Insights of the Christian Mystics 1

Source : From the Essential Writtings of Christian Msyticism: Benard Mc Ginn 

 Richard of St. Victor(died 1173 ) the Four Degrees of Violent Charity

"So, we now have the four degrees of violence in burning love that I have set forth above.  The first degree is when the mind cannot resists its desire; the second degree is when the mind cnanot forget it; the third degree is when it cannot taste anything else; the fourth and last degree is when even that desire cannot satisfy it."

"These four degrees of love are related in one way in divine attractions, and in another way in human attractions; they are totally different in the case of spiritual desires and in carnal desires.  In spiritual desires, the greater, the better; in carnal desires, the greater, the worse."

"In the first degree the betrothal takes place, in the second the wedlding, in the third sexual union, in the fourth childbirth."

"Let us penetrate still deeper and speak more openly.  In the first degree the soul thirst for God, in the second she thirsts to go to God, in the third she thirsts to go into God, and in the fourth she thirts to live as God lives."  [Note it is common usuage to refer to the human soul in this literature by way of the feminine pronouns.]

"Therefore, in the first degree God enters into the intellectual soul and the intellectual soul comes back into herself.  In the second degree she acends above herself and is lifted up to God.  in the third degree, lifted up to God, the soul passes into him.  In the fourth degree the soul goes forth on God's behalf and descends below herself.'

"In the first she enters by meditation; in the second she ascends by contemplation; in the third she is brought in by jubilation; int the fourth she goes forth from compassion."

"Therefore, the third degree of love is when a person's mind is so raptured into the abyss of divine light that the human intellectual soul in this state, having forgotten all exterior things, does not even know itself and completely passes over into its God."