The Father’s Paradise

1He is good. He knows his plants, because he planted them in his paradise. Now his paradise is a place of rest. This is the completion in the Father’s thought, and these are the words of his meditation. Each of his words is the work of his one will in the revelation of his Word. While they were still in the depths of his thought, the Word—which was the first to come out—revealed them, together with a mind that speaks the one Word in silent grace. He was called “the Thought,” since they were in it before being revealed. It happened, then, that he was the first to come out at the time when it pleased the one who wanted it. Now the Father rests in his will and is pleased with it.

2Nothing happens without him, nor does anything happen without the Father’s will, but his will is incomprehensible. His trace is the will, and no one can know him. Nor does he exist for people to scrutinize so that they might grasp him. But when he wills, what he wills is this—even if the sight does not please them in any way before God—the will of the Father. For he knows the beginning of all of them and their end, because in the end he will greet them directly. Now the end is receiving knowledge of the one who is hidden. This is the Father, from whom the beginning has come and to whom all who have come out from him will return. They were revealed for the glory and joy of his name.