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October 27, 2008

holy sorrow

All human beings have reason for sorrow, but someone who knows and feels that he is feels most special reason for sorrow. Compared with this, all other sorrows are like game beside earnest. For someone who knows and feels not only what he is but that he is can be sorry in earnest; and someone who has never felt this sorrow has reason for sorrow, because he has never yet felt perfect sorrow.

This sorrow, when experienced, cleanses the soul not only of sin but also of the pain that is its desert for sin; moreover, it makes a soul able to receive the joy that takes away all knowledge and feeling of one's own existence. This sorrow, if truly understood, is full of holy desire; otherwise no one living on earth could endure it or bear it. For if a soul were not somewhat sustained by a kind of delight in its true practice of contemplation, it would not be able to bear the pain it has in knowing and feeling that it exists.


The Cloud of Unknowing

Posted by amin at October 27, 2008 11:54 PM