Revelations of Divine Love · 114 of 127 · tr. Grace Warrack

Chapter LXXIVb

Desire we of our Lord God to dread Him reverently, to love Him meekly, to trust in Him mightily; for when we dread Him reverently and love Him meekly our trust is never in vain.

For the more that we trust, and the more mightily, the more we please and worship our Lord that we trust in.

And if we fail in this reverent dread and meek love (as God forbid we should!), our trust shall soon be misruled for the time.

And therefore it needeth us much to pray our Lord of grace that we may have this reverent dread and meek love, of His gift, in heart and in work.

For without this, no man may please God.

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Themes

◆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 emphasizes loving devotion ('love Him meekly') and trust as the primary means to please God and achieve spiritual alignment.

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◆Prayerpraxis

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

The passage explicitly instructs the reader to 'pray our Lord of grace' for the necessary spiritual qualities.

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