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And you who have lingered a bit, kneel and adore your lord God, and then his mother, and reverently greet the holy old man Joseph. Then kiss the feet of the child Jesus lying in the manger, and ask our Lady to hand him to you and even allow you to hold him. Take him and hold him fast in your arms: gaze on his face. Kiss him with loving reverence and delight confidently in him. You can do this because he came to sinners for their salvation. He humbly conversed with them and finally left himself as food for them. Therefore his loving kindness patiently permits his person to be touched as you wish, and he’ll not attribute it to your presumption but to your love. However, always do this with reverential fear, for he is the Holy of Holies. Afterwards hand him back to his mother and carefully note how devotedly and wisely she minds him, nurses him, and so forth. She is showing her loving care. Stay and help her if you can. Delight in these things, rejoice in them and remember to meditate on them time and again; and as much as you can, remain close to our Lady and the boy Jesus. And contemplate his face often, on which the angels desire to gaze. So that you do not risk being turned away, always approach, as I’ve said, with reverential fear. For you should consider yourself unworthy of such an experience.

Неужели люди, жившие в 13 веке, могли не просто читать такой назидательный текст, но и выполнять его предписания? Неужели их фантазия возносила так высоко, чтобы вообразить теплое младенческое тело Христа на своих руках? Парадоксальная смесь того что можно, но вроде как и нельзя; великая концентрация наивности, тяги к святости и необходимости диалога с нездешним миром. Наверняка, это есть и в сегодняшнем мире, только не так массово, а затихше. Я бы хотела узнать таких людей.

Или вот еще, готовясь к эссе, познакомилась с движением Devotio Moderna. “Learning was for them never an end in itself nor the prerequisite to a career, but rather and quite simply means to an end, the increasing of personal holiness”. Милые, родные, понятные мне люди, желающие вырваться из нарождающегося в 15 веке в Европе класса мещан, ищущие знания и святости. Наивные, но понятные: такие были, есть и будут. На таких и мне хочется походить по крайней мере в их искреннем желании знаний не ради знаний или материального благополучия, а ради личного духовного совершенствования.