Twenty-Fifth Meditation

(Ascent of Mount Carmel, book III: chapter 3-5)

"A great anxiety has God allotted, and a heavy yoke, to the sons of men; From the day one leaves his mother's womb to the day he returns to the mother of all the living, His thoughts, the fear in his heart, and his troubled forebodings till the day he dies --…Are of wrath and envy, trouble and dread, terror of death, fury and strife. Even when he lies on his bed to rest, his cares at night disturb his sleep. So short is his rest it seems like none, till in his dreams he struggles as he did by day, Terrified by what his mind's eye sees, like a fugitive being pursued; As he reaches safety, he wakes up astonished that there was nothing to fear…Fear of the LORD leaves nothing wanting; he who has it need seek no other support: The fear of God is a paradise of blessings; its canopy, all that is glorious." (52)



The Trappings Of Memory

The memory is fraught with error:
How can the mind on Truth be fixed,
When pure perception is so rare,
And lies with partial truths are mixed?

The memory is a back door;
The devil's entrance to the heart.
Impressions decay in this store,
And grains of truth soon fall apart.

As long as memories remain:
Her restlessness of heart won't cease;
Her impulses she won't restrain;
Her soul won't settle in His peace.

Closing her soul to memory,
His peace will purge her history.

52. Sirach 40: 1-2,5-7,26b-27


(c) Paul Buis, 2003