Said differently

<1+> OTHER SAYS OF THE MASTER ALANUS ABOUT THE ISLANDS Which
are commonly called Wonderful, but perhaps better, Memorable. From
the same ms. codex of the monastery of Dunes.

God, the creator of the universe, created all the movements of the soul for good, but it often
happens through our use that things that are good by nature, while we use them badly, lead
us to sin. One of the movements of the soul is love, which we use well, if we love wisdom
and truth , but it is bad, if flesh or blood. You, therefore, as a spiritual being, listen to
spiritually loving words being sung, and learn to transfer the movement of your soul and
the burning of carnal love to better things. ; to whom you entrust yourself as if to yourself,
from whom you fear nothing, and ask nothing dishonest; for friendship is not a tax, but full
of beauty. Whence the Lord says: You are my friends if you do what I command you (John
15). Hence also Ecclesiasticus: A faithful friend, a strong protection, he who finds him, finds
a treasure (Chapter VI). He cannot be good. Friendship must also be free, and inclined to all
happiness. He who fears God will have equally good friendship. Even the full and perfect
grace of friendship between perfect men, and the same virtue, can persevere. contempt of
the worldly; secondly, that no one, judging himself wise and counseled, prefers to trust
himself rather than a friend. another's destructive sadness as your own, unless you drive it
out of your brother's mind, as much as it is in you. Each one must weigh his own virtues
and, according to the amount of his strength, take care of others, lest, while he delights in
the place of glory, he becomes the author of the downfall of his subjects. and he who is
weighed down by the weight of his own faults, wants to become the judge of others. He
must be led into an example of living, who fears no adversity. God created man from the
earth and made him in his own image (Gen. 1). , have understanding and will. Whence: You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, etc. (Matthew 22:12; Mark. 12). from the
understanding, the will, and from both the memory, and the soul cannot be perfect without
these three, nor can one, as far as happiness is concerned, be complete without the others.
And as God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, there are not three gods, but one
God having three persons, so also the soul of the understanding, the soul of the will, the soul
of memory, yet not three souls, but one soul; having three powers, in which he wonderfully
bears the image of God. With which, as if with superior powers, we are commanded to love
the Creator, so that as much as he is understood and loved, he should always be
remembered. nor these two, unless memory be added, by which God may always remain in
the mind of the diligent and intelligent. For as there is no moment in which man does not
use or enjoy the goodness of God, so he must always be present in memory. Man was also
made in the likeness of God, so that God is charity, good, just, meek, merciful, so that man
should have charity, be good, just, etc. He who lives forever created all things at the same
time (Eccl. 18). The substance of things was created at the same time, but not formed at the
same time by the species And at the same time it existed through the substance of matter, it
did not appear at the same time through the appearance of form. For when heaven and
earth are described as being made, spiritual and corporeal things are described at the same
time, and whatever is produced from heaven or earth is said to be made. Do not be humble
in your wisdom (Ecclesiastes 13 ) . He does not reject the virtue of humility, but he teaches
to hold a firm authority against the invaders of the truth, to whom we must strongly resist.
Through these three, he shows the curiosity of the human mind, which is always prone to
evil. Whence: All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life (1 John 2). In these three, all vices are concluded. For the lust of the flesh is
whatever pertains to the pleasure of the body, such as food, drink, intercourse; the
concupiscence of the eyes, all curiosity, as in a shameful spectacle, in acquiring superfluous
things, in recognizing and grasping the vices of one's neighbors; The pride of life is when
one flaunts honors, and through the exaltation of vain glory, and through arrogance has
abandoned it. Adam was tempted by the lust of the flesh, when his enemies urged him to eat
from the forbidden tree; through the lust of the eyes, when he said: Ye shall know good and
evil; through pride, when he added: You will be like gods (Gen. 3). The beginning of man's
life is water and bread, and clothing and a house (Ecclesiastes 29). brothers. In the
beginning there was not so much luxury of food and drink, nor so much ambition for
clothes, and towers and palaces; but the ancients lived on the fruits of trees and the fruits of
herbs, and the Lord made skin coats for the first parents after sin. Let the least please you
rather than the great (ibid.). not to have what you give, than to impudently ask for what you
do not have. Jealousy and anger shorten the days (Ecclesiastes 30). . LIV) . That is the
prosperity which they promise themselves, they cannot have forever. You have sat above a
great table? Do you not open your mouth on it first (Eccl. careful and provided; for the great
table is the abundance of the Scriptures, in which we must not be rash, so as to snatch
something from it without a teacher, but let us keep the way of the holy teachers. Do not
provoke those who are diligent in wine, flee from drunkards, for they are easily angered, for
wine has exterminated many (ibid.) , that is, drunkenness overthrows many. This
diminishes the senses, arouses anger, inflames lust, reveals the secrets of the soul. Fire tests
hard iron, so wine hardens the hearts of the proud, drunk in drunkenness (ibid.), that is, as
fire softens the hardness of iron, so wine inflaming the hearts of the proud, he drives them
to deeds. An equitable life is wine to men in sobriety (ibid.). 33) As there is no reason in an
ox, so there is no order of equity in a false friend. nit a hypocrite and a faithful friend, but
through the services of the mouth he spreads secrets equally to both. Do not give power
over you to your son and wife, brother and friend, in your life (ibid.) Literally, he teaches
fathers to rule their children and nurture them with discipline , until they come to a perfect
age, that they may be worthy to be the heirs of their fathers; but spiritually he instructs the
leaders of the churches to hold their dignity to the end, and to leave their disciples well
nourished, the heirs of their work. the work of slaves (ibid.). in whom, however, nature is
not to be despised, but impiety is to be checked, that they may know that they are subjects.
but those who obey justice are truly free. Whence: If the Son shall set you free, you shall be
truly free (John 7), for there is no better or greater power than to serve God, whom love
serves well. that they may have food and clothing, and not the leisure of wandering. If
servants are benevolent and obedient, they are to be regarded as brothers; but if they are
hard and proud, under the discipline of control. for it is not man who is to be persecuted,
but vices. He who seizes the shadow and chases the wind, so also he who pays attention to
the lies seen (Ecclesiastes 34). unless they are carefully discerned. Hence it is commanded
in the law: You shall not observe dreams or divination (Lev. 19; Num. xxiii), but sometimes
revelations are made through dreams, whence in the dialogue Gregory: It should be known,
Peter, that the imaginations of dreams touch the mind in six ways, sometimes, by the
fullness or emptiness of the belly, sometimes by illusion, sometimes by thought and illusion
at the same time, sometimes by revelation; sometimes by thought at the same time as
revelation. What does he know who has not been tempted? He who offers a sacrifice from
the substance of the poor is like one who sacrifices a son in the presence of his father
(Ecclesiastes 34). A bag full of holes (Agg.1), money appears in a bag full of holes when it is
sent, but not when it is lost. Those who, therefore, look at how much they give, but not how
much they steal, put their earnings into a hole bag, because they gather them in the hope of
trust, but not looking at themselves they perish. He who is baptized by the dead and touches
him again, what does his washing profit? it. Some are washed and are not clean, because
they don't stop crying when committed, and they start crying again. The Lord will reward
you seven times only (Ecclesiastes 35). and because it includes the inner and outer
substance of man, in the ternary it signifies the soul (whence: Love the Lord your God with
all your heart, etc. Matthew 22; Mark 12) in the quaternary it signifies the body, because the
body consists of four elements. Do not offer gifts wickedness, for he will not accept it
(Ecclesiastes 35). With God there is no quantity of service, nor is the person of the mighty
desired, but love and humility of heart, therefore no one should offer a sacrifice of iniquity,
but of righteous labor. Do not be greedy in all feasting, and do not pour yourself over all the
meat (Ecclesiastes 37). According to history, he praises parsimony, he blames the waste,
which leads the devourer to weakness. Mystically, however, he reminds us to be temperate
in temporal things. Whence: You have found honey, eat what is sufficient for you (Prov. 25).
en.1).Therefore, we must not reject those whom it is clear that the Creator made for our
benefit. There are corporeal physicians, and there are also spiritual ones. spiritual, care for
souls. Therefore both are to be honored, but spiritual to be preferred. It is not necessary to
say, what is this or what is that (Ecclesiastes 39). when the Lord will illuminate the hidden
things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart (1 Cor. 4). Fire, hail,
famine, and death, all these were created for vengeance (Eccl. 39). All things obeyed man
before sin, but after sin, he fights against him the world; famine and death and a thousand
perils of death. The beasts also rage against him, and the Romphaea of heavenly vengeance.
That is why the wicked will be tormented in punishment, because in the time given to them
for repentance, they do not cease to sin; for they consider (being deluded by prosperity as if
in a dream) to be a time of peace, not of war, when the present life is granted to man, that he
may reach happiness through a good struggle. with all fear of God. For these things, death,
blood, contention and rhomphaea, oppressions, famines, etc. but because he neglects and
falls into the worse, therefore the Lord brought a flood into the world to destroy man whom
he had created. In comparison to the future punishment, what man suffers in the present is
nothing. , they will be crucified without end. A man looking at someone else's table is not his
life spent in thought (ibid.). by teaching his neighbors to benefit, he will at last be overcome
by the pains of hell and late repentance. He loves the prosperity of the world and riches, and
bodily death is bitter to him, because he neglects the joys of the future life. defect of age, etc.
(ibid.). The judgment of death is good for Christians, because through it they pass to eternal
life. Do not fear the judgment of temporal death, but rather: Fear him who can destroy soul
and body in hell (Matthew 10). , equity must be preserved everywhere and the rule of
balance and weights must be observed, lest we go around our brother in buying. How much
hypocrisy and deceit displease the Lord, he shows in these words: A deceitful balance is an
abomination with God, and an equal weight is his will (Prov. 11). who balances the cause of
the poor and the powerful, or who thinks his own mistakes lighter than those of others, or
who lays burdensome burdens on the shoulders of men, or who does good in public, evil in
secret, is abominable to the Lord. (Ecclesiastes 42). He teaches us to keep the purity of heart
and body. Hence: He serves you dangerously, whose face you often attend to; for the
unchaste eyes do not know how to consider the beauty of the soul, but of the body. Moth
proceeds from clothes, and from a woman the iniquity of a man: for the iniquity of a man is
better than a woman who does good. and woman confounding in reproach (ibid.). Woman
signifies either sex, as there: God sent his Son, born of woman (Gal. 4). Or infirmity, as here:
Man born of woman, living a short time, is filled with many miseries (Job 14). The man,
therefore, in this passage, is called strong and discreet: the woman is weak-minded and
indiscreet; and it often happens that the discreet slips into fault, while the weak exhibits a
good operation; but the indiscreet, proud of his goods, falls more seriously; but the discreet
penitent returns to the rule of discretion; and as for the rest, he acts more strongly and
cautiously. For often the fault of the strong becomes the occasion of virtue, and the virtue of
the weak, the occasion of sin. (Ecclesiastes 41). We consider the works of God as a spark,
because we scarcely perceive a small knowledge of them. So God ordered all things, so that
what seems to be contrary to him should come together, like the elements, or the four
seasons. in the vision of glory (Ecclesiastes 43) The beauty of the firmament by the
brightness of the stars shows the power of the Creator, but more the beauty of the Church,
in the virtues and miracles of the saints, manifests the excellence of the Redeemer, who
enlightens the believers with his splendor and punishes sinners with the heat of judgment.
.Guarding the furnace in the works of fire (ibid.) .Because it prepares the punishments of
hell for sinners.Three times the sun burning the mountains (ibid.) Because with mystical
words, he plays with the understanding of the proud. Whence: It has been given to you to
know the mystery of the kingdom of God (Mark 4; Luke 8). The Lord is great who made it
(Ecclesiastes 43). And the moon in all things in its season; the manifestation of time, and the
sign of the age (ibid.). After discussing about the sun, he discusses about the moon, because
the Church follows Christ and is illuminated by him, as the moon is from the sun. For the
moon has no native brightness, but receives it from the sun; so also the Church from Christ,
which seems to be diminished in persecution, but shines forth in peace, but will grow
marvelously in the consummation. of the divine preaching, will shine gloriously throughout
the whole world. The glory of the stars of heaven, the Lord illuminating the world on high
(ibid.). they await the judgment of God. Behold the bow, and bless him that made it (ibid.).
Written, of course, in the New and Old Testaments, whence: He stretched his bow, and
prepared it (Psal. 7). He is very beautiful in his splendor (Ecclesiastes 43). Because the
Scripture is very beautiful in its sense. The sky revolved around his glory (ibid.). he tells of
the lowly. to emit the scathings of his judgment (ibid.), that is, the terrors of judgment, and
the miracles of the virtues. And the hailstones were broken (ibid.). , rebuking the hardness
of the wicked heart, lest they stone the vital branch. Let us praise glorious men, and our
parents in their generation (Ecclesiastes 44). now he begins to tell of the holy Fathers. Men
endowed with great valor and prudence (ibid.). For many of them were kings of knowledge,
abounding in riches, but for the most part ruling themselves. (ibid.). These, according to
history, are taken from the patriarchs and prophets, whose seed, that is, the Israelites,
because of their merits and promises, were often delivered from hardships. Whence Moses,
praying for the sins of the people, brings Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob back to memory, that
God, appeased by their merits, might grant indulgence to his sons who sin. The merit of
Father David preserved the kingdom for his sons for a long time. they follow the example of
those whose bodies rest in the hope of the resurrection, when the seed of good works will
be compensated with a heavenly reward. he began to enumerate the fathers, but from
Enoch, who was transferred to paradise; because in this is evident the election of the saints,
who have passed from the sufferings of the world to the rest of the kingdom. Here it is
believed that he will come at the end of the world, to give advice to all to repent. Noah was
found perfect, just, etc. (ibid.). When, having reached the world, he was reserved to preach
repentance to the nations, and to demonstrate by example that those who serve God
devoutly are delivered from eternal destruction. the rulers who govern the ark, that is, the
Church of God, among the waves of the world, and preach the baptism of repentance,
appeasing God with prayers and sacrifices to the human race. Abraham, the great father of
many nations, etc. (ibid.) Of many nations, that is, of those who believe in Christ; because
the children of the flesh are not valued in the seed. Abraham's promise is twofold: the
barren of the world are expressed in the sand of the sea, in the likeness of the stars, the
faithful Christians, who will shine in the light of the resurrection like the stars of heaven.
Eleazar, as it is written in the book of Numbers (Chapter 25), received from the Lord a
testament of peace, because the zeal of God killed an Israelite and a Midianite woman
committing fornication. also the dignity of the priesthood, and it belongs to that priest about
whom it is written: You are a priest forever, etc. (1 Par. XXIV), whom he divided into 24 lots,
so that they might minister to the Lord by turns, he did not diminish the glory of Phinehas,
but increased it. mino. Whence the Hebrews convey that he still lived in the body, and
ordered the shifts of the ministers in the tabernacle. Wisdom built herself a house, cut out
seven pillars (Prov. 9). Whence: Where is wisdom to be found, and what is the place of
intelligence? in the land of those who live pleasantly (Job 28). Behold, to fear God is wisdom
itself, and to abstain from evil is prudence. In order that it may be evident what that wisdom
is that built the house, a distinction must be made between the wisdoms; for there is the
wisdom of the world, the wisdom of the flesh, wisdom from above, and wisdom above. Of
the wisdom of the world, the Apostle says: The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God
(1 Cor. 5). Of the wisdom of the flesh, he says the same thing: Because the prudence of the
flesh is death (Rom 8) It is said of the wisdom that is above, because it is chaste and
peaceful, etc. (Jas. 3). ) .The wisdom of the world in vanity, the wisdom of the flesh in
pleasure, the wisdom above in truth, the wisdom above is truth, it is eternity. Therefore the
wisdom which is above, and which is God, itself built itself a house, namely the body of the
Lord, in which it dwelt bodily. There he cut out seven pillars, that is, the seven charisms of
the Holy Spirit. For Christ, as a man, received a sevenfold Spirit, not for measure, but for
fullness. Whence Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, etc. (Isa. 11 ). rsum: Wisdom has built itself a house, etc. (Prov. 9), namely
the holy Church, where it also cuts out seven pillars, because the Church itself receives the
sevenfold Spirit. Whence John: And we have received of his fullness (John. 1). We can also
say , because wisdom built a house for itself, namely the blessed Virgin, in which it cut out
seven pillars, that is, the four cardinal virtues, prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice;
and three deities, that is, faith, hope, and charity. they are wonderfully refined by labor. The
seven pillars, that is the seven virtues, these are charity, humility, sobriety, chastity,
obedience, discipline, patience. , all together are characteristic of monks. Charity is the form
of the virtues, humility the seat or chair of the virtues, sobriety the measure, chastity the
ornament, obedience the driver, discipline the school, patience the shield, perseverance the
crown. Charity the queen of the virtues, humility the guardian, sobriety the minister,
chastity the beauty, obedience direction, discipline, correction, patience, trial, perseverance,
conclusion. The Lord recommends charity to us, saying: Greater charity has no one, Let him
lay down his life for his friends (John 15). He teaches humility, saying: Learn from me
because I am meek and humble in heart (Matthew 11). On sobriety: Be sober and watchful,
etc. (1 Peter 5) .On chastity: Let your loins be girded (Luke 12) .On obedience: Obedience is
better than sacrifice (I Kings 11) .On discipline: Take hold of discipline (Psal. 2) .And: He
who rejects discipline is unhappy (Prov. .15).On patience: In your patience you will possess
your souls (Luke 21). On perseverance: He who perseveres to the end will be saved
(Matthew 10 and 24). humility, baseness of attitude; sobriety, measure of food and drink;
chastity tells us the identity of the sex; it insinuates our obedience, that we bow down to one
another; the training that we have teachers; He shows us patience, because through silence
we are as if dumb. perseverance, because we are enclosed by barriers. These virtues are
briefly said because the Kingdom of God is not in speech, but in virtue (1 Cor. 4), and so
virtue and the kingdom of God are joined, so that virtue itself is called the kingdom of God.
Whence the Apostle: The kingdom of God is not food and drink, but justice, peace, and joy in
the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14). And the Lord says: The kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17).
Power is the way, the kingdom of God is our country. Let us keep the road, that we may
reach our country. let us run swiftly the way of the commandments, that we may arrive
successfully at our Creator, to whom is honor for ever and ever. Whence he does not say you
are beautiful, but in admiration: How beautiful you are! Now there is a twin beauty, natural
and artificial; natural by condition, artificial by composition. For the soul is created by God
to be beautiful, but it is itself defiled by the dung of vices thrown upon it. Therefore, in order
to recover its natural beauty, it is necessary to wash it away with the tears and fruits of
penitence that have been thrown. of speech, thirdly of the heart. Purity of action consists in
three things, namely, that it be without iniquity, without softness, without levity; innocent,
clean, grave. The purity of speech is also threefold, that it be without lying, without boasting,
without much talk: true, humble, and frugal. in a rigid affection, which receives nothing from
the idle; in a clean thought, which receives nothing dirty. From her twin purity, that is, of
work and of speech, she can be called beautiful by men, for she has glory with men, but not
with God; but where purity of heart has been found, not only by men, but by him who is the
inspector of the heart, how beautiful it will be called. the bridegroom, so pleasing to the
Bridegroom with his appearance and his beauty, deserves to hear, with the double
announcement of his praise: How beautiful you are, and how beautiful! This beauty is most
effected by charity, which is love for God and the neighbor. In God, threefold, because there
is a Trinity ; with all his heart, that he alone may please reason; from the whole soul, that he
alone may be wise to the will; with all his might, that he alone may draw upon his
concupiscence. To the neighbor in two ways, since pride is twofold: firstly, secondly to the
soul; then, according to the flesh; for those who love only the flesh or only the soul love
neither. For both these two precepts are sufficient: What you do not want done to you, do
not do to others, and: What you want men to do to you, do even you to them (Matthew 7,
Luke 6 ) .Innocence on the one hand, beneficence on the other hand. Innocence is that you
neither harm nor wish to harm, beneficence is that if you can, you benefit, if you can't, you
grieve. Thus you deserve to hear: How beautiful and graceful you are! when you are named,
use something that is greater than the virtues themselves, this is: Do not be high-minded,
but fear (Rom. 11). This is humility, the nurse of virtues, the glory of virtues, the life of
virtues, name and merit. and virtues are not worthy to be numbered. Therefore, whatever
you are, devout soul, apply yourself to him, apply yourself to him, have a companion, have a
dearest one, and if you were dear in purity, dearer in charity, you will be dearest in humility.
Or certainly, since there are three kinds of humility, to be that is, superior, equal, inferior,
meritorious which does not pass any step, in the first it is named dear, in the second dearer,
in the third it is called most dear. what poverty, what mourning, what persecution is
suffered for the sake of justice (Matthew 5) What is she that dwells in pleasures, that
abounds in pleasures, leaning on her beloved? And here some steps must be noticed. It is a
soul that feeds on its bread by the sweat of its brow, that when it has worked its land, it
does not bring forth its fruits, but thorns and thistles it sprouts for him (Gen. 3). There is
also something that rejoices when he has done well, and exults in the best things, saying: It
is good for me, Lord, because you have humbled me, that I may learn your justifications
(Psal. 118). ) to whom it is Christ to live, and to die is gain (Philip. 1), that may be glorified in
tribulations, that may rejoice that she is worthy to suffer insults for the name of Jesus; Why
should I not say that she is in delights, nay, and affluent? For the first is in thorns, which
labors in her groaning, lamenting and saying: I became miserable and bowed down to the
end, I entered in sorrow all day (Psal. 37). The second in foods it is that which is not eaten
without delight in that bread, of which bread he himself testifies who says: It is my food,
that I may do the will of my Father (John iv). The great that suffers thorns, the greater that
feeds on the food of its Father; but the greatest of all, which flows from delights, and is
transferred from delights to delights, by the cooperating grace of the Spouse Jesus Christ
our Lord, who is blessed forever and ever. Amen.