Reading and Writing Goals 2026

This past year, I had one reading and three writing goals. I also participated in a couple of reading challenges.

Goals for 2025

- Writing: I was hoping to move forward with my first children’s book as well as work on two German-to-English translation projects.
- Reading: read a total of 52 books


How did I do?

- Writing:

Project 1: A children’s book on Harold and Heather. I have talked a bit about this project before, but in 2024, I was finally able to finish my first draft of the story. During 2025, this project took a backseat, but I’m hopeful that I may have found an illustrator. More details to come soon!

Project 2: I published all three parts of my Melanchthon translation project on my blog. You can also get all three parts of Melanchthon’s German Catechism in one Kindle book.

Project 3: I’ve started translating Johannes Tauler’s sermons from German into English. You can read the ones I’ve shared already on my blog. https://becausehelives.blogspot.com/search/label/Tauler


- Reading: I exceeded my reading goal this year: I read 111 books!


Goals for 2026

- Writing: I have four writing projects in the works for 2026.
Project 1: A children’s book on Harold and Heather. During 2025, this project took a backseat, but I’m hopeful that I may have found an illustrator. More details to come soon!

Project 2: I started translating Johannes Tauler’s sermons from German into English in 2025 and posted the first four on my blog. I’ll be posting more of them in 2026.

Project 3: I am currently in the process of editing a book featuring contributions from several different authors. I plan to share more specific details about the project and its release as things progress further down the road.

Project 4: I am pleased to announce that I will be releasing my first book of poetry later this year. I look forward to sharing further details about the collection as the launch date approaches.

- Reading: My plan is to read a total of 52 books this year. This was my goal for 2025, and I like it as a goal for 2026.


How about you? Any reading or writing goals for 2026?

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What does it look like to follow Jesus? I’ve written a book that walks through the Letter of 1 John and offers practical guidance for spiritual growth. Buy it here!

Grace Upon Grace (31-Day Devotional).
Melanchthon’s German Catechism translated into English.
Connect with me on Instagram, Substack, and Pinterest.
My reading recommendations. My merch store. My Etsy store.

Best of Because He Lives 2025

These are the most popular posts I posted here in 2025.
A few posts you may have missed, so check them out.

- Spine Labels - Set 87
- Bible Verse Graphics
- Johannes Tauler's Sermons in English - Sermon 1
- Lord God, To You We Give All Praise
- Spine Labels - Set 90

Happy New Year, dear readers!

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What does it look like to follow Jesus? I’ve written a book that walks through the Letter of 1 John and offers practical guidance for spiritual growth. Buy it here!

Grace Upon Grace (31-Day Devotional).
Melanchthon’s German Catechism translated into English.
Connect with me on Instagram, Substack, and Pinterest.
My reading recommendations. My merch store. My Etsy store.

Johannes Tauler's Sermons in English - Sermon 4 (part 2)

On the Third Sunday of Advent

How we are to prepare an airy dwelling place for God in our hearts and are to drive out all melancholy.
Tu es, qui venturus est (Latin from Matthew 11:3).
Are you he, who is to come?

translator’s note: because this sermon is so long, I have decided to split it into two posts; this is the second part

Now, there are six things about these fearful individuals. The first is that they are completely insincere, and that they have little desire to believe someone in this. Those whom they want to believe, particularly those who tell them something comforting, they believe less than those who tell them something uncomfortable. This comes from a busy and sincere grief in which they dwell without interruption. They want to gladly grieve over their infirmities. If someone could come to their aid, he should not do this at all, for they do not care who is helped. The more they fight against it, the greater their suffering and their infirmities will be. They should choose a godfearing teacher who has experience with the holy scriptures. Then, they would be bound to believe him without any doubts. For God will hold him accountable on the day of judgment, and not them if they have done their best.

The other point is that they have a lot of wrong fears. They think that they can never confess correctly, regardless of how educated the confessor is or how much they exercise their capabilities. They still do not have a repentant or restful heart. This comes from the fact that they do not know how to confess those things for which they are expressly guilty. An individual is culpable alone (excepting mortal sins) to confess as he is able, and the daily sins in a communal confession. If then these individuals in the previous matters are not guilty of a mortal sin, then they are not permitted nor should they explicitly speak all their transgressions in a communal confession, in accordance with the counsel of a godly and humble confessor. An evil spirit confuses, in these matters, the heart’s peace and quiet. Therefore, one should resist him, for the more one entertains him, the more the conscience becomes confused.

The third thing is that they desire understanding in those things that one cannot understand. They pursue that which they desire to understand, namely, that they are without mortal sin. No individual on earth is so good, is so holy, or is so well-educated in the holy doctrines, that he can know if he is in God’s grace or not, except that such would be especially revealed to him. It is enough for an individual to endeavor not to fully grasp these things. This desire to understand comes from ignorance, as if a child desired to understand what the emperor had in his heart. Therefore, as the one with a bodily illness must trust his doctor, who better knows the nature of sickness than he does, so must the individual also trust his humble confessor.

The fourth thing is that they are impetuous towards God. This also comes from active and bitter sorrow in which they are constantly living. They are not experienced in other sorrows. They experience the natural consequences in a similar manner to the one who harnesses a young foal to a cart so that it becomes so tired and exhausted that it becomes weak. It then sees that its circumstances will not change, so it gives up its fight and begins to behave tamely. In the same way, it happens to these people for as long as they have the fight in themselves and do not completely bend and submit to the will of God. Until they desire to suffer anything for his sake, they will continue to suffer and must endure until the merciful God sees their need and patience. He knows when it is necessary for him to deliver them. Therefore, it is best to humbly endure the sorrow and submit to it for as long as God desires, and to patiently ask him for help.

The fifth thing is that these same individuals are not more mistaken here on earth than in believing and wanting to answer the evil ideas and whispers. Additionally, they want to humbly resist these ideas and discuss them. One should guard oneself against this, for in resisting, they will sink since they have no help. Instead, they should quickly (without first trying to fight) turn away to the nearest thing they can see, hear, or know. It is as if they would say, “Keep your whispers to yourself; they do not concern me. You are also too evil for me to answer you.” The less they pay attention to these ideas, the sooner they will escape them. They should continue to do this until they have gained a habit of turning away. No one can understand these kinds of words well, except for those individuals who are inclined to them.

The sixth is that the holier the time is and the individual sincerely desires to turn to God, the greater and more frequent the suffering will be. It reaches the point that they cannot even say a Pater Noster or an Ave Marie without the intrusion of the devil. This causes these individuals such discomfort that they throw prayer away. Instead, they say to themselves, “Why do you think that this prayer helps you, since it is so sullied?” This is the wrong response; for now, they are completely following the evil spirit who seeks nothing else but to drive people from spiritual practices. They do not know that their prayer with all the ideas (which are hideous to them) still tastes good and is completely pleasant in the eyes of God.

St. Gregory says that the human essence often comes to such grief that it cannot help itself, for it is only alert to distress and suffering. It is this discomfort that God ordains specifically for them, and the bitterness of their suffering is clear in his eyes. If God draws them nearer through other means, then they will quickly bend God towards themselves. Therefore, no one should let a good work pass them by, nor forsake their prayers, nor church attendance (which is especially distasteful to the evil spirit). For what someone releases through good conduct in prayer, that is contrary to his suffering, and is pleasant before God’s eyes. In the same way, we listen more to the one who rarely speaks than to the one who is healthy and strong. The more that we neglect prayer, the more we cling to the evil spirit.

As it is now established that in this matter there is no sin, the question arises why the merciful God allows such heavy suffering to hang over these individuals, such that they can hardly hear of a physical suffering without thinking it is their suffering. These same individuals and other simple individuals who do not carry such sufferings believe that they will carry them on their shoulders for the entirety of their lives. This, however, is not true, for many saintly individuals are tested hereby. We see this every day and find it also in the holy Scriptures. Additionally, unfair individuals are free of such suffering, and others overcome such suffering in their childhoods when they were still without great guilt. Where, however, such suffering and such strict penance are taken from an individual (in his delusion or in reality) off his shoulders, then he should fervently praise God for this relief. According to the Scriptures, it is a great sign of God’s love when he quickly punishes and atones for the sin with an accompanying suffering. Why, however, God allows the despair of some to be deepened through such suffering and more affected than with other suffering, is hidden in God’s mystery. They should receive it because God intimately knows the hearts, courage, and manner of all mankind, and knows what is best for each. He is like a faithful doctor who prescribes for each one what is best for him. Now, someone may ask, “What good lies in this?” To him I answer and say that unspeakably great good my lie in this. One thing is for certain: those individuals who are naturally inclined to pride are never brought to humility without the correct beginning of virtue. They think that the ugly shape of the idea is also the ugly shape of the sin, but that is not the case. An individual who is at good will with himself may be more sinful and uglier before God than one thousand of the evilest ideas. This is evident in the case of the highest angel who fell and did not have such ideas. Therefore, the individual who does not want to recognize himself in his arrogant thoughts will recognize himself in suffering. The one who scorns others will think it cheap if everyone else wants to scorn him. What is more useful to an individual and provides more access to God than this? It is impossible for a humble person to be lost forever. Truly, according to the holy writings and according to truth, such individuals should fall to their knees and should gild this uncreated suffering by cordially thanking God that it may bring them to such virtue. Suffering delivers them from hell, places them in heaven, and guards them against bodily harm and many sins. They have so much to do with their suffering that they forget all vanity, which is a noble outcome. In this way, these sufferings are beneficial in producing all virtues, for these individuals are so hurt that they seek out virtues. They are able to do all things, that they might come away from and forget their suffering.

As long as they are serious about this, God lets them dwell for a long while, so that the individual may collect many good works and become a vessel full of virtue and grace.

Now, note how friendly and pleasant the eternal wisdom can arrange all things. When individuals think that they have a great loss, God turns that into the best outcome for them. It reduces their time in purgatory and brings them great good and reward. They think they are great sinners, but in God’s eyes, they are great martyrs, for it is one thousand times more painful to be tortured every hour than to lose one’s head with one stroke. According to the holy writings and according to the truth, it is a true sign of God’s love that limitless grace and great secrecy quickly follow. Therefore, they should suffer willingly and cheerfully, for eternal bliss will follow after the bitterness.

A cloistered woman bore such a suffering. When she died, she came again and said that it had been her purgatory and that she had been received by God into eternity without any other means. May our lovely Lord Jesus Christ help us likewise.

Amen.

- translated from German to English by Laura Glassel

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What does it look like to follow Jesus? I’ve written a book that walks through the Letter of 1 John and offers practical guidance for spiritual growth. Buy it here!

Grace Upon Grace (31-Day Devotional).
Melanchthon’s German Catechism translated into English.
Connect with me on Instagram, Substack, and Pinterest.
My reading recommendations. My merch store. My Etsy store.

Johannes Tauler's Sermons in English - Sermon 4 (part 1)

On the Third Sunday of Advent

How we are to prepare an airy dwelling place for God in our hearts and are to drive out all melancholy.
Tu es, qui venturus est (Latin from Matthew 11:3).
Are you he, who is to come?

translator’s note: because this sermon is so long, I have decided to split it into two posts

All goodhearted Christians rejoice over the lovely future of our Lord, and well we may rejoice and give thanks to God with all the strength of our souls. God has now become humble and lowly for the sake of us, poor and lost humans. Through his incarnation, he especially gave us himself and all that he could achieve. Additionally, he also desires to give our souls every moment. There is nothing on earth that is as common and as easy to win as God, because we can conquer God alone with goodwill and desire. If we do not want to admit him, even so, he remains standing before the door of our souls and knocking. Our mother, the holy church, frequently admonishes us that we should make ourselves ready to receive the Lord.

The Lord will be received by a clean conscience decorated with the many flowers of virtue. This is arguably cheap, for a blissful bed strewn prettily with roses, lilies, and other flowers, so that one could sweetly rest therein and sleep, is unlike an untilled field that is full of thistles and thorns. Likewise, a clean conscience is equally unlike the conscience of a disordered person. It is a breath of fresh air for God’s heart to rest in this beflowered place. The lovely soul ponders this in its time, as it spoke longingly about the lovely embrace of its spouse to its lover: our small bed has blossomed. Truly, as if it spoke, the small shop or the small room decides our secrecy. The small bed of our love has bloomed. Now, my dearest love comes. I hear nothing else, for you allow me to sweetly fall asleep in the arms of your unending love. Quite a few people have consciences not embroidered with flowers, but rather dirty their hearts with manure. Quite a few people whose infirmities are exposed outward to the vain and perishable air and the glory of this world. These, we release.

There are also quite a few people whose infirmities are all directed inward, and those inward infirmities are many. Three of these inward infirmities are so peculiar and so heavy that one can hardly compare them to any other infirmity. The first one is an immodest sorrow, the second one is disorderly and heavy fatigue, and the third one is turbulent doubt. About the first one, you should know that a person becomes so sorrowful many times, such that he cannot do anything good and does not know what is breaking him. Even if he asks himself about it, he cannot figure out what it is. Such sorrow befell the lovely King David as he asked: “My soul, why are you so sorrowful? Why do you sadden me?” It was almost as if he said, “Something is broken, but you do not know what. Trust God. Things will be better, and you will again frequently find joy in his praise.” Such sorrow is natural and has again drawn thousands of people away from their good beginnings. Among all people of all time, no one needs a good disposition as much as the person who, like a knight, shall break through the hard struggle of his own infirmity. It may be difficult for a person to deal with several bodily illnesses while still having a trusting disposition toward God. How much more difficult must it be for the person who, at all times, is burdened by a bad and heavy disposition? Therefore, fight against such an infirmity with all your might.

How shall we remain free of this infirmity? Take note: an individual had this infirmity for an unbearably long time and frequently prayed to God regarding it. Then, he heard a voice speaking to him as he sat in his cell in great sorrow, “Stand up and walk in my suffering. Thus, you will lose all your own suffering.” This happened, and his suffering disappeared.

The other internal infirmity is disordered melancholy. Whoever has this infirmity has enough humility to know what he is experiencing and why, since he is not rightly ordered according to God’s will. This infirmity comes because an individual dares what is not to be dared. Therefore, God internally sends that individual this suffering. Now, one finds four of the most serious sufferings that the human heart can carry. No one can hardly believe the miserable heart unless he has borne such himself or he has been given such from God. For if your suffering should be lighter, turn to God, that you might endure the most meticulous suffering and evil incursion against God. The weight of this suffering shall be understood by the bitter pains and not the individual damage that is brought to the soul. These four temptations are doubt in belief, doubt in God’s mercy, intrusive thoughts against God and his saints, and the temptation to kill oneself. I also add another suffering to these four: that someone begins to doubt God’s compassion. This doubt comes particularly from three things: one cannot ponder who God is, what sin is, and what repentance is. Behold, God is a never-exhausted fountain of bottomless mercy and natural goodness that exceeds even that of the most loyal mother towards her child (that she bore in her heart) as she reaches out her hand to rescue her child from fire. God reaches out to the repentant individual even if he had committed daily all the sins of all mankind a thousand times over (if that were even possible). O, beloved Lord, why are you so dear to many hearts? Why do many souls rejoice over you? Why do so many minds rejoice over you? Is it because of their innocent lives? No, of course not. It is because they think of who they are, how sinful, how frail, how completely unworthy they are of you, and that you, o mild and joyful Lord, offer yourself joyfully to them.

O Lord, this makes you great and sweet in their hearts, for you are abundant in human goodness.

A thousand Marks have been waived for you just as if they were a penny, and a thousand mortal sins have been forgiven just as if they were only one. Lord, this is a worthiness above all worthinesses! Mankind can never fully thank you. Their hearts flow forth with your praise, for according to the Scriptures, they are more commendable to you than if they had never fallen into sin and lived in lukewarmness and did not have such love for you. According to St. Bernhard’s teachings, you do not see what an individual has been, but you see how he shall be according to the desire of your heart. Therefore, he who would dissuade you from forgiving sins as often as there are moments would rob you of greater honor.

For sin has, of course, brought you from heaven to earth. You, who are such a lovely and gentle Savior, who lovingly desires to receive us at all hours. He who can ponder who God is (as David says), cannot distrust God.

The other one is that they cannot ponder what sin is. True sin is simply that someone sets his mind away from God and upon sinful afflictions with a premeditated and informed will, knowingly and eagerly in contradiction to conscience (and reason).

Should an individual have as many attacks of sin as there are moments, even if those sins were uncreated and as evil as the human heart could imagine or could speak in an individual language, whether of God or the created ones, no mortal sin has been committed. Even if this individual remained in this state a whole year or even two, or however long it lasted, and his conscience alone was disgusted and unwilling to commit such sins, and was displeased (for the nature of such things is that they are not wholly thought of and agreed upon with premeditated courage and the entire will), still no mortal sin has been committed. This is also certainly true, according to the holy Scriptures and the teaching of the holy church, from which the Holy Spirit teaches us as God is in heaven.

Now, there is a hidden urgency determined in this, and that is that the smallest and sharpest tie that may invade here. When the uncreated, evil attack happens, and an individual falls upon it with desire and forgets himself so that he does not turn quickly from it, he concludes that he has fallen upon it by his will and conscience, so that he falls short and commits a mortal sin. But this is not the case. For, according to the holy teaching, the conscience is often overwhelmed with temptations not yet fulfilled and with desire for quite a while and for a long time, before the conscience rights itself with good care. Then he can receive it or leave it, sin or not sin. Therefore, people should not be afraid of mortal sins when they desire to believe the Christian teaching.

Augustine says that sin must be committed willingly, for if it is not committed willingly, it is not a sin. The teachers say that if Eve alone had eaten the fruit and Adam not, then it would not have harmed us. In the same manner, whatever has the beginnings of sin but is countered by the right favor of the conscience is not a mortal sin.

The third thing that harms is that they cannot ponder what repentance is. Repentance is a virtue that removes sin from an individual, as long as it is done in humility. St. Bernhard says that proud repentance causes God unease. Evil Cain also repented, but in a particular manner, for he said that Cain’s evil was greater than God’s mercy. Judas also had regrets, but his sorrow was disorderly. These individuals, therefore, come to a disordered sorrow and say to themselves, “It is a bad thing that I am living, O Lord. Why was I born? O Lord, may I die,” and so such things. With these sayings, they anger God often even more than if they were sinning. He who desires to have right repentance must have humility in himself, a displeasure with sin, and a complete trust in God. The eternal and lovely wisdom says, “My child, in your sorrow, do not disdain yourself. Come again to God, who will help you to overcome.” He is a complete fool who, because he cannot see out of one eye, desires to tear out the other one.

- translated from German to English by Laura Glassel

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What does it look like to follow Jesus? I’ve written a book that walks through the Letter of 1 John and offers practical guidance for spiritual growth. Buy it here!

Grace Upon Grace (31-Day Devotional).
Melanchthon’s German Catechism translated into English.
Connect with me on Instagram, Substack, and Pinterest.
My reading recommendations. My merch store. My Etsy store.

Johannes Tauler's Sermons in English - Sermon 3

On the Second Sunday of Advent

How near God is to us and how we are to search for and know God and his kingdom in us for all time and places.
Scitote, quia prope est regnum dei (Latin from Luke 21:31).
Know that the kingdom of God is near.

Our dear Lord says here that the kingdom of God is near to us. Yes, the kingdom of God is in us. St. Paul also says that our salvation is nearer to us than we believe. Now you shall know how the kingdom of God is near to us and when the kingdom of God is near.

Here, we must take diligent notice of the sense of these words, for if I were a king and did not know that, then I would not be a king. However, if I thought I were a king and all the people said and thought that as well, and I knew that all the people said and thought such as well, then I would be a king. All the riches of the king would be mine. If any of these three things failed, then I could not be king. Such is also our blessedness, dependent upon the fact that one confesses and knows the highest good, which is God himself. I have the ability within my soul to be sensitive to God. I am so aware of this as I live that nothing is closer to me than God. God is closer to me than I am to myself. God’s nature is marked by him being near and present to me. He is also present thus to a stone or a piece of wood, but they do not know this. If the piece of wood knew God and recognized how near he is, as the highest angel recognizes, then the piece of wood would also be as blessed as the highest angel. Therefore, man is more blessed than a piece of wood, because he confesses God and knows how near God is to him. He is also more blessed as he confesses Him more; he is less blessed as he confesses Him less. He is not blessed because God is in him and is so near to him, nor because he has God, but because he confesses God, how close he is to God, and because he is cognizant of and loves God. This one shall confess that God’s kingdom is near.

When I think about God’s kingdom, that often causes me to keep silent, because of His vastness. For God’s kingdom is God Himself with all of His riches. God’s kingdom is no small matter. If you could imagine all the worlds that God could possibly make, those are not God’s kingdom. In whichever soul God’s kingdom has appeared and which recognizes God’s kingdom, one cannot preach about this nor teach, for it is therein taught and assured of eternal life. Whoever knows and recognizes how near God’s kingdom is may speak with Jacob, “God is in this place, and I did not know it.” God is equally near to all creatures.

The wise man says, “God has spread His nets and halters on all creatures, so that whoever desires to recognize this can find Him in anything and confess.”

A master says, “He who immediately recognizes God in all things confesses Him correctly.” If you serve God out of fear, that is good. It is better to serve Him out of love. However, if you can take the love in fear, that is the best.

If someone has a quiet or peaceful life in God, that is good. If someone endures a painful life with patience, that is better. However, if someone can have strength even in a painful life, that is the best. If someone goes out into a field and speaks his prayers and confesses God, or if he is in the church and confesses God, does he, therefore, confess more because he is in a peaceful place? This happens because of his frailty, not because of God. God is the same in all things and in all places, and is ready to give Himself immediately as long as it depends upon Him. He confesses God correctly, who immediately confesses Him.

St. Bernhard says, “Why does my eye confess heaven and not my feet? It is because my eye is more similar to heaven than my feet.” If my soul is now to confess God, so must it be heavenly. What now will bring my soul to the point that it recognizes God in itself and knows how near God is to it? Take notice! Heaven cannot receive any foreign impression; it cannot be impressed by any embarrassing distress that could dismay it. The soul must also be attached and confirmed in God. Those who confess God shall not be shaken, neither by hope nor fear nor joy nor sorrow nor love or suffering nor many other things that would try to dismay them.

Heaven is at all places equally distant from the earth. Thus, the soul should also be equally distant from all earthly things. It should not be closer to one over the other, and it should hold itself equally distant in love, in suffering, in plenty, in want. Rather, to all these things it shall die, leave behind, and be raised again.

Heaven is pure and clear of all spots; heaven is not touched by time or place.

No physical things have a place there. It is not in time; its revolutions are incredibly quick, and its course is outside of time. But, from its course comes time. Nothing prevents the soul so much in its confession of God as time and place. Time and place are pieces, but God is one. Therefore, if the soul shall recognize God, then it must recognize Him above time and above place. For God is neither this nor that as these multifaceted things, for God is one.

If the soul is going to see, then it must not look at anything in time, for as much as the soul recognizes time or place or something equal, then it can never recognize God. For if the eye is to recognize a color, then it must separate that color first from all colors.

If the soul is going to recognize God, then it must have no fellowship with the void. Whoever sees God recognizes that all creatures are nothing. For when one places one creature against another, then it appears to be beautiful and is something. However, when one places it against God, then it is nothing.

Further, I say, if the soul is going to recognize God, then it must forget itself and must lose itself. For if it sees itself and recognizes itself, we see that it does not yet recognize God. In the manner in which it loses itself through God and leaves behind all things, so it finds itself again in God. When it recognizes God, then it recognizes itself and all things (from which it has separated itself) completely in God. If I am going to truly recognize the highest good or eternal goodness, then I must confess that they are good in themselves, and goodness is not divided. If I am going to confess the true nature, then I must confess what that nature is in itself, that is, in God.

In God alone is the entire godly essence, but all of humanity is not in one man. For one man is not all mankind. But in God, the soul confesses all of mankind and all things in the highest, for it confesses them according to their essences. If a man is in a nicely painted house, he knows much more about it than someone who was never in it. He could also speak a lot about it. Therefore, I know, as truly as I live and God lives, if the soul is to confess God, then it must confess him over time and place. Such a soul confesses God and knows how near God’s kingdom is, that is, God with all his wealth. The professors receive many questions in the schools about how it is possible for the soul to confess God. It is not because of God’s severity that he demands much from humanity. It is out of his great leniency that he desires for the soul to further itself, that it might receive much and that he may give it much. No one should think that it is difficult to arrive at such. It might sound difficult, and it is also difficult in the beginning and in the separating and dying to all things. However, when one has become comfortable therein, one’s life is lighter, more airy, and lovelier. For God is very diligent as he is always with this person, teaching him, and bringing him to himself, so that he desires to follow in another way. No one has desired something as much as God desires to bring a person to confessing him. God is always ready, but we are very much not ready. God is near to us, but we are far from him. God is from within, but we are from outside. God is at home, but we are foreign. The prophet speaks, “God leads the righteous through a narrow path into the broad street so that they may come into the vastness and into the breadth which is the true freedom of the spirit which has become one spirit with God.” May God help us all to follow him that he may bring us into himself. Amen.

- translated from German to English by Laura Glassel

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What does it look like to follow Jesus? I’ve written a book that walks through the Letter of 1 John and offers practical guidance for spiritual growth. Buy it here!

Grace Upon Grace (31-Day Devotional).
Melanchthon’s German Catechism translated into English.
Connect with me on Instagram, Substack, and Pinterest.
My reading recommendations. My merch store. My Etsy store.

Johannes Tauler's Sermons in English - Sermon 2

On the Second Sunday of Advent

The other message.

What great worthiness and blessedness God has given to us through His holy incarnation, and how we are to become one with him.
Eece rex tuus venit tibi, justus et salvator. (Latin from Zechariah 9:9)
Behold, your King is coming; He will justify you and is your savior.

This is a voice of joy and blessedness amongst the houses of sinners. Rejoice, all you mountains and forests in the face of the Lord, for He has come. How thankful mankind should be that the Lord had such great mercy on us poor, little earthworms and sinful creatures. Who has such a stony heart that his soul does not melt and dissolve because of love? He hears about or meditates upon the fact that the highest God took upon Himself our mortal nature in the holy body of his worthy mother, that our Lord became our servant; the Son of God became our groom; the chief judge our brother. He has given us Himself with all his riches and grace, for Jesus the Savior of the world does not come without healing, nor does Christ come without sacred salve, nor does the Son of God come without glory. Now, you should know that all the riches, that the Lord has given us through His holy incarnation, cannot be grasped by either the understanding of the angels or of mankind. Therefore, I am only going to speak a little and not too much about this.

Our beloved Lord has given us his body as a meal for our spirit through the unification of his holy body and soul with his godly nature. No creature (whether spiritual or physical) can eat this meal except for God alone. The creature may taste but not feast (he himself spoke of this: my body is truly a feast). Also, the soul and the body of our Lord are preserved so that they are not confused with other particular human persons (as other humans are, as each human is separated from the others). For the person of the Son comprehends the body and soul of our Lord, even though it may be in all the world and in all things. Therefore, we have the advantage that nothing exists that can be unique to us except for God. For, if God is in us, then nothing is in him of which we will not be receptive or participatory. For, there is not only an essential union but also an actual one so that the primary forces and the understanding behold and the will needs the godly nature on which all blessedness is dependent. From this, we receive that we are receptive to the blessedness in the same way that he is blessed. Also, we receive here a foretaste of the eternal blessedness we shall have. As well, all the lowest forces and physical senses of our Lord Jesus Christ were also united with the Godhead so that we can say: God saw, God heard, God suffered. Therefore, we have the advantage that because of his unification, all of our works may become godly. Furthermore, because human nature is unified with the godly personhood and with the angels, all mankind has fellowship with him. More than some creatures, because they are his members and are influenced by him who is their head. This is the advantage that we have, that we are all his members, and, therefore, have fellowship with each other. All possessions which belong to our dear wife and all saints are also my own, as they are theirs. What has gone up towards heaven since then is mine, and what is mine is also their own, as it is mine through the deep and sweet unification in Christ. We thank him cheaply with our own strength and fortunes; we should praise and love him at all times and forever. Out of this sweet unification, it is possible for us to see and know the Father through and with the Son. For the Son speaks: This is eternal life that they know you, God, and the one whom you have sent, Jesus Christ. No one knows the Father except the Son. Therefore, if a man shall know God (upon which his eternal blessedness rests), then he must be with Christ, God’s own son. If you want to be blessed, you must be a son, united with Christ Jesus.

Not many sons! You may well and should distinguish between those according to their physical birth, but in the eternal birth, one cannot be more than a son. For in God nothing is of natural origins; therefore, nothing is a natural product of the Son. Therefore, if you would be a son with Christ, then you must be an eternal product of the eternal words.

How then shall a man become an eternal son of the Father? Note this well: as the eternal Word, our Lord God, took on human nature, he did not do so according to man, but he took on himself a free, undivided human nature, which is a picture of it. The adoption of human nature from the Word is actually a picture of human nature. For as God became man, so also man has become God by grace. Thus, human nature is pictured in what it has become, in the divine picture, which is a picture of the Father. If you now desire to be a son, then you must separate, leave, and dismiss all those things that make a difference in you. For the man is a chance of nature. Therefore, give up and lose all those things that were brought to you by chance, and take for yourself the free, undivided, human nature. When the son of the eternal God has taken on the same nature (as you have taken), you will also become a son of the eternal Father with Christ through the adoption of the eternal Word. As a result, you will be in the same nature that God has adopted. Therefore, guard yourself that you do not take on the nature of this man or that, but take on the undivided human nature in freedom. Also, if you desire to be a son, separate yourself from all empty things, for emptiness makes a difference.

Notice as well that you are not the one who makes a difference between you and another person, nor is it that or the other person who makes that difference. Therefore, if you want to be the difference, then separate yourself from nothing. For there is a strength within the soul which is separated from nothing and has nothing in common with other things. For in this strength is nothing but God alone who shines merely in this strength. The person who is thus a son takes motion and impact and everything that he takes in their essence and nobility. For in the manner in which the son of the Father is a son for all eternity, he is such from the Father. What he has, he has in him, for he is one with the Father in essence and nature, for he has all essence in himself. And as he spoke: Father, as you and I are one, thus I desire that they will be one. As the son is one with the Father, you be one with him, and you will have all these things through grace that the Father has. This you have from God; do not doubt it. God is yours, and everything that you thus take that is yours. All your works that you do not take in this godly essence are all in vain before God.

These are the works to which you are being moved through foreign influences by which God is not meant, for they do not come from life. They are dead, for only those things are alive that have movement from their origin. Therefore, if your works are to be alive, then they must happen from their own source, in and through God. They must not come from foreign influences outside of God.

Now notice! If you love righteousness since it is righteousness that is in you or over you, then you do not love righteousness as it is in yourself and as it is simply. Otherwise, you are taking only part of righteousness. If God himself is righteousness, then take. However, you still do not love God if He is simply righteousness.

Therefore, you should take righteousness as it is in itself. Then, you will take righteousness as it is of God. You will then always work in righteousness, and it will work through you. You should also take on yourself goodness, wisdom, love, and those characteristics attributed to God. These should characterize your life in contrast to other opinions. Then you will know a true unity with the Son and the Father. May God help us to this simplicity! Amen.

- translated from German to English by Laura Glassel

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What does it look like to follow Jesus? I’ve written a book that walks through the Letter of 1 John and offers practical guidance for spiritual growth. Buy it here!

Grace Upon Grace (31-Day Devotional).
Melanchthon’s German Catechism translated into English.
Connect with me on Instagram, Substack, and Pinterest.
My reading recommendations. My merch store. My Etsy store.

Johannes Tauler's Sermons in English - Sermon 1

On the First Sunday of Advent

That we should rise up from our sins, conquer our enemies, and perceive in our souls the gracious future of our Lord.
Hora est nos jam de somno surgere. (Latin from Romans 13:11)
It is time for us to rise from our sleep.

Today we celebrate the beginning of Advent, that is, the arrival of our Lord. Now begins a delightful time, during which joyful and devout words will be read and sung in the holy church. For as man encounters all other times with desire and joy, so this time is especially intimate and holy as compared to other feasts. This is the time for which all the prophets and saints of the Old Testament for five thousand years demanded and called for with great desire and sighs. Lord, tear apart heaven and come down to illuminate those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. Also, all the stories and symbols of the Old Testament are arranged so that they point to the greatness of him who was to come and now has come. Oh, therefore, let us thank and praise God without end that he has made us in the time of grace and desires to share with us all his graces and riches if only we ourselves so desire.

Now the holy apostle admonishes us that we should rise from the sleep of our sins because the night is past, the day has come; therefore, we should live honestly in the day. Now we should diligently notice how we have fallen from our first innocence and how we are to rise from all sins and faults.

Our Lord created mankind so that the individual places in the heavenly kingdom would be filled with them. Lucifer himself was thrown out of those places along with his company. This same Lucifer, in his fierce hate, also betrayed man so that he disobeyed God and lost all grace and virtue, in which he was supposed to be equal to God and the angels. Lucifer poisoned man’s innocent nature so that it became unclean, and man thereby wounded himself to death with the blindness of his reason, with the follies and wickedness of his will, with wicked desires in his behavior, and with illness in angry power. He was exalted and did not understand it; he has now become equal to dim animals.

Therefore, it follows that three enemies wage war against us, which now unfortunately have prevailed and reign in the hearts of people: the world, the enemy, and the flesh. When these three have their way, the noble soul, which God so graciously chose, is lost. For the souls against which these enemies prevail unquestionably receive eternal death. How cruelly and savagely these three enemies now reign and possess God’s places throughout much of mankind, both spiritually and worldly (as it seems to appear). The friends of God who love and obey God mourn this state of things with bitter tears. For the eternal shame of their nights is a great suffering to them, that their hearts in their bodies might dry up from the great pain in which self-love is rooted, which causes so few people to desire to love and to obey God.

The world reigns with pride both internally and externally. How many people belong to these devilish orders? They want to appear as something and act as if their sins and defects would not be counted.

The kingdom of the enemy leads them to bitterness, to hate and anger, to suspicion, to judgment, to revenge, to displeasure, to rifts. All his disciples are divisive, without love, and mournful in their nights.

Our own flesh wants to squander time and have things done well, and have sensuous pleasure and ease in all things. The people do not know what great harm comes from this, especially those who are blinded by it.

Through these three enemies, most people are misled into eternal damnation.

Whoever, however, desires to return to his first honor and worth, which Adam lost through his sins, and we after him, and who desires to give the future of our Lord place in his soul, must flee the world, overcome the enemies, conquer his flesh in humility, and exercise himself diligently in these six practices. Mankind fell in paradise through two things: lust and pride; therefore, we must counter these with two things, so that nature can regain its strength. We must resist and die to all disorderly lust, masculine and humble. Additionally, we must decrease and suppress our nature with deep humility before God and all mankind against which it has raised itself in pride. Devote yourself always in a humble state so that you may rise to the highest level. With these two practices, your nature will win back its original strength.

A person must further become equal to the angels in two things. He must forgive and excuse all who do him harm. He must be a fair friend to his enemies, as the angels do when we provoke them often to anger with our sins. Furthermore, he must serve his neighbors willingly as the dear angels continuously serve us through God.

A person must finally become equal to God in two things. The first is right obedience, as our Lord gave to his heavenly Father even unto death. The second is that he is to grow and persist in obedience and in all virtues until the end of his life.

Through these practices, people will become faithful, heavenly hearts and will become one spirit with God in foundational humility, willful calm, gentle patience, mere poverty of the spirit, and fiery love of God. And all who follow this kingdom (of whom there are unfortunately few) will overcome their enemies, and God will redeem them from their heavy burdens and will help them to carry their trials. For God imposes on them manifold trials. The faithful God does this so that four things may be born in them. The first is that the individual would come to his senses and see from where the trial is coming, and would look carefully at himself because of the trial, and would know himself. The other thing that he questions is why God has laid on him the burden of suffering. Wherever God desires to lead him in suffering, there he follows God and submits himself in his godly will. The third thing is that the individual would leave himself and all created beings behind. The fourth is that the individual would learn true patience through diverse sufferings. What is now true patience in suffering? Is it that the individual is unmoved on the outside? No. But true patience is that the individual finds that in his essence and in reality, no one can deal or attempt injustice against him. He also finds that what he suffers is just, and that he should suffer more and more, should torment him. He learns to have merciful compassion towards all who cause him to suffer. Those who follow the humble Christ and in whom he reigns find this lesson. He spoke to them, saying: “If you remain in my words, you will truly be my disciples and you will know the truth and it will set you free.”

Now, there are two types of people who follow the word of Christ. There are those who hear it with joy, and they follow after it, and it comes true to them. They receive it with their minds, there they contemplate it and evaluate it by their natural light. What they cannot taste or feel, they reject and pursue more with their senses in order to hear new things and understand them. They do not understand that in these pursuits, they must die. If they want to grow, they must pursue a different path.

But the others tend to themselves and contemplate within themselves and take simply as true the rules from God. In reasonable clarity, they wait internally for their charge and call as God desires. They take all things as God’s means. The means that are given to finite creatures are distasteful and are also veiled and diverse, and have a taste of bitterness. He desires earthly things that must be stripped and exposed if he is to taste the spirit in truth and if he is to come to his true senses. For those who perceive within themselves the gifts and rules of God, whether by this means or that means, they take it from their reason and carry it again into the reason of godly goodness. These are those who draw and taste from the right well, but the first ones of whom we spoke seek only their own good. In all ways and means, they want to always stand in their own strength. In the truth, they do not find their own as loud and as certain as in the internal sense without means.

Now you might ask, how should one be made aware of these unexpected rules of God? Through the diligent, internal life and thought of one’s self. Therefore, the individual should be an inhabitant of himself and should let his doubts and choices be. If he spends time with himself, he will certainly become aware of what he needs to do, what God has commanded him to do internally, without means, and externally through means. Then he will let himself be and follow after God in whose way the loving God will direct him. Whether the means be by sight, through miracles, through practical or enjoyable means, he will follow God, whether in suffering or in joy. And, if God gives him none of this, so he will still trust God in simplicity and go without these things, following God in love and bringing himself into the inner sanctuary and sitting himself before the lovely image of our lovely Lord Jesus Christ. He worked all his work through three things.

The first one: he said that we should not seek anything in his works, because the glory of his heavenly father and of himself is not in individual things, whether large or small, for he bore all things in himself.

The second: he sought and said from his entire foundation the salvation and sanctification of mankind so that he saw all of mankind and brought them the knowledge of his name according to the words of St. Paul, “God desires that all men would be saved and come to the acknowledgement of his name.”

The third: he said with all his words, works, and life that he gave us a true example and image of a perfect life to the utmost.

Those who stand in this, in truth, are the finest, loveliest people. Those who are born into this community are the greatest, richest treasure of holy Christendom, and their work at all times is the best. They do not stand on small or great works, on more or less. They stand alone in God’s will in all things. For this reason, they find all their labor is the best. They also do not stand on whether God will exalt or lower them, for they desire nothing except the will of God in all things.

May God grant that this all happens to us. Amen.

- translated from German to English by Laura Glassel

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What does it look like to follow Jesus? I’ve written a book that walks through the Letter of 1 John and offers practical guidance for spiritual growth. Buy it here!

Grace Upon Grace (31-Day Devotional).
Melanchthon’s German Catechism translated into English.
Connect with me on Instagram, Substack, and Pinterest.
My reading recommendations. My merch store. My Etsy store.

Johannes Tauler's Sermons in English

Alongside the Melanchthon project that I finished earlier this year, I have also been working on translating the sermons of Johannes Tauler from German into English. Tauler stood out during his time (the 1300s) because he preached his sermons in German, not in Latin. Eighty of them have been left behind and have been printed in German since the late 1400s. Some of them have been translated into English, but not all of them. My goal over the next several years is to translate all of them into English. I will be sharing the first four of them here on my blog this summer.

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What does it look like to follow Jesus? I’ve written a book that walks through the Letter of 1 John and offers practical guidance for spiritual growth. Buy it here!

Grace Upon Grace (31-Day Devotional).
Melanchthon’s German Catechism translated into English.
Connect with me on Instagram, Substack, and Pinterest.
My reading recommendations. My merch store. My Etsy store.