THE PRACTICE OF THIS SACRED STILLNESS
Have you not noticed, Theotimus, with what eagerness hungry little children cling to their mothers’ breasts when they are hungry. We see them softly murmuring, tightening and pressing the breast with their mouths. They suck so strongly that they give some pain to their mothers. The freshness of the milk satisfies to some extent the heat of hunger in their little body. The pleasant flavour which the milk sends to their brain begins to make them feel sleepy. Then you see them, Theotimus, closing their little eyes. They give way, little by little, to sleep without leaving the breast. They do not do any action on the breast except that of a slow and almost unconscious movement of their lips. By it they always draw milk and swallow it without being aware of it. They do this without thinking of it but surely not without pleasure. For if we remove them from the breast [of their mothers] before they fall into deep slumber they wake up and weep bitterly. Thus they show by the pain they experience in this privation that they had much sweetness in its possession.
It is the same for the human person who is in rest and stillness before God. For the human spirit sucks almost unconsciously the sweetness of this presence. It does so without reasoning, without activity and without doing anything whatever by any of its faculties. The only exception is this. It moves the highest point of the will gently and almost without awareness. The will is like a mouth through which the unconscious delight and satisfaction which their soul experiences in enjoying divine presence enters in. Suppose we disturb this little baby. We wish to take it away from this bosom [treasure]. Though it seems to have slept, it shows quite well that it is asleep only for all the rest of the things. However, it is not asleep as regards this bosom [treasure]. The soul feels the pain of this separation and is unhappy about it. Thus it shows the pleasure it was enjoying, though without thinking of it, in the good it possessed. The Blessed [St] Teresa [of Avila] wrote that she found this comparison apt. So I wished to propose it.
Tell me, Theotimus, I pray you, why should the soul recollected in God be anxious? Has it not reason to be calm and remain in stillness? What does it seek? It has found God whom it was seeking. What more remains for it except to say: I found him whom my soul loves, I held him and would not let him go (Song 3: 4)?36 The spirit has no reason to waste time on reflections with the intellect. For it sees with an extremely gentle view its Spouse present. Hence reflections are useless and superfluous. Even if the soul does not see him by the intellect, it does not worry about it. It is happy to feel his nearness by the joy and satisfaction which the will receive from his presence.
Well! the Mother of God, Our Lady and Mistress, during her pregnancy did not see her divine Child. But feeling him within her sacred womb, true God, what satisfaction she experiences! Does not St. Elizabeth marvellously enjoy the fruits of the divine presence of the Saviour without seeing him on the day of the most holy Visitation? The human spirit in this stillness has no more need of the memory. For its Beloved is present to it. It has also no need of the imagination. Is there any need of presenting either the exterior or the interior image of him whose presence we enjoy? Thus finally it is only the will which gently draws the milk of this sweet presence like a baby at the breast. All the other powers of the soul share in this stillness of the will. Thus, it stays still through the sweetness of the delight the will experiences.
Honied wine is used to recall and drive bees into the comb. It serves also to pacify them. When they make riots and rebellions among themselves, killing and destroying each other, the beekeeper has no better remedy than to scatter some honied wine in the midst of this little furious people. As the individual bees which make up the hive feel this sweet and pleasant smell they become pacified. They occupy themselves with the enjoyment of this fragrance and remain calm and peaceful. O eternal God, by your gentle presence you cast the sweet smelling fragrances into our hearts. These are perfumes giving more joy than delicious wine and more than honey (Song 4:10). Then all the powers of our souls enter into a pleasant stillness. It is such a perfect peace that there is no other feeling whatever than that of the will. Like a spiritual fragrance the will remains gently engaged in experiencing it without being conscious of it, the incomparable goodness of God being present to it.