glorycloud's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- this inebriation of love It is 2:32 PM Saturday afternoon. I got out of the library book nook early this afternoon. I was glad to get out early since I feel terrible inside today. When I got home I ate some food and wrote some more stuff in my private diary. Now I am down in the basement writing some stuff in my online blogs. At the book nook I read "Orthodox Spirituality" and "The Spiritual Canticle". When I was not reading my books I sat and just waited for time to go by so I could go home and sit in silence. Well not much else to write about so I will close to wait for blue skies and sunshine. There is no way of escape. I am praying for a speedy deliverance. "For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?" 1 Peter 4:17. "6. In the Song of Songs the bride speaks of this divine touch: Dilectus meus misit manum suam per foramen, et venter meus intremuit ad tactum eius (My Beloved put his hand through the opening, and my heart trembled at his touch) [Sg. 5:4]. The Beloved's touch is the touch of love that we said he produces in the soul. The hand is the favor he grants her by this touch. The opening through which this hand entered is the manner, mode, and degree of the soul's perfection, for the touch is usually greater or less and of one kind of spiritual quality or another in accordance with the manner of perfection. Her heart, which she says trembled, is the will in which this touch is produced. And the trembling is the elevation of her appetites and affections toward God through the desire, love, and praise of him, and all the other acts we mentioned, which are the flowings from the balsam of God redounding from this touch. the spiced wine. 7. This spiced wine is another much greater favor that God sometimes grants to advanced souls, in which he inebriates them in the Holy Spirit with a wine of sweet, delightful, and fortified love. Accordingly, she calls this love "spiced wine." As this wine is seasoned and strengthened with many diverse, fragrant, and fortified spices, so this love, which God accords to those who are already perfect, is fermented and established in these souls and spiced with the virtues they have gained. Prepared with these precious spices, this wine gives such strength and abundance of sweet inebriation in these visits granted by God to the soul that they cause her to direct toward him, efficaciously and forcefully, flowings or outpourings of praise, love, and reverence, and so on, which we have mentioned. And she does this with admirable desires to work and suffer for him. 8. It should be known that this favor of sweet inebriation, because it has more permanence, does not pass away as quickly as the spark. The spark touches and then passes, although its effect lasts for a while, and sometimes for a long while; but the spiced wine - which, as I say, is sweet love in the soul - usually lasts, together with its effect, a long while, and sometimes a day or two, or many days, though not always in the same degree of intensity, because its lessening and increasing are beyond the soul's power. Sometimes without doing anything on their own, persons feel in their intimate substance that their spirit is being sweetly inebriated and inflamed by this divine wine. As David says: My heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire shall be enkindled [Ps. 39:3 {Ps. 38:4}]. The flowings from this inebriation of love sometimes last as long as the inebriation itself. At other times, even though this love is present, these flowings are absent; but when they are present their intensity is greater or less in accordance with the intensity of the inebriation. But the flowings, or effects of the spark, ordinarily last longer than the spark itself; in fact, the spark leaves these flowings in the soul, and they are more ardent than those derived from the inebriation, for this divine spark sometimes sets souls on fire and leaves them burning up with love." St. John of the Cross "The Spiritual Canticle" Stanza 25 "My beloved put his hand by the latch of the door, and my heart yearned for him" Song of Solomon 5:4. "My heart was hot within me; while I was musing, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue" Psalm 39:4. music: Howe Gelb & A Band of Gypsies "Alegrias" 2:44 p.m. - 2011-05-14 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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