99 Chapter 32/33 St. Bernard points out the Saints in the White Rose.Prayer to the Virgin. The Threefold Circle of the Trinity. Mystery of the Divine and Human Nature

Absorbed in his delight, that contemplator

Assumed the willing office of a teacher,

And gave beginning to these holy words:

"The wound that Mary closed up and anointed,

She at her feet who is so beautiful,

She is the one who opened it and pierced it.

Within that order which the third seats make

Is seated Rachel, lower than the other,

With Beatrice, in manner as thou seest.

Sarah, Rebecca, Judith, and her who was

Ancestress of the Singer, who for dole

Of the misdeed said, 'Miserere mei,'

Canst thou behold from seat to seat descending

Down in gradation, as with each one's name

I through the Rose go down from leaf to leaf.

And downward from the seventh row, even as

Above the same, succeed the Hebrew women,

Dividing all the tresses of the flower;

Because, according to the view which Faith

In Christ had taken, these are the partition

By which the sacred stairways are divided.

Upon this side, where perfect is the flower

With each one of its petals, seated are

Those who believed in Christ who was to come.

Upon the other side, where intersected

With vacant spaces are the semicircles,

Are those who looked to Christ already come.

And as, upon this side, the glorious seat

Of the Lady of Heaven, and the other seats

Below it, such a great division make,

So opposite doth that of the great John,

Who, ever holy, desert and martyrdom

Endured, and afterwards two years in Hell.

And under him thus to divide were chosen

Francis, and Benedict, and Augustine,

And down to us the rest from round to round.

Behold now the high providence divine;

For one and other aspect of the Faith

In equal measure shall this garden fill.

And know that downward from that rank which cleaves

Midway the sequence of the two divisions,

Not by their proper merit are they seated;

But by another's under fixed conditions;

For these are spirits one and all assoiled

Before they any true election had.

Well canst thou recognise it in their faces,

And also in their voices puerile,

If thou regard them well and hearken to them.

Now doubtest thou, and doubting thou art silent;

But I will loosen for thee the strong bond

In which thy subtile fancies hold thee fast.

Within the amplitude of this domain

No casual point can possibly find place,

No more than sadness can, or thirst, or hunger;

For by eternal law has been established

Whatever thou beholdest, so that closely

The ring is fitted to the finger here.

And therefore are these people, festinate

Unto true life, not 'sine causa' here

More and less excellent among themselves.

The King, by means of whom this realm reposes

In so great love and in so great delight

That no will ventureth to ask for more,

In his own joyous aspect every mind

Creating, at his pleasure dowers with grace

Diversely; and let here the effect suffice.

And this is clearly and expressly noted

For you in Holy Scripture, in those twins

Who in their mother had their anger roused.

According to the colour of the hair,

Therefore, with such a grace the light supreme

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Consenteth that they worthily be crowned.

Without, then, any merit of their deeds,

Stationed are they in different gradations,

Differing only in their first acuteness.

'Tis true that in the early centuries,

With innocence, to work out their salvation

Sufficient was the faith of parents only.

After the earlier ages were completed,

Behoved it that the males by circumcision

Unto their innocent wings should virtue add;

But after that the time of grace had come

Without the baptism absolute of Christ,

Such innocence below there was retained.

Look now into the face that unto Christ

Hath most resemblance; for its brightness only

Is able to prepare thee to see Christ."

On her did I behold so great a gladness

Rain down, borne onward in the holy minds

Created through that altitude to fly,

That whatsoever I had seen before

Did not suspend me in such admiration,

Nor show me such similitude of God.

And the same Love that first descended there,

"Ave Maria, gratia plena," singing,

In front of her his wings expanded wide.

Unto the canticle divine responded

From every part the court beatified,

So that each sight became serener for it.

"O holy father, who for me endurest

To be below here, leaving the sweet place

In which thou sittest by eternal lot,

Who is the Angel that with so much joy

Into the eyes is looking of our Queen,

Enamoured so that he seems made of fire?"

Thus I again recourse had to the teaching

Of that one who delighted him in Mary

As doth the star of morning in the sun.

And he to me: "Such gallantry and grace

As there can be in Angel and in soul,

All is in him; and thus we fain would have it;

Because he is the one who bore the palm

Down unto Mary, when the Son of God

To take our burden on himself decreed.

But now come onward with thine eyes, as I

Speaking shall go, and note the great patricians

Of this most just and merciful of empires.

Those two that sit above there most enrapture

As being very near unto Augusta,

Are as it were the two roots of this Rose.

He who upon the left is near her placed

The father is, by whose audacious taste

The human species so much bitter tastes.

Upon the right thou seest that ancient father

Of Holy Church, into whose keeping Christ

The keys committed of this lovely flower.

And he who all the evil days beheld,

Before his death, of her the beauteous bride

Who with the spear and with the nails was won,

Beside him sits, and by the other rests

That leader under whom on manna lived

The people ingrate, fickle, and stiff-necked.

Opposite Peter seest thou Anna seated,

So well content to look upon her daughter,

Her eyes she moves not while she sings Hosanna.

And opposite the eldest household father

Lucia sits, she who thy Lady moved

When to rush downward thou didst bend thy brows.

But since the moments of thy vision fly,

Here will we make full stop, as a good tailor

Who makes the gown according to his cloth,

And unto the first Love will turn our eyes,

That looking upon Him thou penetrate

As far as possible through his effulgence.

Truly, lest peradventure thou recede,

Moving thy wings believing to advance,

By prayer behoves it that grace be obtained;

Grace from that one who has the power to aid thee;

And thou shalt follow me with thy affection

That from my words thy heart turn not aside."

And he began this holy orison.~

"Thou Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son,

Humble and high beyond all other creature,

The limit fixed of the eternal counsel,

Thou art the one who such nobility

To human nature gave, that its Creator

Did not disdain to make himself its creature.

Within thy womb rekindled was the love,

By heat of which in the eternal peace

After such wise this flower has germinated.

Here unto us thou art a noonday torch

Of charity, and below there among mortals

Thou art the living fountain-head of hope.

Lady, thou art so great, and so prevailing,

That he who wishes grace, nor runs to thee,

His aspirations without wings would fly.

Not only thy benignity gives succour

To him who asketh it, but oftentimes

Forerunneth of its own accord the asking.

In thee compassion is, in thee is pity,

In thee magnificence; in thee unites

Whate'er of goodness is in any creature.

Now doth this man, who from the lowest depth

Of the universe as far as here has seen

One after one the spiritual lives,

Supplicate thee through grace for so much power

That with his eyes he may uplift himself

Higher towards the uttermost salvation.

And I, who never burned for my own seeing

More than I do for his, all of my prayers

Proffer to thee, and pray they come not short,

That thou wouldst scatter from him every cloud

Of his mortality so with thy prayers,

That the Chief Pleasure be to him displayed.

Still farther do I pray thee, Queen, who canst

Whate'er thou wilt, that sound thou mayst preserve

After so great a vision his affections.

Let thy protection conquer human movements;

See Beatrice and all the blessed ones

My prayers to second clasp their hands to thee!"

The eyes beloved and revered of God,

Fastened upon the speaker, showed to us

How grateful unto her are prayers devout;

Then unto the Eternal Light they turned,

On which it is not credible could be

By any creature bent an eye so clear.

And I, who to the end of all desires

Was now approaching, even as I ought

The ardour of desire within me ended.

Bernard was beckoning unto me, and smiling,

That I should upward look; but I already

Was of my own accord such as he wished;

Because my sight, becoming purified,

Was entering more and more into the ray

Of the High Light which of itself is true.

From that time forward what I saw was greater

Than our discourse, that to such vision yields,

And yields the memory unto such excess.

Even as he is who seeth in a dream,

And after dreaming the imprinted passion

Remains, and to his mind the rest returns not,

Even such am I, for almost utterly

Ceases my vision, and distilleth yet

Within my heart the sweetness born of it;

Even thus the snow is in the sun unsealed,

Even thus upon the wind in the light leaves

Were the soothsayings of the Sibyl lost.

O Light Supreme, that dost so far uplift thee

From the conceits of mortals, to my mind

Of what thou didst appear re-lend a little,

And make my tongue of so great puissance,

That but a single sparkle of thy glory

It may bequeath unto the future people;

For by returning to my memory somewhat,

And by a little sounding in these verses,

More of thy victory shall be conceived!

I think the keenness of the living ray

Which I endured would have bewildered me,

If but mine eyes had been averted from it;

And I remember that I was more bold

On this account to bear, so that I joined

My aspect with the Glory Infinite.

O grace abundant, by which I presumed

To fix my sight upon the Light Eternal,

So that the seeing I consumed therein!

I saw that in its depth far down is lying

Bound up with love together in one volume,

What through the universe in leaves is scattered;

Substance, and accident, and their operations,

All interfused together in such wise

That what I speak of is one simple light.

The universal fashion of this knot

Methinks I saw, since more abundantly

In saying this I feel that I rejoice.

One moment is more lethargy to me,

Than five and twenty centuries to the emprise

That startled Neptune with the shade of Argo!

My mind in this wise wholly in suspense,

Steadfast, immovable, attentive gazed,

And evermore with gazing grew enkindled.

In presence of that light one such becomes,

That to withdraw therefrom for other prospect

It is impossible he e'er consent;

Because the good, which object is of will,

Is gathered all in this, and out of it

That is defective which is perfect there.

Shorter henceforward will my language fall

Of what I yet remember, than an infant's

Who still his tongue doth moisten at the breast.

Not because more than one unmingled semblance

Was in the living light on which I looked,

For it is always what it was before;

But through the sight, that fortified itself

In me by looking, one appearance only

To me was ever changing as I changed.

Within the deep and luminous subsistence

Of the High Light appeared to me three circles,

Of threefold colour and of one dimension,

And by the second seemed the first reflected

As Iris is by Iris, and the third

Seemed fire that equally from both is breathed.

O how all speech is feeble and falls short

Of my conceit, and this to what I saw

Is such, 'tis not enough to call it little!

O Light Eterne, sole in thyself that dwellest,

Sole knowest thyself, and, known unto thyself

And knowing, lovest and smilest on thyself!

That circulation, which being thus conceived

Appeared in thee as a reflected light,

When somewhat contemplated by mine eyes,

Within itself, of its own very colour

Seemed to me painted with our effigy,

Wherefore my sight was all absorbed therein.

As the geometrician, who endeavours

To square the circle, and discovers not,

By taking thought, the principle he wants,

Even such was I at that new apparition;

I wished to see how the image to the circle

Conformed itself, and how it there finds place;

But my own wings were not enough for this,

Had it not been that then my mind there smote

A flash of lightning, wherein came its wish.

Here vigour failed the lofty fantasy:

But now was turning my desire and will,

Even as a wheel that equally is moved,

The Love which moves the sun and the other stars.