A Little Book of Eternal Wisdom [5]
thinking of nothing but Jerusalem and Jesus, whom you
will find there.
TRANSLATORS NOTE
-----------------------
This edition of Blessed Henry Suso's Little Book of Eternal Wisdom is
translated from the classical German text of Cardinal Melchior Diepenbrock,
Prince-Bishop of Breslau.
That it is a very imperfect reproduction of the incomparable original,
I am fully aware, but there are authors whose beauties of idiom are such as
to be untranslatable, and Suso is one of them.
It is superfluous to enlarge here on the intrinsic merits of Blessed
Henry Suso's work. For over five hundred years it has enjoyed undiminished
popularity, as at once a religious and literary masterpiece. Such a work
speaks too eloquently for itself; it is its own best praise, its own best
commentary.
BLESSED HENRY SUSO'S PREFACE TO HIS BOOK
-----------------------
A preacher once stood, after matins, before a crucifix, and complained
from his heart to God that he could not meditate properly on His torments
and passion, and that this was very bitter for him, inasmuch as, up to that
hour, he had in consequence suffered so much. And, as he thus stood with his
complaint, his interior senses were rapt to an unusual exaltation, in which
he was very speedily and clearly enlightened as follows: Thou shalt make a
hundred venias,[1] and each venia with a special meditation of My passion,
and each meditation with a request. And every one of My sufferings shall be
spiritually impressed on thee, to suffer the same again through Me as far as
thou art able.
And as he thus stood in the light, and would needs count the venias, he
only found ninety, upon which he spoke to God thus: Sweet Lord, Thou didst
speak of a hundred venias, and I find only ninety. Then he was reminded of
ten others which he had already made in the Chapter House, before
solemnizing, according to his custom, the devout meditation of the miserable
leading forth of Christ to death, and coming before that very crucifix; and
so he found that the hundred meditations had entirely included from
beginning to end His bitter Passion and death. And when he began to exercise
himself in this matter, as he had been directed, his former dryness was
changed into an interior sweetness.
Accordingly, he gained many a bright inspiration of divine truth,
whereof these meditations were a cause, and between him and the Eternal
Wisdom there sprang up a tender intercourse, and this took place not by a
bodily intercourse nor by figurative answers; it took place solely by
meditation in the light of Holy Writ whose answers can deceive in nothing;
so that the answers are taken either from the mouth of the Eternal Wisdom
who uttered them herself in the Gospel, or else from the highest doctors,
and they comprise either the same words or the same sense, or else such
truths as are agreeable to Holy Writ, out of whose mouth the Eternal Wisdom
spoke. Nor did the visions which hereafter follow take place in a bodily
way; they are but an interpreted similitude.
The answer touching our Blessed Lady's complaint he has given in the
sense of St. Bernard's words; and the reason why he propounds his doctrine
by question and answer is that it may prove the more attractive; that it may
not seem as though he were the person to whom the doctrine belonged, or who
had spoken it as coming from himself. His object is to give a general
doctrine, in which he and all persons may find every one what is suitable
for himself. He takes upon himself, as a teacher ought to do, the person of
all mankind: now he speaks in the person of a sinner; now under the image of
a love-sick soul; then, as the matter suggests, in the likeness of a servant
with whom the Eternal Wisdom discourses. Moreover, everything is expounded
with reference to our interior; much is given here as doctrine that a
zealous man should choose out for himself as devout prayer. The thoughts
will find there.
TRANSLATORS NOTE
-----------------------
This edition of Blessed Henry Suso's Little Book of Eternal Wisdom is
translated from the classical German text of Cardinal Melchior Diepenbrock,
Prince-Bishop of Breslau.
That it is a very imperfect reproduction of the incomparable original,
I am fully aware, but there are authors whose beauties of idiom are such as
to be untranslatable, and Suso is one of them.
It is superfluous to enlarge here on the intrinsic merits of Blessed
Henry Suso's work. For over five hundred years it has enjoyed undiminished
popularity, as at once a religious and literary masterpiece. Such a work
speaks too eloquently for itself; it is its own best praise, its own best
commentary.
BLESSED HENRY SUSO'S PREFACE TO HIS BOOK
-----------------------
A preacher once stood, after matins, before a crucifix, and complained
from his heart to God that he could not meditate properly on His torments
and passion, and that this was very bitter for him, inasmuch as, up to that
hour, he had in consequence suffered so much. And, as he thus stood with his
complaint, his interior senses were rapt to an unusual exaltation, in which
he was very speedily and clearly enlightened as follows: Thou shalt make a
hundred venias,[1] and each venia with a special meditation of My passion,
and each meditation with a request. And every one of My sufferings shall be
spiritually impressed on thee, to suffer the same again through Me as far as
thou art able.
And as he thus stood in the light, and would needs count the venias, he
only found ninety, upon which he spoke to God thus: Sweet Lord, Thou didst
speak of a hundred venias, and I find only ninety. Then he was reminded of
ten others which he had already made in the Chapter House, before
solemnizing, according to his custom, the devout meditation of the miserable
leading forth of Christ to death, and coming before that very crucifix; and
so he found that the hundred meditations had entirely included from
beginning to end His bitter Passion and death. And when he began to exercise
himself in this matter, as he had been directed, his former dryness was
changed into an interior sweetness.
Accordingly, he gained many a bright inspiration of divine truth,
whereof these meditations were a cause, and between him and the Eternal
Wisdom there sprang up a tender intercourse, and this took place not by a
bodily intercourse nor by figurative answers; it took place solely by
meditation in the light of Holy Writ whose answers can deceive in nothing;
so that the answers are taken either from the mouth of the Eternal Wisdom
who uttered them herself in the Gospel, or else from the highest doctors,
and they comprise either the same words or the same sense, or else such
truths as are agreeable to Holy Writ, out of whose mouth the Eternal Wisdom
spoke. Nor did the visions which hereafter follow take place in a bodily
way; they are but an interpreted similitude.
The answer touching our Blessed Lady's complaint he has given in the
sense of St. Bernard's words; and the reason why he propounds his doctrine
by question and answer is that it may prove the more attractive; that it may
not seem as though he were the person to whom the doctrine belonged, or who
had spoken it as coming from himself. His object is to give a general
doctrine, in which he and all persons may find every one what is suitable
for himself. He takes upon himself, as a teacher ought to do, the person of
all mankind: now he speaks in the person of a sinner; now under the image of
a love-sick soul; then, as the matter suggests, in the likeness of a servant
with whom the Eternal Wisdom discourses. Moreover, everything is expounded
with reference to our interior; much is given here as doctrine that a
zealous man should choose out for himself as devout prayer. The thoughts