Revelations of Divine Love · 117 of 127 · tr. Grace Warrack

Chapter LXXVII-a

"Accuse not thyself overmuch, deeming that thy tribulation and thy woe is all thy fault." "All thy living is penance profitable." "In the remedy He willeth that we rejoice" Our good Lord shewed the enmity of the Fiend: in which Shewing I understood that all that is contrary to love and peace is of the Fiend and of his part.

And we have, of our feebleness and our folly, to fall; and we have, of mercy and grace of the Holy Ghost, to rise to more joy.

And if our enemy aught winneth of us by our falling, (for it is his pleasure, ) he loseth manifold more in our rising by charity and meekness.

And this glorious rising, it is to him so great sorrow and pain for the hate that he hath to our soul, that he burneth continually in envy.

And all this sorrow that he would make us to have, it shall turn to himself.

And for this it was that our Lord scorned him, and [it was] this [that] made me mightily to laugh.

Then is this the remedy, that we be aware of our wretchedness and flee to our Lord: for ever the more needy that we be, the more speedful it is to us to draw nigh to Him.

And let us say thus in our thinking: I know well I have a shrewd pain; but our Lord is All-Mighty and may punish me mightily; and He is All-Wisdom and can punish me discerningly; and He is All-Goodness and loveth me full tenderly .

And in this beholding it is necessary for us to abide; for it is a lovely meekness of a sinful soul, wrought by mercy and grace of the Holy Ghost, when we willingly and gladly take the scourge and chastening of our Lord that Himself will give us.

And it shall be full tender and full easy, if that we will only hold us satisfied with Him and with all His works.

For the penance that man taketh of himself was not shewed me: that is to say, it was not shewed specified.

But specially and highly and with full lovely manner of look was it shewed that we shall meekly bear and suffer the penance that God Himself giveth us, with mind in His blessed Passion.

(For when we have mind in His blessed Passion, with pity and love, then we suffer with Him like as His friends did that saw it.

And this was shewed in the Thirteenth Shewing, near the beginning, where it speaketh of Pity.) For He saith: Accuse not [thy]self overdone much, deeming that thy tribulation and thy woe is all for thy fault; for I will not that thou be heavy or sorrowful indiscreetly.

For I tell thee, howsoever thou do, thou shalt have woe.

And therefore I will that thou wisely know thy penance; and [thou] shalt see in truth that all thy living is penance profitable.

This place is prison and this life is penance, and in the remedy He willeth that we rejoice.

The remedy is that our Lord is with us, keeping and leading into the fulness of joy.

For this is an endless joy to us in our Lord's signifying, that He that shall be our bliss when we are there, He is our keeper while we are here.

Our way and our heaven is true love and sure trust; and of this He gave understanding in all [the Shewings] and especially in the Shewing of the Passion where He made me mightily to choose Him for my heaven.

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Themes

Active Contemplationpraxis

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

The text instructs the reader to engage in specific mental acts: 'beholding' God's attributes and holding 'mind in His blessed Passion' with pity and love.

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Bhaktisoteriology

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 central soteriological path described is one of loving devotion, trust, and meek surrender to a personal deity who is the source of all joy.

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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 emphasizes that God actively orders human suffering and tribulation as 'penance profitable' and guides the soul toward joy.

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Evil As Privationtheology

Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.

The passage explicitly defines the Fiend's influence as 'all that is contrary to love and peace,' framing evil not as a positive substance but as an opposition to divine good.

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Living Godtheology

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

The text portrays God as an active, personal presence who 'keepeth and leadeth' the soul, punishes discerningly, and loves tenderly.

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Poverty Of Spiritanthropology

Eckhart's radical reading of Matthew 5:3 — the saint as one who wants nothing, knows nothing, and has nothing, having emptied even the will and the self with which to receive God; distinct from renunciation_of_wealth (material poverty).

The text teaches that 'the more needy that we be, the more speedful it is to us to draw nigh to Him,' highlighting spiritual poverty as a catalyst for divine proximity.

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Prayerpraxis

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

The passage includes direct addresses to God and instructions on how to frame one's thoughts as a form of prayerful reliance on divine attributes.

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Self Examinationpraxis

Daily review of thought and action as spiritual practice.

The passage addresses the practice of self-accusation, advising against excessive self-blame while encouraging awareness of one's 'wretchedness' to draw near to God.

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Related passages · 11 parallels

neoplatonism|Select Works of Plotinus|Select Works, Section 85 (part 1)

“Section 10 10. But if Matter is devoid of quality how can it be evil? It is described as being devoid of quality in the sense only that it does not essentially possess any of the qualities which it admits and which enter into it as into a…”

Shared concept: Evil As Privation — Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness. (derived)

neoplatonism|Iamblichus: On the Mysteries|Chapter XIX

“But neither does the cause [of the energies] of more excellent natures subsist as a certain middle instrument, nor does he who invokes operate through him who prophesies; for to assert these things is impious. And it is much more true to sa…”

Shared concept: Living God — The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality. (derived)

neoplatonism|Select Works of Plotinus|Select Works, Section 161

“Section 5 5. Still more unreasonably: There are men, bound to human bodies and subject to desire, grief, anger, who think so generously of their own faculty that they declare themselves in contact with the Intelligible World, but deny that…”

Shared concept: Divine Providence — 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. (derived)

neoplatonism|Iamblichus: On the Mysteries|Chapter XXVII-a

“Moreover, neither is it sufficient to assert, “ that nature, art, and the sympathy of things in the universe, as if they were the parts of one animal, contain premanifestations of certain 188 things with reference to each other; nor that bo…”

hinduism|Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book III|Sutra 47

“Mastery over the powers of perception and action comes through perfectly concentrated Meditation on their fivefold forms; namely, their power to grasp their distinctive nature, the element of self-consciousness in them, their inherence, and…”

Shared concept: Active Contemplation — A form of meditation that uses imagery, imagination, or symbolic thought rather than purely empty stillness. (derived)

western_esoteric|Psychic Self-Defence (Dion Fortune)|18. Methods Of Defence II-a

“THERE are two types of practical psychic work which may be used separately or in combination, the latter method, in my opinion, giving by far the best results, though the exponents of each are apt to decry the other. The method which we wi…”

Shared concept: Active Contemplation — A form of meditation that uses imagery, imagination, or symbolic thought rather than purely empty stillness. (derived)

hinduism|Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Book I|Sutra 17

“Meditation with an object follows these stages: first, exterior examining, then interior judicial action, then joy, then realization of individual being. In the practice of meditation, a beginning may be made by fixing the attention upon so…”

Shared concept: Active Contemplation — A form of meditation that uses imagery, imagination, or symbolic thought rather than purely empty stillness. (derived)

hinduism|The Bhagavad Gita|Chapter VII, Section 1b

“Whichever form (of deity) any worshipper wishes to worship with faith, to that form I render his faith steady. Possessed Of that faith, he seeks to propitiate (the deity in) that (form), and obtains from it those beneficial things which he…”

Shared concept: 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. (derived)

hinduism|The Bhagavad Gita|Chapter X, Section 1a

“CHAPTER X. Yet again, O you of mighty arms! listen to my excellent words, which, out of a wish for your welfare, I speak to you who are delighted (with them). Not the multitudes of gods, nor the great sages know my source; for I am in ev…”

theosophy|The Secret Doctrine|Page 55 (part 2)

“T HE Progenitors of Man, called in India "Fathers," Pitara or Pitris, are the creators of our bodies and lower principles. They are ourselves, as the first personalities, and we are they. Primeval man would be "the bone of their bone and…”

hermeticism|Corpus Hermeticum 1: Poimandres|Section 1d

“Thou seem'st, He said, O thou, not to have given heed to what thou heardest. Did I not bid thee think? Yea do I think, and I remember, and therefore give Thee thanks. If thou didst think [thereon], [said He], tell me: Why do they merit d…”

Shared concept: Self Examination — Daily review of thought and action as spiritual practice. (derived)