Lignum vitae

1. With Christ I am nailed to the cross, Galatians chapter 2.

The springtime tiller of God and disciple of Christ, who desires to be perfectly conformed to the Savior of all crucified for him, ought above all to strive with attentive endeavor of mind to bear about the cross of Christ Jesus continually both in mind and in flesh, so that he may truly feel in himself the aforesaid word of the Apostle. Moreover only he deserves to experience this affection and feeling vividly in himself who, not forgetful of the Lord's passion nor ungrateful, considers the toil and sorrow and love of Jesus crucified with such vividness of memory, such keenness of intellect, such charity of will, that he can truly utter that word of the bride: "A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, he shall abide between my breasts."

2. That the aforesaid affection may therefore be kindled in us, thought formed, memory impressed, I have studied to gather from the wood of the holy Gospel, in which the life and passion and glorification of Jesus Christ are treated at large, this bundle of myrrh, which I have bound together with few and ordered and corresponding words for ease of memory, and with simple and familiar and unpolished words to avoid the fault of curiosity, and to cherish devotion and to build up the piety of faith. And since imagination aids understanding, I have ordered and arranged in a certain imaginary tree the few things I gathered from many, so that in the first and lowest spreading of its branches the origin and life of the Savior is described, in the middle the passion, and the glorification in the highest. And in the first series of branches four little verses are set on either side in the order of the alphabet, likewise in the second and third, from each of which a single shoot hangs as a fruit, so that there are as it were twelve branches bearing twelve fruits according to the mystery of the tree of life.

3. Picture therefore in the spirit of thy mind a certain tree, whose root is watered by a fountain of perpetual springing, which also grows into a river

O cross, saving tree,

Watered by the living fountain,

Whose flower is fragrant,

Whose fruit is longed for.

"The tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations," living and great, namely of four heads, to water the paradise of the whole Church. Moreover from the trunk of this tree let twelve branches adorned with leaves and flowers and fruits arise, and let its leaf be a most efficacious medicine against every kind of disease, both preserving and restoring, because the word of the cross is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. And let the flower be adorned with the beauty of every color and sprinkled with the sweetness of every scent, to refresh and draw the anxious hearts of those who long. And let the fruit be twelvefold, having in itself every delight and the sweetness of every taste, which is set before the household of God to be tasted, so that they who eat are ever filled by it, and yet never grow weary. And this fruit is that which drew its origin from the virginal womb and came to savory maturity on the wood of the cross through the midday heat of the eternal sun, namely the charity of Christ, and is set in the garden of the heavenly paradise, namely on the table of God, to be tasted by those who long for him. And the first little verse suggests this, in which it is said:

O cross, saving tree,

Watered by the living fountain,

Whose flower is fragrant,

Whose fruit is longed for.

4. But although this fruit is one and undivided, yet because according to its many states and dignities and virtues and works it feeds devout souls with manifold consolations, which indeed are reduced to the number twelve, therefore this fruit of the tree of life is set forth and described to be tasted as under twelve tastes in twelve branches: so that in the first little branch the mind devoted to Christ may perceive the taste of sweetness, recalling the noble origin and sweet birth of its Savior, in the second little branch, the most humble converse of condescending dignity

5. Although this tree and its fruit, namely Christ and the bride, who is the Church, are described throughout the whole context of the sacred books, now mystically, now openly, now under figure, now without figure, yet we, because we desire to extol Christ and this his bride with praises and songs, and inasmuch as compendious brevity and the excess of angelic contemplation allow, since we cannot fulfill what we so ardently desire, let us discuss the praises of Christ himself and of the bride, as is asked in the two highest and last little verses.

6. Let it therefore be said not without devotion and tears:

Feed us with these fruits,

Enlighten our thoughts,

Lead by right paths,

Break the striving of the foe,

Fill with sacred splendors,

Breathe holy inspirations,

And to those fearing Christ be thou

The peaceful state of life. Amen.

Awake therefore, O soul devoted to Christ, and discuss each little flower of the things said of Jesus more diligently, consider attentively and handle at length.