The Book of Margery Kempe Compassion and Forgiveness Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Page)

Quote #4

The good women, feeling sorry for her sorrow and astonished at her weeping and crying, loved her much the more as a result. (I.41.136)

Kempe is in Italy when this happens—and it's something you would never see in England. It's clear that the Italians have a better understanding of Kempe's sensibilities than the English do, and they often show her a level of acceptance and compassion that she will never have in her home country.

Quote #5

Sometimes she wept for an hour on Good Friday for the sins of the people, having more sorrow for their sins than for her own, inasmuch as our Lord forgave her her own sins before she went to Jerusalem. (I.57.179)

Despite the poor treatment she suffers at the hands of most other human beings, Kempe is very concerned for the state of their souls. She speaks with Jesus more than once about her sorrow for other souls' damnation, and she even gets into quite an ugly spat with him about it. Her tears are purely tears of compassion for others, since Jesus assures her more than once that she is favored and that all her sins are always forgiven.

Quote #6

"Therefore, Lord, I wish I had a well of tears to constrain you with, so that you would not take utter vengeance on man's soul, to part him from you without end; for it is a hard thing, to think that any earthly man should ever do any sin through which he should be parted from your glorious face without end." (I.57.180)

Kempe cannot believe that Jesus, who she sees as all merciful, would ever condemn any soul to hell. She thinks of his actions in this matter as a kind of vengeance, but Christ assures her later that this is not so (it's a matter of justice, he says). However, Kempe dedicates much of her praying time to ask for the salvation of others—even those who hate her.