Article II. The Distinction Between Ascetical Theology and Mystical Theology and the Unity of Spiritual Doctrine

Ascetical and mystical theology is the application of theology in the direction of souls toward an ever more intimate union with God. It must use the inductive and deductive methods, studying the facts of the spiritual life in the light of revealed principles and of the theological doctrines deduced from these principles. We must now see what distinguishes ascetical from mystical theology; and whether this distinction is such as to exclude continuity in the passage from one to the other, or unity in the spiritual doctrine. Earlier writers and a number of modern authors are not in agreement on this point.

I. TRADITIONAL THESIS: THE UNITY OF SPIRITUAL DOCTRINE

Until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it was generally held that mystical theology included not only the mystical union, infused contemplation, its degrees and the ex-

*4 traordinary graces that sometimes accompany it (visions and private revelations), but also Christian perfection in general, and the first phases of the spiritual life, the normal progress of which thus seemed directed toward the mystical union as its culminating point. All these together formed a whole that was truly one: a spiritual doctrine dominated by a very high idea of perfection, drawn from the Gospel and the saints, and unified by the commonly accepted principle that infused or mystical contemplation¹ is ordinarily granted to the perfect and proceeds especially from the gift of wisdom, the progress of which is proportionate to that of charity. In other words, they agreed in recognizing that an eminent degree of charity, which is the principle of a very intimate union with God, is normally accompanied by eminent, confused contemplation, which is at the same time very penetrating and delightful. This charity is likewise accompanied by a quasi-experimental knowledge of the mystery of God who is closer to the soul than it is to itself, of God who makes Himself felt by it and who acts constantly on it, in trial as well as in consolation, as much to destroy what should die as to renovate and build up.

These assertions may be verified by consulting the mys tical theologies of Vallgornera (Dominican), of Thomas of Jesus, Dominic of the Blessed Trinity, Anthony of the Holy Ghost, Philip of the Blessed Trinity (Carmelites),² and, farther in the past, the works of St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa, Venerable Louis de Blois, 8 Venerable Dionysius the Carthu-

» Louis de Blois sums up the traditional teaching on this point in his Jnstitutio spirituals, chap. 1: “All men should aspire to union with God”; chap.

sian, Tauler, Blessed Henry Suso, Blessed Bartholomew of the Martyrs, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure, St. Albert the Great, Dionysius the Mystic, and St. Augustine.

St. Thomas especially showed the relation between what are today called ascetical theology and mystical theology, by treating of the mutual relations of action and contemplation. With St. Augustine and St. Gregory, this is what he teaches: The active life, to which is attached the exercise of the moral virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, 4 and the outward works of charity, prepares for the contemplative life, in so far as it regulates the passions that disturb contemplation, and in so far as it makes us grow in the love of God and of our neighbor. 6 Then the contemplation of God, which is proper to the perfect, leads to action, directs it, and renders it much more supernatural and fruitful. 6 Thus in the natural order the image precedes the idea and then serves to express it; the emotion precedes the will and then serves to execute with greater ardor the thing willed; and so again, says St. Thomas, our acts engender a habit, then this habit makes us act more promptly and easily. 7 In this way asceticism does not cease when the contemplative life begins; on the contrary, the exercise of the different virtues becomes truly superior when the soul receives the mystical grace of almost continual union with God.

Some souls, remarks St. Thomas, by reason of their impetuosity are more fitted for the active life; others have by nature the purity of spirit and the calm which prepare them more for contemplation; 8 but all can prepare themselves for

12: “How the mystical union with God is brought about in the soul which has reached perfection: (1) He who perseveres ordinarily obtains the mystical union; ... (3) Some opinions on this union; (4) Its effects.”

*Summa, Ha Ilae, q. 181, a. 1, 2.

« Ibid., q. 182, a.3.

*lbid., a. 4.

7 Ibid., ad 2um.

« Ibid., ad 3um.

the contemplative life, 9 which is the most perfect and in itself the most meritorious. 19 “Love of God is in fact more meritorious than love of our neighbor.” 11 It is love which leads us, says St. Augustine, to seek the holy repose of divine contemplation. 12 “And if one of the signs of charity is the external labor that we impose on ourselves for Christ’s sake, a far more expressive sign is to put aside all that pertains to the present life and to find our happiness in giving ourselves up exclusively to the contemplation of God.” 19 “The more closely a man unites his own or another’s soul to God, the more acceptable is his sacrifice to God.” 14

St. John of the Cross insists on this point: supernatural contemplation, which he speaks of in The Ascent of Mount Carmel and in The Dark Night, appears there as the full development of “the life of faith” and of the spirit of wisdom. "Faith alone,” he says, “is the proximate and proportionate means which can unite the soul to God.” 15 “Pure faith, in the denudation and abnegation of all, inclines far more to divine love than spiritual visions.” 19

This is true if we do not diminish, as several modem authors do, the essentially supernatural character of faith, and if we remember that even when this virtue is obscure and imperfect or separated from charity, it is, by reason of its first object and its motive, infinitely superior to the loftiest natural knowledge of the angels, or even to the supernatural prevision of natural, contingent futures. It is of the same essentially divine order as the beatific vision. St. Paul says that infused faith, the gift of God, is “the substance of things to be hoped for.” Especially when accompanied by the gifts of wise/bid.

10 ibid., a. 2.

11 Ibid .

12 City of God, Bk. XIX, sec. 19.

I* Ibid., ad 311m.

ns The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, chaps. 2, 3, 8.

1 *Ibid., pp. 202 f.³

*7 dom and understanding in an eminent degree, it is, so to speak, the beginning of eternal life, inchoatio vitae aternae, as St. Thomas says in De veritate, q. 14, a. 2.

If we wish to understand all the grandeur of the life of faith in which every Christian should make progress, we must read the masters of traditional mysticism. Once we have grasped their point of view, we will not be surprised that the perfect mystical life is the culminating point of the normal development of the life of grace. Thus the unity of doctrine and of the spiritual life is. maintained in spite of the diversity of interior states.

II. THESIS OF SEVERAL MODERN AUTHORS: SEPARATION OF ASCETICAL FROM MYSTICAL THEOLOGY

Since the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, several authors have thought that it was necessary to separate ascetical from mystical theology, which since then have often become the subjects of special treatises called “Ascetical Directory” and “Mystical Directory.”

This division followed upon lively discussions that were occasioned by abuses springing from a premature and erroneous teaching of the mystical ways. From the time of St. Teresa, these ways seemed to many theologians so suspect that the writings of St. John of the Cross had to be defended against the charge of illuminism, and superiors were roused to the point of forbidding their religious to read the works of Venerable John Tauler, Ruysbroeck, Blessed Henry Suso, St. Gertrude, and St. Mechtildis. After the condemnation of the errors of Molinos, the mystical ways were even more suspect.

Since then a rather large number of authors, who are excellent in many respects, have agreed on making an absolute distinction between ascetical and mystical theology. Excessively eager to systematize things and to establish a doctrine to remedy abuses, and consequently led to classify things materially and objectively, without a sufficiently lofty and pro- found knowledge of them, they declared that ascetical theology should treat of the “ordinary” Christian life according to the three ways, the purgative, the illuminative, and the unitive. As for mystical theology, it should treat only of extraordinary graces, among which they included not only visions and private revelations, but also supernatural, confused contemplation, the passive purifications, and the mystical union.

Therefore the mystical union no longer appears in their arrangement as the culminating point of the normal development of sanctifying grace, of the virtues, and of the gifts. According to their view, infused contemplation is not the life of faith and the spirit of wisdom carried to their perfection, to their full efflorescence; but it seems rather to be attached to graces gratis datae, such as prophecy, or at least to an entirely extraordinary or miraculous mode of the gifts of the Holy Ghost. Because they place the mystical union and infused contemplation among the graces gratis datae, these authors counsel already fervent souls against seeking not only visions and private revelations, but also the mystical union and infused contemplation, if they would avoid all presumption and would advance in humility: altiora te ne quaesieris . This seems quite like the mistake made by those spiritual directors who refused daily communion to these same souls, alleging that humility does not permit one to aim so high.

These authors thus distinguish a unitive life called “ordinary,” the only one necessary, they say, to perfection, from a unitive life called “extraordinary,” which, according to them, is not even required for great sanctity. From this point of view, asceticism does not lead to mysticism, and the perfection, or “ordinary” union, to which it leads, is normally an end and not a disposition to a more intimate and more elevated union. Hence mystical theology is of importance only to some very rare, privileged souls; we may just as well, then, almost ignore it in order to avoid presumption and delusion.

In their desire to remedy one abuse, are they not falling into another which is clearly and repeatedly pointed out in The Ascent of Mount Carmel 17 and in The Spiritual Canticle? Father Lallemant, one of the best spiritual writers of the Society of Jesus, complains rather bitterly of this conception of the mystical life as quasi-inaccessible. In his opinion, this conception bars the way to high perfection and intimate union with God. 18 As a result of this teaching, many souls have been diverted from reading St. John of the Cross, although he is the master who best fortifies against illusion and the desire for graces which are essentially extraordinary. 19

III. RETURN TO THE TRADITIONAL THESIS: UNITY OF SPIRITUAL DOCTRINE

The question may arise as to whether this absolute distinction and lack of continuity between ascetical and mystical theology does not notably diminish the elevation of Christian perfection which is the end of the normal progress of sanctifying grace and of charity in this life; whether it does not lose sight of the fact that the progress of the gifts of the Holy Ghost is proportionate to that of charity, which ought always to grow; and whether it does not confound strictly extraordinary graces with eminent and rather uncommon graces granted ordinarily to lofty perfection, a state that is rather uncommon by reason of the very great abnegation which it supposes. In

17 “There is no more disturbing or more painful state for the soul than that of not seeing clearly into itself and of not finding anyone who understands it. Led by God to the heights of obscure contemplation and of aridity, it will seem to it that it is going astray; and in the midst of darkness, sufferings, anguish, and temptations, its director will say to it, as Job’s consolers did to him: ‘That is all melancholy and weakness. Perhaps you are guilty of hidden malice, as a result of which God leaves you in this abandoned condition’ ” (Prologue, p. 5).

18 La doctrine spirituelle, 7th principle, chap. 6, a.3, sec. 11; 4th principle, “Docility to the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost,” chap. 1, a.g; chap. 11, a.2. Among later Jesuit authors, consult also the works of Father de Caussade and Father Grou.

is The Ascent of Mount Carmel t Bk. II, chaps, to, 11, 16, 17, 20, 28.

So short, does not this distinction confound the extrinsically extraordinary, which is the very elevated ordinary of the life of union with God in the saints in this life, and the intrinsically extraordinary or the miraculous, which, more often than not, is only a sign or a transitory help inferior in order to the life of grace?

We may ask whether this teaching does not misunderstand and lessen the traditional doctrine of the great theologians and mystics on the essentially supernatural quality 20 of the life of grace, of faith, of charity, of the gifts of the Holy Ghost. That life is incomparably above the phenomenon of ecstasy, which in a certain sense is external, above miracles and prophecies, since in its perfection it is, as it were, the prelude to the beatific vision, which a holy soul, already perfectly purified, normally obtains without passing through purgatory.

During the past few years these questions have led several writers, such as Father Saudreau, Father Lamballe, and Father Arintero, O.P., to reject such an absolute distinction between ascetical and mystical theology and to note the continuity existing between them. They appealed to the testimony of St. John of the Cross, who says: “Those, who in the spiritual life still exercise themselves in meditation, belong to the state of beginners. When it pleases God to make them leave it, it is for the purpose of introducing them into the way of progress, which is that of contemplatives, and of making them arrive safely and surely by this means at the state of the perfect, that is to say, divine union.” 21 This last, in the language of the author of The Dark Night of the Soul, is manifestly in the mystical order. As Father Lamballe 22 shows in various texts taken from St. John of the Cross, it follows that mystical contemplation is ordinarily granted to the perfect,

20 Supernatural quoad substantiam, says sound theology in contradistinction to supernatural quoad modum of sensible miracles or of prophetic knowledge of future events.

21 The Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. I, chap. 1.

22 La Contemplation (1912), pp. 61-71.

although certain perfect souls have it only in an imperfect manner and for short periods of time. 28

St. Teresa expresses the same opinion, when she says: “His mercy is so great that He hinders no one from drinking of the fountain of life [infused contemplation]. . . . Indeed, He calls us loudly and publicly to do so. He is so good that He will not force us to drink of it.” 24 The saint always teaches her daughters that they must direct all their efforts toward preparing themselves to receive this precious grace, even though certain souls, in spite of their good will, do not experience its joys in this life. Contemplation may, in fact, be arid for a long time, during which one may be a contemplative without knowing it. 26 Pius X, in his letter (March 7, 1914) on the

23 St. John of the Cross ( The Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. I, chap. 9) certainly says: “Let it be well understood that God does not lead to perfect contemplation all who give themselves resolutely to the interior life. Why is that? God alone knows. Whence it comes that there are souls from whom God never completely withdraws the power to consider and reason except for a time.” The words “God alone knows,” show that that is not the fundamental law of spiritual progress; quite the contrary. These words are an allusion to predestination, which St. John of the Cross understands as St. Thomas does, for he says, in The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, chap. 5: “It is true that souls, whatever their capacity may be, may have attained union, but all do not possess it in the same degree. God disposes freely of this degree of union, as He disposes freely of the degree of the beatific vision.” This is what St. Thomas says in la, q.23, a.5. The predestination of one soul rather than another does not directly concern the question proposed in this article: Is the mystical union in this life the summit of the normal development of the sanctifying grace of the virtues and of the gifts? The proof of this lies in the fact that, in all the just, grace is essentially ordained to glory, and yet all are not predestined to glory; some, in fact, lose grace and die in the state of mortal sin. “Many are called, but few are chosen.”

24 The Way of Perfection, chap. 20.

25 Certain restrictions, expressed by St. Teresa in the Way of Perfection (chap. 17) and in The Interior Castle (fifth mansion, chap. 3), when they are compared with the general principle which she formulates and develops in The Way of Perfection (chaps. 18, 20, 25, 29), must be understood in this way. Consult the harmonizing of the different texts of St. Teresa by Father Arintero, O.P., Evolucion mistica, p. 639 note 2, and Cuestiones misticas, pp. 305 ff., as well as the excellent work of Father Garate, Razdn y Fe, July, 1908, p. 325. It is certain that the joys of the mystical union are not necessary to perfection, and that supernatural contemplation is often very arid and painful. In The Interior Castle (fifth mansion, chap. 1), St. Teresa, speaking of the religious of her monasteries, says: “There are very few who do not enter this fifth man-

3*

teaching of St. Teresa, says that the degrees of prayer enumerated by the saint are so many steps up toward the summit of Christian perfection: “Docet enim gradus orationis quot numerantur, veluti totidem superiores in Christiana perfectione ascensus esse.”

Moreover, according to several contemporary theologians, whose number is growing daily and who are eager to preserve the traditional teaching as it is formulated in the great classics of mystical theology, it is laudable for every interior soul to desire the grace of mystical contemplation and to prepare for it with the help of God by increasing fidelity to His holy inspirations. 26

According to these theologians, especially Father Arintero, O.P., the mystical life is characterized by the predominance of the gifts of the Holy Ghost. 27 Ascetical theology, they say, treats of the Christian life of beginners, and of those who ad- sion. As there are some who enter more and some less, I say the majority enter. Certain graces which are found therein, are, I believe, the portion of the few; but if the others merely reach the door, even that is an immense mercy on the part of God, for ‘Many are called, but few are chosen.'"

26 St. John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Prologue: “In order to attain the divine light and the perfect union of the love of God, I speak of what can be realized in this life, the soul must pass through the dark night. Without a doubt, to explain this night and to make it understood, one should have deeper learning and greater experience than mine. ... I hope that the Lord will help me to express useful truths, in order that I may in this way assist so many souls who are in urgent need of help. After the first steps in the path of virtue, when the Lord desires to make these souls enter the dark night, to lead them to the divine union, there are some who do not go any farther. Sometimes the desire to do so is lacking, or they are not willing to be led therein; sometimes it is because of ignorance, or because they seek in vain a guide capable of leading them to the summit. It is truly heartrending to see how many souls, favored by the Lord with gifts and exceptional graces (at times they would need only a little courage to attain high perfection), are content with inferior relations with God." The aim of this entire prologue is to correct many errors in the matter of direction. We know that, in the judgment of St. John of the Cross, the dark night is a period of mystical contemplation. In this same prologue he says so: “Led by God to the heights of obscure contemplation and of aridity, it will seem to the soul that it is going astray."

27 These gifts are specifically distinct from the infused virtues (la Ilae, q.68,

3S vance with the help of grace in the exercise of the Christian virtues, the mode of which remains a human mode adapted to that of our faculties. On the other hand, mystical theology treats especially of the unitive life of the perfect, in which there is clearly manifest the divine mode of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, in the exercise of which the soul is more passive than active, and in which it obtains a “quasi-experimental” knowledge of God present in it, as St. Thomas explains. 28 “These gifts,” the great doctor tells us, “exist in all souls in the state of grace”; but normally they do not predominate, nor do they act in a manner both frequent and manifest except in very humble, mortified souls that are habitually docile to the Holy Ghost. Some souls excel in the gifts relating to the active life, such as the gift of fortitude; others in those of the contemplative life, as understanding and wisdom. The latter especially enter the “passive ways,” because they no longer direct themselves, but are habitually directed immediately by God. He gives to their acts that mode which He alone can communicate to them, as, for example, when a master directs his pupil by holding his hand. These acts are thus doubly supernatural (• reduplicative, as the Scholastics say): by their essence, as acts of the Christian virtues of the ascetical life; and by this superior mode, which surpasses the simple exercise of the Christian virtues aided by actual grace. This is what makes it possible for St. Teresa to speak of “supernatural prayer” when the passive ways begin. 29 But this divine mode of the supernatural acts, which spring immediately from the inspirations of the Holy Ghost, is not essentially extraordinary, like a miracle, a vision, a prophecy, but something eminent and ordinary in the perfect, who live habitually recollected

28 See la Ilae, q. 68 , and Bk. I of the Sentences, d. 14, q.2, a.2 ad 311m.

2» On this point, consult the following Dominican authors: Suso, Mystical Works; Tauler, Sermons ; Piny, L/abandon a la volonte de Dieu. The following Jesuit authors should be read: Father Lallemant, La doctrine spirituelle; Father Grou, Maximes spirituelles (2d maxim); Father de Caussade, Vabandon a la Providence. See also St. John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul, Part I.

in adoration of the mystery of the Blessed Trinity present in them. 30

Such, in fact, is the principal subject treated by all the great mystical theologians from Dionysius to Tauler and St. John of the Cross, who often uses the single word “faith” to indicate this virtue and the gift of wisdom in a superior degree.

These masters discuss secondarily the so-called exterior phenomena, which accompany certain degrees of the mystical union—for example, ecstasy, which disappears with the transforming union. They always make a sharp distinction between this very intimate union with God, which is the goal of their desires and of their entire life, and the extraordinary graces of inferior order, such as visions, or the prophetic knowledge of the future; graces which, in their opinion, we ought not to desire.

From this point of view, interpreters of St. John of the Cross, such as Father Lamballe and Father Arintero, O.P., 51 consider that the transforming union or spiritual marriage is in this life the summit of the normal development of the life of grace in souls which are entirely faithful to the Holy Ghost, especially in those consecrated to God and called to the contemplative life. Some theologians have thought that this normal goal of spiritual progress does not pass beyond the prayer of quiet, after which the extraordinary, properly so called, would begin with union and ecstasy. 32 According to so A miraculous, sensible effect, such as life restored to a dead body, is not supernatural in its essence, but only in the mode of its production; while the exercise of the gifts of the Holy Ghost is supernatural both in its essence and in its mode, quoad substantiam et quoad modum.

si Lamballe, La Contemplation, p. 195. Arintero, Evolucidn mistica, pp. 460-80; Cuestiones misticas, pp. 60, 571 note; “Explanation of the graces necessary for the transforming union.” Sauv£ seems favorably inclined to this thesis in £tats mystiques, pp. 85, 90-96, 100-05, 1 39“4 1 » 162.

82 Saudreau, in the first editions of his books, did not clearly affirm that the transforming union is the summit of the normal development of the life of grace on earth. It even seemed to us that, in his opinion, this summit did not reach beyond the prayer of quiet, a thesis which we could not admit. It is clear, from what he says in the second edition of L p etat mystique (pp. 51, 192) and in the third edition of the Vie d’union A Dieu (p. 259), that we agree what St. Teresa says of souls which do not progress beyond the prayer of quiet, it seems clear, however, that they failed in fidelity to the Holy Ghost, and that normally they should have arrived at a closer union with God, which she calls a “higher degree of perfection.” 88 St. John of the Cross teaches the same doctrine. 84

It may well be that ecstasy does not (at least necessarily) “imply anything extraordinary in the real sense of the word. It seems often to come from the weakness of the organism which swoons under the divine action. It may be only the reaction of a profound interior grace, which absorbs all the attention and all the strength of the soul in God, who is intimately present to the soul and who makes Himself felt by it. From this point of view, continuity would exist between all the degrees of the mystical union, from the prayer of quiet to the transforming union, in which the soul no longer experiences “the weakness of ecstasy,” to use the expression of St. Hildegarde.

completely. In this last reference he says clearly: “With these ordinary supernatural prayers, the soul may attain even the transforming union, the summit of the spiritual life, without ever having had an ecstasy or a vision.”

88 St. Teresa, Life, chap. 15: “Many are the souls who attain to this state (the prayer of quiet), and few are they who go farther.” In The Interior Castle, fourth mansion, chap. 3, and fifth mansion, chap. 1, with regard to entrance into the fifth mansion (superior to the prayer of quiet), she says: “Even though all of us . . . are called to contemplation . . . there are few who prepare themselves so that the Lord may reveal to them this precious pearl of which we are speaking. For although in what concerns the exterior there is nothing reprehensible in our conduct, this does not suffice to reach so high a? degree of perfection. How necessary it is to banish all negligence.”

34 Particularly when he describes ( The Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. II, chaps. 18-20) the ten degrees of charity enumerated by St. Bernard, it is evident he believes that the inferior degrees should normally lead to the higher degrees, and to the highest of all. Besides, he adds that the progress of contemplation is proportionate to that of charity. The entire work of St. John of the Cross seems to manifest clearly the continuity of the degrees of the mystical union up to the transforming union. Some writers, it is true, have thought that St. John of the Cross writes only for a few rare contemplatives. He himself says, however, at the end of the Prologue of The Ascent of Mount Carmel, that he proposes “a solid and substantial doctrine which is addressed to all, on condition that they decide to pass through nudity of the spirit.”

S 6 CHRISTIAN PERFECTION

This is the opinion of Father Lamballe, of Father Arintero, O.P., and of several other contemporary theologians whom we have consulted. They hold, moreover, that simplified affective prayer, which precedes essentially mystical or passive prayer, is normally a disposition to receive the latter. Thus continuity would exist between the ascetical and the mystical life; the first would be characterized by the human mode of the Christian virtues, the second by the divine mode of thegifts of the Holy Ghost, intervening no longer in a latent or transitory way, but in a manner both manifest and frequent. Before the mystical or passive state, in a period of transition (the prayer of simplicity described by Bossuet) there would be transient mystical acts, which by their nature would dispose the soul for the true life of union. This would be the adult or perfect age of the spiritual life, or the life of grace aware of itself.

If the above is true—as we shall see, the authors cited adduce weighty reasons for their view—the soul which as yet possesses nothing of the mystical life has not passed beyond infancy or the adolescence of spiritual life. Such a soul should recall St. Paul’s words: “Brethren, do not become children in sense: but in malice be children, and in sense be perfect.” 85 This soul has not reached spiritual maturity, the perfect age attainable in this life. It may have great learning even in theology, may know how to live, may possess prudence, faith, charity, zeal, enthusiasm, and a great apostolic activity; but, in spite of its solid Christian virtues and zeal, it is not sufficiently spiritualized. Its manner of living remains too human, too exterior, and still too dependent on temperament. It does not give evidence of the entirely supernatural, divine mode of thi n kin g, of loving God, and of acting, which characterizes those who are truly dead to themselves and perfectly docile to the Holy Ghost. Ordinarily the latter alone have, in all circumstances w See I Cor. 14: so.

whether agreeable or painful, “the mind of Christ,” which enables them to judge soundly of spiritual things and to reconcile habitually in their lives virtues apparently contradictory in nature: the simplicity of the dove and the prudence of the serpent; heroic fortitude and gentle sweetness; humility of heart and magnanimity; a faith absolutely unyielding when principles are at stake and a great mercy for the misguided; an intense interior life, continual recollection, and a fruitful apostolate.

This last conception of the connection between ascetical and mystical theology deserves consideration. Those who have often read and meditated on the great masters of traditional mystical theology will be inclined to acquiesce, we believe, in this interpretation, when they recall the following principles, which are the certain expression of the teaching of St. Thomas.

1. Christian perfection consists in union with God, which supposes in us the full development of charity, of the other virtues, and of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, which supply for the imperfection of these virtues and are in us the immediate principle of supernatural contemplation.

aj^The three theological virtues are supernatural in their essence (quoad substantiam) because of their formal motive and their proper object, both of which are unattainable by reason alone or even by the highest natural knowledge of the angels. Several theologians, following the inferior teaching of nominalism, have thought, on the contrary, that acts of faith and of the other Christian virtues are essentially natural acts, clothed with a supernatural modality (supernatural in manner only, not by reason of their formal object). They would thus more closely resemble a supematuralized natural affection than an affection supernatural in its essence and by its formal motive. An immense difference exists between these two conceptions of faith and of the other theological virtues.

Only the former is true, 86 and shows clearly why faith in the mystery of the Blessed Trinity is infinitely superior to the natural intuitions of genius, and superior in general to graces gratis datae, even, for example, to the supernatural prevision of a future event, such as the end of a plague. 87

3. The gifts of the Holy Ghost are doubly supernatural, not only in their essence (as the theological virtues and the other infused virtues), but in their mode of action. By them the soul no longer directs itself with the assistance of grace, but is directed and moved immediately by divine inspiration; and when, by perfect fidelity to the Holy Ghost, it lives habitually under the regime of the gifts, it is in a passive state.

4. These gifts, rendering us docile to the breath of God, grow with charity like the infused virtues. Now, charity ought always to increase in this life by our merits and by holy communion. Whoever does not advance, falls back, because, according to the observation of St. Augustine and of St. Thomas, 88 the first precept has no limit and only the saints fulfil it perfectly. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.” 89

5. If we consider, not what actually is, but rather, what ought to be, not the weakness of our nature and the fickleness of our free will, but rather the very essence of the grace received at baptism and of charity, we must admit that normally, or according to its fundamental law, grace ought never to be lost (although many Christians fall into mortal sin). Similarly so We have proved this at length elsewhere: De revelatione, I, 202-17, 458-515. Cf. St. Thomas, Ha Ilae, q.5, a.i: “In the object of faith, there is something formal, as it were, namely, the First Truth surpassing all the natural knowledge of a creature, and something material, namely, the thing to which we assent while adhering to the First Truth.”

87 "Whether gratuitous grace is nobler than sanctifying grace” (la Ilae, q*in, a.5).

as Summa, Ha Ilae, q. 184, a. 3.

39 Luke 10: 27.

this life of grace, the germ of glory, the beginning of eternal life, should normally develop to such an extent that the fire of charity would purify us of all stains before death and permit us to enter heaven without passing through purgatory. Through their own fault souls are detained in purgatory, where they no longer have any opportunity to merit. To see God face to face immediately after death would be in the radical order; that is why the souls in purgatory suffer so greatly at being deprived of this vision. Therefore, according to the fundamental law of the life of grace, the painful purifications that cleanse the soul of its impurities should be meritorious and should precede death, as they do in the saints; they should not follow death. Since all this is true, why should not the mystical union, accompanied by these passive purifications, be the normal flowering of the life of grace, although few souls actually reach it, just as few preserve baptismal innocence? If the mystical union, as a matter of fact, is not ordinary, why should it not at least be expected at the end of a very generous interior life? The extraordinary would then still consist in the bestowal of these eminent graces from infancy on, as has happened in the lives of several saints.

Everyone agrees that practically two excesses must be avoided in the direction of souls: urging souls to leave the ascetical way too soon or too late. If they leave too soon, they are exposed to the danger of falling into the idleness of quietism or a practical semi-quietism; if too late, they are in danger of abandoning prayer because they no longer find any profit in discursive meditation, where the director wishes to keep them, or in danger of not understanding anything about the obscure, but much more spiritual, way along which the Lord is beginning to lead them. On this point St. John of the Cross, in The Ascent of Mount Carmel 40 and in The Dark Night, has

40 Bk. II, chaps, is*, 13.

left us valuable teaching. Among recent works on this subject, one of the soundest is Les voies de Voraison mentale, by Dom Vital Lehodey. 41

What does experience teach? Does it not say that the actual condition and the normal ideal (that which should be expected) finally harmonize, at least at the end of a holy life? All the canonized saints seem to have had the mystical union often, except some martyrs who may have had it only at the moment of their torture. 42 St. Teresa declares that in her monasteries are many souls that reach the essentially mystical prayer of quiet; that some, more advanced, habitually enjoy the prayer of union; and that a number of others enjoy it at intervals. 48

Especially in contemplative religious orders, at times souls are found that have certainly passed beyond discursive meditation or the prayer of simplicity. These souls experience great distress when they are obliged to cease their thanksgiving after holy communion; they are wholly caught up by God, as it were absorbed in Him, and live by the mysteries of the Blessed Trinity, the incarnation, and the redemption, in an incomparably deeper manner than the most learned theologian, if the latter is not truly a man of prayer. These lives, although acquainted with rather uncommon interior joys and sufferings, are not really extraordinary in the true sense of this word. They alone, on the contrary, are entirely in order. They even avoid the extraordinary as much as possible, according to the advice of St. John of the Cross, 44 which is their daily sustenance. This great doctor directs them more and more toward

41 Fifth ed., pp. 227-36, 409.

42 Father Poulain, S.J., concedes this: "Almost all canonized saints have had the mystical union, and as a rule abundantly" (Les grdces d’oraison, 9th ed., p. 554). Father Poulain also recognizes the existence of a period of transition between the ascetical way and the mystical, a period which denotes a certain continuity between the two. Cf. Les grdces d’oraison, pp. 13, 122.

43 Life, chap. B5; Foundations, chap. 4; The Interior Castle, fifth mansion, chap. 1.

44 The Aswnt vf Mount Carmel, Bk. II, chaps. 10, 19, 20. *5.

the Blessed Trinity dwelling in us; they experience great joy in reading the beautiful pages of St. Augustine and St. Thomas on this mystery; and they express themselves even on the Fatherhood of God, on the infinite value of the merits of Christ, on the fruit of a fervent communion, with a spontaneity and freshness quite different from that produced by scholarly learning obtained from books. To the end that we may live in this way, these supernatural mysteries have been revealed to us. Such is Christian life in its full development, the profound reign of God in our hearts.

Grace superabounds in these souls after they have passed through the painful purifications, which are the veritable dark night. They have, so to speak, caught a glimpse of the most pure, holy, and fathomless abyss of God. They overflow with love and, in their great desire to love God, they long to do so immeasurably, with the heart of the Word made flesh. The Spirit of love has penetrated them and, in trial as in joy, they rest in the charity of the heavenly Father like a child in the arms of its mother. They see the fulfilment of Christ’s prayer: “That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee.” 46 This is the unitive life, but without anything extraordinary, in the sense of the miraculous. And this is truly the mystical, contemplative life. This is also the apostolic life; in their profound faith in the superabundance of the redemption, these souls make an offering of themselves that the chalice may overflow on sinners. Moreover, they earnestly desire to leave this land of exile for heaven. This is the perfection described by St. Thomas when, after speaking of those who start and of those who advance in the spiritual life, he says of the perfect: “They tend principally to unite themselves with God, to enjoy Him, and they desire to die in order to be with Christ.” 48

46 John 27: si.

46 “Man’s third pursuit is to aim chiefly at union with and enjoyment of God: this belongs to the perfect who desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ” (Ila Ilae, q.24, a.9).

4 *

Therefore we find not only a continuity between ascetical and mystical theology, but also a certain compenetration. They are not two distinct divisions of theology, but two parts or two aspects of the same branch, which shows us spiritual life in its infancy, adolescence, and maturity. Ascetical and mystical theology or, more simply, spiritual doctrine, is one. It must begin by setting before us the end attainable in this life, that is, spiritual perfection toward which spiritual progress should tend. It ought to show this perfection in all its elevation and grandeur, according to the testimony of the Gospel and of the saints. Then it should point out the means to this end: the struggle against sin, the practice of the virtues, perfect docility to the Holy Ghost. But the end proposed, such as we find it, for example, in the eight beatitudes when their full meaning is accepted, reaches beyond the domain of simple asceticism. 47 Ascetical life, however, does not cease when the soul enters the mystical union. The practice of the virtues becomes, on the contrary, much more perfect, as is shown by the great austerities of the saints, their patience, and their zeal. Even to the end the soul must remember our Lord’s words: “If anyone will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily.” 48

This brings us back to the statement, based on the teaching of St. Thomas, which we made at the beginning of this article: Asceticism prepares the soul for the mystical union, which then renders the exercise of the virtues and our apostolate much more supernatural and fruitful. The practice of the virtues prepares for contemplation and is then directed by it.

When ascetical and mystical theology are separated from each other, the ascetical lacks vitality, depth, and elevation; the mystical loses its importance, its gravity, and its depth, and

47 St. Thomas, In Matthaeum (5: 2), speaking of the eight beatitudes, says: "These merits are either acts of the gifts or acts of the virtues according as they are perfected by the gifts”; "in a superhuman manner,” as he said a few lines previously in the same passage.

48 Luke 9: 23.

seems to be solely a luxury in the spirituality of some privileged souls.

Such seems to us the conception of ascetical and mystical theology, or of the spiritual doctrine, which conforms most closely to traditional teaching. This is the conception that we will attempt to formulate in this work.

Footnotes

1. This is quite distinct from visions and private revelations. ↩

2. For example, Philip of the Blessed Trinity, Summa theolog. mysticae (1874 ed.), says: “Debent omnes ad supernaturalem contemplationem aspirare: nihil honestius, utilius, delectabilius” (II, 299). “Debent omnes et maxi me Deo specialiter consecratae animae, ad actualem fruitivam unionem cum Deo as pirare et tendere” (III, 43). “Contemplationis supernaturalis gratia aliquando conceditur imperfectis, aliquando denegatur perfectis” (II, 310). “Aliquando” indicates the exception rather than the rule. Cf. also Thomas of Jesus, De contemplatione divina, Bk. I, chap. 9. ↩

3. *Summa, Ha Ilae, q.182, a. 2 ad mm. ↩