The Cloud Of Unknowing Quotes.Html

Let not, therefore, but travail therein till thou feel list. And therefore they say that we should have our eyes up thither. And therefore thee thinkest since thou hast thus very evidence, why shalt thou not direct thy mind upward bodily in the time of thy prayer? Chapter 4 – Of the shortness of this word, and how it may not be come to by curiosity of wit, nor by imagination. I trow that on nowise it should help in this case and in this work. Therefore shall I not let, nor it shall not noye me, to fulfil the desire and the stirring of thine heart; the which thou hast shewed thee to have unto me before this time in thy words, and now in thy deeds. And therefore I tell thee this, for thou shalt be wary therewith in thy working, if thou be assailed therewith. But I say that he shall be made so virtuous and so charitable by the virtue of this work, that his will shall be afterwards, when he condescendeth to commune or to pray for his even-christi- an—not from all this work, for that may not be without great sin, but from the height of this work, the which is speedful and needful to do some time as charity asketh—as specially then directed to his foe as to his friend, his stranger as his kin. And therefore me thinketh that he should on nowise be evil; and if he be good, and with his sweet tales doth me so much good withal, then I have great marvel why that thou biddest me put him down and away so far under the cloud of forgetting? Truly I should never bring it so about, for ought that I could do or say. For when they spake unto her so sweetly and so lovely and said, "Weep not, Mary; for why, our Lord whom thou seekest is risen, and thou shalt have Him, and see Him live full fair amongst His disciples in Galilee as He hight, " she would not cease for them. And thus it seemeth that in this work God is perfectly loved for Himself, and that above all creatures.

The Cloud Of Unknowing Quotes Online

Nevertheless yet it is good and notwithstanding must be had; and God forbid that thou take it in any other manner than I say. And if thee think that there be any matter therein that thou wouldest have more opened than it is, let me wit which it is, and thy conceit thereupon; and at my simple cunning it shall be amended if I can. Chapter 5 – That in the time of this word all the creatures that ever have been, be now, or ever shall be, and all the works of those same creatures, should be hid under the cloud of forgetting. For all they be truly comprehended in this little pressing of love, touched. Chapter 10 – How a man shall know when his thought is no sin; and if it be sin, when it is deadly and when it is venial.

Cloud Of Unknowing Commentary

Reck thee never if thou wittest no more, I pray thee: but do forth ever more and more, so that thou be ever doing. But he meaneth when he saith that he shall stand by him, that he shall be ready to help him. For why, these folk will more weigh, and more sorrow make for an unordained gesture or unseemly or unfitting word spoken before men, than they will for a thousand vain thoughts and stinking stirrings of sin wilfully drawn upon them, or recklessly used in the sight of God and the saints and the angels in heaven. And what you do not know is the only thing you know. For if ever thou shalt feel Him or see Him, as it may be here, it behoveth always to be in this cloud in this darkness.

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For why, that perfect stirring of love that beginneth here is even in number with that that shall last without end in the bliss of heaven, for all it is but one. For all come to one in very contemplatives. And first it is to wit, what meekness is in itself, if this matter shall clearly be seen and conceived; and thereafter may it more verily be conceived in truth of spirit what is the cause thereof. And herefore it is written, that short prayer pierceth heaven.

And think not because I set two causes of meekness, one perfect and another imper- fect, that I will therefore that thou leavest the travail about imperfect meekness, and set thee wholly to get thee perfect. If we may judge by the examples of possible misunderstanding against which he is careful to guard himself, the almost tiresome reminders that all his remarks are "ghostly, not bodily meant, " the standard of intelligence which the author expected from his readers was not a high one. For sometime sickness and other unordained dispositions in body and in soul, with many other needfulness to nature, will let thee full much, and ofttimes draw thee down from the height of this working. Do that in thee is, to let be as thou wist not that they press so fast upon thee betwixt thee and thy God. In everything else you do, you should practise moderation. By their failings we may, as thus: when we read or hear speak of some certain things, and thereto conceive that our outward wits cannot tell us by no quality what those things be, then we may be verily certified that those things be ghostly things, and not bodily things. 'Where then, ' you ask, 'will I be? Chapter 28 – That a man should not presume to work in this work before the time that he be lawfully cleansed in conscience of all his special deeds of sin. The interesting side effect of this agnostic approach is that it makes it harder for the rational mind to attack it, as Armstrong explains: There were only 17 manuscripts of the book originally, so it wasn't that popular during the time it was written.

Such things, he considers, are most often hallucination: and, where they are not, should be regarded as the accidents rather than the substance of the contemplative life—the harsh rind of sense, which covers the sweet nut of "pure ghostliness. " It was a deep thinker as well as a great lover who wrote this: one who joined hands with the philosophers, as well as with the saints. It is only thus that you can destroy the ground and root of sin…. Surely it is our outer man, and not our inner. But then is the use evil, when it is swollen with pride and with curiosity of much clergy and letterly cunning as in clerks; and maketh them press for to be holden not meek scholars and masters of divinity or of devotion, but proud scholars of the devil and masters of vanity and of falsehood. Do this and you'll find that in the hands of your enemies, you are surrendering to God. You must go through the way in which you are not. That's why it seems completely hidden and totally dark to those who've only been looking at it for a very short time. Yea, the souls in purgatory be eased of their pain by virtue of this work. So that he be seen to be a profiter on his part, so little as is, unto the community; as each one of them doth on his. And therefore I would not that they heard it, neither they nor none of these curious lettered nor unlearned men: yea! For he will sometime, me think, make me weep full heartily for pity of the Passion of Christ, sometime for my wretchedness, and for many other reasons, that me thinketh be full holy, and that done me much good. The which work, an it be truly conceived, is neither bodily working nor ghostly working; and shortly to say, it is a working against nature, and the devil is the chief worker thereof.

Sat, 06 Jul 2024 04:11:53 +0000