Skip to the text
Ember
PT

Chapter VI

Treats of the ecstasy of love, and of raptures, during which the soul imagines that it is idle, while God " sets in order charity within it," bestowing upon it heroic virtues.

1. How God repays the soul's desire for suffering. 2. Christ the King. 3. The wine. 4. He sets in order charity. 5. The soul during divine union. 6. Love and the will. 7. Merits and graces coming from this prayer. 8. Our Lady overshadowed. 9. Our Lord's delight in the soul. 10. The divine Goldsmith and the jewel. 11. Secrecy of divine union, 12. Its effects upon the soul. 13. Zeal and love produced by it.

"THE KING BROUGHT ME INTO THE CELLAR OF WINE, HE SET IN ORDER CHARITY IN ME."

I. Now that the bride is resting beneath the shadow that she desires — as well she might desire it — what

8 Life, chs. xvii to xix. more remains for which a soul so promoted can wish, except that she may never lose what she possesses? There seems to her nothing left for which to long, yet there is still far more for our most holy King to bestow, nor does He ever cease filling the heart that can hold more. As I have already told you, daughters, and as I wish you never to forget, God is not content to measure His gifts by our petty desires.1 I have sometimes noticed that when a person asks our Lord to give him some means of meriting and suffering for Him, although he does not ask for more than he thinks he can bear,2 yet His Majesty, Who is able to increase our strength, repays the resolve to serve Him by sending him so many trials, persecutions and illnesses that the poor man does not know what to do.3 This happened to me when I was very young, so that sometimes I used to say: " O God, I did not ask for all that! " But He gave me such fortitude and patience that I am astonished now at thinking how I bore these crosses, which I would not change for all the treasures of the world.

  1. The Bride says: " The King brought me." How the name of the almighty King dilates the heart which recognises His powers and supremacy over all, and the eternity of His kingdom! When the soul is in this con- dition, doubtless it realises something of the greatness of this King, though to understand it completely is impossible during this mortal life.

  2. The bride exclaims: " He brought me into the cellar of wine, He set in order charity in me."4 I believe that the grandeur of this particular favour is immense. A person may be given a larger or a smaller draught, either of a good or a superior kind, so that the soul is more or less intoxicated or inebriated. Thus it is with our Lord's favours. To one He gives a little of the wine of devotion, to another more, to another still He gives so full a cup that the spirit begins to rise above self and sensuality and all earthly things. Again, God bestows on souls either a great zeal for serving Him, impetuous fervour, or ardent charity for others, rendering them toó inebriated to feel the severe trials through which they pass. A great deal is implied by the bride's declaring that " she was brought into the cellar of wine," from which she emerged endowed with inestimable riches.

  3. The King does not appear to bring her into the cellar of wine and to leave her thirsting, but wishes her to drink and to be inebriated as much as she chooses, and to be intoxicated with all the wines that are in the storehouse of God. Let her enjoy its pleasures, and admire His grandeur, nor fear to lose her life by drinking more than human weakness can bear, — let her die in this paradise of delights! Blest is the death that purchases such a life! Indeed, this really is the case,® for the soul, without knowing how, learns such marvellous truths that it is beside itself, as the Bride says in the words: "He set in order charity in me! " O words never to be forgotten by the soul which our Lord has thus caressed! O sovereign mercy which we could never buy unless God gave us the purchase-money!

  4. True, the soul is not even awake enough to love,-— but blessed is the sleep, and happy the inebriation, which make the Bridegroom supply what the soul cannot do. He " sets " it in such wonderful "order" that, -though all its powers are dead or asleep, love remains active. Without knowing how, it works, yet by the ordinance of God it works in so wonderful a way that it becomes one with the Lord of love. Who is God Him5 self. All this takes place with infinite purity, because there - is no obstacle in the senses or powers — I mean, either in the understanding or the memory — nor does the will assert itself.*

■ 6. I have been wondering whether there is any difference between the will and the love. I do not know whether it is nonsense, but I think there must be, for it appears to me that love is an arrow shot by the will, which, if aimed with all its force, freed from all that is earthly, and directed solely towards God, must wound His Majesty in good earnest. When it has pierced God Himself, Who is Love, it rebounds, having won the precious prize I will describe. This is really the case, as I have heard from those to whom our Lord has shown the great favour of putting them, during prayer, into this state of sacred inebriation and suspension of the faculties. From what can be observed, it is evident that, at the time, such souls are transported out of themselves; yet afterwards, if questioned as to what they felt, they cannot describe it, for they did not know, nor could they understand, this operation of love. The great benefits thus gained by the soul are demonstrated by the after-eñects, by the virtues, lively faith, and contempt of the world gained. But nothing is known of how the soul obtains these gifts, nor what it then enjoys, except in the first stage when it feels excessive sweetness.

  1. This is clearly what the Bride means, for the wisdom ci God here supplements what is lacking in the soul and so ordains matters that it gains extraordinary graces meanwhile; or, how could the soul, being carried out of itself, and so absorbed that the powers are incapable of action, otherwise gain any merit? Yet, is it possible that God, while showing it so immense a favour, should cause it to lose time and obtain nothing by it? Such a thing is incredible.'' Oh, these divine secrets! We must submit our reason and own that it is utterly incapable of fathoming the wonders of the Lord.

  2. It would be well to remember how our Lady the Virgin acted, wise as she was. She asked the angel: " How shall this be done? " * and when he answered: " The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee," she debated no more about it. Being possessed of strong faith and judgment, she recognised at once that, when these two Powers intervened, there was room neither for inquiry nor doubt. She was not like some learned men who have not been led by God in this way of prayer and cannot understand the first principles of spirituality. They want to reduce everything to reason, measuring all matters by their own intellects, so that it seems as if they, with their knowledge, would be able to comprehend all the mysteries of God. If only they would imitate in some degree the humility of the most blessed Virgin! O my Lady! How perfectly Thou showest us what takes place between God and the Bride, according to the words of the Canticles! You know, my daughters,

' " It is remarkable that a saint so distinguished for humility and circumspection when writing on spiritual matters should speak so decidedly on the question of the soul gaining merit during ecstatic union" (A. Poulain, Graces d'oraison, ch. xviü.; p. 255 French ed. of 1906).

• St. Luke, i. 34: Quomodo fiet istud? how many quotations there are from this book in the antiphons and lessons of the Oihce of our Lady we recite weekly.' As for other souls, each one can interpret these words for herself, in the sense in which God wishes her to take them, and can easily ascertain whether she has received any graces corresponding to the words of the bride: " He set in order charity within me." Such souls do not know where they have been nor how, during so sublime a happiness, they pleased God, for they gave Him no thanks for this favour.

  1. O soul beloved by God! Trouble yourself no more! While His Majesty raises you to this state and utters such tender words as He often addresses to the Bride in the Canticles — as for instance: " Thou art all fair, O my love!"" and many others, in which He shows how He delights in her, we may feel sure that He will not allow you to grieve Him at such a time, but will supply for your incapacity that He may take still keener pleasure in you. He sees that the Bride is quite lost to herself, bereft of her senses for love of Him, and that the vehemence of this affection has deprived her of the power of thought, so that she may love Him better, and could6

He bear to withhold Himself from one who wholly gives herself to Him?

  1. I think that His Majesty is here enamelling the gold which He has refined by His gifts and tested in a thousand different ways (which the soul itself could describe), to prove the quality of its love for Him. The soul, symbolised by the " gold," is meanwhile as motionless and as inactive as the precious metal itself. Divine Wisdom, content with this, for few love Him thus vehemently, sets in the ore many jewels and countless enamelled decorations. And what is the soul doing meanwhile? Of this we know nothing, and there is no more to be learnt, save what the Bride tells us: " He set in order charity within me."

  2. If the soul actually loves at the time, it does not know how, nor does it understand what it loves. The extreme affection borne for it by the King Who has raised it to this sublime state must unite its love to Himself in a way that the mind is not worthy of comprehending. These two loves have now become but one, " the love of the soul having become truly incorporated with that of God. The intellect cannot attain so far as to grasp it: in fact, the mind loses sight of the spirit during this time, which never lasts long but passes quickly. Meanwhile, God "sets the soul in order" that it may know how to please Him, both then and

11 Exclam. xv. 7. 12 afterwards, but, as I repeat, without the mind being aware of it. Yet later on the intellect recognises the fact on discovering that the soul is enamelled and set with the jewels and pearls of the virtues. Then in its astonishment it might well exclaim: " Who is she that cometh forth . . . bright as the sun? " ^^ O true King! Well may the Bride call Thee by this name, for in a single moment Thou canst so endow and fill the soul with riches that it enjoys them for evermore. What marvellous " order " love sets in such a soul! ^'

  1. I could mention good examples of this, for I have witnessed several. I remember how God gave in three days such great graces to a certain person ^* that, had I not learnt by personal observation that they lasted year after year, and that she continued to make progress, I could not have believed in them, for they seemed to me beyond credence. Another person received the same graces in three months, — both of them were very young girls. I have seen others who were long before they obtained this favour, but I could mention several cases resembling the two first described, and in which the same thing happened. I spoke of the former to prove to you that there are exceptions, although our Lord

2 Cant. vi. 9: Quae est ista quae progreditur . . . electa ul sol? ^^ Life, ch. xvii. 4. Way of Perf., ch. xix. 6. Castle, M. v. ch. ii. 10, II.

1* Life, ch. xxxvi. 26. Found., ch. i. i sqq. seldom grants such favours unless a soul has passed through long years of suffering. It is not for us to set limits to a Lord so great, Who longs to confer His graces. 13. This is what usually happens when God favours a soul with these graces — that is, when they really are divine graces and not illusions or melancholia, or the result of any natural effort, which is always detected later on by the effects, as are also divine favours which have resulted from God thus drawing near the soul, for in the latter case the virtues are too vigorous and the love too ardent to remain concealed.* Such a person always helps other souls even when not intending to do so. The King " set in order charity within me," and He so sets the soul in order that all love for this world quits it, self-love changes into self-hatred and affection is felt for kindred solely for the sake of God. As for the love borne for enemies, it would be incredible unless proved by facts. The soul's love for God has grown so boundless as to constrain it beyond the limits endurable by human nature, and, realising that she is fainting and at the point of death, such a person exclaims: " Stay me up with flowers, compass me about with apples: because I languish with love.' ' ^®

15 " The soul cannot bear with itself unless it is suffering something for God" (Letter to Don Lorenzo de Cepeda of January 17,

'¡-577)^* Cant. ii. 5: Fulcite me floribus, stipate me malis, quia amore

lanueo.

Footnotes

  1. Supra, ch. iii. 5 sqq. ↩

  2. Life, ch. V. 3, 4. ↩

  3. lYay of Perf., ch. xviii. i. ↩

  4. Life, ch. xviii. 17. Castle, M. v. ch. i. 10; ch. ii. 11. ↩

  5. Life, ch. XX, sqq. Rel. viii. 8. Way of Perf., ch. xxxii. 11. Casi/e, M. vi. ch. iv. 17. ↩

  6. From ancient times it was customary among the Carmelites to recite once a week the Office of our Lady, preferably on the Saturday. This commemoration was raised, in 1339, to the rite of a double. 1" Cant. iv. 7: Tota pulchra es, arnica mea. ↩

Chapter 7 of 8