When we spoke (1) of the degrees of contemplative prayer in proficients, taking St. Teresa
(2) as our guide, we described arid
quiet, next sweet quiet, in which the will alone is captivated by God,
and lastly the prayer of simple union, in which not only the will is
seized by God, but also the understanding and the memory, and in which
the imagination is as if asleep, because all the activity of the soul
takes place in its higher part. There is even at times a beginning of
ecstasy or an initial suspension of the exercise of the exterior
senses. Following what St. Teresa wrote in the sixth mansion, we shall
now discuss arid and painful union, which corresponds to the night of
the spirit, then ecstatic union or the spiritual betrothal, and
lastly, in the following chapter, the transforming union or spiritual
marriage.
ARID AND PAINFUL MYSTICAL UNION
St. Teresa speaks of this union at the beginning of the sixth
mansion,(3) but she describes especially its concomitant outward
phenomena. St. John of the Cross, on the other hand, shows more the
intimate nature of this state under the name of the night of the
spirit, or the passive purification of the spirit, as we saw at the
beginning of the fourth part of this work.
God makes the soul desire the immense good which He is preparing for
it; and He causes it to pass through a terrible crucible, of which St.
Teresa writes:
An outcry is raised against such a person by those
amongst whom she lives. . . . They say she wants to pass for a
saint, that she goes to extremes in piety. . . . Persons she thought
were her friends desert her making the most bitter remarks of all. .
. . They make a thousand scoffing remarks. . . . The worst of it is,
these troubles do not blow over but last all her life. . . . '
Yet, oh! the rest would seem trifling in comparison could
I relate the interior torments met with here, but they are
impossible to describe. Let us first speak of the trial of meeting
with so timorous and inexperienced a confessor that nothing seems
safe to him. . . . The poor soul beset by the same fears, seeks its
confessor as judge, and feels a torture and dismay at his
condemnation that can only be realized by those who have experienced
it themselves. For one of the severe trials of these souls,
especially if they have lived wicked lives, is their belief that God
permits them to be deceived in punishment for their sins. While
actually receiving these graces they feel secure and cannot but
suppose that these favors proceed from the Spirit of God; but this
state lasts a very short time, while the remembrance of their
misdeeds is ever before them, so that when, as is sure to happen,
they discover any faults in themselves, these torturing thoughts
return.
The soul is quieted for a time when the confessor
reassures it, although it returns later on to its former
apprehensions, but when he augments its fears they become almost
unbearable. Especially is this the case when such spiritual dryness
ensues that the mind feels as if it never had thought of God nor
ever will be able to do so. When men speak of Him, they seem to be
talking of some person heard of long ago. . . .
Her understanding being too obscure to discern the truth,
she believes all that the imagination, which now has the upper hand,
puts before her mind, besides crediting the falsehoods suggested to
her by the devil, whom doubtless our Lord gives leave to tempt her.
The evil spirit even tries to make her think God has rejected her. .
. . No comfort can be found in this tempest of trouble. . . .
There is no other remedy in such a tempest except to wait
for the mercy of God who, unexpectedly, by some casual word or
unforeseen circumstance, suddenly dispels all these sorrows. Then
every cloud of trouble disappears and the mind is left full of light
and far happier than before. It praises our Lord God like one who
has come out victorious from a dangerous battle, for it was He who
won the victory. The soul is fully conscious that the conquest was
not its own. . . . Thus it realizes its weakness and how little man
can help himself if God forsake him. This truth now needs no
demonstration.(4)
The soul then understands far better the Master's words:
"Without Me you can do nothing" in the order of salvation, and it is
led more and more to admit, with St. Augustine and St. Thomas, that
grace is efficacious of itself, that it excites our effort instead
of being rendered efficacious by it.
What conduct should be observed in this trial? St. Teresa tells us
in the same chapter:
Their comfort must come from above - nothing earthly can help them.
This great God wishes us to acknowledge His sovereignty and our own
misery. . . . The best remedy for these crosses. . . is to perform
external works of charity and to trust in the mercy of God, which
never fails those who hope in Him. . . .
The devils also bring about exterior trials which, being
more unusual, need not be mentioned. They are far less painful, for
whatever the demons may do, I believe they never succeed in
paralyzing the faculties or disturbing the soul in the former
manner. In fact, the reason is able to discern that the evil spirits
can do no more harm than God permits; and while the mind has not
lost its powers, all sufferings are comparatively insignificant.(5)
Farther on,(6) St. Teresa speaks of a still more painful purification
of love, which occurs at the entrance to the seventh mansion, "as
the purification of purgatory introduces the soul into heaven." But
the soul is conscious, while enduring this suffering, that it is an
eminent favor.
After the interior sufferings described at the beginning of the
sixth mansion, in which there is a painful presence of God, the soul
receives such knowledge of the divine majesty that frequently
partial or complete ecstasy follows.
ECSTATIC UNION; ITS MANIFESTATION AND NATURE
Ecstasy is the suspension of the exterior senses; it does not
necessarily imply levitation, or the elevation of the body above the
ground. This suspension of the exterior senses is manifested by more
or less marked insensibility, the slowing of the respiration, the
diminution of vital heat. According to St. Teresa: "One perceives
that the natural heat of the body is perceptibly lessened; the coldness increases, though accompanied with exceeding joy and
sweetness." (7) The body then becomes motionless, the gaze fixed on an
invisible object; sometimes the eyelids close.
Instead of weakening the body, this state gives it new strength.(8) A person who ordinarily would find difficulty in kneeling for a long
time, does so without difficulty in the state of ecstasy.
Occasionally the suspension of the senses is incomplete and allows the ecstatic
to dictate the revelations received, as happened to St. Catherine of
Siena.(9)
Whence arises the loss of the use of the exterior senses in this
state? It proceeds from the soul's absorption in God, which is
itself the result of a very special grace of light and love.(10) The
abundant light then given, for example, on the mysteries of the
redemptive Incarnation, of the Eucharist as the expression of the
immense goodness of God, produces lively admiration and great love
of God. The will is touched and, as it were, wounded by the divine
attraction, and moves toward God with great impetuosity, like a
magnetized needle toward a pole. The admiration of the intellect
grows through love, and love through admiration; as St. Francis de
Sales says: "The sight of beauty makes us love it, and love makes us
look at it."
The soul, thus ravished with admiration and love for God, loses the
use of its senses because all its activity passes over into its
higher part. St. Thomas noted this principle clearly: "When the soul
tends wholly to the act of one power, man is abstracted from the act
of another power"; (11) when the soul is wholly moved to the act of
one of its faculties, the exercise of the other faculties is
suspended. If at times a scholar, like Archimedes, is so absorbed by
speculation that he no longer hears speech addressed to him, with
what far greater reason is this true of the contemplative soul at
the time when a very strong grace makes it perceive the infinite
majesty of God and absorbs it in this blessed contemplation! Then
ecstasy, which follows this eminent infused contemplation, is not,
properly speaking, extraordinary; it may be the normal result of the soul's absorption in God, according to the principle which we have just
recalled. As we shall see, it is otherwise in rapture, which seizes
the soul abruptly and violently in order to raise it to lofty
contemplation; then it precedes this contemplation instead of
following it.
In ecstatic love, is there still liberty and merit? There most
certainly is; (12) as St. Thomas shows,(13) the liberty of the act of
love, the condition of merit, disappears only when the soul sees God
face to face in heaven. Then it is invincibly attracted by Him and
loves Him with a love that is sovereignly spontaneous but no longer
free; it is a love superior to liberty.
The duration of divine ecstasy varies greatly; complete ecstasy
generally lasts only some minutes, sometimes for half an hour.
However, there are cases of prolonged incomplete ecstasy, which St.
Teresa says "lasts occasionally for an entire day." (14) There are
even complete ecstasies which have lasted as much as four days, or
even longer.(15)
Ecstasy ordinarily ends by a spontaneous awakening; only little by
little does the soul recover the use of its senses, as if it were
returning from another world. The awakening may be provoked by an
oral or simply a mental command given by a religious superior. In
this connection it should be observed that, in the judgment of the
Church, religious obedience during ecstasy is one of the
characteristic signs of its divine origin, and a sign which
eliminates the hypothesis of hysteria. The ecstatic who does not
obey a religious superior lacks the sign considered by the Church as
a touchstone, which shows the conformity of the ecstatic's will with
the divine will expressed by the superior. It should, in fact, be
kept clearly in mind that if in hysteria there is suggestion by
hypnosis, it is only through the influence of an imperious will and
a strong imagination on a sickly sensibility, with surrender of the
will and no merit. In this case there is lacking the moral character of religious
obedience, in which, through virtue, a human will subjects itself to the divine
will, and even comes out of ecstasy to obey in this way.
False ecstasies are often easy to discern from true ones. The
ecstasy of divine origin differs greatly from the so-called
hysterical ecstasy, because in the divine there is no trace of the
character of morbid excitation, of strained and passionate
agitation, of entirely physical enjoyment followed by great depression. Divine ecstasy
is a movement of the entire being, body and soul, toward the divine
object that is contemplated. In a great calm, it is the absorption
of the soul ravished out of its senses by a mysterious power,
generally following a vision received in the imagination or the
intellect.(16) The end of the ecstasy is the return to the natural
state in a calm manner, accompanied by simple regret over the
disappearance of the vision and the celestial joy that it gave. This
was observed in particular in the ecstasies of St. Bernadette Soubirous, likewise in those of St. Teresa and many other servants
of God.
It should be noted also that the natural swoon may have as its cause
an excessive over-excitement of the imagination or even the lively
impressions of mental prayer on a frail and weak constitution. These
swoons should be eliminated as much as possible; they should be
resisted and the organism strengthened by more substantial food.(17)
Lastly, it should be kept in mind that there can be diabolical
ecstasies, which are a sort of obsession. If a person lives in sin
and seems to have ecstasies during which he gives way to unseemly
contortions, utters incoherent words which he immediately forgets,
seeks frequented places that he may become a spectacle, and if
besides, in this state, he receives communications leading to evil
or to good for an evil end, these are so many signs, as Benedict XIV
declares, of diabolical ecstasy.(18)
WHAT DISTINGUISHES RAPTURE FROM ECSTASY
Simple ecstasy is a sort of swoon which is produced sweetly following a wound of love. St. Teresa says: "The soul is conscious of having received a delicious wound but cannot discover how, nor
who gave it, yet recognizes it as a most precious grace and hopes the hurt will never heal. The soul makes amorous complaints to its Bridegroom, even uttering them aloud; nor can it control itself,
knowing that though He is present He will not manifest Himself so
that it may enjoy Him." (19) It is like a fleeting interview before
more continual union, called the transforming union or spiritual
marriage.
The swoon of ecstasy differs from the impetuosity and violence of
rapture, in which the soul is suddenly seized by God as by a superior force that carries it away. St. Thomas noted this. He says:
"Rapture adds something to ecstasy. For ecstasy means simply a going
out of oneself by being placed outside one's proper order; while
rapture denotes a certain violence in addition." (20)
Often the spiritual espousals are concluded in rapture; (21) the soul
is as if inebriated and can concern itself only with God. Rapture is
followed by the flight of the spirit, in which the soul believes
itself transported into a new, wholly divine region.(22)
THE EFFECTS OF ECSTATIC UNION
Such absorption in God produces great detachment from creatures,
whose nothingness becomes more and more apparent; it also gives rise
to immense sorrow for sins committed and for all that separates the
soul from God. The soul also sees with increasing clearness the
value of our Savior's passion and of Mary's sufferings at the foot
of the cross, and from this contemplation draws admirable patience
to bear the trials which the Lord will send it that it may work for
its neighbor's salvation.
In short, the effects of ecstatic union are great holiness of life.
For this reason St. Francis de Sales says: "When you see a person
who has raptures in prayer. . . and, nevertheless, no ecstasy in his
life, that is, does not lead a lofty life of union with God, by the
abnegation of worldly desires and the mortification of natural
wishes and inclinations, by interior sweetness, simplicity,
humility, and especially by continual charity, believe me, Theotime, all these raptures are seriously doubtful and dangerous."
(23)
THE PURIFICATION OF LOVE
After ecstatic union, as a preparation for the transforming union, there is a very painful purification of love, of which St. Teresa speaks at the end of the sixth mansion. The saint says:
The heart receives, it knows not how or whence, a blow as from a
fiery dart. . . in the very depths and center of the soul. . . .
This resembles the pains of purgatory. . . . The spiritual torments
are so much more keen that the bodily ones remain unnoticed. . . .
She feels a strange loneliness, finding no companionship in any
earthly creature. . . . Meanwhile all society is a torture to her.
She is like one suspended in mid-air, who can neither touch the
earth nor mount to heaven; she is unable to reach the water while
parched with thirst and this is not a thirst that can be borne, but
one which nothing will quench. . . . Though this torment and grief
could not, I think, be surpassed by any earthly cross. . . , yet
they appeared to her as nothing in comparison with their recompense.
The soul realizes that it has not merited anguish which is of such
measureless value.(24)
In the same chapter of the sixth mansion, the saint goes on to say: "This agony does not continue for long in its full violence - never, I
believe, longer than three or four hours; were it prolonged, the
weakness of our nature could not endure it except by a miracle. . .
. This favor entails great suffering but leaves most precious graces
within the soul, which loses all fear of any crosses it may
henceforth meet with, for in comparison with the acute anguish it
has gone through, all else seems nothing. . . . It is also much more
detached from creatures, having learned that no one but its Creator
can bring it consolation and strength." (25)
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1. Cf. supra, chap. 30.
2. The Interior Castle, fourth and fifth mansions.
3. Chap. I.
4. Sixth mansion, chap. I.
5.
Ibid.
6. Sixth mansion, chap. 11.
7. Life, by herself, chap. 10, par.
2.
8. Ibid., par. 29.
9. Ecstatic union does not of itself suspend the functions of the organic or vegetative organism, that is,
those of nutrition and respiration. Cf. St. Thomas, De veritate,
q.13, a.4; IIa IIae, q. 175, a.5.
10. Cf. St. Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God, Bk. VII,
chaps. 4 ff.
11. De veritate, q. 13, a.3: IIa IIae, q. 175. a.2.
12. Although certain authors have held the contrary, this is the
definite teaching of St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom,
St. Bernard, St. Thomas, Suarez, Alvarez de Paz, Scaramelli, and
Philip of the Blessed
Trinity.
13. Cf. Summa, Ia IIae, q. 10,
a.1, 2; IIa IIae, q. 175, a.1 ad 3um.
14. Sixth mansion, chap. 6.
15. Cf. A. Poulain, The Graces of Interior Prayer, Part III, chap. 18,
no. 7.
16. Cf. infra, chap. 57: "The differences between extraordinary
divine facts
and morbid phenomena."
17. Cf. St. Teresa, The Book of the Foundations (chap. 6): "I advise
prioresses to eliminate with all possible care from their
monasteries these long swoons which take their energy away from the
faculties and the senses themselves. The soul can no longer make
them obey it, and thereby loses merits which might have been acquired
by a constant solicitude to please God."
18. De servorum Dei beatificatione, Bk. III, chap. 49, no. 5. Also
Cajetan on IIa IIae, q. 173, a.3.
19. The Interior Castle, sixth mansion, chap. 2.
20. Summa, IIa IIae,
q. 175, a.2 ad 1um.
21. The Interior Castle, sixth mansion, chap.
4.
22. Ibid., chap. 5.
23. Treatise on the Love of God, Bk. VII, chap. 7.
24. The Interior Castle, sixth mansion, chap. 11, passim.
25. See also St. Teresa, Life, chap. 29; Relation, 54. Cf. St. John
of the Cross, The Dark Night, Bk. II, chaps. II ff.; The Living Flame of Love, st.
I, v. 2-4; st. 2, v. 1-3. Cf. also Father Gabriel of St. Magdalen, "L'Ecole
theresienne et les blessures d'amour mystique," Etudes carmelitaines,
October, 1936, pp. 208-42.
The spiritual wound is sometimes accompanied by a corporeal wound of
the heart, which is its symbol. Cf. infra, the following chapter and
chap. 56: "Stigmatization, suggestion, and ecstasy."
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