, knows what I intend when I say that it is beautiful. Even the desire of it is to be desired as a Good. To attain it is for t…”
Both passages emphasize the transformative power of divine love and the soul's longing for union with the divine. They share a conceptual parallel in the idea of ascending towards the divine through love and reverence, despite differing in religious tradition and vocabulary.
◆neoplatonism|Select Works of Plotinus|Select Works, Section 670
“Section 31 31. But since Thence come the beauty and light in all, it is Thence that Intellectual-Principle took the brilliance of the Intellectual Energy which flashed Nature into being; Thence soul took power towards life, in virtue of tha…”
Both passages explore the theme of the soul's longing for and union with the divine, emphasizing the transformative power of love and the ultimate fulfillment found in divine presence. The conceptual parallel lies in the shared insight of the soul's yearning for and eventual union with the divine, expressed through different mystical traditions.