Blanquerna

Before the abbess and the whole community, a sifter of the community confessed her sin, which for long she had com¬ mitted againft charity ; for she had loved God less for Him¬ self than for the glory that He was to give her, and she had feared Him more left He should condemn her to eternal torment than by reason of His goodness. The abbess spake to that sifter in these words: “ So greatly ought God to be loved and feared for the excellence of glory and virtue that is m im, that He is the rather to be loved and feared for Himself, than for the sake of winning glory or fleeing from C For in loving glory man loves himself, and by reason of the love of man for himself is it that he fears the pains

OF CHARITY

of hell. And because man should love God more than himself, therefore is it contrary to charity and juftice that man should fear God because of that which is the less noble ; rather should he love and fear Him because of that which is the more noble, since He is more worthy and noble than are all the creatures.”

2. When the abbess had shown the reason for the which man should love God, and had shown likewise the manner wherein man may love glory and fear the pains of hell, another sifter said that she had sinned against God and againft all the other sifters, in that the intention for the which she had entered the order was not for the love that she had to God and to the sifters, but because in the world she was poor and had not the wherewithal to live. The abbess answered and said that in one and the same a£tion man can rule his intention both wrongly and rightly; for if because of poverty he enters the religious life, he may yet chiefly have love to God and to his order, and but secondary intention to the self and its needs. “ But since,” said she, “ thou hadft intention to thyself alone when thou couldfl have entered the order for love of God and the community, therefore art thou blameworthy before God and the sifters, and for this thou shouldfl do penance.”

3. " Truth is it,” said another sifter, “ that I desired to be abbess, and that, rather to honour myself, than for charity and love to God and the sifters.” The abbess answered: “ To love high place for thine own honour is pride and vainglory, and contrary to the life of Jesus Chrift, Who in this world willed to be poor. But to love it that God may be served, and the unruly lives of others may be guided and governed in the way of salvation, is to love God and thy neighbour, and is charity agreeable and well¬ pleasing to God. To mortify that foolish desire, namely the love of high place for the honour which it brings, thou shouldfl remember the life of Jesus Chrift and of the saints who loved poverty, as also the trials of a superior in govern-

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ing those that are beneath her, and her servitude to those that are beneath her. Furthermore, thy foolish desire was contrary to liberty, for the sifter in a convent is subjeft to her superior only, but the abbess is the subjeft and servant of all the sifters. Were it pleasing to God and the sifters, and hadft thou an ordered will, I would willingly exchange my office for thine.”

4. “ Lady abbess,” said another sifter, “ for long have I desired how I might have charity towards God and my neighbour. So I pray thee to teach me the manner wherein I may have it.” The abbess answered : “ Whoso would have charity according as is meet, muft know how to under¬ stand and remember; for, except he have wisdom in remembrance and understanding, his will cannot be in charity. Wherefore his remembrance and understanding muft oftentimes be dircfted towards God, and towards His power, knowledge and will, and His works and His virtues, and the vileness of this world, and the glory of the next, and the pains of hell, and he muft consider the wondrous love of God for us, and how we are all of one nature, one flesh and one blood, the which nature and flesh and blood the Son of God was pleased to take for us, when He willed to suffer for us and to die upon the Cross. By this remem¬ brance and understanding the will conceives charity and love, and by forgetfulness and ignorance of these things, charity departs from the will, and anger, ill-will, falsehood and wrong-doing^enterit.”

J. When the abbess had said these things, she exhorted the sifters that before all things they should Strive to have charity, for charity resists none that would fain possess it, and none can have thereof as much as he would. With charity man can suffer trials, and endure with patience that which is hard to bear, and rejoice at that which is pleasant and desirable, whensoever the memory and understanding are direfted thereto. So lofty and noble a virtue is charity, that lt made God to descend from heaven to earth, and made

OF JUSTICE

Him also to take our flesh, weep, labour, suffer and die. And charity moved Him to create the world and all that is, and His charity it is that sustains us, giving to us all the creatures whereby we live, and all the creatures that do serve us. And Divine charity has created for us Paradise whereto it calls us, and wherein we may have eternal glory and escape infinite pains. Wherefore, as by charity we have boons so many and so great, and as it is given to whosoever would have it, a great sin and a great wrong is it if we have no charity in our minds.