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BOOK THREE
INTERNAL CONSOLATION

Liber Tertius
De interna consolatine.

Chapter 16
TRUE COMFORT IS TO BE SOUGHT
IN GOD ALONE

THE DISCIPLE  - WHATEVER I can desire or imagine for my own comfort I look for not here but hereafter. For if I alone should have all the world's comforts and could enjoy all its delights, it is certain that they could not long endure. Therefore, my soul, you cannot enjoy full consolation or perfect delight except in God, the Consoler of the poor and the Helper of the humble. Wait a little, my soul, wait for the divine promise and you will have an abundance of all good things in heaven. If you desire these present things too much, you will lose those which are everlasting and heavenly. Use temporal things but desire eternal things. You cannot be satisfied with any temporal goods because you were not created to enjoy them.

Cap. 16.
Quod verum solatium
in solo Deo est quærendum.

1. Quidquid desiderare vel cogitare possum ad solatium meum, non hic exspecto, sed in posterum: quia, si omnia solatia mundi hujus haberem, et omnibus deliciis frui possem, certum est quod diu durare no possent. Unde non potes plene, anima mea, consolari, nec perfecte recreari, nisi in Deo, consolatione pauperum et susceptore humilium. Exspecta modicum, anima mea: exspecta divinum promissum, et habebis abundantiam omnium bonorum in cælo; et, si nimis inordinate ista appetis præsentia, perdes æterna et cælestia. Sint temporalia in usu, æterna in desiderio. Non potes aliquo bono temporali satiari, quia ad hæc fruenda non es creata.
Even if you possessed all created things you could not be happy and blessed; for in God, Who created all these things, your whole blessedness and happiness consists -- not indeed such happiness as is seen and praised by lovers of the world, but such as that for which the good and faithful servants of Christ wait, and of which the spiritual and pure of heart, whose conversation is in heaven, sometime have a foretaste. Vain and brief is all human consolation. But that which is received inwardly from the Truth is blessed and true. The devout man carries his Consoler, Jesus, everywhere with him, and he says to Him: "Be with me, Lord Jesus, in every place and at all times. Let this be my consolation, to be willing to forego all human comforting. And if Your consolation be wanting to me, let Your will and just trial of me be my greatest comfort. For You will not always be angry, nor will You threaten forever." 2. Etsi omnia bona creata haberes, non posses esse felix et beata; sed in Deo, qui cuncta creavit, tota beatitudo tua et felicitas consistit, non qualis videtur et laudatur a stultis mundi amatoribus, sed qualem exspectant boni Christi fideles, et prægustant interdum spirituales ac mundi corde, quorum conversatio est in cælis. Vanum est et breve omne humanum solatium: beatum et verum solatium, quod intus a veritate percipitur. Devotus homo ubique fert secum consolatorem suum Jesum et dicit ad eum: Adesto mihi, Domine Jesu, in omni loco et tempore. Hæc mihi sit consolatio, libenter velle carere omni humano solatio. Et si tua defuerit consolatio, sit mihi tua voluntas, et justa probatio pro summo solatio. Non in perpetuum enim irasceris, neque in æternum comminaberis.
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