THE JOURNEY OF THE MIND INTO GOD
1. In the beginning I call upon the first principle, from whom all illuminations descend as from the Father of lights, from whom is every good gift and every perfect gift, namely the eternal Father, through his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that by the intercession of the most holy Virgin Mary, mother of the same God and our Lord Jesus Christ, and of blessed Francis, our leader and father, he may give the enlightened eyes of our mind to direct our feet in the way of that peace which surpasses all understanding; which peace our Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed and gave; of whose preaching our father Francis was a renewer, announcing peace at the beginning and end of every sermon, wishing peace in every greeting, sighing for ecstatic peace in every contemplation, like a citizen of that Jerusalem, of which that man of peace speaks, who was peaceable with those who hated peace: Pray for the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem . For he knew that the throne of Solomon was only in peace, since it is written: In peace is his place made, and his dwelling in Sion.
2. Since therefore, following the example of the most blessed father Francis, I sought this peace with longing spirit—I, a sinner, who, altogether unworthy, succeed as seventh after the passing of the most blessed father himself in the general ministry of the brothers—it came to pass that, by divine prompting, around the thirty-third anniversary of the Blessed one's passing, I withdrew to Mount Alverna as to a place of quiet, out of a love of seeking peace of spirit, and while I was there, as I pondered in mind certain mental ascensions into God, among other things there occurred to me that miracle which befell the blessed Francis himself in the aforesaid place, namely the vision of the winged Seraph in the likeness of the Crucified. In the consideration of which it immediately seemed to me that this vision signified the suspension of the father himself in contemplation and the way by which one arrives at it. 3. For by those six wings there can rightly be understood six suspensions of illumination, by which the soul is disposed, as by certain steps or journeys, to pass into peace through the ecstatic transports of Christian wisdom. But the way is none other than through the most burning love of the Crucified, who so transformed Paul, caught up to the third heaven, into Christ, that he said: I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, now not I; but Christ lives in me; who also so absorbed the mind of Francis that his mind was made manifest in his flesh, when he bore the most sacred stigmata of the Passion in his body for two years before his death. The figure, therefore, of the six seraphic wings intimates six stairlike illuminations, which begin from creatures and lead all the way to God, to whom no one rightly enters except through the Crucified. For he who does not enter through the door but climbs up another way, that one is a thief and a robber . If anyone indeed through this door enters, he shall go in and go out and shall find pasture. On account of which John says in the Revelation: Blessed are they who wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb, that their power may be over the tree of life, and that they may enter through the gates into the city; as if to say that one cannot enter the heavenly Jerusalem through contemplation unless one enters through the blood of the Lamb as through a gate. For no one is in any way disposed to divine contemplations, which lead to mental transports, unless with Daniel he be a man of desires . But desires are inflamed in us in a twofold manner, namely through the cry of prayer, which makes one roar from the groaning of the heart, and through the brilliance of speculation, by which the mind turns itself most directly and most intensely toward the rays of light.
4. Therefore, I first invite the reader to the groaning of prayer through Christ crucified, through whose blood we are purged from the filth of vices, lest he perhaps believe that reading suffices him without unction, speculation without devotion, investigation without wonder, circumspection without exultation, industry without piety, knowledge without charity, understanding without humility, study without divine grace, the mirror without divinely inspired wisdom.
To those, therefore, who have been forestalled by divine grace — the humble and pious, the contrite and devout, those anointed with the oil of gladness , lovers of divine wisdom and inflamed with desire for it, who wish to devote themselves to magnifying, admiring, and even tasting God — I propose the speculations that follow, suggesting that the mirror set before us externally is of little or no avail unless the mirror of our own mind has been cleansed and polished. Exercise yourself, therefore, O man of God, first at the stinging goad of conscience before you raise your eyes to the rays of wisdom shining in its mirrors, lest perchance from the very beholding of those rays you fall into a deeper pit of darkness.
It has seemed good to divide this treatise into seven chapters, prefixing titles for easier understanding of what is to be said. I ask, therefore, that more weight be given to the intention of the writer than to the work itself, more to the sense of what is said than to the unpolished speech, more to truth than to elegance, more to the exercise of affection than to the erudition of the intellect. That this may come about, the progression of these speculations is not to be passed over cursorily but to be ruminated upon most deliberately.
HERE ENDS THE PROLOGUE.
HERE BEGIN THE CHAPTER HEADINGS.
Chapter One: On the degrees of the ascent into God and on the contemplation of Him through His vestiges in the universe.
Chapter Two: On the contemplation of God in His vestiges in this sensible world.
Chapter Three: On the contemplation of God through His image stamped upon the natural powers.
Chapter Four: On the contemplation of God in His image reformed by the gratuitous gifts.
Chapter Five: On the contemplation of the divine unity through its primary name, which is being.
Chapter Six: On the contemplation of the most blessed Trinity in its name, which is the good.
Chapter Seven: On the mental and mystical transport, in which rest is given to the intellect while affection passes over entirely into God through ecstasy.
HERE END THE CHAPTER HEADINGS.
HERE BEGINS THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE POOR MAN IN THE DESERT.