To have a proper understanding of the interior things of spirituality or mystical science, we must have recourse to desire and not to the understanding; to sighs and not to reading; to God and not to men; to Jesus, the Spouse, and not to the doctors; to mystical darkness and not to light; to the silently consuming fire and not to brilliant light. (St. Bonaventure.)
O spiritual souls, be not discouraged when you feel your forces weak, incapable, and, as it were, paralyzed. Rather believe that this is for you a happy condition, and that God comes to free you from all that is imperfect in your manner of treating with Him; that He takes you by the hand, that He guides you in the midst of this darkness. Let yourself be guided: walk confidently and safely: your eyes could never guide you so surely, your feet could never support you so firmly. (St. John of the Cross.)
CHAPTER I. UNION OF THE SOUL WITH GOD THROUGH CONTEMPLATION.
In what this Union consists. The soul attains this divine union, is admitted to the nuptials of the Lamb, through three means: meditation, affection, and contemplation. Meditation instructs the mind; affection enkindles the heart; contemplation unites the soul with God.
Meditation purifies the soul of its vices and its errors; affection inflames it and impels it to practise good works; contemplation elevates it and causes it to enter into the chamber of the Bride groom.
Meditation is for beginners; affection for those who are advancing; contemplation for the perfect.
In meditation the mind seeks; in affection the heart desires; in contemplation the soul finds what it sought and enjoys what it desired. The mind labors in meditation, the heart sighs in affection, and both mind and heart rest in contemplation. Thus the divine union is the enjoyment of God which the soul has sought in meditation, which it has acquired through affection, and which it has found through contemplation.
The word contemplation indicates an operation of the mind, an operation usually pertaining to scholars. But Christian contemplation has more to do with the heart than the mind. It is a repose, a peaceful enjoyment on the part of the soul which is not disturbed by any image of the mind or any emotion of the heart.
The soul that desires to be the spouse of Jesus Christ, and to receive the "kiss of His mouth," must first kiss His feet like Magdalen; must be purified by tears from its vices and evil habits; must kiss His hands by numerous good works. Then it must wait in silence and profound respect until Jesus Christ introduces it into the banquet-hall to receive that mystical kiss that is, that divine Spirit which St. Bernard says is a kiss of the Father and the Son. The soul is first a servant and fears its Lord; then it becomes a daughter and respects its Father; finally it becomes a spouse and loves only the Bridegroom. These are the degrees by which it ascends to contemplation and attains that mystical union.
St. Bernard, explaining these words of David describing the just man, " In his heart he hath disposed to ascend by steps," indicates four steps of this mystical ladder, which may be reduced to the three we have just mentioned. "The wise man," he says, " prepares in his soul the steps by which he may ascend to contemplation. The first step is towards the heart; the second is in the heart; the third is the heart itself. In the first the soul fears the Lord; in the second it listens to the Master; in the third it desires the Bride groom; in the last it enjoys God."
Effects of Contemplation. Who may explain the effects of this divine enjoyment? We may say of this marriage, or union of earth, what St. Paul says of that of heaven, that " eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man to conceive what God has prepared for those who love Him." The soul suffering from the wound of love, which can be healed only by Him Who inflicted it, weeps disconsolately for the Bridegroom, and burns with desire to find Him and reveal its pain.
After a long quest it seems to fall into a death-like state ; it is unable to speak, and knows not what it behooveth it to do or to say. A deep silence pervades the depth of its heart and dismays it, for it may not divine whence it comes. Then it enters into a night of darkness, which obscures all its natural light and powers. Its imagination is void of images, its mind speaks not, its heart is still, its memory is void, its passions are silent, its senses inert. It is during this silence, this night, that the Word descends from heaven, and that the soul becomes, in an ineffable manner, the spouse of Jesus Christ. Ask me not how this is effected ; ask those who have experienced it. All I can tell you is, that the soul comes forth from these divine and ineffable operations so filled with God, so penetrated with His Spirit, that it no longer feels or is conscious of itself, and, like the rivers which flow into the sea, finds itself lost and swallowed up in God.
Then all creatures disappear before it, like shadows before the sun. It sees only the beauty of its divine Spouse, Who dwells in the depth of its heart ; it hears only His voice, and enjoys naught but the sweetness of converse with Him and the ineffable joy of His presence. It cannot understand that any one may love or seek aught but Him.
God called Moses to the summit of Mount Sinai, and caused him to enter a secret place enveloped in clouds and darkness. Into like obscurity, appalling to nature, does God plunge the soul which aspires to this divine union. It fears to fall from this dizzy height into precipices which yawn below; but when the darkness and obscurity have completely enveloped it, it discerns Jesus trans figured, and contemplates God face to face, so to speak. It feels Him sometimes without seeing Him, feels that He imprints Himself as a seal upon its heart, that His finger writes therein the law of love, which dissipates all its sadness and fears. In such moments the soul experiences consolation and joy so pure and so great that, like St. Paul, it knows not whether it is in heaven or upon earth. If this state were to continue nature would succumb to the violent efforts of love. When this union and these divine communications have ceased, the soul descends from the mount of contemplation, like Moses from Mount Sinai, resplendent with light, inflamed with the love of God, and giving forth heavenly odors which embalm the hearts of all with whom it speaks or who behold its prayer.
The Mystical State. It is during the night, when the doors of the senses are closed, that the Bride groom enters the heart of His spouse, while she wants not how or by what means He has entered ; albeit her heart is buried in profound darkness, she knows that the wedding-feast is celebrating, and that the cold and insipid water of her devotion is changed Into a delicious wine. At times she feels in the depth of her soul, if we may so speak, operations of the divinity so intense, so penetrating, so delicious, that she finds no human language adequate to express them.
Nuptials of the Soul. The air then resounds with the sublime canticles which the chaste spouse chants to the glory of the Bridegroom. She quaffs, or rather she is inebriated with, the wine of consolations, so that she appears bereft of her senses to those who have not assisted at these divine nuptials.
Moses leads his flock and his powers into the desert, to be retired from all.
Philip, transported with joy, exclaims: "He hath shown me the Father ; I desire nothing more."
Mary Magdalen says to the disciples, " I have seen the Lord ; " and she affirms it though they treat her as a visionary.
The Spouse prepares a banquet in a cenacle closed to all creatures. The senses are sometimes invited; their pleasure then is so great that it penetrates to the very marrow of the bones, which, hard and insensible as they are, are constrained to exclaim, " O Lord, who is like unto Thee ! "
As to the mind, it usually remains at the door of the heart where the nuptials are celebrated, and may not enter. It knows that the Spouse is within; but it cannot understand what is taking place until the doors are opened to it. O the ecstasy of the moment when this favor is granted! What must have been the rapture, the joy, of the sorrowful disciple of Jesus, at beholding his Lord, Whom he believed dead, living and gloriously risen from the dead! The soul then, transported with love, exclaims with St. Peter, not knowing what it says: " It is good for us to be here. O the happiness, the inebriating joy, of this presence ! Let us make here three tabernacles: one for Faith, one for Hope, and one for Charity." But all this is of very brief duration: a heavenly cloud suddenly shuts out this glorious sun, which by a strange marvel is hidden from the mind, and enclosed, so to speak, in the heart, inflaming it with love. This is the couch upon which the Bridegroom is pleased to repose ; it is here that He reveals to His spouse the most hid den secrets of the Divinity, lavishing upon her ineffable caresses incomprehensible to the human mind.
Happy the chaste souls called to these nuptials of the Lamb! Happy the dead who die in the Lord who die to their light and their judgments ; who die to their cares and their anxieties; who die to their desires and their fears. They will pass from fear to hope, from hope to love, from love to fruition, from fruition to union, and from union to transformation. Then God will wipe away their tears, and the Holy Spirit will bid them rest from their labors, for henceforth theirs will be a permanent peace, undisturbed by the accidents or vicissitudes of life.
O my heart ! when wilt thou enter this mysterious silence? When wilt thou be plunged in these sacred obscurities ? When wilt thou enter this kingdom of peace ?
Come, holy souls, to this marriage-feast of Cana; Jesus awaits you and invites you. If the wine fails, Mary will supply it by causing her Son to work a miracle in your favor. Come, learned souls, come to learn in this school of love; abandon your brilliant reasoning, renounce your own lights. This science is not acquired by study, but by experience. It is the unction, and not the doctrine, which teaches. It is a science of the heart, and not of the mind. " Taste and see that the Lord is sweet." We recognize natural truths before we experience them ; but we must experience these truths before we may know and comprehend them.
Dispositions for attaining this Union. To attain this union, which creates a Paradise on earth, great mortification and recollection are necessary: mortification, to detach the heart from creatures; recollection, to unite it with God. We must abandon ourselves to His providence, without anxiety for the present or the future ; we must allow ourselves to be governed by our superiors, without permitting nature to ask or refuse anything. We must renounce our own opinions, mortify our own will, resist our passions, and faithfully obey grace in all that it asks of us.
Detachment. It is very difficult to converse with God and with men. It is impossible to be recollected when our thoughts are constantly abroad ; to be the slave of our heart and free in spirit ; to be interested in everything and to think of nothing ; to be filled with affections and void of distractions; to be spiritual, leading the life of the senses ; to be a talkative man and a man of prayer. After Moses had conversed with God he veiled his face and conversed but little with men: this was to teach us that if we would enjoy the company of God we must fly that of men; at least, that to converse profitably with men we must be long practised in converse with God.
The Necessity of Meditation and Affection to attain this Union. I fear much for those presumptuous souls who aspire to the rank of spouse before they have filled that of servant, who would rest before they have labored. Action must precede contemplation. Meditation must excite affection, must dispose the soul for union. It is through labor that we attain repose. Fear sustains love; penance supports hope; the Humanity of Jesus is the door through which we enter the palace of the Divinity. His infancy touches the heart, His Passion incites it to suffer, His beauty enraptures it, His goodness charms it, His benefits attract it, His love inflames, unites, and transforms it.
Have you been exercised in meditation, devout soul, before seeking contemplation ? Have you labored before you have sought repose ? Can you say that your peace is the fruit of your combats and your victories ? Have you not entered into a pact with your passions ? Have you not appeased and lulled them instead of putting them to death ? Have you not made a truce with the enemies of God instead of conquering them and subjecting them to the empire of grace? Fear God in order to know Him, mortify yourself if you would enjoy Him, leave all to possess Him, renounce your own light and your own powers to behold and contemplate Him, for He has said, " Man shall not see Me and live." Then delay not, O Lord, to effect this death in me ; let me die to all things that I may speedily behold Thee ! Oh, when will this happy day be mine ! When may I enter into the cabinet of the Bridegroom, or when will He come into the chamber of my heart, where, removed from all creatures, with closed doors, I may treat with Him as friend with friend ?
Certain Graces are Lent, not Given us. A passing grace does not constitute a state. Some graces, St. Bernard tells us, are lent us, others are given us; some, again, are attractions, and others are rewards. The graces of attraction precede merit: the graces of reward follow the attraction and crown merit. The graces of attraction last only for a time, the graces of reward always continue with faithful souls. We have no reason to feel assured of our state because we have been permitted to behold Jesus transfigured on Thabor. We may not believe that we have been elevated to the rank of spouse because we have been suffered to assist at the marriage-feast of Cana. A repentant sinner is sometimes permitted, in the beginning of his conversion, to enjoy God after the manner of the spouse, yet he has not for that reason attained the state of union. Because we have once or twice experienced the higher degrees of prayer is no reason for abandoning ordinary meditation. Fear, desire, sigh, labor, struggle, hope ; but never pre
sume on your merits.
Presumptuous Souls. There are rash souls, says St. Bernard, who with overweening presumption dare to enter the chamber of the Spouse and to pray, Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth !" They are without the wedding garment, yet they do not fear to present themselves at the marriage-feast. The Bridegroom, to punish them for their temerity, has them bound hand and foot and thrust into exterior darkness. A soul covered with wounds needs not the Bridegroom, but a physician. It should seek healing, not caresses. Only chaste lovers, pure, mortified souls, may aspire to such favors, and sing the canticle of the spouse, " Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth." Only peaceful souls, victorious over their passions, may aspire to taste this ineffable union. Oh, who would dare to ask it ! And yet, who could not but desire it!
Sighs of a Future Spouse. Alas, Lord! by Thy grace I have long wept for my sins and washed them in the sacred waters of penance. I have long embraced Thy feet, and with the penitent Magdalen kissed them and watered them with my tears. Thou, in Thy goodness, hast presented me Thy hand to kiss, to excite me to good works. Then, may I hope to see Thy adorable face one day, and to receive I say it with trembling " the kiss of Thy mouth"?
Yes, thou mayest hope for this, devout soul, provided thou art humble and obedient, pure and mortified; provided thou seekest only to humble and not to exalt thyself; provided thou hast no will but that of God and thy superiors; provided thou dost abandon thyself to His providence, and desirest to be in time and eternity only what He wishes thee to be ; provided, finally, thou makest thyself worthy of this favor, and thinkest thyself eternally unworthy. For humility is the foundation of this tower of perfection; and we can rise only by first descending into the abyss of our miseries.
Humility necessary to become a Spouse. Oh, how I admire a soul that rises to the contemplation of God by the contemplation of its own unworthiness! You will never attain this intimate union with God unless you are persuaded, not only theoretically, but practically, and by long experience of your miseries, that God is all and that you are nothing; that He is light and that you are darkness; that He is wisdom and that you are folly; that He is strength and that you are infirmity; that He is goodness and that you are malice. If you are not penetrated with these truths, and if you find yourself anything but an abyss of faults and imperfections, you are far from the goal you are seeking. If you believe honestly and unfeignedly that you are the weakest of men, the most ungrateful of Christians, and the greatest of sinners, you have already made great progress toward union. Oh, the folly of a soul that thinks itself possessed only of virtues and merits, and is at a loss to discover what it lacks
He who believes he lacks nothing lacks everything. You will be in the disposition to attain contemplation when you are persuaded that your malice equals, in a measure, God s goodness; that as He is the fulness of all blessings, you, in your capacity, are the fulness of all evils. Oh, the beautiful union of all with nothing, of abundance with indigence, of fulness with emptiness ! Until, like Jeremias, you recognize your poverty, God will not enrich you with His graces; and if you do not free your heart of all self-esteem, you never will be filled with the Spirit of God, which is the Father of union and the sacred tie which unites the soul to Jesus Christ in the shadows of faith, with which He overshadows it when it abandons itself completely to the will of God, and says with the Blessed Virgin, " Be hold the handmaid of the Lord: may it be done to me according to His word "
CHAPTER II. THE DOCTRINE OF ST. FRANCIS DE SALES IN REGARD TO CONTEMPLATION.
DIVINE LOVE SEEKS SOLITUDE AND SILENCE."
PRAYER may be called a manna, on account of the different flavors and divine sweets which love discovers to those who make use of it. But it is a hidden manna which falls in the desert before the dawn of day; that is to say, it is not the fruit of lights and science; its sweets can only be tasted in solitude. When we converse with God alone, then we may say of the soul, " Who is she, that goeth up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices of myrrh, and frankincense, and of all the powders of the perfumer?" (Canticles iii. 6.) It is the spouse herself, who entreats her beloved to conduct her into solitude, that they may both con verse in secret: " Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field, let us abide in the villages " (Ibid. vii. n).
The great attraction which persons of prayer experience is to converse with God in perfect solitude. The blessed Mother Teresa of Jesus relates of herself that in the commencement of her spiritual career she had a singular devotion to those mysteries which represent only the person of Our Lord, as during His prayer in the Garden of Olives, or when He waited for the Samaritan woman near the well; she thought that when her divine Master was alone He would attract her more powerfully, and that she would be sooner united to Him.
Love seeks not for witnesses of its words; and even when those who love have nothing to communicate which requires secrecy, they take pleasure in conversing in private. The reason of this probably is, that they only speak for each other; and it would seem to them they did not speak for themselves alone if their interview could be overheard. Besides this, they make the most ordinary observations in a manner so peculiar as to mark the love from which their words proceed. There is nothing uncommon in the words they use; bi. the tone, the emphasis, and the manner which accompanies everything they say render their language so singular that they alone can understand it. The title of friend publicly conferred on an individual signifies but little; but when uttered in private it comprehends a great deal, and becomes more expressive in proportion to the secrecy with which it is spoken.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEDITATION AND CONTEMPLATION[1]
Contemplation is nothing more than a loving and simple attention of the mind to divine truths, continued for some time. By comparing it with meditation, you will easily comprehend in what it consists.
The young bees which have not begun to work are called nymphs, and when they commence -to make honey they are named bees. So it is with prayer: it is called meditation in the beginning, and when it has produced the love of God it receives the name of contemplation. Bees fly through the fields about their hives to feed on the flowers and extract their juice ; and after having laid up a sufficient provision, they continue to labor for the pleasure which the sweetness of the honey procures them. So we meditate to acquire the love of God ; but after having obtained it, we contemplate that is, we turn our attention to the divine goodness, being attracted by the ineffable sweetness which love discovers to us in this attention. A desire to obtain the love of God induces us to meditate; and love, when we have acquired it, leads us to contemplate.
THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IS LESS NECESSARY TO US THAN LOVE[2]
The will, it is true, only tends to what is good through the medium of the understanding, which proposes it to its view. But when it has once felt its attractions, it does not require the help of the understanding to attach itself thereto more and more closely, because the delight it takes in its object, and the pleasure it expects to derive from it by union, attract it to love and desire its enjoyment. Love resembles all other passions, of which knowledge is the principle and source, though not the rule and measure.
We are induced to love God by the knowledge which faith gives ; but when we have begun to love His infinite goodness, love increases our natural tendency thereto, as this inclination reciprocally augments love.
HOW CONTEMPLATION REDUCES ALL THIS TO SIMPLE UNITY[3]
We shall now consider how meditation is changed into contemplation. After the multiplied reflections which constitute meditation have ex cited devout and pious sentiments, we unite these different feelings and extract their essence and virtue. The peculiar qualities of each affection are thus mixed and united, and from this union proceeds an affection which may be called the substance and quintessence of all the others; it is in itself more lively and active than all the various affections from which it is derived, since it includes the virtues and various properties of each; it is termed the contemplative affection.
Water separates into numerous streams in proportion as it runs farther from its source, and forms several channels, through which it flows, unless great care be taken to confine it to one. In the same manner, the perfections, which all emanate from God, divide in proportion as they are separated from this first principle; and according as they approach it they reunite, until they become totally engulfed in this one sovereign perfection, which is the one thing necessary, the better part chosen by Magdalen, which shall not be taken from her.
THE VARIOUS MEANS WHICH LEAD TO CONTEMPLATION[4]
As great assiduity in hearing the word of God is usually necessary for attaining contemplation, also spiritual conferences and discourses with pious persons, according to the example of the ancient fathers of the desert, the reading of spirit ual works, prayer, meditation, singing the divine praises, and great care to occupy the mind with holy thoughts, and as contemplation is the term to which all these means are directed, those who perform these spiritual exercises are called contemplatives and the manner in which they employ themselves is termed the contemplative life. This name is very applicable, because the principal part of this manner of life consists in the operation of the understanding, by which we consider the beauty and the amiability of the sovereign Being, with an amorous attention that is, with love which animates the attention of the mind, or with attention which proceeds from and increases love.
It is the natural property of infinite goodness to attract and unite to itself everything capable of feeling its impressions. Our soul, which possesses this capability, always tends to what is good, and inclines thereto as to its treasures or the object of its ardent love. When God infuses into the heart a certain indefinable sweetness, which proves that He is present in a particular manner, all the interior powers, and even the exterior senses, bend, as if by common assent, to this inmost part of the soul, to enjoy the company of the amiable and beloved Spouse, Who causes His presence to be so sensibly felt there.
A person who has just communicated may, by the certainty which faith gives him, experience this truth, revealed to him not by flesh and blood, but by the Eternal Father Himself, that, by the adorable Sacrament of the Eucharist, his body and soul enjoy the real presence of the body and soul of Jesus Christ. When the mother-pearls have received the infusion of the drops of the morning dew, they always carefully close their shells, not only to preserve what they have collected, and prevent the sea-water from mingling with the drops distilled from the heavens, but also because the freshness of the dew is analogous to their nature, and would afford them pleasure, were they capable of feeling it.
This is the case with many devout persons after they have participated in the Sacrament by excellence, which contains the mystical dew of all heavenly graces and benedictions; their soul then becomes consecrated in itself not only to adore its King, Who is present therein, but also to taste the inexpressible consolation and incredible heavenly sweetness, springing from the germ of immortality, which by the light of faith they discover to have been planted in their hearts.
We must not lose sight of what has been said at the commencement of this chapter, that the recollection of which we speak is the work of love, which, being first aware of the presence of God by the sweetness diffused in the heart, obliges the soul to unite its powers and attention, and direct them to its Beloved. All this is effected with ease and pleasure, love communicating to the soul an inclination to direct all its powers to God, Who attracts them with so much sweetness. The in finite goodness of the Almighty attracts and binds all hearts more powerfully than cords and chains can fasten and restrain the body.
RECOLLECTION IS FREQUENTLY PRODUCED AND IN CREASED BY A GENTLE, REVERENT FEAR[5]
We must also observe that this recollection is not always produced by the sweet conviction that God is present in the heart; other causes may produce a similar effect, provided they tend to place the soul in the divine presence. In attentively considering the sovereign majesty of God, Who beholds us, we are sometimes seized with so lively a feeling of respect and delicious fear that all our interior powers are immediately concentrated and recollected in themselves, just as the unexpected presence of a great prince recalls the wandering thoughts of the most distracted mind, and produces the exterior respect and reverence due to the dignity of the person present. It is said that there are certain flowers which close their leaves when the sun shines, and bloom again when his light is withdrawn. This is a figure of what occurs in the state of recollection of which we speak: at the remembrance of the presence of God, at the conviction that He looks on us from the height of His exalted throne in heaven, or from any part of the earth beyond ourselves, though we may not actually reflect on that ordinary presence by which He dwells within us, the powers of the soul, that they may be more undividedly directed to this divine object, immediately unite, animated with respect for the divine Majesty, and a holy fear, springing from love, which gives much glory to God.
OF THE REPOSE OF A SOUL RECOLLECTED IN GOD[6]
The soul having entered into itself, for the purpose of being wholly recollected in God, or before God, is solely attentive to His sovereign goodness; but this attention is so simple, so sweet, so easy, so imperceptible, that the soul is sometimes not aware of being occupied. The operation which takes place in it is so delicate that it can scarcely perceive it, and is liable to mistake it, as we are sometimes deceived respecting the nature of rivers which flow very smoothly and calmly. Persons who sail on these rivers, or who look at them, imagine that they have no motion ; they think they can neither see nor feel any because there are no waves or billows to render the motion sensible. This is the sweet repose of the soul, which St. Teresa terms prayer of quiet; it does not differ in the least from what she styles the sleep of the powers of the soul. This repose may be more or less profound; it sometimes increases to so great a degree that the soul appears to be asleep, and all its powers, except the will, seem inactive and motionless. It does nothing b lt receive the impressions of the happiness and satisfaction which result from the presence of its Beloved.
What is still more admirable is that the will enjoys this content without perceiving it; because the soul is entirely occupied with Him Whose presence constitutes its bliss, and its thoughts are quite diverted from itself. In this situation it may be compared to a person who falls into a gentle steep while surrounded by a large party: he partly sees what his friends are doing; he receives their caresses, but he does not notice them, because he is not reflecting on them and is not aware of feeling them.
However, the soul, which in this sweet repose enjoys God by a feeling sense of His presence, without perceiving that it enjoys it, still clearly proves that it highly prizes this happiness, and prefers it to all others, when any event is about to deprive it of it. It then complains loudly; it grieves, and even sheds tears like an infant which is awakened before it has slept sufficiently; it gives evidence of regret which plainly shows the satisfaction it derived from its slumber, since it weeps for its loss as for the privation of a great advantage. For this reason the divine Spouse, addressing the daughters of Jerusalem, conjures them by the roes and harts of the fields not to stir up nor make the beloved to awake till she please (Cant. ii. 7).
It appears that Magdalen was absorbed in this prayer of quiet when, seated at Our Redeemer s feet, she listened to His word. I pray you consider her attentively in this circumstance. She is seated, perfectly tranquil ; she utters not a word ; she sheds not a tear ; no sob convulses her breast ; no sigh escapes her heart ; she is motionless ; she does not pray ; Martha passes from time to time through the room, but Mary is unconscious of her presence : what, then, is she doing ? She is listening that is all ; she is in a state of total inaction. That is, she remains at Jesus feet like a precious vase, receiving drop by drop into her heart the sweet myrrh distilled by the lips of her Beloved. Hence the divine Bridegroom, jealous of His sacred spouse s repose, will not have Martha awaken her: " Martha, Martha, He says, " thou art careful and art troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the better part, which shall not be taken away from her." What was the part Mary had chosen ? To remain recollected at the feet of Jesus, and to enjoy the peace and repose of this recollection.
Remember then, Theotime, that if God attract you by this simple and filial confidence, you must remain tranquilly near Him, without exerting yourself to make marked acts of the understanding or the will: for this loving confidence and repose of soul include excellently well all the exterior acts you could make to satisfy your inclination. It is better thus to sleep in the arms of Our Saviour than to watch elsewhere.
OF THE MANNER IN WHICH THE SOUL ENJOYS REPOSE IN GOD IN THE PRAYER OF QUIET[7]
The soul in this state of holy recollection has no further need of the memory any more than of the understanding : when we are enjoying the presence of a friend we need not tax our imagination to represent him to us. It suffices that our will come forward and accept the sweetness of the divine presence: the other powers, without making any effort, have only to enjoy the repose which God s presence affords.
Wine mingled with honey is used, as we have already observed, to recall the fugitive bees to their hive. It is also employed to appease them when they mutiny and destroy one another. The person who superintends the hive throws some of the mixture into it, and the most seditious of the bees, attracted by the agreeable perfume, seem to forget their enmity, and are only occupied in tranquilly enjoying the sweets presented to them.
O my God ! when by Thy amiable presence Thou infusest into our hearts Thy heavenly perfumes, far more fragrant than wine and honey, all our interior powers cease to act, and enter into delicious repose, which imparts so great a calm and such perfect content that not one of them at tempts the slightest motion.
The will alone, which may be termed the spiritual sense of smell, is sweetly occupied in feeling with out perceiving the inestimable advantage which results from the presence of God.
OF THE DIFFERENT DEGREES OF THE PRAYER OF QUIET, AND THE MEANS WHICH SHOULD BE EM PLOYED TO PRESERVE THE HOLY REPOSE OF THE SOUL[8]
The minds of some persons are active, and abound in thoughts and arguments. Others find great facility in considering and accounting for what occurs within them ; they wish to see and examine everything, to reflect continually on what passes in their interior, and to account to themselves for everything they do. In order to be assured of their advancement, they are incessantly considering their operations, and always occupied with themselves.
There are others who are not satisfied with being contented, unless by marked acts they feel their happiness. These last may be compared to per sons who, being defended against the inclemency of the weather by warm clothing, cannot be persuaded that this is the case unless they know the quality and quantity of their clothes ; or, who, finding their coffers replenished with riches, cannot believe themselves wealthy unless they know exactly the number of pieces of gold and silver which compose their treasure.
The minds of these different characters are liable to be disturbed and distracted during prayer. If the Almighty introduce them to the holy repose of recollection in His presence, they will voluntarily quit it, to consider how they acted while it lasted ; and if their happiness be great, they will sacrifice the tranquillity they enjoy to examine the extent of their calm and peace. Instead of occupying their will in tasting the ineffable delights of the divine presence, they will invite their understanding to reason on the sweetness of these delights. In this they are like a spouse who, instead of being occupied with her bridegroom, amuses herself with examining the ring he gave her on the day of their marriage. Ah, what a difference, Theotime, there is between being occupied in God, Who constitutes our happiness, and occupying ourselves with the contentment which God gives us !
Therefore, a soul which God invites to rest lovingly in Him in the prayer of quiet should abstain as much as possible from reflections on itself and its state. The repose it enjoys is extremely delicate; a look suffices to prove a disturbance thereto, or even to destroy it effectually; to preserve it, it should be careful not even to be aware of its existence. By being too much attached to this prayer it forfeits it; the real way to love its sweets is not to be anxious to know the extent of its enjoyment, that thereby it may not be tempted to attach its affections thereto.
If it happen, during the enjoyment of holy repose in prayer, that the soul is tempted by curiosity, and distracted by reflecting on what occurs within it, it should quickly oblige its heart to resume the sweet and peaceful attention to the presence of God from which its thoughts have strayed. However, we must not imagine that we are in danger of forfeiting this holy quiet on account of movements, either of mind or body, in which levity and indiscretion have no share ; for, as St. Teresa observes, it is a species of superstition to be so jealous of our repose as to refrain from coughing, and almost from breathing, for fear of losing it.
God, Who is the Author of this peace, will not deprive us of it for such motions of the body as are unavoidable, or even for involuntary distractions and wanderings of the mind. Though the understanding and the memory may escape the bounds of restraint and wander on strange and useless thoughts, yet the will, when once attracted by the charms of the divine presence, will still continue to enjoy the same delights. It is true that the calm is not then so perfect as it would be if the understanding and the memory were in union with the will ; yet a real spiritual tranquillity is certainly and effectually enjoyed, since it resides in the will, which governs all the other powers of the soul.
It is, however, certain that the soul would enjoy more calm and sweeter peace if no noise were made near it, and that it could refrain from all interior and exterior motion. It would willingly devote its attention solely to the divine presence, which imparts such ineffable delights ; but it cannot always prevent some of its faculties from disturbing it ; and then, not to incur the privation of its repose, it concentrates itself in its will, this being the power through which it enjoys the presence of its Spouse.
When the will is attracted and sweetly restrained by the happiness it derives from the presence of God, it should not endeavor to recall the other powers when they are diverted from this object ; thus to separate from its divine Spouse would be to sacrifice its repose. Its efforts to recall the attention of these volatile powers would also prove vain and ineffectual. Besides, nothing is more efficacious in bringing them back to their duty than the tranquil perseverance of the will in holy quiet, because the heavenly sweetness diffused in the heart, as a perfume whose fragrance is gradually communicated to all the powers of the soul, invites them to return and unite themselves to the will, that they may share its happiness.
SELF-DENIAL IS THE SAFEST MEANS OF ESTABLISHING OURSELVES IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD[9]
How excellent a method of preserving ourselves in the presence of God is it to abandon ourselves to His will forever ! By this means we can always have God present, even in the most profound sleep, which deprives us of our will ; therefore nothing can establish us more perfectly in that species of presence of which we treat. If we love God, we must be anxious never to lose sight of Him : we fall asleep not only under His eyes, but in the manner most pleasing to His divine majesty ; not only to conform to His holy will, but through the pure and sole motive of conformity.
During sleep we are abandoned to the will of God ; consequently we are in His presence ; we could not be more so if God Himself were to lay us in our beds, as a sculptor places his statue in a niche. Those who live in a state of continual submission to the will of God never quit His divine presence : the couch on which they repose cannot interrupt it, as the nest in which the feathered songsters take their rest does not prevent their being under the unsleeping eye and untiring care of Providence. If we reflect on this truth on awakening, we should be easily convinced that God has been ever present to us, and that our slumbers have not separated us from Him. And why? Because we have slept, as it were, under the shadow and immediate protection of His holy will. We might then truly exclaim with Jacob, The Lord has indeed been with me ; I have slept in His presence ; I have been cradled in the arms of His paternal providence, and I knew it not.
PERFECT SUBMISSION TO THE WILL OF GOD KEEPS THE SOUL IN CONTINUAL PRAYER
This sort of quiet in which the will does nothing but simply acquiesce in the will of God, remaining in His presence without aiming at anything higher than to remain near Him, in conformity to His will, is a sovereignly excellent prayer, because self-interest has no share therein, the faculties of the soul derive no satisfaction from it, and even the will only enjoys it by soaring to the highest regions of the mind, which is called the most sublime spot, where it simply acquiesces in the will of God, and is satisfied at His leaving it destitute of happiness, in order to procure His own felicity. To pronounce, in a word, the eulogium of this species of prayer, the sovereign perfection of love, which is ecstatic by nature, consists in paying no attention whatever to our happiness, but solely to that of the Almighty, or, in other words, in desiring no other satisfaction than that which God derives from the accomplishment of His ever-adorable will.
CHAPTER III. LETTER OF ST. FRANCIS DE SALES TO ST. JANE FRANCES DE CHANTAL.
THERE are three marks by which we may know when we may act interiorly, and whether it is God Who is attracting the soul to simple and tranquil attention in His presence. The first is when we can no longer meditate, when we cease to feel our former pleasure in it, but experience, on the contrary, great aridity in the holy exercise. The second is when the heart has no desire to fix the imagination or the senses on any special object, either exterior or interior. The third and more certain mark is when your soul takes pleasure in being alone with God in a state of loving attention, undisturbed by special consideration of any kind, in the enjoyment of an interior peace which is rest, producing no act or exercise of its powers, will, memory, and understanding, at least by reasoning, which is to go from one thing to another, but simply preserves a loving general attention. We must be able to discern these marks before abandoning meditation. Then, though the soul, in this state of attention, seem to do nothing, and to have no occupation, for the reason that it does not act through the senses, let it not think its time lost or uselessly employed; for, though the powers of the soul cease to act, the intelligence continues. And, finally, let it suffice you to know that, in the cases of which we are treating, it is sufficient if the understanding be withdrawn from special objects, whether spiritual or temporal, and that the will have no desire to think upon them; this applies too when the operation is confined to your intellect, my child, for, when the latter acts jointly with the will, which it nearly always does in a greater or less degree, the soul sees that it is occupied, inasmuch as it feels seized with love, without knowing or understanding what it loves. God, in this state, is the Agent preparing and teaching the soul; and the soul, on its part, receives the spiritual favors given it, which are attention and divine love combined.
The soul, therefore, should continue simply in loving attention to God, without making any special acts other than those to which God inclines it, remaining, as it were, pensive and passive within itself, as one in a state of sincere and loving attention, opening its eyes from time to time to cast an amorous glance upon the Beloved. For God is treating with the soul in giving it this simple and loving attention, and the soul is responding by accepting it with a sweet and tranquil consciousness, and thus love is united with love.
For if the soul, on its part, wish to act or bear itself otherwise than very simply and tranquilly, discarding all reasoning, it will hinder the blessings which God communicates to it in this state of loving attention.
Therefore your soul must be very tranquil, after the manner of God; and to this end it is necessary that the spirit be disengaged and dead to self, for any special thought, or reasoning, or taste, or self-reliance on the part of the soul would hinder and disquiet it, would break the silence which should reign in the senses and the mind in order that the soul may understand the profound and delicate word which God utters to the heart in this solitude, where, if it continue in peaceful and profound attention, it should hear God s voice as long as the silence lasts. When, therefore, the soul feels drawn to this silence, this attention, it should give itself up to it very simply, without any special effort or reflection, so that it may almost forget itself, and be free and disengaged to do whatever is required of it.
Take notice, my child, that when a soul begins to enter this simple, inactive state it should not, at any times or seasons, have recourse to meditation or expect spiritual revelations or favors. Let it, on the contrary, stand firm without support of any kind, the mind free and disengaged, that it may be able to say, after the manner of the prophet Habacuc, " I will stand watch over my senses, I will keep them in subjection; I will stand upon the fortress of my powers, permitting them, of themselves, to conceive no thought; I will watch and see what will be said to me, I will receive what will be communicated to me."
For this exalted wisdom, my child, can be received only by a mind that is withdrawn and detached from the senses and from special gratifications. Calmly and peacefully set your soul at liberty, free it from the yoke of its operations, and do not disturb it by any care or solicitude concerning either earthly or heavenly things; establish it in complete solitude. For the sooner it attains this tranquil inactivity, the more abundantly will the sweet, loving, solitary, peaceful spirit of divine wisdom be infused in it. The little that God effects in the soul in this holy leisure and solitude is a greater and more inestimable good than you can possibly imagine. God builds in each soul a spiritual edifice after the manner He pleases. Mortify nature, annihilate its operations in all that may be contrary to the designs of God, for this is your part, your duty; and God’s part is to direct you to supernatural good, by means which you cannot know. In this leisure, affection is fittingly developed, and then we feel the darts of divine love much more keenly. Care clouds the spirit; rest develops it. It is necessary that all the human affections of souls melt of themselves, in an ineffable manner, and flow into the will of God; otherwise, how will God be all in all to the soul if there remain in it anything human ?
As the wisdom of God, to which the understanding must be united, knows neither means nor measures, and falls not under limits of distinct or special intelligence, and as it is necessary for the perfect union of the soul with the divine wisdom that there be a certain similitude between them, it follows that the soul must be as pure and simple as possible, unmodified and unrestricted by any express or for mal images, since God is not included in them. Thus the soul, to unite itself with God, must have neither form nor distinct intelligence. The perfection of the memory consists in being so absorbed in God that the soul forgets everything in itself, and, removed from all the noise of thoughts and vain imaginings, peacefully reposes in God alone. The more the memory is freed from forms and notable objects not pertaining to the Divinity, or to the Humanity of God, the thought of which is always an aid in the end, He being the true Way, the Guide, and the Author of all good, the more it is plunged in God, and the more we shall be able to keep it void, awaiting God to fill it.
Therefore, what we have to do, to live in pure and absolute dependence upon God, is, not to stop at forms or images, but as often as they present themselves to turn the soul quickly to God, keeping it void of all things, in a state of loving attention ; neither heeding nor thinking of these things, except as far as the memory of them may enable us to do and to understand what is of obligation for us : but this, again, must be done without relish or affection, lest they leave any hindrance or trouble in the soul.
Thus you may not cease to think and to remember what you have to do and what you should know, provided that in doing so you keep your heart free and detached from all things.
CHAPTER IV. THE CONTINUAL PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS DE SALES.
GOD filled the centre of the soul of St. Francis de Sales, and the superior part of his mind, with a light so clear that he saw the truths of faith and appreciated their excellence at a single glance, while they excited great ardor, ecstasy, and rapture in his will ; and he accepted the truths which were shown him with a simple acquiescent movement of the will. He was wont to call the place where this light shone the sanctuary of God, where nothing entered but the soul with its God ; it was the place of his repose and his usual abode ; for, notwithstanding his continual exterior occupations, he kept his mind in this interior solitude as much as possible.
Every aspiration and respiration of this blessed soul was a pure desire to live according to the truths of faith and the maxims of the Gospel. He used to say that the true way to serve God was to follow Him, and to walk after Him in the superior part of the soul, unsupported by consolation, devotion, or light other than that of pure, simple faith. For this reason he loved interior desolation. He told me once that it never mattered to him whether he was in consolation or desolation, and that when Our Lord gave him devotional sentiments he received them with simplicity ; but that if it pleased God to withhold them, he never thought of them. But, as a fact, he usually enjoyed great interior consolation, as was evident in his countenance whenever he withdrew into himself, which he frequently did. He drew good thoughts from all things, turning them to the profit of his soul ; but he received these great lights particularly when he was preparing his sermons, which he usually did in his walks. Study he told me, served him as meditation, and he usually left it much in flamed and enlightened.
Several years ago he told me that he no longer had any sensible devotion in prayer, and that God operated insensibly in him by means of sentiments and lights which He diffused in the superior part of his soul, and that the inferior part had no share in them. They were usually very simple views and sentiments of great unity, and divine emanations in which he was not absorbed, but received very simply, with great reverence and humility ; for his method was to keep himself before God in a very humble, lowly attitude of singular reverence, albeit with the confidence of a favored child. On one occasion, speaking to me of his prayer, he compared it to oil poured upon a highly polished table, the stream of which spreads as it rolls ; and he said that in the same manner a word or thought in meditation diffused a sweet affection through his soul which entertained him with great sweetness.
He frequently wrote me that I must remind him, when I saw him, to tell me what God had given him in prayer. But when I asked him he answered: " They are things so subtle, so simple, so delicate, that you cannot repeat them when they are over; only their effects remain in the soul."
For some years before his death he hardly took any time for meditation, for his duties were over whelming. One day I asked him if he had made his meditation, and he answered: " No, but I am doing what is the same thing." That is, he always kept his heart united with God; he used to say that our prayer in this life must be one of work and action. But his life was truly a continual prayer.
From what has been said we can readily believe that he was not satisfied with merely enjoying this delightful union of his soul with God in prayer. By no means, for he loved God s will equally in all things. And I think that in his later years he had attained such purity that he desired, he loved, he beheld only God in everything; it was evident that he was absorbed in Him, and that nothing in this world, as he said, could afford him happiness but God. He could truly say, with St. Paul: "I live, now not I: but Christ liveth in me." This general love which he had for God s will was purer and more excellent because of the clear divine light which shone in his soul, protecting it from vacillation or deception by enabling it to recognize the rising impulses of self-love, which he faithfully resisted in order to unite himself more closely with God. Thus he told me sometimes, in the midst of his greatest suffering, that he experienced a fervor incomparably sweeter than that which he usually enjoyed; for by means of this union the bitterest things were made sweet to him.
He told me another time that he felt no restraint in the presence of kings or princes, but bore himself after his usual manner because he was interiorly occupied with the presence of God, which unceasingly inspired him with respect at all times and in all places.
To see him in prayer was to have your heart inspired with love for the holy exercise, as many persons experienced. Speaking of the prayer which contemplatives call the prayer of quiet, he said that to enjoy it for one single quarter of .an hour he would accept two whole years of the fire of purgatory. Nevertheless, it was not for his own satisfaction that he said this, but to encourage the souls he addressed to give themselves to this holy exercise; for in all that he did he sought only the will of God. How often he repeated with rapture these words of David: " O Lord, what have I in heaven ? and besides Thee what do I desire upon earth ? Thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion forever " .
CHAPTER V. THE LIFE OF JESUS IN MARY.
JESUS CHRIST, having sacrificed His human life to God, His Father, has received from Him the privilege of being in the Church a source of divine life, the fulness of which He bears in Himself for all His children. This is why the Holy Spirit, in the Scriptures, tells all Christians, who are members of Jesus Christ, that they have received the grace of this first fulness, and that they have nothing in them of the life of God but what they have received from the life of Jesus Christ, and according to the measure in which He willed to impart it to them and make them participators there in. And the apostle St. Paul, always preaching the life of his Master and announcing what Jesus Christ is to the Church, says in several places that Jesus Christ is the fulness, not only of the law, but of the entire Church, whether on earth or in heaven; for He alone fills with His grace and His glory all the just and all the saints; He is all their life, their grace, and their virtue; He is in them all that they have in God, Who is in Jesus the sum of all things, perfecting in Himself all His creatures.
What Our Lord is to His Church He is par excellence to His blessed Mother. Thus He is her fulness, interior and divine; and as He sacrificed Himself more especially for her than for the entire Church, He imparts the life of God to her more abundantly than to the entire Church; and He gives it to her through very gratitude, and in thanksgiving for the life He received from her. As He has promised to return to all His members a hundredfold for the charity which He receives from them on earth, He would return to His Mother the hundredfold of the human life which He received from her love and piety; and this hundredfold is the divine life, inestimably precious and priceless; and, as she was both father and mother to Him, furnishing Him all the substance of His life, Jesus is now in her, giving her all the fulness and the superabundance of life suitable to so vast a subject of love and to one so capable of receiving the fulness of His direction and His divine life.
Therefore, we must consider Jesus Christ our All, living in the Blessed Virgin in the plenitude of the life of God, of that life which He has received from His Father as well as that which He has acquired and merited for men through the ministry of the life of His Mother. It is in her that He manifests all the treasures of His riches, the splendor of His beauty, and the delights of His divine life. In her do we behold an epitome of the glory which His ignominy reflects upon the Church, and the happiness which He acquired for it by His sufferings, as well as all the riches which He has merited for us by the misery and poverty of His cross.
Here, Jesus triumphs in His gifts, glories in the masterpiece which He has created, reposes in joy on the couch of delight which He acquired and prepared for Himself. O adorable sojourn of Jesus in Mary ! O secret worthy of silence ! O unfathomable mystery worthy of adoration ! O incomprehensible communion ! O union of Jesus and Mary inaccessible to the eyes of all creatures ! If the angels, according to St. Paul, can neither see nor contemplate the abode, the communion, and the mystery of the spiritual intercourse of Jesus with His Church, if Jesus Himself tells His apostles that only in heaven will they understand how He abides in them and their reciprocal dwelling in Him, who may comprehend this dwelling, this heavenly and divine abiding, of Jesus in Mary and of Mary in Jesus? It is like to that of Jesus in His Father and the Father in Him. " I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you, * says Our Lord. If He says this of faithful souls and of His intercourse with the universal Church, with how much greater reason may it be said of His blessed Mother, who is as superior to the rest of the Church as the light of the sun is to that of all other planets !
What can be more gratifying or more pleasing to Jesus than to see us go to this place of His delight, to this throne of grace, this adorable furnace of divine love, for the bond which unites all men? Where can we find a more abundant source of grace and of life than here where Jesus dwells, as in the source of the life of men in the Foster-mother of His Church ?
There is nothing more admirable than this life of Jesus in Mary, this holy life which He continually diffuses in her, this divine life with which He animates her, loving, adoring, and praising in her God, His Father, as a worthy supplement to her heart, in which He delights to dwell. All the life of Jesus, and all His love in the rest of His Church, even in His apostles and His dearest disciples, is nothing in comparison to what He is in the heart of Mary. There He dwells in all His fulness; He effects in her the work of the divine Spirit; He is but one heart, one soul, one life with her. There is nothing more admirable than this union, or this holy and mysterious unity, so to speak. It is a thing the consummation of which we may not grasp, and which has this consolation, that it is a masterpiece intended to endure forever.
Oh, how adorable is Jesus in His Mother ! We cannot comprehend what He is in her, or in what manner God makes Himself so completely hers. It is a work of faith, and for this reason more holy and divine, and to be relished the more by interior souls. It is an abyss of love and of charity of which we cannot conceive; for we cannot know the extent of Jesus love for Mary, nor the strength and purity of Mary s love for Jesus. Let us be wholly absorbed in Him, that we may be all that He is to God, His Father, and to His blessed Mother: a sacred holocaust to one and a victim of love to the other for time and eternity. Let us bless this grand All for Whom Jesus and Mary are consumed, and let us renew our vows of fidelity to One and the Other, consecrating ourselves in them to God as holocausts of charity who desire only to be consumed.
Prayer: O Jesus living in Mary, come and live in us in Thy spirit of sanctity, in the fulness of Thy power, in the perfection of Thy designs, in the truth of Thy virtues, in the communion of Thy divine mysteries; rule in us, conquer in us all the powers of the enemy, through the virtue of Thy Spirit, and for the glory of Thy Father. Amen.
Prayer of St. Ignatius: Take, O Lord, my entire liberty. Accept my memory, my understanding, my whole will. All that I am, all that I have, Thou hast given me; I give it to Thee again, to be disposed of according to Thy good pleasure. Give me only Thy love and Thy grace; with these I am rich enough; I can de sire nothing more.
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[1] Book VI., ch. iii
[2] Book VI., ch. iv.
[3] Book VI., ch.v.
[4] Book VI., ch. vii.
[5] Book VI., ch. vii.
[6] Book VI.,ch. viii.
[7] Book VI.,ch. ix
[8] Book VI. Ch. x
[9] Book VI., ch. xi.
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