VARIOUS DEGREES OF STILLNESS HOW IT IS TO BE KEPT?
There are some minds active, prolific and rich in reflections. There are others flexible and bent back on themselves. They like very much to experience what they are doing. They wish to see everything, examining minutely what passes within them. They constantly look at themselves to discover their progress. There are still others who do not content themselves with being satisfied unless they feel, look at and taste their contentment. They are like those who are well dressed against cold. But they do not think themselves to be so unless they know how many garments they are wearing. Or there are those who see that their coffers are filled with money. They do not believe themselves to be rich unless they know the number of coins.
Usually all such minds are liable to be disturbed while in holy prayer. If God gives them the sacred repose of his presence, they deliberately abandon it. For they want to see how they behave themselves in this repose and scrutinize whether they really have some contentment. They worry about discerning if their tranquillity is really tranquil and their stillness really still. Thus they do not gently engage their will to experience the loving kindness of divine presence. Instead they use their intellect to analyse the feelings they have. It is similar to a bride who wastes her time seeing the wedding ring with which she was espoused and does not even look at the bridegroom who gave it to her. There is a big difference, Theotimus, between being occupied with God who gives the contentment and wasting time on the contentment which God gives us.
The human spirit to whom God gives this holy, loving stillness in prayer should refrain, as far as possible, from looking at itself or its rest. To preserve this repose, we should not be curious in gazing at it. For he who is too fond of it loses it. The right rule of loving well this stillness is to be free from any attachment to it. It is like the little baby who, in order to see where its feet are, turns its head from the bosom of its mother. Immediately it turns back to the bosom because it is very sweet to it. Thus we should do, in case we find ourselves distracted by curiosity to know what we are doing in prayer. At once we must restore our heart back to the gentle, peaceful attention, to the presence of God from which we had turned away.
Nevertheless we should not think that there is any danger of losing this sacred stillness by actions of the body or of the spirit which are not done due to carelessness or rashness. In fact the Blessed [St.] Teresa [of Avila] said: it is a superstition to be so jealous of this stillness so as not to cough, to spit out or to breath for fear of losing it. Since it is God who gives this peace he does not take it back for such necessary activity nor does he withdraw it for involuntary distractions and wandering of the mind. The understanding or the memory may escape and wander after strange and useless thoughts. Even then the will, once it is attracted by divine presence, does not cease to taste this loving kindness.
It is true that the stillness of the spirit is not so deep as when the intellect and memory are joined to the will. All the same, it does not cease to be a genuine spiritual peace since it reigns in the will. The will is the mistress of all our faculties. Actually I saw a person[1] very deeply attached to and united with God. She had her understanding and memory quite free from all interior occupations. So she could hear very clearly what was spoken around her. She remembered the whole conversation quite well. Still it was impossible for her to reply or detach herself from God. For she was attached to him by the attentiveness of her will. But she was so attached to this stillness that she could not be withdrawn from this pleasant occupation without feeling great distress. She expressed her grief by her laments arising from her consolation and stillness. It is just as we see little children mutter and utter little cries when they earnestly seek their mothers' milk and begin to suck. Or it is as Jacob did in kissing the beautiful and chaste Rachel. He uttered a cry and wept (Gn 29:11) from the intensity of the consolation and tenderness he felt. Thus, this person about whom I am speaking had only the will joined to God. The intellect, memory, hearing and imagination were free. It seems to me that she, like the little child sucking milk, could see, hear and even move the arms, without for that matter, leaving the dear breast.
However, the peace of soul would be much greater and sweeter if there were no noise around it. It would be so if there was no occasion whatever of moving either the heart or the body. For the human spirit likes to be fully immersed in the sweetness of divine presence. But sometimes the soul cannot prevent itself from being distracted by the other faculties. Then it preserves at least the stillness in the will. It is the faculty through which the soul receives the enjoyment of what is good. You may take note of this : the will is kept in repose by the pleasure it feels in the divine presence. It does not make any effort to bring back the faculties which have gone astray. If it wishes to do so, it will lose its stillness. It will distance itself from its Beloved. It will be lost in the struggle of running here and there to catch this unsteady faculties. They can never be usefully called back to their duty except by the perseverance of the will in holy repose. For, little by little, all these faculties are drawn by the joy which the will receives. The will gives some feelings of it to them. It is like perfumes which arouse them to come after the will to share in the good it enjoys.
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[1] Mother Anne Marie Rosset. See footnote chapter 7.