Spiritual Friendship: Learning to Be Friends with God and One Another

Chapter 7: Accepting and Enjoying Spiritual Friends (Book 3.76–97)

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78. AELRED: What if there was one other person left, whose language you did not understand, whose ways you did not know, and whose heart and love were concealed from you? WALTER: If I could not make a friend of this person by sign language of some sort, I would prefer that there be no other person left, rather than one of this sort. AELRED: But if there were another survivor whom you loved just as you love yourself, and you had no doubt that this person returned your love, wouldn’t all the things which before seemed bitter now appear sweet and enjoyable? WALTER: Yes, indeed. AELRED: And would it not be the case that, the more such people you had, the happier you would judge yourself to be? WALTER: That’s quite true. 79. AELRED: This is that great and wondrous happiness which we look for, when God himself is at work and pouring forth such great friendship and love between himself and his creation—which he has sustained, among the grades and orders which he has distinguished between his creatures, among each of the individual creatures and those he has chosen—that each loves the other as he loves himself. And through this friendship each one rejoices in the happiness of another as much as in his own; and so the happiness of individuals is the happiness of all, and the universality of the happiness of all becomes the happiness of individuals. God Designed Friendship to Fill Creation with Happiness (3.79−81)