CHAPTER II.

TREATS OF SEVERAL WAYS WHEREBY OUR LORD QUICKENS THE SOUL; THERE APPEARS NO

CAUSE FOR ALARM IN THEM ALTHOUGH THEY ARE SIGNAL FAVOURS OF A VERY EXALTED

NATURE.

1. Our Lord excites the love of His spouse. 2. The wound of love. 3. The

pain it causes. 4. The call of the Bridegroom. 5. Effect on the soul. 6. A

spark of the fire of love. 7. The spark dies out. 8. This grace evidently

divine. 9. One such wound repays many trials. 10. First reason of immunity

from deception. 11. Second and third reasons. 12. The imagination not

concerned in it. 13. St. Teresa never alarmed at this prayer. 14. 'The odour

of Thine ointment.' 15. No reason to fear deception here.

1. IT seems as if we had deserted the little dove for a long time, but this

is not the case, for these past trials cause her to take a far higher

flight. I will now describe the way in which the Spouse treats her before

uniting her entirely to Himself. He increases her longing for Him by devices

so delicate that the soul itself cannot discern them; nor do I think I could

explain them except to people who have personally experienced them. These

desires are delicate and subtle impulses springing from the inmost depths of

the soul; I know of nothing to which they can be compared.

2. These graces differ entirely from anything we ourselves can gain, and

even from the spiritual consolation before described. [228] In the present

case, even when the mind is not recollected or even thinking of God,

although no sound is heard, His Majesty arouses it suddenly as if by a

swiftly flashing comet or by a clap of thunder. [229] Yet the soul thus

called by God hears Him well enough--so well, indeed, that sometimes,

especially at first, it trembles and even cries out, although it feels no

pain. It 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.

3. 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. This causes a pain, keen

although sweet and delicious from which the soul could not escape even if it

wished; but this it never desires. [230] This favour is more delightful

than the pleasing absorption of the faculties in the prayer of quiet which

is unaccompanied by suffering. [231]

4. I am at my wits' end, sisters, as to how to make you understand this

operation of love: I know not how to do so. It seems contradictory to say

that the Beloved clearly shows He dwells in the soul and calls by so

unmistakable a sign and a summons so penetrating, that the spirit cannot

choose but hear it, while He appears to reside in the seventh mansion. He

speaks in this manner, which is not a set form of speech, and the

inhabitants of the other mansions, the senses, the imagination and the

faculties, dare not stir. [232]

5. O Almighty God! how profound are Thy secrets and how different are

spiritual matters from anything that can be seen or heard in this world! I

can find nothing to which to liken these graces, insignificant as they are

compared with many others Thou dost bestow on souls. This favour acts so

strongly upon the spirit that it is consumed by desires yet knows not what

to ask, for it realizes clearly that its God is with it. You may inquire, if

it realizes this so clearly, what more does it desire and why is it pained?

What greater good can it seek? I cannot tell: I know that this suffering

seems to pierce the very heart, and when He Who wounded it draws out the

dart He seems to draw the heart out too, so deep is the love it feels. [233]

6. I have been thinking that God might be likened to a burning furnace [234]

from which a small spark flies into the soul that feels the heat of this

great fire, which, however, is insufficient to consume it. The sensation is

so delightful that the spirit lingers in the pain produced by its contact.

This seems to me the best comparison I can find, for the pain is delicious

and is not really pain at all, nor does it always continue in the same

degree; sometimes it lasts for a long time; on other occasions it passes

quickly. This is as God chooses, for no human means can obtain it; and

though felt at times for a long while, yet it is intermittent.

7. In fact it is never permanent and therefore does not wholly inflame the

spirit; but when the soul is ready to take fire, the little spark suddenly

dies out, leaving the heart longing to suffer anew its loving pangs. No

grounds exist for thinking this comes from any natural cause or from

melancholy, or that it is an illusion of the devil or the imagination.

Undoubtedly this movement of the heart comes from God Who is unchangeable;

nor do its effects is resemble those of other devotions in which the strong

absorption of delight makes us doubt their reality.

8. There is no suspension here of the senses or other faculties: they wonder

at what is happening, without impeding it. Nor do I think that they can

either increase or dispel this delightful pain. Any one who has received

this favour from our Lord will understand my meaning on reading this: let

her thank Him fervently: there is no need to fear deception but far more

fear of not being sufficiently grateful for so signal a grace. Let her

endeavour to serve Him and to amend her life in every respect; then she will

see what will follow and how she will obtain still higher and higher gifts.

9. A person on whom this grace was bestowed passed several years without

receiving any other favour, yet was perfectly satisfied, for even had she

served God for very many years in the midst of severe trials, she would have

felt abundantly repaid. May He be for ever blessed! Amen.

10. Perhaps you wonder why we may feel more secure against deception

concerning this favour than in other cases. I think it is for these reasons.

Firstly, because the devil cannot give such delicious pain: he may cause

pleasure or delight which appears spiritual but is unable to add suffering,

especially suffering of so keen a sort, united to peace and joy of soul. His

power is limited to what is external; suffering produced by him is never

accompanied with peace, but with anxieties and struggles.

11. Secondly, because this welcome storm comes from no region over which

Satan has control. Thirdly, because of the great benefits left in the soul

which, as a rule, is resolute to suffer for God and longs to bear many

crosses. It is also far more determined than before to withdraw from worldly

pleasures and and other things of the same sort.

12. It is very clear that this is no fiction: the imagination may

counterfeit some favours but not this, which is too manifest to leave room

for doubt. Should any one still remain uncertain, let her know that hers

were not genuine impulses; [235] that is, if she is dubious as to whether

or no she experienced them, for they are as certainly perceived by the soul

as is a loud voice by the ears. It is impossible for these experiences to

proceed from melancholy whose whims arise and exist only in the imagination,

whereas this emotion comes from the interior of the soul.

13. I may be mistaken, but I shall not change my opinion until I hear

reasons to the contrary from those who understand these matters. I know some

one who has always greatly dreaded such deceptions, yet could never bring

herself to feel any alarm about this state of prayer. [236]

14. Our Lord also uses other means of rousing the soul; for instance--when

reciting vocal prayer without seeking to penetrate the sense, a person may

be seized with a delightful fervour [237] as if suddenly encompassed with

a fragrance powerful enough to diffuse itself through all the senses. I do

not assert that there really is any perfume but use this comparison because

it somewhat resembles the manner by which the Spouse makes His presence

understood, moving the soul to a delicious desire of enjoying Him and thus

disposing it to heroic acts, and causing it to render Him fervent praise.

15. This favour springs from the same source as the former, but causes no

suffering here, nor are the soul's longings to enjoy God painful: this is

what is more usually experienced by the soul. For the reasons already given

there appears no cause here for fear, but rather for receiving it with

thanksgiving.

_________________________________________________________________

[228] Mansion iv. ch. i. Life, ch. xxix. 10-15. Rel. ch. viii. 15.

[229] The saint first wrote 'relampago,' flash of lightning, but afterwards

altered it to 'trueno,' clap of thunder.

[230] Rel. viii. 16. St. John of the Cross, Spiritual Cant. st. i. 22 sqq.

Poems 7, 8.

[231] Life, ch. xxix. 18.

[232] Life, ch. xv. 1.

[233] Ibid. ch. xxix. 17, 18.

[234] Ibid. ch. xv, 6; xviii. 4.; xxi. 9.

[235] Life, ch. xv. 15, 16.

[236] Life, ch. xxix. 6-10.

[237] Ibid. ch. xv. 12. On the matter treated by St. Teresa in this chapter,

compare St. John of the Cross, Spiritual Canticle, stanza i. (circa finem),

stanza ix.; The Living Flame of Love, stanza ii.

_________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO CHAPTER III.

BY THE EDITOR

THE readers, especially those not well acquainted with Scholastic

philosophy, will, perhaps, be glad to find here a short explanation of the

various kinds. of Vision and Locution, Corporal, Imaginary, and

Intellectual. The senses of Taste, Touch, and Smell are not so often

affected by mystical phenomena, but what we are about to say in respect of

Sight and Hearing applies, mutatis mutandis, to these also.

1. A CORPORAL VISION is when one sees a bodily object. A Corporal Locution

is when one hears words uttered by a human tongue. In both cases the

respective senses are exercising their normal function, and the phenomenon

differs from ordinary seeing or hearing merely by the fact that in the

latter the object seen is a real body, the words perceived come from a real

tongue, whereas in the Vision or Locution the object is either only apparent

or at any rate is not such as it seems to be. Thus, when young Tobias set

out on a journey, his companion, Azarias, was not a real human being, but an

archangel in human form. Tobias did really see and hear him, and felt the

grip of his hand; Sara and her parents, as well as Tobias's parents, saw and

heard him too, but all the time the archangel made himself visible and

audible by means of an assumed body, or perhaps of an apparent body. It

would be more correct to describe such a phenomenon as an APPARITION than as

a Vision, and in fact the apparitions of our Risen Lord to the holy women

and the apostles belong to this category. For, though His was a real body,

it was glorified and therefore no longer subject to the same laws which

govern purely human things. (St. Thomas, Summa theol. III., qu. 54, art.

I-3).

St. Teresa tells us more than once that she never beheld a Corporal Vision,

nor heard a Corporal Locution.

II. AN IMAGINARY VISION OR LOCUTION is one where nothing is seen or heard by

the senses of seeing or hearing, but where the same impression is received

that would be produced upon the imagination by the senses if some real

object were perceived by them. For, according to the Scholastics, the

Imagination stands half-way between the senses and the intellect, receiving

impressions from the former and transmitting them to the latter. This is the

reason why imaginary Visions and Locutions are so dangerous that, according

to St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross, and other spiritual writers, they

should not only never be sought for, but as much as possible shunned and

under all circumstances discountenanced. For the Imagination is closely

connected with the Memory, so that it is frequently impossible to ascertain

whether a Vision, etc., is not perhaps a semi-conscious or unconscious

reproduction of scenes witnessed. It is here also that deception, wilful or

unwilful, self-deception or deception by a higher agency, is to be feared.

Hence the general rule that such Visions or Locutions should only be trusted

upon the strongest grounds. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, (Summa theol.

IIa II+ª, gu. 175, art. 3 ad q.) the visions of Isaias, St. John in the

Apocalypse etc., were Imaginary.

As an example of Imaginary Visions we may mention St. Stephen, who saw 'the

heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God'; or

St. Peter, who saw 'the heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending, as

it were a great linen sheet, let down by the four corners from heaven to the

earth . . . and there came a voice to him: Arise, Peter, kill and eat.'

(Acts, vii. 55; X. 11-13).

These Visions, Locutions, etc., are not hallucinations. The latter are due

to physical disorder which affects the memory and causes it to represent

impressions formerly received by it, in a disorderly and often grotesque

manner. The Imaginary Vision takes place independently of a morbid state, is

caused by an extraneous power, good or evil, and has for its object things

of which the memory neither has nor ever has had cognizance.

III. AN INTELLECTUAL VISION OR LOCUTION is one where nothing is seen or

heard by the eyes and ears, and where no sensation is received by the

imagination. But the impression which would be delivered by the imagination

to the intellect, had it come through the senses and been handed on to the

imagination, is directly imprinted upon the intellect. To understand this it

is necessary to bear in mind that the impressions we receive through the

senses must undergo a transformation--must be spiritualized--before they reach

the intellect. This is one of the most difficult problems of psychology;

none of the solutions offered by various schools of philosophy seem to

render it entirely free from obscurity. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, the

impression received by the eye (Species sensibilis) is spiritualized by a

faculty called Intellectus agens by means of abstraction (Species impressa),

and is treasured up in the memory, like lantern slides, available at demand.

The mind, identifying itself with the Species impressa, produces the 'Word

of the mind' (Verbum mentis), wherein consists the act of Understanding or

Mental Conception. In the Intellectual Vision or Locution, God, without

co-operation on the part of the senses, the imagination, or the memory,

produces directly on the mind the Species impressa. As this is supernatural

with regard to its origin, and often also with respect to its object, it

stands to reason that it is too exalted for the memory to receive it, so

that such Visions and Locutions are frequently only imperfectly remembered

and sometimes altogether forgotten, as St. Teresa tells us. On the other

hand they are far less dangerous than Corporal or Imaginary Visions and

Locutions, because the senses and imagination have nothing to do with them,

whilst evil spirits are unable to act directly upon the mind, and

self-deception is altogether excluded for the reasons stated by St. Teresa.

An instance of such a vision is mentioned by St. Paul: 'I know a man in

Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body I know not, or out of

the body I know not: God knoweth), such an one rapt even to the third

heaven. And I know such a man (whether in the body or out of the body, I

know not: God knoweth): that he was caught up into paradise, and heard

secret words, which it is not granted to man to utter' (2 Cor. xii. 2-4).

_________________________________________________________________