As a spur to check out my recent publication of a translated book by Bérulle (the Elevation Regarding Mary Magdalene), I decided to post a few more translated snippets of Bérulle.
Bérulle's Works of Piety (in its full title, Diverse Little Works of Piety) is an enormous hodgepodge of various writings, some sermons, some letters, some spiritual exercises, some little scribbles on assorted topics. Two of them are included as appendices in my recent book, and I've translated a few others in the past (#6, #21, and #38). Portions of two more are published here, as both relate to today's reading, the Samaritan woman at the well, St. Photini (Jn 4).
The first excerpt comes from Works of Piety XII, which appears to originally be a letter to a Carmelite monastery in Salims. The first section deals with the Samaritan woman; the later sections tackle a different topic, that of the dwellings of Jesus, since the Carmelites asked Bérulle for advice about deciding where to live. The second excerpt is the complete Works of Piety CIII: however, since the piece was left unfinished, it can still be fittingly called an "excerpt," in my view.
The word "blest" in the below excerpts is a translation of heureux. The word can mean "happy" or "fortunate"; when compounded to bienheureux, it becomes "blessed," as in "the blessed in heaven" (a blessed object is usually béni instead). Heureux often recalls the more colloquial sense of "blessed" in English, like "have a blessed day," "I feel blessed to have such a husband," "that was a blessed time in my life," etc. To keep it distinct from the more specifically-religious bienheureux, I translate the latter as "blessed" and heureux as "blest."
Works of Piety XII
On the Samaritan, and on the Three Dwellings of Jesus: in God His Father, in Our Humanity, on the Cross
To the Carmelite nuns of Salims
I. The grace of Jesus Christ our Lord be with you forever. The lowest things of earth have their relation to God, and we ought to contemplate the adorable excellences and perfections of His divine being, in view of and in the experience of the lowness and littleness of our miserable condition; we ought to resemble those who, in lowering their gaze to the Ocean, see there the sky and the stars that shine in that polished crystal, as in a beautiful mirror in which the lightful stars imprint their beauty, their movement, and their light. So on earth we ought to see heaven, God in us, and the Creator in the creatures; for so they have been made as so many mirrors which represent to us His admirable grandeurs, and as so many means to guide us to Him. In this thought, I take pleasure in seeing the Son of God sitting beside the well of Jacob, and contemplating, in this dead water, the living water of the Holy Spirit; I also see that He renders a poor Samaritan woman capable of the highness of His thoughts, she whom He instructs and raises from earth to heaven, from sin to grace, and from this low exercise, that of drawing water from a well, to the highest mysteries of salvation. Mysteries then hidden from the great and from the knowing ones of that very age, and reserved for this humble and vile sinner, truly humble in her condition, since she herself goes to draw water, and so far, due to her need, but even more humble in her disposition, since she bears the manifestation of her sin so sweetly, so usefully, and so patiently; truly humble and blest in the election God has made of her, notwithstanding the lowness of her condition and the vileness of her sin; humble and happy, too, in this prompt and grand use that she makes of the grace that she has blestly met without thinking of it, at that well of Jacob. Everything seems fortuitous, but everything is blest and ordained by God in this story; a blest voyage, a blest tiredness, and a blest repose of Jesus on that field of Samaria, since it gives a new repose to Jesus in this soul; blest moment for this woman lacking a bit of water, since this moment and this need makes her find the King of time and of eternity, and the living source of the water which waters heaven and earth. God chooses and waits for this poor soul without her thinking of it, without her contributing to it, and chooses her to declare the secrets of heaven, the salvation of the earth to her, and to make her an apostle to her village, which learned from her what Jerusalem could not learn from the mouth of the Son of God Himself; and, what is remarkable, this village of Samaria has learned from this woman what the twelve apostles sent into that same village had not learned, as if the Son of God had suspended the use of their apostolate in order to confer it upon this vile sinner and most-blest penitent.
II. But this discourse would take us too far from our subject; for the moment, I only want to note the art, the care, the goodness, the industry, and the abasement of the incarnate wisdom in dealing with the Samaritan woman, and in guiding this simple and poor woman from this dead and earthly water to the living and heavenly water of the Holy Spirit...
Works of Piety CIII
Catechesis of the Son of God to the Samaritan Woman, and Explanation of These Words: Si scires donum Dei (Jn 4:4)
One of the excellent catecheses of the Son of God is that which He made in the countryside of Samaria at full noon, and under a burning sun, which received in heaven received its light from that sun which was on earth. This catechesis occurs between Jesus, on the one hand, and a single female, on the other, in the absence of His apostles, where the Son of God Most High and the humble Son of Mary, the Son of God Most High lowers His grandeur, He speaks to this poor woman who seeks only for water from the earth, and He speaks to her about the water of heaven, and He prepares her to find a living spring and fountain of the heavenly water itself, who, at that time, is beside that well of Jacob, the very Father and the God of Jacob, the Messiah of the Jews, the Savior of the world. This catechesis is admirable in its circumstances, in its words, in its effects, for it contains, in a few words, the highest mysteries of salvation, announced through the very salvation of a simple little woman, who thinks only of earth and seeks only the water which is at the base of that well of Jacob, which can quench her bodily thirst. And, in a moment, He draws her from error to truth, from sin to grace, from fall to salvation, and from ignorance of herself to God, and to the knowledge and adoration of the Son of God on earth, the highest and most necessary point there was on earth at that time, the mystery of the Incarnation. Mystery adored by the angels, unknown to the devil, ignored in Judea, and revealed to this poor woman, who becomes, at that very hour, the apostle of Samaria. Blest woman, to have met Jesus and to have met the spring of living water, which bedews both heaven and earth, in seeking only to fill her jar with a little water from the earth! Now, in this high and admirable catechesis, which has only the angels as witnesses, and this single woman as catechist, and only Saint John, the beloved disciple, as secretary and evangelist; all is high, all is heavenly, all is grand, all is worthy of the art and of the wisdom incarnate and hidden on earth. But there is, among others, a little words which merits to be considered, to be adored, to be penetrated by our spirits, which is when Jesus says to this woman: Si scires donum Dei [If you knew the gift of God] (Jn 4:4). For this word marks for us a sigh and a languor of the Son of God, ravished in the excellence of this truth and in sorrow over the ignorance of it in the world, so high is this truth, and so important for the salvation of the earth! And it is for us to adore the thought, the sorrow, the languor, and the sentiments of the Son of God, and to penetrate this truth which is told us in the person of this poor Samaritan woman. What low and little things we know on earth, what vanities and curiosities we seek there, and there is no higher and more useful truth than that which is proposed here—Si scires donum Dei—and because of which the Son of God has more ardor and desire for the salvation of the world! If we think, we ought to have no other drive in our spirit to peel apart this truth: Si scires donum Dei. If we speak, we ought to hae no other sentence in our mouth, in order to tell our neighbor: Si scires donum Dei. If we proclaim, we ought to proffer no other apophthegm. If we write, our pen ought to note no other truth than these words: Si scires donum Dei. Words proferred by eternal wisdom for eternal salvation, and proferred with very sorrow and languor.
In this word, the Son of God invites us to enter into knowledge, si scires [if you knew]. But to enter into the knowledge of the gift of God, and, in these two words, He invites us to know both God and the gift of God. O God! O gift of God! O knowledge! O God Most High! O most excellent gift! O most perfect knowledge, and the only one sufficient for heaven and earth! From birth, we are all professors of ignorance, for we are born without knowing God, or the world, or ourselves, or God Who has created us, or the world which bears us, or ourselves, so present and so near an object, and the most beautiful spirits make profession of not knowing these things. And if we have some knowledge of them, it is weak, it is mixed with errors and darkness, even in the most living and the grandest lights of the saints! Now, the Son of God draws us from ignorance to the knowledge of God, and of the gift of God given to His creature.
Source: Jean-Paul Migne, ed. Œuvres complètes de de Bérulle (Paris: J.-P. Migne, 1856), 926-927, 1119-1121.
Translation ©2024 Brandon P. Otto. Licensed via CC BY-NC. Feel free to redistribute non-commercially, as long as credit is given to the translator.
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