Synthesized answer
Detaching from worldly things and renouncing "both body and mind" leads to a deepening of love for the divine by clearing the mind of distractions [2]. When a person is "disengaged and removed from everything else, and completely recollected within himself," the mind can "confidently turn[s] to the Lord its God with its desire" [1, 2]. This allows the individual to pour themselves forth into God "in full sincerity with its whole heart and the yearning of its love" [1]. The text emphasizes that what pleases God is "a mind free from imaginations," so that one can "cleave to him" [4].
This process is described as a "voluntary and counselled perfection" that excludes hindrances to the "fervour of love" [2]. Rather than emptying emotion, this detachment allows love to become more focused and intense. Love, by its nature, is a "unitive and transforming power" that "wants to make itself one with the beloved" and "cannot bear that anything should stand between itself and the beloved object, which is God" [5]. Consequently, love "never rests until it has left everything else behind and come to him alone" [5]. This leads to an "inward part" where the individual is "plunged, enlarged, set…
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
s can be done best when a man is disengaged and removed from everything else, and completely recollected within himself. There, in the presence of Jesus Christ, with everything, in general and individually, excluded and wiped out, the mind alone turns in security confidently to the Lord its God with its desire. In this way it pours itself forth into him in full sincerity with its whole heart and the yearning of its love, in the most inward part of all its faculties, and is plunged, enlarged, set on fire and dissolved into him.
te a voluntary and counselled perfection by means of which one may arrive more quickly to the supreme goal which is God. The observation of these additional commitments excludes as well the things that hinder the working and fervour of love, and without which one can come to God, and these include the renunciation of all things, of both body and mind, exactly as one’s vow of profession entails. Since indeed the Lord God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth, in other words, by knowledge and love, that is, understanding and desire, stripped of all images.…
and naked, shamefaced affection, with great yearning and determination, and in groaning of heart and sincerity of mind. Thus we commit and offer ourselves up to him freely, securely and nakedly, fully and in everything that is ours, holding nothing back to ourselves, in such a complete and final way, that the same is fulfilled in us as in our blessed father Isaac, who speaks of this very type of prayer, saying, Then we shall be one in God, and the Lord God will be all in all and alone in us when his own perfect love, with which he first loved us, will have become the disposition of our own…
← Chapter 9 On Cleaving to God by Albert the Great Chapter 10 Chapter 11 → 106255 On Cleaving to God — Chapter 10 Albert the Great That one should not be concerned about feeling tangible devotion so much as about cleaving to God with one’s will Furthermore you should not be much concerned about tangible devotion, the experience of sweetness or tears, but rather that you should be mentally united with God within yourself by a good will in your intellect. For what pleases God above everything is a mind free from imaginations, that is images, ideas and the representations of created things. It…
e have God, for God is love. Furthermore nothing is sharper than love, nothing is more subtle, nothing more penetrating. It will not rest until it has by its very nature penetrated the whole power, the depth and the totality of the loved one. It wants to make itself one with the beloved, and itself, if it were possible, to be what the beloved is too. Thus it cannot bear that anything should stand between itself and the beloved object, which is God, but presses eagerly towards him. As a result it never rests until it has left everything else behind and come to him alone. For the nature of love…
More questions about this book
- Albert the Great describes "cleaving freely, confidently, nakedly and firmly to God alone." How would you explain each of these adverbs, and what specific challenges or disciplines might be required to embody them in practice according to this text?
- The text presents two levels of commitment: observing commandments for salvation, and additional commitments for evangelical perfection in religious orders. How would you explain to someone unfamiliar with Christian theology the distinct purposes and practices of these two paths, and why one is described as leading "more quickly to the supreme goal"?
- What does it mean to worship God "stripped of all images," as described in the text? If you were explaining this concept to a modern audience, what concrete examples or metaphors could you use to illustrate how one might achieve this state of "knowledge and love, that is, understanding and desire," free from mental constructs?
- The reference to Matthew 6:6, entering the "inner chamber" and "closing the door of your senses," is presented as a method for approaching God. How does this act of internal withdrawal facilitate the "abstraction from everything" and "recollection within himself" that Albert the Great emphasizes?