Chapter XVI

The game of chess.¹

1. The game of chess. 2. Meditation and contemplation. 3. Difficulties of rising to contemplation. 4. The virtues usually required for it. 5. Sufferings borne for us by Christ. 6. Why God sometimes raises imperfect souls to contemplation. 7. Abandonment to God's care. 8. That all should aim at sanctity.

1. Do not imagine that a great part of my work is done. No, I have only been 'placing the board' for the game. You asked me to teach you the foundation of prayer, my daughters, although God did not establish me on this foundation, for I am almost destitute of these virtues; yet I know no other. But, be sure that any one who does not understand how to set the pieces in the game of chess will never be able to play well, nor, if he does not know how to give check, will he ever succeed in effecting checkmate. You may blame me for speaking of a game, for such things are neither played nor permitted in our convent.² This will show you what a mother God has given you, skilled even in such vanities as this! Still, they say that sometimes the game is lawful, and how well it would be for us to play it, and if we practised it often, how quickly we should checkmate this divine King so that He neither could, nor would, move out of our check! The Queen is His strongest opponent in the game, and all the other pieces help her. No queen can defeat Him so soon as can humility.³ It drew Him from heaven into the Virgin's womb,⁴ and with it we can draw Him by a single hair⁵ into our souls. And doubtless, the greater our humility, the more entirely shall we possess Him, and the weaker it is, the more reluctantly will He dwell within us. For I do not and I cannot understand how humility can exist without love, or love without humility,⁶ nor can either of these virtues be held in their perfection without great detachment from all created things.

2.⁷ Perhaps you ask me, my daughters, why I speak to you of these virtues: they are taught in plenty of books and you only wish me to write about contemplation. If you had asked me about meditation, I could have instructed you, and I advise every one to practise it⁸ even though they do not possess the virtues, for this is the first step to obtain them all: it is most essential for all Christians to begin this practice. No one, however desperate his case may be, ought to neglect it if God incites him to make use of it. I have written this elsewhere, as have other people who understand the subject, which, as God knows, I certainly do not. Contemplation, however, is quite another thing, daughters. We fall into a mistake on this point, so that if any one thinks about his sins every day for a certain time (as he is bound to do if he is a Christian in anything but name), we at once call him a great contemplative, and expect him to possess the sublime virtues proper to such a state: he even thinks so himself; but he is quite wrong. He has not yet learnt how to 'place the board/ but thinks he can effect checkmate simply by knowing the names of the pieces — in this he is deceived; this King will not let Himself be taken except by one who is entirely given up to Him.⁹

3. Therefore, daughters, if you wish me to tell you the way to attain to contemplation you must allow me to speak at length on certain matters, although to you they may seem unimportant. I think that they are important, and unless you intend learning and practising them, continue your mental prayer all your life; for I assure you, and all others who aspire to this state, that you will never otherwise attain to genuine contemplation. I may be deceived about this, but I judge from my own experience; and I have been striving to become a contemplative for the last twenty years.

4. I will now describe mental prayer, as perhaps some of you do not understand what it is. God grant that we practise it as we ought, but I am afraid this can only be done by a great effort unless we possess the virtues, although they are not here necessary in so high a degree as for contemplation. The King of glory will not come into our souls, so as to be united to them, unless we strive to obtain the highest virtues. I will explain this, for if once you found me out in an untruth you would believe me no longer — as would be only right if I told one purposely; but God preserve me from any falsehood! my error would come either from ignorance or want of understanding. I wish you to know that He sometimes shows great favour to people whose souls are in an evil state, that by this means He may snatch them out of the devil's grasp. I do not mean persons who are in mortal sin, but those who are very faulty: our Lord may permit them to behold some very high vision in order to turn their hearts to Him.¹⁰ I cannot, however, believe that He would actually raise them to contemplation, for this is a divine union in which our Lord takes His delight in the soul while the soul rejoices in Him, and there is no way in which heavenly purity can take pleasure in what is impure, nor can He Who is 'the Joy of the Angels' find His happiness in one who is not His own. We know that those in mortal sin are the slaves of Satan and must find their joy in him, since they have gratified him; the pleasures he gives are, as we know, nothing but ceaseless torment even in this life. Still, without taking those who are not His, yet His Majesty will do what He has often done — snatch them out of the hand of the enemy and make them His own.

5. O my God, how often do we force Thee to struggle with the devil on our account! Was it not enough that Thou didst suffer him to bear Thee in his arms to the pinnacle of the Temple,¹¹ to teach us how to vanquish him? What a sight, daughters, to see this Sun encompassed with darkness, and what terror that wretch must have felt although he did not know the reason why, for God did not permit him to understand it! Blessed be such immense pity and mercy! How ashamed we Christians ought to feel, as I said above, at constraining our Lord to combat daily this unclean beast! There was need for Thine arms to be so strong, O Lord! but how was it that they were not weakened by the many tortures Thou didst endure upon the cross? Oh, how soon all hurts borne with love are healed! I believe that if Thy life had lasted longer, the love Thou hast for us would have healed Thy wounds without need of any other medicine. O my God! who will apply such a lotion to all the trials which give me pain and trouble? How eagerly I should desire them, if they were to be cured by such a health-giving ointment! It seems extravagant for me to speak thus, as my actions are in such contrast to it, yet divine love does greater things than this. But lest I should seem fond of what is sensational (as indeed I am), and that I may not set you a bad example, I will not tell you about them.¹²

6. But, to return to what I was saying — 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.¹³ But if they do not respond to Thee, and are unwilling to pardon their enemies, then pardon us, O Lord! for it is a terrible misfortune for a soul which Thou hast thus drawn to Thee to become attached afterwards to any earthly thing. I feel sure there are many souls which our Lord God puts to this proof, but few who correspond rightly to the favour, for when He acts thus, unless we offer any hindrance, I am convinced that He never ceases bestowing His graces until He has brought us to a very high state of prayer. If we do not yield ourselves to Him as entirely as He gives Himself to us¹⁴ He does what suffices by leaving us to mental prayer and visiting us now and then, as servants working in His vineyard. But the other souls are His beloved children whom He will not allow to quit His side, nor will He leave them, since they do not wish to forsake Him. He seats them at His table and ministers to them so far¹⁵ that (as they say) He takes the meat from His own mouth to feed them with.¹⁶

7. O happy custody, my daughters! O joyful renunciation of things so trifling and so base, which leads us to such a blessed state! What does it matter if all the world blames you¹⁷ and deafens you with abuse while you are resting meanwhile in the arms of God? He is powerful to deliver you from all. Once only did He command that the world should be created, and it was created¹⁸ — with Him to will is to do.¹⁹ Except for the greater gain of those who love Him, He will not permit them to be spoken against:²⁰ His love for them is not so weak. Then why, my sisters, should we not show Him all the love we can? See, what a rich exchange — to give our love for His; to give it to Him Who can give us all things, while we can do nothing without His aid. But what is it that we do for Thee, O Lord our Creator? We do nothing but make a paltry resolution. If then His Majesty wills that we should purchase all things by this mere nothing, let us not be so mad as to refuse it.

8. O Lord! all our ills come from not fixing our eyes on Thee: if we looked at nothing else but where we are going we should soon arrive, but we fall a thousand times and stumble and go astray because we do not keep our gaze bent on Him Who is the 'Way.' It looks so new to us that one would suppose nobody had walked in it before. Indeed, this is a grievous pity: one would think we were not Christians at all, nor had ever read the Passion in our lives. Lord have mercy on us — we are touched in a point of honour! If people tell us not to notice it, we at once call them unchristian — I laugh, or I grieve sometimes, at what I hear of such foibles in the world, as I do at my own foibles in religion. To be undervalued in the least is unbearable to us: we at once cry out: 'We are not angels, nor saints!' That is true enough. God deliver us, my daughters, when we fall into any imperfection, from saying: 'We are not angels! We are not saints!' Although we are not, still, it is the greatest help to believe that, with the aid of God, we can be if we strive our hardest. There is no fear of His failing to do His part if we do ours. Since we came here for nothing else, let us put our hands to the plough,²¹ as they say. Let there be nothing which we know would further our Lord's service that we dare not undertake with the assistance of His grace. I wish such audacity to exist in this house — it always increases humility. Ever nourish this holy daring, for God aids the valiant and is no respecter of persons.²² Both to you and me He will give the help needed. I have wandered from my subject, to which I will return; that is, instruction on mental prayer and contemplation. It may appear presumptuous on my part, but you will excuse everything. Perhaps you may understand my rough style better than other more polished writings. May our Lord grant me His assistance. Amen!

Footnotes

1. Fuente, ch. xvi. This chapter is omitted in the Valladolid edition as far as paragraph 3. Continuation of ch. xxiii. in Escorial. ↩

2. Const. 27. ↩

3. Castle, M. iv. ch. ii. 8. Life, ch. xxii. 16. ↩

4. 'Non horruisti Virginis uterum.' Te Deum. Castle, M. i. ch. ii. 9; M. ii. ch. i. 13; M. iii. ch. i. 15; ch. ii. 3, 8; M. iv. ch. ii. 8. ↩

5. Cant. iv. 9: 'Vulnerasti cor meum ... in uno crine colli tui.' ↩

6. Life, ch. x. 2; ch. xix. 2. ↩

7. Escorial, ch. xxiv. Shows how necessary the foregoing explanations were as an introduction to the treatise on prayer. ↩

8. Life, ch. iv. 11; ch. xi. 20. Found. ch. v. 2, 3. Castle, M. ii. ch. i. 19, 20; M. vi. ch. vii. 12. ↩

9. Valladolid edition, ch. xviii. Escorial, ch. xxv. On the difference between contemplatives and those who content themselves with mental prayer. That it is possible for God to raise a worldly soul to perfect contemplation occasionally, and the reason why He does so. This chapter must be carefully noted as well as the following. [By an error of calculation this chapter is counted xviii. instead of xvii. in the Valladolid manuscript.] ↩

10. Life, ch. xxii. 22, 23. Castle, M. iv. ch. i. 3. Concep. ch. v. 3. Way of Perf. ch. xli. 2. ↩

11. St. Matt. iv. 5: 'Tunc diabolus statuit eum super pinnaculum templi.' ↩

12. Escorial edition, ch. xxvi. God can sometimes raise a worldly soul to perfect contemplation, and the reasons for His doing so. This chapter is very noteworthy. ↩

13. Castle, M. iv. ch. iii. 9, 10; M. v. ch. i. 2, 3; ch. ii. 4, 5; ch. iii. 2, 6, 12. ↩

14. Castle, M. v. ch. i. 3. Life, ch. xi. 2-4; ch. xxii. 18, 19. ↩

15. St. Luke xii. 37: 'Et transiens ministrabit illis.' ↩

16. Psalm liv. 15: 'Qui simul mecum dulces capiebas cibos.' Rel. iv. 6, 7. ↩

17. Life, ch. xl. 30. ↩

18. Psalm xxxii. 19: 'Ipse dixit et facta sunt.' ↩

19. Philip. ii. 13: 'Qui operatur in vobis et velle et perficere.' ↩

20. Way of Perf. ch. xvii. 4. Castle, M. vi. ch. xi. 12. ↩

21. St. Luke ix. 62: 'Nemo mittens manum suam ad aratrum, et respiciens retro, aptus est regno Dei.' ↩

22. St. Matt. xxii. 16: 'Non enim respicis personam hominum.' ↩