Poverty of Being Itself

“No one can be saved without divine light. Divine light causes us to begin and to make progress, and it leads us to the summit of perfection. Therefore if you want to begin and to receive this divine light, pray. If you have begun to make progress, pray. And if you have reached the summit of perfection, and want to be super-illumined so as to remain in that state, pray. If you want faith, pray. If you want hope, pray. If you want charity, pray. If you want poverty, pray. If you want obedience, pray. If you want chastity, pray. If you want humility, pray. If you want meekness, pray. If you want fortitude, pray. If you want any virtue, pray…

Once my soul was elevated, and I saw the light, the beauty, and the fullness that is in God in a way that I had never seen before in so great a manner. I did not see love there. I then lost the love which was mine, and was made non-love. Afterward, I saw him in a darkness, and in a darkness precisely because the good that he is, is far too great to be conceived or understood. Indeed, anything conceivable or understandable does not attain this good or even come near it.

My soul was then granted a most certain faith, a secure and most firm hope, a continual security about God that took away all my fear. In this good, which is seen in the darkness, I recollected myself totally. I was made so sure of God that in no way can I ever entertain any doubts about him or of my possession of him. The All Good was all the more certain and superior to everything the more it was seen in darkness and most secret. This is why I see the All Good accompanied with darkness: because it surpasses every good. All else in comparison is but darkness. No matter how far the soul or heart expands itself, all that expanse is less than this good. What I related until now: that is, when the soul sees all creation overflowing with God’s presence, when it sees the divine power or the divine wisdom, all this is inferior to this most secret good, because this good which I see with darkness is the whole, and all other things are but parts…

In a vision I beheld the fullness of God in which I beheld and comprehended the whole creation, that is, what is on this side and what is beyond the sea, the abyss, the sea itself, and everything else. And in everything that I saw, I could perceive nothing except the presence of the power of God, and in a manner totally indescribable. And my soul in an excess of wonder cried out: “This world is pregnant with God!” Wherefore I understood how small is the whole of creation — that is, what is on this side and what is beyond the sea, the abyss, the sea itself, and everything else — but the power of God fills it all to overflowing…

No matter how far the understanding of the soul is able to stretch itself, that is nothing in comparison to what it experiences when it is lifted beyond itself and placed in the bosom of God. Then the soul understands, finds its delight, and rests in the divine goodness; it cannot bring back any report of this, because it is completely beyond what the intelligence can conceive, and beyond words; but in this state the soul swims…

When I am in that darkness I do not remember anything about anything human, or the God-man, or anything which has a form. Nevertheless, I see all and I see nothing. As what I have spoken of withdraws and stays with me, I see the God-man. He draws my soul with great gentleness and he sometimes says to me: “You are I and I am you. I see, then, those eyes and that face so gracious and attractive as he leans to embrace me. In short, what proceeds from those eyes and that face is what I said that I saw in that previous darkness which comes from within, and which delights me so that I can say nothing about it.

When I am in the God-man my soul is alive. And I am in the God-man much more than in the other vision of seeing God with darkness. The soul is alive in that vision concerning the God-man. The vision with darkness, however, draws me so much more that there is no comparison. On the other hand, I am in the God-man almost continually. It began in this continual fashion on a certain occasion when I was given the assurance that there was no intermediary between God and myself. Since that time there has not been a day or a night in which I did not continually experience this joy…

Even if at times I can still experience outwardly some little sadness and joy, nonetheless there is in my soul a chamber in which no joy, sadness, or enjoyment from any virtue, or delight over anything that can be named, enters. This is where the All Good, which is not any particular good, resides, and it is so much the All Good that there is no other good. Although I blaspheme by speaking about it — and I speak about it so badly because I cannot find words to express it — I nonetheless affirm that in this manifestation of God I discover the complete truth. In it, I understand and possess the complete truth that is in heaven and in hell, in the entire world, in every place, in all things, in every enjoyment in heaven and in every creature.

And I see all this is so truly and certainly that no one could convince me otherwise. Even if the whole world were to tell me otherwise, I would laugh it to scorn. Furthermore, I saw the One who is and how he is the being of all creatures. I also saw how he made me capable of understanding those realities I have just spoken about better than when I saw them in that darkness which used to delight me so. Moreover, in that state I see myself as alone with God, totally cleansed, totally sanctified, totally true, totally upright, totally certain, totally celestial in him.

And when I am in that state, I do not remember anything else…
When I leave that supreme state in which I do not remember anything else, I come back and see myself in those good things I have just spoken about, but at the same time I see myself completely full of sin and obedient to it, devious, impure, totally false and erroneous, and yet I am in a state of quiet. For what remains with me is a continual divine unction, the highest of all and superior to any I have ever experienced in all my life. God is the one who leads me and elevates me to that state. I do not go to it on my own, for by myself I would not know how to want, desire, or seek it. I am now continually in this state.

Furthermore, God very often elevates me to this state with no need, even, for my consent; for when I hope or expect it least, when I am not thinking about anything, suddenly my soul is elevated by God and I hold dominion over and comprehend the whole world.

It seems, then, as if I am no longer on earth but in heaven, in God. This state I am in far surpasses all others, for it is a state of such great fullness, clarity, certainty, ennoblement, and expansion that I feel no other previous state came anywhere near it. Christ’s faithful one told me, brother scribe, that she had experienced this unspeakable manifestation of God more than a hundred times, even thousands and thousands of times, and each time her soul had received something fresh, and what it experienced was always novel and different. But once the soul is perfectly united to God, it is placed in the seat of truth, for truth is the seat of the soul…

It possesses God to the fullness of its capacity. And God even expands the soul so that it may hold all that he wishes to place in it. The soul then sees the One who is, and it sees that all else is nothing except insofar as it takes its being from him. In comparison, everything up until now seems as nothing to it — as, indeed, all created reality. Nor are death, infirmity, honor, or dishonor of any concern to it. The soul is so satisfied and at rest that it desires nothing; it even loses the capacity to desire and to act effectively because it is bound to God. In this light it sees so well that God does everything with order and appropriateness that even in his absence, it does not pine. Likewise it becomes so conformed to God’s will that even in his absence it is content with everything he does and entrusts itself totally to him…

True poverty is not only of having but of being itself. As such it entails the annihilation of the false self, the emptying to the point of nothingness, in order to become totally free and filled with the abundance of God’s uncreated love and wisdom.”

~ "Angela of Foligno (1248 – 1309), was a Christian mystic who wrote extensively about her mystical revelations. She was a Franciscan tertiary and was known as “Mistress of Theologians”. She was noted not only for her spiritual writings, but also for founding a religious community which refused to accept becoming an enclosed religious order that it might continue her vision of caring for those in need.

She was born a wealthy non-Christian, married young, and had several children. She lived wild, adulterously, and sacrilegiously for a while. Following a vision in 1285, she had a conversion. After the death of her mother, husband, and children, she became a Franciscan tertiary, and led a group of other tertiaries. Noted for her charity, patience and humility...

Angela recorded the history of her conversion in her “Book of Visions and Instructions”. She dictated in her Umbrian dialect an account of her spiritual progress, known as the Memoriale, which was transcribed in Latin by a man known as “Brother A.”  ~ WesternMystics