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Revelations of Divine Love · 21 of 127 · tr. Grace Warrack

Chapter XV

"It is not God's will that we follow the feeling of pains in sorrow and mourning for them" And after this He shewed a sovereign ghostly pleasante in my soul. I was fulfilled with the everlasting sureness, mightily sustained without any painful dread. This feeling was so glad and so ghostly that I was in all peace and in rest, that there was nothing in earth that should have grieved me. This lasted but a while, and I was turned and left to myself in heaviness, and weariness of my life, and irksomeness of myself, that scarcely I could have patience to live. There was no comfort nor none ease to me but faith, hope, and charity; and these I had in truth, but little in feeling. And anon after this our blessed Lord gave me again the comfort and the rest in soul, in satisfying and sureness so blissful and so mighty that no dread, no sorrow, no pain bodily that might be suffered should have distressed me. And then the pain shewed again to my feeling, and then the joy and the pleasing, and now that one, and now that other, divers times—I suppose about twenty times. And in the time of joy I might have said with Saint Paul: Nothing shall dispart me from the charity of Christ ; and in the pain I might have said with Peter: Lord, save me: I perish! This Vision was shewed me, according to mine understanding, [for] that it is speedful to some souls to feel on this wise: sometime to be in comfort, and sometime to fail and to be left to themselves. God willeth that we know that He keepeth us even alike secure in woe and in weal. And for profit of man's soul, a man is sometime left to himself; although sin is not always the cause: for in this time I sinned not wherefore I should be left to myself—for it was so sudden. Also I deserved not to have this blessed feeling. But freely our Lord giveth when He will; and suffereth us [to be] in woe sometime. And both is one love. For it is God's will that we hold us in comfort with all our might: for bliss is lasting without end, and pain is passing and shall be brought to nought for them that shall be saved. And therefore it is not God's will that we follow the feelings of pain in sorrow and mourning for them, but that we suddenly pass over, and hold us in endless enjoyment. THE EIGHTH REVELATION
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Themes
◆Dark Nightsoteriology

John of the Cross's stage of contemplative purgation: a felt absence and aridity of God that strips the soul of attachments to its own consolations en route to deeper union.

The text describes periods where the soul is 'left to myself in heaviness' and 'weariness' without comfort, mirroring the purgative stage of divine absence known as the dark night.

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◆Divine Providencetheology

Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.

The passage explicitly states that God actively wills these alternating states of comfort and woe for the 'profit of man's soul,' demonstrating a doctrine of active divine ordering.

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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 portrayed as a dynamic, personal agent who 'shewed,' 'gave,' and 'suffereth' the soul to experience specific states, rather than an abstract principle.

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◆Separation From Sourcesoteriology

The felt condition of exile from one's divine origin — Rumi's reed flute torn from its bed, Plotinus's 'we have forgotten,' the Gnostic forgetfulness; the affective wound that complements return_to_source and gives the return its motive.

The intense 'heaviness' and feeling of being 'left to myself' reflect the affective wound of separation from the divine source.

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Related passages · 2 parallels
◆gnosticism|Pistis Sophia|Document FIRSTai
“Thou hatedst those who keep that which is vain without cause; but I, I trusted, I shall be glad about the Lord, and I shall be delighted over thy mercy: because thou lookedst upon my humility and thou savedst my soul out of the necessities,…”
Both passages describe a profound spiritual experience involving alternating states of divine comfort and human suffering. They share the theme of divine assurance and the transient nature of pain, emphasizing the enduring nature of divine love and the need to hold onto faith despite temporal distress.
◆renaissance_hermeticism|The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori)|Fourth Dialoguec
“Whence he says, "Come not back to me till thou art mine," and not unworthily may I say with that other— Thou has left me, oh, my heart, And thou, light of my eyes, art no more with me. Here he describes the death of the soul, which by the…”
Both passages explore the dynamic interplay between divine comfort and human suffering, emphasizing the transient nature of pain and the enduring nature of divine love. They share a conceptual parallel in the experience of alternating states of spiritual joy and despair, highlighting the soul's journey towards divine union.