How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Page)
Quote #4
"Daughter, you will be very welcome to my father, and to my mother, and to all my saints in heaven, for you have given them to drink very many times with the tears of your eyes." (I.22.87)
Jesus often tells Kempe that her tears are like sacrificial offerings to God and will earn her bonus points in heaven. Here, her tears are described as life giving to the other inhabitants of heaven—which makes Kempe a favorite not only with God, but also with everyone else. This is another way that Kempe understands that she has been chosen by God for special intimacy and favor.
Quote #5
Then for the joy that she had and the sweetness that she felt in the conversation of our Lord, she was on the point of falling off her ass, for she could not bear the sweetness and grace that God wrought in her soul. (I.28.103)
Aside from pleasing our inner 12-year-old, this passage shows how Kempe really inhabits two worlds: a physical one and a spiritual dimension that is so real and present for her that it shapes her perception of the world around her. Her emotional response to the blending of these two realms of perception can be intense—and dangerous. We're glad she didn't actually fall off her… donkey.
Quote #6
And then the Father took her by the hand [spiritually] in her soul, before the Son and the Holy Ghost, and the Mother of Jesus, and all the twelve apostles, and St. Katherine and St. Margaret and many other saints and holy virgins, with a great multitude of angels, saying to her soul, "I take you, Kempe, for my wedded wife..." (I.35.123)
This is one of the wildest and most confusing moments in Kempe's narrative. Up to this point, she has been wholly devoted to Jesus, the Son of God. It's easy to see why, since Jesus takes the form of a (kind of hot) man and is more familiar to her. But God the Father has bigger plans: he wants Kempe to graduate to a more abstract, profound form of spirituality and become familiar with "the Godhead" itself. Hence, we get a "spiritual wedding" between God the Father and Kempe.