ON SEVEN WAYS OF HOLY LOVE (1236) By Beatrix of Nazareth (1200 - 1268).

From the highest come seven ways of love which work back to the highest. The first is a desire actively originating from love. Long has this desire to rule in the heart before she can dispel every resistance thoroughly, and she cannot but work with strenght and intelligence, and courageously grow in this. This first way is a desire that most certainly originates from love, for the good soul that wants to follow faithfully and wants to love durably is being drawn on by the craving for this desire -to be loved and to be guarded most strongly- in order to exist in purity and freedom and nobility in which she is made by her creator, after His image and to His resemblance. In this way she desires to pass her whole life, and to work on this and to grow in this and to rise to ever higher excellence in love, more connected through knowledge of God, untill the completion for which she is equipped and is called by God. Sooner or later this is her aim, and that is why she is fully engaged. This explains her questions and her desire for knowledge and her prayer to God. And her thoughts about how she can reach this and how she can receive the nearness to the equality with love, in the full glory of the virtues, and in the complete purity of the nobility of love, which has been recovered in her. This soul often seriously examines what she only is, and what she should be, what she had, and what her desire nevertheless lacks. With all her seriousness, and with an always bigger desire, and with all the intelligence she has, she exerts to guard against and to shun what can hinder and prevent her from making progress in love. So she exerts to draw towards her and to keep everything which can help her and can bring her to love. And never rests the heart or does it subside from searching, demanding and learning. This is the highest concern of the soul placed in this situation. A soul that has to work in it and has to drudge in it, untill the moment that through her seriousness and through her loyality she obtains from God that from now on she can serve love for ever without impediment from the past, with a free consciousness and with pure spirit and a clear mind. For certain, such a way of desire of such a great purity and nobility originates from love and not out of fear. Because fear makes one suffer, to do and to let for fear of the anger of our Lord and the judgement of the righteous judge, or for fear of eternal revenge, or for fear of transitory calamity. But in her work however love only strives for purity and excellence, and the highest nobility, which are all part of her own being. And to them who dedicate themselves to her, she teaches to live like this. The second way of love. Now and then the soul has another way of love. Then she serves the Lord for nothing, only from love, without any why and without any reward of mercy or of bliss. And exactly as a noble lady serves her Lord out of great love and without reward, and who takes please in being allowed to serve Him, and that He permits her to serve Him, in this way she desires to serve love with love, without measure and beyond measure and surpassing beyond every human idea and reason, with all the servitude inherent to loyalty.

In here, she is so burning in her desire, so prepared to service, so light in drudging, so soft in misfortune, so happy in sadness ; and with all she is, she desires to give Him great pleasure. And so she finds pleasure in being able to do something, and to be of help and to be of use to love and to honour Him. The third way of love. Sometimes the good soul has another way of love connected to much pain and misery. It comes to this that she desires to answer love fully, and to follow her in all homage and in all service, obedience and subservience. This desire is sometimes being brought about violently in the soul, and then she has the firm intention to literally do all the work with strong desire and set off with suffering, to permit and to bear everything, and to advance without sparing herself and without measure with all her work in love. In this way she is prepared to every service, and ready and fearless to drudge and to suffer pain ; nevertheless she stays unsatisfied in everything she does. But above all it is for her the heaviest pain, that in relation to her great desire she cannot do enough for love, and that in love so much is being kept from her. She knows all right that this is superhuman work, and that is goes beyond all her power to do this, because what she desires -that which is impossible and unreal for every being- is that she alone would like to do as much as all human beings from the earth together, and as much as all spirits of the kingdom of heaven and as much as all the beings above and below and countless many more, to serve love, to love her, and to honour her according to her dignity. And no matter how much she is failing in her work, she still wants to realize it with all her dedication and with strong desire. But all this cannot satify her. She knows all right that this desire is only to fulfil far above her power and above human reason and above every notion ; yet she cannot moderate this desire, or conquer, or quiet. She does everthing she can ; she thanks and praises love, she works and drudges because of love, she sighing desires love, she gives herself completely to love. And all that does not give her peace. It is for her a heavy pain that she has to desire that what she cannot obtain and so she has to stay in the misery of her heart and remain in her dissatisfaction. Thus it is for her as if she dies though living, and dying feels the heavy pain of hell, and her whole life is hellish and merciless and displeasure because of the fright of the terryfying desire that she cannot satisfy or put to silence or quiet down. In heavy pain she has to stay, untill the moment that our Lord consoles her and places her in another way of love and of desire, in an ever bigger knowledge of Him. Then she has to work according to what is been given to her by our Lord. The fourth way of love. Our Lord is used to give us yet another way of love, sometimes in great delight, sometimes in great pains, and about these we want to speak now. It happens that love is sweetly been awakened in the soul and happily raises, and that she moves in the heart, without any help of human effort. And so the heart is been tenderly touched by love, and so full of strong desire been pulled inside love, and so hearty seized by love, and so strongly dominated by love, and so lovely contained by love, that she is completely conquered by love.

In this she experiences a strong bond with God, a spiritual clearness, a wonderful salvation, a noble freedom, a delightful sweetness, a great superior power of strong love, and an abundant fullness of great joy. Then she experiences that all her senses are one in the grip of love and that her will has become love, and that she is so deeply plunged and absorbed in the abyss of love, and that she has become love completely. The beauty of love has eaten her. The power of love has consumed her. The sweetness of love has plunged her into nothingness. The greatness of love has absorbed her. The nobility of love has embraced her. The purity of love has let her reach the highest development. The sumblimity of love has pulled her up and has oned her one in such a way, that she has to be completely of love, and that she cannot but live with love. If she experiences herself in this way in this abundance of salvation, and in this complete and great fullness of heart, then her mind plunges completely in love, and her body escapes, and her heart melts away and all her power becomes useless. She is so much conquered by love that she hardly can control herself, and that often she has no power anymore of her limbs and senses. And like a barrel full to the brim overflows and floods immediately when one stirs in it, she is suddenly violently been stirred and completely conquered by the great fullness of her heart and even so that in spite of herself she has to break out often. At the same time it also happens, as the fifth way of love, that love is being awakened strongly, and raises overpowering with great impetuosity and with great passion, as if she wanted to break the heart of the soul by force, and tear the soul out and above herself in the purging of and the failing in love. She is also strongly been moved to bring about the great tasks of the work of love or to realize the different orders of love. Or she desires to rest in the sweet embraces of love, in the desirable beatitude and in the satisfaction of what she has from Him. Her heart and her senses seriously look for it and ardently desire for it. In this state she is so powerfull of mind, very undertaking of heart and strong of body, so fast in working and busy inside and outside, that it seems to her as if everything that has to do with her works and is busy, even if she is so calm from the outside. With this she feels a strong sadness inside and a great tensed expectation about love and many vicissitudes in desire, and manifold misery of deep dissatisfaction. Or she experiences the anguish of the soul by the great feeling of love itself, without any why or because she is extremely demanding in the light of the desire for love, or because she is dissatisfied about the absence of love. With all this, love becomes so immoderate and -like she burns there so strong and so furious in the heart- she breaks out in the soul in such a way, that it seems to her that her heart is repeatedly being painfully wounded, and that these wounds are being daily renewed and being made more painful by even more painful misery and new emotional pains. It seems to her as if her veins break open, and her blood is being heated, and her marrow pines away, and her legs weaken and her chest scorches, and her throat dries up so that her face and all her limbs take part in the heat inside, take part in this primal rage of love. Then she feels an arrow going through her heart untill her throat, and on o the brain, as if she would lose her senses. And like a devouring fire that draws everything towards itself and consumes what it can destroy, thus she feels that love ardently rages in her, without saving her and without measure, and that she takes and consumes everything. By this she is being hurt heavily

and her heart is weakened very much and all her strenght is nullified. But strictly speaking her soul is strenghtened, and her love is cherished and her mind is kept in suspense. For love is so much elevated above apprehensiveness, that the soul by her own power cannot acquire unity with her. Sometimes she wants to break with all the misery of the soul and tear loose from the unity with love. But the alliance with love has her so much in its grip and she is completely overcome by the excess of love that she cannot hold a reasonable measure anymore or render an account in a rational way, or restrain herself moderately, or to be able to stay herself wisely. The more she is been given from above, the more she asks, and the more is being told to her, the more the desire grows to approach with desire the light of truth and purity, of nobility and the pleasure of love. Always again she is being pulled and more and more excited and nothing contents or satisfies her. What heals her most and cures her wounds, only that gives her health. The sixth love : When the bride of our Lord has made progress and has climbed up to greater salvation, she experiences yet another way of love, closely connected and with higher knowledge. She feels that love has conquered all resistance in her, and that she has recovered all shortcomings and has brought her into her power. Without resistance she has mastered herself, so that she knows her heart is safe and she can use it in peace and she can freely lay herself out. In this situation all things seem small to her, easy to do or to leave, to allow and to bear light, like it belongs to the dignity of love. Then it is pleasant for her to practice in love. Then she also experiences a Divine power and a clear purity and a spiritual sweetness and a desirable freedom and a distinct wisdom and a calm accessibility towards God. And then she is like a housewife who has well taken care of her house. Who has furnished it in a clever way and who has put it in order nicely. Who protects it wisely, who guards it cleverly, and who works according to plan. She brings inside and outside. She does and leaves everything according to her will. With the soul it is likewise : love rules enormously in her, works powerfully and rests in her, does and leaves, internally and externally, and all that according to her will. Just like a fish swims in the wideness of the sea, and rests in the depth, or a bird that flies in the space of the height of the air, so she feels her mind go about unrestrained in the depth, space and height of love. This superior power of love has drawn the soul and has accompanied, guarded and protected it. She has given her the intellect and the wisdom, the sweetness and the strenght of love. Yet she has hidden her violence for the soul untill she has climbed up to a greater highness and has become completely free of herself, and untill love rules with more strenght in her. Then love makes her so strong and so free that she does not consider human or devil, no angel or saint, not God Himself in her doings, in her work or her rest. She knows very well that love is in her, completely awake and as strongly working in the rest of the body as in the abundance of work. She knows very well and notices that love is not situated in the drudging and sweating of those in whom she reigns sovereignly.

But all who want to come to love, have to look for her with awe, have to follow her loyally and have to practice her with strong desire. They do not succeed if they save themselves much labour and effort and undergoing inconveniences. And all small things they have to esteem highly untill the moment that they are ready that love is going to rule inside them, through which loves becomes sovereign with superior power and makes all things small and softens all drudging, and makes every effort sweet, and pays all debts. This is freedom from conscience and sweetness of heart, and purity of morals and heart, and nobility of the soul, and sublimity of the mind and principle of eternal life. The soul already lives as an angel on earth, and after that follows eternal life, that God in His goodness may give to us all ... <Amen> (Did this text at first end here ? The seventh way was probably composed much later.) The seventh way of love : The blessed soul still has a more sublime way of love that gives her not little to do inside. She is being pulled above the human measure of love, above senses and reason, higher than everything of which our heart is capable of on its own. Only with love of eternity itself she is pulled into the eternity of love, into the insusceptible wisdom and the silent highness, into the deep abyss of the Deity, who is everything in everything that exists, insusceptible, elevated above everything, imperishable, almighty, all-embracing, and who acts all-ruling in everything that exists. So profound is she here sunk in love and so strong is she pulled by her desire, that her heart is moved strongly and is restless inside, so that her soul flows out and melts of love, and her mind is ardently connected to a strong desire. All her senses set themselves to the fact that she may live in the pleasure of love. Persevering she desires this from God and with her entire heart she requests God for this. This she must desire a lot, because love does not let her calm down or recuperate. No quiet life ! Love elevates her and depresses her, puts her suddely to the test and again torments her. She brings death and gives life, she makes healthy and hurts again. She makes insane and then again wise. Thus she lifts her up to a higher being. In this way she has climbed up spiritually, above temporality and to the eternity of love, which is timeless. Above the human forms of love and above her own nature she is lifted by the desire to live above. There is her being and her will, her desire and love of the certain truth, the pure clarity, the noble highness, the luxurious beauty and the sweet company of the highest spirits who are all filled with abundant love, and who in clear aknowledgment are in the possession and the pleasure of their love. Then she desires to stay there among the spirits and most among the blazing seraphs. In the sublime Deity and Trinity she finds her lovely resting-place and her joyful house. She looks for Him into His majesty. She follows Him there and sees Him with her heart and her mind. She knows Him and loves Him and desires Him so much, that she can respect no saints, no human beings, no angels or creatures, unless with the same love by which she love everything through Him. Him alone she has chosen in love, above and under and in all the rest. With everything of desire her heart could bring in, and with the whole strenght of her mind, she longs to see Him, and to possess and to enjoy.

Therefore the earth is a great misery for her, and a tough prison and a heavy sorrow. She disdains the world. The earth has become a burder to her and what belongs to the earth cannot satify or content her. It is a great pain for her that she has to be so distant and well seems a stranger. Her misery she cannot forget, her desire cannot be stilled, her longing harasses her miserably, and by this she is exceedingly and without mercy harassed and tormented. Therefore she lives in a great longing and in a strong desire to be freed from this misery and to be dissolved from this body. Then she says with a sad heart, like the apostles : "Cupio dissolvi et esse sum Christo", i.e. "I long to be dissolved and to be united with Christ." Not out of sadness for today or out of pain for future grief but only out of holy and eternal love she desires eagerly, languorous and full of desire to go to the landscape of eternity, in the glory of pleasure. This desire is great and strong in her, and her unbearable situation is heavy and tough, and the pain that she had because of desire is infinitely great. Nevertheless, she has to live in hope, and it is precisely this which makes her yearn for and languish. Oh, holy desire of love, how strong is your power in the loving soul ! It is a heavenly passion, a sharp torture, a long sorrow, a treacherous death, a dying life ! Up there she still cannot come and here below she has neither rest or duration. The thought of Him she cannot bear anymore because of desire, and to lack Him is a torture because of her desire. Thus she has to live with great discomfort. Therefore she cannot and does not want to be consoled, like the prophet says : "Renuit consolare animam meam", i.e. "My soul does not want to be consoled." In that way she rejects each consolation by God Himself or by His creatures. For the pleasure that this can give her, gives love new strenght. It thrusts her desire to new heights and renews her desire to devote herself to love, to enjoy love and to bear her exile without any pleasure. Thus she remains unsatiated and unsatisfied, despite all gifts, because she still has to miss the presence of her love. This is a very heavy life, because she does not want to be consoled if she has not acquired what she seeks so restless. Love has dragged her on and has led her and taught her to go her way. This she has followed faithfully, often with a lot of trouble and effort, in great spiritual powerlessness, with strong desire, with a lot of impatience, in great unrest, in weal and woe, with much grief, in searching and asking, in miss and possession, in growing and falling certainty, in imitation and desire, in worries and fear, in languishing and depraving. With much faithfulness and unfaithfulness she is ready for everything in joys and sorrows. Dead or alive she wants to belong to love. And in her earnest heart she suffers. Because of love she wants to deserve the kingdom of heaven. If she is tested here in all misery, then her refuge is there in all glory. Because that is precisely where the work of love lies, that she desires the nearby creature, and that she pursues that nearness the most in which she can love the most. Therefore she always wants to follow love, experience love and enjoy love, and this cannot happen to her in this misery. To go to her own country, where she has founded her house and in which she rests with love and with desire ! All hinder taken away, she is lovely received by love ! There, she will at last behold what she has so tenderly loved, and she shall possess for eternity the One

she has served so loyally. She shall enjoy with happiness the One she has so often embraced with love in her soul. There, she shall enter happily, like St.Augustine says it : "Qui in Te intrat in gaudium Domini sui ...", i.e. "O Lord, who enters in You, he enters in the joy of his Lord." There, fear has no place. For there, she shall possess Him in the best way in the best of all. There, the soul is with her Groom and she becomes totally one spirit with Him, in inseparable loyalty and in mutual love for ever. The soul that, in times of mercy, wanted to do everything for Him shall enjoy Him in eternal glory, where one shall do nothing else but praise and love. May God bring us all to that. Amen.

On Seven Ways of Divine Love (1236) by Beatrijs of Nazareth (1200 - 1268) From the highest come seven ways of Love, which allow the Soul to ascend to the highest.
The first way is a fierce longing engendered by Love. Before the Soul can overcome every resistance to it, this yearning must develop gradually so that it rules the heart fully, Then She can work in strength and intelligence, with the courage to grow in Love. The good Soul who wants to follow Love faithfully forever is pulled by Her need to live in the image of Her creator, in purity, freedom and nobility. The Soul must guard this need fervently. In this way, the Soul's aim is to reach this state of purity and freedom: this is Her only desire. She wants to pass Her whole life in this way, rising higher in Love, until she achieves the end to which God has called Her. So, She desires knowledge, She questions and She prays. She directs every thought to how She can reach a state of equality with Love. Her only aim is to live in that purity and nobility of Love. She regularly considers the stage She has reached and the condition She must reach in order to achieve this aim. She examines what She has, and what is lacking in order to fulfil her desire. With her whole intent and with growing desire, She directs her intelligence to put aside anything, which can hinder Her progress in love. Equally She draws towards her everything that can bring her to love. Her heart never rests, never ceases searching, questing and learning. When the Soul is placed in this situation, She knows that she must work hard, but that eventually her loyalty will be rewarded. At the end of Her work, God will inform Her that from that moment onwards, She can put aside her past, and serve Love forever, with free consciousness, with pure spirit and with clarity of mind. A way that desires such great purity and nobility, can only originate from Love: not out of fear. Fear causes suffering. Others may do something, or to refrain from it, out of fear: fear of anger, fear of judgement, fear of disaster or fear of eternal revenge. Love, on the other hand, lives and works only to attain purity, excellence and nobility. These are all integral to Love's own being. If a Soul truly dedicates herself to Love, Love will teach Her to live in the same way. The Soul is given a second way of love. Sometimes she serves the Lord for nothing, only from love, without reason or reward, even of mercy or bliss. A noble Lady may serve her Lord out of great love, without seeking reward, simply taking pleasure in being allowed to serve Him. In the same way, the Soul may simply desire to be loyal, to serve Love with love, without measure, beyond thought of measure, exceeding every human idea and reason. This Soul may be burning with bright desire. She may find that her labours are simple and her misfortunes easy to bear: she may be happy even in melancholy. With her whole being she may desire to give great pleasure. Then she will find pleasure in being able to give pleasure to the Lord, to have Love use her, to aid and to honour Love. The third way of Love is a way of pain and misery. The good Soul may come to this way if She wants to react fully to Love, to follow Love with reverence, service, honour and worship. Sometimes this happens suddenly and violently within the Soul. Then She feels She must perform every act with her whole being, even if doing so brings suffering. She must bear everything without stinting, without sparing herself, in Love's work. She gives every service, always ready to work and to suffer pain, yet still She remains unsatisfied with each achievement. Above everything, her

greatest pain is that despite Her work She cannot do enough for Love and thus so much of Love is kept from Her. She understands fully that the work is superhuman and that it exceeds her power. Alone, she must do what all human beings from the earth cannot: more than all the spirits of the kingdom of heaven could achieve. All the beings above and below, and countless many more, could not serve Love sufficiently, love and honour Love herself with sufficient dignity. To do so is unachievable by any being. Yet no matter how much the Soul feels that she is failing in her work, this does not lessen her need to succeed with all Her heart and desire. Still She is not satisfied. She understands that Her desire is beyond human accomplishment, beyond every thought, yet still She cannot moderate this need or overcome it. She finds no rest. She does everything possible. She thanks and praises Love, she toils and labours hard for Love and She gives herself over completely to Love. Even that gives her no peace. She experiences great grief because She must want what She cannot have and so she remains miserable and dissatisfied. The grief is a living death and in dying She experiences the great pain of hell. Her whole life becomes a merciless hell because She has within Her a fear of her need, a need which She can neither satisfy nor silence. She must live with that pain until the moment when the Lord grants Her respite. She will then be placed in another way of Love, which will build on the knowledge she has gained. But, once again, she will be asked to work in the new way she has been given by the Lord. The fourth way of love is sometimes given in great delight, and sometimes in great pains. Love may be pleasantly awakened in the soul and may lift it up with great happiness, so that Love moves in the heart, without any human aid. Then, the heart is touched tenderly by Love and fills with a great desire to join with Love. So strongly is the heart seized by love, so completely dominated by love and surrounded by Love, that the Soul is completely conquered by Love. The Soul feels a strong bond with God, a spiritual clearness and a rapturous salvation. She feels splendid freedom and a delightful sweetness. She experiences the superior power of strong Love and fills completely with great joy. She feels that all her senses have been unified in the grip of love. Her will has become Love: She plunges so deeply into the abyss of love that She Herself actually becomes Love. The beauty of Love absorbs her. The power of Love completely consumes her. Love's great sweetness drops Her into nothingness and she is fully absorbed into Love's vastness. Then, Love's majesty has enfolded Her and its purity has let Her reach the highest development. The sublime forces of Love have drawn Her up and made her one, so that She must be completely of Love - she has no option but to live with Love. She experiences for herself this vast abundance of salvation. She is entirely consumed with total fullness of heart and She loses Her mind completely in Love. Her heart melts completely, She cannot feel Her body and she is totally powerless. She is so far overtaken by Love that she hardly can control herself, often losing control over her limbs or senses. Then, like a barrel full to the brim, if She is suddenly stirred up, she will overflow and flood immediately. She will be completely overcome by the fullness of Her heart, so that she has no choice but to lose herself completely. Alternatively, love can be awakened powerfully, arising with overpowering recklessness and great passion. This is the fifth way of love. It is as if She wanted to break the heart of the Soul

by brute force, tear the Soul out and lose Herself in the purging fire of Love. She is driven to bring about the great tasks of the work of Love or to manifest the different orders of Love. She wants to rest in the sweet embraces of Love, in the wonderful calm and deep satisfaction of what She has received from Him. Her heart and her senses truly desire and yearn for that satisfaction. Although She may appear calm, She is in a state where Her mind has such power, Her heart such wisdom and Her body such strength, that she feels everything within her and outside her is hectic. She feels great melancholy and is tense with Her expectations of Love. She is much troubled with desire and has obvious misery, which springs from deep dissatisfaction. She experiences the deep anguish of the soul caused without reason by the outflowing of Love itself. This may be because She demands so much of the light of Love itself, or because the absence of Love is causing the dissatisfaction. Throughout all this, Love becomes so great that Her soul expands so that She feels that Her heart is being painfully wounded over and over again. These wounds are received daily and are made ever more painful by new emotional pains and miseries. It is as if Her heart burns so furiously that her veins seem to her to burst. Her blood is heated, Her marrow melts within her, Her legs weaken and her chest burns red. Then Her throat dries up, as if Her face and limbs were part of Her internal heat, within the primal rage of Love. Then She feels a piercing arrow in her heart and throat, approaching the brain as if She would lose her senses. She feels the passion of Love raging within, like a devouring fire, drawing everything inside it and consuming whatever it can destroy. Without respite and without sparing Her anything, She takes and consumes everything. This passion is painful; it weakens Her heart and takes away all Her strength. But in fact, this actually strengthens her soul. Her love is exquisite and her mind is remains floating upon it. For Love overcomes fear to such an extent that the Soul requires this help in order to achieve complete unity with Her. Sometimes the Soul feels that her misery will overcome Her and tear Her apart from unity with Love. But the bond of Love grips her tightly and the excesses of Love overwhelm her. She can no longer be moderate in anything or explain her state rationally. She cannot exercise restraint or hold Herself back in any way. The more She is given from above, the more She questions and the more is revealed to Her, the greater is her desire to approach the light of truth and purity. She cannot hold in check Her need of the splendour and pleasure of Love. She is forever aroused and ever more excited: nothing satisfies her or grants her respite. She is given health only by what heals her most and cures her wounds. When the bride of our Lord has made progress and has achieved this greater salvation, She experiences a sixth way of love, closely connected and with higher knowledge. She feels that Love has totally defeated Her resistance, that She has overcome all shortcomings and gained Her true power. Since there is no more resistance, She has mastered Herself. She knows her heart is safe: she can use it in peace and she has freedom to do anything. Now, all things seem simple, easy to accomplish or to leave alone as She sees fit. She can allow Herself to do anything and bring light to it, because all things are manifest with the dignity of love. Then Her practice of Love is pleasant. She experiences the power of the Divinity within Her, a pure clarity, a sweetness of spirit and the freedom that She desires. She has true wisdom and a calm acceptance of God. So She is like a housewife who has cared well for her house. She has furnished it smartly and who has put it in good order. She has protected it wisely and guarded it intelligently, working towards a plan. She has the strength and wisdom within Her and without, to perform acts or to refrain from

them according to her own will. It is the same with the Soul. Love rules her completely and works powerfully within her. It remains within her, performing tasks or leaving them alone, both within and without, all according to Her will. As a fish swims the length and breadth of the sea and rests in its depths, as a bird flies through the air, so She feels her mind completely unrestrained in the height, width and depth of Love. This superior power of Love has guided the soul and has accompanied, guarded and protected it. Love has given the Soul Her intellect, wisdom and the gentle strength. Yet until the Soul has reached greater heights and has become completely free of herself, Love hides the dark passion to come. It is be revealed until Love rules the Soul more strongly. But then, Love frees the Soul completely, making Her so strong that She perceives neither human nor devil, nor angel nor saint, not even God Himself, in her acts, in her work or her rest. She realises that Love has awakened fully within Her, working strongly in Her body and driving her every act. She can also see that Love is not to be found in the Sweat of the heavy labour of those Love dominates. But all who desire union with Love must seek Her with reverence. They must desire Her enough to persevere in following Her path and overcoming the obstacles. No one can succeed in the path by avoiding the hard work and the inconveniences along the way. Those who seek union with Love must consider every small thing to be important until Love finally rules within them. At that moment, Love becomes supreme, making everything simple and all labour easy. Love pays all debts and makes every effort pure and pleasing. Now there is freedom from conscience, clarity and harmony of heart, purity of morals, dignity of the soul, transcendence of the mind and principle of eternal life. The Soul already lives as an angel on earth, and after that follows eternal life that God in His goodness gives us all. The blessed soul still has a more sublime way of love, a seventh way, which gives her much to do within. She is being raised above the human measure of love, above senses and reason, higher than everything of which our heart is capable on its own. She is raised up into the eternity of Love simply by the Love of eternity itself. She becomes one with the invulnerable wisdom of the silent heights. She plunges into the deep abyss of the Deity, who is everything in everything that exists, indestructible, above everything, everlasting, almighty, all-embracing, and who is the supreme force within everything that exists. Now She is so profoundly immersed in Love, and so strongly driven by Her desire, that her heart is powerfully moved and is restless within Her. Her soul pours out and dissolves in Love: Her mind is fervently coupled with a deep longing. Each of Her senses recognises that She may live forever in the pleasure of Love. Still She must persevere: She must hone Her desire to a fine edge and use all of Her heart to make this request of God. Her desire must still remain strong, for even now, Love offers Her no respite. This is not a quiet life! Love encourages Her and demoralises Her, tormenting Her without warning and further testing Her. She brings death and gives life; She gives health and then once again wounds. She brings madness and then restores sanity and wisdom. This is how Love lifts the Soul to a higher state of consciousness. This is the way in which the soul progresses spiritually, ascending from worldliness to the timeless eternity of Love. The Soul transcends human forms of love: Her desire to live in a higher form lifts her above the limits of Her own nature. Her being and Her will are in the sweet company of the highest spirits, who are all overflowing with love and who are fully aware that they are in the possession and the pleasure of their Love. This fulfils her love of and longing for the certain truth, the untainted clarity, the majesty and

luxurious beauty. She yearns to remain forever among the spirits and blazing seraphs. She finds a wonderful resting-place and joyful dwelling in the sublime Deity and Trinity. She looks for Him into His majesty. She follows Him there and sees Him with both Her heart and mind. She fully knows Him, and loves and desires Him so much, that She holds saints and human beings, angels and creatures in no esteem whatever, other than the same Love of Him through which she loves everything. She has united in Love with Him alone, above and below, embracing all the rest. With all the yearning her heart can encompass and with the whole power of her mind, she longs only to see Him, to possess Him and to enjoy Him. So the earth becomes a great misery for her. It is a prison of great distress, which She disdains. Earthly life becomes a burden, and the things of earth no longer satisfy or content her. She suffers greatly because she is so distant from Love that she feels that she is a stranger. She cannot forget Her misery or stifle Her yearning. This longing torments Her unceasingly and She cannot forget Her misery. Her desire cannot be stilled, Her longing harasses her miserably and plagues Her with great anguish. Therefore, the whole of Her life is a yearning to be freed from this misery and dissolved from this body. Then, like the apostles, She says with a heavy heart, "Cupio dissolvi et esse sum Christo" ("I long to be dissolved and to be united with Christ.") She says this, not because She is melancholy today, nor out of fear of future pain and grief. She says it not out of sadness for today or out of pain for future grief, but only because of her great eagerness, in holy and eternal Love, to go to the landscape of eternity, dreaming within the true glory of pleasure. Her yearning for this is very great, and so Her situation is unbearably grave and harsh. The pain inflicted by her yearning is infinite. She must live in hope, but it is precisely this that makes her yearn and dream. Oh, holy desire of Love, how strong is your influence of the loving Soul! It is a heavenly passion, a sharp torture, a long sorrow, a treacherous death, and a life of dying! She still cannot reach the height She yearns for, and below that She is granted no period of rest or respite. She can no longer bear to think of Him because she yearns so and lacking union with Him is torture because of that yearning. So, she lives in utter misery. She cannot be consoled, because she does not want to be consoled, just as the prophet says: "Reunite consular anima mead" "My soul does not want to be consoled." So she rejects every consolation given by God or by any of His creatures. This gives Her the pleasure of a strengthened Love: her yearning is renewed and driven to ever-greater heights. Her one longing is to devote herself to Love, to enjoy Love and to bear her parting from Love without pleasure. Thus She remains unfulfilled and unsatisfied, despite all the gifts bestowed upon Her, because She is still parted from Her Love. This is a dismal life, because She does not want to be consoled if she has not acquired that for which She longs. Love has guided Her forcefully and taught Her and led Her in the way of Love. She has followed that way faithfully, overcoming great hardship and lack of spiritual succour. She has yearned impatiently, restlessly wounded with grief and woe, searching and questioning. She has won possession of her desire and lost it, grown in certainty and become once again uncertain. She has had solace and great longing, fear and worries, dreaming and corruption, faith and loss of faith. She is prepared for anything in joy or sorrow. She must belong to love, dead or alive. And so She suffers in Her heart. And in her earnest heart she suffers. Love demands that She be worthy of kingdom of heaven. If great misery tests the Soul on earth, then

Her final refuge is in the true glory of heaven, because that is exactly where the work of Love lies. She longs for union with Love, and She pursues that great union in which she can love the most. So, she wants to follow Love, experience and enjoy Love always, and this cannot happen in this earthly misery. To follow Love She must go to Her own country, where She has founded her house and in which she rests with Love and longing! There she is received with Love by Love, all impediments having been removed! There, She will at last see what she has so compassionately loved, and there She will possess for eternity the One she has served so loyally. With Love in her Soul, She will enjoy the One she has so often embraced with Love. There, She will enter happily. As St Augustine says, "Qui in Te intrat in gaudium Domini sui..." "O Lord, who enters in You, he enters in the joy of his Lord..." There, fear has no place. For there, She will possess Love in the finest way within the best of all. There, the soul is with her Groom and entirely becomes one spirit with Him, in inseparable fidelity and mutual love, forever. The compassionate Soul, which, wanted to do everything for Him shall enjoy Him in eternal glory, where She will at last devote herself wholly to praise and Love. May God bring us all to that. AMEN I haven't aimed here to provide a scholarly, precise translation of "Seven Ways...". A literal wordfor-word translation would make it very difficult to understand the intent of the text. Instead, I've tried to render it into a format close to contemporary English style, as the original was in contemporary language. This is always a compromise: I've shamelessly altered the order of clauses and in some cases sentences. I've sometimes translated the same word in different ways which I feel make the meaning clearer. Equally, I've accepted more repetitious words and phrases, where the poetic cadence is important to the text. Finally, where a word could be read in more than one way in its original context, I've tried to find an equivalent which maintains the ambiguity, even if it's not an exact translation. In short, whilst I hope I've not been guilty of letting a good story get in the way of the truth, I hope I've erred on the side of spirit than of letter in fidelity of translation. [back to text]