Chapter II

Continues the same subject and treats of aridities In prayer and what the author thinks may result from them; and of how we must test ourselves; and of how the Lord prove those who are in these mansions.

45. Their love is not yet ardent enough to overwhelm their reason. How I wish ours would make us dissatisfied with this habit of always serving God at a snails pace!

48. [those selecting a mentor] They should not look for anyone as the saying has it cast in the same mold as themselves who always proceeds with great circumspection; they should select a man who is completely disillusioned with the things of the world.

49. It is a great advantage for us to be able to consult someone who knows us, so that we may learn of ourselves.

FOURTH MANSIONS

In which there are three chapters.

Chapter I

Treats of the difference between sweetness or tenderness in prayer and consolations, and tells of the happiness which the author gained from l earning how Different thought is from understanding. This chapter is very profitable for those who suffer greatly from distractions during prayer.

Chapter II

Continues the same subject and explains by comparison what is meant by consolations and how we miss obtain them without striving to do so.

Psalm 119. Particularly Psalm 119:32:I will run in the way of your commandments
when you enlarge my heart! ESV (p. 64. Also, p. 55).

P. 64-67 describe the practices of prayer and humility in striving after the unearned state of a heart enlarged by God – we can’t engineer a path toward it; always on His terms/time; yet to strive by NOT striving is in fact the (only) way.

P. 63. “These two large basins can be filled with water in different ways: the water in the one comes from a long distance, by means of numerous conduits and through human skill; but the other has been constructed at the very source of the water and fills without making any noise. If the flow of water is abundant, as in the case we are speaking of, a great stream sill runs from it after it has been filled; no skill is necessary here, and no conduits have to be made, for the water is flowing all the time. The difference between this and the carrying of water by means of conduits is, I think, as follows. The latter corresponds to the spiritual sweetness which, as I say, is produced by meditation. It reaches us by way of the thoughts; we meditate upon created things and fatigue the understanding, and when at at last, by means of our own efforts, it comes, the satisfaction which it brings to the sourl fills the basic, but in doing so makes a noise, as I have said.

Ben’s notes: Basin One – we work, irrigate – meditate; “meditate on created things” – we, “fatigue the understanding…by our own efforts..[leading to] satisfaction” – which brings a noisy, but satisfying, fill. Basin Two: Natural spring; we don’t control the source. It simply “enlarges our hearts” – Psalm 118:32 – it does so without our effort or understanding (p. 64).

Psalm 118:32 I have run the way of thy commandments, when thou didst enlarge my heart.

Chapter III

Describes what is meant by the Prayer of Recollection, which the Lord generally grants before that already mentioned. Speaks of its affects and of the remaining affects of the former kind of prayer, which had to do with the consolations given by the Lord.

Ben Notes: here (Chapter 3, p. 68 – the [above in blog] synopsis/intro to Chapter 3 in my edition of Interior Caste), Absorption (p. 71) – Defined (p. 72) – aka cessation of thought (p. 73) – so, the “spring of water” (p. 63) aka Basin Two (p. 63).

[Here] “the soul enters within itself” (68) “when we are seeking God within ourselves (where He is found more effectively and more profitably than in the creatures, to quote Saint Augustine, who, after having sought Him in many places, found Him within (Confessions, Bk. X, chap XXVII [or Soliloquies, Chap. XXXI: cf. St. John of the Cross: II, 33, 196, n.9]) it is a great help if God grants us this favor….”like a hedgehog or a tortoise withdrawing into itself (p. 70).

Anyone who is conscious that this is happening within himself should give God great praise, for he will be very right to recognize what a favor it is; and the thanksgiving which he makes for it will prepare him for greater favors (70).

One preparation for listening to Him, as certain books tell us, is that we should contrive, not to use our reasoning powers, but to be intent upon discovering what the Lord is working in the soul; for, if His Majesty has not begun to grant us absorption, I cannot understand how we can cease thinking in any way which will not bring us more harm than profit…. (70-71).

…the person who does most is he who thinks least and desires to do least: what we have to do is to beg like poor and needy persons coming before a great and rich Emperor and then cast down our eyes in humble expectation. When from the secret signs He gives us we seem to realize that He is hearing us, it is well for us to keep silence, since He has permitted us to be near Him and there will be no harm in our striving not to labor with the understanding – provided, I mean, that we are able to do so. But if we are not quite sure that the King has heard us, or sees us, we must not stay where we are like ninnies, for there still remains a great deal for the soul to do when it has stilled the understanding; if it did nothing more it would experience much greater aridity and the imagination would grow more restless because of the effort caused it by cessation from thought. The Lord wishes us rather to make requests of Him and to remember that we are in His presence, for He knows what is fitting for us. (71-72…continued below my note)…

[Long not from Ben: so, we can conjure up the natural waters of Basin Two like we can (and should) put our hands/sweat/work to the irrigation of Basin One. That irrigation work is not bad, and is, in fact, exactly what we should do sometimes in order to not be ninnies. But we just shouldn’t get that confused with Basin Two and we shouldn’t think that it’ll lead to Basin Two. Basin Two comes from Him, in His time, like the Emperor mentioned above – all we can do is ask, wait, recieve with absorption (unthinkingly – in a good way), and thank Him deeply per p. 70: “Anyone who is conscious that this is happening within himself should give God great praise, for he will be very right to recognize what a favor it is; and the thanksgiving which he makes for it will prepare him for greater favors (70).”

(continued from above 71-72 after my long note)…for He knows what is fitting for us. I cannot believe in the efficacy of human activity in matters where His Majesty appears to have set a limit to it and to have been pleased to reserve action to Himself. There are many other things in which He has not so reserved it, such as penances, works of charity and prayers; these, with His aid, we can practice for ourselves, as far as our miserable nature is capable of them. (p. 72).

[To drink from Basin Two, we can’t force the water to flow. God makes it flow when we undertake] interior activities [that] are gentle and peaceful, and to do anything painful brings us harm rather than help. By “anything painful” I mean anything that we try to force ourselves to do….The soul must just leave itself in the hands of God, and do what He wills it to do, completely disregarding its own advantage and resigning itself as much as it possibly can to the will of God. [otherwise] …the very effort which the soul maeks in order to case from that will perhaps awaken thought and cause it to think a great deal. (p. 72).

Ben: Ug. I’ve been there.

“When His Majesty wishes the working of the understanding to cease, He employs it in another manner, and illumines the soul’s knowledge to so much higher a degree than any we can ourselves attain that He leads it into a state of absorption, in which, without knowing how, it is much better instructed than it could ever be as a result of its own efforts” (p. 72).

…that is a gift bestowed upon the will. The will, then, should be left to enjoy it, and should not labor except for uttering a few loving words, for although in such a case one may not be striving, to cease from thought, such cessation, often comes, though for a very short time….” (p. 73).

[Basin Two, and the absorption thereof, can be so deep, real, overwhelming, that we respond emotionally/exstatically/out of control and desire it again like a druggie]. If it is real, then you will go back to the work of Basin One – working with my hands; praying conciously – and my Basin Two experience will nourish my Basin One work. Like Professor Lupin from Harry Potter, “take more food and sleep and to do less penance” (p. 76) is the cure/lithmus test). So, a superior/teacher/parent, should “give such persons fewer hours of prayer – very few, indeed – and should see that they sleep and eat well…if their constitution is so week that this does not suffice, they can be certain that God is not calling them to anything beyond the active life (Basin One – hands-on-irrigating-work). There is room in convents for people of all kinds; let anyone of this type, they, be kep busy with durites, and let care be taken that she is not lefta lone very much, or her health will be compeltely ruined. This sort of life will be a great mortification to her, but it i s here that the Lord wishes to rtest her love for Him by sdeeing how she bears His absence and after a while He may be weell bege pleased to restore her strengthd; if He is not, her vocal prayer and her obedience will bring her as much benefit and merit as she would have obtained in other ways, and perhaps more.

FIFTH MANSIONS

In which there are four chapters.

Chapter I

Begins to explain how in prayer the soul is united with God. Describes how we may know that we are not mistaken about this.

82. So let us pause here, my sisters, and beg the Lord that, since to some extent it is possible for us to enjoy Heaven upon earth [in the sense of deep communion with God through prayer], He will grant us His help …may He also show us the road and give strength to our souls so that we may dig until we find this hidden treasure, since it is quite true that we have it within ourselves….I said, “strength to our soulds,” because you must understand that we do not need bodily strength if God our Lord does not give it us; there is no one for whom He makes it impossible to buy His riches, provided each gives what he has, He is content. …but observe, daughters, that, if you are to gain this, He would have you keep back nothing; whether it be little or much, He will have it all for Himself, and according to what you know yourself to have given, the favours He will grant you will be small or great. There is no better test than this of whether or no our prayer attains to union.

Luke 6:37-38: ³⁷ “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; ³⁸ give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

88. We cannot enter by any efforts of our own; His Majest must put us right into the centre of our soul, and must enter there Himself; and, in order that He mayt he better show us His wonders, it is His pleasure that our will, which has entirely surrendered itself to Him, should have no part in this. Nor does He desire the door of the faculties and senses, which are all aslpeep, to be opened to Him; He will come into the centre of the soul without using a door, as He did when He came in to His disciples, and said Pax Vobis (John 20:19), and when He left the sepulchre without removing the stone.

88. It is His Majesty’s will that the soul should have fruition of Him in its very centre….

Chapter II

Continues the same subject. Explain s the Prayer of Union by a delicate comparison. Describes the effects which it produces in the soul. Should be studied with great care.

90. Although this work is performed by the Lord, and we can do nothing to make His Majesty grant us this favor, we can do a great deal to prepare ourselves for it.

96. His will is that, without understanding how, the soul shall go thence sealed with His seal. In reality, the soul in that state does no more than the the wax when a seal is impressed upon it – the was does not impress itself; it is only prepared for the impress: that is, it is soft – and it does not even soften itself so as to be prepared; it merely remains quite and contenting. Oh, goodness of God, that all this should be done at They cost! Thou dost require only our wills and dost ask that Thy wax may offer no impediment.

98. Oh, the great delight of suffering in doing the will of God!

Chapter III

Continues the same matter. Describes another kind of union which, with the help of God, the soul can attain, and the important part played in it by the love of our neighbor. This chapter is of great profit.

100. “…if we are to acquire increasing merit, and not, like Saul and Judas, to be lost, our only possible safety consists in obedience and in never swerving from the law of God.”

101. “Oh, how much to be desired is this union! Happy the soul that has attainted to it, for it will live peacefully both in this life and in the next as well. Nothing that happens on earth will afflict it unless it finds itself in peril of losing God, or sees that He is offended….for this soul sees clearly that He knows what He does better than it knows itself what it desires.

101. “But note very carefully, daughters, that the silkworm ahs of necessity to die and it is this which will cost youmost; for death comes more easily when one can see oneself living a new life, whereas our duty now is to continue living this present life, and yet to die of our own free will.”

102. “But alas, that so few of us are destined to attain it! A person who takes care not to offend the Lord and has entered the religious life may thhink he has done everything. But oh, there are always a few littel worms which do not reveal themselves until, like the worm which gnawed through Jonas’s ivy, they have gnawed through our virtues. Such are self-love, self-esteem, censoriousness (even if only in small things) concerning our neightbours, lack of charity toward them, and failure to love them as we love ourselves. For, although late in the day we may fulfil our obligations and so commit no sin, we are far from attaining a point necessary to complete uniion with the will of God.”

102. “What do you suppose His will is, daughters? That we should be altogether perfect, and be one with Him and with the Father (John 17:22), as in His Majesty’s prayer. Consider what a long way we are from attaining this. I assure you that it causes me real distress to write in this way because I know how far I am from it myself, and entirely through my own fault. for we do not require great favours from he Lord before we can achieve this; He has given us all we need in giving us His Son to show the way.”

AUTHENTICITY – TRUE AUTHENTICITY. 102. “do not think that if, for example, my father or my brother dies, I ought to be in such close conformity with the will of God that I shall not grieve at his loss, or that if I have trials or illnesses, I must enjoy bearing them.”

103. The surest sign that we are keeping these two commandments is, I think, that we should really be loving our neighbor; for we cannot be sure if we are loving God, although we may have good reasons for believing that we are, but we can know quite well if we are loving o ur neighbor.”103. And be certain that, the farther advanced you find you are in this, the greater the love you will have for God; for s o dearly does HIs Majesty love us that He will rewared our love for our neightbour by increasin the love which we bear to Himself”

103. Since [love of God and neighbor] is so important, sisters, let us strive to get to know ourselves bettter and bettter, even in the very smallest matters, and take no notice of all the fine plans which come crowding into our minds when we are at prayer, and which we think we will put into practice and carry out for the good of our neighbours in the hope of savving just one soul. If our later actions are not in harmony with hthose polans, we can have no reason for believing that we should ever have put them into practice.“

104. The wiles of the devil are terrible; he will runa thousand times round hell if by so doing he can make us believe that we have a single virtue which we have not

104-5. [People get so] wrapt up in their prayers that they seem afraid to stir, or to indulge ina moment’s thoguht, lest they should lose teh slightest degree of the tenderness and devotion which they have been feeling, I realize how little they understna do fthe road to the attainmetn of unioin….[rather] fast so that [someone else] have have your food, not so much for her sake as because you know it to be your Lord’s will.

105. So ask Our Lord tto gratnt you this perfect love for your beighbour, and allow His Majest to work, and, if you use your best endeavours and strive after this in every wayt hat you can, He will give you more even than you can desire.

105. You must do violence to your own will, so that your’s sister swill is done in everything even thoguh this may ccause you to forgo o your own rights and forget your own good in your concern for theirs.

106. If the opportunity presents itself, too, try to shoulder some trial in order to relieve your neibhour of it. Do not suppose that it will cost you nothing or that you will find it all done for you. Think what the love whic h our Spouse had for us cost Him, when, in order to redeem us from death, He died such a grievous death as the death of the Cross.”

Chapter IV

Continues the same subject and gives a further explanation of this kind of prayer. describes the great importance of proceeding carefully, since the devil is most careful to do all he can to turn souls back from the road they have begun to tread.

110. for there are fewer than there used to be who think of the Lord’s hour! We are so very fond of ourselves and so very careful not to lose any of our rights! Oh, what a great ;mistake we make! May the Lord in His mercy give us light lest we fall into such darkness.

112. [We must spiritually “strive to grow” all the time], for it is unthinkable that a soul which has arrived so far should cease to grow: love is never idle, so failure to advance would be a very bad sign. A soul which has once set out to be the bridge of God Himself, and has already had converse with His Majesty and reached the point which has been dedscribed, must not lie down and go to sleep again. [Matthew 25:1-13, ten brides with oil lamps].

SIXTH MANSIONS

In which there are 11 chapters

Chapter I

Shows how, when the Lord begins to grant the soul grater favors, it has also to endure greater trials. Enumerates some of these and describes how those who are in this Mansion must conduct themselves. This is a good chapter for any who suffer interior trials.

117. [Q: why suffering? A:] The soul is now completely determined to take no other spouse; but the Spouse disregards its yearnings for the conclusion of the Betrothal, desiring that they should become still deeper and that this greatest of all blessings should be won by the soul at some cost to itself.

118. plunge deep into suffering for God’s sake.

118. [suffering will bring us to be misunderstood and persecuted for being in said suffering. A wicked loop to be in.] An outcry is made by people with whom such a person is acquainted and who she never in her life supposed would think about her at all.

119-120. [Persecution, and being ostracized for suffering will now be lifelong. Get used to it. Be aware of the lack of it – probably means you are off-course. So, then, encourage others who are suffering by encouraging them in this specific aspect – including her 4 sub-points on 119+] The first of these is that experience shows it clearly how people will speak well of thers as readily as ill, and so it takes no more notice of the former class than of the latter. The second, that the Lord has given it greater light and shown it that anything good it may have does not come from itself, but is His Majesty’s gifts; so it breaks into praises of God, but as thought He were being gracious to a third person, and forgetting that it is itself concerned at all. The third reason is that, having seen others helped by observing the favours which god is granting it, the soul thinks that His Majesty has been pleased for them to think of it as good, though in fact it is not, so that they may be profited. The fourth is that, as the soul now prized the honour and glory of God more than its own honor and glory it no longer suffers from a temptation which beset it at first – namely, to think that these praises will do it harm, as it has seen them do to others.

120. [critics are > than “yes” people in our lives] The soul is fortified rather than daunted by censure, for experience has shown how great are the benefits it can bring; and it seems to the soul that its persecutors are not offending God, but that His Majesty is permitting this for its great advantage. Being quite clear about this, it conceives a special and most tender love for them and thinks of them as truer friends and greater benefactors than those who speak well of it.

121. God gives us no more than we can bear, and He gives patience first.

121. ..but I should always choose the way of suffering, if only to imitate Our Lord Jesus Christ, and even were there no other special benefit to be obtained from it – and there are always a great many.

124. [Like T and the platitudes offered before/during/after the 2014-15 chapter] No, no; to offer them earthly consolations would be like telling criminals condemned to death about all the joys that there are in the world; not only would this fail to comfort them – it would but increase their torment; comfort must come to them from above…

Chapter II

Treats of several ways in which Our Lord awakens the soul there appears to be nothing in these to be feared, although the experience is most sublime and the favours are great ones.

127. For often when a person is quite unprepared for such a thing, and is not even thinking of God, he is awakened by His Majesty…

128. [upon being struck by a moment/period which C. S. Lewis characterized as “Longing” or Sehnsucht:

“In speaking of this desire for our own far off country, which we find in ourselves even now, I feel a certain shyness. I am almost committing an indecency. I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of you—the secret which hurts so much that you take your revenge on it by calling it names like Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescence; the secret also which pierces with such sweetness that when, in very intimate conversation, the mention of it becomes imminent, we grow awkward and affect to laugh at ourselves; the secret we cannot hide and cannot tell, though we desire to do both. We cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience. We cannot hide it because our experience is constantly suggesting it, and we betray ourselves like lovers at the mention of a name. Our commonest expedient is to call it beauty and behave as if that had settled the matter. Wordsworth’s expedient was to identify it with certain moments in his own past. But all this is a cheat. If Wordsworth had gone back to those moments in the past, he would not have found the thing itself, but only the reminder of it; what he remembered would turn out to be itself a remembering. The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never visited.“

The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis

128. [So, upon being struck by a moment/period which C. S. Lewis characterized as “Longing” or Sehnsucht, the soul is} concious of havning been most delectably wounded, but cannot say how or by whom; but it is certain that this is a precious experience and it would be glad if it were never to be healed of that wound….and realizes that He is present but will not manifest Himself in such a way as to allow it to enjoy Hiim, and this is a great grief, though a sweet and delectable one…

129. …my God could be described as the fire in a lighted brazier, from which some spark will fly out and touch the soul, in such a way that it will be able to feel the burning heat of the fire; but, as the fire is not hot enough to burn it up, and the experience is very delectable, the soul continous to feel that pain and the mere touch suffices to produce the effect in it. …delectable pain, which is not really pain, is not continuous: sometimes it lasts for a long time, while sometimes it comes suddenly to an end, according to the way in which the Lord is please to bestow…never permanent, and for that reason it never completely enkindles the soul; for just as the soul is about to become enkindled, the spark dies, and leaves the soul yearning once again to suffer that loving pain of which it is the cause.

129. It is perfectly clear that it is a movement of which the source is the Lord, Who is unchangeable; and its effects are not like those of other devotions whose genuineness we doubt because of the intense absorption of the joy which we experience. Here all the senses and faculties are active, and there is no absorption; they on the alert to discover [aka – AWARE/AWAKE]

130. It may be that you wonder why greater security can be felt about this than about other things. …First, because so delectable a pain can never be bestowed upon the soul by the devil: he can given pleases and delights which seem to be spiritual, but it is beyond his power to unit pain – and such a great pain! – with tranquility and joy in the soul; for all his powers are in the external sphere, and, when he causes pain, it is never, to my mind, delectable of peaceful, but restless and combative.

130. …this delectable tempest comes from another region…

130. [the delectable tempest…brings] great advantages accrtue to the soul, which, as a general rule, becomes filled with a determination to suffer for God’s sake and to desire to have many trials to endure, and to be very much more resolute…

130. It is so wonderful a thing that it cannot possibly be created by the fancy (I mean, one cannot think it is there when it is not)…

131. Our Lord, too, has other methods of awakening the soul. Quite unexpectedly, when engaged in vocal prayer and not thinking of interior things, it seems, in some wonderful way, to catch fire.

Chapter III

Treats of the same subject and describes the way in which, when He is pleased to do so, God speaks t the soul. Gives instructions ass to how we should behave in such a case: we must not be guided by our own opinions. Sets down a few signs by which we may know when this favors is, and when it is not, a deception. This chapter is very profitable.

134. BUt of one thing I will warn you: do not think that, even if your locutions come from God, you will for that reason be any the better. After all, He talked a grat deal with the Pharisees: any good you may gain will depend upon how you profit by what you hear.

134. The first and truest is the sense of power and authority which they bear with them, both in themselves and in the actions which follow them.

135. The second sign is that a great tranquility dwells in the soul, which becomes peacefully and devoutly recollected, and ready to sing praises to God.

135-6. [of the enduring nature of truly “hearing” from God]..it may seem to the soul that everything is moving in the contrary direction what it had been led to expect, and yet, even if many years go by, it never loses its belief that, though God may use other means incomprehensible to man, in the end what He has said will come true.

140. the greater the favour the soul receives, the less by far it esteems itself, the more keenly it remembers its sins, the more forgetful it is of its own interest, the more fervent are the efforts of its will and memory in seeking nothing but the honour of God rather than being mindful of its own profit….

Chapter IV

Treats of occasions when God suspends to soul in prayer by means of rapture, or ecstasy,, or trance (for I think these are all the same), and of how great courage is necessary if we are to receive great favours from His Majesty

148. If we have the hope of enjoying this blessing while we are still in thislife, what are we doing about it and why are we waiting? What sufficient reason is there for delaying even a short time instead of seeking this Lord, as the Bridge did, through streets and squares?

148-149. For the love of God, then, sisters, let us profit by these faults and learn from them what wretched creatures we are, and may they give us clearer sight, as did the clay to the blind man who was healed by our Spouse (John 9:6-7), and thus, realizing our own imperfections, we shall beseech Him more and more earnestly to bring good out of our wretchedness, sot that we may please His Majesty in everything.

149. His riches are not diminished by His readiness to give.

Chapter V

Continues the same subject and gives an example of how God exalts the soul through flights of the spirit in a way different from that described. Gives some reason why courage is necessary here. Says something of this favor which God grants in a way so delectable. This chapter is highly profitable.

152. Sometimes the soul becomes conscious of such rapid motion [of the flight of the Spirit] that the spirit seems to be transported with a speed which, especially at first, fills it with fear…great courage…together with faith and confidence and great resignation, so that Our Lord may do with the soul as He wills.

155. He was giving her all the pains and trials which He had suffered in His Passion, so that she should have them for her own to offer to His Father.

Chapter VI

Describes one effect of the prayer referred to in the last chapter, by which it will be known that it is genuine and no deception. Treats of another favour which the Lord grants to the soul so that He may use it sing His praises.

161. …any usefulness it may have had has been a gift bestowed up it by His Majesty. And this it realizes with a clearness which annihilates any self-interest in it and imbues it with a greater knowledge of the mercy of God and of His greatness, which He has been pleased to demonstrate to it…

165. [When a strange/stranger enters His House; and/or when we enter His House full of “unhappy are the times and miserable is the life which we now live, and happy are those who have had the good fortune to escape from it!” – p. 165] [Then] it makes me specially glad when we are together and I see these sisters of mine so full of inward joy that each vies with the rest in praising Our Lord for bringing her to the convent…

Regarding p.165 above: BM: infectious Joy and how to be WITH others and how to TRULY WELCOME ALL into His House = not just tolerate difference/diversity; not just advocate for it; but to be effected by them – humble/quite/open-enough to the strange/stranger to have one’s present-state changed by them ….[e.g., Therese started (see above) describing misery and ends with having been infected by this joy from the other – applies whether we do/not know the Other. After all:

Matthew 25: 34-41. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, “I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”