1. Looking at the four elements - fire, air, water and earth, thinking about their being, strength and action, in great spiritual consolation, cry out to their Supreme Creator, who so arranged them, the great God, the immeasurable Power and the most exalted Action! I rejoice and am glad that You alone are the beginning and cause of every created essence, power and action!
2. Looking at the sky and the celestial bodies of light: the sun, moon and stars, and thinking that they received their light and their splendor from God, exclaim:
Light, more than any brighter light, from Which all light, material and immaterial, was created. Wonderful Light, the first object of joy for the Angels and the rapture of the blessed, into the steady contemplation of Which the eyes of the Cherubim are immersed in amazement and in comparison with Which all sensual lights seem like deep darkness! I glorify and exalt You, True Light, who enlightens every person coming into the world! Grant me to always behold You intelligently, so that my heart may rejoice with complete joy!
3. Also, looking at trees, grass and other various plants, and in vain with the mind, how they live, feed, grow and reflect from themselves what is similar to themselves, and that it is not from themselves that they have life and everything else that is in them, but from the creative Spirit, Whom you do not see and Who alone gives them life, so you can cry:
This is where true life is, from Which, in Which and by Which everything lives, is nourished and multiplies! O life-giving Delight of my heart!
In the same way, when looking at irrational animals, you can ascend your mind to God, who gave them feelings and the strength to move from place to place, and say:
O first Mover of all kinds, Who, setting everything in motion, remains motionless within Himself! How I rejoice and rejoice in this Your mobility and Your steadfast identity!
4. Looking at yourself or at other people and thinking that you alone have been given a high position, that you alone of all living creatures on earth are gifted with reason and serve as the point of unity and union of material and immaterial creatures, move to glorify and give thanks to your Creator and God and say:
O immaterial Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Soul! May you be blessed forever! How much must I always thank You, not only for the fact that You created me from the earth and made me king over all unearthly creatures, not only for the fact that You naturally honored me with Your image, mind, word, living body, but most of all for the fact that you gave me the power, by my free will, to become like You through virtues, so that through this I could eternally have You in myself and bliss in You!
5. I now turn to each of the five senses in particular and tell you: seeing the beauty and beauty of creatures, separate with your mind what you see from their spiritual meaning, which you do not see, and, thinking that all this beautiful beauty, externally visible, is the work of the invisible and most beautiful creative Spirit, in Whom is the cause of all such external beauty, say, being filled with joy:
Behold the abundant flows from the uncreated source! Behold the all-irrigating rain from the boundless sea of all good things! How joyful I am in the depths of my heart, thinking about the indescribable beauty of my Creator, the beginning and reason of all created beauty! I am filled with what spiritual sweetness when I keep in my mind the thought of the unspeakable and unthinkable beauty of my God, in which is the beginning of all beauty!
6. When you hear any pleasant voice or harmony of such voices and singing, turn your mind to God and say:
Harmony of harmonies, my Lord! How I rejoice over Your boundless perfections, which all, concentrated in You in supernatural harmony and then reflected in the hosts of Angels in heaven and in countless creatures under heaven, form one unimaginably harmonious symphony!
When my time comes, Lord, for me to hear with the ears of my heart Your sweetest voice, saying: My peace I give to you - peace from passions! For Your voice is sweet, as the bride sings in the Song of Songs” (Song 2:14)!
7. If you happen to smell some ointment or some color of incense, move your thoughts from this external fragrance to the hidden fragrance of the Holy Spirit and say:
Behold the smell of this all-fragrant color and of this inexhaustible world, which was poured out on all the creations of God, as it is sung in the Song of Songs: I am the flower of the field and the flower of the field (Song. 2, 1) and also: Thy name poured out as myrrh (ibid., 1, 2). Behold the spread of the source fragrance, which richly exudes its divine rest on everything, from the highest pure Angels to the last creatures, and everything is fragrant.” So Isaac once, smelling the stench of his Jacob, said: Behold the stench of my son, like the stench of the fields, so bless the Lord (Gen. 27:27).
8. Again, when you eat or drink, think that it is God who gives everything edible a taste that is pleasant to us and, enjoying Him alone, say:
Rejoice, my soul, that while outside of God there is no satisfaction for you, there is no sweetness and consolation, you, having known Him and clinging to Him, can find all pleasure in Him alone, as David invites you to this, saying: taste and see that the Lord is good (Ps. 33:9), and as Solomon confirms the truth of this, saying: his fruit is sweet in the throat mine (Song. 2, 3).
9. Also, when you stretch out your hands to do some work, bring to mind that God, who has given you the strength and ability to act, is the first reason for every movement, but you are nothing more than a living instrument in His hands, and, ascending to Him in thought, say:
What joy do I experience within myself, the highest God of all, thinking that without You I cannot do any work, and that You are the first and initial Actor in every task!
10. And when you see in others kindness or wisdom, or truth, or any other virtues, then in this case, separating the invisible from this visible, say to your God:
O rich treasure of every virtue! How great is the joy for me to know and see that all good comes from You alone and that all our good in comparison with Your divine perfections is nothing! I thank you, my God, for this and for every other good that you do to my neighbor, but remember, our Benefactor, both my own poverty and my great insufficiency in all virtue.
11. And I will say in general, whenever you feel something attractive and pleasing in God’s creations, do not focus your attention on them alone, but, passing them, turn your thoughts to God and say:
If Your creations, my God, are so beautiful, so joyful and delightful, how immeasurably beautiful, how immeasurably joyful and how immeasurably sweet are You Yourself, the Creator of all!
If you do this, my beloved, then you can, through your five senses, learn the knowledge of God, always ascending with your mind from creatures to the Creator, so that the existence and well-being of everything created will be for you a book of Theology, and you, while still in this sensory world, will become a participant in the knowledge characteristic of the supermundane world. For, truly, the whole world and all nature is nothing more than a certain organ, in which, under appearance, the Organizer and Artist of everything invisibly resides, acting and visibly manifesting His artistry, or in the visible and material, presenting to the gaze of rational creatures His invisible and immaterial perfections and actions.