Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Begins to explain how in prayer the soul
is united with God. Describes how we may know that we are not mistaken about this.
OH, sisters! How shall I ever be able to
tell you of the riches and the treasures and the delights which are to be found in the
fifth Mansions? I think it would be better if I were to say nothing of the Mansions I have
not yet treated, for no one can describe them, the understanding is unable to comprehend
them and no comparisons will avail to explain them, for earthly things are quite
insufficient for this purpose. Send me light from Heaven, my Lord, that I may enlighten
these Thy servants, to some of whom Thou art often pleased to grant fruition of these
joys, lest, when the devil transfigures himself into an angel of light, he should deceive
them, for all their desires are occupied in desiring to please Thee.
2 Although I said "to some", there
are really very few who do not enter these Mansions that I am about to describe. Some get
farther than others; but, as I say, the majority manage to get inside. Some of the things
which are in this room, and which I will mention here, are, I am sure, attained by very
few;[108] but, if they do no more than reach the door,
God is showing them great mercy by granting them this; for, though many are called, few
are chosen.[109] So I must say here that, though all of
us who wear this sacred habit of Carmel are[110] called
to prayer and contemplation -- because that was the first principle of our Order and
because we are descendent upon the line of those holy Fathers of ours from Mount Carmel
who sought this treasure, this precious pearl of which we speak, in such great solitude
and with such contempt for the world -- few of us[111] prepare ourselves for the Lord to reveal it to us. As far as externals are concerned, we
are on the right road to attaining the essential virtues; but we shall need to do a very
great deal before we can attain to this higher state and we must on no account be
careless. So let us pause here, my sisters, and beg the Lord that, since to some extent it
is possible for us to enjoy Heaven upon earth, He will grant us His help so that it will
not be our fault if we miss anything may He also show us the road and give strength to our
souls so that we may dig until we find this hidden treasure, since it is quite true that
we have it within ourselves. This I should like to explain if the Lord is pleased to give
me the knowledge.
3 I said "strength to our souls",
because you must understand that we do not need bodily strength if God our Lord does not
give it us; there is no one for whom He makes it impossible to buy His riches; provided
each gives what he has, He is content. Blessed be so great a God! But observe, daughters,
that, if you are to gain this, He would have you keep back nothing; whether it be little
or much, He will have it all for Himself, and according to what you know yourself to have
given, the favours He will grant you will be small or great. There is no better test than
this of whether or no our prayer attains to union. Do not think it is a state, like the
last, in which we dream; I say "dream", because the soul seems to be, as it
were, drowsy, so that it neither seems asleep nor feels awake. Here we are all asleep, and
fast asleep, to the things of the world, and to ourselves (in fact, for the short time
that the condition lasts, the soul is without consciousness and has no power to think,
even though it may desire to do so). There is no need now for it to devise any method of
suspending the thought. Even in loving, if it is able to love, it cannot understand how or
what it is that it loves, nor what it would desire; in fact, it has completely died to the
world so that it may live more fully in God. This is a delectable death, a snatching of
the soul from all the activities which it can perform while it is in the body; a death
full of delight, for, in order to come closer to God, the soul appears to have withdrawn
so far from the body that I do not know if it has still life enough to be able to breathe.[112] I have just been thinking about this and I believe
it has not; or at least, if it still breathes, it does so without realizing it. The mind
would like to occupy itself wholly in understanding something of what it feels, and, as it
has not the strength to do this, it becomes so dumbfounded that, even if any consciousness
remains to it, neither hands nor feet can move; as we commonly say of a person who has
fallen into a swoon, it might be taken for dead. Oh, the secrets of God! I should never
weary of trying to describe them to you, if I thought I could do so successfully. I do not
mind if I write any amount of nonsense, provided that just once in a way I can write
sense, so that we may give great praise to the Lord.
4 I said that there was no question here of
dreaming, whereas as in the Mansion that I have just described the soul is doubtful as to
what has really happened until it has had a good deal of experience of it. It wonders if
the whole thing was imagination, if it has been asleep, if the favour was a gift of God,
or if the devil was transfigured into an angel of light. It retains a thousand suspicions,
and it is well that it should, for, as I said, we can sometimes be deceived in this
respect, even by our own nature. For, although there is less opportunity for the poisonous
creatures to enter, a few little lizards, being very agile, can hide themselves all over
the place; and, although they do no harm -- especially, as I said, if we take no notice of
them -- they correspond to the little thoughts which proceed from the imagination and from
what has been said it will be seen that they are often very troublesome. Agile though they
are, however, the lizards cannot enter this Mansion, for neither imagination nor memory
nor understanding can be an obstacle to the blessings that are bestowed in it. And I shall
venture to affirm that, if this is indeed union with God,[113] the devil cannot enter or do any harm; for His Majesty is in such close contact and union
with the essence of the soul[114] that he will not dare
to approach, nor can he even understand this secret thing. That much is evident: for it is
said that he does not understand our thoughts;[115] still less, therefore, will he understand a thing so secret that God will not even entrust
our thoughts with it.[116] Oh, what a great blessing is
this state in which that accursed one can do us no harm! Great are the gains which come to
the soul with God working in it and neither we ourselves nor anyone else hindering Him.
What will He not give Who so much loves giving and can give all that He will?
5 I fear I may be leaving you confused by
saying "if this is indeed union with God" and suggesting that there are other
kinds of union. But of course there are! If we are really very fond of vanities the devil
will send us into transports over them; but these are not like the transports of God, nor
is there the same delight and satisfaction for the soul or the same peace and joy. That
joy is greater than all the joys of earth, and greater than all its delights, and all its
satisfactions, so that there is no evidence that these satisfactions and those of the
earth have a common origin; and they are apprehended, too, very differently, as you will
have learned by experience. I said once[117] that it is
as if the one kind had to do with the grosser part of the body, and the other kind
penetrated to the very marrow of the bones; that puts it well, and I know no better way of
expressing it.
6 But I fancy that even now you will not be
satisfied, for you will think that you may be mistaken, and that these interior matters
are difficult to investigate. In reality, what has been said will be sufficient for anyone
who has experienced this blessing, for there is a great difference between the false and
the true. But I will give you a clear indication which will make it impossible for you to
go wrong or to doubt if some favour has come from God; His Majesty has put it into my mind
only to-day, and I think it is quite decisive. In difficult matters, even if I believe I
understand what I am saying and am speaking the truth, I use this phrase "I
think", because, if I am mistaken, I am very ready to give credence to those who have
great learning. For even if they have not themselves experienced these things, men of
great learning have a certain instinct[118] to prompt
them. As God uses them to give light to His Church, He reveals to them anything which is
true so that it shall be accepted; and if they do not squander their talents, but are true
servants of God, they will never be surprised at His greatness, for they know quite well
that He is capable of working more and still more. In any case, where matters are in
question for which there is no explanation, there must be others about which they can
read, and they can deduce from their reading that it is possible for these first-named to
have happened.
7 Of this I have the fullest experience; and I
have also experience of timid, half-learned men whose shortcomings have cost me very dear.
At any rate, my own opinion is that anyone who does not believe that God can do much more
than this, and that He has been pleased, and is sometimes still pleased, to grant His
creatures such favours, has closed the door fast against receiving them. Therefore,
sisters, let this never be true of you, but trust God more and more, and do not consider
whether those to whom He communicates His favours are bad or good. His Majesty knows all
about this, as I have said; intervention on our part is quite unnecessary; rather must we
serve His Majesty with humility and simplicity of heart, and praise Him for His works and
wonders.
8 Turning now to the indication which I have
described as[119] a decisive one: here is this soul
which God has made, as it were, completely foolish in order the better to impress upon it
true wisdom. For as long as such a soul is in this state, it can neither see nor hear nor
understand: the period is always short and seems to the soul even shorter than it really
is. God implants Himself in the interior of that soul in such a way that, when it returns
to itself, it cannot[120] possibly doubt that God has
been in it and it has been in God; so firmly does this truth remain within it that,
although for years God may never grant it that favour again, it can neither forget it nor
doubt that it has received it (and this quite apart from the effects which remain within
it, and of which I will speak later). This certainty of the soul is very material.
9 But now you will say to me: How did the soul
see it and understand it if it can neither see nor understand? I am not saying that it saw
it at the time,[121] but that it sees it clearly
afterwards, and not because it is a vision, but because of a certainty which remains in
the soul, which can be put there only by God. I know of a person who had not learned that
God was in all things by presence and power and essence; God granted her a favour of this
kind, which convinced her of this so firmly[122] that,
although one of those half-learned men whom I have been talking about, and whom she asked
in what way God was in us (until God granted him an understanding of it he knew as little
of it as she), told her that He was in us only by grace, she had the truth so firmly
implanted within her that she did not believe him, and asked others, who told her the
truth, which was a great consolation to her.[123]
10 Do not make the mistake of thinking that
this certainty has anything to do with bodily form -- with the presence of Our Lord Jesus
Christ, for example, unseen by us, in the Most Holy Sacrament. It has nothing to do with
this -- only with His Divinity. How, you will ask, can we become so convinced of what we
have not seen? That I do not know, it is the work of God. But I know I am speaking the
truth; and if anyone has not that certainty, I should say that what he has experienced is
not union of the whole soul with God but only union of one of the faculties or some one of
the many other kinds of favour which God grants the soul. In all these matters we must
stop looking for reasons why they happened; if our understanding cannot grasp them, why
should we try to perplex it? It suffices us to know that He Who brings this to pass is
all-powerful,[124] and as it is God Who does it and we,
however hard we work, are quite incapable of achieving it, let us not try to become
capable of understanding it either.
11 With regard to what I have just said about
our incapability, I recall that, as you have heard, the Bride in the Songs says: "The
King brought me" (or "put me", I think the words are) "into the cellar
of wine."[125] It does not say that she went. It
also says that she was wandering about in all directions seeking her Beloved.[126] This, as I understand it, is the cellar where the
Lord is pleased to put us, when He wills and as He wills. But we cannot enter by any
efforts of our own; His Majesty must put us right into the centre[127] of our soul, and must enter there Himself; and, in
order that He may the better show us His wonders, it is His pleasure that our will, which
has entirely surrendered itself to Him, should have no part in this. Nor does He desire
the door of the faculties and senses, which are all asleep, to be opened to Him; He will
come into the centre of the soul without using a door, as He did when He came in to His
disciples, and said Pax vobis,128 and when He left the sepulchre without
removing the stone. Later on you will see how it is His Majesty's will that the soul
should have fruition of Him in its very centre, but you will be able to realize that in
the last Mansion much better than here.
12 Oh, daughters, what a lot we shall see if we
desire to see no more than our own baseness and wretchedness and to understand that we are
not worthy to be the handmaidens of so great a Lord, since we cannot comprehend His
marvels. May He be for ever praised. Amen.
Continues the same subject. Explains the
Prayer of Union by a delicate comparison. Describes the effects which it produces in the
soul. Should be studied with great care.
YOU will suppose that all there is to be
seen in this Mansion has been described already, but there is much more to come yet, for,
as I said, some receive more and some less. With regard to the nature of union, I do not
think I can say any thing further; but when the soul to which God grants these favours
prepares itself for them, there are many things to be said concerning what the Lord works
in it. Some of these I shall say now, and I shall describe that soul's state. In order the
better to explain this, I will make use of a comparison which is suitable for the purpose;
and which will also show us how, although this work is performed by the Lord, and we can
do nothing to make His Majesty grant us this favour, we can do a great deal to prepare
ourselves for it.
2 You will have heard of the wonderful way in
which silk is made -- a way which no one could invent but God -- and how it comes from a
kind of seed which looks like tiny peppercorns[129] (I
have never seen this, but only heard of it, so if it is incorrect in any way the Fault is
not mine). When the warm weather comes, and the mulberry-trees begin to show leaf, this
seed starts to take life; until it has this sustenance, on which it feeds, it is as dead.
The silkworms feed on the mulberry-leaves until they are full-grown, when people put down
twigs, upon which, with their tiny mouths, they start spinning silk, making themselves
very tight little cocoons, in which they bury themselves. Then, finally, the worm, which
was large and ugly, comes right out of the cocoon a beautiful white butterfly.
3 Now if no one had ever seen this, and we
were only told about it as a story of past ages, who would believe it? And what arguments
could we find to support the belief that a thing as devoid of reason as a worm or a bee
could be diligent enough to work so industriously for our advantage, and that in such an
enterprise the poor little worm would lose its life? This alone, sisters, even if I tell
you no more, is sufficient for a brief meditation, for it will enable you to reflect upon
the wonders and the wisdom of our God. What, then, would it be if we knew the properties
of everything? It will be a great help to us if we occupy ourselves in thinking of these
wonderful things and rejoice in being the brides of so wise and powerful a King.
4 But to return to what I was saying. The
silkworm is like the soul which takes life when, through the heat which comes from the
Holy Spirit, it begins to utilize the general help which God gives to us all, and to make
use of the remedies which He left in His Church -- such as frequent confessions, good
books and sermons, for these are the remedies for a soul dead in negligences and sins and
frequently plunged into temptation. The soul begins to live and nourishes itself on this
food, and on good meditations, until it is full grown -- and this is what concerns me now:
the rest is of little importance.
5 When it is full-grown, then, as I wrote at
the beginning, it starts to spin its silk and to build the house in which it is to die.
This house may be understood here to mean Christ. I think I read or heard somewhere that
our life is hid in Christ, or in God (for that is the same thing), or that our life is
Christ.[130] (The exact form of this[131] is little to my purpose.)
6 Here, then, daughters, you see what we can
do, with God's favour. May His Majesty Himself be our Mansion as He is in this Prayer of
Union which, as it were, we ourselves spin. When I say He will be our Mansion, and we can
construct it for ourselves and hide ourselves in it, I seem to be suggesting that we can
subtract from God, or add to Him. But of course we cannot possibly do that! We can neither
subtract from, nor add to, God, but we can subtract from, and add to, ourselves, just as
these little silkworms do. And, before we have finished doing all that we can in that
respect, God will take this tiny achievement of ours, which is nothing at all, unite it
with His greatness and give it such worth that its reward will be the Lord Himself. And as
it is He Whom it has cost the most, so His Majesty will unite our small trials with the
great trials which He suffered, and make both of them into one.
7 On, then, my daughters! Let us hasten to
perform this task and spin this cocoon. Let us renounce our self-love and self-will, and
our attachment to earthly things. Let us practise penance, prayer, mortification,
obedience, and all the other good works that you know of. Let us do what we have been
taught; and we have been instructed about what our duty is. Let the silkworm die -- let it
die, as in fact it does when it has completed the work which it was created to do. Then we
shall see God and shall ourselves be as completely hidden in His greatness as is this
little worm in its cocoon. Note that, when I speak of seeing God, I am referring to the
way in which, as I have said, He allows Himself to be apprehended in this kind of union.
8 And now let us see what becomes of this
silkworm, for all that I have been saying about it is leading up to this. When it is in
this state of prayer, and quite dead to the world, it comes out a little white butterfly.
Oh, greatness of God, that a soul should come out like this after being hidden in the
greatness of God, and closely united with Him, for so short a time -- never, I think, for
as long as half an hour! I tell you truly, the very soul does not know itself. For think
of the difference between an ugly worm and a white butterfly; it is just the same here.
The soul cannot think how it can have merited such a blessing -- whence such a blessing
could have come to it, I meant to say, for it knows quite well that it has not merited it
at all.[132] It finds itself so anxious to praise the
Lord that it would gladly be consumed and die a thousand deaths for His sake. Then it
finds itself longing to suffer great trials and unable to do otherwise. It has the most
vehement desires for penance, for solitude, and for all to know God. And hence, when it
sees God being offended, it becomes greatly distressed. In the following Mansion we shall
treat of these things further and in detail, for, although the experiences of this Mansion
and of the next are almost identical, their effects come to have much greater power; for,
as I have said, if after God comes to a soul here on earth it strives to progress still
more, it will experience great things.
9 To see, then, the restlessness of this
little butterfly -- though it has never been quieter or more at rest in its life! Here is
something to praise God for -- namely, that it knows not where to settle and make its
abode. By comparison with the abode it has had, everything it sees on earth leaves it
dissatisfied, especially when God has again and again given it this wine which almost
every time has brought it some new blessing. It sets no store by the things it did when it
was a worm -- that is, by its gradual weaving of the cocoon. It has wings now: how can it
be content to crawl along slowly when it is able to fly? All that it can do for God seems
to it slight by comparison with its desires. It even attaches little importance to what
the saints endured, knowing by experience how the Lord helps and transforms a soul, so
that it seems no longer to be itself, or even its own likeness. For the weakness which it
used to think it had when it came to doing penance is now turned into strength. It is no
longer bound by ties of relationship, friendship or property. Previously all its acts of
will and resolutions and desires were powerless to loosen these and seemed only to bind
them the more firmly; now it is grieved at having even to fulfil its obligations in these
respects lest these should cause it to sin against God. Everything wearies it, because it
has proved that it can find no true rest in the creatures.
10 I seem to be enlarging on this subject and
there is much more that I could say: anyone to whom God has granted this favour will
realize that I have said very little. It is not surprising, then, that, as this little
butterfly feels a stranger to things of the earth, it should be seeking a new
resting-place. But where will the poor little creature go? It cannot return to the place
it came from, for, as has been said, however hard we try, it is not in our power to do
that until God is pleased once again to grant us this favour. Ah, Lord! What trials begin
afresh for this soul! Who would think such a thing possible after it had received so
signal a favour? But, after all,[133] we must bear
crosses in one way or another for as long as we live. And if anyone told me that after
reaching this state he had enjoyed continual rest and joy, I should say that he had not
reached it at all, but that if he had got as far as the previous Mansion, he might
possibly have experienced some kind of consolation the effect of which was enhanced by
physical weakness, and perhaps even by the devil, who gives peace to the soul in order
later to wage a far severer war upon it.
11 I do not mean that those who attain to this
state have no peace: they do have it, and to a very high degree, for even their trials are
of such sublimity and come from so noble a source that, severe though they are, they bring
peace and contentment. The very discontent caused by the things of the world arouses a
desire to leave it, so grievous that any alleviation it finds can only be in the thought
that its life in this exile is God's will. And even this is insufficient to comfort it,
for, despite all it has gained, the soul is not wholly resigned to the will of God, as we
shall see later. It does not fail to act in conformity with God's will, but it does so
with many tears and with great sorrow at being unable to do more because it has been given
no more capacity. Whenever it engages in prayer, this is a grief to it. To some extent,
perhaps, it is a result of the great grief caused by seeing how often God is offended, and
how little esteemed, in this world, and by considering how many souls are lost, both of
heretics and of Moors; although its greatest grief is over the loss of Christian souls,
many of whom, it fears, are condemned, though so great is God's mercy that, however evil
their lives have been, they can amend them and be saved.
12 Oh, the greatness of God! Only a few years
since -- perhaps only a few days -- this soul was thinking of nothing but itself. Who has
plunged it into such grievous anxieties? Even if we tried to meditate for years on end, we
could not feel this as keenly as the soul does now. God help me! If I were able to spend
many days and years in trying to realize how great a sin it is to offend God, and in
reflecting that those who are damned are His children, and my brothers and sisters, and in
meditating upon the dangers in which we live, and in thinking how good it would be for us
to depart from this miserable life, would all that suffice? No, daughters; the grief I am
referring to is not like that caused by these kinds of meditation. That grief we could
easily achieve, with the Lord's help, by thinking a great deal about those things; but it
does not reach to the depths of our being, as does this grief, which, without any effort
on the soul's part, and sometimes against its will, seems to tear it to pieces and grind
it to powder. What, then, is this grief? Whence does it come? I will tell you.
13 Have you not heard concerning the Bride (I
said this a little while back,[134] though not with
reference to the same matter) that God put her in the cellar of wine and ordained charity
in her? Well, that is the position here. That soul has now delivered itself into His hands
and His great love has so completely subdued it that it neither knows nor desires anything
save that God shall do with it what He wills. Never, I think, will God grant this favour
save to the soul which He takes for His very own. His will is that, without understanding
how, the soul shall go thence sealed with His seal. In reality, the soul in that state
does no more than the wax when a seal is impressed upon it -- the wax does not impress
itself; it is only prepared for the impress: that is, it is soft -- and it does not even
soften itself so as to be prepared; it merely remains quiet and consenting. Oh, goodness
of God, that all this should be done at Thy cost! Thou dost require only our wills and
dost ask that Thy wax may offer no impediment.
14 Here, then, sisters, you see what our God
does to the soul in this state so that it may know itself to be His. He gives it something
of His own, which is what His Son had in this life: He can grant us no favour greater than
that. Who could have wanted to depart from this life more than His Son did? As, indeed,
His Majesty said at the Last Supper: "With desire have I desired."[135] "Did not the painful death that Thou wert to
die present itself to Thee, O Lord, as something grievous and terrible?" "No,
because My great love and My desire that souls shall be saved transcend these pains beyond
all comparison and the very terrible things that I have suffered since I lived in the
world, and still suffer, are such that by comparison with them these are nothing."
15 I have often thought about this: I know that
the torment which a certain person of my acquaintance[136] has suffered, and suffers still, at seeing the Lord offended, is so intolerable that she
would far sooner die than suffer it. And, I reflected, if a soul which has so very little
charity by comparison with Christ's that it might be said to be almost nothing beside His
felt this torment to be so intolerable, what must the feelings of Our Lord Jesus Christ
have been, and what a life must He have lived, if He saw everything and was continually
witnessing the great offenses which were being committed against His Father? I think this
must certainly have caused Him much greater grief than the pains of His most sacred
Passion; for there He could see the end of His trials; and that sight, together with the
satisfaction of seeing our redemption achieved through His death, and of proving what love
He had for His Father by suffering so much for Him, would alleviate His pains, just as,
when those who have great strength of love perform great penances, they hardly feel them,
and would like to do more and more, and everything that they do seems very small to them.
What, then, would His Majesty feel when He found Himself able to prove so amply to His
Father how completely He was fulfilling the obligation of obedience to Him and showing His
love for His neighbour? Oh, the great delight of suffering in doing the will of God! But
the constant sight of so many offences committed against His Majesty and so many souls
going to hell must, I think, have been so painful to Him that, had He not been more than
man, one day of that grief would have sufficed to put an end to any number of lives that
He might have had, let alone to one.
Continues the same matter. Describes
another kind of union which, with the help of God, the soul can attain, and the important
part played in it by the love of our neighbour. This chapter is of great profit.
LET us now return to our little dove, and
see something of what God gives her in this state. It must always be understood that she
will try to advance in the service of Our Lord and in self-knowledge. If she does no more
than receive this favour, and, as though she enjoyed complete security, begins to lead a
careless life and stray from the road to Heaven -- that is, from the Commandments -- there
will happen to her what happens to the creature that comes out of the silkworm, which
leaves seed for the production of more silkworms and then dies for ever. I say it leaves
seed because for my own part I believe it is God's will that so great a favour should not
be given in vain, and that if the soul that receives it does not profit by it others will
do so. For, as the soul possesses these aforementioned desires and virtues, it will always
profit other souls so long as it leads a good life, and from its own heat new heat will be
transmitted to them. Even after losing this, it may still desire others to profit, and
take pleasure in describing the favours given by God to those who love and serve Him.
2 I knew a person to whom this happened,[137] and who, though having herself gone far astray was
glad that others should profit by the favours God had shown her, she would describe the
way of prayer to those who did not understand it, and she brought them very, very great
profit.[138] Later, the Lord gave her new light. It is
true that she had not yet experienced the effects which have been mentioned. But how many
are called by the Lord to apostleship, as Judas was, and enjoy communion with Him, or are
called to be made kings, as Saul was, and afterwards, through their own fault, are lost!
From this, sisters, we may deduce that, if we are to acquire increasing merit, and not,
like Saul and Judas, to be lost, our only possible safety consists in obedience and in
never swerving from the law of God; I am referring to those to whom He grants these
favours, and in fact to all.
3 Despite all I have said, this Mansion seems
to me a little obscure. There is a great deal to be gained by entering it, and those from
whom the Lord withholds such supernatural gifts will do well to feel that they are not
without hope; for true union can quite well be achieved, with the favour of Our Lord, if
we endeavour to attain it by not following our own will but submitting it to whatever is
the will of God. Oh, how many of us there are who say we do this and think we want nothing
else, and would die for this truth, as I believe I have said! For I tell you, and I shall
often repeat this, that when you have obtained this favour from the Lord, you need not
strive for that other delectable union which has been described, for the most valuable
thing about it is that it proceeds from this union which I am now describing; and we
cannot attain to the heights I have spoken of if we are not sure that we have the union in
which we resign our wills to the will of God.
4 Oh, how much to be desired is this union!
Happy the soul that has attained to it, for it will live peacefully both in this life and
in the next as well. Nothing that happens on earth will afflict it unless it finds itself
in peril of losing God, or sees that He is offended -- neither sickness nor poverty nor
death, except when someone dies who was needed by the Church of God. For this soul sees
clearly that He knows what He does better than it knows itself what it desires.
5 You must observe that there are many kinds
of grief. Some of them come upon us suddenly, in natural ways, just as pleasures do; they
may even arise from charity, which makes us pity our neighbours, as Our Lord did when He
raised Lazarus;[139] and these do not prevent union
with the will of God, nor do they cause a restless, unquiet passion which disturbs the
soul and lasts for a long time. They are griefs which pass quickly; for, as I said of joys
in prayer, they seem not to penetrate to the depth of the soul but only reach these senses
and faculties. They characterize all the Mansions so far described but do not enter that
which will be dealt with last of all, from which the suspension of the faculties already
referred to is inseparable. The Lord can enrich souls in many ways and bring them to these
Mansions by many other paths than the short cut which has been described.
6 But note very carefully, daughters, that the
silkworm has of necessity to die; and it is this which will cost you most; for death comes
more easily[140] when one can see oneself living a new
life, whereas our duty now is to continue living this present life, and yet to die of our
own free will.[141] I confess to you that we shall find
this much harder, but it is of the greatest value and the reward will be greater too if
you gain the victory. But you must not doubt the possibility of this true union with the
will of God. This is the union which I have desired all my life; it is for this that I
continually beseech Our Lord; it is this which is the most genuine and the safest.
7 But alas that so few of us are destined to
attain it! A person who takes care not to offend the Lord and has entered the religious
life may think he has done everything. But oh, there are always a few little worms which
do not reveal themselves until, like the worm which gnawed through Jonas's ivy,[142] they have gnawed through our virtues. Such are
self-love, self-esteem, censoriousness (even if only in small things) concerning our
neighbours, lack of charity towards them, and failure to love them as we love ourselves.
For, although late in the day we may fulfil our obligations and so commit no sin, we are
far from attaining a point necessary to complete union with the will of God.
8 What do you suppose His will is, daughters?
That we should be altogether perfect, and be one with Him and with the Father,[143] as in His Majesty's prayer. Consider what a long way
we are from attaining this. I assure you that it causes me real distress to write in this
way because I know how far I am from it myself, and entirely through my own fault. For we
do not require great favours from the Lord before we can achieve this; He has given us all
we need in giving us His Son to show us the way. Do not think that if, for example, my
father or my brother dies, I ought to be in such close conformity with the will of God
that I shall not grieve at his loss, or that, if I have trials or illnesses, I must enjoy
bearing them. It is good if we can do this and some times it is a matter of common sense:
being unable to help ourselves, we make a virtue of necessity. How often philosophers used
to act thus in matters of this kind, or in similar matters -- and they were very wise men!
But here the Lord asks only two things of us: love for His Majesty and love for our
neighbour. It is for these two virtues that we must strive, and if we attain them
perfectly we are doing His will and so shall be united with Him. But, as I have said, how
far we are from doing these two things in the way we ought for a God Who is so great! May
His Majesty be pleased to give us grace so that we may deserve to reach this state, as it
is in our power to do if we wish.
9 The surest sign that we are keeping these
two commandments is, I think, that we should really be loving our neighbour; for we cannot
be sure if we are loving God, although we may have good reasons for believing that we are,
but we can know quite well if we are loving our neighbour. And be certain that, the
farther advanced you find you are in this, the greater the love you will have for God; for
so dearly does His Majesty love us that He will reward our love for our neighbour by
increasing the love which we bear to Himself, and that in a thousand ways: this I cannot
doubt.
10 It is most important that we should proceed
in this matter very carefully, for, if we have attained great perfection here, we have
done everything. Our nature being so evil, I do not believe we could ever attain perfect
love for our neighbour unless it had its roots in the love of God. Since this is so
important, sisters, let us strive to get to know ourselves better and better, even in the
very smallest matters, and take no notice of all the fine plans which come crowding into
our minds when we are at prayer, and which we think we will put into practice and carry
out for the good of our neighbours in the hope of saving just one soul. If our later
actions are not in harmony with those plans, we can have no reason for believing that we
should ever have put them into practice. I say the same of humility and of all the
virtues; the wiles of the devil are terrible, he will run a thousand times round hell if
by so doing he can make us believe that we have a single virtue which we have not. And he
is right, for such ideas are very harmful, and such imaginary virtues, when they come from
this source, are never unaccompanied by vainglory; just as those which God gives are free
both from this and from pride.
11 I like the way in which some souls, when
they are at prayer, think that, for God's sake, they would be glad if they could be
humbled and put to open shame -- and then try to conceal quite a slight failure. Oh, and
if they should be accused of anything that they have not done ---- ! God save us from
having to listen to them then! Let anyone who cannot bear trials like that be very careful
to pay no heed to the resolutions he may have made when he was alone. For they could not
in fact have been resolutions made by the will (a genuine act of the will is quite another
matter); they must have been due to some freak of the imagination. The devil makes good
use of the imagination in practising his surprises and deceptions, and there are many such
which he can practise on women, or on unlettered persons, because we do not understand the
difference between the faculties and the imagination, and thousands of other things
belonging to the interior life. Oh, sisters, how clearly it can be seen what love of your
neighbour really means to some of you, and what an imperfect stage it has reached in
others! If you understood the importance of this virtue to us all you would strive after
nothing but gaining it.
12 When I see people very diligently trying to
discover what kind of prayer they are experiencing and so completely wrapt up[144] in their prayers that they seem afraid to stir, or
to indulge in a moment's thought, lest they should lose the slightest degree of the
tenderness and devotion which they have been feeling, I realize how little they understand
of the road to the attainment of union. They think that the whole thing consists in this.
But no, sisters, no; what the Lord desires is works. If you see a sick woman to whom you
can give some help, never be affected by the fear that your devotion will suffer, but take
pity on her: if she is in pain, you should feel pain too; if necessary, fast so that she
may have your food, not so much for her sake as because you know it to be your Lord's
will. That is true union with His will. Again, if you hear someone being highly praised,
be much more pleased than if they were praising you; this is really easy if you have
humility, for in that case you will be sorry to hear yourself praised. To be glad when
your sisters' virtues are praised is a great thing, and, when we see a fault in someone,
we should be as sorry about it as if it were our own and try to conceal it from others.
13 I have said a great deal about this
elsewhere,[145] sisters, because I know that, if we
were to fail here, we should be lost. May the Lord grant us never to fail, and, if that is
to be so, I tell you that you must not cease to beg His Majesty for the union which I have
described. It may be that you have experienced devotion and consolations, so that you
think you have reached this stage, and even enjoyed some brief period of suspension in the
Prayer of Quiet, which some people always take to mean that everything is accomplished.
But, believe me, if you find you are lacking in this virtue, you have not yet attained
union. So ask Our Lord to grant you this perfect love for your neighbour, and allow His
Majesty to work, and, if you use your best endeavours and strive after this in every way
that you can, He will give you more even than you can desire. You must do violence to your
own will, so that your sister's will is done in everything, even though this may cause you
to forgo your own rights and forget your own good in your concern for theirs, and however
much your physical powers may rebel. If the opportunity presents itself, too, try to
shoulder some trial in order to relieve your neighbour of it. Do not suppose that it will
cost you nothing or that you will find it all done for you. Think what the love which our
Spouse had for us cost Him, when, in order to redeem us from death, He died such a
grievous death as the death of the Cross.
Continues the same subject and gives a
further explanation of this kind of prayer. Describes the great importance of proceeding
carefully, since the devil is most careful to do all he can to turn souls back from the
road they have begun to tread.
I THINK you will be anxious now to learn
what this little dove is doing, and where it is going to settle, for of course it cannot
rest in spiritual consolations or in earthly pleasures. It is destined to fly higher than
this and I cannot fully satisfy your anxiety until we come to the last Mansion. God grant
I may remember it then and find an opportunity to write about it, for almost five months
have passed since I began this book, and, as my head is not in a fit state for me to read
it through again, it must all be very confused and I may possibly say a few things twice
over. As it is for my sisters, however, that matters little.
2 I want to explain to you still further what
I think this Prayer of Union is; and I will make a comparison as well as my wit will
allow. Afterwards we will say more about this little butterfly, which never rests --
though it is always fruitful in doing good to itself and to other souls -- because it has
not yet found true reposed.[146] You will often have
heard that God betrothes Himself to souls spiritually. Blessed be His mercy, which is
pleased so to humble itself! I am only making a rough comparison, but I can find no other
which will better explain what I am trying to say than the Sacrament of Matrimony. The two
things work differently, for in this matter which we are treating there is nothing that is
not spiritual: corporeal union is quite another thing and the spiritual joys and
consolations given by the Lord are a thousand leagues removed from those experienced in
marriage. It is all a union of love with love, and its operations are entirely pure, and
so delicate and gentle that there is no way of describing them; but the Lord can make the
soul very deeply conscious of them.
3 It seems to me that this union has not yet
reached the point of spiritual betrothal, but is rather like what happens in our earthly
life when two people are about to be betrothed. There is a discussion as to whether or no
they are suited to each other and are both in love; and then they meet again so that they
may learn to appreciate each other better. So it is here. The contract is already drawn up
and the soul has been clearly given to understand the happiness of her lot and is
determined to do all the will of her Spouse in every way in which she sees that she can
give Him pleasure. His Majesty, Who will know quite well if this is the case, is pleased
with the soul, so He grants her this mercy, desiring that she shall get to know Him
better, and that, as we may say, they shall meet together,[147] and He shall unite her with Himself. We can compare this kind of union to a short meeting
of that nature because it is over in the very shortest time. All giving and taking have
now come to an end and in a secret way the soul sees Who this Spouse is that she is to
take.[148] By means of the senses and faculties she
could not understand in a thousand years what she understands in this way in the briefest
space of time. But the Spouse, being Who He is, leaves her, after that one visit, worthier
to join hands (as people say) with Him; and the soul becomes so fired with love that for
her part she does her utmost not to thwart this Divine betrothal. If she is neglectful,
however, and sets her affection on anything other than Himself, she loses everything, and
that is a loss every bit as great as are the favours He has been granting her, which are
far greater than it is possible to convey.
4 So, Christian souls, whom the Lord has
brought to this point on your journey, I beseech you, for His sake, not to be negligent,
but to withdraw from occasions of sin -- for even in this state the soul is not strong
enough to be able to run into them safely, as it is after the betrothal has been made --
that is to say, in the Mansion which we shall describe after this one. For this
communication has been no more than (as we might say) one single short meeting,[149] and the devil will take great pains about combating
it and will try to hinder the betrothal. Afterwards, when he sees that the soul is
completely surrendered to the Spouse, he dare not do this, for he is afraid of such a soul
as that, and he knows by experience that if he attempts anything of the kind he will come
out very much the loser and the soul will achieve a corresponding gain.
5 I tell you, daughters, I have known people
of a very high degree of spirituality who have reached this state, and whom,
notwithstanding, the devil, with great subtlety and craft, has won back to himself. For
this purpose he will marshal all the powers of hell, for, as I have often said, if he wins
a single soul in this way he will win a whole multitude. The devil has much experience in
this matter. If we consider what a large number of people God can draw to Himself through
the agency of a single soul, the thought of the thousands converted by the martyrs gives
us great cause for praising God. Think of a maiden like Saint Ursula. And of the souls
whom the devil must have lost through Saint Dominic and Saint Francis and other founders
of Orders, and is losing now through Father Ignatius, who founded the Company[150] -- all of whom, of course, as we read, received such
favours from God! What did they do but endeavour that this Divine betrothal should not be
frustrated through their fault? Oh, my daughters, how ready this Lord still is to grant us
favours, just as He was then! In some ways it is even more necessary that we should wish
to receive them, for there are fewer than there used to be who think of the Lord's honour!
We are so very fond of ourselves and so very careful not to lose any of our rights! Oh,
what a great mistake we make! May the Lord in His mercy give us light lest we fall into
such darkness.
6 There are two things about which you may ask
me, or be in doubt. The first is this: If the soul is so completely at one with the will
of God, as has been said, how can it be deceived, since it never desires to follow its own
will? The second: By what avenues can the devil enter and lead you into such peril that
your soul may be lost, when you are so completely withdrawn from the world and so often
approach the Sacraments? For you are enjoying the companionship, as we might say, of
angels, since, by the goodness of the Lord, you have none of you any other desires than to
serve and please Him in everything. It would not be surprising, you might add, if this
should happen to those who are immersed in the cares of the world. I agree that you are
justified in asking this -- God has been abundantly merciful to us. But when I read, as I
have said, that Judas enjoyed the companionship of the Apostles, had continual intercourse
with God Himself, and could listen to His own words, I realize that even this does not
guarantee our safety.
7 To the first question, my reply would be
that, if this soul invariably followed the will of God, it is clear that it would not be
lost. But the devil comes with his artful wiles, and, under colour of doing good, sets
about undermining it in trivial ways, and involving it in practices which, so he gives it
to understand, are not wrong; little by little he darkens its understanding, and weakens
its will, and causes its self-love to increase, until in one way and another he begins to
withdraw it from the love of God and to persuade it to indulge its own wishes. And this is
also an answer to the second question, for there is no enclosure so strictly guarded that
he cannot enter it, and no desert so solitary that he cannot visit it. And I would make
one further remark -- namely, that the reason the Lord permits this may possibly be so
that He may observe the behaviour of the soul which He wishes to set up as a light to
others; for, if it is going to be a failure, it is better that it should be so at the
outset than when it can do many souls harm.
8 What we should be most diligent about, I
think, is this. First, we must continually ask God in our prayers to keep us in His hand,
and bear constantly in mind that, if He leaves us, we shall at once be down in the depths,
as indeed we shall. So we must never have any confidence in ourselves -- that would simply
be folly. But most of all we must walk with special care and attention, and watch what
progress we make in the virtues, and discover if, in any way, we are either improving or
going back, especially in our love for each other and in our desire to be thought least
of, and in ordinary things; for if we look to this, and beg the Lord to give us light, we
shall at once discern whether we have gained or lost. Do not suppose, then, that when God
brings a soul to such a point He lets it go so quickly out of His hand that the devil can
recapture it without much labour. His Majesty is so anxious for it not to be lost that He
gives it a thousand interior warnings of many kinds, and thus it cannot fail to perceive
the danger.
9 Let the conclusion of the whole matter be
this. We must strive all the time to advance, and, if we are not advancing, we must
cherish serious misgivings, as the devil is undoubtedly anxious to exercise his wiles upon
us. For it is unthinkable that a soul which has arrived so far should cease to grow: love
is never idle, so failure to advance would be a very bad sign. A soul which has once set
out to be the bride of God Himself, and has already had converse with His Majesty and
reached the point which has been described, must not lie down and go to sleep again. And
so that you may see, daughters, how Our Lord treats those whom He makes His brides, let us
begin to discuss the sixth Mansions, and you will see how slight is all the service we can
render Him, all the suffering we can undergo for Him, and all the preparation we can make
for such great favours. It may have been by Our Lord's ordinance that I was commanded to
write this so that we shall forget our trivial earthly pleasures when we fix our eyes on
the reward and see how boundless is the mercy which makes Him pleased to communicate and
reveal Himself in this way to us worms. So, fired by love of Him, we shall run our race,
with our eyes fixed upon His greatness.
10 May He be pleased to enable me to explain
something of these difficult things, which I know will be impossible unless His Majesty
and the Holy Spirit[151] guide my pen. Were it not to
be for your profit I should beseech Him to prevent me from explaining any of it, for His
Majesty knows that, so far as I myself can judge, my sole desire is that His name should
be praised, and that we should make every effort to serve a Lord Who gives us such a
reward here below, and thus conveys to us some idea of what He will give us in Heaven,
without the delays and trials and perils incident to this sea of tempests. For, were it
not that we might lose Him and offend Him, it would be a comfort if our life did not end
until the end of the world, so that we could work for so great a God and Lord and Spouse.
May it please His Majesty that we be worthy to do Him some service, unmarred by the many
faults that we always commit, even in doing our good works! Amen.
