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Supernatural words are manifestations of God's thought
which are heard either by the exterior senses or by the interior
senses or immediately by the intellect. THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF SUPERNATURAL WORDS An auricular supernatural word is a vibration formed in
the air by the ministry of angels. For example, St. Luke records (1)
that Zachary heard the angel Gabriel speak to him. The same angel
Gabriel said to Mary: "Hail, full of grace." (2) Like corporal
visions, these locutions are subject to illusions; the same rules
should be applied to them to discern those of divine origin. Imaginary supernatural words are heard by the imagination, when the
person is either awake or asleep. They sometimes seem to come from
heaven; at other times from the depths of one's heart. They are
perfectly distinct, although not heard with bodily ears.(3) They are
not easily forgotten; those especially which contain a prophecy
remain graven on the memory. (4) To recover the exact statement of
the words heard, it is sometimes necessary that the person who has
heard them should recollect himself and make mental prayer; in this
way he can avert the slightest variation. These supernatural words can be distinguished from those of our
spirit by the fact that they are not heard at will, and that they
are words and works at one and the same time. For example, when they
reprove us for our faults, they suddenly change our interior
dispositions and render us capable of undertaking everything for the
service of God.(5) It is then easy to discern them.(6) When imaginary words come from the devil, they not only
do not produce good effects, but, on the contrary, produce evil
effects. The soul is disturbed, troubled, frightened, disgusted; and
if it experiences any sensible pleasure, it is very different from
divine peace.(7) These diabolical words resemble supernatural words
of divine origin as glass beads resemble diamonds. It is often easy
to perceive the difference immediately. Intellectual words are heard directly by the intellect
without the intermediary of the senses or imagination, in the way
the angels communicate their thoughts to one another at will. They
suppose a divine light and the coordination of pre-existent acquired
ideas, and at times of infused ideas.(8) As St. Teresa says: "It is a
wordless language, which is the tongue of the fatherland." (9) Theologians teach, with St. John of the Cross, that intellectual
words may be either successive, formal, or substantia1.(10) We shall
recapitulate their teaching here. Successive intellectual words are produced only in the state of
recollection; they come from our spirit which is enlightened by the
Holy Ghost, and with such facility and new views that the
understanding cannot imagine that they spring from its own depths.(11)
These successive words are subject to illusion, for the
spirit, which at the beginning followed only the truth, may deviate
and even go seriously astray, inasmuch as the devil often insinuates
himself into these successive words, especially when people are
attached to them. He acts thus with even greater reason toward
those who are bound to him by a tacit or formal act, with heretics
who persist in their errors, and especially with heresiarchs.(12) Successive words come from God when they simultaneously produce in
the soul an increase of charity and humility. But it is
sometimes difficult clearly to discern supernatural love from a
certain natural love, and true humility from pusillanimity.
Therefore it is not easy to recognize the divine origin of
successive words.(13) They should not be desired, for obscure faith is
far superior to them.(14) Formal intellectual words are so called because the soul knows
formally that they are uttered by another, without any contribution
on its part. . . and it can hear them when not recollected, and even
when far from thinking of what is said." (15) They are, therefore,
quite different from those we have discussed, and are at times very
precise; for example, Daniel says that an angel spoke to him.(16)
The Lord sometimes leads souls in this way to great things, at the
same time allowing a certain repugnance to the fulfillment of the
divine order to subsist(17) If, on the contrary, God inspires
humiliating things, He gives greater facility to accomplish them.(18) These formal intellectual words are in themselves free from
illusions, since the understanding cannot contribute anything to
them, and the devil cannot act immediately on the intellect.(19)
Nevertheless his artifices may be taken for words of God, by
confounding what immediately touches the intellect with what takes
place in the imagination. "Consequently," says St. John of the
Cross,(20) "what they say should not be immediately translated into
action, nor
should they be held in esteem no matter what their origin. It is
indispensable to make them known to an experienced confessor or to a
discreet and learned person. . . . If an experienced person is not
to be found, the soul should keep whatever is substantial and sure
in these words; disregard the rest; and speak of it to no one, lest
a counselor be found who would do the soul more harm than good. The
soul should not place itself at the mercy of anyone at all, for it
is of prime importance whether one acts judiciously or is deceived
in such matters." Substantial intellectual words are formal locutions which effect
immediately what they announce. We read in The Ascent of Mount
Carmel:
For example, God says formally to a soul: Be good!, and instantly
the soul becomes good. Or He says: Love Me!, and at once the soul
possesses and experiences in itself true love of God. Or again He
may say: Fear nothing!, and at that very instant, strength and peace
come upon that soul. . . Thus, God said to Abraham: "Walk before Me,
and be perfect," (21) and instantly perfection was given to him, and
thenceforth he walked reverently before God. . . . A single one of
these words instantly operates more good than the efforts of a
lifetime. When the soul receives such locutions, it has only to
abandon itself; it is useless to desire or not to desire them, for
there is nothing to repulse, nothing to fear. The soul ought not
even to seek to effect what is said, for God never utters
substantial words in order that we should translate them into acts;
He Himself brings about their effect. This is what distinguishes
them from successive and formal locutions. . . . Illusion is not to
be feared here, for neither the understanding nor the devil can
interfere in this matter. . . . Substantial words are, therefore, a
powerful means of union with God. . . . Happy the soul to which God
addresses them.(22)
God's words are living flames in purified souls.(23) DIVINE TOUCHES There is a fourth kind of favor which "frequently"
(24) accompanies
lofty infused contemplation, that is, divine touches, which are
imprinted in the will and which "react on the intellect. . . . They
give, thus, a very lofty and sweet intellectual penetration of
God." (25) These touches are thereby attached to "particular and
distinct contemplation." (26) They do not depend on the activity of
the soul, or on its meditations, although these prepare the soul for
them. These divine touches are occasionally so deep and intense that they
seem imprinted "in the very substance of the soul." How should this
be understood? God, in fact, preserves the very substance of
the soul in existence by a virtual contact, which is creation
continued.(27) In it He also produces, preserves, and increases
sanctifying grace, whence the infused virtues and the gifts
spring.(28) He also moves the faculties, either by proposing an object
to them, or by applying them to the exercise of their acts, and that
from within.(29) The divine touch of which we are speaking is a
supernatural motion of this type, but one of the most profound. It
is exercised on the very depths of the will and of the intellect,
where these faculties take root in the substance of the soul, whence
they arise.(30) Blosius, when explaining what Tauler calls the depth of the soul,
tells us that it is the origin or the root of the higher faculties,
virium illarum est origo.(31) In truth, our will is, in a way,
infinite in its profundity, in the sense that God alone can fill
it; hence created goods cannot exercise an invincible attraction on
it. It is free to love or not to love; only God seen face to face
infallibly attracts it and captivates it, even to the very
wellspring of its energies.(32) So-called
substantial divine touches (33) affect this depth of the will and of
the intellect. The very substance of the soul can operate, feel,
perceive, and love only through its faculties; it has received them
for that purpose. In this it differs from the divine substance, which alone,
because God alone is pure Act, operates immediately by itself
without having need of faculties.(34) But God, who is closer to the
soul than it is to itself, inasmuch as He preserves it in existence,
can from within touch and move the very foundation of the faculties
by a contact, not spatial but spiritual (contactus virtutis, non
quantitativus), which reveals itself as divine. Thus from within
God moves the soul to the most profound acts, to which it could not
move itself. With this in mind, we understand why St. John of the Cross says
on this subject:
Nothing is more calculated to dissipate this delicate knowledge than
the intervention of the natural spirit. Since it is a question of a
sweet supernatural communication, it is useless to try to comprehend
it actively, for that is impossible; the understanding has only to
accept it. If, on the contrary, the soul seeks to provoke it or
desires it, it may happen that what it conceives comes from itself,
and thereby gives the devil the opportunity of presenting
counterfeit knowledge. . . . Passive acceptance in humility is, therefore, incumbent on the soul. God grants these favors according
to His good pleasure, and it is the humble and thoroughly detached
soul that receives God's preference. By acting in this way, the
progress of the soul suffers no interruption, and such knowledge
serves efficaciously to advance it. These touches are touches of
union serving to unite the soul passively to God.(35)
This wholly intimate action of God on "the depths of the soul" is
that in which everything terminates and, in a sense, that in which
everything began, without our having been aware of it. This
influence of the Holy Ghost on the depths of the soul, where He
produced, preserves, and increases sanctifying grace, in fact
precedes, without our knowing it, His influence on the faculties.
The completely purified soul experiences this action in its very
depths, when it has at length entered the sanctuary where God dwells
and operates from the moment of justification. Therefore the great
mystics have spoken so much of this depth of the soul and of this
"substantial" action of God in which everything has its beginning,
and at which everything terminates, when the soul reverts to its
principle.(36) It is like a spiritual kiss imprinted by Christ, the
Spouse of souls, on the depths of the will, which replies to Him
with the most ardent love: "My Beloved to me, and I to Him." This
divine touch is quite frequent in the transforming union or the
spiritual marriage. Evidently this favor of the divine touch, like many substantial words, is directly ordained to the sanctification of the person who
receives it. It is, however, distinct from infused contemplation or from the mystical state, which it sometimes accompanies. Infused and obscure contemplation continues, in fact, when these touches,
which are transitory, have ceased. The fact is that they are very sanctifying and may be more or less explicitly desired with the
intimate union which they produce, but this desire should be humble
and supernatural. (37) We must guard against confounding the mystical state (prolonged
infused contemplation and the union with God which results from it)
with extraordinary facts notably distinct from union. Neither should
we lessen the mystical state by confounding it with fervent and
simplified affective meditation, which is acquired and not infused.
The mystical, or passive and infused, state begins with the passive
recollection and prayer of quiet, described by St. Teresa in the
fourth mansion. Neither should a chasm be interposed between the
initial mystical state and the transforming union, described in the
seventh mansion. This last mansion alone is, in this life, the
culminating point of the development of grace, the virtues, and the
gifts, and the immediate disposition to receive the beatific vision
to which we are all called.
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1. Luke I: 19. 2. Ibid., I: 28.
3. St. Teresa, Life, chap. 25.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid. St. Thomas, Ia, q.III, a.I, 3; q.114; Ia IIae, q.80, a.1-3.
8. Cf. St. Thomas, Ia, q. 107, a. I; also Cajetan's commentary.
9. St.
Teresa, Life, chap. 27.
10. The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, chaps. 18-31.
11. Ibid., chap.
29.
12. Ibid.
13.
Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid., chap. 30.
16. Dan. 9: 22.
17. Exod. 3:11.
18. The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, chap. 30.
19. f. St. Thomas, la, q. III, a.I, 3; q.114, a.I-4; Ia IIae, q.80,
a.I-3; cf.
Cardinal Bona, De discretione spirituum, chap. 17.
20. The Ascent of Mount Carmel, loco cit.
21. Gen. 17: 1.
22. The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, chap. 31.
23. The Living Flame
of Love, st. I, I.
24. The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, chap. 32.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid.
27. Cf. St. Thomas, Ia, q.8, a. 1-3; q.43, a.3; q. 104, a. 1, 2; q.
105, a.3, 4. 28. St. Thomas, Ia IIae, q. 110, a. 3, 4. 29. Ibid., q.9, a.4; q.10, a. 1, 2, 4.
30. Ibid., q.II3,a.8, and De veritate, q.28, a.3. 31. lnstitutio spiritualis, chap. 12.
32. Summa, Ia IIae, q.10, a.2. 33. The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, chap. 32. Vallgornera,
Theol. myst. D. Thomae, q.3, disp. 5, a.9, nos. 1, 3, 4.
34. Cf. St. Thomas, Ia, q.54, a.I: "Whether an angel's act of
understanding
is his substance." Cf. ibid., a.2, 3; q.77, a.I, 2.
35. The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, chap. 32; The Dark Night, Bk.
II,
chap. 23; The Living Flame, st. 2, v. 3. 36 The depths of the soul is also occasionally called the summit of
the spirit,
when one considers sensible things, not only as exterior to the
soul, but as very inferior to it. 37. In The Ascent of Mount Carmel (Bk. II, chap. 26), St. John of the
Cross says of "touches which are so strong and so profound that they
penetrate into the inmost substance of the soul": "These touches
savor of eternal life. . . . In regard to the other perceptions, we
said that the soul should abstract itself from them, but this duty
ceases before these, since they are the manifestations of that
union to which we are trying to conduct the soul. All that we have
taught previously on the subject of despoliation and of complete
detachment was directed toward this union."
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