Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Postscript
Treats of great favours which God
bestows on the souls that have attained entrance to the Seventh Mansions. Describes how in
the author's opinion there is some difference between the soul and the spirit although
both are one. There are notable things in this chapter.
YOU will think, sisters, that so much has
been said about this spiritual road that there cannot possibly be any more to say. It
would be a great mistake to think that; just as the greatness of God is without limit,
even so are His works. Who will ever come to an end of recounting His mercies and wonders?
It is impossible that any should do so; do not be surprised, therefore, at what has been
said and at what will be said now, for it is only a fraction of the things that still
remain to be related about God. Great is the mercy that He shows us in communicating these
things in such a way that we may come to learn of them; for the more we know of His
communion with creatures, the more we shall praise His greatness, and we shall strive not
to despise a soul in which the Lord takes such delight. Each of us possesses a soul, but
we do not prize our souls as creatures made in God's image deserve and so we do not
understand the great secrets which they contain. If it be His Majesty's will, may it
please Him to guide my pen, and give me to understand how I may tell you some of the many
things which there are to be said and which God reveals to every soul that He brings into
this Mansion. Earnestly have I besought His Majesty, since He knows my intention is that
His mercies be not hidden, to the greater praise and glory of His name.
2 I am hopeful, sisters, that, not for my sake
but for your sakes, He will grant me this favour, so that you may understand how important
it is that no fault of yours should hinder the celebration of His Spiritual Marriage with
your souls, which, as you will see, brings with it so many blessings. O great God! Surely
a creature as miserable as I must tremble to treat of anything so far beyond what I
deserve to understand. And indeed I have been in a state of great confusion and have
wondered if it will not be better for me in a few words to bring my account of this
Mansion to an end. I am so much afraid it will be thought that my knowledge of it comes
from experience, and this makes me very much ashamed; for, knowing myself as I do for what
I am, such a thought is terrible. On the other hand, whatever your judgment about it may
be, it has seemed to me that this shame is due to temptation and weakness. Let the whole
world cry out upon me, so long as God is praised and understood a little better. At all
events I may perhaps be dead when this comes to be seen. Blessed be He Who lives and shall
live for ever. Amen.
3 When Our Lord is pleased to have pity upon
this soul, which suffers and has suffered so much out of desire for Him, and which He has
now taken spiritually to be His bride, He brings her into this Mansion of His, which is
the seventh, before consummating the Spiritual Marriage. For He must needs have an
abiding-place in the soul, just as He has one in Heaven, where His Majesty alone dwells:
so let us call this a second Heaven. It is very important, sisters, that we should not
think of the soul as of something dark. It must seem dark to most of us, as we cannot see
it, for we forget that there is not only a light which we can see, but also an interior
light, and so we think that within our soul there is some kind of darkness. Of the soul
that is not in grace, I grant you, that is true -- not, however, from any defect in the
Sun of Justice, Who is within it and is giving it being, but because, as I think I said in
describing the first Mansion, this soul is not capable[212] of receiving the light. A certain person came to see that these unhappy souls are, as it
were, in a dark prison, with their feet and hands bound so that they can do no good thing
which will help them to win merit;[213] they are both
blind and dumb. We do well to take pity on them, realizing that there was a time when we
were ourselves like them and that the Lord may have mercy on them also.
4 Let us take especial care, sisters, to pray
to Him for them, and not be negligent. To pray for those who are in mortal sin is the best
kind of almsgiving -- a much better thing than it would be to loose a Christian whom we
saw with his hands tied behind him, bound with a stout chain, made fast to a post and
dying of hunger, not for lack of food, since he has beside him the most delicious things
to eat, but because he cannot take them and put them into his mouth although he is weary
to death and actually knows that he is on the point of dying, and not merely a death of
the body, but one which is eternal. Would it not be extremely cruel to stand looking at
such a man and not give him this food to eat? And supposing you could loose his chains by
means of your prayers? You see now what I mean. For the love of God, I beg you always to
remember such souls when you pray.[214]
5 However, it is not of these that we are now
speaking, but of those who, by God's mercy, have done penance for their sins and are in
grace. We must not think of souls like theirs as mean and insignificant; for each is an
interior world, wherein are the many and beauteous Mansions that you have seen; it is
reasonable that this should be so, since within each soul there is a mansion for God. Now,
when His Majesty is pleased to grant the soul the aforementioned favour of this Divine
Marriage, He first of all brings it into His own Mansion. And His Majesty is pleased that
it should not be as on other occasions, when He has granted it raptures, in which I
certainly think it is united with Him, as it is in the above-mentioned Prayer of Union,
although the soul does not feel called to enter into its own centre, as here in this
Mansion, but is affected only in its higher part. Actually it matters little what happens:
whatever it does, the Lord unites it with Himself, but He makes it blind and dumb, as He
made Saint Paul at his conversion,[215] and so prevents
it from having any sense of how or in what way that favour comes which it is enjoying; the
great delight of which the soul is then conscious is the realization of its nearness to
God. But when He unites it with Him, it understands nothing; the faculties are all lost.
6 But in this Mansion everything is different.
Our good God now desires to remove the scales from the eyes of the soul,[216] so that it may see and understand something of the
favour which He is granting it, although He is doing this in a strange manner. It is
brought into this Mansion by means of an intellectual vision,[217] in which, by a representation of the truth in a
particular way, the Most Holy Trinity reveals Itself, in all three Persons.[218] First of all the spirit becomes enkindled and is
illumined, as it were, by a cloud of the greatest brightness. It sees these three Persons,
individually, and yet, by a wonderful kind of knowledge which is given to it, the soul
realizes that most certainly and truly all these three Persons are one Substance and one
Power and one Knowledge and one God alone; so that what we hold by faith the soul may be
said here to grasp[219] by sight, although nothing is
seen by the eyes, either of the body or of the soul,[220] for it is no imaginary vision. Here all three Persons communicate Themselves to the soul
and speak to the soul and explain to it those words which the Gospel attributes to the
Lord -- namely, that He and the Father and the Holy Spirit will come to dwell with the
soul which loves Him and keeps His commandments.[221]
7 Oh, God help me! What a difference there is
between hearing and believing these words[222] and
being led in this way to realize how true they are! Each day this soul wonders more, for
she feels that they have never left her, and perceives quite clearly, in the way I have
described, that They are in the interior of her heart -- in the most interior place of all
and in its greatest depths. So although, not being a learned person, she cannot say how
this is, she feels within herself this Divine companionship.
8 This may lead you to think that such a
person will not remain in possession of her senses but will be so completely absorbed that
she will be able to fix her mind upon nothing. But no: in all that belongs to the service
of God she is more alert than before; and, when not otherwise occupied, she rests in that
happy companionship. Unless her soul fails God, He will never fail, I believe, to give her
the most certain assurance of His Presence. She has great confidence that God will not
leave her, and that, having granted her this favour, He will not allow her to lose it. For
this belief the soul has good reason, though all the time she is walking more carefully
than ever, so that she may displease Him in nothing.
9 This Presence is not of course always
realized so fully -- I mean so clearly -- as it is when it first comes, or on certain
other occasions when God grants the soul this consolation; if it were, it would be
impossible for the soul to think of anything else, or even to live among men. But although
the light which accompanies it may not be so clear, the soul is always aware that it is
experiencing this companionship. We might compare the soul to a person who is with others
in a very bright room; and then suppose that the shutters are closed so that the people
are all in darkness. The light by which they can be seen has been taken away, and, until
it comes back, we shall be unable to see them, yet we are none the less aware that they
are there. It may be asked if, when the light returns, and this person looks for them
again, she will be able to see them. To do this is not in her power; it depends on when
Our Lord is pleased that the shutters of the understanding shall be opened. Great is the
mercy which He grants the soul in never going away from her and in willing that she shall
understand this so clearly.
10 It seems that the Divine Majesty, by means
of this wonderful companionship, is desirous of preparing the soul for yet more. For
clearly she will be greatly assisted to go onward in perfection and to lose the fear which
previously she sometimes had of the other favours that were granted to her, as has been
said above. The person already referred to found herself better in every way, however
numerous were her trials and business worries, the essential part of her soul seemed never
to move from that dwelling-place. So in a sense she felt that her soul was divided; and
when she was going through great trials, shortly after God had granted her this favour,
she complained of her soul, just as Martha complained of Mary.[223] Sometimes she would say that it was doing nothing
but enjoy itself in that quietness, while she herself was left with all her trials and
occupations so that she could not keep it company.
11 You will think this absurd, daughters, but
it is what actually happens. Although of course the soul is not really divided, what I
have said is not fancy, but a very common experience. As I was saying, it is possible to
make observations concerning interior matters and in this way we know that there is some
kind of difference, and a very definite one, between the soul and the spirit, although
they are both one. So subtle is the division perceptible between them that sometimes the
operation of the one seems as different from that of the other as are the respective joys
that the Lord is pleased to give them. It seems to me, too, that the soul is a different
thing from the faculties and that they are not all one and the same. There are so many and
such subtle things in the interior life that it would be presumptuous for me to begin to
expound them. But we shall see everything in the life to come if the Lord, of His mercy,
grants us the favour of bringing us to the place where we shall understand these secrets.
Continues the same subject. Describes
the difference between spiritual union and spiritual marriage. Explains this by subtle
comparisons.
LET us now come to treat of the Divine and
Spiritual Marriage, although this great Favour cannot be fulfilled perfectly in us during
our lifetime, for if we were to withdraw ourselves from God this great blessing would be
lost. When granting this favour for the first time, His Majesty is pleased to reveal
Himself to the soul through an imaginary vision of His most sacred Humanity, so that it
may clearly understand what is taking place and not be ignorant of the fact that it is
receiving so sovereign a gift. To other people the experience will come in a different
way. To the person of whom we have been speaking the Lord revealed Himself one day, when
she had just received Communion, in great splendour and beauty and majesty, as He did
after His resurrection, and told her that it was time she took upon her His affairs as if
they were her own and that He would take her affairs upon Himself; and He added other
words which are easier to understand than to repeat.[224]
2 This, you will think, was nothing new, since
on other occasions the Lord had revealed Himself to that soul in this way. But it was so
different that it left her quite confused and dismayed: for one reason, because this
vision came with great force; for another, because of the words which He spoke to her, and
also because, in the interior of her soul, where He revealed Himself to her, she had never
seen any visions but this. For you must understand that there is the greatest difference
between all the other visions we have mentioned and those belonging to this Mansion, and
there is the same difference between the Spiritual Betrothal and the Spiritual Marriage as
there is between two betrothed persons and two who are united so that they cannot be
separated any more.
3 As I have already said, one makes these
comparisons because there are no other appropriate ones, yet it must be realized that the
Betrothal has no more to do with the body than if the soul were not in the body, and were
nothing but spirit. Between the Spiritual Marriage and the body there is even less
connection, for this secret union takes place in the deepest centre of the soul, which
must be where God Himself dwells, and I do not think there is any need of a door by which
to enter it. I say there is no need of a door because all that has so far been described
seems to have come through the medium of the senses and faculties and this appearance of
the Humanity of the Lord must do so too. But what passes in the union of the Spiritual
Marriage is very different. The Lord appears in the centre of the soul, not through an
imaginary, but through an intellectual vision (although this is a subtler one than that
already mentioned),[225] just as He appeared to the
Apostles, without entering through the door, when He said to them: "Pax vobis".[226] This instantaneous communication of God to the soul
is so great a secret and so sublime a favour, and such delight is felt by the soul, that I
do not know with what to compare it, beyond saying that the Lord is pleased to manifest to
the soul at that moment the glory that is in Heaven, in a sublimer manner than is possible
through any vision or spiritual consolation. It is impossible to say more than that, as
far as one can understand, the soul (I mean the spirit of this soul) is made one with God,
Who, being likewise a Spirit, has been pleased to reveal the love that He has for us by
showing to certain persons the extent of that love, so that we may praise His greatness.
For He has been pleased to unite Himself with His creature in such a way that they have
become like two who cannot be separated from one another: even so He will not separate
Himself from her.
4 The Spiritual Betrothal is different: here
the two persons are frequently separated, as is the case with union, for, although by
union is meant the joining of two things into one, each of the two, as is a matter of
common observation, can be separated and remain a thing by itself. This favour of the Lord
passes quickly and afterwards the soul is deprived of that companionship -- I mean so far
as it can understand. In this other favour of the Lord it is not so: the soul remains all
the time in that centre with its God. We might say that union is as if the ends of two wax
candles were joined so that the light they give is one: the wicks and the wax and the
light are all one, yet afterwards the one candle can be perfectly well separated from the
other and the candles become two again, or the wick may be withdrawn from the wax. But
here it is like rain falling from the heavens into a river or a spring; there is nothing
but water there and it is impossible to divide or separate the water belonging to the
river from that which fell from the heavens. Or it is as if a tiny streamlet enters the
sea, from which it will find no way of separating itself, or as if in a room there were
two large windows through which the light streamed in: it enters in different places but
it all becomes one.
5 Perhaps when St. Paul says: "He who is
joined to God becomes one spirit with Him,"[227] he is referring to this sovereign Marriage, which presupposes the entrance of His Majesty
into the soul by union. And he also says: Mihi vivere Christus est, mori lucrum.228 This, I think, the soul may say here, for it is here that the little butterfly to which we
have referred dies, and with the greatest joy, because Christ is now its life.
6 This, with the passage of time, becomes more
evident through its effects; for the soul clearly understands, by certain secret
aspirations, that it is endowed with life by God. Very often these aspirations are so
vehement that what they teach cannot[229] possibly be
doubted: though they cannot be described, the soul experiences them very forcibly. One can
only say that this feeling is produced at times by certain delectable words which, it
seems, the soul cannot help uttering, such as: "O life of my life, and sustenance
that sustaineth me!" and things of that kind. For from those Divine breasts, where it
seems that God is ever sustaining the soul, flow streams of milk, which solace all who
dwell in the Castle; it seems that it is the Lord's will for them to enjoy all that the
soul enjoys, so that, from time to time, there should flow from this mighty river, in
which this tiny little spring is swallowed up, a stream of this water, to sustain those
who in bodily matters have to serve the Bridegroom and the bride. And just as a person
suddenly plunged into such water would become aware of it, and, however unobservant he
might be, could not fail to become so, the same thing may be said, with even greater
confidence, of these operations to which I refer. For just as a great stream of water
could never fall on us without having an origin somewhere, as I have said, just so it
becomes evident that there is someone in the interior of the soul who sends forth these
arrows and thus gives life to this life, and that there is a sun whence this great light
proceeds, which is transmitted to the faculties in the interior part of the soul. The
soul, as I have said, neither moves from that centre nor loses its peace, for He Who gave
His peace to the Apostles when they were all together[230] can give peace to the soul.
7 It has occurred to me that this salutation
of the Lord must mean much more than the mere words suggest, as must also His telling the
glorious Magdalen to go in peace;[231] for the words of
the Lord are like acts wrought in us, and so they must have produced some effect in those
who were already prepared to put away from them everything corporeal and to leave the soul
in a state of pure spirituality, so that it might be joined with Uncreated Spirit in this
celestial union. For it is quite certain that, when we empty ourselves of all that is
creature and rid ourselves of it for the love of God, that same Lord will fill our souls
with Himself. Thus, one day, when Jesus Christ was praying for His Apostles (I do not know
where this occurs),[232] He asked that they might
become one with the Father and with Him, even as Jesus Christ our Lord is in the Father
and the Father is in Him. I do not know what greater love there can be than this. And we
shall none of us fail to be included here, for His Majesty went on to say: "Not for
them alone do I pray, but also for all who believe in Me"[233]; and again: "I am in them."[234]
8 Oh, God help me! How true are these words
and how well the soul understands them, for in this state it can actually see their truth
for itself. And how well we should all understand them were it not for our own fault! The
words of Jesus Christ our King and Lord cannot fail; but, because we ourselves fail by not
preparing ourselves and departing from all that can shut out this light, we do not see
ourselves in this mirror into which we are gazing and in which our image is engraved.[235]
9 Let us now return to what we were saying.
When Our Lord brings the soul into this Mansion of His, which is the centre of the soul
itself (for they say that the empyrean heaven, where Our Lord is, does not move like the
other heavens), it seems, on entering, to be subject to none of the usual movements of the
faculties and the imagination, which injure it and take away its peace. I may seem to be
giving the impression that, when the soul reaches the state in which God grants it this
favour, it is sure of its salvation and free from the risk of backsliding. But that is not
my meaning, and whenever I treat of this matter and say that the soul seems to be in
safety I should be understood as meaning for so long as the Divine Majesty holds it thus
by the hand and it does not offend Him. At all events, I know for certain that, even when
it finds itself in this state, and even if the state has lasted for years, it does not
consider itself safe, but goes on its way with much greater misgiving than before and
refrains more carefully from committing the smallest offence against God. It is also
strongly desirous of serving Him, as will be explained later on, and is habitually
afflicted and confused when it sees how little it is able to do and how great is the
extent of its obligations, which is no small cross to it and a very grievous penance; for
the harder the penance which this soul performs, the greater is its delight. Its real
penance comes when God takes away its health and strength so that it can no longer perform
any. I have described elsewhere the great distress which this brings, but it is much
greater here. This must be due to the nature of the ground in which the soul is planted,
for a tree planted by the streams of water is fresher and gives more fruit,[236] so how can we marvel at the desires of this soul,
since its spirit is verily made one with the celestial water of which we have been
speaking?
10 Returning to what I was saying, it must not
be thought that the faculties and senses and passions are always in this state of peace,
though the soul itself is. In the other Mansions there are always times of conflict and
trial and weariness, but they are not of such a kind as to rob the soul of its peace and
stability -- at least, not as a rule. This "centre" of our soul, or
"spirit," is something so difficult to describe, and indeed to believe, that I
think, sisters, as I am so bad at explaining myself, I will not subject you to the
temptation of disbelieving what I say, for it is difficult to understand how the soul can
have trials and afflictions and yet be in peace. I want to put before you one or two
comparisons: God grant they may be of some value, but, if they are not, I know that what I
have said is the truth.
11 A king is living in His palace: many wars
are waged in his kingdom and many other distressing things happen there, but he remains
where he is despite them all. So it is here: although in the other Mansions there are many
disturbances and poisonous creatures, and the noise of all this can be heard, nobody
enters this Mansion and forces the soul to leave it; and, although the things which the
soul hears cause it some distress, they are not of a kind to disturb it or to take away
its peace, for the passions are already vanquished, and thus are afraid to enter there
because to do so would only exhaust them further. Our whole body may be in pain, yet if
our head is sound the fact that the body is in pain will not cause it to ache as well.
These comparisons make me smile and I do not like them at all, but I know no others. Think
what you will; what I have said is the truth.
Treats of the striking effects produced
by this prayer aforementioned. It is necessary to observe and remember the effects it
produces, for the difference between them and those already described is remarkable.
As we are saying, then, this little
butterfly has now died, full of joy at having found rest, and within her lives Christ. Let
us see what her new life is like, and how different it is from her earlier one, for it is
by the effects which result from this prayer that we shall know if what has been said is
true. As far as I can understand, the effects are these.
2 First, there is a self-forgetfulness which
is so complete that it really seems as though the soul no longer existed, because it is
such that she has neither knowledge nor remembrance that there is either heaven or life or
honour for her, so entirely is she employed in seeking the honour of God. It appears that
the words which His Majesty addressed to her have produced their effect -- namely, that
she must take care of His business and He will take care of hers.[237] And thus, happen what may, she does not mind in the
least, but lives in so strange a state of forgetfulness that, as I say, she seems no
longer to exist, and has no desire to exist -- no, absolutely none -- save when she
realizes that she can do something to advance the glory and honour of God, for which she
would gladly lay down her life.
3 Do not understand by this, daughters, that
she neglects to eat and sleep (though having to do this is no little torment to her), or
to do anything which is made incumbent upon her by her profession. We are talking of
interior matters: as regards exterior ones there is little to be said. Her great grief is
to see that all she can do of her own strength is as nothing. Anything that she is capable
of doing and knows to be of service to Our Lord she would not fail to do for any reason
upon earth.
4 The second effect produced is a great desire
to suffer, but this is not of such a kind as to disturb the soul, as it did previously. So
extreme is her longing for the will of God to be done in her that whatever His Majesty
does she considers to be for the best: if He wills that she should suffer, well and good;
if not, she does not worry herself to death as she did before.
5 When these souls are persecuted again, they
have a great interior joy, and much more peace than in the state described above. They
bear no enmity to those who ill-treat them, or desire to do so. Indeed they conceive a
special love for them, so that, if they see them in some trouble, they are deeply grieved
and would do anything possible to relieve them; they love to commend them to God, and they
would rejoice at not being given some of the honours which His Majesty bestows upon them
if their enemies might have them instead and thus be prevented from offending Our Lord.
6 What surprises me most is this. You have
already seen what trials and afflictions these souls have suffered because of their desire
to die and thus to enjoy Our Lord. They have now an equally strong desire to serve Him,
and to sing His praise, and to help some soul if they can. So what they desire now is not
merely not to die but to live for a great many years and to suffer the severest trials, if
by so doing they can become the means whereby the Lord is praised, even in the smallest
thing. If they knew for certain that, on leaving the body, they would have fruition of
God, their attitude would not be affected, nor is it altered when they think of the glory
which belongs to the saints, for they do not desire as yet to attain this. Their
conception of glory is of being able in some way to help the Crucified, especially when
they see how often people offend Him and how few there are who really care about His
honour and are detached from everything else.
7 True, they sometimes forget this, turn with
tender longing to the thought of enjoying God and desire to escape from this exile,
especially when they see how little they are doing to serve Him. But then they turn back
and look within themselves and remember that they have Him with them continually; and they
are content with this and offer His Majesty their will to live as the most costly oblation
they can give Him. They are no more afraid of death than they would be of gentle rapture.
The explanation of this is that it is He Who gave the soul those earlier desires,
accompanied by such excessive torment, that now gives it these others. May He be blessed
and praised for ever.
8 In short, the desires of these souls are no
longer for consolations or favours, for they have with them the Lord Himself and it is His
Majesty Who now lives in them. His life, of course, was nothing but a continual torment
and so He is making our life the same, at least as far as our desires go. In other
respects, He treats us as weaklings, though He has ample fortitude to give us when He sees
that we need it. These souls have a marked detachment from everything and a desire to be
always either alone or busy with something that is to some soul's advantage. They have no
aridities or interior trials but a remembrance of Our Lord and a tender love for Him, so
that they would like never to be doing anything but giving Him praise. When the soul is
negligent, the Lord Himself awakens it in the way that has been described, so that it sees
quite clearly that this impulse, or whatever it is called, proceeds from the interior of
the soul, as we said when discussing these impulses. It is now felt very gently, but it
proceeds neither from the thought nor from the memory, nor can it be supposed that the
soul has had any part in it. This is so usual and occurs so frequently that it has been
observed with special care: just as the flames of a fire, however great, never travel
downwards, but always upwards, so here it is evident that this interior movement proceeds
from the centre of the soul and awakens the faculties.
9 Really, were there nothing else to be gained
from this way of prayer but our realization of God's special care for us in His communing
with us and of the way He keeps begging us to dwell with Him (for He seems to be doing
nothing less), I believe that all trials would be well endured if they led to the
enjoyment of these gentle yet penetrating touches of His love. This, sisters, you will
have experienced, for I think that, when the soul reaches the Prayer of Union, the Lord
begins to exercise this care over us if we do not neglect the keeping of His commandments.
When this experience comes to you, remember that it belongs to this innermost Mansion,
where God dwells in our souls, and give Him fervent praise, for it is He who sends it to
you, like a message, or a letter, written very lovingly and in such a way that He would
have you alone be able to understand what He has written and what He is asking of you in
it.[238] On no account must you fail to answer His
Majesty, even if you are busy with exterior affairs and engaged in conversation. It may
often happen that Our Lord will be pleased to bestow this secret favour upon you in
public, as your reply must needs be an interior one, it will be very easy for you to do
what I say and make an act of love or exclaim with Saint Paul: "Lord, what wilt Thou
have me to do?"[239] Then He will show you many
ways of pleasing Him. For now is the accepted time: He seems indeed to be listening to us
and this delicate touch almost always prepares the soul to be able to do, with a resolute
will, what He has commanded it.
10 The difference between this Mansion and the
rest has already been explained. There are hardly any of the periods of aridity or
interior disturbance in it which at one time or another have occurred in all the rest, but
the soul is almost always in tranquility. It is not afraid that this sublime favour may be
counterfeited by the devil but retains the unwavering certainty that it comes from God.
For, as has been said, the senses and faculties have no part in this: His Majesty has
revealed Himself to the soul and taken it with Him into a place where, as I believe, the
devil will not enter, because the Lord will not allow him to do so; and all the favours
which the Lord grants the soul here, as I have said, come quite independently of the acts
of the soul itself, apart from that of its having committed itself wholly to God.
11 So tranquilly and noiselessly does the Lord
teach the soul in this state and do it good that I am reminded of the building of
Solomon's temple, during which no noise could be heard; just so, in this temple of God, in
this Mansion of His, He and the soul alone have fruition of each other in the deepest
silence. There is no reason now for the understanding to stir, or to seek out anything,
for the Lord Who created the soul is now pleased to calm it and would have it look, as it
were, through a little chink, at what is passing. Now and then it loses sight of it and is
unable to see anything; but this is only for a very brief time. The faculties, I think,
are not lost here; it is merely that they do not work but seem to be dazed.
12 And I am quite dazed myself when I observe
that, on reaching this state, the soul has no more raptures (accompanied, that is to say,
by the suspension of the senses),[240] save very
occasionally, and even then it has not the same transports and flights of the spirit.
These raptures, too, happen only rarely, and hardly ever in public as they very often did
before.[241] Nor have they any connection, as they had
before, with great occasions of devotion; if we see a devotional image or hear a sermon,
it is almost as if we had heard nothing, and it is the same with music. Previously, the
poor little butterfly was always so worried that everything frightened her and made her
fly away. But it is not so now, whether because she has found her rest, or because the
soul has seen so much in this Mansion that it can be frightened at nothing, or because it
no longer has that solitude which it was wont to have, now that it is enjoying such
companionship. Well, sisters, I do not know what the reason may be, but, when the Lord
begins to reveal the contents of this Mansion and brings souls into it, they lose the
great weakness which was such a trial to them and of which previously they could not rid
themselves. Perhaps the reason is that the Lord has so greatly strengthened and dilated
and equipped the soul, or it may be that, for reasons which His Majesty alone knows, He
was anxious to make a public revelation of His secret dealings with such souls, for His
judgments surpass all that we can imagine here on earth.
13 These effects God bestows, together with all
those other good effects already described in the above-mentioned degrees of prayer, when
the soul approaches Him, and He also gives the soul that kiss for which the Bride besought
Him; for I understand it to be in this Mansion that that petition is fulfilled. Here to
this wounded hart are given waters in abundance. Here the soul delights in the tabernacle
of God.[242] Here the dove sent out by Noe to see if
the storm is over finds the olive-branch[243] -- the
sign that it has discovered firm ground amidst the waters and storms of this world.
14 Oh, Jesus! If only one knew how many things
there are in Scripture which describe this peace of the soul! My God, since Thou seest how
needful it is for us, do Thou inspire Christians to desire to seek it; take it not, by Thy
mercy, from those to whom Thou hast given it, and who, until Thou give them true peace and
take them where peace will never end, must always live in fear. I say "true"
peace, not because I think this peace is not true, but because in this life war might
always begin again if we were to withdraw from God.
15 And what will be the feeling of these souls
when they realize that they might lack so great a blessing? The thought makes them walk
the more warily and endeavour to bring strength out of their weakness, so as not to be
responsible for losing any opportunity which might offer itself to them of pleasing God
better. The more they are favoured by God, the more timorous and fearful do they become
concerning themselves, and as they have learned more about their own wretchedness by
comparing it with His greatness and their sins are now so much more serious to them, they
often go about, like the Publican, without daring to lift up their eyes.[244] At other times, they long to reach the end of their
lives so as to be in safety, though they are soon anxious again to live longer so that
they may serve Him because of the love which they bear Him, as has been said, and they
trust all that concerns themselves to His mercy. Sometimes the many favours they receive
leave them overwhelmed, and afraid lest they be like an overladen ship sinking to the
bottom of the sea.
16 I assure you, sisters, that they have no
lack of crosses, but these do not unsettle them or deprive them of their peace. The few
storms pass quickly, like waves of the sea, and fair weather returns, and then the
Presence of the Lord which they have within them makes them forget everything. May He be
for ever blessed and praised by all His creatures. Amen.
Concludes by describing what appears to
be Our Lord's aim in granting the soul such great favours and says how necessary it is for
Martha and Mary to walk in each other's company. This chapter is very profitable.
You must not take it, sisters, that the
effects which I have described as occurring in these souls are invariably present all the
time; it is for this reason that, whenever I have remembered to do so, I have referred to
them as being present "habitually". Sometimes Our Lord leaves such souls to
their own nature, and when that happens, all the poisonous things in the environs and
mansions of this castle seem to come together to avenge themselves on them for the time
during which they have not been able to have them in their power.
2 It is true that this lasts only for a short
time -- for a single day, or a little longer, at the most -- and in the course of the
ensuing turmoil, which as a rule is the result of some chance happening, it becomes clear
what the soul is gaining from the good Companion Who is with it. For the Lord gives it
great determination, so that it will on no account turn aside from His service and from
its own good resolutions. On the contrary, these resolutions seem to increase, and so the
soul will not make the slightest move which may deflect it from its resolve. This, as I
say, happens rarely, but Our Lord's will is for the soul not to forget what it is -- for
one reason, so that it may always be humble; for another, so that it may the better
realize what it owes to His Majesty and what a great favour it is receiving, and may
praise Him.
3 Do not, of course, for one moment imagine
that, because these souls have such vehement desires and are so determined not to commit a
single imperfection for anything in the world, they do not in fact commit many
imperfections, and even sins. Not intentionally, it is true, for the Lord will give such
persons very special aid as to this: I am referring to venial sins, for from mortal sins,
as far as they know, they are free, though they are not completely proof against them; and
the thought that they may commit some without knowing it will cause them no small agony.
It also distresses them to see so many souls being lost; and, although on the one hand
they have great hopes of not being among them, yet, when they remember some whom the
Scriptures describe as having been favoured of the Lord -- like Solomon, who enjoyed such
converse with His Majesty[245] -- they cannot, as I
have said, but be afraid. And let whichever of you feels surest of herself fear most, for,
says David, "Blessed is the man that feareth God."[246] May His Majesty always protect us; let us beseech Him to do so, that we may not offend
Him; this is the greatest security that we can have. May He be for ever praised. Amen.
4 It will be a good thing, sisters, if I tell
you why it is that the Lord grants so many favours in this world. Although you will have
learned this from the effects they produce, if you have observed them, I will speak about
it further here, so that none of you shall think that He does it simply to give these
souls pleasure. That would be to make a great error. For His Majesty can do nothing
greater for us than grant us a life which is an imitation of that lived by His Beloved
Son. I feel certain, therefore, that these favours are given us to strengthen our
weakness, as I have sometimes said here, so that we may be able to imitate Him in His
great sufferings.
5 We always find that those who walked closest
to Christ Our Lord were those who had to bear the greatest trials. Consider the trials
suffered by His glorious Mother and by the glorious Apostles. How do you suppose Saint
Paul could endure such terrible trials? We can see in his life the effects of genuine
visions and of contemplation coming from Our Lord and not from human imagination or from
the deceit of the devil. Do you imagine that he shut himself up with his visions so as to
enjoy those Divine favours and pursue no other occupation? You know very well that, so far
as we can learn, he took not a day's rest, nor can he have rested by night, since it was
then that he had to earn his living[247] I am very fond
of the story of how, when Saint Peter was fleeing from prison, Our Lord appeared to him
and told him to go back to Rome and be crucified. We never recite the Office on his
festival, in which this story is found, without my deriving a special consolation from it.[248] How did Saint Peter feel after receiving this favour
from the Lord? And what did he do? He went straight to his death; and the Lord showed him
no small mercy in providing someone to kill him.
6 Oh, my sisters, how little one should think
about resting, and how little one should care about honours, and how far one ought to be
from wishing to be esteemed in the very least if the Lord makes His special abode in the
soul. For if the soul is much with Him, as it is right it should be, it will very seldom
think of itself; its whole thought will be concentrated upon finding ways to please Him
and upon showing Him how it loves Him. This, my daughters, is the aim of prayer: this is
the purpose of the Spiritual Marriage, of which are born good works and good works alone.
7 Such works, as I have told you, are the sign
of every genuine favour and of everything else that comes from God. It will profit me a
little if I am alone and deeply recollected, and make acts of love to Our Lord and plan
and promise to work wonders in His service, and then, as soon as I leave my retreat and
some occasion presents itself, I do just the opposite. I was wrong when I said it will
profit me little, for anyone who is with God must profit greatly, and, although after
making these resolutions we may be too weak to carry them out, His Majesty will sometimes
grant us grace to do so, even at great cost to ourselves, as often happens. For, when He
sees a very timorous soul, He sends it, much against its own will, some very sore trial
the bearing of which does it a great deal of good; and later, when the soul becomes aware
of this, it loses its fear and offers itself to Him the more readily. What I meant was
that the profit is small by comparison with the far greater profit which comes from
conformity between our deeds on the one hand and our resolutions and the words we use on
the other. Anyone who cannot achieve everything at once must progress little by little. If
she wishes to find help in prayer, she must learn to subdue her own will and in these
little nooks of ours there will be very many occasions when you can do this.
8 Reflect carefully on this, for it is so
important that I can hardly lay too much stress on it. Fix your eyes on the Crucified and
nothing else will be of much importance to you. If His Majesty revealed His love to us by
doing and suffering such amazing things, how can you expect to please Him by words alone?
Do you know when people really become spiritual? It is when they become the slaves of God
and are branded with His sign, which is the sign of the Cross, in token that they have
given Him their freedom. Then He can sell them as slaves to the whole world, as He Himself
was sold, and if He does this He will be doing them no wrong but showing them no slight
favour. Unless they resolve to do this, they need not expect to make great progress. For
the foundation of this whole edifice, as I have said, is humility, and, if you have not
true humility, the Lord will not wish it to reach any great height: in fact, it is for
your own good that it should not; if it did, it would fall to the ground. Therefore,
sisters, if you wish to lay good foundations, each of you must try to be the least of all,
and the slave of God, and must seek a way and means to please and serve all your
companions. If you do that, it will be of more value to you than to them and your
foundation will be so firmly laid that your Castle will not fall.
9 I repeat that if you have this in view you
must not build upon foundations of prayer and contemplation alone, for, unless you strive
after the virtues and practise them, you will never grow to be more than dwarfs. God grant
that nothing worse than this may happen -- for, as you know, anyone who fails to go
forward begins to go back, and love, I believe, can never be content to stay for long
where it is.
10 You may think that I am speaking about
beginners, and that later on one may rest: but, as I have already told you, the only
repose that these souls enjoy is of an interior kind; of outward repose they get less and
less, and they have no wish to get more. What is the purpose, do you suppose, of these
inspirations -- or, more correctly, of these aspirations -- which I have described, and of
these messages which are sent by the soul from its innermost centre to the folk outside
the Castle and to the Mansions which are outside that in which it is itself dwelling? Is
it to send them to sleep? No, no, no. The soul, where it now is, is fighting harder to
keep the faculties and senses and every thing to do with the body from being idle than it
did when it suffered with them. For it did not then understand what great gain can be
derived from trials, which may indeed have been means whereby God has brought it to this
state, nor did it realize how the companionship which it now enjoys would give it much
greater strength than it ever had before. For if, as David says, with the holy we shall be
holy,[249] it cannot be doubted that, if we are made
one with the Strong, we shall gain strength through the most sovereign union of spirit
with Spirit, and we shall appreciate the strength of the saints which enabled them to
suffer and die.
11 It is quite certain that, with the strength
it has gained, the soul comes to the help of all who are in the Castle, and, indeed,
succours the body itself. Often the body appears to feel nothing, but the strength derived
from the vigour gained by the soul after it has drunk of the wine from this cellar, where
its Spouse has brought it and which He will not allow it to leave, overflows into the weak
body, just as on the earthly plane the food which is introduced into the stomach gives
strength to the head and to the whole body. In this life, then, the soul has a very bad
time, for, however much it accomplishes, it is strong enough inwardly to attempt much more
and this causes such strife within it that nothing it can do seems to it of any
importance. This must be the reason for the great penances done by many saints, especially
by the glorious Magdalen, who had been brought up in such luxury all her life long; there
was also that hunger for the honour of his God suffered by our father Elias;[250] and the zeal of Saint Dominic and Saint Francis for
bringing souls to God, so that He might be praised. I assure you that, forgetful as they
were of themselves, they must have endured no little suffering.
12 This, my sisters, I should like us to strive
to attain: we should desire and engage in prayer, not for our enjoyment, but for the sake
of acquiring this strength which fits us for service. Let us not try to walk along an
untrodden path, or at the best we shall waste our time: it would certainly be a novel idea
to think of receiving these favours from God through any other means than those used by
Him and by all His saints. Let us not even consider such a thing: believe me, Martha and
Mary must work together when they offer the Lord lodging, and must have Him ever with
them, and they must not entertain Him badly and give Him nothing to eat. And how can Mary
give Him anything, seated as she is at His feet, unless her sister helps her? His food
consists in our bringing Him souls, in every possible way, so that they may be saved and
may praise Him for ever.
13 You will reply to me by making two
observations. The first, that Mary was said to have chosen the better part[251] -- and she had already done the work of Martha and
shown her love for the Lord by washing His feet and wiping them with her hair.[252] And do you think it would be a trifling
mortification to a woman in her position to go through those streets -- perhaps alone, for
her fervour was such that she cared nothing how she went -- to enter a house that she had
never entered before and then to have to put up with uncharitable talk from the Pharisee[253] and from very many other people, all of which she
was forced to endure? What a sight it must have been in the town to see such a woman as
she had been making this change in her life! Such wicked people as we know the Jews to
have been would only need to see that she was friendly with the Lord, Whom they so
bitterly hated, to call to mind the life which she had lived and to realize that she now
wanted to become holy, for she would of course at once have changed her style of dress and
everything else. Think how we gossip about people far less notorious than she and then
imagine what she must have suffered. I assure you, sisters, that that better part came to
her only after sore trials and great mortification -- even to see her Master so much hated
must have been an intolerable trial to her. And how many such trials did she not endure
later, after the Lord's death! I think myself that the reason she was not granted
martyrdom was that she had already undergone it through witnessing the Lord's death.[254] The later years of her life, too, during which she
was absent from Him, would have been years of terrible torment; so she was not always
enjoying the delights of contemplation at the Lord's feet.
14 The other thing you may say is that you are
unable to lead souls to God, and have no means of doing so; that you would gladly do this,
but, being unable to teach and preach like the Apostles, you do not know how. That is an
objection which I have often answered in writing, though I am not sure if I have done so
in discussing this Castle. But, as it is a thing which I think must occur to you, in view
of the desires which the Lord implants in you, I will not omit to speak of it here. I told
you elsewhere that the devil sometimes puts ambitious desires into our hearts, so that,
instead of setting our hand to the work which lies nearest to us, and thus serving Our
Lord in ways within our power, we may rest content with having desired the impossible.
Apart from praying for people, by which you can do a great deal for them, do not try to
help everybody, but limit yourselves to your own companions; your work will then be all
the more effective because you have the greater obligation to do it. Do you imagine it is
a small advantage that you should have so much humility and mortification, and should be
the servants of all and show such great charity towards all, and such fervent love for the
Lord that it resembles a fire kindling all their souls, while you constantly awaken their
zeal by your other virtues? This would indeed be a great service to the Lord and one very
pleasing to Him. By your doing things which you really can do, His Majesty will know that
you would like to do many more, and thus He will reward you exactly as if you had won many
souls for Him.
15 "But we shall not be converting
anyone," you will say, "for all our sisters are good already." What has
that to do with it? If they become still better, their praises will be more pleasing to
the Lord, and their prayers of greater value to their neighbours. In a word, my sisters, I
will end by saying that we must not build towers without foundations, and that the Lord
does not look so much at the magnitude of anything we do as at the love with which we do
it. If we accomplish what we can, His Majesty will see to it that we become able to do
more each day. We must not begin by growing weary; but during the whole of this short
life, which for any one of you may be shorter than you think, we must offer the Lord
whatever interior and exterior sacrifice we are able to give Him, and His Majesty will
unite it with that which He offered to the Father for us upon the Cross, so that it may
have the value won for it by our will, even though our actions in themselves may be
trivial.
16 May it please His Majesty, my sisters and
daughters, to bring us all to meet where we may praise Him and to give me grace to do some
of the things of which I have told you, through the merits of His Son, Who liveth and
reigneth for ever, Amen. As I say this to you I am full of shame and by the same Lord I
beg you not to forget this poor miserable creature in your prayers.
Although when I began to write what I have
set down here it was with great reluctance, as I said at the beginning, I am very glad I
did so now that it is finished, and I think my labour has been well spent, though I
confess it has cost me very little. And considering how strictly you are cloistered, my
sisters, how few opportunities you have of recreation and how insufficient in number are
your houses, I think it will be a great consolation for you, in some of your convents, to
take your delight in this Interior Castle, for you can enter it and walk about in it at
any time without asking leave from your superiors.
2 It is true that, however strong you may
think yourselves, you cannot enter all the Mansions by your own efforts: the Lord of the
Castle Himself must admit you to them. So, if you meet with any resistance, I advise you
not to make any effort to get in, for if you do you will displease Him so much that He
will never admit you. He is a great Lover of humility. If you consider yourselves unworthy
of entering even the third Mansions, He will more quickly give you the will to reach the
fifth, and thenceforward you may serve Him by going to these Mansions again and again,
till He brings you into the Mansion which He reserves as His own and which you will never
leave, except when you are called away by the prioress, whose wishes this great Lord is
pleased that you should observe as if they were His own. And even if, at her command, you
are often outside these Mansions, He will always keep the door open against your return.
Once you have been shown how to enjoy this Castle, you will find rest in everything, even
in the things which most try you, and you will cherish a hope of returning to it which
nobody can take from you.
3 Although I have spoken here only of seven
Mansions, yet in each there are comprised many more, both above and below and around, with
lovely gardens and fountains[255] and things so
delectable that you will want to lose yourselves in praise of the great God Who created it
in His image and likeness. If you find anything good in this book which helps you to learn
to know Him better, you can be quite sure that it is His Majesty Who has said it, and if
you find anything bad, that it has been said by me.
4 By the earnest desire that I have to be of
some use in helping you to serve this my God and Lord, I beg you, in my own name, whenever
you read this, to give great praise to His Majesty and beg Him to multiply His Church and
to give light to the Lutherans and to pardon my sins and set me free from Purgatory, where
perhaps, by the mercy of God,[256] I shall be when this
is given you to read, if, after being revised by learned men, it is ever published. And if
there is any error in it, that is due to my lack of understanding, for in all things I
submit to what is held by the Holy Roman Catholic Church, in which I live, and protest and
promise that I will both live and die. Praised and blessed for ever be God our Lord. Amen,
Amen.
5 The writing of this was finished in the
convent of Saint Joséph of Avila, in the year one thousand five hundred and seventy
seven, on the vigil of Saint Andrew, to the glory of God, Who liveth and reigneth for ever
and ever. Amen.
