Chapter XVII. Infused Contemplation '

After explaining the general notions concerning infused contemplation, we shall examine its different degrees.

ART. I. GENERAL NOTIONS REGARDING INFUSED CONTEMPLATION

I. Definition

A) Earlier writers, not making any explicit distinction between acquired and infused contemplation, do not as a rule give the specific difference between the two. From different articles of St. Thomas on this subject one can draw the conclusion that contemplation is a@ szmple, tnturtive gaze on God and divine things proceeding from love and tending thereto.2 St. Francis de Sales defines it thus : “A loving, simple, and permanent attentiveness of the mind to divine things.”¹

B) Modern authors generally make the distinction between the two kinds of contemplation, and with Pope Benedict XIV they define or describe infused contemplation as: “a simple look of the mind attended by a gentle love

«Sr. THOMAS, Ila lle, q. 180-182; St. BONAVENTURE, De triplict via; [tinerarium mentis ad Deum, H. Suso, The little Book of Eternal wisdom, Le livre de la vérité; Bx F, RUISBROECK, L’ornement des noces sptrituelles; GERSON, La montagne de la contemplation; La théologie mystique spéculative et pratique ; DENIS THE CARTHUSIAN, De Fonte Lucts et semttis vite ; De contemplatione ; BLOSIUS (Louis de Blois), A Book of Spiritual Jnstruction ; D, A. BAKER, Sancta Sophia ; Sr. TeresA, Life by Herself; The Way of Perfection; The /nterior Castle ; ST, JOHN OF THE Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel; The Dark Night of the Soul; Living Flame; Sv. FRANCIS DE SALES, The Love of God, Books VI-VII; ALVAREZ DE Paz, De Vita Spiritual, T. III, Lib. V; M. GODINEZ, Praxis Theologie Mystice; LALLEMANT, Spiritual Doctrine, Principle VI1; SCARAMELLI, Direttorio mistico; RiBET, La Mystique divine; DE MAUMIGNY, Practice of Mental Prayer; POULAIN, The Graces of Interior Prayer; LEHODEY, The Ways of Mental Prayer; SAUDREAU, The Degrees of the Spiritual Life, Vol. 11; MEYNARD, Trazté de la vie intéricure; LAMBALLE, Mystical Contemplation; FARGES, Mystical Phenomena; JORET, La contemplation mystique d'apres saint Thomas; GARRIGOU- LAGRANGE, Perfect. chrét. et contemplation; LEJEUNE, An /ntroduction to the Alystical Life; WILLIAMSON, Supernatural Mysticism; A. B. SHARPE Mysticism, Its nature and value; HOWLEY, Psychology and Mystical Phenomena,² for things divine, proceeding from God, Who in a special way moves the mind to know and the heart to love divine things, and Who through the gifts of the Holy Ghost — understanding and wisdom — co-operates in these acts by shedding a powerful light upon the mind and by inflaming the will with love.” This gives a very complete notion and points out clearly the share of God and of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost as well as the part our faculties play. Though God moves our mind to know and our heart to love, we co-operate freely with His divine motion,

We must note, however, that this definition only extends to sweet and not to arid contemplation. Hence, if one is looking for a definition that embraces both, one may say that it is a szple, loving, protracted gaze on God and things divine, under the influence of the gifts of the Holy Ghost and of a spectal actual grace which takes possession of us and causes us to act in a passive rather than in an active manner.

To understand this definition well, we must explain the share of God and that of man in contemplation.

Il. The Réle of God in Contemplation

God has the principal part, since He alone can take possession of us and put us in the passive state.

1° It is God Who calls the soul to contemplation, for according to all mystics contemplation is essentially a gratuztous gift. Such is the teaching of St. Theresa. Often she calls this prayer supernatural. Inher second relation to Father Rodrigo Alvarez, she explains the term thus: “T call supernatural that which cannot be acquired either by industry or by effort, no matter what pains we take for the purpose. As to disposing oneself thereto, this indeed one can do, and this is no doubt a great thing.”1 She further elucidates her thought by the following graceful comparison : “Our Lord is pleased to make the soul mount higher and higher towards Him; then He catches this little dove and places it in a nest, there to repose.” 2

Such is also the teaching of St. John of the Cross. He distinguishes two methods, one active and the other passive; the latter, which is none other than contemplation, is “that in which the soul does nothing as of ttse/f, neither does it make therein any efforts of its own; but it is God Who works in it, giving special aids, and the soul is patient, freely consenting thereto.”3 The Saint often returns to this distinction:

3 The Ascentof Mount Carmel, Bk 1, C, XIII, (Translation by David Lewis M. A, London, 188g).

“‘ There is between the two states all the difference that exists between human and divine work, between natural and supernatural operation. Such souls do not act of themselves, but are under the action of the Holy Ghost; He is the principal agent, the guide, the mover in this state, and ceases not to watch over them, and lead them as so many instruments in His hands towards perfection through Faith and the Divine Law, through the spirit which God imparts to each one.”* Now, if the initiative is all God’s, if it is He Who moves souls, if He is the principal agent, and the soul but an instrument, it is clear that the soul cannot intrude itself into this state, nor merit it in the strict sense, that is, in justice, for we cannot merit in this way except what God has deigned to include within the scope of merit, namely, sanctifying grace and eternal glory.

The gratuity of this state is acknowledged even by that school which holds that all souls are called to contemplation. After saying that meditation is not beyond our efforts, Father Saudreau adds : “No one can of himself enter into mystic prayer;no matter what efforts one may make, one will not attain it if one has not been raised to such a high state by divine favor.”* Some indeed are of the opinion that one can merit it by a title of fitness, but such merit does not detract in the least from its essential gratuity.

2° Again, it is God Who determines the moment and the manner, as well as the duration of contemplation. He alone puts the soul into the passive or mystic state seizing its faculties in order to act in them and through them, but always with the free consent of the will. This constitutes a sort of divine possesston ; and since God is the Sovereign Master of His Gifts, He intervenes when He wills and as He wills.
3° In contemplation God acts especially in what mystics call the swbtile point of the soul, the summit of the soul, the susmmzt of the will or the inmost depth of the soul. By this we must understand all that is loftiest in the intellect and the will; it is the intellect, not inasmuch as it reasons, but inasmuch as it perceives truth by a simple glance, under the influence of the higher gifts of understanding and of wisdom; it is the will in its simplest act, which is that of loving and of relishing things divine. ~The Venerable Louis de Blois3 thinks that this center of the soul wherein contemplation takes place is far superior to the three controlling faculties, since it is the source of these faculties. “ Therein, ” he adds, “ the higher faculties themselves are but one thing; therein reign perfect tranquility and perfect silence, for no image can ever reach there. It is in this center wherein the divine

3A Book of Spiritual Instruction, London, 1900, c. XII.³⁴

image lies hidden, that we put on the divine likeness... O Peerless Center! the holy Temple whence the Lord never departs? O wondrous Recess! the dwelling-place of the Hallowed Trinity, and the source here below of eternal delights !”

4° It is in this center of the soul that God produces at the same time kvowledge and love.

a) He produces there a knowledge which though odscure, makes a vivid impression, because it is experimental or guast-experimental, God may produce it in four different ways:

By attracting our attention to an idea already possessed, but which heretofore had not impressed us deeply. Thus we knew that God is love, but now divine light makes us understand and relish this thought so well that it penetrates our whole being and takes complete possession of us.
By bringing together in our mind two ideas which we have had and making us draw from them a forceful conclusion. Thus, from the thought that God is all and we are nothing, the Holy Spirit makes us understand that humility is for us an imperative duty: I am Who am, thou art what is not!
By producing within us what are called zxfused zmpresstons which, because they proceed from God, represent divine things in a more perfect and more telling fashion; this is what occurs in some wzszons or revelations.
By granting to a soul a transient vision of God as He is in Himself, as was the case, according to St. Thomas, with Moses and St. Paul,* and, according to some of the Fathers, with the Blessed Virgin.? This, however, is a favor altogether exceptional, the actuality of which is doubted by grave theologians, who explain otherwise the texts of scripture adduced by St. Thomas.

b) God also produces in the soul an zxeffadble love. He enables it to understand by a sort of intuition, that He, and He alone, is the Supreme Good, and thus He attracts the soul to Himself in an irresistible way, like a magnet does, yet without doing violence to its free-will. The soul then moves towards God with all the ardor wherewith it moves towards happiness, yet freely, because its vision of God, though obscure, does not take away its freedom.

Then, according to the Venerable Louis de Blois, the soul goes out of itself in order to pass wholly into God and be lost in the abyss of

2 SUAREZ, in [4™, c. 30, n. 18: ‘‘ We should not be too quick to affirm or to extend such privileges. It may be piously believed that this favor was accorded the Most Blessed Virgin, and indeed, that if it was granted to any one, it was given to her above all.”

eternal love. “And there, dead to itself, it lives in God, knowing nothing, feeling nothing, save the love that inebriates it. It loses itself in the vastness of divine solitude and darkness; but to lose oneself here, is rather to find oneself, for the soul really divests itself of all that is human in order to clothe itself with God. It is all changed and transformed in God, just as iron in a fire assumes the aspect of fire and is changed into it. But the essence of the soul thus deified remains what it was, just as the incandescent iron ceases not to be iron. Heretofore there was but coldness in this soul, from now on it is all aflame; from darkness it has passed into the most radiant brightness; once insensible, it is now all tenderness... All consumed by the flame of divine love and wholly melted thereby, it passes into God by uniting itself to Him without any intermediary; it forms but one spirit with Him, just as gold and brass fuse to form one metal. Those that are thus ravished and lost in God reach different heights, for each one penetrates further into the divine depths in proportion as he turns towards God with greater sincerity, earnestness and love, and as he foregoes more completely in this quest all personal interest. ” *

Ill. The Réle of the Soul in Contemplation

Moved by God’s grace, the soul freely responds to the divine motion.

1° It lets itself be freely seized and moved by God, as a child lets itself be carried in its mother’s arms. The soul is therefore both fasszve and active during contemplation.

a) It is passzve in this sense, that it is powerless to act on its own initiative as it did previously; at the moment of contemplation it can no longer employ its faculties in a discursive way; it is dependent upon a higher principle which governs it, which fastens its gaze, its mind and its heart upon the object of contemplation, makes it love and relish that object, suggests what it must do and imparts to it a powerful impulse to enable it to act. However, in the first stages of contemplation there is not a complete powerlessness; the phenomenon of the “gature of the faculties is effected but gradually and does not exist completely, except in some of the higher stages of contemplation, particularly in ecstasy. Thus,in the state of quietude, vocal prayer and meditation fatigue the soul, but generally they are not beyond its powers;? in the state of perfect union, God suspends the exercise of the understanding, not indeed completely by preventing it from acting, but by preventing it from reasoning; He halts thoughts by centering them on a determined object ; He causes speech to die away upon t L. DE BLois, A Book of Spiritual Instruction, c. XII. 2 St. TERESA, 2nd Relation to Fr. Rodrigo; Way of Perfection, C. XXXI1.

the lips so that one cannot utter a> sirigle word without a painful effort. 1

b) Although the soul cannot reason as it did heretofore, it does zof remain za/e. Under the influence of the divine action, it acts by gazing on God and by loving Him, even if it be by acts that are at times but implicit. Nay, the soul exerts a greater activity than ever; for it receives an influx of spiritual energy which considerably increases its own. It feels itself transformed by a superior being which is, so to speak, its soul, and which lifts it up and carries it on towards God. This is the effect of operating grace to which the soul joyfully consents.
2° In this state God appears to the soul under a new aspect, as a “ving reality, grasped by a sort ‘of experimental knowledge. which human language cannot express. It is no longer by a process of induction or deduction that God is known, but by a simple intuition. However, this intuition is not as yet the clear vision of God; it remains obscure and is obtained by a sort of contact with God, Who causes us to feel His presence and relish His favors.

Perhaps no one has better described this experimental knowledge than St. Bernard : * “I confess, though I say it in my foolishness, that the Word has visited me, and even very often. -But although He has frequently entered my soul, I have never at any time been sensible of the precise moment of His coming. I have felt that He was present. I remember that He has been with me; Ihave sometimes been able even to have a presentiment that He would come, but never to feel His coming, nor His departure... And thus I have learned the truth of the words I had read: In Him we live and move and have our being (Acts, XVII, 28); but blessed is the man in whom He is, who lives for Him, who is moved by Him. You will ask then, how, since the ways of His access are thus incapable of being traced, I could know that He was present. But He is living and full of energy, and as soon as He has entered into me He has quickened my sleeping soul ; has aroused and softened and goaded my heart, which was in a state of torpor and hard as a stone. He has begun to pluck and destroy, to plant and to build, to water the dry places, to illuminate the gloomy spots, to throw open those which were shut close, to inflame with warmth those which were cold, as also to straighten its crooked paths and make its rough places smooth, so that my soul might bless the Lord, and all that is within me praise His Holy Name, Thus, then, the Bridegroom-Word, though He has several times entered into me, has never made His coming apparent to my sight, hearing or touch. It was not by His motions that He was recognized by me, nor’ could I tell by any of my senses that He had penetrated to the depths

1ST. TERESA, 2nd Relation, |. c. 2 Sermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon UXT, n. 56. Translation. by S. J. Eales;-London, 1896. : :

INFUSED CONTEMPLATION. 655 of my being. It was as I have already said, only by the revived activity of my heart that I was enabled to recognize His Presence; and to know the power of His sacred Presence by the sudden departure of vices and the strong restraint put upon all carnal affections. From the discovery and conviction of my secret faults I have had good reason to admire the depth of His wisdom; His goodness and kindness have become known in the amendment, whatever it may amount to, of my life; while in the reformation and renewal of the spirit of my mind, that is, of my inward man, I have perceived, in a certain degree, the excellency of the Divine beauty.” Thus the soul that contemplates the Word feels at once His Presence and His sanctifying power.

This is therefore an intermediate knowledge between ordinary faith and the Beatific Vision, but which in its last analysis belongs to faith and shares in its obscurity.

3° Often the soul’s ove zs greater than its knowledge: this is seraphic contemplation, in contradistinction to cherubic contemplation in which knowledge predominates. The will attains its object in a manner different from that of the mind :.the latter knows an object only according to the representation, the image, which it receives from that object ; the will or the heart tends towards the odject such as it is zz ztself, This is why we are able to love God as He is in Himself, although our mind here on earth does not understand His inner nature This very obscurity but causes a rekindling of our love for Him and makes us long ardently for His Presence. By an aspiration of the heart, the mystic, who cannot see God, rends the mystery that veils his own face and loves God in himself, in His infinite essence.t At all events some knowledge always precedes love; therefore, if certain of the mystics seem to deny this, it is because they emphasize what has particularly impressed them. But it still remains true, even in the mystic state, that no one can love what he in no wise knows.
4° In contemplation there is a mzxture of joy and sadness : unspeakable joy in relishing the Presence of the Divine Host, sadness at not having complete possession of Him. At times it is joy that predominates, at others, it is sadness, according to the designs of God, the various phases of the mystic lifeand the different individual temperaments, Thus there are periods that are particularly paznfu/, called nights, and others that are sweet or pleasant. Some minds, like that of St. John of the Cross and St. Jeanne Chantal, perceive and describe especially the trials of the mystic life ;

«JOHN OF ST. THOMAS, in I@™ II®, q, 68-70, disp, 18, n. 11-12; JORET, Vie Spirituelle, Sept. 1920, p. 455-456.

others, like St. Teresa and St. Francis de Sales, dwell more readily upon the joys and raptures of contemplation.

5° As the mystics admit, this contemplation is beyond the powers of human description.

“Tt cannot be discerned or described,” says St. John of the Cross.* “ Moreover, the soul has no wish to speak of it, and besides, it can discover no way or proper similitude by which to describe it, so as to make known a knowledge so high, a spiritual impression so delicate and infused. Yea, if it could have a wish to speak of it, and find terms to describe it, it would always remain secret still... The soul is likea man who sees an object for the first time, the like of which he has never seen before; he handles it and feels it, yet he cannot say what it is, or tell its name, do what he can, though it be at the same time an object cognizable by the senses. How much less then can that be described which does not enter by the senses?”

This impossibility of describing what one has experienced is explained on two grounds: on the one hand, the mind is plunged into advine darkness and perceives God but vaguely and obscurely, although it is very deeply impressed; on the other hand, the most striking phenomenon is that of an intense love for God, which one experiences but knows not how to describe.

A) Let us see first of all what is meant by the divine darkness, an expression borrowed from the Pseudo- Dionysius. 2

“Delivered from the world of sense and the world of thought, the soul enters into the mysterious darkness of a holy ignorance, and dismissing all scientific knowledge, it loses itself in Him Who can neither be seen nor apprehended; it gives itself over completely to this Sovereign Object and belongs no longer to itself or to any other; it is united to the Unknown by the noblest part of its being in virtue of its renouncement of knowledge; finally, it draws forth from this utter ignorance a knowledge that the intellect would not be able to attain. ” To attain therefore to this contemplation, we must rise above sense knowledge, which evidently cannot perceive God, and even above rational knowledge, which knows God only by induction and abstraction. It is indeed solely through the subtile part of the intellect that we can perceive Him. On earth we cannot see Him directly ; we can but reach Him through the method of xegadion.

St. Thomas explains this more clearly : “From negation to negation, the soul rises above the most excellent creatures and unites itself to God in what measure it can here below. For in our present existence, our mind can never see the Divine Essence, it can only know what It is not. Such union therefore as is possible here below between the mind s Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. 11, C. 17. Translation by David Lewis, London, 1891. 2 Mystical Theology, C. 1, § 3 and God takes place when we come to know that God surpasses the noblest of creatures.” * The very notion of being, such as we conceive it, is too imperfect to be applied to God ; it is only after eliminating all specific being known by reason that our mind unites again with God. It is then that the mind finds itself in the d/vine darkness, and it is there that God dwells, 2

If we ask ourselves how it is that such negative intuition can enlighten us as regards God, we can answer that we thereby learn not what God is, but what He is not; that we thereby acquire a very exalted idea of Him, which produces in the superior part of the soul a profound impression of the divine transcendence and at the same time an ardent love for Him Whose grandeur and goodness nothing can express and Who alone can fill the soul. This contemplation, vague and affectionate, suffices under the influence of grace to cause implicit acts of faith, confidence, love and religion to well up in the soul, filling it completely, and generally producing in it a great sense of joy.

B) The second element which renders a description of contemplation difficult is the ardent love which one experiences therein and which one knows not how to express,

“Ttisa canticle of love,” St. Bernard tells us, 3 ‘ which the anointing of grace alone teaches, and experience alone makes the soul familiar with. Those who have had experience of it know it well; let those who have not had that happiness earnestly desire, not to know it, but to experience it. It is not a cry from the mouth, but the gladness of the heart ; not the sounding of the lips, but the impulse and emotion of joys within ; not a concert of words, but of wills moving in harmony. It is not heard without, nor does it make a sound in public. Only she who sings, and He in whose honour it is sung, that is, the Bridgegroom and the bride, hear the accents of that song. It is a nuptial song which is expressive of the chaste and sweet emotions of souls, the entire conformity of character, the blending of affections in mutual charity. But for the rest, this song is not to be sung or to be understood by a soul which is as yet a neophyte in virtue and but newly turned from the world. It belongs to the advanced and instructed soul which, by the progress in grace made by the power of God, has grown as far as to reach a perfect age, and, as it were, to have become marriageable through the merits it has acquired, and by its virtues to have become worthy of its Spouse. ”

6° When contemplation is avzd and weak, as in the first night of St. John of the Cross, ove 7s not conscious⁵ of it; it is only later that, by examining the effects it has produced, one is able to establish the fact of its existence. When it is sweet it seems quite certain that one is not always conscious of it in its beginnings, because while it is still weak it is difficult to distinguish it from the prayer of simplicity, and because at times one passes from the one to the other without realizing it. However, once. it has become intense, one is conscious of it. It may be said that all the various sapernatural prayers described by St. Teresa are of this type, as we shall note when explaining the different phases of contemplation.
Conclusion. From what we have said, it follows that the essentzal element of infused contemplation is passivity, as we heve described it, which means that the soul is led, acted upon, moved, directed by the Holy Ghost, and does not lead itself, move itself, or direct itself, though it preserves its freedom and its activity.

Therefore, it must not be said that the essential element of contemplation ' is the consciousness of the presence of God or the presence of God felt, since at times this is lacking, particularly in the arid contemplation described by St. John of the Cross in the course of the first night. It is, however, one of its chief elements, since it reappears in all the degrees of contemplation described by St. Teresa, from the prayer of quiet to the transforming union.

§ II. Advantages of Contemplation

These advantages surpass even those of the prayer of simplicity, precisely because in contemplation the soul is more closely united to God and under the influence of a more efficacious grace.

1° God thereby receives greater glory. a) By causing us to experience the infinite transcendence of God, infused contemplation abases our whole being before His majesty, causes us to praise and bless Him, not only at the time of mental prayer, but likewise the whole day long: once we have caught a glimpse of this divine grandeur, we are held spellbound in admiration and worship before it. This is so true that we are unable to contain ourselves, and

Thus, FATHER POULAIN, Graces of /nterior Prayer, C. V, while giving as the fundamental element of contemplation the presence of Ged felt, adds that in the lower degrees, the prayer of quiet, God makes His presence felt only in a rather obscure manner.⁶

we feel forced to invite all creatures to bless and thank God, as we shall see further on (n. 1444).

b) These homages are all the more pleasing to God, and honor Him all the more as they are directly inspired by the Holy Ghost : it is He Who adores in us, or rather, He Who causes us to adore with sentiments of great fervor and humility. He makes us adore God as He is in Himself, causing us to realize that this is a duty of our very condition, and that we are created solely in order to sing His praises. And in order to make us sing them with greater earnestness, He bestows upon us new favors and a great peace of soul.

2° The soul ts thereby made more holy. Contemplation produces so much “ght, so much Jove, and so much virtue that it is rightly called a royal road to perfection.

A) It enables us to know God in an ineffable and highly sanctifying way. “God now secretly and quietly infuses wisdom into the soul together with the loving knowledge of Himself, without many divers, distinct or separated acts, though He produces them sometimes in the soul, and that for some space of time.” ! This knowledge is very sanctifying, because it enables us to know by exfertence, what we had previously learned through reading or personal reflection, and because it makes us see at a glance what we had analyzed by successive acts of the mind.

St. John of the Cross? gives an excellent explanation of this ; “ God in His one and simple essence is all the power and majesty of His attributes. He is omnipotent, wise, good, merciful, just, strong, loving; He is all the other attributes and perfections of which we have no knowledge here below. He is all this. When the soul is in union with Him, and He is pleased to admit it to a special knowledge of Himself, it sees al! these perfections and majesty together in Him... and as-each one of these attributes is the very being of God, Who is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and as each attribute is God Himself; and as God is infinite light, and infinite divine fire, it follows that each attribute gives light and burns as God Himself.” Now one can understand what St. Teresa3 says: “When it is Our Lord who stops and suspends the understanding, He supplies it with matter to occupy itself, and ravish it with astonishment, so that without any reasoning it then understands more during the short space of a “Cyedo” than we ourselves could understand, with aJl possible study, during many years. ”

« Doubtless there are instances in which the light is not so’ clear but ‘rather’ obscure and vague; but even then it

“1 St, JOHN OF THE Cross, Living Flame, Stan. III, v. 3. 2 Living Flame, Stan, III, v. Ie: Ey sie aE 3 Life by Herself, C. XII.

makes a deep impression on the soul as we explained in number 1398.

B) Contemplation produces, above all, a very ardent love, which, according to St. John of the Cross, is characterized by three special qualities: a) First of all, the soul loves God, not of itself, but through Him ; this constitutes an excellent practice; for it loves through the Holy Ghost, as the Father and the Son love One Another. This the Son Himself declares through St. John : “ 7hat the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” *

b) The second excellence is that of loving God in God ; for, in this ardent union, the soul is absorbed by the love of God, and God yields Himself with great readiness to the soul.

c) The third quality of the supreme love is that in this state the soul loves God for what He ts, that is to say, it loves Him not only because He shows Himself generous, good, glorious, etc., but much more because He is essentially generous and ‘good etc.

We can add, with St. Francis de Sales, ? that this love is all the more ardent, because it is based upon experimental knowledge. Inthe same way that he who “with clear eyes feels and feels again the vivifying splendour of the rising sun” loves that light far more than one born blind who knows light but from hearsay, so he who enjoys God by contemplation loves Him far better than the one who knows Him but through study; “ for the actual experience of some good renders it more lovable to us than all the speculative knowledge of it that we could have.” He goes on to say, that St. Catherine of Genoa loved God more than the subtle theologian, Ocham ; the latter had more knowledge of God through science, the former through experience; and this experience carried her far ahead in seraphic love.

What increases this love still more is that it facilitates contemplation, and that contemplation in turn deepens love: “ For, love having aroused our attention to contemplate, reciprocally this attention gives birth to a greater and stronger love which finally attains its crowning perfection when it enjoys the possession of the object loved... love urges on the mind to the ever more attentive contemplation of the beloved beauty, and the sight impels the heart to love it ever more ardently. ”3

(C) This love is attended by the practice of all the moral virtues in their highest degree and, in particular, of humility, of conformity to God’s will, of holy abandonment, and thereby of joy and peace of spirit even in the very midst of the trials, terrible at times, which mystics undergo.⁷⁸

This we shall see more in detail when analyzing the various degrees of contemplation, n. 1440 etc.

§ III. Proximate Call to Contemplation

We set aside for the time being the controverted question concerning the general and remote call of all the baptized to contemplation. We wish to remain as far as possible on the solzd ground of facts and to examine these two questions: 1° To whom does God generally grant the grace of contemplation? 2° What are the signs of a proximate and tnadtvidual call to contemplation?

I. Zo Whom does God Grant Contemplation?

1° Contemplation being essentially a free gift (n. 1387), God grants it to whom He wills, when He wills, and in the way He wills. Usually, however, He bestows it only upon souls well prepared for it.

By exception, God grants it at times in an extraordinary way to souls devoid of virtues, so as to snatch them from the power of the devil.

St. Teresa‘ affirms this : ““God knows that He can attract certain souls to Himself by means of divine favours : He sees they are on the way to be lost, but He does not wish it to happen through any fault of His; therefore, though they are in a bad case and are lacking in goodness, He gives them consolations, delights, and tenderness of devotion which begin to excite their desires; He even sometimes raises them to contemplation, although but rarely, and for a very short time. This is to prove whether such a grace will induce them to prepare themselves to enjoy His favours more often. ”

2° There are privileged souls whom God calls to contemplation from their infancy, such as St. Rose of Lima, and in our own time, St. Teresa of the Child Jesus. Others are brought to it later and make such rapid progress in it as would seem to be out of proportion to their virtues.

St. Teresa 7 recounts the following : “ I remember one whom God in three days so enriched that were it not for the several years’ experience together with her constant and growing improvement, I would think it impossible. Another one I know who in three months reached contemplation ; and both of these were still young. I have seen others receive this grace only after a long time... No limits can be set to so great a Master, Who is so anxious to bestow His favours. ”

3° But ordinarily God selects for contemplation those who have prepared themselves for it by detachment, t Way of Perfection, C. XVI. 2 Concepts of Divine Love,C. V1.

and the practice of the virtues and of mental prayer, especially affective prayer.

This is the teaching of St. Thomas, * who declares that one cannot arrive at contemplation except by mortifying the passions through the practice of the moral virtues

St. John of the Cross is no less emphatic; he develops this teaching at length in the Ascent of Carmel and in the Might of the Soul, and shows that in order to reach contemplation, one must practice the most complete and universal self-abnegation. He adds that if contemplatives are so few, it is because there are few who are completely detached from self and creatures. ‘So act,” the Saint goes on to say, “that the soul may be established in pure, spiritual nakedness, and having become pure and simple it will be transformed into the simple and pure wisdom of God, which is the Son of God.”? St. Teresa returns to this again and again, recommending, above all, humility: “ After having done what those in the preceding mansions do, practice humility, and again, humility!' Thereby does the Lord suffer Himself to be overcome and to yield to all we desire of Him... My opinion is that when His Majesty bestows it, He gives it to such as are already taking leave of the things of the world. I do not say they do so in fact, for their condition prevents them, but they do so by desire. Then He calls them to concern themselves specially with interior things ; hence, I believe that if we allow His Majesty full freedom of action, He will not limit Himself to this gift alone on behalf of one whom He has invited to higher things.” 3

4° The main virtues to be practiced are: a) A great purity of heart and a complete detachment from all that can lead to sin and trouble the soul.

As examples of habitual imperfections which prevent a perfect union with God, St. John of the Cross cites: “much talking; certain attachments, which we never resolve to break with, such as to individuals, to a book or a cell, to a particular food, to certain society ; the satisfaction of one’s taste, science, news, and such things.” He then gives the reason why: “Does it make any difference whether a bird be held by a slender thread or by a rope, while the bird is bound and cannot fly till the cord that holds it is broken?... -This is the state of a soul with particular attachments: it never can attain to the liberty of the divine union, whatever virtues it may possess. ” 4

b) A great purity of mind, that is to say, the mortifying of curiosity, which troubles and disturbs the soul, distracts and scatters its attention in all directions. This is why those whose duties of state require them to read much and to study, must often mortify their curiosity, stop from time to time, and refer all their study to the love of God, This purity likewise demands that one be willing⁹ to abridge and, at the accepted time, relinquish reasoning in prayer, and simplify one’s affections, so as to come, little by little, to a simple and loving gaze on God. On this point St. John of the Cross bitterly reproaches unskilled directors of souls who, being acquainted with discursive meditation only, want to oblige all their penitents to keep their faculties constantly in action. *
e@) A great purity of intention attained through mortification of the will and the practice of holy abandonment (nn. 480-497).

d) A Lively faith, which makes us live in all things according to the maxims of the Gospel (n. 1188).

_ €) A religious silence which enables us to transform all our actions into so many prayers (n. 522-529).

f) Finally, and chiefly, an ardent and generous love which goes as far as self-immolation and the joyous acceptance of all trials (n. 1227-

1235). II. Szgus of a Proximate Call to Contemplation

When a soul is thus consciously or unconsciously disposed for contemplation, a time comes when God makes it understand that it must relinquish discursive meditation.

Now, St. John of the Cross 2 tells us there are three signs which indicate this moment.

1°“ When one finds one cannot meditate nor exert his zmagination, nor derive any satisfaction from tt, as he was wont to do — when he finds dryness there, where he was accustomed to fix the senses and draw forth sweetness — then the time is come. But while he finds sweetness, and is able to meditate as usual, let him not cease therefrom, except when his soul is in peace, of which I shall speak when describing the third sign.” The cause for this dislike, the Saint goes on to say, is that the soul has already drawn from divine things well-nigh all the spiritual profit that discursive meditation can yield; it can no longer make such

1“ A Spiritual director who, like a rough blacksmith, knows only the use of his hammer, and who, because all his knowledge is limited to the coarser work, will say ‘ Come, get rid of this, this is waste of time and idleness; arise and meditate, resume thine intericr acts, ... everything else is delusion and folly... Such a director as this does not understand the degrees of prayer, nor the ways of the Spirit ... understands not that the soul has already attained to the life of the

Spirit ... where God is Himself the agent in a special way, and is speaking in secret to the solitary soul. Directors of this kind bedaub the soul with the coarse ointments of particular knowledge and sensible sweetness to which they bring it back." (Living Flame, Stan. III, V. 3). St. Teresa also complains of such directors, who force the faculties to work even on Sundays. (Lzfe by Herself, Cc. XIII).¹⁰

a prayer; the craving and the relish for it are gone; hence it needs a new method. ?

2° “When he sees that he has no inclination to fix the imagination or the other senses on particular objects, exterior or interior. I do not mean when the imagination neither comes nor goes, — for it is disorderly even in the most complete self-recollection, — but only when the soul derives no pleasure from tying it down deliberately to other matters. ”

This the Saint explains : “Such a soul betaking itself to prayer — like a man with water before him — drinks sweetly without effort, without the necessity of drawing it through the channel of previous reflections, forms and figures. And the moment such a soul places itself in the presence of God, it makes an act of knowledge, confused, loving, peaceful and tranquil, wherein it drinks in wisdom, love and sweetness. ‘This is the reason why the soul is troubled and disgusted when compelled, in this state, to make meditations and to labour in particular acts of knowledge. Its condition, then, is like that of an infant at the breast, withdrawn from it while it was sucking it, and bidden to procure its nourishment by efforts of its own; like one who loses a prize already in his power.” ?

3° “The third sign is the most certain of the three, namely, when the soul delights to be alone, waiting lovingly on God, without any particular considerations, in interior peace, quiet, and repose, when the acts and exercises of the understanding, memory, and will have ceased, at least discursively, that is, going from one subject to another, nothing remaining except that knowledge and attention, general and loving, of which I have spoken, without the particular perception of aught else.”¹¹

“This general knowledge of which I am speaking is at times so subtle and delicate — particularly when most pure, simple, perfect, spiritual, and interior — that the soul, withal, in the practice thereof, is not observant or conscious of tt. This is the case when that knowledge is most pure, clear and simple, that is, when it enters into a soul most pure and detached from all other acts of knowledge and special perceptions, to which the understanding or the sense may cling. Such a soul, because freed from all those things which were actually and habitually objects of the understanding or of the sense, is not aware of them, because the accustomed objects of sense have failed it. This is the reason why this knowledge, when most pure, perfect, and simple, is the less perceived by the understanding, and is the most obscure. On the other hand, when this knowledge is less pure and simple, the more clear and the more important it seems to the understanding; because it is mixed up with, clothed in, or involved in, certain intelli-

INFUSED CONTEMPLATION. 665 gible forms, of which the understanding most easily takes cognizance, to its hurt.” ?

The Saint explains this by the following comparison : “‘ When the rays of the sun penetrate through a crevice into a dark room, and the air within is full of atoms and particles of dust, these are more palpable then, more visible to the eye; and yet, those rays are then less pure, simple, and perfect, because mixed up with so much impurity : also, when they are most pure and most free from dust, the less are they cognizable by the material eye; and the more pure they are, the less are they seen and considered.” ? The same takes place in the case of spiritual light : the purer and more radiant it is, the less it is perceived, so much so that the soul believes it finds itself in darkness; if on the contrary it be charged with some intelligible forms, it is more easily discerned, and the soul thinks itself better enlightened.

We must note here with Saint John of the Cross that these three signs must exist at the same time before one can safely venture to abandon the state of meditation for the way of spiritual contemplation. And let us add with this Saint that it is profitable in the beginning of one’s advancement to the ways of contemplation to return at times to discursive meditation. This will even become necessary if the soul finds itself unoccupied during the quiet of contemplation; for meditation is imperative as long as the soul has not acquired the habit of contemplation. 3

Conclusion : The Desire of Contemptacion

It is permissible to desire infused contemplation, since it is an excellent means of perfection, but it must be done humbly and conditionally, with a holy abandonment to the will of God.

a) Since contemplation has so many advantages, n. 1402, it follows that one may desire it : “Contemplation is like a dew which makes virtues grow, which nourishes them, and from which they obtain their crowning perfection.”¹²

b) But this desire must be /zzd/e, it must be accompanied by the conviction that we are very unworthy of such a gift and by the desire of using it solely for the glory of God and the good of souls.

c) It must be coxdztional, subordinated in every way to the good pleasure of God. It must therefore be neither over-eager nor unpractical : one should remember that contemplation normally presupposes the practice of the moral and theological virtues, and that it would be presumption t Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, C. XIV.¹³ Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, C. XIV. 3 Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, C. XV.¹⁴

to desire it before being schooled for a long time in these virtues. Besides, one must fully realize that if contemplation procures unspeakable joys, it is also attended by terrible trials which only strong souls can withstand, God’s grace helping.

ArT. IJ. THE DIFFERENT PHASES OF CONTEMPLATION

Infused contemplation is not the same in all persons. God, Who is pleased to vary His gifts and to adapt them to the different temperaments and characters, does not confine His action within set forms; and so, when reading the mystics one finds very different forms of contemplation.t However, there seems to be a certain unity running through all this multiplicity which has enabled spiritual writers to classify the principal stages traversed by the mystics.

We shall not present here the different classifications adopted by the different authors.? They distinguish a greater or lesser number of degrees, according to their point of view, and at times they reckon as different degrees what in reality are but varying forms of the same state.

Since all admit that St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross are the two great exponents of the mystic union, we shall keep to the divisions they give, and strive to combine them harmoniously. The various degrees are marked by a greater and greater hold of God on the soul. 1° When He takes possession of the subtile pozut of the soul, letting the lower faculties and the senses free to exercise their natural activity, we have the prayer of quiet. 2° When He seizes all the interior faculties, \eaving merely the exterior senses to their own activity, we have the fu// unzon. 3° If He takes possession at the same time of the interior faculties and of the exterior senses, we have ecstatic union (spiritual espousals). 4° Lastly, once He extends His hold over all the internal and external faculties and this, no longer in a transitory manner, but in a stad/e and per-

™ Cf. Mere Suzanne-Marie de Riants de Villerey; Ami du Clergé, 2 Aotit 1923.

2M, J. RIBET, M/ystzque divine, t. 1, ch. X, enumerates the main classifications. Alvarez de Paz counts 15: intuition of truth, interior concentration of the energies of the soul, silence, repose, union, hearing of God's word, spiritual sleep, ecstasy, rapture, bodily apparition, imaginative apparition, intellectual vision, divine darkness, manifestations of God, intuitive vision of God. Schram has a more complete and more obscure nomenclature. Scaramelli distinguishes twelve degrees : recollection, spiritual silence, quietude, inebriation of love, spiritual sleep, the anxieties and thirst of love, the divine touch, the simple mystic union, ecstasy, rapture, stable and perfect union. Father Philip of the Blessed Trinity numbers six: recollection, quietude, ordinary union, the divine impulse, rapture, spiritual marriage.

manent fashion, we have the spiritual marriage. Such are the four degrees of contemplation according to St. Teresa. St. John of the Cross adds to these the zzgh¢s or passive trials; but the first night is but a species of quietude, avzd and crucifying; the second night comprises the sz-total of trials, which precede the spiritual marriage, and which are found in the full union and in the ecstatic union. Therefore, we shall treat of :

. arid I Quzetude eae

Il Full Union Ill Aestatic Union | Syecl crucifying IV Transforming Union or Spiritual Marriage

S¹⁵ Wae Iamiver Gir Owuler

This prayer generally begins in its avid form and terminates in its sweet form.

Il. Arid Quietude or the Night of the Senses.

We have said that a great purity of heart is required for contemplation. Now, even advanced souls are subject to many imperfections, and experience, though in a milder form, a reawakening of the seven capital sins (n. 1264). In order to purify them still more and to prepare them for a higher degree of contemplation, God sends them various trials which are called fasszve trials because it is God Himself who causes them and the soul has but to accept them patiently.

No one has described these trials better than St. John of the Cross does in the “ Dark Night.” He calls them mzgh¢ because the divine action binds to some extent the sense-faculties in order to subject them to the mind, and prevents the mind in turn from reasoning, so that the latter finds itself in a kind of night : on the one hand, the mind can no longer exercise itself in discursive reasoning as it did before, and on the other, the light of contemplation it receives is so faint and so crucifying that the soul believes itself plunged into a night of darkness. The Saint distinguishes two nights : the first calculated above all to detach us from the things of sezse, and therefore called the might of the senses; the second, to detach us from spiritual consolations and from all self-love.

Here we speak only of the night of the senses.

“ God establishes the soul in the dark night of sense,” says St. John of the Cross,* “ that He may purify, prepare and subdue its lower nature, and unite it to the Spirit, by depriving it of light and causing it to cease from meditation. ”

This is a complex state of soul and a baffling mixture of darkness and light, of aridity and intense though hidden love of God, of real weakness and latent energy, difficult to analyze without falling into apparent contradictions. St. John of the Cross himself should be read with the help we shall try to furnish. With this end in view, we shali explain: 1° the constituent elements of this spiritual night; 2° the ¢rzals which attend it; 3° its advantages.

1° CONSTITUENT ELEMENTS OF THIS ORDEAL

A) The first and foremost of these elements is infused contemplation, which God begins to communicate to the soul in a secret, obscure manner as yet unknown to the soul, but which produces there a painful and agonizing impression. This, the Saint! says, is a “commencement of contemplation, dim and dry to the senses, which is, in general, secret und unknown to him who is admitted into it;... it makes the soul long for solitude and quiet, without the power of reflecting distinctly, on anything or even desiring to do so.”

To help us understand this state of soul, the Saint further on ? employs the following comparison which it will be well to keep in mind from now on: “ The first action of material fire on fuel is to dry it, to expel from it all the water and all the moisture. It blackens it at once and soils it, and drying it by little and little, makes it ight and consumes all its foulness and blackness which are contrary to itself. Finally, having heated and set on fire its outward surface, it transforms the whole into itself, and makes it beautiful as itself. The fuel under these conditions retains neither active nor passive qualities of its own, except bulk and weight, and assumes all the properties and acts of fire. It becomes dry, being dry it glows, and glowing, burns; luminous, it gives light, and burns more quickly than before. All this is the property and effect of fire. It is in this way we have to reason about the divine fire of contemplative love which, before it unites with, and transforms the soul into itself, purges away all its contrary qualities. It expels its impurities, blackens it and obscures it, and thus its condition is apparently worse than it was before. For a while the divine purgation is removing all the evil and vicious humours, which, because so deeply rooted and settled in the soul, were neither seen nor felt, but now in order to their expulsion and annihilation, are rendered clearly visible in the dim light of the divine contemplation, the soul — though no worse in itself, nor in the sight of God — seeing at last what it never saw before, looks upon itself not only as unworthy of His regard, but even as a loathsome object, and that God does loath it.” 3

3 Another comparison may further illustrate this state of soul: when we examine a glass of water with the naked eye, we see nothing in it to startle us; but if we look at that same water through the microscope, we shudder at the sight of the living

B) This kind of contemplation produces in the soul a great aridity, not only in the sense-faculties which are deprived of consolations, but also in the higher faculties which can no longer meditate in a discursive way as they did before. This is a painful situation : accustomed to the light, these faculties find themselves plunged into darkness; formerly they knew how to reflect and to cause numerous affections to pour forth from the heart; but now they have lost that facility, and prayer becomes most painful.

So it is, too, with the practice of the virtues: the efforts to grow in virtue once gladly made now appear arduous and forbidding.

1424, It is important to distinguish this purifying dryness from that caused by negligence and lukewarmness. St. John of the Cross‘! gives us three signs by which to make this distinction :

“The first is this : when we find no confort in the things of God, and none also in created things,” whereas the lukewarm while they have no inclination towards the things of God, do feel drawn to earthly pleasures. “ But still, inasmuch as this absence of pleasure in the things of heaven and of earth may proceed from bodily indisposition or a melancholy temperament, which frequently cause dissatisfaction with all things, the second test and condition become necessary.”
““ The memory dwells ordinarily upon God with a painful anxiety and carefulness; the soul thinks it is not serving God, but going backwards, because it is no longer conscious of any sweetness in the things of God; the peculiarity of lukewarmness is the want of earnestness in, and of interior solicitude for, the things of God.” Likewise, when dryness comes from physical weakness, it produces nothing but disgust without the least sign of a desire of serving God such as accompanies purifying aridity, and which obscure contemplation infuses into the soul.
“ The third sign we have for ascertaining whether this dryness be the purgation of sense, is zmability to meditate and lo make reflections, and to excite the imagination, as before, notwithstanding all the efforts we may make; for God begins now to communicate Himself, no longer through the channel of sense as formerly, in consecutive reflections by which we arranged and divided our knowledge, but in pure spirit which admits not of successive reflections, and in the act of pure contemplation to which neither the interior nor exterior senses of our lower nature can ascend. ” The Saint remarks however that this inability is not always continuous, and that at intervals one can return to ordinary meditation.

Let us also note that this inability generally refers only to things spiritual; one is able to busy oneself with studies or business matters.

C) To this aridity is added a paznful and persistent longing for a more intimate union with God. At first germs we now discover. Now, contemplation is like a microscope which helps us to see better our faults. — * Wigh?, Bk. I, C. IX.

this desire is not felt, but “the more it grows, the more the soul feels itself touched and inflamed with the love of God, without knowing or understanding how or whence that love comes, except that at times this burning so inflames it that it longs earnestly after God... Secret contemplation keeps the soul in this state of anxiety, until, in the course of time, having purged the sensual nature of man, in some degree, of its natural forces and affections by means of the aridities it occasions, it shall have kindled within it this divine love. But in the meantime, like a sick man in the hands of his physician, all it has to do, in the dark night and: dry purgation of the desire, is to suffer, healing its many imperfections and practising many virtues that it may become meet for the divine love.” !

The soul is now turned towards God and no longer desires creatures ; but this turning to God is as yet vague and confused; it is like homesickness for God; the soul longs to be united to Him and to possess Him. If it has not so far experienced quietude in its sweet form, the attraction is indistinct, the longing undefined, the uneasiness indefinable; but if it has already experienced the mystic union, the desire to return to it is clear and well-defined. ?

2° TRIALS WHICH ATTEND THE NIGHT OF THE SENSES

Spiritual writers generally give a terrifying account of these trials, because they describe what transpires in the souls of the Saints, who, being called to a high degree of contemplation, have to bear very heavy crosses. There are however other souls called to a less exalted degree who are not so severely tried. It is well to know this, in order to reassure timid souls whom the fear of the cross might hinder from entering into this path. It must be remembered that God proportions His graces to the severity of the trials.

A) Besides that persistent dryness of which we have spoken, the soul also undergoes ¢errible temptations : 1) against fazch ; feeling nothing, it imagines that it believes nothing; 2) against ope ; deprived of consolations, it believes itself abandoned, and is tempted to weariness and discouragement; 3) against chastity: “to some is sent the tool of Satan, the spirit of impurity to buffet them with horrible and violent temptations of the flesh, to trouble their minds with filthy thoughts, and their imaginations with representations of sin most. vividly depicted;. at

A NZShE Kaleo ? LEHODEY, The Ways of Mental Prayer, P. III, C. III.

times, becomes an affliction more grievous than death;”¹⁶ 4) against patzence: amidst all this weariness, the soul is tempted to complain of others or of self; blasphemous thoughts present themselves to the imagination in such a vivid manner that the tongue seems to utter them ; 5) against peace of soul: obsessed by a thousand scruples and perplexities, the soul becomes so enmeshed in its own ideas that it can follow no advice nor yield to any reasoning; this is a source of the most intense pain.

B) One likewise suffers from the actions of others: 1) at times from the repeated and varied persecutions of unbelievers: “ AW that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution; ” 2 2) sometimes also from superiors or friends who, not being able to understand such a condition, are unfavorably impressed by one’s failures and persistent aridities; 3) at other times from the spiritual director, who either mistakes this state of soul for lukewarmness, or is unable to relieve such distress,

C) Evils from without come sometimes to add to this suffering from within: 1) one becomes a prey to strange ailments which baffle physicians; 2) one cannot succeed as one did before, on account of the helplessness in which one finds oneself, or because one is absorbed in these interior sufferings : one feels s¢upzd, and others become aware of the fact; 3) one undergoes at times ¢emporal losses which bring about a precarious situation. In a word, it seems as if heaven and earth had joined against this poor soul.

In many cases these trials are natural and do not go beyond what God sends fervent souls in order to procure their perfection. But in other instances, these trials are really mystic: they are recognized by their suddenness, by their keenness, and by the good effects they produce in the soul.

3° ADVANTAGES OF THIS PURIFICATION

To be introduced into passive contemplation, even though it is dark and painful, is already a great benefit; in addition, there are others which St. John of the Cross calls accessory advantages.

1° The experimental knowledge of self and one’s miseries: “The soul counts itself for nothing, having no satisfaction in itself, because it sees of itself it does and can do nothing. God then esteems more highly this diminished satisfaction with self and the affliction it feels because it thinks it is not serving God, than He did all its former delights and all its good works, however great they may have been... The soul learns to commune with God with more respect and reverence, always necessary in converse with the Most High. Now, in its prosperous days of sweetness and consolation, the soul was less observant of reverence, for the favours it then received rendered the desire somewhat bold with God, and less reverent than it should have been.” ! Thus, the virtue of religion gains by this purification.
2° The knowledge of God becomes purer and truer, and the /ove for Him more independent of feeling. The soul no longer seeks for consolations: it wants but to please God: “It is not presumptuous and self-satisfied, as perhaps it may have been in the day of its prosperity, but timid and diffident, without any self-satisfaction. Herein consists that holy fear by which virtues are preserved and grow,” 2
3° The soul is thereby cured of the capital sins in their more refined form (cf. n. 1263).

a) The soul now practices humility, not only towards God, but also towards the neighbor : “ Now, seeing itself so parched and miserable, it does not enter into its thoughts, even for a moment, to consider itself better than others... on the contrary, it acknowledges that others are better. Out of this grows the love of our neighbor, for it now esteems them, and no longer judges them as it used to do... Now, it sees nothing but its own misery, which it keeps so constantly before its eyes that it can look upon nothing else. ” 3 b) It practices spzrttwal sobriety : since it can no longer feed upon sensible consolations, it gradually detaches itself from them, as well as from all created things, in order to concern itself solely with eternal goods; this is the beginning of spiritual peace which before was disturbed by consolations and attachments to creatures. In the midst of this peace, the soul exercises itself in fortitude, patience and longanimity, by persevering in practices which offer neither consolation nor attraction.

e) With regard to spiritual vices, such as envy, anger, sloth, the soul rids itself of them and acquires the contrary virtues : having become docile and humble under the influence of aridities and temptations, it becomes more tolerant with itself and with others; charity displaces envy, because humility causes the soul to admire the qualities of others; and the better it sees its own faults, the more it feels constrained to labor and exert itself in order to correct them.

4° Lastly, God seasons these aridities with a certain amount of spir¢tual consolation. ‘When the soul

« Night, Bk. I, C. XIL — ? Night, Bk. I, C. XIV. — 3 Night, Bk. I, C. XII least expects it, He gives it vivid intellectual lights and a pure love. These favors are far superior to anything previously experienced, and more sanctifying, although at the beginning they do not appear so, because this divine influence remains hidden.

To sum up, these aridities make the soul advance in the pure love of God : it no longer acts under the influence of consolations, and its only wish is to please God. No more the presumption and vain complacency of former days of sensible fervor; no longer those impetuous actions, those over-ardent and natural aspirations! Spiritual peace has already begun to reign in the heart. *

Conclusion : The Course to Follow tn this Trial

The spiritual director of souls who pass through this trial must show them the greatest kindness and devotedness; he must ex/zghten and comfort them by telling them frankly that this is a purifying ordeal, and that they will come out of it better, purer, humbler, better grounded in virtue and more pleasing to God.

a) The chief disposition which must be instilled into them is that of holy abandonment to God : they must kiss the Hand that strikes them, by acknowledging that they have indeed merited these trials; they must join Jesus in His agony and humbly repeat His words: “ My Father, af tt be possible, let this chalice pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” 2 b) In spite of dryness, they must persevere in prayer, in union with Our Lord, Who “ deczng in agony, prayed the longer.” 3 The words of St. Teresa4 should be kept in mind : “ Whoever has begun mental prayer, I wish him not to give it up, whatever sins he may commit in the meantime, since this is the means by which he may recover himself again; but without it, he will find the work much more difficult. And let not the devil tempt him, as he did me, to leave it off through a motive of humility,” and, we might add, under pretext that it is useless.

c) But there must be no return to discursive medttatzon once they have ascertained their inability to pray in that manner ; they must keep their souls at rest, even though it may appear they are doing nothing, and they must be content with a loving and peaceful gaze on God.

« Night, Bk. I, C. XILL. — 2 Matth., XXVI, 39. 3 Luke, XXII, 43. — 4 Life by Herself, C. VII.

“For ifa man while sitting for his portrait cannot be still, but moves about, the painter will never depict his face, and even the work already done will be spoiled. In the same way when the soul interiorly rests, every action and passion, or anxious consideration at that time will distract and disturb it;”! and so when God wants to imprint His likeness upon their souls, and suspends the activity of their faculties, they have but to abide in peace, and through this peace the spirit of love will flare up and burn more brightly within them. This state of repose is by no means one of inaction; it is rather a different kind of occupation, which excludes sloth and languor. They must therefore expel distractions, and if in order to do so they must return to considerations, let them not hesitate, provided they can accomplish this without violent efforts.

1434, d) As to the vzrtues, it is evident that they must continue to cultivate them, particularly those that are proper to their state of life : humility, self-denial, patience, charity towards the neighbor, love of God through conformity to His holy will, and trustful prayer. They must practice all these virtues in a spirit of holy abandonment into the hands of God; and if they go about this courageously, this state of soul will prove a gold mine which will yield great profits.

e) The duration of this trial varies according to the designs of God, the degree of union to which He destines the soul, and the number of imperfections from which it must still be purified. Spiritual writers tells us that this period may extend from two to fifteen years.2 But there are intervals of respite, during which the soul is at peace, enjoys God, and builds up strength for future combats; hence, the need of patience, confidence and holy abandonment. This is, in summary, what the spiritual director must urge on these sorely tried souls.

II. Sweet Quzetude

In treating this and the following states of soul, we shall make use, chiefly, of the Works of St. Teresa, who has described this prayer with a clarity of vision and a precision that have never been excelled. She calls it by various names : the Lrourth Mansion of the Interior Castle,¹⁷

SNORE ke) VaGronl.¹⁸

or the prayer of Dzvine Delights, because it is here that for the first time the presence of God is felt by a kind of spiritual delight; in her Zzfe (C. XIV) she calls it the prayer of guze¢ and she explains it by the second way of watering the garden. Other writers call it the prayer of sc/ence, precisely because the soul then ceases to reason.

This prayer has, as it were, three distinct phases : 1° passtve recollection, a preparation for it; 2° guzetude properly so called, 3° the sleep of the faculties, which completes it and prepares for the full union of the faculties.

1° PASSIVE RECOLLECTION

A) Nature. This kind of recollection is called passive in order to distinguish it from acéve recollection, which is acquired through our own efforts aided by grace (n. 1317). Passtve recollection is not obtained “by means of the understanding labouring to consider God within itself, nor by the imagination representing Him within us,” ! but by a direct action of divine grace upon our faculties. On this account St. Teresa calls it the first supernatural prayer of which she had experience : “ It is an inward recollection felt in the soul, seeming to it as though it possessed other senses analogous to the exterior ones. The soul seems as if it would want to withdraw from the din of the latter; and thus sometimes it does draw them after itself; and one longs to close the eyes and neither hear nor see anything, nor be aware of anything but that which it does then, that is, to converse all alone with God. In this state, the senses and faculties are not suspended; they remain in the soul’s possession, but they so remain in order to be applied to God.” 2

In another place she explains this by a graceful comparison ; “Our faculties and senses had gone out (of the castle) to associate with scribes the seven principal degrees of prayer corresponding to the seven stages of the spiritual life. On the eve of the Feast of the Blessed Trinity, she was asking herself what would be the fundamental idea of this Treatise, when God deigned Himself to suggest it. He showed her the soul in the state of grace as a magnificent crystal globe, having the shape of a castle with seven mansions, the seventh the center, in which God Himself dwells, radiant with a marvellous brightness by which all the mansions are illumined, each more brilliant as it stands closer to the center. Outside the castle there are only darkness and uncleanness, and poisonous creatures which attack those who venture near. ‘The entrance to the castle is mental prayer, which makes us enter into ourselves and find God. One leaves the castle through mortal sin, of which the Saint gives a terrifying description (I Mansion, C. II). There are seven Mansions : the first two correspond to the purgative way; the third to the illuminative way; and with the fourth begins infused contemplation. : :

«Sr. TERESA, /nterior Castle, 1V Mansion, C. 3.

2 Letter to Father Rodrigo Alvarez.

strangers.” Afterwards realizing their fault, they drew nigh again to the castle, though not yet resolved to enter. The Great King within the castle is willing in His mercy to call them back to Him : “ Like a good shepherd (acts towards his sheep) He makes them know His voice by so sweet @ call, that they themselves can scarcely hear it. This He does that they may not wander and be lost, but return to their mansion. This ca// of the Shepherd has such power, that they immediately abandon all those external things which deceived them, and hasten into the castle. Methinks I have never explained myself in the way I have now.”* St. Francis de Sales furnishes us with a no less telling comparison : “ As when a loadstone is placed in the midst of several needles, they immediately turn towards the magnet and fix themselves firmly thereto, so something similar occurs when the Almighty favours us with His sensible presence : the faculties of the soul then direct all their strength and activity to the spot where it is most sensibly felt, in order that they may enjoy the company of their God, Who communicates such ineffable delights. ”

Passive recollection may therefore be defined as a gentle and affectionate absorption of the mind and the heart in God, produced by a special grace of the Holy Ghost.

B) Course To Follow During This Prayer. This favor is ordinarily a prelude to the prayer of quiet; but it may be but ¢vansztory, as on certain occasions when one abounds in fervor, for instance at the time of receiving the religious habit, or of taking vows, or of receiving orders. From this fact two practical conclusions follow :

a) If God plunges us into this prayer of recollection, let us gently keep the understanding from reasoning, but without endeavoring to suspend it altogether :

“We should, without any violence or noise, keep the understanding from discoursing, but not suspend it, nor the imagination either ; it is good for the soul to remember that it is in the presence of God, and who this God is. If what the understanding feels in itself absorbs it, well and good; but let it not try to understand what this is; for such a gift is bestowed on the will. Let the soul enjoy it without the interference of its own efforts, limiting itself to the utterance of some few words of love. ” 3 b) But if God does not speak to our heart, “if we perceive that this King has not heard us, nor pays any heed to us, we must stand there like dolts,” says St. Teresa. “For when the soul strives to bind its thoughts, it experiences a still greater aridity than before, and the very effort it makes to think of nothing makes the imagination more active. Besides, we must have but God’s glory in view, not our consolations and personal tastes. When His Divine Majesty wishes the understanding to leave off discoursing,

Interior Castle, 1V Mansion, C. 3. * Love of God, Bk. V1, C. 7. — 3 Interior Castle, Mansion IV, C. 3,

He employs it in another way, and gives it a light and knowledge so far above what we can arrive at, that He makes it to remain absorbed.” Outside of this however our faculties are made for action.

2° QUIETUDE PROPERLY SO CALLED

We shall explain its xature, its origin, its development, its various forms, and the course to follow during this prayer.

A) Nature. In this prayer the higher faculties of the soul, the intellect and the will, are seized by God and made to enjoy a very gentle repose and a very keen joy at His Presence; but the understanding, the memory and the imagination remain free and are at times a source of distractions.

a) St. Teresa explains in the following manner the supernatural character of this prayer, and the way in which the wd/ zs seized by God.* “This is something supernatural, which we cannot acquire by all our diligence, because it is a settling of the soul in peace; or rather, to speak more correctly, Our Lord leads her into peace, just as He did holy Simeon, for all the faculties are calmed. The soul understands, in a manner different from understanding by the exterior senses, that she is now placed near her God, and that in a very short time, she will become one with Him by union. This does not happen because she sees Him with the eyes of the body or of the soul,... but that she sees herself in the kingdom (at least, near the King Who is to give it to her), and the soul seems so impressed with such reverence that then she dare not ask anything...

flere the will ts a captive, and if she feel any pain in this state, it is to see that she is to return to her former liberty... Nothing troubles them (those who are in this state) and it seems nothing can doso. In a word, while this continues, they are so inebriated and absorbed with the delight and satisfaction contained therein, that they remember not that there is anything more to desire; and they exclaim with St. Peter : Lord let us make here three tabernacles.” 3

The Saint adds that, since the will alone is made captive, ¢he other two faculties may wander. “The will must not heed them, but abide in the enjoyment of her pleasure and quiet; for if it seeks to recollect them, both she and they will roam.” It is especially the imagination which strays at times and fatigues us by its deafening noise : “ Let the mill-clapper go round and let us but heed the grinding of our own meal, not halting the action of our will and understanding. ” °

b) The spiritual joy produced in the state of quietude is quite azfferent from that experienced in active

4 Life by Herself, C. XIV. — 5 /ntervor Castle, 1V Mansion, C. 1.¹⁹²⁰

prayer. St. Teresa explains this difference by contrasting the divine delights produced by contemplation with the joys or consolations of active prayer. There is a twofold difference proceeding from the source and the effects of these prayers.

The divine delights come directly from the action of God, whilst the yoys come from our activity aided by grace.

In order to make this clear, St. Teresa employs the comparison of the two cisterns supplied with water in different ways. In the one the water is brought from a distance through pipes, and rushes in with a noise; this resembles the consolations experienced in active prayer. The other cistern is fed by a spring rising from its depths and is filled noiselessly ; this represents contemplation, or the water of consolation “which God causes to flow from our inmost soul, with great peace and calm and gentleness.” *

Thus, the joys of contemplation are far superior to those of active prayer : “ When this heavenly water begins to rise from the source.. our whole interior seems to be enlarging and dilating, and producing certain delights which cannot be expressed. Neither can the soul understand what this is which is here given to her. A certain fragrance is diffused, as if (I may say so) some odoriferous perfumes were cast into a brasier, without any light being seen, or the place whence the odour comes...” ? But the Saint adds that this is a very imperfect comparison. In her Life, 3 she states that such joys resemble those of heaven and that the soul loses all craving for the things of earth : “ She sees clearly that even one moment of these pleasures cannot be purchased here below; and that no riches, nor dominions, nor honors, nor delights are capable of giving such happiness even for one instant, because this joy is real and we feel it satisfies us...”

The principal cause of this joy is the presence of God felt :

“God, for His greatness’ sake, is pleased that this soul should now understand that His Divine Majesty is so close to her, that there is no need of sending any messenger to her; that she but needs to speak, herself, to Him, though not by word of mouth, since, being so near to her, He understands her even by the sole motion of her lips.”4 Of course, the Saint goes on to say that God is ever with us; but it is question here of a special presence : “This Divine Sovereign, our Master, wishes we should here understand that He knows us, and that we should feel the effects of His presence; that He particularly wishes to begin to work in our soul by giving her a great interior and exterior satisfaction. ” §

¢) This dilatation of the heart produces excellent virtuous arsposttions, particularly a fear of offending God (which replaces the fear of hell), dove of penance and of crosses, humility, contempt for worldly joys : —

“ Neither is she distressed through the fear of hell; for though she feels greater fear now for having offended God, yet she i is free from servile fear, and has a great confidence that she shall enjoy Him.”

[nterior Castle, 1V Mansion, C. 2. — 2 Interior Castle, 1V Mansion, C. 2. 3 Life by Herself, C. XIV. — 4 Life by Herself, C. XIV. — 5 Lbid., 1. c.

The fear she used to have of losing her health by doing penance has now ceased, and she thinks she can do all in God, as she has greater desires than ever of using austerities. The fear of afflictions, likewise, which she used to have, is now more moderate, because she has a more lively faith, for she knows that if she bears them for God’s sake, His Majesty will give her grace to bear them with patience; nay sometimes she desires them, since she has a great desire to do something for God. 3) And as she now understands His greatness better, she accordingly esteems herself more vile. 4) Having, likewise, tried the delights of God, she finds those of the world but dung (in comparison); she separates herself from them by little and little, and for doing this she has more command over herself. Ina word, she has improved in all virtues, and will not fail to go on increasing, unless she should relapse and offend God again, for then all is lost, however highly raised a soul may have been in virtue and contemplation. ”

Definition. From this description one may conclude that quietude is a supernatural state of prayer, not wholly passtve, which ts produced in the superior part of the soul and causes the latter to feel and relish God present wethin tt.

It is a supernatural state of prayer, that is to say, infused. In this we differ from some writers of the Carmelite School, who considering it as a prayer of transition, are of the opinion that it can be acquired in the same way as the prayer of simplicity.

With them we say that it is zot wholly passive, since only the will (with the intellect) is seized, while the power of reasoning and of the imagination remain freetoroam. Asto the divine delights and the virtues which are the fruits of this prayer, we have sufficiently explained them in

B) Origin and Growth of Quietude. a) Generally speaking, this form of prayer is granted to souls that are already accustomed to meditation for a notable period of time, and have passed through the zzght of the senses. Still, it is sometimes preceded by the latter, especially in the case of children or innocent souls who have no need of a special purification.

b) At first it is granted but at intervals, and in a rather faint and unconscious manner; it is of short duration, lasting, for instance, for the space of a Hat Mary,? as St. Teresa says. Later on it becomes more frequent and lasted longer.²¹²²

more prolonged, extending over a half-hour. But, since it does not always come suddenly nor stop abruptly, it may, from its first inception to its final cessation, endure for a full hour or even longer. Moreover, when it is acteve (n. 1445) and accompanied by spiritual inebriation, it may continue through an entire day or even two, without in any way interfering with the ordinary occupations.

ce) As long as the purification of the soul is not completed, quietude may occur a/ternately in its sweet or in its arid form.

d) A time comes when quietude becomes hadztual : then one enters into it from the moment one begins to pray. At times one is even seized by it unawares, even in the midst of the most common-place occupations. It also tends to become stronger and more conscious, and if the soul corresponds with grace, it develops into the full union and ecstasy. But if the soul is not faithful, it may fail and fall back into discursive meditation, or even suffer the loss of grace.

CC) Forms or Varieties of Quietude. There are three principal forms: sz/ent, praying, and active quietude, *

a) In szlent quietude, the soul contemplates God in the midst of a loving stillness, admiration so to speak stifling every utterance. The will immersed in God and burning with love for Him rests joyfully in Him through a union that is calm, tranquil and sweet.

Like a mother who feasts her eyes upon her child, the soul lovingly contemplates its God. ‘“ The soul,” says St. Teresa,? “is like the child that sucks, lying at his mother’s breast; and she, to please him, without moving his lips, forces the milk into his mouth.” So it is here ; for the will continues to love without any labor on the part of the understanding.

b) At times the soul, unable to contain its love, pours itself forth in ardent prayer. This is prayzng quietude: now it gives vent to sweet colloquies, now it abandons itself to the effusions of its tenderness and calls upon all creatures to praise God : “ She utters a thousand holy extravagances, always endeavoring to please Thee, who holdest her in this state. ” 3

In that state St. Teresa composed stanzas to describe her love and her suffering. Sometimes God responds to such outbursts of love with affectionate caresses, which produce a species of spiritual inebriation. According to St. Francis de Sales this heavenly intoxication “ renders us more alive to spiritual things by alienating the corporal senses; it does not reduce us to a level with brute creation, but renders us parti- cipators of the angelic, and even of the divine, nature; it transports us out of ourselves to elevate us above ourselves. ” 4

™ CASSIAN had already noted these varieties, Conf., X, C. 24. 2 Way of Perfection, C. XXXI. 3 Life by Herself, C. XVI. — 4 Love of God, Bk. VI, C. VI.

¢) There are cases in which quietude becomes active. When the quietude is profound and prolonged, says St. Teresa,²³ (since the will alone is held captive), the other faculties are free to attend to things relating to God’s service; and this they do with far greater energy. Then, while the soul is engaged in exterior works it continues to love God ardently : this is the union of action and contemplation, of the service of Martha and the love of Mary.

3° THE SLEEP OF THE FACULTIES

This third phase of quietude is a still higher form of prayer which prepares for the full union of the interior faculties with God.

St. Teresa described it in the seventeenth chapter of her autobiography : “ Now, I often have this kind of union whereof I am speaking ; and Almighty God is very often pleased to bestow this favor upon me in such a manner, that He makes my will and also my understanding recollected; and then it no longer discourses, but is occupied in the enjoyment of God, as one who 1s looking on, and who sees so much, that he knows not which way to look... The memory remains free and so also seems to be the imagination : and when it sees itself alone one cannot conceive what a war it makes upon the will and the under standing, and how it endeavors to put everything in confusion. It makes me quite tired, so that I abhor it; and often I have besough- Our Lord to deprive me entirely of it on these occasions, if it should continue to distract me... just like those importunate and restless little gnats which buzz about by night here and there. This comparison seems to me to be extremely proper; for though these faculties have no strength to do harm, yet they trouble those who feel them.” As to the means of overcoming such wanderings, she notes but one: ‘To consider the memory no better than a madman, and to leave it alone with its madness, for God only can check its extravagances.” As one can see, this is a prayer of quiet, in which the understanding itself is seized by God, but in which the imagination continues to wander. It is a preparation for the full union.

THE COURSE TO FOLLOW DURING THE PRAYER OF QUIET

The general disposition to be fostered in this state is that of humble abandonment into the hands of God from the very beginning to the end and throughout all the phases of this prayer.

a) One must not, then, make efforts to put oneself in this state by striving to suspend the functions of the faculties and even to hold one’s breath: this would be wasted effort, since God alone can grant contemplation.

b) As soon as one is aware of the divine action, one must adapt oneself to it as perfectly as possible, giving up reflection and following the motions of grace with great docility.

If we are called to the state of Joving sz/ence, let us contemplate and love uttering not a word, or at the most a few tender words, in order to rekindle the flame of love, but without making any violent efforts that might extinguish it.
If we are inclined to make acts, if our affections burst forth as from a spring, let us pray gently, without any noise of words, but with an ardent desire to be heard. ‘A few little straws... presented with humility, will be much more for the purpose, and will be of greater help in enkindling the fire of divine love, than great logs of wood — I mean by these those discourses that seem to us so learned, and which might extinguish that fire in the space of time required to recite the Creed.”* Above all, adds St. Francis de Sales, ? we must avoid violent, immoderate outbursts which weary the heart and the nerves, as well as those disturbing reflections by which we try te discover whether the tranquility we enjoy is indeed tranquil.
If the understanding and the imagination wander, let us not be disturbed ; let us not go in pursuit of them; let the will “remain in the enjoyment of the favor which has been granted it, as the busy bee remains in the depths of its cell. If, instead, of entering into the hive, the bees were to go in pursuit of one another, how could any honey be made?”

§ II. The Prayer of Full Union

This prayer, which corresponds to the Fifth Mansion, is called s¢mple union or full union of the interior Jaculttes, because in it the soul is united to God, not only through the will, but also through all the interior faculties. It is therefore more perfect than the prayer of quiet. We shall describe the ature and the effects of this prayer.

I, Nature of the Prayer of Union

1° Its essential characteristics are two: the suspension of all the faculties, and the absolute certitude that God ts present in the soul.

“To return now to the proof which I said was certain. You see that God makes this soul quite stupid, in order the better to imprint upon her true wisdom; hence, she neither sees nor heeds, nor understands, nor perceives all the time she is in this state, which is always short; and, indeed, it seems to her shorter than it is.” 3 In other words, not only the will, but the understanding, the imagination, and the memory are suspended in their functions. St. Teresa goes on: “ God so fixes Himself in the interior of this soul, that when she comes to herself, she cannot but believe she was in God and that God was in her.4 This truth in so deeply rooted in her, that though many years may pass away before God bestows the like favor upon her, she never forgets it or doubts it.” 5

3 [ntertor Castle, V Mansion, C. 1; cf. Zzfe, C. XVIII.

4St. Teresa gives the reason why, /zterior Castle, V Mansion, C. I: ‘‘I dare venture to assert that His Divine Majesty is so joined and united with the essence of the soul, that the devil dare not approach... "

5 [ntertor Castle, V Mansion, C. I.

2° From these two characteristics three others flow:

a) The absence of distractions, since the whole soul is entirely absorbed in God.

b) The absence of fatigue : personal effort is reduced to very little; to abandon oneself to the good pleasure of God suffices. The Manna of Heaven falls upon the soul, which has but to enjoy it; and so this prayer, no matter how long it may endure, causes no injury to health. *

c) An extraordinary abundance of joy. “In this degree one feels nothing, one but enjoys, though yet without understanding what is enjoyed. One knows, however, that a certain good is possessed in which all blessings are comprised. All the senses are occupied with this joy in such a manner that they cannot apply themselves to anything else, either interiorly or exteriorly...”2 The Saint adds that a simple moment of such pure delights suffices to compensate for all earthly sufferings.

This prayer therefore differs from quietude, in which only the will is seized, and in which one wonders at times whether the soul has been really united to God.

We may define it as a most intimate union of the soul wth God, accompanied by the suspension of all the interior Faculties, and of the certitude of God’s presence within the soul,

Il. Effects of the Prayer of Union

1° The principal effect is a marvellous transformation of the soul which, according to St. Teresa, can be compared to the metamorphosis of the silk-worm.

“These little worms feed on mulberry leaves, till afterwards they become bigger and then on the boughs they go spinning silk with their little mouths, and making little cells very close, in which they are enclosed. From this cell or bag, which contains a large but ugly worm that dies, there afterwards rises a white and very beautiful butterfly.”²⁴ This is an image of the wondrous change that takes place in the soul through the prayer of union. This soul, which before feared the Cross, now feels full of generosity, and is ready to make the most painful sacrifices for God’s sake.

Here St. Teresa enters into some detail. She describes the ardent zeal which spurs the soul on to glorify God, to

684 CHAPTER UII.

make Him known and loved by all; the detachment from creatures, whereby the soul goes so far as to desire to quit this world where God is offended so often; the perfect submission to the will of God, whereby the soul offers no more resistance to grace than does soft wax to the seal impressed upon it; the great charity towards the neighbor, which is manifested by deeds, and which causes the soul to rejoice at the praises conferred upon others. t

2° This union is the prelude to another one more perfect still. It is like the first meeting with the betrothed, soon to be followed, if we correspond with grace, by the spiritual espousal and finally by the mystical marriage. St. Teresa urges those in this state to make progress in the way of detachment and love. Any halt would be followed by laxity and backsliding. *

§ III. Ecstatic Union (Spiritual Espousal)

This union presents itself in two forms: the sweet and the dz¢ter. I. Sweet Ecstatic Union

The word ecstasy does not necessarily include the phenomenon of levitation, of which we shall speak in the following chapter; it refers simply to the suspension of the activity of the extertor senses. "Ecstatic union is therefore more perfect than the two preceding ones, since it comprises, over and above the elements peculiar to the former, this suspension of the activity of the external senses. We shall describe: 1° its zature; 2° its phases or degrees; 3° its effects.

1° NATURE OF THE ECSTATIC UNION

There are two elements which constitute this union : the absorption of the soul in God and the suspension of the activity of the senses. It is because the soul is wholly absorbed in God that the outward senses appear to be riveted on Him or on the object which He presents to them.

A) Two principal causes give rise to the absorption in God, as St. Francis de Sales so well explains : 3 a) “ Our admiration is excited when we discover a truth with which we were not previously acquainted, and did not expect to know. When beauty and goodness are joined to this truth, the admiration produced by the discovery is extremely pleasing... Thus, when it pleases God to enlighten the understanding of the devout soul, and to raise her to t Intertor Castle, V Mansion, C. Il. — 2 /dzd. 3 Love of Ged, Bk. VII, C. IV and V.²⁵²⁶

an extraordinary degree of contemplation, she sees the divine mysteries more clearly and perfectly than before, and discovers in them new beauties and attractions which fill her with admiration... When the subject of admiration is pleasing, the mind is closely attached thereto, not only on account of its great beauty, but also because of the fact that this great beauty has been newly discovered ; it cannot be satiated with contemplating what it had never seen before, and finds so lovely.”

b) To admiration is joined Jove: “God touches the will by the attractions of His sweetness, and the will, inflamed with love, quickly forgets its terrestrial inclinations, to bound towards God and to be totally absorbed in Him, as a needle which has been touched with a loadstone seems to forget its natural insensibility to turn to the pole. The predominant features of this kind of rapture are not knowledge, sublime visions, admiration and speculative science, but affection, sensible consolation and enjoyment.”

¢) Moreover, admiration grows through love, and love through admiration :

“The understanding is sometimes replenished with admiration at the view of the happiness enjoyed by the will in its ecstasy ; and the will often receives a new degree of pleasure from witnessing the admiration of the understanding, so that these two powers mutually communicate their rapture. ” *

It is not surprising that a soul thus given to the contemplation and the love of God, is at it were out of itself, ravished and borne towards Him. If one who lets himself be carried away by the passion of human love goes so far as to abandon all in order to yield himself to the object of his love, is there any cause for wonder if divine love, impressed upon a soul by God Himself, so absorbs it that it comes to forget all else in order to behold and to love Him alone?

B) The suspension of the senses is the outcome of this absorption in God. It takes place gradually and does not reach the same degree in all.

a) In what regards the exterior senses :

At first, a more or less pronounced state of zmsenszbility sets in together with a slowing down of the physical life, of breathing, and as a consequence of the natural body-heat : “ One feels that natural warmth wanes, and that the body gradually cools, but with a gentleness and delight that are unspeakable. ”
A sort of immobility ensues which causes the body to preserve the attitude in which it was when seized by the ecstasy; the eyes remain fixed upon some invisible object.
This condition, which should naturally weaken the body, rather imparts to it new energies.? True, at the moment of returning consciousness one feels a certain sense of fatigue, but this is followed by a recrudescence of vigor.
At times, the suspension of the senses is complete, at others, it remains zmcomplete and permits a narration of the revelations received, as can be seen in the life of St. Catherine of Siena.

t Love of God, Bk. VII, C. V. 2 Life by Herself, C. XVIII and XX.

b) The inzerior senses are still more completely suspended than in the mystic union, of which we have already spoken.

c) The question suggests itself as to whether free-will itself is not suspended. The common opinion based on such authorities as St. Thomas, Suarez, St. Teresa, Alvarez de Paz is that free-will remains, and that therefore the soul in ecstasy can merit. In fact, the soul freely accepts the spiritual favors that are then granted to it.

d) The duration of the ecstasy varies greatly. Complete ecstasy generally lasts but a few moments, at times a halfhour; but, since it is preceded and followed by moments of incomplete ecstasy, it may extend over several days if all its fluctuations are taken into account.

e) One comes out of the ecstasy by a reawakening, spontaneous or provoked: 1) in the first instance one experiences a kind of anguish, as if one were returning from another world, and then it is but gradually that the soul regains its control over the body.

In the second case, the reawakening is provoked by the command of a superior ;: if this command is vocal, it is always obeyed; if it is but mzen¢a/, it is not always answered,

2° THE THREE PHASES OF ECSTATIC UNION

There are three principal phases in ecstasy : simple ecstasy, rapture, and the flight of the spirit.

a) Simple ecstasy is a sort of fazuting-spell which comes on gently and produces a sense of hurt at once painful and delightful. The Spouse of the soul makes it feel His presence, but only for a time. Now, the soul wants to have the joy of this divine presence continually and therefore suffers when deprived of it. Nevertheless, this enjoyment is always more delightful now than it was in the prayer of quiet.

Let us see what St. Teresa’? has to say on this matter: ‘“ The soul feels herself to be most delightfully wounded, but she neither knows how, nor by whom. She knows well it is a favor which is to be prized, and she wishes never to be healed : she complains in words of love, to her Spouse, and the words are external; she cannot do otherwise, knowing Him to be present but not willing to manifest Himself. This is a great but pleasant affliction... for it gives her more delight than the suspension of the Prayer of Quiet, which has no such affliction attached to it.”

It is already in this phase that the supernatural utterances and revelations occur of which we shall speak further on.²⁷

b) Rapture takes hold of the soul with an zmpetuostty and a violence that are irresistible. It is as if one were carried on the wings of a powerful eagle, but whither one knows not. In spite of the pleasure experienced, natural weakness at first causes a sense of fear. “ But this fear is mixed with an ardent and fresh love for Him Who shows such tender love to a worm that is nothing but corruption.” ! Jt isin the state of rapture that the spiritual espousal is concluded; and this is a precaution on the part of God; for were one to preserve the use of one’s senses, one would perhaps die at seeing oneself so near to that Supreme Majesty.2 Once the rapture is over, the will remains as it were zzebriated, and can no longer occupy itself save with God; disgusted with the things of earth, it has an insatiable desire to do penance, so much so that it complains in the absence of suffering. 3
c) Rapture is followed by the fight of the spzrtt, which is so impetuous that it seems to sever the soul from the body, and resistance appears impossible.

. “It seems to the soul,” says St. Teresa, “that she has been altogether in another region quite different from this world in which we live, and there another light is shown to her very different from this here below; and though she should employ all her life long in trying to form an idea of this and other wonders, yet it would be impossible to understand them. She is in an instant taught so many things together, that should she spend many years in arranging them in her thoughts and imagination, she could not remember the one-thousandth of them, ”4

3° PRINCIPAL EFFECTS OF ECSTATIC UNION

A) The one effect which includes all others is a great holiness of life, even to the point of heroism. So true is this that where such holiness does not exist the ecstasy itself is open to suspicion,

St. Francis de Sales’ makes this statement: “A soul may be transported beyond herself in prayer; but if she be not habitually united to God, and elevated to the divinity by a life superior to nature and the senses: if her conduct does not visibly display that ecstasy of action and operation which is accomplished by a renunciation of worldly desires, of self-will, of the inclinations of corrupt nature, and the practice of interior virtues, as humility of heart, meekness, simplicity, a constant tender charity for our neighbor, raptures serve only to attract the admiration of men without rendering her more pleasing to God.”

t Life by Herself, C. XX.

B) The principal virtues produced by the ecstatic union, are: 1) a perfect detachment from creatures : God, so to speak, makes the soul come to the highest ramparts of a fortress, from which it clearly sees the nothingness of things here below. So, from now on it does not want to have any will of its own; it would even wish to forego the possession of its free-will, were that possible. 2) An zimmense sorrow for sins committed: what pains it most is not the fear of hell, but that of offending God. 3) A freguent and tender vision of Our Lora’s Sacred Humanity and of the Most Blessed Virgin. A wonderful companionship indeed, that of Jesus and Mary! Imaginative and intellectual visions become more numerous and complete the work of detaching the soul from creatures and of burying it in humility. 4) Lastly, a marvelous patience to withstand courageously the new passive trials which Almighty God sends, and which are called the purification of love.

Burning with the desire to see God, the soul feels as if it were pierced through and through by a fiery dart, and cries out in anguish at seeing itself separated from the sole Object of its love. This is the beginning of a veritable martyrdom, a martyrdom of soul and body, accompanied by an ardent desire to die so as never to be separated from the Well-Beloved, a martyrdom relieved at times by inebriating delights. We shall understand this better after studying the Second Night of St. John of the Cross, the Might of the Spirit.

Il. The Night of the Spirit

The First Night purified the soul to make it ready for the joys of quietude, of union and of ecstasy. But before entering into the still purer and more lasting joys of the spiritual marriage, there is need of a more profound and radical purification which generally takes place in the course of the ecstatic union. We shall explain : 1° the veason for such a purification; 2° the severe trials which attend it; 3° the blessed results which follow from it.

1° REASON FOR THE NIGHT OF THE SPIRIT

To be united to God in a manner so intimate and lasting as one is in the transforming union or spiritual marriage, one must necessarily be free from the last remaining imperfections. These imperfections, St. John of the Cross ! tells us, are of two kinds, Zabztual and actual.

A) The former comprise two things : @) imperfect affections and habzts ; they are as it were roots, imbedded in the²⁸ depths of the soul, to which the purification of the senses could not reach; for instance, friendships a bit too ardent; these must be uprooted; b) a certain dullness of mind which makes one subject to distractions from within and to attractions from without. These frailties are incompatible with a perfect union of the soul with God.

B) Actual imperfections are also of two kinds : a) a certain pride, a vain self-complacency resulting from the abundance of spiritual consolations received. This attitude at times leads to illusions and makes one mistake false visions and prophecies for true ones; b) over-boldness towards God, causing one to lose that reverential fear of Him which is the safeguard of all virtue.

2° TRIALS OF THE NIGHT OF THE SPIRIT

In order to purify and reform the soul, God leaves the mind in darkness, the will in aridity, the memory in forgetfulness, and the affections tmmersed in pain and anguish. This purification is wrought, says St. John of the Cross, through the “ght of infused contemplation, a light bright in itself, but azm and painful to the soul on account of the latter’s ignorance and impurity.

A) Sufferings of the Mind. a) The brilliant and pure light of contemplation dazes the mind’s eye, too weak and too impure to behold it. Just as weak eyes are dazed by a clear, bright light, so the soul, still ailing, is tortured and paralyzed by the divine light, with the result that it seems that death itself would be a welcome deliverance.

b) This pain is intensified by the meeting of the a@v7/ne and the human inthe same soul: the dvine, that is to say, purifying contemplation, invades the soul to renew it, to perfect it, to deify it; the human, that is to say, the soul itself with its faults, experiences the sense of annihilation, of spiritual death, through which it must pass in order to come to life again.

¢) To this pain is added a keen realization of the soul’s destitution and wretchedness. Its sensitive part immersed in aridity and its intellectual part in darkness, the soul has the agonizing impression of a man suspended in mid-air deprived of any support. At times it even sees hell yawning to swallow it forever. These are, of course, figurative expressions, but they give an idea of the effect of that light which shows on the one hand the greatness and the holiness of God, and on the other the nothingness and the misery of man.

B)Sufferings of the Will are likewise beyond description : a) the soul sees itself deprived of all joy, and

becomes convinced that this state is to last forever. Even the confessor is unable to give consolation.

b) In order to sustain the soul in this trial, God sends intervals of relief, during which it experiences a sweet peace in the enjoyment of divine love and familiarity. But such moments are followed by counter-attacks when the soul imagines itself to be no longer loved by God and to be justly forsaken by Him. This is the anguish of spiritual dereliction.

c) In this state, prayer is quite impossible; or if one does pray, it is amidst such aridity that it seems that God does not give ear. There are cases in which one cannot even attend to one’s temporal interests, memory for such matters having gone completely. This is a “Zgature of the faculties as regards all natural actions.

To sum up in.a word : this state is a sort of 4e// by reason of the torture experienced; it is a sort of purgatory by reason of the purification effected.

3° Happy RESULTS OF THE PURIFICATION OF THE SPIRIT.

A) These results are thus summarized by St. John of the:Cross :*

“This blessed night, though it darkens the mind, does so only to give it light in everything; and though it humbles it and makes it miserable, it does so only to raise it up and set it free; and though it impoverishes it and empties it of all its natural self and liking, it does so only to enable it to reach forward divinely to the possession and fruition of all things.” To explain these effects, the Saint makes use of the comparison of a piece of green wood thrown into a fireplace, as mentioned in n. 1422.

B) He then reduces them to four principal effects : a) An ardent love for God. From the very outset of this night, this love existed in the superior part of the soul, though unknown to itself; a time comes however when God makes the soul aware of its love and then it is ready to dare all things in order to please Him.

b) A peercing light: at first this light revealed to the soul only its miseries and thus inflicted pain; but once imperfections have been eliminated through sorrow, it reveals the riches to be gained and thus becomes a source of consolation, c) A great sense of security; for this light preserves the soul from pride, the great obstacle to salvation. It shows

it that it is God Himself Who leads it, and that the suffering He sends is more profitable than joy would be. Lastly, this light places in the will the firm determination to do nothing that might offend God, to neglect nothing that redounds to His glory.

d) A marvellous strength to climb the ten stepping-stones of divine love, which St. John of the Cross? is pleased to describe, and upon which the soul must meditate in order to conceive an idea of the wondrous ascents which lead up to the transforming union.

§ IV. The Transforming Union or Spiritual Marriage

After so many purifications, the soul at last reaches that calm and abiding union, called the transforming union, which seems to be the final goal of the mystic union, the immediate preparation for the Beatific Vision.

We shall explain : 1° its xature and 2° its effects.

I. Nature of the Transforming Union

We shall call attention to: 1° its chief characteristics, and, 2° the description of it given by St. Teresa.

1°Its chief characteristics are zxtzmacy, serenity, ndtssolubitity.

A) /ntimacy. Because this union is still more intimate than the others it is called spzrztual marriage. Between persons united in marriage there are no longer any secrets; there is a blending of two lives. It is precisely such a union that exists between the soul and God. In order to explain it, St. Teresa 2 makes use of this comparison : “ Here it is like water descending from heaven into a river or spring, where one is so mixed with the other that it cannot be discovered which is the river-water and which the rain-water. ”

B) Serenity. In this state there are no more ecstasies or raptures, or at least very few; these have now disappeared almost completely in order to make room for such peace and quiet rest as are enjoyed by married persons who are sure of each other’s love.

C) /ndissolubtlity, The other unions were but transitory ; the present one by its very nature is permanent, just as is the bond of Christian marriage.

692 CHAPTER IL.

Does this indissolubility imply impeccability? On this point St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa differ. The former is of the opinion that in this state the soul is confirmed in grace: “I believe that no soul ever attains to this state without being confirmed in grace... The Bride has entered; that is, passed out of all temporal and natural things, out of all spiritual affections, ways and methods, having left on one side and forgotten all temptations, trials, sorrows, anxieties and cares.” St. Teresa is far from being so positive: ? “ Whenever I speak on this subject, and seem to mean that the soul is secure, my words must be understood thus, viz., as long as the Divine Majesty holds her in His Hand, and she does not offend Him. I know for certain that though she see herself in this state, and though it may continue some years, she does not, therefore, think herself secure.” It seems to us that St. Teresa’s language is more in harmony with that of theology, which teaches that the grace of final perseverance cannot be merited; in order to be assured of salvation therefore, one would need a special revelation bearing not only on the actual state of grace, but also on perseverance in this state until death. 3
2° The description given by St. Teresa includes two apparitions, one of Our Lord and the other of the Blessed Trinity.

A) It is /esws who introduces the soul into this last mansion by a twofold vision: one zmagznatzve, the other intellectual, a) In an imaginative vision which took place after Holy Communion, He appeared to the Saint 4 “in a figure of great splendour, beauty and majesty, just as He was after His resurrection. ”

“He said to her that now was the time she should consider His affairs as hers, and that He would take care of hers... From henceforth you shall guard my honour, not only because I am your Creator, your King and your God, but yet because you are my true spouse. My honour is your honour and your honour mine! ” > b) Then follows the zztel/ectual vision : “ That which God here communicates to the soul in an instant is so great a secret, and so sublime a grace, and what she feels such an excessive delight, that I know nothing to compare it to, except that Our Lord is pleased at that moment to manifest to her the glory which is in heaven; and this He does ina more sublime way than by any vision or spiritual delight. More cannot be said (as far as can be understood) than that this soul becomes one with God.” ® t Spiritual Canticle, Stanza XXII.

? Interior Castle, VII Mansion, C. II.

3 At times the spiritual marriage is celebrated with special ceremontes, exchange of rings, angelic hymns, etc. Following the example of St. Teresa we leave aside any description of these accessory details.

4 Interior Castle, VII Mansion, C. II.

5 Relation XXV. — ° /nterior Castle, VII Mansion, C, II.²⁹

B) The Vision of the Blessed Trinity. Once the soul has been introduced into this mansion, the Three Persons of the Most Blessed Trinity manifest themselves to it in an intellectual vision, and they come directly upon it as in a cloud of extraordinary brightness. The Three Divine Persons manifest themselves as distinct, and by a wonderful communication of knowledge, the soul sees with absolute certitude that all Three Persons are but one substance, one power, one knowledge, one God.

“Hence, what we behold with faith, the soul here (as one may say) understands by sight, though this sight is not with the eyes of the body, because it is not an imaginative vision. All the Three Persons here communicate themselves to her, and speak to her, and make her understand those words mentioned in the Gospel, where Our Lord said that He, and the Father, and the Holy Ghost would come and dwell with the soul that loves Him and keeps His commandments! O my Lord! What a different thing is the hearing and believing of these words from understanding tn this way how true they are!* Sucha soul is every day more astonished, because these words never seem to depart from her; but she clearly sees (in the manner above mentioned) that they are in the deepest recesses of the soul (how it is, she cannot express, since she is not learned) and she perceives this divine company in herself. ” ?

Il. Effects of the Transforming Union

A union so profound and so intimate cannot but produce wondrous, sanctifying effects. These may be summed up in one word: ¢he soul ts so transformed that tt Jorgets self and thinks only of God and His glory. Whence follow: 1° A holy abandonment into the hands of God in virtue of which the soul is supremely indifferent to all that is not God. In the ecstatic union it desired death as a means of uniting itself to its Beloved; now it is indifferent to life or death, so long as God be glorified: “ All her thoughts and study will be how to please this Lord, and by what means she may be able to express the love she has for Him. For this object does she pray, hereunto does the spiritual marriage tend, from which good works always come.”³⁰
2° An insatiable thirst for suffering, but devoid of anxiety and in perfect conformity with the will of God:

“If He wish them to suffer they are content; if not, they do not torment themselves about it, as they used to do at other times. These t Note these expressions which point out the immense difference between the simple act of faith and the knowledge or conviction given by contemplation.³¹

souls feel likewise a great interior joy when they are persecuted, for then they enjoy more peace than I have ever before spoken of; and they do not feel the least hatred against their persecutors; nay, they conceive for them a particular affection. ” *

3° The absence of desire and of interior sufferings : “The desires of these souls do not now run after consolations... They feel in themselves a desire of being always alone, or employed in things relating to the good of some soul. They have no aridities, nor internal troubles, but always have a memory and a tenderness for Our Lord, so that they would gladly do nothing but praise Him.” 2
4° The absence of raptures. “The raptures cease in the manner I have mentioned, and there are no more ecstasies nor flights of the spirit: if they come at all, it is very seldom, and almost never in public.” 3 Hence, peace and perfect serenity : “In this Temple of God, for this mansion is His, He and the soul sweetly enjoy each other in the most profound silence.” 4
5° An ardent, yet discreet zeal for the sanctification of souls. It is not enough to abide in the enjoyment of this sweet repose; the soul must act, labor, suffer, become the slave of God and of the neighbor, strive to advance in virtue, especially in humility; for, not to advance is to go back. Perfection consists in taking the place of Mary and doing the work of Martha at one and the same time. One can work for the welfare of souls without leaving the cloister, and one can do good to those with whom one lives without aiming at reforming the entire world :

“A work so much nobler, as you are so much the more indebted to them. Do you think the gain small, that you have such great humility and mortification, and that you are the servant of all; and that you also have such great charity for ¢em, and such love for Our Lord, that this fire inflames every one, and you are continually exciting them by the practice of your other virtues? Your gain will be exceedingly great, and your service highly pleasing to Our Lord. ” 5

But above all, such works must be inspired dy Jove: “Our Lord does not pay so much regard to the greatness of the works, as to the Jove whereby they are performed.” 6

Inconcluding, St. Teresa invites her Sisters to enter these Mansions, 2f z¢ please the Lord of the Castle to introduce them, but she warns them not to wish to force their way.³²

“I wish, then, to advise you not to use any violence, if you meet with some resistance, for you may thus displease Him so far as to cause you some trouble. He is a great lover of humility, and by considering yourselves unworthy even to enter the “Third Mansion”, you will the sooner obtain His good-will and favor to allow you afterwards to enter the fifth ; and you may serve Him there in such manner by often repairing thither, that He may at length admit you into that “ Mansion” reserved for Himself.” *

SUMMARY OF THE SECOND CHAPTER

After the study of the four great phases of contemplation, with their alternating bitter trials and inebriating delights, it seems that the notion we gave of infused contemplation has been confirmed, that it is a progressive taking hold of the soul by God, freely permitted by the soul ztself.

1° God gradually takes possession of the whole soul in contemplation. First, He seizes the will in the prayer of quiet; next, He lays hold of all the zzdercor faculties in the prayer of full union; later He takes possession of both the interior faculties and the exterior senses in ecstasy; and finally in the spiritual marriage, He binds the whole soul to Himself in an abiding union.

Now, if God takes possession of the soul, it is to flood it with Zzght and Jove, it is to make it share in His perfections. a) This “ght is at first weak and pazzful so long as the soul is not sufficiently purified; but it becomes stronger and more comforting, although always mixed with darkness, by reason of the feebleness of our own mind. It produces a profound impression, because it comes from God, and it gives the soul an experimental knowledge of God’s infinite grandeur, goodness and beauty, and of the littleness, the nothingness and the miseries of creatures. b) The love infused into the soul in contemplation is ardent, generous, and burning with the desire of sacrificing all: one forgets self and one longs to be immolated for the Beloved.

2° The soul freely consents to this divine possesston and joyously yields itself to God through the most profound humility, through the dove of the Cross for the sake of God and of Jesus, and through holy abandonment. It is thus still more purtfied from its zmperfections ; tt 1s united to God and so completely transformed into Him, that Our Lord’s ardent desire, “ that they also may be one tn us” ? is as fully realized as it possibly can be.

x /ntertor Castle, VII Mansion, C. IV. — 2 JoAn, XVII, 21.

696 CHAPTER II. Such is true mysticism, and it is important to distinguish it from false mysticism or quielism.

APPENDIX: FALSE MYSTICISM OR QUIETISM

Side by side with the true mystics, whose teachings we have just expounded, there have been false mystics who, under various names, have perverted the notion of the passive state and have fallen into doctrinal errors dangerous to good morals. Such were the doctrines of the Montanists and the Beghards.: But the most notorious of these errors was that of Quzetesm. It made its appearance under three different forms: 1° the gross guzetism of Molinos, 2° the mitigated and spirttualized quietism of Fénelon,; 3° semiguietist tendencies.

1° THE QUIETISM OF MOLINOS?

Born in Spain in 1640, Michael Molinos spent the greater part of his life in Rome, and it was there that he disseminated his errors in two works which met with great success: The Spiritual Guide and The Prayer of Qutet.

His fundamental error lay in the assertion that perfection consists in complete passivity of soul, in a continuous act of contemplation and of love which, once made, dispenses with all other acts, even that of resistance to temptations. ‘“ Let God Act,” was his motto.

The better to understand these errors in detail, we give the following parallel tables of the Catholic teachmg and the aberrations of Molinos.

Catholic Teaching

There exists a passive state of soul wherein God acts through His operating grace; but one does not ordinarily arrive thereat, except after a long time spent in the practice of virtue and meditation.
The act of contemplation lasts but a short time, even though the state of soul resulting therefrom may last for several days.
Contemplation eminently embodies the acts of all the Christian virtues, but outside the period

Errors of Molinos

There is but one way, the inner way, or the way of passive contemplation, which we can acquire ourselves with ordinary grace; hence, we must enter as soon as. possible into the passive way and thereby annihilate our passions.

The act of contemplation may last whole years, and even a whole lifetime, not excluding the hours. of sleep, without being repeated.

Since contemplation is perpetual, it dispenses from all explicit acts of virtue, which are only for x P. POURRAT, Christian Spirituality, I, p. 62-68: JI, p. 211-216; Cath. Encyc.

Beghards and Beguines.

Molinos, Mysticism, Quietism.³³

Catholic Teaching of contemplation, it does not dispense one from making explicit acts of the virtues.

The principal object of contemplation is God Himself, but Jesus is its secondary object, and outside of the act of contemplation, one is not dispensed from thinking of Jesus Christ, the necessary mediator, nor from going to God through Him.
Holy abandonment is a virtue of high perfection; it must not, however, go as far as tndifference concerning eternal salvation : on the contrary, one must desire it, hope for it and beg for it.
During interior trials the imagination and the sensitive appetite may be profoundly troubled, while the superior part of the soul enjoys a profound peace; the will, however, is ever bound to resist temptations.

Errors of Molinos beginners, for instance, acts of faith, hope, religion and mottification, the acts connected with confession, etc.

To think of Jesus Christ and of His mysteries is an imperfection ; it is necessary and sufficient to lose oneself in the divine essence : he who makes use of images or of ideas does not adore God in spirit and in truth.

In the state of contemplation one must be indifferent to all things, even to one’s sanctification, to one’s salvation, and one must relinquish hope, in order to make room for disinterested love.

One must not take the trouble to resist temptations; the most obscene fancies and the acts following upon them are not reprehensible, because they are the work of the devil. These are passive trials which the Saints themselves have undergone, and which one must carefully refrain from confessing. It is thus that one attains to perfect purity and to intimate union with God. *

This statement of the Catholic position obviates the need of refuting this error. The history of Quietism leads to the conclusion that when one wants to arrive at contemplation foo guickly, and through one’s own efforts, without having previously mortified one’s passions and practiced the Christian virtues, one falls all the lower, the higher one pretends to go. He who would play the angel becomes a beast.

2° THE MITIGATED QUIETISM OF FENELON ?

In a less extreme form, and without the immoral consequences its author had deduced from it, the Quietism of Molinos was taken up by Madame Guyon, who, widowed at an early age, threw herself with ardor into the practice of an emotional and imaginative piety, which she styled the way of pure love. First, she won over to her ideas a Barnabite, Father Lacombe; later, to some extent, even t In order to see how far Molinos goes, one has but to read the propositions taken from his books or from his statements and condemned by Innocent XI (Decree of August 28, and Constit., Cedestzs Pastor, November 19, 1687) cf. DEN- ZINGER, Enchiridion, n. 1221-1288.

2 FENELON, Maximes des Saints, nouv. éd. par A. Cherel, 1911; GOSSELIN, Guures de Fénelon, t. 1V; L. Crouswt, Bossuet et Fénelon, 1894; HUVELIN, Bossuet, Fénelon, le quiétisme; A. LARGENT, Fénelon, (Dict. de Théol. t. V, col. 2138-2169); Cath. Encyc., Fénelon, Guyon,

698 CHAPTER IIL.

Fénelon, who, in the Explanation of the Maxims of the Saints regaraing the Interior Life (1697), formulated an attenuated Quietism in which he strove to demonstrate the doctrine of pure love, “ pure charity without any admixture of selfish motives or self-interest.”

All the errors contained in this book can, according to Bossuet, be reduced to the four following propositions : 1) “‘ There is in this life an habitual state of pure love, in which the desire for eternal salvation no longer has place. 2) In the final trials of the interior life, a soul can be convinced, with an zavincible and reasoned conviction, that it has been justly rejected by God, and, under the influence of this conviction, offer to God an absolute sacrifice of its own eternal happiness.

In the state of pure love, the soul is indifferent to its own perfection zal the practices of virtue. 4) Contemplative souls in certain states lose sight of Jesus Christ as the distinct, sensible and reasoned object of contemplation. ”?

No doubt this form of Quietism is far less dangerous than was that of Molinos. But the four propositions are false and could lead to baneful results.

It is false to say that there exists on this earth an Aadbitual state of pure love excluding hope; for, as the Fifth Article of Issy* rightly states, “‘every Christian i every State, though not at every moment, is bound to express a desire and a prayer for his eternal salvation as something willed by God, Who wills that we desire it for His glory’s sake.” It is true indeed that with perfect souls the desire for eternal happiness in often prompted by charity, and that there are moments when they do not think exp/zcr¢ly of their salvation.
The second proposition is no less false. No doubt, there are Saints who in the dower part of their soul experienced a een sense of just reprobation; this was not, however, a reasoned conviction of the superior part of the soul. If some of them have made a conditional surrender of their salvation, this was not an absolute sacrifice.
Nor is it exact to say that the soul in the state of pure love is indifferent to its own perfection and to virtuous practices; on the contrary, St. Teresa does not cease to urge the thought of progress and the exercise of the fundamental virtues, even in the highest states of perfection.
Finally, it is false that in the perfect states one loses sight of Jesus Christ as the distinct object of contemplation. We have seen, in number 1472, that in the transforming union, St. Teresa had visions of the Sacred Humanity of Jesus Christ. What is true however, is that during certain passing moments one cannot explicitly think of Him.

3° SEMI-QUIETIST TENDENCIES³⁴

One meets at times in certain devout and otherwise excellent books, tendencies which are more or less quietistic, and which, were

' Denzinger's Enchiridion (1327-1349) contains. Fénelon’s propositions condemned by Innocent XII.

2 These articles were redacted at the Seminary of Issy, as the result of the discussions conducted by Bossuet, Noailles, Bishop of Chalons, Fénelon, and Father Tronson, 1694-1695.

they to be applied as rules for the spiritual direction of ordinary souls, would lead to abuses.

The main error of these writers is that of trying to instill into alli persons alike, even into those who have made but /i¢é/e progress in the spiritual life, dispositions of passivity which belong only to the unitive way. They would have us take up more quickly the work of simplifying the spiritual life, forgetting that most souls cannot safely arrive at such simplification until they have passed through discursive medztation, detatled examinations of conscience and the practice of the moral virtues. Their error is one of excess; they would like to bring souls to perfection as quickly as possible by suppressing the intermediate stages and by suggesting from the outset the means which succeed with the most advanced souls.

a) Thus, under the pretext of fostering disinterested love, they deprive Christian hope of the place it should occupy ; they imagine that the desire of eternal happiness is but incidental and that God’s glory is everything. In reality however the glory of God and our eternal happiness are intimately united; for by knowing and loving God we procure His glory, and this knowledge and love of God in turn constitute our happiness. Far from dissociating these two elements, we must keep them united and show how they complete one another, noting however, that if they are to be considered separately, the glory of God must come first.

b) The Aasszve side of piety is likewise over-emphasized. It is said that we must let God act in us, bear us in His arms, without adding that God does not generally do so until we have practiced for a long time an active piety.

e) With regard to the means of sanctification, only such are proposed as belong ts the unitive way. J/e¢/hodical and, as they call it, rulebound meditation is severely criticized. Sfectfic resolutions, they claim, destroy the unity of the spiritual life, and de¢az/ed examinations of conscience should be replaced by a rapid survey. They forget that beginners do not generally arrive at the prayer of simplicity except through discursive meditation ; that general resolves to love God with all the heart must be particularized ; that, in order to know their defects and correct them, beginners must enter into some details; that, asa matter of fact, they are but too prone to be satisfied with a superficial knowledge of self which will allow passions and defects to remain unchallenged.

In a word, these authors forget that there are many stages to be traversed before we can attain to the passive state and to union with God

Se Se

Love of God, Bk. VI, C. 3. ↩
Sum. theol., Ila He, q. 180, a. 3, c. et ad 1; a. 7,c.et ad 1: ‘‘ Contemplation regards the simple act of gazing on thetruth... It has its beginning in the appetite since it is through charity that one is urged to the contemplation of God. And since the end corresponds to the beginning, it follows that the term also and the end of the contemplative life has its being in the appetite, since one delights in seeing the object loved, and the very delight in the object seen arouses a yet greater love.” . ↩
The Living Flame, \11 Stanza. ↩
l'état mystique, 2e éd., 1921, p. 19-20. — Father Janvier affirms the same doctrine (Cavéme 1923, Retraite, 2¢ Instr.) :.‘‘ Infused contemplation is an eminent and singular grace which we do not obtain by our own efforts; God grants it ta whom He pleases, when He pleases, and to the extent:in which He pleases," ↩
Comment. de div, nomin., c. XIII, lect. 3. 2ST. THom., / Sez¢., dist. 8, q. I, a. 1, ad 4. 3 Sermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon I, n. 11-12. ↩
St. JOHN OF THE Cross, Living Flame, Stan. Ill, v. 5 and 6. ↩
John, XVII, 26. — ↩
Low CT ae BEI, Cas: 3 Love of God, Bk Viner ↩
Ila Il# q. 180, a. 2. —? Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. Il, C. 13. ° Interior Castle, 1V Mansion, C. II and III. 4 Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. I, C. XI. : ↩
Spe of Mount Carme?, Bk. Il, C, XI. ↩
Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, C, XIV. ↩
Congres carmélitain de Madrid, theme V1. ↩
Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, C. XIV. ↩
The explanations of each of these three signs are found in the fourteenth chapter of the Ascent of dfount Carmel, Book Il, ↩
The Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. I, C. XI. ↩
Night, Bk. I, C. XIV. — 2 // Tim., IL, 12. ↩
The /ntertor Castle, composed in the year 1577, at the Monastery of Toledo, five years before her death, at the request of Father Gratian and Father Velasquez, is the crown and synthesis of all her works, In it she clearly and accurately de- ↩
Cardinal BONA (Via Compendii ad Deum, C. 10, n. 6) says that St. Francis of Assisi spent two years in these purifying trials; St. Teresa eighteen; Blessed Claire of Montefalco fifteen; St. Catherine of Bologna five; St. Magdalen of Pazzi five years at first and sixteen subsequently; the Venerable Balthassar Alvarez sixteen. These figures embrace, no doubt, the duration of the two Nights, which are generally divided by a notable interval of sweet consolations. ↩
Interior Castle, Mansion IV, C. 3. : : ↩
Way of Perfection, C. XXXI. The Saint speaks only of the will, because being the master-faculty, it is seized first and foremost, for contemplation is rather an act of love than of knowledge. However since the will acts only when enlightened by the intelligence, the latter likewise comes to some extent within the Divine grasp. — 3 Way of Perfection, C. XXXI. ; ↩
[nterior Castle, \V Mansion, C. 3. ↩
St. John of the Cross remarks (Ascend, Bk. III, (Ce XIV) that the time passes so rapidly when one is in the state of contemplation that at times one mistakes its duration : what seems to have lasted but two or three minutes, may very well have ↩
Way of Perfection, C. XXXI. ↩
(ntertor Castle, V Mansion, C, II. ↩
«This prayer, however long it may last, produces no inconvenience, at least I feel none; nor do I remember when Our Lord bestowed this favor on me, however ill I might be, that I ever found myself worse : I was, on the other hand, much better.” Lzfe, C. XVIII. ↩
Life by Herself, C. XVIII. ↩
Jnterior Castle, V1 Mansion, C, II. ↩
Dark Night, Bk. II, C. II. ↩
Night, Bk. I, C. XIX-XX. — ? /ntertor Castle, VII Mansion, C, II. ↩
[Interior Castle, VII Mansion, C. IV. ↩
Interior Castle, VII Mansion, C. I. ↩
Interior Castle, VII Mansion, C. III. 2 Interior Castle, VII Mansion, C, III. 3 Interior Castle, V\1 Mansion, C. III. — 4 Zdzd. 5 /nterzor Castle, VII Mansion, C. 1V. — ® /bzd. ↩
P. Dupon, Le Quzétiste Espugnol Michel Molinos, Paris, 1921; Cath. Encyc.,. ↩
P. Josh, Etudes relig., 20 déc. 1897, p. 804; MGR FARGES, Mystical phenomena. ↩

Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter XVII. Infused Contemplation '

Footnotes