9. What the First Three Celestial Hierarchies Do for Men

THE blessed Spirits of the highest Hierarchy, the Thrones, the Cherubim, and the Seraphim, do not descend with us into the struggle undertaken by us for the overcoming of sin, but they live with us only in that state where, lifted above the fight, we rise toward God by Peace, Contemplation, and Eternal Love.

Love's Gradatory

The three middle Orders of the Angelic Hierarchy are the Principalities, the Powers, and the Dominions. They are intended to fight with us against the devil, the world, and all vices — in fact, against everything that constitutes an obstacle in the service of our Lord. They order and govern us and help us to lead to the end the interior life, ornamented with all Virtue. Indeed, when by the Grace of God and the help of His Angels we have vanquished the world and all that belongs to it, we become as Kings and Princes over all in this world, and the Kingdom of Heaven is ours. Then it is that the fourth Choir of Angels, the Principalities, come to our aid for God's

Love's Gradatory honour. Further, when we abase self by humiliation and self-scorn from the ground of the heart, placing ourselves below every creature the more to honour God, we vanquish the devil and all his power. The fifth Choir of Angels, the Powers, accompany us and lend us their succour in the practice of the inner life, so as to assure us the victory for the Glory of God. But there is something further, as when one acquires such contempt of self that he places him self lower than any, unworthy in his own estimation to be com pared in Virtue, judging no one, but condemning only himself. All his acts of Virtue appear of little value, as nothing at all, for the sentiment of God's Justice

Love's Gradatory and his own lowliness keep him from resting on them. Night and day he hears in his heart a voice that eats into his reins and heart, penetrating to the marrow of his bones : " Thou shalt praise the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." His hunger and ardour to serve God are so great that all the good he can do seems perfected in an instant, it leaves him no rest, so that he is irritated and indignant with him self, feeling how powerless he is to do the good that he would. He has no more carnal affection for self or any other creature; it is dead in him and has disap peared ; he knows and feels but one need only, to praise and serve God ; and seeing that he cannot attain to it as he would,

Love's Gradatory he hates and despises himself, for the Spirit of God fills him ceaselessly with desire of new tasks in His service and praise, even far more than he can fulfil. Give as he may, he is ever pressed to give more, which is the cause of desire without end. Then, when this humble Soul understands that he cannot accomplish what God asks of him, he falls at the wounded Feet of our Lord, crying : " Lord, I can not acquit my debt to Thee, I sur render and deliver myself into Thy Hands; do with me as Thou wilt." To his humble abandonment our Lord replies: "Thy submission and confidence are pleasing to Me ; I bestow on thee My Spirit of Liberty and Truth, so that thou mayst put thy

Love's Gradatory complaisance in Me above every good work and virtuous act."

Now, this mutual complaisance between God and the truly humble Soul, freed by Humility, is the root of Charity and Holiness in the interior life. Those who attain to it cannot be tempted of sin, for all enemies fly from them as a serpent from a flowering vine. This same mutual complaisance is the highest and most noble work in the inner life, all virtues and all good works end and are perfected there ; for God gives the Grace, and the interior Soul offers to Him in return every work.

Thus grow and renew with-

1 St. Bonaventura, "Vitis Mystica," ch. xlv., ed. Quaracchi, t. viii., p. 222, No. 356.

Love's Gradatory out ceasing both Grace and Works, for God speaks intimately to the Soul, saying : " I give thee My grace, give thou Me thy works." Then, appealing to Goodwill and liberty of desire, He adds: "Give Me thyself, as I give Myself to thee. Wilt thou be Mine ? I will be thine." Such invitations and replies are said interiorly in the spirit, not exteriorly in words. The loving Soul responds : " Lord, Thou livest in me by Thy Grace, and I delight in Thee above all things. I must love, thank, and praise Thee, I may not keep from doing thus, since for me it is eternal Life."

Thou art my very meat and drink ;

Eating I famish still ; I quench my thirst to thirst again ;

Starve, while I take my fill.

Love's Gradatory

Thou'rt sweeter than the honeycomb ;

O'er all I can attain ; Since inexhaustible Thou art

Hungry I yet remain. Art Thou consumed, or I ? Who knows ?

Both in my soul I feel. Thou will'st that I be one with Thee—

This is my woe and weal, For in Thy arms I cannot lie

Quit of all human strife, Thy Praise, Thy Love, Thy Ser vice, are

My very breath of life. Impatience seizes on my heart —

Could I attain to Thee, Nor leave my exercise of Praise

How joyful I should be ! Thou know'st, dear Lord, my every need,

Do as Thou wilt with me ; All power Thine, submission mine

To dree or die for Thee.

To this the Spirit of the Lord replies in the intimacy of the

Soul without exterior words, but in the depth of the con-

Love's Gradatory sciousness : " Beloved, I am thine, and them art Mine ; I give Myself to thee above all gifts, and in return I claim thee, I draw thee to Me above all thy good works."

When in the inmost Being the Soul follows the Divine drawing and gives itself up freely to the Spirit of God, it tastes infinite happiness impossible to comprehend, in which the whole being dis solves, caught and embraced between immense Love and un ending Happiness, under the regard of Love Himself; but the hour is short, for Love cannot remain inactive, it cries aloud in the intimacy of the Soul : " Thanksgiving, Praise, Honour, be to God; this is

Love's Gradatory

Love's Counsel and Commandment."

This, then, is the noblest and highest exercise of the interior life, the nearest to the Contemplative existence. The Soul resembles the Angels of the sixth Choir, the Dominions, who rule the five other Choirs, or Orders, below them. In the same way this method here spoken of is lifted above all others in the practice of the interior life.