Itinerarium mentis in Deum

1. But since we may contemplate the first beginning not only passing through ourselves, but also in ourselves — and this is greater than the former — therefore this mode of considering holds the fourth step of contemplation. Yet it seems wondrous, since it has been shown that God is so near to our minds, that it belongs to so few to speculate the first beginning in themselves. But the reason is at hand: for the human mind, distracted by cares, does not enter to itself through memory; clouded by phantasms, does not return to itself through understanding; allured by concupiscences, in no way returns to itself through desire of inner sweetness and spiritual joy. Hence, lying wholly in these sensibles, it cannot re-enter to itself as to the image of God.

2. And since, where one has fallen, one must lie there, unless someone lend a hand to raise him, our soul could not be perfectly raised from these sensibles to the beholding of itself and of the eternal Truth in itself, unless the Truth, assuming human form in Christ, became to it a ladder repairing the former ladder, which had been broken in Adam.

Therefore, however illuminated one be by the light of nature and of acquired knowledge, one cannot enter into oneself, to delight in oneself in the Lord, except through Christ, who says: I am the door. By me if anyone enter, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture. But to this door we do not approach unless we believe, hope, and love in him. It is necessary, then, if we wish to re-enter to the fruition of the Truth as to paradise, that we enter through faith, hope, and charity of the mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ, who is as the tree of life in the midst of paradise.

3. The image of our mind must, then, be clothed upon with the three theological virtues, by which the soul is purified, illuminated, and perfected; and so the image is reformed and made conformed to the supernal Jerusalem and a part of the Church militant, which is the offspring, according to the Apostle, of the heavenly Jerusalem. For he says: That Jerusalem which is above is free, which is our mother. — The soul, then, believing, hoping, and loving Jesus Christ, who is the Word incarnate, uncreated, and inspired — namely the way, the truth, and the life — while through faith it believes in Christ as in the uncreated Word, which is the Word and splendor of the Father, recovers spiritual hearing and sight: hearing to receive the words of Christ, sight to consider the splendors of that light. But while through hope it sighs to receive the inspired Word, through desire and affect it recovers spiritual smell. But while through charity it embraces the incarnate Word, to receive delight from him and to pass over into him through ecstatic love, it recovers taste and touch. With these senses recovered, while it sees and hears its spouse, smells, tastes, and embraces him, it can sing as the bride the Song of songs, which was made for the exercise of contemplation according to this fourth step, which no one grasps unless he receives — for it lies more in affective experience than in rational consideration. For in this step, with the inner senses repaired to sense the supremely beautiful, to hear the supremely harmonious, to smell the supremely fragrant, to taste the supremely sweet, to apprehend the supremely delightful, the soul is disposed to mental transports: namely through devotion, wonder, and exultation, according to those three exclamations which occur in the Song of songs. Of which the first occurs through abundance of devotion, through which the soul becomes as a little rod of smoke from the spices of myrrh and frankincense; the second through excellence of wonder, through which the soul becomes as the dawn, the moon, and the sun, according to the process of the illuminations suspending the soul to wonder at the spouse beheld; the third through superabundance of exultation, through which the soul becomes abounding in the delights of sweetest delight, leaning wholly upon its beloved.

4. With these attained, our spirit becomes hierarchic for ascending on high according to conformity to that supernal Jerusalem, into which no one enters unless first through grace it descend into the heart, as John saw in his Apocalypse. But it descends into the heart when, through the reformation of the image, through the theological virtues, and through the delights of the spiritual senses and the suspensions of transports, our spirit becomes hierarchic: namely purged, illuminated, and perfected. — So also it is marked with the steps of the nine orders, when there is disposed in order within it annunciation, dictation, leading, ordering, strengthening, commanding, reception, revelation, anointing, which correspond step by step to the nine orders of Angels, so that the first three of the aforesaid steps regard nature in the human mind, the next three industry, and the last three grace. With these had, the soul, entering into itself, enters into the supernal Jerusalem, where, considering the orders of Angels, it sees in them God, who, dwelling in them, works all their operations. Whence Bernard says to Eugene that God in the Seraphim loves as charity, in the Cherubim knows as truth, in the Thrones sits as equity, in the Dominations rules as majesty, in the Principalities governs as beginning, in the Powers protects as salvation, in the Virtues works as power, in the Archangels reveals as light, in the Angels assists as piety. From all of which God is seen, all in all, through the contemplation of him in minds, in which he dwells through the gifts of most abundant charity.

5. But to this step of speculation, the consideration of sacred Scripture, divinely sent, gives special and principal aid, as philosophy did to the former. For sacred Scripture is principally of the works of reparation. Whence it treats principally of faith, hope, and charity, through which virtues the soul has to be reformed, and most specially of charity. Of which the Apostle says that it is the end of the precept, according as it is from a pure heart and a good conscience and an unfeigned faith. It is the fullness of the Law, as he says. And our Savior asserts that the whole Law and the Prophets hang on its two precepts, namely the love of God and of neighbor; which two are intimated in the one spouse of the Church, Jesus Christ, who is at once neighbor and God, at once brother and lord, at once king and friend, at once the uncreated and incarnate Word, our former and reformer, as alpha and omega; who is also the highest hierarch, purging and illuminating and perfecting the bride, namely the whole Church and every holy soul.

6. Of this hierarch, then, and of the ecclesiastical hierarchy is the whole of sacred Scripture, through which we are taught to be purged, illuminated, and perfected: and this according to the threefold law handed down in it — of nature, of Scripture, and of grace; or rather according to its three principal parts — the Mosaic law purging, the prophetic revelation enlightening, and the evangelical teaching perfecting; or most of all according to its threefold spiritual understanding: tropological, which purges to honesty of life; allegorical, which enlightens to clarity of understanding; anagogical, which perfects through mental transports and most sweet perceptions of wisdom, according to the three aforesaid theological virtues and the reformed spiritual senses and the three aforesaid transports and the hierarchic acts of mind, by which our mind returns to inner things, to speculate God there in the splendors of the Saints, and in them as in chambers to sleep in peace and rest, the Spouse adjuring that she not be awakened until it please Him.

7. But from these two middle steps, by which we enter to contemplate God within us as in mirrors of created images — and this as after the manner of wings spread for flying, which held the middle place — we can understand that we are led to the divine through the naturally inborn powers of the rational soul itself, as to their operations, habits, and scientific habits, as appears from the third step. — We are led also through the reformed powers of the soul itself, and this by gratuitous virtues, spiritual senses, and mental transports, as is plain from the fourth. We are led nonetheless through hierarchic operations — of purgation, illumination, and perfection of human minds — through hierarchic revelations of the sacred Scriptures given to us through Angels, according to that of the Apostle, that the Law was given through Angels in the hand of the Mediator. And at last we are led through hierarchies and hierarchic orders, which have to be disposed in our mind after the likeness of the supernal Jerusalem.

8. With all these intellectual lights our mind, being filled, is inhabited by divine Wisdom as the house of God, made daughter of God, bride, and friend; made member of Christ the head, sister, and co-heir; made nonetheless temple of the Holy Spirit, founded through faith, raised through hope, and dedicated to God through holiness of mind and body. All of which the most sincere charity of Christ does, which is diffused in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us, without which Spirit we cannot know the secrets of God. For as what is of man no one can know except the spirit of man which is in him, so what is of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. — In charity, then, let us be rooted and founded, that we may comprehend with all the Saints what is the length of eternity, what the breadth of liberality, what the height of majesty, and what the depth of judging wisdom.