by Meister Eckhart

The Talks of Instruction — in Latin, the In Collationibus, in German, Die Rede der Unterscheidung — are twenty-three short discourses given by Meister Eckhart to Dominican novices under his care at Erfurt, probably around 1300, when he was Prior of the convent there. They survive in a unique form: not sermons delivered from a pulpit, but conversations held at table, informal instruction given to young men who came to him with questions. The subject is the interior life — obedience, detachment, the will, prayer, devotion, and the deepest poverty of spirit — set out in a voice at once practical and penetrating. Where Eckhart's Latin treatises are dense and scholastic, the Talks are immediate, warm, and direct. They are, of many scholars' judgment, among the finest spiritual writing of the medieval period.

Eckhart (c. 1260–1328) was a Dominican priest, theologian, and mystic, born at Hochheim in Thuringia. He studied and taught at Paris, served as Prior of Erfurt and Vicar of Thuringia, and later held the chair of theology at Cologne. In 1326 he was tried for heresy; he died in 1328, shortly before a papal bull condemned twenty-eight propositions from his writings. His influence on the later Rhineland mystics — Tauler, Suso, Ruysbroeck — and through them on the whole tradition of Christian mysticism, was immense. Suzuki declared him "the one Christian mystic who could speak the language of Zen."

This archive presents the complete text of the Talks of Instruction in the translation of C. de B. Evans, published in London by John M. Watkins, 1931, as Volume II of his edition of Meister Eckhart's works. Evans translated from Franz Pfeiffer's 1857 edition of the Middle High German text (Deutsche Mystiker des vierzehnten Jahrhunderts, vol. ii), which numbers the work as Tractate XVII. The source text is scanned and digitised at the Internet Archive (identifier: meistereckhart0000eckh).

These are the discourses of Friar Eckhart the Dominican, Vicar of Thüringen, Prior of Erfurt, held with certain of his penitents, who asked many questions in the course of conversation, as they sat together in collationibus.

1. True obedience

True and perfect obedience is the virtue of virtues ; without
it no really great work can be done and no act however small,
however trifling, but is done to better purpose if done in true
obedience, be it the hearing or reading of the mass, or prayer
or contemplation or anything else that thou canst think of.
Take any act, as holy as you please, be it what it may obedience
raises it, ennobles it for thee. Obedience always makes for
what is best. Obedience never errs and never fails, no matter
what we do, provided it is done in true obedience, for it never
misses any good. Obedience durst not have a single care nor
does it want for any blessing ; where, in obedience, a man goes
out of what is his, by that same act God must go in instead, for
he who has no self-intent God tends just like himself. When,
having surrendered my will (and put myself) in the hands of my
prelate I cease to care for myself, then God must care for me,
if he neglects me he is neglecting himself. Always, where I fail
to choose for myself God chooses for me.

‘Well, what does he choose for me? To have no will of my own. Where I leave myself he needs must will for me all that
he wills for himself, no more and no less, and in the same way
as he does for himself. If he failed to do this then in truth,
which is God, God would not be just, nor would he be God, for
that is his essential nature. In genuine obedience there is
never found, ‘I will so and so, this thing or that,’ but a total
absence of thine, so the very best prayer a man can pray has no
“give me this virtue or that wont’ or ‘ give me Lord thyself’
or ‘ life eternal,’ but ‘ give me nothing Lord but what thou wilt
and do, O Lord, just what and as thou wilt.’ This excels the
first as the heavens do earth. Having prayed like this man
has prayed well. He has entirely resigned himself to God (in)
true obedience, and as in true obedience there is no positive
‘I will,’ so there is never heard from it, ‘I will not’: ‘I will
not ’ is the bane of true obedience. According to St Augustine,
the faithful servant does not care to be told or given things he
likes to hear and see; his first and highest care is waiting on
God’s good pleasure.

2. The most powerful prayer of all and the highest

work of all

The most powerful prayer, one wellnigh omnipotent, and
the worthiest work of all is the outcome of a quiet mind. The
quieter it is the more powerful, the worthier, the deeper, the
more telling and more perfect the prayer is. To the quiet mind
all things are possible. What is a quiet mind? A quiet mind
is one which nothing weighs on, nothing worries, which, free
from ties and from all self-seeking, is wholly merged into the
will of God and dead as to its own. Such an one can do no
deed however small but it is clothed with something of God’s
power and authority. It behoves us to pray hard so that all
our mortal members with their powers—eyes, ears, heart,
mouth, and all their senses—are turned in that direction, and we
must never stop until we find ourselves on the point of union
with him we have in mind and are praying to, God namely.

3. Unresigned people, who are full of own-will

‘Alas, Sir,’ people say, ‘I wish I stood as well with God, had
as much devotion, were as much at peace with God as other
people are. If only I could be like this, or as poor as that,’
or, ‘ It is not a bit of good unless I can be here or there or do
so and so. I must live away from home, in a convent or a
cell.’—Believe me, the fault is in thyself and nowhere else. It
is nothing but own will. Thou mayst not know it and it may
not seem so to thee, but the only source of restlessness in thee
is thy personal will, whether this is realized or not. We think
we ought to flee this thing or follow that—places, people,
methods, purposes, or acts—but ways and things are not to
blame for hindering thee, it is thou thyself in things that is
standing in thy way, cleaving to things as thou dost inordinately.
Starting with thyself then, rise up and quit thyself. An thou
flee not first thyself it is certain that wherever else thou mayest
flee thou wilt find thou art disturbed and hindered, be it where
it may. For people to seek peace in outward things—in places,
persons, ways or works, in poverty or exile or despisery or
anything else however important it may be—is all in vain, it
will not bring peace. Those who seek in this way are looking
in the wrong direction: the further out they go the less are
they likely to find what they are seeking. They go like one
who has missed his way: the further he walks the wider he
strays. But what ought he to do? He must leave himself
first ; he will then have left all things. A man may give up a
kingdom or the whole world but if he still clings to himself he
has given up nothing. But supposing he gives up himself then
no matter what he may keep, riches or honours or what not,
he will have given up all things. Commenting on St Peter’s
words, ‘See, Lord, we have left all,’ when he had left merely
his boat and net, a holy man (Hieronymus) observes : He who
resigns the little of his own free will resigns not that alone: he
is resigning all that worldly folk are out to gain, all they could
possibly desire. But he who gives up his own will and himself

to boot is giving up all things as surely as though they were
his very own, his absolutely. What thou wilt not desire thou
hast resigned and left for love of God. Our Lord said, ‘ Blessed
are the poor in spirit,’ in desire, that is to say. Had there
been a better way doubtless our Lord would have told us so
just as he told us, ‘ If anyone will come after me he must deny
himself first,’ and there lies the crux of the whole matter.
Watch thyself, and wherever thou findest thyself, there leave
thyself: it is much the best way.

4. The practice of resignation: what to do inwardly

and outwardly

Remember, in this life no one ever left himself so much but
he could find something more to leave. Very few can stand
it who know what it really means. It is just a give and take,
a mutual exchange : thou goest out of things so much and just
so much, no more or less, does God go in: with all of his if
thou dost go clean out of all of thine. Try it, though it cost
thy all. That way lies true peace and none elsewhere.

People ought:not to mind much what they do, they ought
to mind more what they are. If folks were good, their natures,
their deeds would show it soon enough. If thou art righteous
so too are thy works. Think not to vest holiness in doing,
holiness depends on being. It is not the work which hallows
us, it is for us to sanctify the work. Deeds may be never so
holy and not hallow us one whit, so far as they are deeds, but
so far as we are, have being (character), to that extent we
hallow all we do—eating, sleeping, watching or anything else.
With people of weak character whatever they do it comes to
nothing. The moral of which is that all our efforts should be
spent on being good, not caring so much what we do, the sort
of work, as about the grounds of action.

5. Mark what makes character and motive good

The secret of fine character and also of good motive, the
basis of the worth of human works, is the fixing of the mind on

God. Direct all thy studies to the end that God loom large in
thee, and let thy industry and fervour be entirely for him in
all thou doest and dost leave undone. The more this is the
case with thee the better for thy work of whatever kind. Fasten
on to God and he will fasten all his favours on to thee. Seek
God and thou shalt find God and all good to boot. Verily,
having this intention thy stepping on a stone would be a godlier
act than the taking of the body of the Lord while preoccupied
with thy own affairs, thy mind being less distracted. Who
cleaves to God God cleaves to and all virtue. And what before
thou used to seek is now seeking thee, and what before thou
didst pursue is now pursuing thee, and what before thou
wouldst escape is now escaping thee. He who sticks tightly

to God to him sticks all that is-godly, him all that is alien and
unlike shall flee.

6. Solitude and God-getting

I was asked this question: Some people shun all company
and like to be alone, their peace depends upon it, would they
not be better in the bosom of the church? I said, No, and you
shall see why. The righteous man is righteous still in any
place and any company and the unrighteous man is unrighteous
still in every place and in all company. The righteous man
has God in truth in him. But one who has God in very truth
will have him in all places, in the streets and in the world no
less than in the church, in the desert or the cell: if he has
gotten him indeed and gotten him alone he is proof against all
hindrance.—Why ?—Because having gotten God alone he is
ever bearing God alone in mind: is big with God in all his acts
as well as in all places, and all his works are being done by
God, for the author of the work his really and truly is the
work rather than his who is the agent of the work. So if we
give our whole mind to God then it is he in fact who is doing
all our works, and nothing whatever can disturb him, not
company or place. Nor can anyone disturb this man who
minds nothing, seeks nothing, relishes nothing but God; for

he is united with this man, in all his thoughts, and as God is
not disturbed by any multiplicity so nothing can disturb or
diversify this man who is one in the one where all multiplieity
is one and homogeneous.

Man ought to lay hold of God in everything, and he should
train his mind to have God ever present in his thoughts, his
intentions and affections. Watch thy attitude towards thy
God. As thou art in church or cell that same frame of mind
preserve and take it out into the world, into its turmoil and its
fitfulness. And, as I often say, speaking of equability, it does
not mean putting all actions on a par, nor all places nor all
people, that would be quite wrong, for praying is a better act
than spinning and church is a better place than street. What
it does mean is being even-tempered in thy dealings, having
unfaltering faith and bringing to thy God an unwavering
devotion. Being in this sense equable, no one, I warrant, could
come between thee and thy present God. But with anyone
whom God is not really in like this, who must always go and
fetch him from outside, from this or that, seeking him in
changeful modes, in work perhaps or in place or people, here
the man not having God is easily distracted, for he has neither
gotten God nor is not seeking him alone nor does not want
nor mind him only and therefore he is hindered not merely by
bad company but also good; not merely by the streets but
by the churches ; not by foul words and deeds alone but by
fair as well. The hindrance is in him because in him things
have not all turned into God, for if they had all would be well
and good with him in every place and in all company: he
would have gotten God whom no one can take from him, nor
is it possible to meddle with his work.

Wherein lies this true divine possession, this real God-
getting? This real God-getting is a mental process, an inner
turning of the mind and will towards God, not in one fixed and
definite idea, it would be impossible for nature to hold it in
the mind or at least extremely difficult, nor is it the best way.
We ought not to have or let ourselves be satisfied with any

thought of God : when the thought goes our God goes with it.
No, what we want is a real (subsistent) God who far transcends
the thoughts of men and creatures. This God does not dis-
appear unless we turn our back on him of our own accord.
He who has God thus, in reality, has gotten God divinely, to
him he is apparent in all things, everything smacks to him of
God, everywhere God’s image stares him in the face. God is
gleaming in him all the time; in him there is riddance and
return, the vision of his God ever present to his mind. Like
a man athirst with a mighty thirst, he may be doing other
things than drinking, and thinking other thoughts, but what-
ever he is at or whoever he is with or whatever sort of temper
he is in, no matter what he is working at or thinking, as long
as the thirst lasts there will never leave him the idea of drinking,
and as his thirst increases, the stronger, more deep-seated, more
present, more persistent will grow the notion of the draught.
Or again, the ardent lover, wrapped up in some object and
with no heart for other things, he cares for that alone, not a
jot for aught beside. Well, wherever that man is and with
whom he is, whatever he is doing or undertakes to do, the
idea of his beloved never fades out of his mind, he finds it
everywhere and as his love grows stronger it haunts him more
and more. Even so this man will not be seeking rest, for no
unrest disturbs him. He finds more favour in God’s eyes if
he takes everything to be divine, higher than the thing is in
itself. I grant you this needs effort, application, careful culti-
vation of the interior life and good sound sense and under-
standing whereon to stay the mind in things and with people.
This is not learnt by flight, by one who runs away from things,
who turns his back upon the world and flees into the desert:
he must learn to find the solitude within where or with whom-
soever he may be. He must discover how to enter things and
seizing God therein, get a clear impression firmly rooted in his
mind, just as one learns to write. In order to acquire this art
a man must practise hard and often however dull and trouble-
some it is and however much beyond him it may seem to be.

With industry and patience he will get the knack. True, at
first he will have to pay attention to each letter and impress it
firmly in his mind, but later on, when he has mastered it, he
pays no attention to these hieroglyphics but writes freely, all
untrammelled by them ; whether it be penmanship or conning
to which he puts his art it is enough to know that he is going
to use it. Though he pays but scant attention to his task and
thinks of something else, still he goes on doing it in virtue of
his cunning. And so this man in virtue of God’s presence goes
on shining without effort; what is more, he is alive to one
pure nature in all things while all unoccupied with the things
themselves.. This in its early stages is a matter of attention
and forming definite impressions, as with the scholar and his
art. Finally the mind of man pervaded with a sense of God
and throughly informed with the form of God and accustomed
to him is able to see him without trying.

7. Man’s highest work is done mentally

We find many people at the stage—an easy one to reach if
we have a mind to—at which the things they move among
are not a hindrance and leave no lasting impression on the
mind, for where the heart is full of God creatures can have no
place, they can find no room. But not content with this we
ought in our own interests to put things on a higher level, so
that they are what we are, what we see or hear, however
strange or disagreeable. Then not till then we have taken the
right road, and there is no end to it, one is able to go forward
without stopping, gaining ground and making genuine progress.
And in everything he does and on all occasions a man ought
always to be sensible of using his higher mind, always to have
a subtile consciousness between his (personal) self and his
higher nature and be alive to God in things as much as possible.
We ought to be, as our Lord says, ‘ Like people on the watch,
expecting the arrival of their lord.’ Expectant people will of
course be on the alert, looking out for him whom they are
expecting and ready to espy him in all comers, the least likely,

if peradventure he is there. And so ought we to be’on the
look out for the presence of our Lord in everything. This will
need hard work, and it will cost us our entire stock of passions
and of powers if we are to do it properly and succeed in seeing
God in everything alike, in finding God to the same extent in
everything. One act must of course differ from another, but
he who does his work with equanimity verily his deeds will all
count equal and he will be just indeed. To him God shows as
clearly in the very worldliest as in the very godliest, to him
it would all be God. Not that the man himself should do any-
thing worldly or untoward, but such things as chance to meet
his outward ears and eyes let him transmute to God. One
whom God is present to in everything like this, who has his
mind well under his control and is using it, he and he only
knows true peace and he has heaven indeed. But to be in the
right state one of two things has to happen: either he must
find God and learn to have him in his works, or else things and
works must be abandoned altogether. But no one in this life
can be without activities, human ones and not a few at that,
so man has to learn to find his God in everything and not to
be disturbed by places or by acts. So when the beginner has
to do with other people let him strongly commit himself to
God, and fixing him firmly in his heart, with him associate all
his intentions, thoughts, desires, and powers, so that nothing
else can come into his mind.

8. Unremitting effort in the highest progress

No work is ever so properly begun or so well done, no man
is ever so free and so certain in his actions, that hevean afford
to let his mind relax or go to sleep; but he ought with his twin
powers, intellect and will, to be for ever hoisting himself up
and seizing, at the summit, his very best therein and guarding
himself against evils of all kinds, subjective and objective,
thus he never misses anything but is always making first-rate
progress.

9. How sinful inclinations are always salutary

The impulse to wrong-doing, let me tell you, is not without _
its uses, and is very salutary to good people. There are two
types of these. The one is not liable to faults, or none to
speak of. The other is the victim of bad habits. By the out-
ward presence of a thing his outward man is moved to anger,
pride, or sensuality, according to the nature of the thing, while
in his higher powers he stays all unmoved, and is no party to
defect, not to bad temper or any other failing, but detests his
fault, which is very likely an hereditary weakness, since many
men by nature are proud, choleric, etc., without the least idea
of committing sin. This (type of man) has the chance of acquir-
ing far more merit, his reward is much bigger and much better,
and his virtue more sterling than the first. For consummate
virtue comes by striving, or, to quote St Paul, ‘ Virtue is per-
fected in weakness.’

Inclination to sin is not sin, but consenting to sin, to give
way to anger (for instance), is sin. Surely no wise man, had
he the power to choose, would elect to be rid of sinful inclination,
for without it one would always be uncertain, doubtful what
to do, and irresponsible, as well as being shorn of the honours
of the fight and the rewards of victory. For by the shock and
emotion of wrong-doing are brought forth in travail virtue and
its fruits. Temptation makes ‘a man work all the harder in
the cause of right and drives him with a strong hand in the
proper course; it is a cruel lash which whips him into cover
behind virtue. The weaker a man finds himself the greater
the need of getting up his strength and looking to his laurels ;
for virtue and vice too are a matter of the will.

10. How the will can do all things and how virtues all lie

in the will, provided it is good
A man has little cause to be afraid of anything provided he
knows himself to be well intentioned, nor ought it to worry
him at all if he cannot translate it into fact. Withal he is

wrong to underrate his virtue so long as he is certain of his
good intention, since virtue, and good generally speaking, is
vested in good will. There can no fault be found with thee
if thou hast right good will—not with thy love or lowliness or
. any virtue whatsoever. What with all thy heart thou vehe-
mently wilt that same thou hast, and neither God nor creature
can deprive thee of it, granting thy will is sound, a right godly
will and present to God. Not, ‘I would,’ that is future, but,
“I will’: that it may be so now. For instance, there is some-
thing a thousand miles away that I have set my heart on, then
it is really mine, more so than the object in my lap which I
care nothing for.

Good is no less powerful for good than evil is for evil. And
mind you, though I never do a single evil deed, yet if I have
the will to sin the sin is mine as though I had committed it, so
that by fully meaning to I might be guilty of some monstrous
crime, wholesale murder, for example, and never lift a finger.
Why not the same with good intention? It is and incompar-
ably more so. In this will I can do all things. I can bear all
the sorrows of the world, feed all the hungry, do everybody’s
work, or anything you can conceive. Provided the failure is
not one of will but of power only, thou hast done it all in the
sight of God ; not for an instant can this be disputed or denied.
To mean to do as soon as possible and to have done are both
the same to God. If I make up my mind to have all human
knowledge, if that is my firm and full intention, then in truth
I shall possess it, for what I have in mind is mine. And if I
really mean to love as much as anyone has ever done, or to
honour God as much, or anything you can conceive, then it
is so in truth, given the saving will.

Thou dost ask, When is the will a saving will? The will is
good and saving when it is impersonal, when dead to self, it has
been formed, transformed, into the will of God. The more this
is the case with thee the better and truer is thy will, and in this
will all things are possible to thee, love or anything thou wilt.

The question is, how can I have this love while I have no

inkling of it, am not the least aware of it like many people,
evidently deeply touched, in whom I find a passionate wonder
and devotion of which I am quite innocent ?

Remember, in love we have to reckon with two things. One
is love itselt, and the other the activity, the expression of the.
state of love. The seat of love is in the will and in the will
alone. The more will a man has the more love he has too.
But who has more of it nobody knows of anyone else: that
‚lies hid in the soul, whilé God lies hid in the ground of the
soul. This love lies wholly in the will: the stronger the will
the deeper the love. Then there is the other thing, the out-
come and effect of love, clearly apparent in the guise of spirit-
uality, devotion, jubilation, and which, truth to tell, is not
always of the highest, for not always does it come from love,
sometimes it comes from nature, from the tasting of its sweets :
it may be due to heavenly inspiration or to sensible affection,
and the people most subject to such things are not always of
the best, for granting it does come.from God, he gives it to the
likes of these to whet their curiosity and to act as a lure as
well as a deterrent from the company of other men. These.
same people later on, if they wax in love, will very likely find
there is a falling off in their feelings and experiences, withal
their love is plainly shown by their keeping true to God with-
out any inducements of the kind. Suppose, again, it is entirely
love, it will not for all that be the highest of the kind, and
jubilation of this sort may well be left at times for something
better.in the way of love, perhaps to do some needed act of
kindness, ghostly, bodily, or worldly. As I have often said,
if a man is in a rapture, like St Paul, and becomes aware of
some sick person wanting of him just a sup of broth, it seems
to me far better of thy charity to forgo thy rapture and serve
the needy in a loftier love. No man need fear to be robbed
of grace thereby. Things cheerfully resigned for love he gets
back in a better way, according to Christ’s promise, ‘ He who
leaves anything for my sake shall receive again an hundred-
fold.’ Aye, whatever a man leaves, denies himself, for God’s

sake, e’en the passionate longing for his consolation, for the
sense, the intuition of him which he does all he can to get
and God does not choose to grant him: this, if he take heart
of grace and blithely does without it in God’s name, I warrant
he shall find in him the same as though he had gotten every
boon that ever was and full possession of it. Having cheerfully
forsworn and gotten rid of things for God, he receives as much
again an hundredfold. Things a man holds dear, which are
a comfort to him and he gladly does without for love of God,
be they bodily or ghostly, he shall find them all in God again
as though they had belonged to him and he had left them of
his own accord. Let us willingly consent to be bereft of every-
thing, for God in whose love we cry quits and are consoled
with all love’s consolations.

That experiences of this sort should be given up at times in
the cause of charity we gather from Paul’s words, ‘I have
wished to be separated from Christ for love of my brethren.’
What he meant was this. He was not thinking of love in the
first sense, that he would never wish to leave, not for an instant,
not for anything on earth or yet in heaven: he meant its
consolations. Yet know, the friends of God are never comfort-
less, for what God wills is their very greatest comfort, whether
it be comfort or discomfort.

11. What to do on missing God who is in hiding

It must be understood that good-will misses nothing of God,
but the mind is sometimes lacking in perception and is very
apt to fancy that God has passed it by. Then what is to be
done ? Exactly the same as thou wouldst do if thou wert in
the greatest comfort. Learn not to vary in the depths of woe
but to behave in every way the same. Man’s best chance of
finding God is where he left him. As it was with thee when
thou last thou hadst him, so let it be now while thou hast lost
him, then thou shalt find him. Good-will never loses, never
misses God at any time. People often say, We have good-
will. Theirs is not God’s will though ; they want to have their

own way and dictate to God to do so and so. That is not
good-will. We must find out from God what his will is.
Broadly speaking, what God wills is that we should give up
willing. St Paul’s friendly converse with our Lord, who spoke
freely with him, availed him not one whit till he surrendered
his own will and said, ‘ Lord, what wilt thou that I do?’
Our Lord well knew what he had to do. So, too, when the
angel appeared before our Lady: nothing she had so far done
or said would ever have made her the mother of God, but the
moment she gave up her will behold her true mother of the
eternal God’s Word: suddenly she conceived God. He was
her natural son. There is no making of a proper man without
surrender of the will. In fact, unless we do give up our will
without reserve we cannot work with God at all. But suppose
it came about that we did give up our own will altogether and
had the heart to rid ourselves of every single thing inside and
out for God, then we should have made all things and not
before. Of such people few are to be found. Wittingly or
unwittingly they want something definite, some experience of
higher things; they are set on this condition or that boon.
It is nothing whatever but own-will. Abanaon to God alto-
gether tny self and all things without any qualms as to what
he will do with his own. There are thousands of people dead
and gone to. heaven who never really gave up their own wills.
There is no true and perfect will till, entering wholly into
God’s will, a man has no will of his own. The more this is the
case with him the more and the more safely he is established in
God. One Ave Maria said thus, with self-forgetfulness is better
than a thousand said without ; better one step in this way than
a journey over seas in any other.

One who has quite done like this with everything of his is
so safe in God that in order to get at him we must reckon with
God first, for he is right in God with God all round him, as
my cowl is round my head, and any person laying hands on
me will first come in contact with my habit. Likewise when
I drink, the draught has first to pass my tongue; there the

drink is flavoured. If my tongue is furred with bitter then
however sweet the wine is in itself it will be soured on its way
to me. The fact is that a man, once he escapes for good from
his possessions, is fenced about with God, and creature cannot
touch him without first encountering God, and anything to
reach him must go by way of God, so it gets a flavour of him
and becomes divine. However great the suffering if it comes
through God God bears the brunt ofit. Not the least suffering
can befall a man, but so far as he shifts it on to God— some mis-
chance, it may be, or unpleasantness—it falls infinitely harder
upon God than on the man and is more against the grain with
him than with anyone. But if God puts up with it for some
special benefit he foresees to thee, and if thou wilt bear what
God does and which through him reaches thee, why then it
stands to reason it will be fraught with God, the shameful and
the bitter like the sweet, the blackest darkness tike the clearest
light, it all smacks of God and is divine, for everything betrays
him that happens to the man who has no taste for other things,
no eyes for other things, and is therefore sensible of God in the
depths of bitterness as at the height of sweetness.

Light shines in the darkness, there we are aware ofit. What
good is light or learning unless people can enjoy it? In dark-
ness, in suffering, they shall see the light.

The more we have the less we own. The man who is quit
of his possessions is never at a loss for God. Granting he
blunders in some word or deed, or something happens to go
wrong, if God was the occasion of the act he needs must take
the blame and on no account should it interfere with thy work
at all. Of this we find examples in St Bernard and many
other saints. Never in this life are we altogether safe from
happenings of the kind. But because rats sometimes chance
among the corn we do not therefore throw away good grain.
To the proper man and well acquaint with God all such suffer-
ings and mishaps are in truth a great advantage, since to the
good all things work for good (as St Paul says, and also St
Augustine), aye sins even.

12. Sin, the right attitude towards it, if we find

we are in sin

To have sinned is not sin once it is repented of. Let none
consent to sin for anything in time or in eternity, not mortal or
' venial or any sin whatever. He who is wise in the ways of
God will not forget that his trusty and amiable God has brought
him out of sin to a godly life and of one who was a foe has
made a friend, which is better than making a new earth. This
is one of the best reasons why a man should range himself once
for all upon the side of God, and it is astonishing how it fires
a man with strong and lofty purpose and makes him give up
all pretensions of his own. And once confirmed in the will of
God no one would wish that there should not have happened
the sin he fell into; not because it was ungodly but rather as
committing thee to greater love, who art abased and humbled
by it, than as just a disobedience to God. Withal thou canst
safely trust to God not to have sent it thee except to bring
out thy best side. Once a man is past all sinning, has turned his
back on it for good and all, then God treats him as though he had
never fallen into sin; he will not let his sins weigh for one moment
with him. Though they were in number as the sins of all mankind
God would never let them count but would be as friendly with
him as he ever was with creature; if he finds him ready now
he will take no notice of what he was before. God is a present
God: as he finds thee so he takes thee and accepts thee—not
what thou mayst have been but what thou art this instant.
All the wrong and the reproach that is brought on God by sin
he gladly bears and has borne many a year in order that
mortals might arrive at a lively understanding of his love and
the more to rouse their love and gratitude and fan the flame
of their devotion—the normal and proper reaction from their
sin. For this reason God is willing to bear the brunt of sins
and often winks at them, mostly sending them to people for
whom he has provided some high destiny. See. Who was dearer
to our Lord or more intimate with him than his apostles ? Not one of them but fell into mortal sin, all of them were mortal
sinners. In the Old Testament as well as in the New he
repeatedly showed this to be true of those who afterwards
were far the dearest to him ; and still in our own day we rarely
hear of anyone reaching a high level of perfection without
some untowardness to start with, it being the purpose of our
Lord that, recognising his great mercy, we shall be spurred to
more and truer devotion and humility. For with the renewal
of rue love revives and waxes apace.

13. Two sorts of rue

Rue is of two kinds. The one is temporal or sensible, the
other is divine and supernatural. The temporal one is ever
dragging downwards into deeper woe and setting us lamenting
as it were a prey to perennial doubt: rue in wretchedness
which gets no forrader, leads nowhere.

Godly rue is quite another thing. No sooner is a man con-
vinced of his offence than straightway he betakes himself to
God, and having resolutely set his face against all sin and in
lively faith aspiring to God, he wins downright certainty whence
springs a spiritual joy which lifts the soul out of grief and misery
and makes her fast to God. The faultier he finds himself, the
more flagrant his misdeeds, the more he needs wholeheartedly
to bind himself to God in whom is no sin or imperfection. And
the best stand a man can take once he has set: his heart on God
is that of being sinless in virtue of his godly rue. The worse
we think our sins to be the readier God is to forgive the sins,
to come into the soul and drive them out, for everyone tries
hardest to get rid of the things he most dislikes, so the more
and bigger the sins are the more pleased God is to pardon
them and the more prompt the more he hates them. When
this divine repentance reaches up to God then, quicker than I
can shut my eyes, all the sins have vanished in the sink of
God, wiped out as utterly as though they had not been, by
saving rue.

14. Sure trust and hope

True and perfect love is shown by having lively hope and
trust in God. There is no better proof of love than trust.
Wholehearted love for another must imply trust, and with
God all we dare to expect does really come true, and a thousand-
fold more. And just as we never can love God too much so
neither can we ever put too much faith in him. Of all. the
things a man can do nothing is so seemly as putting trust in
God. Not one of those who ever had great confidence in God did
he ever fail; he wrought great things with them. For well he
knew that this faith always comes from love, though faith is
not the only thing love has: it has actual knowledge, absolute
certainty.

15. The double certainty of eternal life

There are in this life two kinds of certainty of eternal life.
One is what God tells a man himself or sends him word of by
an angel or shows him in some rare illumination. This happens
seldom and to very few. The other is a great deal better and
more salutary and very often comes to the perfect lover. Here,
his intimacy with and love towards his God give him perfect
confidence, and he is so sure that he loves him just the same
in all creatures. Though creatures all denied him and forswore
him, aye, though God denied himself, he would have no qualm,
for love knows no mistrust but thinks that all is well, nor is
there any call for words ’twixt lover and beloved; by the
very fact of feeling him his friend he is suddenly aware of what
is good for him and proper to his happiness. Fond as thy
love for him may be yet of this be sure, his is infinitely dearer
and more fond for thee and he has vastly greater faith in thee ;
he is good-faith itself, so we may be certain of him and all his
lovers are. This certainty is ever so much greater than the
first and more complete and real and is without delusion. The
telling might deceive and throw a false light very likely. But
this is felt in all the powers of the soul and will not mislead
his genuine lovers. They will no more doubt than they doubt God, for love drives out all fear; there is no fear in
love, .as St John says, and also it is written, ‘love covers a
multitude of sins.’ Where there are sins there is no perfect
trust or love, but love entirely masks sin; it has no sense of
sin. Not that no sins have been committed, but suddenly
they are blotted out and vanish as though they had not been.
God’s works are all done suddenly, abundantly: whom he
forgives he forgives outright and altogether and rather much
than little as becomes entire trust.

I rate this knowledge much, nay incomparably higher than
the first. It brings more reward and is surer than the other
and not hindered by sin or by anything. For whom God finds

. alike in love he adjudges equal, whether his misdeeds are great

or nil, only, from him who is forgiven more more love is
expected, as our Lord Jesus said, ‘To whom more is forgiven
must love more.’

16. True penitence and holy living

Many people hope great things from physical austerities,
fasting, going bare-foot and the like, penances so-called. But
the best penitence of all, the one which profits us profoundly
and supremely, is to turn one’s back upon whatever in oneself
and creatures is not downright God and godly and face right
round towards God in unwavering devotion, thoughts and
longings big with him. In whatever work thou dost feel this
most that is best for thee. As it increases more and more just
so much more true grows thy penitence and rue and so much
more.is washed away thy sin and all the pain. I make bold to
say that couldst thou suddenly and finally set thy face against
all sin with real repugnance and distaste and resolutely turn to
God, then, though thou hadst committed every sin that ever
was from the days of Adam, or that ever shall be done, the
whole of it would be forgiven thee outright and the pain as
well, so that on dying then and there thou wouldst rise up
before the face of God. Such is true repentance, and it blossoms
at its rarest in the perfect penitence of our Lord Jesus Christ’s

most precious passion. The more a man succeeds in copying
this the more his sin will fade away and the throes of sin. We
ought to make a habit in everything we do of copying the life
and works of our Lord Jesus Christ, his doing and forbearing,
his passion and his action, always bearing him in mind as he
has been minding us.

This penitence means simply a mind transcending things,
recollected in God. In whatever practices thou art most apt
to compass this those same pursue most freely. And finding
thou art baulked of it by any outward discipline—watching,
fasting, reading or whatever it may be—have no hesitation but
leave it off at once and fear not for thy penitence. God does
not look at the deeds themselves but only at the will, the
motive, the feeling in the work. To him it matters little what
we do; all he minds about is the spirit that we do it in and that
it is himself that we always have in view. All too greedy is
the man who is not satisfied with God. All thy works are well
rewarded by thy God knowing of them and thy having him
for goal therein. Therewith do thou always be content. The
more wholly and solely he occupies thy mind the more really
will thy deeds blot out thy sins. And bethink thee too, God
was the common saviour of the entire world, for which I am
beholden unto him far more than if he had rescued me alone.
So also thou shalt be the common saviour of all that I have
spoilt in me by sin if with it all thou simply wilt commit thyself
to him. When thou hast marred all of thine with sin, and
heart, mind, body, soul, and powers—what is thine and in thee
is all sick to death and rotten to the core, then flee from it to
him in whom there is no imperfection but all good and let him
be the common cure for all the maladies in thee, inward and
outward.

17. How to be at peace, and, finding oneself not leading the laborious

life of Christ and many of the saints, how to follow after God

People are apt to weary and to get discouraged because

the life of our Lord Jesus Christ and also of the saints was so

austere and so laborious while they themselves are hardly
equal to that sort of thing nor are they much inclined to it.
When they find themselves so different in this respect they
think they must be very far from God, judging by their failure
to follow in his footsteps. This is wrong. On no account let
anyone suppose that he is far from God because of his infir-
mities or faults or for any other reason. If at any time thy
great shortcomings make an outcast of thee and thou canst
not take thyself as being nigh to God, take it then at any rate
that he is nigh to thee, for it is most mischievous to set God
at a distance. Man goes far away or near but God never goes
far off; he is always standing close at hand, and even if he
cannot stay within he goes no further than the door.

Now as to the strenuous life of imitation. Mark how it
applies to thee. It is for thee to see and to have noted whereto
. God admonishes thee most, for people are by no means all
called upon to follow the same route to God, as St Paul points
out. Supposing then thou findest that thy best course does
not lie in great bodily activity and strenuous work nor in
privations, things after all of little worth unless a man is
specially driven thereto by God and is strong enough to stand
them without disturbing his interior life, in this case be at
peace and think no more about it. Thou wilt say, perhaps,
‘Tf it is no great matter, why have our forbears done these
things and numbers of the saints ?’ Remember, our Lord has
given them this way and he gave them too the strength for it,
so they were able to pursue that way and him, what fell from
him. That was the best for them, but God has not bound up
man’s salvation with any given way. What one way has,
what possibilities, with these God has furnished all good ways
without exception, for one good never clashes with another,
and by the same token people ought to realize that they do
wrong to say, when they come across or hear about some
admirable person, that because he does not use their way it
is all labour lost: they dislike his method, so they decry as
well his virtues and intentions. That is wrong. We ought

to pay far more respect to other people’s methods and despise
no one’s way. But let each one stick to his own way and,
bringing all the other ways into line with that, profit in his
own way by the merits of them all. Change of method makes
for instability of mind as well as mode. What you get in one
way may be got in any other provided it is sound and good
and God is the only thing in view, nor are all men able to
travel the same road. This applies to copying the austerities
of certain saints—a way it is well to bear in mind and haply
it might suit thee for all thou durst not follow it.

Thou wilt say, ‘Our Lord Jesus Christ always took the
highest way, we ought by rights always to follow him.’— True,
our Lord should be followed, generally speaking, but not in
every detail. Our Lord fasted forty days: no one is called
upon to copy him in that. Many things Christ did meaning
us to copy the spirit not the letter ; we must try to follow him
intelligently, for he sets more store by what we think than by
what we do. We have always got to follow him in the proper
way.— What way ? ’—How and in what way has to be decided ~
in each case. As I have often said, I rank a mental act far
higher than a bodily one.—‘How do you mean ?’—Christ
fasted forty days. Follow him by noticing what thou art most
inclined for: refuse it and look to thyself. It will profit thee
more to deny thyself unconcerned than to fast from food
altogether. And by the same token thou shalt sometimes find
it harder to keep back a single word than not to speak at all.
Just as it is sometimes harder to brook some idle taunt than
to bear a heavy blow, and more difficult to be alone in company
than in the desert ; and the giving up of some trifling thing
will frequently cost more than something big, and doing some
small action more than one accounted fine. So a man can
quite well follow our Lord by way of his own weakness, and
need not, must not, think him far away.

18. The way to take nice food, fine clothes, and gay

companionship when these come in the natural course

This way rules out all worry about food or clothes, that they
seem too good for thee, but thou dost train thy ground and
mind to dwell on a much higher plane than these, where noth-
ing moves it to desire or thought save God alone. It must
transcend all other things. And why? Because that were a
feeble mind that could be swayed by outward habit: the inner
ought to rule the outer so far as it concerns thyself alone. But
for the rest it is permissible to take life’s blessings with both
hands provided thou dost know thyself prepared in the opposite
event to take them just as gladly. This applies to food and
friends and kindred, to anything God gives and takes away.
So better than anything, I think, is the wholesale abandonment
of oneself to God, taking it with joy and thankfulness when
he sees fit to visit something on us, shame or travail or any
kind of suffering, and rather be led thereto by God than bring
it on ourselves. Having the will to learn from God and to
be always imitating him all will be well with thee, and then
thou art entitled to enjoy thy honours and thy comforts;
but when hardship and disgrace betide thou must consent to
bear them too and bear them cheerfully. With a full sense
of right may those eat well who aré just as ready to go hungry.
Doubtless this is why God spares his friends so many and great
sufferings, a thing his scrupulous good faith would not other-
wise allow, seeing the many and great benefits of suffering,
and, though he does not like nor is it seemly for him to econo-
mise good things, he will on occasion be content with good
intention, whereas another time he excuses not one jot of
suffering because of the untold advantages of suffering. As
long as God is satisfied do thou rest content. If he is pleased
to want something else of thee, still rest content.

We ought to be too much at one with God in will to worry
very much about ways and works. But avoid especially any-
thing remarkable whether in dress or food or speech, high-

flown language, for example, or eccentric gestures which serve
no useful purpose. But all singular behaviour is not forbidden
thee, far from it. Many a time and with many people one
must take an independent.line. An extraordinary person will
do extraordinary things very often and in various ways.
Inwardly we ought to be conformed to our Lord Jesus Christ
in all particulars, so that within us we may find the perfect
reflection of his works and of his godly form; we want to
reproduce in us as good a likeness as we can of all his doings.
Thou shalt work and he shall accept. Do thou thy work with
this single thought, this one intention; train thy mind to it.
at all times till in all thy works thou art the image of him.

19. Why God often lets good people, people who are really

good, be prevented from doing their good works

The good God often lets his friends fall sick so that every
prop they lean on or might cling to may give way. Loving
souls find so much joy in doing many and great feats in the
way of vigils, fasts, and so forth, or other things uncommonly
fine and difficult, it gives them intense pleasure and support
and hope. In work they find help, refuge and firm foothold,
and it is precisely this that our God would knock away so that
he himself may be their only prop and stay, and he does it
out of kindness and compassion, for God wants nothing for his
works excepting his own goodness. Our acts in no way help
to make God give or do to us anything whatever. It is this
idea our Lord would have his friends get rid of, so he under-
mines their faith in it to make them trust in him alone who
intends bestowing largesse on them not for any reason but for
love, that he may be their comfort and their stay and that
they, finding that they themselves are really nothing, may
admire in all the great gifts of God. For the more void and
passive the mind that falls on God and is upheld by him, the
deeper the man is gotten into God and the more receptive is
he to the precious gifts of God. Man must build on God alone.

20. Our Lord’s body, how we ought to take it often and in

what way and frame of mind

' Whoso would fain receive the body of our Lord ought not
to mind so much about his feelings and emotions, the depth
of his fervour and devotion, but he ought to make sure about
his will and frame of mind. Attach small weight to what thou
feelest, but pay great heed to that which thou receivest and
to thy intention. Anyone who wants to go freely to our Lord
must make it his first care that his conscience is without
reproach. Secondly, his personal will must be set on God so
that he takes no interest, no pleasure in anything but God
or things right godly and anything ungodly comes amiss to him.
A man can tell how far from or how near he is to God by the
way this test applies to him. Thirdly, his devotion to the
sacrament and to our Lord must grow by feeding on it, and
his reverence not decay. But one man’s meat is often another
man’s poison. Look therefore to thyself, that thy love to God
is waxing and thy awe not on the wane. Then the oftener thou
goest to the sacrament the better and more salutary for thee.
In this case let no argument or preaching scare thee from thy
God, the oftener the better and the more pleased God will be.
For our Lord delights to dwell in and with mankind.

• Alas, Sir,’ thou wilt say, ‘ but I feel so bare and cold and dull,
  I durst not face our Lord.’—All the more reason, so I say, to
  betake thee to thy God, in him to be made whole and with
  him to be happily united, for in the sacrament thou shalt find
  grace and nowhere else as well: thy bodily powers are then
  recollected and focussed by the saving power of the corporal
  presence of the body of the Lord, the scattered senses all being
  gathered up and therein atoned, while those with a too down-
  ward bent are raised and duly offered up to God and by the
  amiable God are taught the inward way till, weaned from the
  hindrances of mortal, temporal things, they get an appetite
  for the things of God by whose body they are strengthened
  and renewed. We shall be changed into him, be suddenly

at-oned, so that his is ours and all ours is his: our heart and
his one heart, our body and his one body. Our entire mind
and will, thoughts, powers, members, are transported into him,
so we feel and are aware of him in all our powers, body and
soul,

Thou dost object, ‘ But, Sir, I am aware of nothing more in
me than poverty, how then dare I approach him ? ’—I say,
if thou wouldst change thy poverty go to the treasure, ready
to thine hand, of boundless plenty and get rich; for thou
must know in thine own heart that he and he alone is treasure
to content thee and fill thee to the full. I will betake myself
to thee and let thy riches end my penury, and all thy boundless
superfluity fill up my emptiness: thy infinite incomprehensible
divinity perfect my all too base and corrupt humanity.

‘ Alas, Sir, I have sinned too much, I am not able to atone.’
—Go to him about it, he has fully atoned for every imperfection ;
in him thou canst well offer up to thy heavenly Father worthy
sacrifice for all thy sin.

*Gladly, Sir, would I render thanks, but I cannot do it.’—
Go thou to him, he is the one thankoffering that is welcome to
the Father: the infinite, true-spoken, perfect praise of all God’s
goodness. In short, if thou wouldst be at once rid of all thy
sins and, robed in graces and in virtues, be happily led back
into thy source, then let thy life be such that thou durst receive
the sacrament worthily and often, so shalt thou be atoned with
him and ennobled by his body. Aye, in the body of our Lord
the soul is so much the same as God that none of the angels,
not Cherubim or Seraphim, can find the slightest difference
between them. Where they find God there they find the soul,
and where the soul there God. Never was such close union ;
the soul is much more closely knit to God than body is to soul
in the making of a man. The union is more intimate than
when a drop of water is poured into a vat of wine ; that would
be wine and water, but the other is transformed into the same
so that no creature can detect a difference.

Peradventure thou wilt say, ‘How can that be? I have no

knowledge of it.’—What does that matter? The less thou
knowest and the more firmly thou believest the more laudable
thy faith and the more highly to be valued and commended,
for perfect faith means, in mankind, a great deal more than
make-believe. Therein we have actual knowledge. In fact,
true faith is the one thing needful. We seem to find more
good in one thing than another but that is simply due to
outward limitations: there is no more in one thing than another.
With faith the same we find the same and have the same.

Thou dost object, ‘ How can I believe in higher things while
I am not in the right state but find myself imperfect and prone
to many things ? ’—See. Two things belong to you which our
Lord had as well. He had his higher and his lower powers
with their two activities. His superior powers were in posses-
sion and enjoyment of eternal bliss. But his inferior powers
were at the same moment in extremity of suffering and struggle
upon earth, yet not one of them hindered any other in its work.
So with thee, thy higher powers must be raised up into God,
offered up without Teserve and dedicated to him. Moreover,
we ought really to leave all suffering to the body with its lower
powers and senses, while the spirit ascends with entire power
and plunges, free, into its God. The sufferings of the senses
and the lower powers do not trouble it, neither does their
strife, for the longer and harder fought the battle the finer
and more glorious the triumph and the fruits of victory. The
fiercer the onslaught and the lustier the blows of vice the
more proof will be thy virtue if thy soul prevails, and the
dearer to thy God.

If thou wouldst worthily receive thy God see to it that thy
higher powers are set upon thy God, thy will bent on his will,
thy thoughts full of him and thy faith steady in him. No one
ever takes the body of our Lord like this without receiving
special meed of grace, and the oftener the better. Believe me,
it is possible to take the body of our Lord in a state of recollec-
tion and intention that, provided he is living a well-regulated
life, will admit him to the lowest choir of angels. On occasion

he might take it so as to be raised into the second. It might
even be received in a frame of mind to warrant thy admission
to the eighth choir or the ninth. It follows that if there were
two men living just alike except that one of them beyond the
other had on one occasion taken our Lord’s body much more
worthily, this would make him to the other as it were a blazing
sun, because of his rare union with God.

This taking, this blessed partaking of the body of our Lord
is not merely a matter of physical food, it is a matter of spiritual
nourishment received by the appetitive mind in prayer and
union. This (spiritual fare) a man may take to such good
purpose that he becomes more rich in grace than anyone on
earth. He may do so a thousand times a day and more, be
he where he may, be he sick or sound. But he must prepare
for it sacramentally : wisely and methodically, greatly longing.
If he lacks regularity or ardour he must have the courage to
take himself in hand, and with perseverance he shall be holy here
in time and blessed in eternity. Grant us this O Lord of truth,
and love of chastity and life eternal. Amen.

21. Devotion

When a man is going to take our Lord’s body he will do well
to have nothing very serious weighing on his mind. So it is
meet and very helpful to be shriven beforehand, even when
he has an easy conscience, for the sake of the fruits of the
sacrament of penance. But suppose his conscience pricks him
and he is hindered from going to confession, then let him hie
him to his God, and with bitter rue acknowledge himself wrong,
after which he may rest easy till the time comes to be shriven. ©
Meanwhile, if he find relief from the haunt of and remorse for
sin, then he may take it that God too has forgot. We ought
to confess to God before doing so to man, and, if we are in
fault, we are bound to think it grave in the eyes of God and
punish it severely. Further, we ought, when going to the
sacrament [not] readily to change our plans and give up the

idea in order to attend to other people’s troubles, provided our
intention is right and godly and beyond reproach.

We must learn to act without attachment. , But it is rare for
anyone untrained to reach the stage at which he is proof against
disturbance by any act or anybody. This needs prodigiously
hard work; and for God to be as present and to show as
plainly to him at all times and in all company, that is for the
expert and demands especially two things. One is that the
man be closeted within himself where his mind is safe from
images of outside things which remain external to him and,
alien as they are, cannot traffic or foregather with him or find
any room in him at all. Secondly, inventions of the mind
itself, ideas, spontaneous notions or images of things outside
or whatever comes into his head, he must give no quarter to
on pain of scattering himself and being sold into multiplicity.
His powers must all be trained to turn and face his inner self.

Thou dost object, ‘ But one must turn outwards to do out-
ward works ; no work is wrought except in its own mode.’—
True. But to the expert soul outward modes are not merely
outward things: to the interior soul all things are modes of
the Deity within. This can never be the case unless a man
devotes his whole attention to the practice of God’s presence,
then he gets to be God-conscious all the while. Nothing is so
proper to the mind or so present or so near as God. Never
of its own accord would it turn elsewhere. To creature it
never turns at all without violence or wrong and being all
broken and perverted. Once corrupted in the young, or
indeed in anyone, it is very hard to put it right, but no effort
should be spared to correct its vicious habits. For however
natural and proper God is to the mind, once it turns aside to
make common cause with creatures and falls into their ways,
it becomes correspondingly enfeebled and less master of itself,
a serious handicap to good intentions, which makes it barely
possible to recover the lost ground. And even if he does so
a man will always have to be on the defensive.

It should be a man’s first care to discipline himself both well

and strictly. For a raw and untrained person to try and play
the part and do the same as a proficient would be fatal to him;
he would never come to any good. Only when a man is
weaned from and is rid of things is he truly qualified in every-
thing he does to use or to refuse them with impunity. But to
dwell upon a thing and take pleasure in it and set one’s heart
upon it—meat or drink or whatever it may be—that is bound
to be disastrous to the untutored soul. We have got to make
a habit of not seeking or taking what is ours in anything at
all but to finding and seizing God in everything. God gives
no gift nor ever gave one for any man to have and rest therein ;
every gift he ever gave in heaven or earth he gave with the
intent to give one gift: himself. With these gifts every one
of them he means to prepare us for the gift of his own self,
and all the works God ever wrought in heaven and on earth
he wrought with but one end in view, to accomplish that, i.e.
to hallow them, that he might hallow us. Therefore I say:
in every gift and in every work we must learn to see God and
not be satisfied with any thing or stop in any thing. In no
wise is this life a resting-place for us or for anyone however far
he has progressed. Above all things it behoves us ever to be
prepared for the gift of God and evernewly. In short, I say
concerning anybody who is bent on getting from our Lord
something she is not well prepared for, that in my opinion if
‘God did give his gift to her in this unready state it would be
her undoing.

Question. “Why was she not ready ? She had the will to
be, and you say that: will is omnipotent, that everything,
perfection, lies in it.’ So it does, but, will is to be taken in
two senses. On the one hand, we have contingent will, non-
essential will; on the other, providential will, creative will,
habitual will. Now it is not enough, in seeking union with
God, to enjoy occasional detachment of the mind, it needs
expert, habitual detachment, going on before and after; then
we receive great things from God and God in these things.
To be unprepared is to lose the gift and God in the gift. This

is why God cannot always give us things as we ask for them.
It is no fault of his; he is a thousand times more ready to
bestow than we are to receive. But we do him violence and
wrong, hindering his natural work by our unreadiness. A man
must learn in every gift to sacrifice himself to him, keeping
nothing of his own and seeking nothing for himself, not profit
nor enjoyment, nor inwardness nor sweetness nor reward nor
heaven nor own-will. God never gave himself nor ever does
in any other’s will. He only gives himself in his own will.
Where God finds his will there he bestows himself, he lets him-
self in with all he is. And the more we die to our own the
more do we really live in his.

It is not enough then to resign ourselves just once with all

we have and can, but we must keep on doing it afresh so as
to simplify and detach ourselves completely. The great thing
is, not to be content with virtues that are merely theoretical,
obedience for example, and poverty, and so on; but we our-
selves must practise the works and fruits of virtue, putting
ourselves often to the test, and be willing and anxious to be
called upon by people and made use of. And it is not enough
to do the works of virtue, to obey, for instance, or be poor
or give up things or in other ways humble and resign ourselves,
but we must go further, never stopping till virtue in itself, in
its cause, is won. And in proof that it is ours we shall find
ourselves bent chiefly upon virtue and doing virtuous deeds
Spontaneously, with no idea of their being fine or important
things—they are done as a matter of course and for love of
virtue rather than for any why. Then we have virtue in per-
fection, not before. We must school ourselves in riddance to
the point of having no personal belongings. We may realize
it or not, but attacks of restlessness are due solely to the personal
will. We ought then to commit ourselves and all our thoughts,
will and desire-free, to the good-will of God therewith un-
reservedly to desire and will.

Question. ‘Is it right to be willing to forgo the sweets of God: may this not easily be due to laziness?’—It is to be judged by the results. Whether it comes from sloth or from
genuine dispassion and renunciation we can tell by whether,
when feeling wholly God-forsaken, we find ourselves as staunch
to him as when the sense of him was keenest, and behave the
same, exactly, as under those conditions, refusing every help
and consolation just as we should do if we felt God
present.

To the righteous man in his perfectly good-will no time can
be too short. For where his will is willing to perfection all
it can—not only now, but all he would do if he could, supposing
he lived a thousand years—that will counts equal to the thou-
sand years’ performance : he has done it all in the eyes of God.

22. How we ought to follow God, and about good ways

The man who is about to start on some new life or work
should betake him to his God, and giving his whole mind to it
earnestly entreat him to dispose things for the best, as shall
best please and most honour him, not with any will or intention
of his own, just the will of God and nothing else. Then what-
ever God shall send let him take it straight from God, as a
veritable God-send, and be at peace. Later on he will perhaps
prefer some other way, and then he should bethink himself,
“It was this way God gave thee, so he must think it best.’
Trusting God for this let him bring all good ways into line
therewith and use all things of whatever kind in and according
to it. The benefits that God contrives to give in any one way
are to be found and gotten in good ways one and all, and we
ought to find in one way the good things common to them,
not those peculiar to that one. For man must always do one
thing, he cannot do them all. He must always be one thing
and in that one find all. To try and do everything, this as
well as that, to give up his own method for another which for
the moment he likes better, believe me, is a fertile source of
instability, and a better man were he who left the world to go
into some Order than he who left one Order to go into another,

however holy it might be. Owing to the change of way. A
man should choose a good way and abide by it, embodying in
it good ways of all kinds, only taking care they are acceptable
to God, not embarking upon one to-day and another one to-
morrow, then he need not be afraid of missing anything. With
God we can miss nothing: God never misses anything, and in
God’s company no more do we. So take one thing from God
and embody in it all good things. If they are incompatible,
one at variance with another, that is a certain sign it does not
come from God. One good does not quarrel with another, as
our Lord observed, * A kingdom divided against itself shall not
stand’; and he also said, ‘ He who is not for me is against me,
and he who gathereth not with me scattereth,’ so let this be
thy touchstone: any good which clashes with, which destroys
another good, albeit a minor one, does not come from God. It
ought to reinforce not cancel.

Briefly the truth is this and no mistake: God gives to each
one what is best for him, not a doubt of it, and he never takes
him lying down if he could haye found him standing up, for
the divinity of God takes all things in their prime.

It is questioned, Why then does God not take those people
he knows are going to lapse from baptismal grace and let them
die in infancy, before they come to years of discretion, seeing
as he does that they are doomed to fall and not rise again ?
Would not that be the best thing for them ?

I answer that, God is not the destroyer of anything good, he
is the fulfiller. God is not the destroyer of nature, he is the
perfecter of it. Neither does grace destroy nature, it crowns
it. If God destroyed nature at the start like that it would be
wronged and outraged. That is not his way. Man has free
will wherewith to make his choice ’twixt good and evil, and
when God lays before him in ill-doing death and in well-doing
life eternal, he must be free and master of his actions, no
puppet dancing to .another’s piping. Grace does not destroy

nature, it consummates it. (Glory does not destroy grace, it
finishes it), for glory is perfected grace. It is not in God to
destroy anything that has being: he is the finisher of all
things. Therefore let us not destroy any the least good in
us, not any homely way for something more imposing, but
pursue it to its end in the Supreme.

So ran the talk about raking a fresh start in life, and I gave
my verdict in the sense that we ought by rights to be seeking
God in all things and finding God at all times as well as in all
places, in any company and in every guise. In this way it is
possible to keep on making progress, ever getting better and
never to stop growing.

23. Works inward and outward

Suppose a man withdraws into himself with all his powers
physical and mental and finds himself in a state of mind free
from all images and definition, without any activity at all,
subjective or objective. Then he should carefully consider
whether there is anything that specially attracts him. If he
feels no inclination to take up any work and interest himself
therein he had better break into some activity internal or
external, but he must not let himself be satisfied with any-
thing, however good it seems to be or is, that means submitting
to austerities or doing violence to his feelings : anything wherein
he may be said to be more wrought upon than working, for he
has to learn to co-operate with his God. Not that a man should
give up or neglect or forget about his interior life, but he must
find out how to work in it and with it and from it, his unity
breaking into activity and his activity conducing to his unity,
till he acquires the habit of acting passively (acting without
attachment). The thing to do is to turn our attention to this
interior activity and exploit it in reading, prayer, or outward
work as the case may be. If the outward work disturbs the
inner then pursue the inner, but the best way to co-operate
with God is to do them both together.

The question is, how can one work with God? By being
dead to self and to all activities. St Dionysius says, ‘ He
speaks best of God who in the fullness of his interior riches can
best hold his peace.’ Here ideas and actions fail: praise,
thanksgiving, or whatever he might do.

Answer. A single act remains to him, one proper and peculiar

to himself; it is, of course, the naughting of himself; but this
naughting, this undoing of himself never goes so far but it
remains unfinished unless God brings the same to perfection
in himself. Humility is deep enough when God has mortified
a man with the man himself, then not till then is man satisfied,
and the claims of virtue.
Question. How can God mortify a man with (the man)
himself ? It seems as though the naughting of man means
divine exaltation, for in the gospel it says, ‘ He that humbleth
himself shall be exalted ’ ?

Answer. Yes and no. To humble himself is not enough,
God has to do it, then he shall be exalted. Not that his abase-
ment is one thing and his exaltation is another: the highest
height of exaltation lies in the low ground of humility. For
the lower the valley the higher the hills and the more towering
the peaks. The deeper the well the higher it is: depth and
height are the same. So he who is most lowly is most lofty,
and hence the saying of our Lord, ‘ Whosoever would be chief
among you let him become your servant.’ To be the one he
must become the other. This being depends on that becoming.
He who is becoming the least is in truth the greatest, but he
who has become the least is even now greatest of all. Thus
the words of the evangelist are true and are fulfilled: ‘He
who humbles himself shall be exalted.’ Our real being is
essentially a not-becoming. ‘They are become rich in all
virtues,’ so it is written. But believe me this can never be
until we are poor of all things. To have all we must give all.
Just dealing, that, and a fair bargain, as I explained once long
ago. God grants the freehold of himself and the whole of
things and exacts from us in payment all our possessions down,

Aye in very truth, God flatly refuses to let us keep of our per-
sonal property as much as might find lodgment in my eye,
for of all the gifts he ever made us, whether of nature or of
grace, not one was ever given save with the idea that we
should have nothing of our own: nothing of the sort did he
ever give, not to his mother nor to any human being nor to
any creature. In order to teach us and by way of warning
against this very thing he will often deprive us of both bodily
and spiritual goods. We can take no credit for them, that
belongs to him alone, and we ought always to have things as
though they had been lent to us, not given: without any sense
of ownership, whether in soul or body, possessions, powers,
worldly goods and honours, friends and family, house or home
or anything.

‘Why does God make such a point of this ? ’—Because he
wants to be our own himself, wholly and solely. This is his
chief delight, his play, and the more and better he succeeds
the greater is his joy and bliss. For the more we have of
things the less of him we own and the fewer things we have
the more we have gotten him and his. That is why our
Lord in laying down the principles of happiness headed the
list with poverty of spirit; he did this in the first place as
a sign that blessings and perfections one and all are grounded
in poverty of spirit. And rightly, for any ground whereon
good, generally speaking, could be built would be nothing,
neither this nor that. If we keep clear of things which are
outside us God will give us in exchange the whole contents
of heaven: heaven itself with all its powers and all that ever
emanated from it. What the saints and angels have shall
belong to us as well as them. The less then anything is mine
as opposed to being a way of escaping from myself, the more
will God with all he is and promises be altogether mine, mine
the same as his, no more or less. More a thousandfold shall
it be mine own than anything a man did ever gain and keep
it in a box, any personal possession. Never was anything so
own as God shall be mine own with all he is and can. This

own we merit by keeping free in this life from personal pos-
sessions, from all that he is not. The more perfect and patient
the poverty the more real this own will be, but the reward
itself must not be looked for or regarded in the very least ;
the eye must never once be turned towards it with a view to
gain or gift, but solely for the love of virtue.

Less have more own, or, in the words of the excellent St Paul,
we ought to have ‘ as having nothing yet possessing all things.’
He has no sense of property who does not want and lays no
claim to aught within himself or outside himself, not to God
or anything. Wouldst know what a really poor man is?
Really poor in spirit is the man who prefers to do without all
unnecessary things. Like the man who sitting naked in his
tub said to mighty Alexander with the world beneath his feet,
said he, ‘I am a greater man than thou, for I have given up
more than thou hast ever had. To me thy proud possessions
are beneath contempt.’ Better far is he who has no need of
things and wants to do without than he who has all things of
necessity. And best is he who knows how to dispense with
what he has no need of. He who can dispense with most and
most set things at naught has relinquished most. It seems a
fine thing that for love of God a man should give a thousand
marks of gold out of his own pocket, building many convents
and religious houses and feeding all the poor. But far more
blest were he who should refuse as much for God. And very
heaven were his who was wise enough to abandon everything
for God, what God gives or does not.’—‘ Yes, Sir,’ thou sayest,
‘if it was not for the fact that I am hindered by my faults.’—
If thou hast faults beseech God often, if it be to his glory and
if he so please, that he will cure them, for without him thou
canst not. If he does cure them thank him; if not, bear it
for his sake, no longer as a sinful imperfection but as salutary
discipline, a good opportunity of acquiring merit and exercising
patience. Never mind whether he gives thee his gift or not.
He gives to each what is good for him and suits him best. For
the coat to fit it must be cut to measure ; what suits one will

not suit another; each must be measured for what suits him
best. Even so God does the very best for each, as being the
best judge of his needs. I warrant you that anyone who -
trusts him implicitly for this will find and have as much in
the least as in the very most. Suppose God chose to grant
me what he gave St Paul, I would take it, please God, gladly.
But if he chooses not to give it me—and there are precious
few he does allow to know it in this life—I shall hold him just
as dear in his refusal and thank him just as much and be no
less pleased with his withholding than his giving but as happy
and content as though he gave it me, provided I am as I ought
to be. By rights I ought to be so satisfied with the will of
God, with God’s pleasure as to working and bestowing, his will
should be so dear, so precious to me that it outweighs whatever
gifts might be vouchsafed or acts wrought by him in me.
Then all gifts would be mine and all beings God. Creatures
may do their best or worst, not one single jot can they take
away. How then can I complain, seeing all human gifts
belong tome? In fact I am so well content with God’s treat-
ment of me, with his giving and not giving me, that to my
mind there is not a pin to choose between it and the best that
I could wish.

Thou sayest, ‘I fear me I do not take trouble enough or
trust him as much as I might.’—This rue and bear it patiently ;
regard it as a discipline and be at peace. God gladly suffers
despisery and shame and willingly forgoes his praise and
service that they may be at rest in him who are minding him
and are his people. How then not be at peace whatever he
gives us or whatever we must do without? As it is written,
and they are the words of our Lord, ‘ Blesséd are they that
suffer for righteousness’ sake.’ The thief they are about to
hang as the proper penalty for stealing; the murderer who
deserves to lose his life, could they but look at it like this:
“ See, thou art suffering in the cause of right when thou gettest
thy deserts,’ then without more ado they would be happy.
In truth, however bad we are, if we accept from God whatever he may send us, take it as from him and bear it in the name
of justice, then we are blesséd. Therefore lament thee not, or
rather, lament thee that thou still lamentest and that naught
contents thee. The one lament permitted thee is that thou
hast too much. By rights one should receive in want as one
does in plenty.

“ But look,’ thou sayest, ‘ what. great things God does in
many people; they are overshadowed by his deity, God ener-
gizing in them, not themselves.’—Thank God for it in them,
and if he grant the same to thee, in God’s name welcome it :
if he does not give it thee then do without it willingly with
him alone in mind, not worrying as to whether God is doing
thy works or whether they are being done by thee. God is
bound to do them, if thy thoughts are set on him, whether he
would or not. And never mind what state or way, God gives
to anybody. Were I so good and holy that they put me up
among the saints, people would be talking, anxious to find out
whether it was grace in me or nature, quite disturbed about
it. It is a great mistake. Let God operate in thee; hand
the work over to him and do not disquiet thyself as to whether
or no he is working with nature or above nature, for his are
both nature and grace. What business is it of thine what it
suits him to work with or what he is doing with thee or with
anyone else? Let him work how and where and in what way
he will.—Said a man who was wanting to turn a stream into
his garden, ‘ Only let me have the water, I care not in the least
what sort of channel it comes through ; wood or iron, clean or
rusty, it is all the same to me.’ And by the same token it is
wrong to be exercised about the ways and means of God’s
working in thee: whether it be grace or nature let him work
with it and be thou at peace. So far as thou art in God so far
thou art in peace and so far out of God so far without peace.
Once a thing is in God it has peace: so far in God so far in
peace. Judge then from time to time how far thou art in
God, or otherwise, where thou hast peace or not. Where thou
hast unrest there thou must be restless: unrest comes from

creature not from God. There is nothing in God to be afraid
of: everything in God is altogether loveable. Neither is there
any cause for sorrow.

He who has all he will, his every wish, that man has peace.
None has it but the man whose will and God’s are wholly one.
God grant us this atonement. Amen.

Colophon

The Talks of Instruction (In Collationibus; Die Rede der Unterscheidung) by Meister Eckhart (c. 1260–1328). This archive reproduces the translation of C. de B. Evans, published as part of The Works of Meister Eckhart, Volume II, London: John M. Watkins, 1931. First published 1924 (Volume I) and 1931 (Volume II). Evans translated from the Middle High German text established by Franz Pfeiffer in Deutsche Mystiker des vierzehnten Jahrhunderts, vol. ii (Leipzig, 1857), where the work appears as Tractate XVII. Source digitised at the Internet Archive (identifier: meistereckhart0000eckh). The translation is reproduced here as a public-domain archival text.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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