3

For by those six wings are rightly to be understood the six stages of

illumination by which the soul, as if by steps or progressive movements,

was disposed to pass into peace by ecstatic elevations of Christian wisdom.

The way, however, is only through the most burning love of the Crucified,

Who so transformed Paul, "caught up into the third heaven" [II Cor., 12,

2], into Christ, that he said, "With Christ I am nailed to the cross, yet I

live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me" [Gal., 2, 19]; who therefore so

absorbed the mind of Francis that his soul w as manifest in his flesh and

he bore the most holy stigmata of the Passion in his body for two years

before his death. Therefore the symbol of the six-winged Seraph signifies

the six stages of illumination, which begin with God's creatures and lead

up to God, to Whom no one can enter properly save through the Crucified.

For he who does not enter by the door but otherwise, he is a thief and a

robber [John, 10, 1]. But if anyone does enter by this door, he shall go in

and go out and shall find pastures [John, 9]. Because of this John says in

his Apocalypse [22, 14], "Blessed are they that wash their robes in the

blood of the Lamb, that they may have a right to the Tree of Life and may

enter in by the gates into the City"; as if he were to say that one cannot

enter into the heavenly Jerusalem through contemplation unless one enter

through the blood of the Lamb as through a gate. For one is not disposed to

contemplation which leads to mental elevation unless one be with Daniel a

man of desires [Dan., 9, 23]. But desires are kindled in us in two ways: by

the cry of prayer, which makes one groan with the murmuring of one's heart,

and by a flash of apprehension by which the mind turns most directly and

intensely to the rays of light [Ps., 37, 9].