English mystics · c. 1340–1396
Walter Hilton
English mystic · the fire of love
Walter Hilton, an Augustinian canon in fourteenth-century England, wrote The Scale of Perfection — a ladder of contemplative ascent — for those seeking God in the midst of ordinary life.
He taught a prayer that finally lays words aside: strip away every thought but one naked desire for Jesus, and let that “desire of love” burn through all that distracts.
“A fire shall go before him,” he wrote of the Lord coming into the soul; that fire is desire, and it “shall waste all sins.” What remains is the quiet, felt presence of Jesus within.
Jacob's Ladder by William Blake (public domain)
A way to pray
with Walter Hilton