World Philosophical Heritage

Wisdom and teachings of
Catholicism

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I f full knowledge about the very base of our existence could be described as a circle, the best we can do is to arrive at a polygon.

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quote 4074 | Nicholas of Cusa
Care of the Soul, Thomas Moore

W hat , more do you want, 0 soul! And what else do you search for outside, when within yourself you possess your riches, delights, satisfactions, fullness, and kingdom -your Beloved whom you desire and seek? Be joyful and gladdened in your interior recollection with Him, for you have Him so close to you. Desire Him there, adore Him there. Do not go in pursuit of Him outside yourself. You will only become distracted and wearied thereby, and you shall not find Him, nor enjoy Him more securely, nor sooner, nor more intimately than by seeking Him within you.

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quote 3848 | Saint John of the Cross
Spiritual Canticle, I.8; Kavanaugh & Rodriguez, 1973; p. 419

H aving been made one with God, the soul is somehow God through participation. Although it is not God as perfectly as it will be in the next life, it is like the shadow of God. Being the shadow of God through this substantial transformation, it performs in this measure in God and through God what He, through Himself, does in it. For the will of the two is one will, and thus God's operation and the soul's is one. (1)

... When there is union of love, the image of the Beloved is so sketched in the will and drawn so vividly, that it is true to say that the Beloved lives in the lover and the lover in the Beloved. Love produces such likeness in this transformation of lovers that one can say each is the other and both are one. The reason is, that in the union and transformation of love, each gives possession of self to the other, and each leaves and exchanges self for the other. Thus each one lives in the other and is the other, and both are one in the transformation of love. (2)

...Thus, no one ... can disturb the soul that is liberated and purged of all things and united with God. She enjoys now in this state a habitual sweetness and tranquility which is never lost or lacking to her. (3)

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quote 3847 | Saint John of the Cross
(1) The Living Flame Of Love, III.78, Kavanaugh & Rodriguez, 1973; p. 641 ; (2) Spiritual Canticle, 12 :7; Kavanaugh & Rodriguez, 1973; p. 455 ; (3) Spiritual Canticle, 24 :5; Kavanaugh & Rodriguez, 1973; p. 503

W hat God communicates to the soul in this intimate union is totally beyond words. One can say nothing about it just as one can say nothing about God Himself that resembles Him. For in the transformation of the soul in God, it is God who communicates Himself with admirable glory. In this transformation, the two become one, as we would say of the window united with the ray of sunlight, or of the coal with the fire, or of the starlight with the light of the Sun. (1)

... The soul thereby becomes divine, becomes God, through participation, insofar as is possible in this life. ... The union wrought between the two natures, and the communication of the divine to the human in this state is such that even though neither changes their being, both appear to be God. (2)

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quote 3846 | Saint John of the Cross
(1) Spiritual Canticle, 26:4; Kavanaugh & Rodriguez, 1973; p. 512 ; (2) Spiritual Canticle, 22 :3-4; Kavanaugh & Rodriguez, 1973; p. 497

T he soul, desiring to be possessed by this immense God, for love of Whom she feels that her heart is robbed and wounded, unable to endure her sickness any longer, deliberately asks Him ... to show her His beauty, His divine essence, and to kill her with this revelation, and thereby free her from the flesh since she cannot see and enjoy Him as she wants. She makes this request by displaying before Him the sickness and yearning of her heart, in which she perseveres suffering for love of Him, unable to find a cure in anything less than this glorious vision of His divine essence.

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quote 3845 | Saint John of the Cross
Spiritual Canticle, I. 11:2; Kavanaugh & Rodriguez, 1973; pp. 448-449

T he road and ascent to God, then, necessarily demands a habitual effort to renounce and mortify the appetites; the sooner this mortification is achieved, the sooner the soul reaches the top. But until the appetites are eliminated, a person will not arrive, no matter how much virtue he practices. For he will fail to acquire perfect virtue, which lies in keeping the soul empty, naked, and purified of every appetite.

... Until slumber comes to the appetites through the mortification of sensuality, and until this very sensuality is stilled in such a way that the appetites do not war against the spirit, the soul will not walk out to genuine freedom, to the enjoyment of union with its Beloved.

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quote 3844 | Saint John of the Cross
The Ascent Of Mount Carmel, I.5.6; Kavanaugh & Rodriguez, 1973; p. 83

T o deprive oneself of the gratification of the appetites in all things is like living in darkness and in a void. ... Hence, we call this nakedness a night for the soul. For we are not discussing the mere lack of things; this lack will not divest the soul., if it [still] craves for all these objects. We are dealing with the denudation of the soul's appetites and gratifications; this is what leaves it free and empty of all things, even though it possesses them. Since the things of the world cannot enter the soul, they are not in themselves an encumbrance or harm to it; rather, it is the will and appetite dwelling within it that causes the damage.

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quote 3843 | Saint John of the Cross
The Ascent Of Mount Carmel, I.3-4; Kavanaugh & Rodriguez, 1973; pp. 76-77

N ow a man may be striving for a perfect union in this life through grace ….. But, manifestly, the perfect union in this life through grace and love demands that he live in darkness to all the objects of sight, hearing, imagination, and everything comprehensible to the heart, that is, to the soul.

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quote 3842 | Saint John of the Cross
The Ascent Of Mount Carmel, II.4.4; Kavanaugh & Rodriguez, 1973; pp. 113-114

W isdom is not to be found in the art of oratory, or in great books, but in a withdrawal from these sensible things and in a turning to the most simple and infinite forms. You will learn how to receive it into a temple purged from all vice, and by fervent love to cling to it until you may taste it and see how sweet That is which is all sweetness. Once this has been tasted, all things which you now consider as important will appear as vile, and you will be so humbled that no arrogance or other vice will remain in you. Once having tasted this wisdom, you will inseparably adhere to it with a chaste and pure heart. You will choose rather to forsake this world and all else that is not of this wisdom, and living with unspeakable happiness you will die.

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quote 3840 | Nicholas of Cusa
De sapientia; Dolan, 1962; pp. 115-116

J ust as any knowledge of the taste of something we have never actually tasted is quite empty until we do taste it, so the taste of this wisdom cannot be acquired by hearsay but by one's actually touching it with his internal sense, and then he will bear witness not of what he has heard but what he has experientially tasted in himself. To know of the many descriptions of love which the saints have left us without knowing the taste of love is nothing other than a certain emptiness. Thus it is that it is not enough for him who seeks after eternal wisdom to merely read about these things, but it is absolutely necessary that once he discovers where it is by his understanding he make it his very own.

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quote 3839 | Nicholas of Cusa
De sapientia; Dolan, 1962; pp. 111-112

F or a persistent and continued ascent to [the Principle and Source of] life is the constituent element of increased happiness.

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quote 3838 | Nicholas of Cusa
De sapientia; Dolan, 1962; p. 107

I am a -living shadow and Thou the Truth... Therefore, my God, Thou art alike shadow and Truth; Thou art alike the image and the Exemplar of myself and all men.

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quote 3837 | Nicholas of Cusa
De visio Dei, XV; Salter, 1960, p. 73

H ence, in Thee, who art Love, the lover -is not one thing and the loved another, and the bond between them a third, but they are one and the same-Thou, Thyself, my God. Since, then, in Thee the loved is one with the lover, and being loved [is one] with loving, this bond of coincidence is an essential bond. For there is nothing in Thee that is not Thy very Essence. (1)

I see, Lord, through Thine infinite mercy, that Thou art Infinity encompassing all things. Nothing exists outside Thee, and all things -in Thee are not other than Thee. (2)

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quote 3836 | Nicholas of Cusa
(1) De visio Dei, XVII; Salter, 1960, p. 81-82 : (2) De visio Dei, XIV; Salter, 1960, p. 66

T hus the Essence is triune, and yet there are not three essences therein, since It is most simple. The plurality of these three is both plurality and unity, and their unity is both unity and plurality.

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quote 3835 | Nicholas of Cusa
De visio Dei, XVII; Salter, 1960, p. 82

H e is God the Father whom we might also call "One" or "Unity," because He necessitates being out of what did not exist (through His omnipotence) ... This [omnipotent Power of His] is the Word, the Wisdom, the Son of the Father; and we may regard Him as co-equal to the One or Unity.

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quote 3834 | Nicholas of Cusa
De sapientia; Dolan, 1962; p. 113

O God, ... [Thou dost] seem subject to mutability, since Thou dost never desert Thy creatures, which are subject to mutability; ... but, because Thou art the absolute Good, Thou art not changeable, and dost not follow what is mutable. 0 the unplumbed depths of Thee, my God, who art not separate from Thy creatures, and art nonetheless beyond them!

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quote 3833 | Nicholas of Cusa
De visio Dei, XV; Salter, 1960, p. 74

I behold Thee, 0 Lord my God, in a kind of mental trance, ... (1)
- Thus, while I am borne to loftiest heights, I behold Thee as Infinity... (2)
- And when I behold Thee as absolute Infinity, to whom is befitting neither the name of creating Creator nor of creatable Creator-then indeed I begin to behold Thee unveiled, and to enter into the garden of delights! (3)
... [In that vision] nothing is seen other than Thyself, [for Thou] art Thyself the object of Thyself (for Thou seest, and art That which is seen, and art the sight as well) . (4)

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quote 3832 | Nicholas of Cusa
(1) De visio Dei, XVI; Salter, 1960, p. 78 ; (2) De visio Dei, XIII; Salter, 1960, p. 59 ; (3) De visio Dei, XII; Salter, 1960, p. 57 ; (4) De visio Dei, XII; Salter, 1960, p. 56

O Lord, my God, ... I see Thee to be 'infinity Itself, wherefore nothing is alien to Thee, nothing differing from Thee, nothing opposed to Thee. For the Infinite allows no otherness from Itself, since, being Infinity, -nothing exists outside It: absolute Infinity includes and contains all things.

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quote 3831 | Nicholas of Cusa
De visio Dei, XIII; Salter, 1960, p. 62

T hose who think that wisdom is nothing other than that which is comprehensible by the understanding, that happiness is nothing else than what they can attain, are quite far from the true eternal and infinite wisdom.

The highest wisdom consists in this, to know ...how That which is unattainable [by the intellect] may be reached or attained in a manner beyond [intellectual] attainment.

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quote 3830 | Nicholas of Cusa
De sapientia; Dolan, 1962; pp. 108 and 105

T hat wisdom (which all men by their very nature desire to know and consequently seek after with such great affection of mind) is known in no other way than that it is higher than all knowledge and utterly unknowable and unspeakable in all language. It is unintelligible to all understanding, immeasurable by all measure, improportionable by every proportion, incomparable by all comparison, infigurable by all figuration, unformable by all. formation, ... imimaginable by all imagination, ... inapprehensible in all apprehension and unaffirmable in all affirmation, undeniable in all negation, indoubtable in ail doubt, inopinionable in all opinion; and because in all speech it is inexpressible, there can be no limit to the means of expressing it, being incognitable in all cognition…

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quote 3829 | Nicholas of Cusa
De sapientia; Dolan, 1962; pp. 105-106

R eason strives for knowledge and yet this natural striving is not adequate to the knowledge of the Essence of God, but only to the knowledge that God ... is beyond all conception and knowledge.

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quote 3828 | Nicholas of Cusa
De venatione sapientiae, Ch. xii; Beek, 1969; p. 64

F inal and perfect happiness can consist in nothing else than the vision of the Divine Essence. ... For perfect happiness the intellect needs to reach the very Essence of the First Cause. And thus it will have its perfection through union with God ... in which alone man's happiness consists, as stated above.

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quote 3807 | Saint Thomas Aquinas
Summa Theologia, II.1.8

B e kind and merciful. Let no one ever come to you without coming away better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting. In the slums we are the light of God's kindness to the poor. To children, to the poor, to all who suffer and are lonely, give always a happy smile - Give them not only your care, but also your heart.

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quote 3497 | Mother Teresa
Something Beautiful for God : Mother Teresa of Calcutta

I will be a saint' means I will despoil myself of all that is not God; I will strip my heart of all created things; I will live in poverty and detachment; I will renounce my will, my inclinations, my whims and fancies, and make myself a willing slave to the will of God.

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quote 3496 | Mother Teresa
Something Beautiful for God : Mother Teresa of Calcutta

T his secret union takes place in the deepest centre of the soul, which must be where God Himself dwells, and I do not think there is any need of a door by which to enter it. I say there is no need of a door because all that has so far been described seems to have come through the medium of the senses and faculties… But what passes in the union of the Spiritual Marriage is very different. The Lord appears in the centre of the soul, not through an imaginary, but through an intellectual vision (although this is a subtler one that that already mentioned), just as He appeared to the Apostles, without entering through the door, when He said to them: "Pax vobis" {cf. John 20:19,21}. This instantaneous communication of God to the soul is so great a secret and so sublime a favour, and such delight is felt by the soul, that I do not know with what to compare it, beyond saying that the Lord is pleased to manifest to the soul at that moment the glory that is in Heaven, in a sublimer manner than is possible through any vision or spiritual consolation. It is impossible to say more than that, as far as one can understand, the soul (I mean the spirit of this soul) is made one with God, Who, being likewise a Spirit, has been pleased to reveal the love that He has for us by showing to certain persons the extent of that love, so that we may praise His greatness. For He has been pleased to unite Himself with His creature in such a way that they have become like two who cannot be separated from one another: even so He will not separate Himself from her.

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quote 3482 | Saint Teresa of Avila
Interior Castle. Trans. E. Allison Peers. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1990, p. 213-4, Seventh Mansions, Chapter 2, Paragraph 3

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Wisdom and teachings ofCatholicism

Wisdom and teachings of
Catholicism