Article III. Description of Infused Contemplation and its Degrees According to St. Teresa

We might have borrowed the description of mystical contemplation and its degrees from authors other than St.

*0 Cf. Dom Vital Lehodey, Les voies de Voraison mentale. Cf. also the Treatise on the Love of God by Father Surin, S.J.

«o The Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. I, chap. 3; Bk. II, chap. 1.

Teresa.¹ We have chosen St. Teresa because she clarifies several points, because her description has become classical, and also because those who consider infused or mystical contemplation an essentially extraordinary favor declare that they base their doctrine on her teaching.

When we read The Life of St. Teresa , written by herself, or her Interior Castle , we seem at first to come into contact with an inaccessible spiritual world, quite above what every interior soul may legitimately desire. True, she often deals with extraordinary phenomena: visions, which make us anticipate even here on earth the life of heaven, and revelations or interior words, which the majority of devout souls have never heard. These extraordinary phenomena, which strike us at the first reading, may, if we give our attention entirely to them, hide from us instead of manifesting to us what is most profound and elevated in her life; in other words, the full development in her of the Christian virtues that we ought all to have, but that in many souls remain mean, colorless, and without vigor.

But when St. Teresa’s work is read in an effort to see in it the perfect development of that spiritual organism which exists in every just soul, we cannot fail to recognize that she clearly shows how the grace of the virtues and the gifts received at baptism ought to develop when obstacles have been removed. When read with this intention, the more or less extraordinary exterior manifestations of the supernatural life fade into the background.

We do not sufficiently grasp the value of the treasure that every true Christian bears in a fragile vase. Our human eyes see only the vase. We forget that sanctifying grace, which is in us, is the beginning of eternal life, semen gloriae, inchoatio vitae aeternae. We forget practically that it is a real and formal participation in the intimate life of God, and that some

3 3 L Thomas, Ila Ilae, q.24, a. 3 ad 2um.

day it absolutely must either die forever in us or flower into glory by making us see God as He sees Himself, and love God as He loves Himself. Such is our destiny; for each of us only one inevitable alternative exists—eternal life or eternal death. Therein lies our wealth and our nobility. By grace we are of God, born of God , 3 and even here on earth our supernatural life is basically the same as that of heaven, just as the vegetable life hidden in the acorn is the same as that of the vigorous oak that springs from it; as the intellectual life slumbering in a child is the same as that of an adult who has reached the full development of reason.

Sanctifying grace deifies our souls. To elevate our faculties, it brings forth in them the supernatural virtues, especially the theological virtues, faith, hope, and charity, the last of which must endure forever. This entirely supernatural life is incomparably superior to a miracle perceived by the senses, which is only a sign. It is also superior to the natural life of created and creatable angels, since it is a participation in the very life of God. With this supernatural treasure which divinizes all our energies, we receive the Author of grace, the Holy Ghost who was sent to the Apostles on Pentecost, and who was given to us by confirmation with the seven gifts, which dispose us to receive His divine inspirations. Christ addressed us all when He said: “The Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have

3 John 1: 13.

^ A miracle (for example, life restored to a dead body) is natural in its essence and supernatural only in the mode of its production. Hence it is very inferior to grace, which is essentially supernatural. The same must be said of the prophetic announcement of a future and free occurrence in the natural order. This is what theologians mean when they say that the life of grace is essentially supernatural, quoad substantiam, while miracles and prophecies are supernatural only as to the mode of their production, quoad modum , or preternatural.

5 The angels themselves must have received the life of grace to be able to merit the beatific vision, which infinitely surpasses the powers and claims of their nature. Cf. St. Thomas, la, q.6a, a.*.

said to you . . . He will teach you all truth.” 6 “His unction,” says St. John, “teacheth you of all things.” T

This supernatural life remains anemic and weak and is without radiance in many Christians because they are too absorbed by worldly things. Instead of living with God, their divine and interior Guest, their Father and Friend, who is closer to them than they are to themselves, they scarcely ever raise their minds and hearts to Him. In the souls of the saints, on the contrary, this supernatural life appears in all its vigor, and it is this life especially which we should consider in them more than the extraordinary, miraculous, and inimitable gifts by which their sanctity is outwardly manifested.

We will therefore consider union with God in the souls of the saints, which is the basis of their life; in what this union consists; and what are its degrees. To do this, we will follow St. Teresa step by step, using her own words; for in our opinion the best commentary consists in bringing together her various writings on one subject, and in allowing these texts to throw light on one another.

I. THE MYSTICAL STATE IN GENERAL: PREPARATION;

1. St. Teresa shows that at first the soul, which seeks to unite itself to God present in it, must ordinarily raise itself above sensible things by its own efforts aided by grace, by making frequently acts of humility, faith, hope, and charity, which are suggested to it by the Our Father. To penetrate revealed truths, it meditates on them, making use of a book if necessary;

« John 14: 26; 16: 13.

7 See I John 2: 27.

s The Way of Perfection , chaps. 21-27; The Interior Castle, second and third mansions.

it brings them together and from them draws practical consequences which lead it to turn more and more fully toward God. This is the human work of the understanding which rather rapidly becomes simplified, like reading in the case of a child who no longer needs to spell. Meditation thus becomes a very simple, affective prayer, an active recollection which is a preparation or disposition to receive the grace of contemplation. 9 The soul has so far succeeded in drinking only “the water of sensible devotion which . . . has run its course over the earth and always contains a certain amount of mud.” 10 The divine truth it attains is still mingled with human considerations.

2. There is, however, a fountain of living water of which our Lord spoke to the Samaritan woman: great indeed are “the benefits of drinking of this fountain of living water.” 11 This is the figure of contemplation,. which is given to us by the Holy Ghost. Whatever the obstacles to be found on the road leading to this source, we must “b.e courageous and not grow weary. . . . Remember, our Lord invited ‘Any man.’ 12 He is truth itself; His word cannot be doubted. If all had not been included He would not have addressed everybody, nor would He have said: ‘I will give you to drink.’ He might have

9 The Way of Perfection, chap. 28. This important text we here quote in part, as follows: “This kind of prayer has many advantages. It is called ‘recollection’ because by its means the soul collects together all the faculties, and enters within itself to be with God. The divine Master thus comes more speedily than He otherwise would to teach it and to grant it the prayer of quiet. . . . Those who are able thus to enclose themselves within the little heaven where dwells the Creator of both heaven and earth . . . may feel sure that they are travelling by an excellent way and that they will certainly attain to drink of the water from the fountain. . . . These souls may be said to have already put out to sea.” In chapter 29, St. Teresa clearly points out the nature of this active recollection: “You must understand that this is not a supernatural state, but something which, with the grace of God, we can desire and obtain for ourselves.” Father Banez noted on the original: “By supernatural she means what is not left to our choice with the ordinary grace of God.”

w Ibid., chap. 29,

11 Ibid., chap. 19.

12 Matt. 11: 28: “Come to Me all you . .

said: ‘Let all men come, for they will lose nothing by it, and I will give to drink to those I think fit for it.’ But as He said, unconditionally: ‘If any man thirst, let him come to Me,’ I feel sure that, unless they stop halfway, none will fail to drink of this living water. May our Lord, who has promised to grant it us, give us grace to seek it as we ought, for His own. sake.” 18 This is the general and distant call; as yet it is not the individual and proximate call. 14 In other words, if we are humble, generous, and faithful in the practice of the virtues and of common prayer, a time will come when the Holy Ghost, dwelling in us to enlighten and sanctify us, will take over more fully the direction of our life and ask us to be entirely docile to His divine inspirations. Then will begin for us a more intimate union with God, called by St. Teresa supernatural prayer 15 and quite generally today the “mystical state.”

3. What essentially characterizes this mystical life is an infused and loving knowledge of God; in other words, it is an infused light and an infused love coming to us from the Holy Ghost and from His gifts in order to make us grow in

18 The Way of Perfection, chap. 19.

14 On this general and distant call of all interior souls to the living waters of infused contemplation, see also The Way of Perfection, chap. 20: “The last chapter seems to contradict what I said, when in order to console those who were not contemplatives, I told them that God had made many ways of reaching Him. . . . His majesty, being God, knows our weakness and has provided for us. He did not say: ‘Let some men come to Me by drinking this water, but let others come by some Other means/ His mercy is so great that He hinders no one from drinking of the fountain of life. May He be forever praised. . . . Indeed He calls us loudly and publicly to do so. . . . You see, sisters, there is no fear you will die of drought on the way of prayer. . . . Take my advice; do not loiter on the road, but struggle manfully, until you perish in the attempt.” St. Teresa says further ( The Way of Perfection, chap. 21): “I maintain that this is the chief point; in fact, that everything depends on their having a great and a most resolute determination never to halt until they reach their journey's end, happen what may, whatever the consequences are, cost what it will, let who will blame them . . . whether the earth itself goes to pieces beneath their feet.”

is This superior life is in fact doubly supernatural, not only in its essence, as common Christian life, but by the divine mode of knowing and loving, which is inspired by the Holy Ghost.

charity. 14 In certain souls it is love which dominates, in others light. Since we love only what we know, and since we cannot love ardently what we know but poorly, every soul ought to be very enlightened if it is to be inflamed with love. In this state the soul is no longer inclined to meditate by itself, to reason on the great truths of faith so as to arouse itself to acts of love of God. It receives “a supernatural recollection” which it could never acquire by its own efforts and “which does not depend on our will.” 1T It is no longer the soul recollecting itself, it is God who recollects it and draws it toward the inner sanctuary. This is the beginning of contemplation, properly so called; it is infused since we cannot procure it for ourselves by our activity aided by grace. St. Teresa, in opposition to the quietists, says that, if we have not as yet received this gift, we should be careful not “to stop the movement of our thoughts . . . and to remain there like blockheads.” 18 This recollection and the quiet which ifl It will be seen from the texts which follow why we cannot admit that in St. Teresa’s opinion mystical contemplation is an immediate perception of God in Himself and not in His effects, or a knowledge by infused ideas similar to that of the angels, which completely excludes the possibility of reasoning. Mystical contemplation would thus become not only an eminent grace, but a miraculous grace; it would be properly speaking extraordinary and, contrary to what St. Teresa says, all interior souls could not aspire to it as to the fountain of living water. On this point, consult the following article in this chapter. St. Teresa's texts, which we have brought together here, answer the objections made to our teaching on this subject in the Revue d’ascStique et de mystique, July, 1922, p. 272.

17 The Interior Castle, fourth mansion, chap. 3, pp. 104-13.

is The Interior Castle, fourth mansion, chap. 3. St. Teresa's remark concerns the individual, proximate call to infused contemplation. Evidently she does not admit, after the acquired prayer of recollection (described in The Way of Perfection, chap. 28, and afterward called simplified, affective prayer) and before the beginning of infused contemplation which we are here considering, an intermediate state that can rightly be called acquired contemplation. If she admitted it, she would grant that the soul “can stop the movement of thought" before receiving the grace of supernatural recollection.

If the term “acquired contemplation" is applied to the last of the acquired prayers, which is simplified, affective prayer, called by St. Teresa the prayer of (acquired) recollection (The Way of Perfection, chap. 28), the saint’s doctrine is kept, but not her terms; for, like all the great mystics.

*45 follow are “a supernatural state to which no effort of our own can raise us.” 19 “As for disposing oneself to it, that can be done, and that is without doubt an important point.” 80 Psalmody, for instance, disposes the soul to contemplative prayer and also makes the soul desire it.

During this passive recollection, “when our Lord suspends the understanding and makes it cease from its acts. He puts before it that which astonishes and occupies it: so that, without making any reflections, it shall comprehend in a moment more than we could comprehend in many years with all the efforts in the world.” 21 In contemplation “the soul understands that the divine Master is teaching it without the sound of words.” 22 “It was not by way of vision; I believe it was by contemplation she understands infused contemplation, which we cannot obtain for ourselves by our own efforts. Cf. The Way of Perfection, chaps. 18-21, 25/ 27, 31; The Interior Castle, fourth and fifth mansions.

If, on the contrary, the term “acquired contemplation” is applied to any other than the acquired prayer of recollection, and if anyone should desire to introduce it into the category of supernatural prayers described in the fourth and fifth mansions, he would be doing violence to the words of St. Teresa and to her doctrine, since she expressly states that we cannot by our own industry aided by grace place ourselves in the supernatural prayers of (passive) recollection, quiet, spiritual intoxication, and mystical sleep.

We need not here interpret the saint's teaching, but merely read what she has written. If it were necessary to apply “acquired” to these supernatural prayers, which are not in our power, because we can dispose ourselves to receive them, and if the qualification “infused” or “mystical” were refused them because some preparation is brought to them, then we would have to refuse this title also to rapture which she speaks of in her Life, chap. 18. She says: “The truth is that, in the beginning, this almost always happens after much mental prayer.” To be logical, we would have to speak of an acquired rapture and even of an acquired transforming union.

Quite in harmony with St. Teresa's teaching is that of the Carmelites, John of Jesus Mary ( Theol . mystica, chap. g) and Michael de la Fuente (.Las tres vidas, Introduction), who place infused contemplation immediately after simplified, affective prayer, or the acquired prayer of recollection. St. Francis de Sales does the same in The Love of God (Bk. VI, chap. 7).

19 The Way of Perfection, chap. 31.

20 Relation LIV to Father Rodriguez Alvarez, p. 295. See what is said also on the work of the mind, analogous to that of a noria (water wheel), disposing to the supernatural prayer of quiet which we cannot procure for ourselves by our personal effort. Cf. Life, chap. 14.

21 Life, chap. 12.

22 The Way of Perfection, chap. 25.

what is called mystical theology. . . . The understanding stands as if amazed at the greatness of the things it understands; for God wills it to understand that it understands nothing whatever of that which His Majesty places before it.” 28 “The presence of God is frequently felt, particularly by those who have attained to the prayer of union and of quiet, when we seem, at the very commencement of our prayer, to find Him with whom we would converse, and when we seem to feel that He hears us by the effects and the spiritual impressions of great love and faith of which we are then conscious, as well as by the good resolutions, accompanied by sweetness, which we then make. This is a great grace from God; and let him to whom He has given it esteem it much, because it is a very high degree of prayer; but it is not vision. God is understood to be present there by the effects. 24 He works in the soul: that is the way His Majesty makes His presence felt.” 2S

Under this infused light, “the soul is inflamed with love without comprehending how it loves.” 26 “This very sweet love of our God enters our soul with an extreme gentleness; it fills it with pleasure and joy 27 without its being able to understand how or where this good was introduced into it.” 28 It is therefore clearly an infused love like the light it supposes; it is, as the Thomists say, the fruit of an operating grace by which the soul is vitally and freely moved by God without deliberate movement on its own part. 28 “When God will make you drink this water (of contemplation) . . . you will under-

**Life, chap. 10.

24 God is therefore not perceived in Himself or immediately, as certain interpreters of St. Teresa have claimed. She speaks as St. Thomas does (la, q.94, a.i ad 311m; Ha Ilae, q.5, a.i; q.97, a.2 ad 2um).

25 Life, chap. 27, where St. Teresa distinguishes between mystical prayer and the visions that sometimes accompany it.

26 The Way of Perfection, chap. 25.

27 Nevertheless it continues in the dryness of the dark night.

zzPensdes sur le Cantique, chap. 4.

20St. Thomas, la Ilae, q.111, a.2.

Atand that the true love of God, when it is in its vigor, that is to say entirely free from earthly things and soaring above them, is master of all the elements and of the world itself.” 30 “The prayer of quiet is a little spark of the true love of Himself, which our Lord begins to enkindle in the soul,” 31 and this fire “purifies the soul of the dross and the wretchedness into which its faults have plunged it.” 32 This infused knowledge and love, which are the superior exercise of the theological virtues under the influence of the Holy Ghost, constitute the essential foundations of the mystical life. The Holy Ghost alone can give us this knowledge and love of God, which have a superhuman mode exceeding our personal efforts aided by grace. 33 St. John of the Cross expresses the same doctrine when he says: “Contemplation is a science of love, an infused and loving knowledge of God.” 34 “This obscure contemplation ... is mystical theology which the doctors call secret wisdom, communicated according to the doctrine of St. Thomas, by the infusion of love into the soul. 36 This communication is made secretly . . . our faculties are incapable of acquiring it; it is the Holy Ghost who pours so The Way of Perfection, chap. 19.

si Life, chap. 15.

32 The Way of Perfection, chap. 19.

33 In fact, St. Teresa says in her Life (chap. 14) that to make people understand what a supernatural prayer is she would have to speak of the particular assistance which the soul sees, in a way, with its own eyes in this prayer. She does not speak of infused ideas.

34 The Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. II, chap. 18. By thus defining contemplation, St. John of the Cross shows that in his opinion contemplation, properly so called, is infused; it is of this infused contemplation that he speaks constantly. Moreover, the Carmelite, Nicholas of Jesus Mary, in his Elucidatio phrasium myst. operum Joannis a Cruce (Part II, chap. 4), is right in saying that infused contemplation is discussed not only in The Dark Night of the Soul but also in The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, chap. 13. Cf. Etudes Carmelitaines, July, 1912, pp. 263, 270.

35 Cf. Ila Ilae, q.180, a.i. From this quotation, taken from St. Thomas by St. John of the Cross, we can clearly see how greatly mistaken people are who claim today that the Angelic Doctor did not speak of essentially mystical contemplation in his Summa, it into the soul/’ 86 Under its influence the three theological virtues are exercised in the highest degree. 87 If this infused and loving contemplation lasts a certain time, it is called a state of prayer; a passive state, or at least one that is more passive than active, in this sense that we cannot produce it, but only dispose ourselves for it.

II. THE DEGREES OF THE MYSTICAL STATE; FROM THE FOURTH TO THE SEVENTH MANSIONS

In this section we will consider particularly the growing intensity of charity, of living faith, and of the corresponding gifts in the mystical state. St. Thomas studied this intensity from an abstract and theoretical point of view; 38 St. Teresa described it from experience and in its loftiest forms. To show this growing intensity of the mystical state, St. Teresa insists on its progressive extension to the different faculties of the soul, which are gradually suspended or captivated by God. First of all, the will is seized and held, then the intellect and the imagination; finally in ecstasy, the exercise of the exterior senses is suspended. St. Teresa knows, however, that the suspension of the imagination and of the senses is only a concomitant and accidental phenomenon, 89 sign of a greater

8« The Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. II, chap. 17; and chap. 5. s 7 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, chaps. 6, 7. as Summa, Ha Ilae, q.24.

89 The Interior Castle, fifth mansion, chap. 1, p. 120. When St. Teresa begins to discuss the prayer of union, which follows quiet, and which is sometimes accompanied by a beginning of ecstasy, she says to her daughters: “The majority may be said at least to gain admittance into these rooms. I think that certain graces I am about to describe are bestowed on only a few; but if the rest only arrive at the portal, they receive a great boon from God, for ‘many are called, but few are chosen/ ” Farther on in the fifth mansion, chap. 3, she says: “God has many ways of enriching the soul and bringing it to these mansions (which means, to the supernatural prayer of union) besides what might be called a shortcut/' We shall see later on what she means by this shortcut: not the mystical state as has been believed at times, but the ecstatic state or a beginning of ecstasy. Moreover, in the fifth mansion, chap. 3, St. Teresa also speaks of a union of conformity to the divine will, which is not a degree of prayer but an excellent disposition not intensity of knowledge and love of God, since it generally ceases in the most perfect mystical state, the transforming union. 40 The mystical state, complete in regard to its extension, is not therefore necessarily the most intense or the most elevated. 41 St. Teresa does not overlook this fact; but this extension, which is at first progressive, then restrained and rather easy to determine and describe, may give some light on the growing elevation of the mystical state, if it is joined to another sign which is more profound, one on which St. John of the Cross strongly insisted. This more profound sign is found, first of all, in the passive purification of the senses, then in that of the spirit, both of which denote progress in to have any self-will, a disposition which one can have without having received a beginning of ecstasy.

40 The Interior Castle, seventh mansion, chap. 3.

4 *This has been clearly explained by Saudreau, t.tat mystique, 2d ed., p. 89. Precisely because of this we regret to see in the same work (p. 46) that he applies the term “extraordinary” to the prayers of the fifth and sixth mansions which are accompanied by ecstasy. They are not extraordinary in their essence, but only in certain concomitant and accidental phenomena. Saudreau recognizes this (p. 51) when he says as we do: “God can conduct the soul even to the transforming union without granting it raptures.” He is certainly right in distinguishing the mystical state from what he calls the extraordinary phenomena of angelic order (p. 180): The objections which have been raised against him lately on this point (Revue Apologdtique, June 15, 1922) are not well founded. Father Poulain himself clearly distinguished the mystical state from the visions which may accompany it.

Father Lallemant, S.J., rightly observes in his Doctrine spirituelle (VII Principe, chap. 4, art. 7): “According to some writers the degrees of contemplation are: first, the recollection of all the powers; second, semi-rapture; third, complete rapture; fourth, ecstasy. This division does not, however, so much express the essence of contemplation as its accidents; for a soul may sometimes have without rapture a more sublime light, a clearer knowledge, a more excellent operation of God, than another that is favored with extraordinary raptures and ecstasies. The Blessed Virgin was raised higher in contemplation than all the angels and saints together, and yet she had no raptures.” Some of the saints, as Bernadette at the Grotto of Lourdes, have had them in childhood, and then fewer of them in later years. This observation contains something analogous to what is ordinarily said about science: its progress in extension is not a certain sign of its progress in penetration. Several persons have a rather extended knowledge of a science without possessing a profound or elevated knowledge that enables them to grasp with a glance the whole science in its first principles. Cf. St. Thomas, la Ilae, q. 52.

S 50 the intensity of the knowledge and love of God. St. Teresa did not neglect this second sign.

A third and still more decisive indication arises from the fact that virtue normally increases with prayer. The increasingly intimate action of God must be judged especially by this sign rather than by the passive purifications. These, in fact, depend greatly on the obstacles that grace encounters, and also on the types of temperament and on morbid dispositions. Although these passive purifications are inseparable from the development of the mystical life, they cannot measure it with as great certainty as can progress in virtue. Progress in virtue, not as man judges it, but rather as it appears in the sight of God, the only judge of souls, corresponds to the growing intensity of infused contemplation and of the love of God. St. Teresa has noted this in an admirable manner. 42 Pope Pius X praised her especially for this, saying: “The degrees of prayer enumerated by the saint are so many superior ascents toward the summit of perfection.”

At first, in the prayer of quiet “the will alone is made captive” 43 by the mysterious light received, which manifests to it the goodness of God present in it, as a little child enjoys the milk which is given to it. 44 Better still, it is like the gushing forth of the living water which Jesus spoke of to the Samaritan woman: “The water flows from the very fountain itself, which is God, ... it wells up from the most intimate depths of our being with extreme peace, tranquillity, and sweet-

42 Besides the texts that we shall quote, see what the saint says in her Life about the progress of virtue corresponding to the prayers symbolized by the four manners of watering: second water, the flowers (of the virtues) are about to appear (chap. 15); third water, the flowers bloom; the virtues draw from this prayer much greater vigor than from the preceding, which is that of quiet (chaps. 16 f.); fourth water, “this is the time of resolutions, of heroic determinations, of the living energy of good desires, of the beginning of hatred of the world, and of the most clear perception of its vanity. The soul makes greater and higher progress than it ever made before in the previous states of prayer; and grows in humility more and more” (chap.

19)-

48 The Way of Perfection, chap. 31, p. 179.

44 Ibid., p. 183.

ness. . . . Hardly has this celestial water begun to flow from its source . . . , when one experiences a great interior dilation and increase. The soul then receives inexpressible spiritual benefits and indeed is incapable of understanding what it receives at that moment.” 45 In this state, however, the understanding, memory, and imagination are not captivated by the divine action. Sometimes they act as the auxiliaries of the will and engage in its service; at other times their contribution serves only to trouble it. St. Teresa says: “Often during this prayer you will not know what to do with your understanding and memory (which never cease to be agitated). . . . But when the will enjoys this quiet, it should take no more notice of the understanding than it would of an idiot.” 46

This quiet is often interrupted by the aridities and trials of the passive night of the senses 47 and by temptations against patience and chastity which oblige the soul to a salutary reaction. This greatly strengthens the moral virtues which have their seat in' the sensitive appetites. The effects of the prayer of quiet are a greater virtue, especially a greater love of God and ineffable peace, at least in the superior part of the soul. 48

If the soul is humble and generous, 49 it will be raised to a higher degree. In simple union, God's action is strong enough to absorb completely the activity of the interior faculties of the soul; all this activity is directed toward Him and no longer goes astray. God seizes and captivates the will, and also the

45 The Interior Castle, fourth mansion, chap. 2.

46 The Way of Perfection, chap. 31; The Interior Castle, fourth mansion, chap. 1.

47 The Way of Perfection, chap. 24, 34, 38. The Interior Castle, third mansion, chap. 1; fourth mansion, chap. 1. Cf. St. John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. I.

48 Life, chap. 15.

4 » The Interior Castle, fifth mansion, chap. 1. The saint observes that it is no longer sufficient to follow one’s rule attentively; besides, one must be very docile to the inspirations of the Holy Ghost, who becomes more exacting in proportion as He gives more and wishes to give more.

5

thoughts, memory, and imagination. Furthermore, the soul is usually no longer troubled by distractions. God suspends the natural action of the intellect “in order better to impress on us true wisdom.” 50 The memory and imagination are likewise arrested in their natural operations and intimately united to God in a way suitable to them. The soul no longer seeks with effort to draw the salutary water which refreshes and purifies it; it receives this water simply, like rain falling from heaven. 51 “God does not leave us any share other than that of an entire conformity of our will to his.” 52 “How beautiful is the soul after having been immersed in God’s grandeur and united closely to Him for but a short timel Indeed, I do not think it is ever as long as half an hourl” 58 The soul has, so to speak, changed form, by dying entirely to the world, like the silkworm which becomes a white butterfly. 55

St. Teresa observes that this prayer of union is frequently incomplete, without suspension of the imagination and memory, which at times wage a veritable war on the intellect and will. 55 Here, as in the prayer of quiet, no more attention should be paid to the imagination than to a madman. 5 * St. Teresa speaks of this incomplete mystical union in The Interior Castle 57 when she says: “Is it necessary, in order to attain to this kind of divine union, for the powers of the

#o Ibid.

The first way of watering, by drawing water from a well by main strength, is a picture of meditation (Life, chap. 11); the second way, with the noria (water wheel), symbolizes the prayer of quiet in which there is still some activity, even though this is a supernatural prayer (Life, chap. 14); the third way of watering, by water flowing from a river or fountain, corresponds to the sleep of the powers (Life, chap. 16); the fourth water, which is rain, symbolizes the prayer of union (Life, chap. 18).

52 The Interior Castle, fifth mansion, chap. 1.

53 Ibid., chap. 2.

5 * Ibid. It must be observed that by this transformation this insect reaches adult age; by an analogous transformation the soul reaches the adult age of the supernatural life.

55 Life, chap. 17.

5 « Ibid .

5T Fifth mansion, chap. 3.

soul to be suspended? No. God has many ways of enriching the soul and bringing it to these mansions besides what might be called a ‘shortcut.’ ” B *

The effects of the prayer of union are most sanctifying. The soul experiences a great contrition for its faults, an * ardent desire to praise God, and strength to face every trial so as to serve Him. It is bitterly grieved at the loss of sinners, and thus it sees what the sufferings of Christ must have been during His earthly life. 59

At this time, a period of trial generally comes, described by St. Teresa at the beginning of the sixth mansion, and called by St. John of the Cross the passive night of the soul. “There is an outcry raised against such a person by those amongst whom she lives. . . . They say she wants to pass for a saint, that she goes to extremes in piety. Persons she thought were her friends desert her, making the most bitter remarks of all. . . . She suffers scoffing remarks of all sorts . . . and the worst of it is, these troubles do not blow over but last all her life.” But the soul enlightened by God is “strengthened rather than depressed by its trials; experience

68 This shortcut and the delights found in it have at times been thought to be infused or mystical contemplation; but it is only the suspension of the imagination and memory, or a beginning of ecstasy, which sometimes accompanies mystical union and greatly facilitates it. Cf. Arintero, O.P., Evolucidn mistica, p. 639, and Cuestiones misticas, pp. 325 ff.; Father Garate, S.J., Razon y Fe, July, 1908, p. 325. Saudreau rightly observes in Les degres de la vie spirituelle (5th ed.), II, 101: "Apropos of this passage (fifth mansion, chap. 3), the new translators of St. Teresa say that according to her teaching there are two ways leading to the state of union, the mystical way and the non-mystical way. St. Teresa says nothing of the sort; if she did, she would be contradicting her own constant teaching (cf. The Way of Perfection, chaps. 18-21). She says—and the new translation shows this to be the original text—merely that the soul enters this fifth mansion either by union, which is a beginning of ecstasy, or without it.

It may be that the soul has not this ecstatic union, and yet has received very precious mystical graces." We repeat that the passive prayer of union is not extraordinary in its basis or in its very essence, even though certain of its accidental or concomitant phenomena may be so. For a discussion of St. Teresa’s word "shortcut," cf. Philip of the Blessed Trinity, TheoL myst ., Ill, 71; Anthony of the Holy Ghost, Direct. myst.. Tract. IV, Disp. I, sec. 4; Vallgornera, O.P., TheoL myst., II, 137.

58 The Interior Castle, fifth mansion, chap. 2.

*54 having taught it the great advantages derived from them. . . . Moreover, the soul conceives a special tenderness for these people who make it suffer.” “Our Lord now usually sends severe illnesses. 60 . . . The rest would seem trifling in comparison, if one could relate the interior torments met with here, but they are impossible to describe. ... A confessor who dreads and suspects everything. . . . Interior anguish of the soul at the sight of its own wretchedness. ... It believes that God permits it to be deceived in punishment for its sins. This suffering becomes almost unbearable, especially when such spiritual dryness ensues that the mind feels as if it had never thought of God nor ever will be able to do so. When men speak of Him, they seem to be talking of some person heard of long ago. . . . The understanding is so obscured that it is incapable of discerning the truth; it believes all that the imagination puts before it, besides crediting the falsehoods suggested to it by the devil. Our Lord doubtless gives the devil leave to tempt it, and even to make it think that God has rejected it. . . . During this tempest, the soul is incapable of receiving any comfort. The only remedy is to wait for the mercy of God who, when the soul least expects it, delivers it from all its sufferings by a single word addressed to it, or by some unforeseen happening. Then it seems as if there had never been any trouble and the soul praises the Lord, for it is He who has fought for it and rendered it victorious. The soul sees clearly that the conquest was not its own. . . . Then it recognizes perfectly its weakness and how little we can do of ourselves when the Lord withdraws His help. It no longer needs to reflect in order to understand this truth.” 61 eo ibid.

6 i The Interior Castle, sixth mansion, chap. i. St. Teresa understood thus by experience the great doctrine of St. Augustine and St. Thomas on efficacious grace, as Dominic Banez expounded it. Generally souls which pass through the night of thp soul can no longer admit any other doctrine, even though previously they have been inclined toward the contrary opinion, according to which grace is rendered efficacious by our good consent.

“Since these troubles come from above, no earthly comfort can avail. This great God wishes us to acknowledge His sovereignty and our misery. ... The best means ... to succeed in bearing this anguish is to perform external works of charity and to hope for everything from the mercy of God. He never fails those who hope in Him. . . . The exterior sufferings caused by the devils are more unusual . . . and all the sufferings which they may cause are slight in comparison with those which I have just described.” 62 Farther on, St. Teresa speaks of a still more painful purification of love which occurs at the entrance to the seventh mansion, “as the purification of purgatory introduces the soul into; heaven”; 63 but then the soul, while bearing this suffering, is aware that it is an eminent favor.

After passing through these interior sufferings, the soul receives such a knowledge of God's grandeur that frequently partial or complete ecstasy follows. 64 Union with God is so perfect that it suspends the operations of the exterior senses; all the activity of the soul is ravished toward God, and consequently ceases to function in regard to the exterior world. 65 If at times a scholar, like Archimedes, is so absorbed by speculation that he no longer hears words spoken to him, with greater reason is this true of the contemplative soul when a very strong grace, making it experience God's infinite grandeur, absorbs it in this blessed contemplation. 66

«2 The Interior Castle, sixth mansion, chap. 1.

Mlbid., chap. 11.

04 The Interior Castle, sixth mansion, chap. 5. Father Joret, O.P., showed clearly (La vie spirituelle, May, 1922, p. 90) that ecstasy, which is a consequence o£ infused contemplation, is not properly speaking extraordinary. It is a different matter if it precedes contemplation and prepares the soul for it.

65 This is in virtue of the principle often formulated by St. Thomas: “cum totaliter anima intendat ad actum unius potentiae, abstrahitur homo ab actu alterius potentiae” (De veritate, q. 13, a. 3).

66 God then appears more and more as supreme Truth, and the soul understands the meaning of the psalmist's words: “Every man is a liar.” The soul also sees why the Most High so greatly loves humility. “Because He is the supreme Truth and humility is the truth. It is most true that we have nothing good of ourselves, and that misery and nothingness are our portion” (sixth mansion,

At other times, the soul exults and cannot refrain from singing the praises of God. This is a very desirable grace: “May His Majesty frequently grant us such a prayer which is both safe and advantageous! We cannot acquire it for ourselves as it is quite supernatural. Sometimes it lasts for a whole day. . . . This jubilation plunges the soul into such a forgetfulness of itself and of all things that it is incapable of thinking or of speaking, except to offer to God praise, which is, as it were, the natural fruit of its joy.” ® T

St. Teresa says, on the contrary, when speaking of visions impressed directly on the imagination: “It is not at all fitting ... to desire them”; 88 they are extraordinary favors quite distinct from the full development of the life of grace in us. "Know that for having received many favors of this kind, a soul will not merit more glory. . . . There are many saints who never knew what it was to receive one such favor, while others who have received them are not saints at all. . . . Often for even one of these favors the Lord sends a great number of tribulations.” ••

Finally the soul is introduced into the seventh mansion, the transforming union with God, which is immediately preceded by a last and very painful purification, that of love, “where the soul dies with the desire to die.” In this mansion some souls have an intellectual vision of the Blessed Trinity who dwells in us; but this vision, with a clarity that varies and is as it were intermittent, is not of the essence of the transforming union. Indeed it does not seem necessarily to chap. 10). It would, therefore, be an error to believe that the just man is distinguished from the sinner by his liberty alone, and that this difference does not come from grace. “What distinguisheth thee?” says St. Paul.

67 The Interior Castle, sixth mansion, chap. 6.

68 Ibid,, chap. 9. In the same sense the Discalced Carmelite, Joseph of the Holy Ghost, correcting Anthony of the Annunciation, C.D., rightly observes and proves that “we can keenly desire and humbly petition God for infused contemplation, but not for ecstasy and other similar favors which sometimes accompany it.” Curstis theol. mystico-scolasticae (1791), II, 222, 224.

The Interior Castle, sixth mansion, chap. 9.

be linked with it. T0 Moreover, ecstasies have generally ceased; 71 and what constitutes the foundation of this eminent state is in no way miraculous, that is, the superior faculties are passively drawn to the deepest center of the soul where the Blessed Trinity dwells. Under the influence of this grace, the soul cannot doubt that the divine Persons are present in it; it is, besides, practically never deprived of Their company. “The soul recognizes by certain secret aspirations that it is God who gives it life,” and that He is the Life of our life. 72 The Christian who has reached this perfect age is morally one with Him, in the sense in which St. Paul says: “He who is joined to the Lord, is one spirit.” 73 As far as is possible on earth, this is the full realization of our Lord’s prayer: “That they may be one, as We also are one; I in them, and Thou in Me . . . and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, . . . and hast loved them, as Thou hast also loved Me.” 74 In the same way, rain falling into a river is so mingled with the stream that it can no longer be distinguished from it; or, to use the figure employed by St. John of the Cross: “It resembles the condition of wood when the fire has attacked it with its flames, dried it out, and finally penetrated it and transformed it into itself.” 75 It is still wood, to St. Teresa speaks of it in the seventh mansion (chaps. 1, 2), and describes it as it was granted to her “in an extraordinary way.” St. John of the Cross, who discussed at greater length the spiritual marriage in its relation with the theological virtues, does not say that such a vision is necessarily linked with that state. He simply points out ( Canticle, Part III, and The, Living Flame) the fact that in the transforming union there is a very lofty contemplation of the divine perfections. Father Poulain recognizes this. Cf. Les grdces d’oraison (9th ed.), chap. 19, no. 15.

71 The Interior Castle, seventh mansion, chap. 3: “From the moment when the Lord discloses to the soul the wonders of this mansion and gives it entrance to it, the soul loses this great weakness (of ecstasy) which was so painful to it and from which nothing could deliver it. Perhaps this comes from the fact that the Lord has strengthed it, dilated it, and rendered it capable of His operations.” Thus union with God, being possible without hindering the exercise of the faculties, becomes almost constant.

72 The Interior Castle, seventh mansion, chap. 2.

7s See I Cor. 6: 17.

74 John 17: 22 f.

7 # The Living Flame, st. 1, v. 4.

but incandescent wood which has taken on the properties of fire. In the same way, a flame rises almost constantly toward God from a purified heart.

The effects of the transforming union are those of the perfect exercise of the theological virtues and of the gifts, which have reached their full development. The soul is practically freed from the disorders of the passions; as long as it is under the actual grace of the transforming union, it does not commit deliberate venial sins. 76 At other times, it still occasionally commits some venial faults, which are quickly atoned for. What is outstanding in the soul is a great forgetfulness of self, a keen desire to suffer in imitation of our Lord, a true joy in persecution. Aridities and interior sufferings have ceased as well as the desire to die. These souls, inflamed with zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of their neighbor, “desire to live long years in the midst of the most severe trials in order that the Lord may be ever so little glorified by them.” 77 This is truly the apostolic life (manifest or hidden), which flows from the plenitude of contemplation, to use the expression of St. Thomas. 78 It is the full perfection of Christian life, which our Lord, the Blessed Virgin, and the Apostles have exemplified in the highest degree. “God cannot bestow upon us a more precious favor than a life conformed to that of His well-beloved Son. Moreover, . . , these graces are intended to strengthen our weakness and to make us able to bear great sufferings in imitation of this divine Son.” 79 The soul is thus truly spiritualized and shares in the very strength of Christ and in His immense love for God and for souls. Such is, on earth, the perfect age of the life of grace, the full realization of the first precept: “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

76 The Interior Castle, seventh mansion, chap. 2.

77 Ibid., chap. 3.

78 See Ha Ilae, q.188, a. 6.

78 The Interior Castle, seventh mansion, chap. 4.

80 Luke 10: 27.

*59

All just souls are called,'at least in a general and remote manner, to this transforming union, which is the normal prelude to the life of heaven. If they are faithful to this call, and at the same time humble and generous, they will hear a more proximate and urgent invitation. 81 St. Teresa repeats this in the Epilogue to The Interior Castle: “In truth you cannot by your own strength, no matter how great it may seem to you, enter all the mansions. The Master of the Castle must Himself admit you. If you encounter any resistance on His part, I advise you not to try to use violence. You would so greatly displease Him that He would forever close the doors to you. He deeply loves humility; if you believe yourself unworthy to enter even the third mansion, you will soon obtain admission to the fifth. You will even be able to frequent it so assiduously and to serve Him so well, that He will admit you to the mansion which He has reserved for Himself.” 82 She makes the same statement in her Life .* 3

In conclusion, let us point out that in St. Teresa’s writings the normal way of sanctity consists in humility and abnegation, which prepare the soul for infused contemplation, highly desirable for all, and also for a more and more intimate divine union, indeed even for the transforming union, the culminating point in the normal development of the supernatural life. As for extraordinary facts, such as visions, interior words, and private revelations, however useful for the sanctification of the soul, they ought not to be desired. They are accidental, transient phenomena, whereas infused contemplation continues. They do not unite us as closely to God as do perfect si Ct. the texts from The Way of Perfection, chaps. 18-21, quoted in the first part of this article.

82 Cf. also St. John of the Cross, The Spiritual Canticle, st. 34.

88 Chap. 40: “Then He said: ‘Ah, My daughter, they are few who love Me in truth; for if men loved Me, I should not hide My secrets from them/ ” She observes also (ibid.): “There are many more women than men to whom our Lord gives these graces.” To show what purity of soul is required for us to enter heaven, she says (chap. 38): “In all the visions I had, I saw no souls escape purgatory except three.” Yet to avoid purgatory is the normal way of sanctity.

26 o CHRISTIAN PERFECTION faith and the gift of wisdom which, in varying degrees, exists in all the just. 84

What the interior soul should desire above all else is the ever deeper reign of God in it, continual growth in charity. This it should long for because the precept of love is without limit and obliges us, if not to be saints, at least to tend to sanctity, each one according to his condition, 85 and because Christ said to all: “Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” This is the goal which St. Teresa has shown us. The greatest tribute that can be given her is that she has marvelously praised the glory of God by making us see, in her writings and in her life, God’s great love for the humble, and all that He wishes to do for “souls determined to follow our Lord and to journey on, in spite of the cost, even to the fountain of living water. . . . This is the royal road which leads to heaven.” 88

Footnotes

1. For example, Dionysius, Richard of St. Victor, St. Bonaventure, Tauler, Ruysbroeck, Louis de Blois, St. John of the Cross, and St. Francis de Sales. ↩