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Chapter V

The strong, trustful and faithful love born in the soul through the consciousness that it is protected beneath the " shadow " of God, which knowledge is usually given by Him to those who have persevered in His love and have suffered for Him. Of the great benefits produced by this love.

1. I sat down under His shadow. 2. The " shadow " of God. 3. Such favours rarely shown io the imperfect. 4. The prayer of union. 5. The tree of the Cross. 6. Further favours. 7. Our unworthiness.

" I SAT DOWN UNDER HIS SHADOW WHOM I DESIRED, AND HIS FRUIT WAS SWEET TO MY PALATE."

I. Now let US question the bride. Let us learn from this

blest soul, drawn to the divine mouth and fed at these

^^ Cant. ii. 16: Dilectus meus mihi, et ego illi. Exclam. xv. 5, 6. heavenly breasts, what we should do, and how we must speak and behave, if our Lord should ever bestow on us so great a favour. She answers: "1 sat down under His shadow Whom I desired, and His fruit was sweet to my palate.2 . . . He brought me into the cellar of wine. He set in order charity in me."3

  1. She says: "I sat down under His shadow Whom I desired." O my God! how this soul is drawn into and inflamed by this Sun itself! She declares that she sat under the shadow of Him Whom she desired. And again she calls Him an "apple tree," and says "His fruit is sweet to my palate." O souls who practise prayer, ruminate upon these words! In how many different ways we can picture God! In how many manners we can feed our souls on Him! He is the Manna Who knows how to take whatever flavour we wish to taste. ^ How heavenly is this shadow! Who can explain all that our Lord signifies by it? I remember how the angel said to our most blessed Lady: " The power of the Most High shall overshadow thee." * How safely the soul must feel protected when God shows it this immense grace! Well may it sit down, assured against all danger!

  2. Notice that, except in the case of people to whom our Lord gives some special call, like St. Paul, whom He at once raised to the heights of contemplation, manifesting Himself and speaking to the Saint in such a way as to place him at once permanently in an advanced state of holiness, God, as a rule — indeed, nearly always —keeps these very sublime caresses and consolations for those who have laboured greatly in His service. These souls have longed for His love and striven to please Him in every way, have fatigued themselves by many years of meditation and search for their Bridegroom, and are thoroughly weary of the world. They do indeed " sit down " and rest in the truth, seeking neither comfort, quiet nor rest except where they know these are really to be found. " Resting under the protection of the Almighty,"4 they desire no other. How right they are to trust in Him, for He fulfils all their desires. Happy he who deserves to shelter beneath this shadow, even as regards temporal matters, but happy in an infinitely greater way when such matters relate to the soul itself, as I have often been given to understand.

4, During the joy which I described, the spirit feels itself utterly surrounded and protected by a shadow and, as it were, a cloud of the Godhead from whence the soul receives such a delicious influence and dew as, at once and with good reason, to lose the weariness caused by earthly things. This peace is so deep as to render even breathing troublesome, the powers being so soothed and quiescent that the will is disinclined to admit of any thought, even though it is a good one, nor does it seek for any, nor try to reflect.* Such a person need not endeavour to raise her hand, or stand to reach the fruit — I mean she need not make use of the reason — for our Lord gives her the apple from the tree to which she compares her Beloved," already picked and even assimilated. Therefore she declares: "His fruit is sweet to my palate," for here the soul simply enjoys, without any work of the faculties.

  1. This may well be called the "shadow" of the Divinity, for we cannot see it clearly here below, but only veiled beneath this cloud, until the radiant Sun, by means of love, sends out a message making known to the soul that His Majesty is near in nearness ineffable. I know that anyone who has experienced it will recognise how truly this meaning may be ascribed to these words of the Bride. I think the Holy Ghost must here be the Medium between God and the soul, inspiring it with

" • Castle, M. v. ch. i. 3 in fine.

'' Cant. ii. 3: Sicut mahts inter ligna silvarum, sic dilectus m&us inter filios. such ardent desires that it becomes ignited by the divine fire to which it is so close. What are these mercies, O Lord, that Thou dost bestow upon the soul? Blessed and praised be Thou for ever, tender Lover as Thou art! Is it possible, my God and my Creator, that there are souls who love Thee not? Unhappy creature that I am! It is / who have lived so long without loving Thee! Why did I not deserve to know Thee better? Now this divine apple-tree bows its branches so that, from time to time, the soul may gather its fruit by considering Christ's marvels, and the multitude of mercies He has shown, and may see and taste the fruit that our Lord Jesus Christ produced by His Passion, when with wondrous love He watered the tree with His precious blood.

  1. The Bride told us that she joyed in the nourishment from His breasts, and that the Bridegroom thus supported her when she was new to the divine mercies. Now that she grows older. He makes her capable of receiving still greater gifts, maintaining her with " apples," for He wishes her to understand that she must work and suffer. But He is not content even with this. It is a wonderful thing, and we should often meditate upon how, when He sees that a soul is all His own, serving Him solely and free from all self-interest, simply because He is its God and because of the love it bears Him, He never ceases imparting Himself in different ways and manners, befitting Him Who is Wisdom itself. After the kiss of peace there seemed no more to give, yet the favour I have just related is far more subUme. I have not described it thoroughly, having only touched upon the subject. You will find a much clearer explanation in the book I mentioned,' if God is pleased that it should be read.

  2. Is there anything left to wish for after all I have enumerated? Alas, how impotent are our desires to obtain Thy wondrous gifts. Lord! How abject should we remain, didst Thou merely give us that for which we asked! Let us now see what else the bride says.

Footnotes

  1. St. Luke i. 35: Virtiis Altisiimi obitmbrabit tihi. ↩

  2. Cant. ii. 4: Introdtixit me in cellam vinariam; ordinavit in me charitatem. — Life, ch. xviii. 17. ↩

  3. Wisdom xvi. 21 says that the manna had "in it all that is delicious and the sweetness of every taste ' '; that it served every man's will and was turned to what every man liked. ↩

  4. Ps. xc. I: Qli habitat in adjutorio Altissimi, in protectione Dei coeli commorahitur. ↩

Chapter 6 of 8