| CONTEMPLATING THE DIVINE REASONS
from Raymond's Contemplation
There are many divine reasons. But now we propose to contemplate God through only ten reasons, namely Goodness, Greatness, Eternity, Power. Wisdom, Will, Virtue, Truth, Glory and End or Perfection, and we say the following things about God. Oh blessed Lord our God! You
are a necessary being. and You are good in goodness, great in greatness,
eternal in eternity, powerful in power, wise in wisdom, willing in will,
virtuous in virtue, true in truth, glorious in glory and you are finally
perfect in perfection. And thus you exist formally through your reasons
and finally through their acts, namely through the acts of optimizing,
magnifying, eternal
Most gracious God! Your reasons really exist in you, and each one is really identical to the others : like your goodness which is your selfsame greatness, duration, power, wisdom, will, virtue, truth, glory, and end or perfection, and vice versa; so that your goodness is not good by mere accident nor your greatness good by accident but each is good and great per se and likewise with the rest. Hence, every act of your dignities or reasons is identical to the others essentially, naturally and substantially; like your act of optimizing which is identical to your acts of magnificence, eternity, and so forth. O Lord infinite in all your reasons or dignities ! As your greatness is the reason for your act of magnificence, there is no room in you for any diminution ; and as your goodness is a reason for your act of optimization there is no room in you for any evildoing ; and likewise with your most noble eternity, which is the reason for your eternal act, so you are never idle in optimizing, infinitely magnifying, empowering, and so on. Consequently, we consider your internal production beyond our intellectual scope and worthy of being loved with all the power of our will. Blessed and eternal God ! With the said act of production, your most holy reasons become clearly manifest to our intellect, because insofar as you see or understand yourself - as it were - in your goodness, this goodness is a reason for you to produce great good from yourself to the extent that you understand yourself to be good. And when you consider yourself as infinitely great, your infinity is a reason for you to produce infinitely great good. And the same is said about your eternity and your other reasons. And thus, O God most powerful, you have within yourself whatever you want and whatever you understand and you need nothing at all apart from yourself. God most powerful! No evil can resist you because you are goodness itself, no smallness can oppose you for you are greatness, no time for you are eternity, no weakness for you are power, no ignorance for you are wisdom, no hate for you are love, no vice for you are virtue, no falsehood for you are truth, no suffering for you are glory, no imperfection for you are perfection itself. Therefore can anything resist, deflect, or diminish you? O Lord most worthy of the highest praise and honor, true God, scientific, loving, virtuous, perfect and glorious to the utmost degree ! You created me in your image and likeness, to the extent my individual number could receive your likeness, and thus with your goodness you created my natural goodness, and with your greatness you created my natural greatness and likewise with the rest of the said reasons, so with your grace I can propel myself morally with all my reasons, and stay in touch with you and ascend to you by contemplating your reasons by praising, hallowing and magnifying them. And if I do this, I accomplish the purpose for which you created me; if not, I deviate from the said purpose and get imprisoned by your most powerful justice, so you can torment me in hell. And so, my Lord, do with me whatever you please for whatever you do is good. . Reference: Ramon Llull Database
by Professor Anthony Bonner
|