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Theotimus, contemplation is no other thing than a
loving, simple and permanent attention of the spirit
to divine things; which you may easily understand by
comparing meditation with it.
Little bees are called nymphs or schadons until
they make honey, and then they are called bees: so
prayer is named Meditation until it has produced the
honey of devotion, and then it is converted into
Contemplation. For as the bees fly through their
meadows, settling here and there and gathering honey,
which having heaped together, they work in it for the
pleasure they take in its sweetness, so we meditate
to gather the love of God, but having gathered it we
contemplate God, and are attentive to his goodness,
by reason of the sweetness which love makes us find
in it. The desire we have to obtain divine love makes
us meditate, but love obtained makes us contemplate;
for by love we find so agreeable a sweetness in the
thing beloved, that we can never satiate our spirits
in seeing and considering it.
Behold, Theotimus, how the queen of Saba, - regarding
the proofs of Solomon's wisdom in his answers, in the
beauty of his house, in the magnificence of his
table, in his servants' lodgings, in the order that
his courtiers kept while executing their charges, in
their apparel and behaviour, in the multitude of
holocausts which were offered in the Temple, - was
taken with an ardent love, which changed her
meditation into contemplation, in which, being rapt
out of herself, she uttered divers words of extreme
satisfaction. The sight of so many wonders begot in
her heart an exceeding love, and that love enkindled
a new desire, to see still more and enjoy the
presence of him whose they were; whence she cried:
Blessed are thy servants who stand before thee
always, and hear thy wisdom.(1)
In like manner we sometimes begin to eat to get an
appetite, but our appetite being excited, we continue
eating to content it. And in the beginning we
consider the goodness of God to excite our will to
love him, but love being formed in our hearts, we
consider the same goodness to content our love, which
cannot be satiated in seeing continually what it
loves.
In conclusion, Meditation is the mother, and
Contemplation the daughter of love, and for this
reason I called Contemplation a loving attention, for
children are named after their fathers, and not
fathers after their children.
It is true, Theotimus, that as Joseph of old was
the crown and glory of his father, greatly increased
his honours and contentment, and made him young in
his old age, so contemplation crowns its father which
is love, perfects him, and gives him the crown of
excellence; for love having excited in us
contemplative attention, that attention breeds
reciprocally a greater and more fervent love, which
at last is crowned with perfection when it enjoys
what it loves.
Love makes us take pleasure in the sight of our
well-beloved, and the sight of our well-beloved makes
us take pleasure in his divine love, so that by this
mutual movement, from love to sight, and from sight
to love, as love renders the beauty of the thing
beloved more beautiful, so the sight of it makes love
more loving and delightful.
Love by an imperceptible power makes the beauty
which we love appear more fair, and sight likewise
refines love, to make it find beauty more amiable.
Love urges the eyes continually to behold the beloved
beauty more attentively, and sight forces the heart
to love it ever more ardently.
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