A CONTINUATION OF THE DISCUSSION ON VARIOUS DEGREES OF HOLY STILLNESS AND THE PERFECT SELF-EMPTYING THAT IS SOMETIMES PRACTISED IN IT
It follows from what we have said that the holy stillness[1] has different degrees. Sometimes it is in all the powers of the soul, joined and united to the will. Sometimes it is only in the will. Sometimes it is felt consciously and at other times imperceptibly. At other times it happens that the human spirit draws an unparallelled joy in feeling that God is present to it through certain interior delights. Thus it happened to St. Elizabeth when Our Lady visited her. At times the soul feels some fervent sweetness to be in the presence of God. It is not then aware of it. It is similar to what happened to the pilgrim disciples [of Emmaus]. They were simply not aware of the pleasant feelings of joy which they experienced as they walked along with our Lord. They realized it only when they reached their destination and recognized him at the divine breaking of bread (Lk 24: 31- 35).
Sometimes the soul not only feels the presence of God but also hears him speaking by some interior lights and convictions. These take the place of words. Sometimes it feels him speaking and speaks to him in response. But it is so secretly, so gently and so graciously that it does not lose this sacred peace and tranquility because of it. It is as if without waking up, the human spirit keeps awake with him (Song 5:2). It means that the soul is awake and speaks to its Beloved heart to heart, This conversation is with so sweet a peace and so tranquil a repose, as if it were sleeping gently. At other times it listens to the Bridegroom speaking, but it is not able to speak to him because of the delight of hearing him or the reverence for him keeps it silent. It is either because the soul experiences dryness or it is spiritually so weak that it has no strength except to hear and not to speak. Sometimes it is like what happens bodily to those who begin to fall asleep or those who are very much weakened by some illness.
Finally, there are times when the soul neither hears its Beloved nor it speaks to him. It does not feel any sign of his presence. But the soul simply knows that it is in the presence of God who is pleased that it is there. Imagine, Theotimus, that at the last supper the glorious apostle St. John slept a natural sleep on the breast of his dear Master. He slept at the command of his Master. Indeed, in this case, he was in the presence of his Master without feeling it in any way whatever.
Please note, I beg you, we need greater care to place ourselves in the presence of God than to remain there when we are already there. For to place ourselves in divine presence, we must concentrate our thought and make it really attentive to his presence. This I have explained in the Introduction.[2] When we are already in his presence, we can keep ourselves there by several other means.
It can be through the understanding or through the will. We do something in God and for God. For instance, we look at him or at something for love of him. We listen to him or to those who speak in his name. We speak to him or to someone for love of him. We do some work, whatever it may be, for his honour and service. Thus we keep ourselves in the divine presence not only by listening to him or looking at him or speaking to him but also by waiting for him. We wait for him that it may please him to look at us, to speak to us, to make us speak to him. Or else, we do nothing of these but remain simply there where it pleases him that we be. If to this simple manner of remaining in the divine presence it pleases him to add a little feeling that we are all his and he is all ours, O God, what a desirable and precious gift it is for us!
My dear Theotimus, let us take the freedom to imagine what follows. I imagine that a sculptor made a statue and placed it in the gallery of a great prince. It is endowed with intelligence and is able to reason and speak.
We ask it: “O, beautiful statue, tell me, why are you here in this niche?”
It would reply: “Because my master has put me here.”
If we retort: “Why do you remain here without doing anything?”
It would answer: “My master did not place me here to do anything but only to be here without moving.”
If we insist anew and say, “But, poor statue, what purpose does it serve to remain there idle?”
“My God,” the statue would reply, “I am not here to seek my interest and to do anything for myself. I am here to obey and to fulfill the will of my master and sculptor and that is enough for me.”
If we continue to urge like this, “Please tell me statue,
I beg you, you do not see your master at all. Then, how do you feel happy in making him content”?
“No! Indeed” it would admit, “I do not see him. I have eyes not for seeing as I have feet not for walking. But I am extremely happy to know that my dear master sees me here and takes pleasure in seeing me here.”
If we continue the dialogue with the statue and say to it: “Do you not wish to have some movement to go near to the craftsman who made you to serve him better?”
Without doubt, the statue would deny it and protest that it would not wish to do anything except what its master wanted.
“ What then!”, we would conclude, “You do not want anything except being a motionless statue there in that hollow niche?
“Surely not," finally this wise statue would answer,
“I do not wish to be anything else than to be a statue and always in this niche, as long as my sculptor wants it. I am quite happy to be here like this since it is the happiness of the person to whom I belong and by whom I am what I am."
O, true God! What an excellent way of being in the presence of God it is: To be and to wish always to be for ever in his good pleasure. Thus, as I believe, at all events, even in deep sleep, we are all the more deeply in the most holy presence of God. Yes, certainly Theotimus, if we love him, we sleep not only in his sight but also according to his liking, not only by his will but also according to his will. It seems that it is our Creator and heavenly sculptor who puts us on our beds like statues in their niches. Thus we rest on our beds like birds in their nests. At our waking, if we think well, we find that God was always present to us. We were not away from him or separated from him. Hence we were there in the presence of his good pleasure, though without seeing it, without being conscious of it. So much so that we could say with Jacob: truly I have slept close to my God in the arms of his divine presence and providence, and I knew nothing of it (Gn 28:16).
In this tranquillity the will acts only by a very simple consent to divine good pleasure, (the Permissive will of God).[3] It wants to be in prayer without any intention than that of being in the sight of God as it pleases him. It is a tranquillity supremely good because it is pure and free from all kinds of self interest. The powers of the soul do not take any satisfaction even in the will except in its highest point.[4] In this highest point, the will is content to have no other satisfaction than that of being without contentment, out of love for the contentment and good pleasure of God in which it rests. In short, it is the summit of loving ecstasy not to have our satisfaction in our own will but in that of God.
-----------------------------------------------
[1] French la sainte quietude literally holy quietude. It is difficult to translate it in one word. It means quietness, stillness, silence, tranquillity, peacefulness, repose. In Christian mysticism and conntemptation, it indicates a conscious or unconscious experience of peace and tranquillity due to divine presence and the silence of the powers of the soul as they are attracted to the divine presence and drawn in to it.
[2] IDL, Part II, Ch.2.
39 le bon plaisir divin. We translate it as divine good pleasure or the permissive will of God. See footnote under Bk IX. Ch. 1
[4] The highest point. See Treatise on the Love of God, (Hereafter referred as TLG) Vol.I, Bk I. Ch.12.