CONTEMPLATING THE HOLY TRINITY

from Raymond's Contemplation
(De contemplatione Raymundi)

 God most glorious! You understand with all your reasons that you are a supremely pure act in existence and action and thus you understand that you are God by reason of your dignities. And by understanding that you are God, you produce God from yourself with the acts of your dignities so that your intrinsic activity is as good, great, eternal, powerful, wise, willing, virtuous, true, glorious and perfect as your existence. And so, most beloved God, you understand that as you are the Father, your infinite activity must arise solely from you, in you and for yourself, since there is no one else from whom you could obtain such an act. And therefore you understand that your Son is as infinite and eternal as you, as there is a relationship between you, Father, and your Son.

 Glorious God our loving Father! Your goodness cannot rest in you unless you  beget one good God from its entirety, as without such begetting God the Son cannot be produced from your essence that is one, undivided, infinite and eternal in you and your Son. Therefore, blessed Father, if you did not beget your Son from all of your goodness, your Son would not be entirely good. But He must be entirely good, because your infinity requires, as do your eternity, power, wisdom, will, virtue, truth, glory and end, or perfection, that all of your goodness rest in you and in your Son so that your Son be begotten by all of your goodness. And the things said about your goodness are also understood about your greatness, eternity, power, wisdom, will, virtue, truth, glory and end, or perfection.

 Father, in begetting your Son all your reasons concur in the form of understanding, as you conceive your Word through your intellect by understanding all that you can comprehend about your goodness, greatness, eternity, power, wisdom, will, virtue, truth, glory and end, or perfection. Hence, as you understand yourself, your intellect rests with all your reasons in understanding that you are the Father and in understanding that your Son is in every way as good, great, eternal, powerful, wise, loving, virtuous, true, glorious and perfect  as you.

 Loving Father! You understand that your Son is good and as you produce him with goodness, you love his goodness and as you produce him with greatness, you love his greatness and as you produce him with eternity, you love his eternity and likewise with the other reasons. And you, the blessed, scientific and loving Son, as you understand that you are the Son, you understand your Father; and as you understand that you are begotten by the Father with all his reasons, you understand that you are as perfect in goodness, greatness etc. as your Father. Therefore you love your Father as much as you love yourself, and you love him because he produces you with love. And it follows that your love and your Father's love both convene in one personal number, beloved and arisen in equal goodness, greatness, eternity, power, wisdom, will, virtue, truth, glory and perfection from your goodness, greatness, and other reasons as well as from the goodness, greatness and other reasons of your Father. And this is necessarily true because the loving relationship between you and your Father cannot be accidental, but only substantial and permanently identical in essence and nature to you and your Father without any division or change, as you and your Father mutually unite in one principle of spiration to spirate one spirated holy Spirit, whom we call the Holy Ghost.

 In you, Lord God, on account of  the perfection of your dignities or reasons there must be one principle that initiates without being initiated, namely the Father; and another principle that both initiates and is initiated, namely the Son; and another principle, namely the Holy Spirit, that is initiated but does not initiate, for without these necessary parts, your intrinsic principle cannot be perfect.

 Most Holy Spirit, you infuse your grace in us at your good pleasure!  Produced from the Father and the Son willingly, naturally and with all their reasons, you neither can nor want to oppose the Father or the Son; rather, you are their contemplation and the terminus where the number of divine production is perfectly complete. And thus you do not intend to produce another person as it is sufficient for you that you be produced and have the number of divine persons perfectly complete in you. Nor do you intend to be the Father, as that would detract from the uniqueness of Paternity which is nobler in being one without a second (or more); and since there can only be one infinite being, you do not consider producing another Holy Spirit, for if you did produce one, you would be finite, and the same would apply to the Son.

 As you, God our Father, are a supremely simple form, supreme in the simplicity whence you beget your Son, and as you and your Son spirate the Holy Spirit, in the said production there can be no composition in you, your Son or the Holy Spirit, and in the said production there can be no evil as it is made of goodness, no quantity as it is infinite, no time as it is eternal; and there cannot be any composition in the said production because if there were any composition in the said production, then the said production would not simply arise from your supremely simple form. Our Blessed God, you are one and three, simple and not compound, and you are entirely perfect; and thus we adore you and praise, worship, understand and love you as we have said, and contemplate you very frequently to attain your glory and flee from the torments of hell.

Reference: Ramon Llull Database by Professor Anthony Bonner
De contemplatione Raymundi 
Date: 8/1297  Place: París 
Catalogue number: III.28 
Short title: ContRaym 
ROL XVII, 1-61
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