Читать книгу A Golden Treatise of Mental Prayer - St. Peter de Alcántara - Страница 3

PROLOGUE.

Thus far hath that impenetrable abyss of the divine clemency sweetly disposed all things, requisite for the saving of the soul of man. But if we will extend our thoughts a little further, and call to mind the great benefits, still heaped upon man, after the ascension of our Blessed Saviour, we shall find them innu- merable. Who is not astonished at the vocation of mankind, that the apostolical trumpet of a few men, sounding to human ears, the evangelical truth, through the whole world, shall rouse up* souls, making them✝ happy, and thrice happy, to forsake all worldly vanities? to betake themselves to a state of perfection; to sell all they have and give to the poor; to live in perpetual chastity, and simple obedience, to

* (Religiosi) Ecclesiæ pars selectior, et sapientior; si quidem ii sapientiores habendi sunt, quam reliquum mortalium vulgus, qui se ipsos ȧ mundi consortio se- gregarunt, ut vitam suam Deo consecrarunt Nazianz, ora in laudem Basilii.

✝Beati illi certe, ac ter beati, ut qui Dei amore fla- grarunt, atque ob ejus amorem omnia pro nihilo duxe- runt, siquidem lacrymas profunderunt dieque ac nocte in luctu versati sunt, ut æternam consolationem adipiscerentur ; carnes suas fame et siti, et vigiliis confecerunt, ut illic paradisi diliciæ, et gaudia illos exceperent. Damascen. in hist. B. Josaphat.