The Book of Margery Kempe Versions of Reality Quotes

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

Quote #10

Then she was so comforted by the contemplation in her soul which she had in beholding our Lord Jesus Christ, his blessed mother, Simeon the priest, Joseph [...] and the heavenly songs that she thought she heard when our blissful Lord was offered up to Simeon, that she could scarcely carry up her own candle to the priest [...] but went reeling about on all sides as if she were a drunk woman [...]. (I.82.239)

Kempe has this experience on Candlemas, when the church celebrates the Purification of Mary. It's an incident described in scripture, so Kempe would have heard this read in church or by a priest at other times. But again, she moves from the present life around her immediately into active participation in the past. Unfortunately, this imaginative movement often makes Kempe unable to cope with present rituals.