The Ways of Contemplating God

But the contemplation of God is reached in many ways. For we not only come to know God by marveling at his incomprehensible essence, something that still lies hidden in the hope of the promise; we also see him through the greatness of his creation, the consideration of his justice and the help of his daily providence. We see him when with pure minds we contemplate what he has done with his saints in every generation; when with trembling heart we marvel at the power by which he governs, directs and rules all things, or at the vastness of his knowledge, and that eye of his from which no secrets of the heart can be hidden; when we consider the sand of the sea and the number of the waves, measured by him and known to him; when in our wonder we think that the drops of rain, the days and hours of the ages, and all things past and future are present to his knowledge. We see him when we gaze in boundless wonder at that unspeakable mercy of his, which with tireless patience bears countless sins being committed every moment under his very eyes; or at the call by which he receives us, not from any earlier merits of ours, but by the free grace of his pity; or again at the countless opportunities of salvation that he grants to those he is going to adopt. He caused us to be born in such a way that from our very cradles his grace and the knowledge of his law might be given to us. He himself, overcoming our enemy in us simply for the pleasure of his good will, rewards us with eternal bliss and everlasting rewards. And lastly, he took on the plan of his Incarnation for our salvation, and extended the wonders of his sacraments to all nations. [a]

But there are countless other considerations of this sort, which arise in our minds according to the character of our life and the purity of our heart, and by which God is either seen by pure eyes or embraced. Certainly no one will keep hold of these considerations for long if anything of fleshly affections still lives on in him, because, says the Lord, “You cannot see my face; for no one will see me and live”: that is, live to this world and to earthly affections.