Revelations of Divine Love · 55 of 127 · tr. Grace Warrack

Chapter XLIb

God accepteth the goodwill and the travail of His servant, howsoever we feel: wherefore it pleaseth Him that we work both in our prayers and in good living, by His help and His grace, reasonably with discretion keeping our powers [turned] to Him, till when that we have Him that we seek, in fulness of joy: that is, Jesus.

And that shewed He in the Fifteenth [Revelation], farther on, in this word: Thou shalt have me to thy meed .

And also to prayer belongeth thanking.

Thanking is a true inward knowing, with great reverence and lovely dread turning ourselves with all our mights unto the working that our good Lord stirreth us to, enjoying and thanking inwardly.

And sometimes, for plenteousness it breaketh out with voice, and saith: Good Lord, I thank Thee!

Blessed mayst Thou be!

And sometime when the heart is dry and feeleth not, or else by temptation of our enemy,—then it is driven by reason and by grace to cry upon our Lord with voice, rehearing His blessed Passion and His great Goodness; and the virtue of our Lord's word turneth into the soul and quickeneth the heart and entereth it by His grace into true working, and maketh it pray right blissfully.

And truly to enjoy our Lord, it is a full blissful thanking in His sight.

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Themes

◆Active Contemplationpraxis

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

The practice described involves 'rehearing His blessed Passion' and turning the mind to God's goodness, which utilizes imagery and symbolic thought.

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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 passage emphasizes 'lovely dread,' 'great reverence,' and 'thanking' as the primary modes of relating to a personal Lord, aligning with the path of loving devotion.

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◆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 the state where 'the heart is dry and feeleth not' due to temptation or aridity, requiring a reliance on reason and grace to pray.

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◆Emotional Epistemologysoteriology

The doctrine that emotions constitute a valid and necessary mode of knowing reality, complementing or surpassing intellectual cognition.

The text defines 'thanking' as a 'true inward knowing,' explicitly linking the emotional state of gratitude and reverence to the acquisition of spiritual knowledge.

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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 an active, responsive personal reality who accepts goodwill, stirs the soul to work, and enters it by grace.

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◆Prayerpraxis

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

The passage explicitly defines prayer as a central activity involving work, discretion, and thanking, detailing both inward and vocal forms.

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