no longer seeks

This Soul... no longer seeks God through penitence, 

nor through any sacrament of Holy Church; 

not through thought, nor through words, nor through works;

 not through creature here below, nor through creature above; 

not through justice, nor through mercy; not through glory of glory; 

not through divine understanding, nor though divine love,

 nor through divine praise.

...Such a Soul neither desires nor despises poverty nor tribulation, 

neither mass nor sermon, neither fast nor prayer,

 and gives to Nature all that is necessary,

 without remorse of conscience.  

But such nature is so well ordered through

 the transformation by unity of Love,

 to whom the will of this Soul is conjoined,

 that nature demands nothing which is prohibited.

...

Such a Soul often hears what she hears not,

and often sees what she sees not,

and so often she is there where she is not,

and so often she feels what she feels not.

~ Marguerite Porete

from The Mirror of Simple Souls

On the first of June 1310 at the Place de Grève in Paris, 

Marguerite Porete was burned at the stake,

 enduring what the great nineteenth-century historian of the Inquisition,

 H. C. Lea, called the first formal auto-da-fé in Paris.

 

 Condemned as a relapsed heretic, Marguerite accepted her fate calmly 

and without fear, and she was regarded with great admiration 

by those who witnessed her death, many of whom burst into tears

 during the execution. Her condemnation came as the result

 of her unwillingness to discuss or denounce the teachings

 found in her great mystical work the Mirror of Simple Souls,

 which was written in Old French. Although judged heretical,

 the Mirror was a work of great popularity and influence

 during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and beyond.

end to end

Friend, what do you want of me?

I contain all that was, what is, and what will be.

I hold all, standing tall.

Take everything from me you please.

I won't say no if you want all.

Say, friend, what do you want of me?

I am love.  Love fills me end to end.

What you desire to fill

Your soul, we both desire, friend.

Say to us nakedly your will.

~ Marguerite Porete

from The Mirror of Simple Souls

translated by Aliki Barnstone and Willis Barnstone

photo of "Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors"
 

Marguerite was part of a community of Beguines.  Some of her writing attacked the established clergy.  She and her works were condemned and she was publicly burned around 1300.

peace of charity in the annihilated

Of this life, says Love, we wish to speak, in asking what one could find:

1. A Soul

2. who is saved by faith without works

3. who is only in love

4. who does nothing for God

5. who leaves nothing to do for God

6. to whom nothing can be taught

7. from whom nothing can be taken

8. nor given

9. and who possesses no will

~ Marguerite Porete

from Mirror of Simple Souls

english version by Ellen Babinsky

with thanks to poetry chaikhana

thought is no longer of worth to me

Thought is no longer of worth to me,

Nor work, nor speech.

Love draws me so high

(Thought is no longer of worth to me)

With her divine gaze,

That I have no intent.

Thought is no longer of worth to me.

Nor work, nor speech.

~ Marguerite Porete
(1260?-1310)

Her book, The Mirror of Simple Souls (or The Mirror of Simple Annihilated Souls, a reference to ecstatic annihilation in God), survived her death and was translated into many European languages, attributed initially to "an unknown French mystic." The book is a collection of poetry and prose that suggests a profound experience of mystical union which resulted in a complete loss of personal identity in which only the Divine remains.