Rising Up

Si apud Christum thesaurus noster est, sicut Apostolus dicit: Scio cui credidi et certus sum, quia potens est depositum meum servare in illum diem: sit ibi cor nostrum, ubi est thesaurus noster. Disponamus ascensiones in corde nostro, et si non possumus corporaliter ascendere, saltem recordatione et desiderio coelestium spiritualiter ascendamus, sicut ille qui dicit: Haec recordatus sum et effudi in me animam meam, quonaim transibo in locum tabernaculi usque in domum Dei. Et: Memor fui Dei et delectatus sum, exercitatus sum, et defecit spiritus meus. Quid est quod dicit, concupiscit anima mea? Et iterum: Memor fui Dei et delectatus sum, et defecit spiritus meus? Quia in hac vita mortali aut potius in hac morte vitali comprendere, aut cogitate non sufficimus gloriam illam, quam nec oculus vidit, nec auris audivit, nec in cor hominis ascendit quae, Deus, praeparasti diligentibus te. Porro cum reformaverit Deus corpus humilitatis nostae configuratum corpori claritatis suae, tunc omnia implebit in nobis, qui omnia fecit pro nobis. Et hoc est quod Apostolus ait: Christus qui descendit, ipse est qui ascendit, ut adimpletet omnia quae adimplere voluit: nativitatem scilicet, resurrectionem, ascensionem, ut renascentes a peccato, resurgentes a morte animae resurgamus de virtue ad virtutem, donec videatur Deus deorum in Sion. Petrus Blenensis, Sermo XXIII, In Ascensione Domini Source: Migne PL 207.629b-d

If our treasure is with Christ, as the Apostle says, 'I know in whom I have believed and I am certain that He is able to guard what I have committed to Him against that day,' let our hearts be where our treasure us. Let us dispose ascents in our hearts, 1 and if we are not capable of ascending in the body, yet with remembrance and desire let us make a spiritual ascent to heaven, as he who says, 'These things I remembered and I poured out my soul in myself, because I shall pass into the place of the tabernacle, even to the house of God.' And again, 'I was mindful of God and I delighted, and I exerted myself, and my spirit fainted.' 2 What is this that the soul desires? And what is to remember God and to be delighted and to have the spirit faint? Because in this mortal life, or rather in this living death, we are not able to grasp or understand that glory 'which neither the eye has seen, nor the ear has heard, nor has it risen up in the heart of a man, what God has prepared for those who love Him.' 3 However when God refashions this body of our humility to a likeness of His own glorious body, 4 then He shall fulfill everything in us, He who has done everything for us. And this is what the Apostle says, 'Christ who descended is He who ascends, so that he might fulfill everything which He wishes to fulfill,' 5 that is, the Nativity, and the Resurrection, and the Ascension, so that being reborn from sin, and rising from the death of the soul, we may rise up 'from virtue to virtue, until the God of gods is seen in Sion.' 6 Peter of Blois, from Sermon 23, On The Ascension of the Lord 1 2 Tim 1.12, Mt 6.21, Ps 83.6 2 Ps 41.5, Ps 76.4 3 1 Cor 2.9 4 Phil 3.21 5 Ephes 4.10 6 Ps 83.8