. Contemplative Haven: November 2006

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Children and Contemplation

I've been reading a book entitled, "Born Contemplative", written by Sister Madeleine Simon in 1993. It talks of how to introduce children to Christian meditation, following the teachings of Benedictine monk Dom John Main, in order to support and sustain their "inborn sense of wonder". Sister Simon, in her book, "demonstrates that it is never too early to learn the way of contemplative prayer, because children are able in their simplicity to catch and hold God by love." She quotes Pope John Paul II, from his discourse to participants of the National Congress of the Italian Association of Catholic Teachers in 1984. She tells us the Pope stated that the attitude of "attention" is the first that should be developed in children, and he continued:

"This requires that you help your students not to suffocate but rather to nourish their innate amazement in the face of creation and to reflect on it in order to grasp its perfection. To educate to this attitude, it is indispensible that the child be led to a real and profound interior silence which is the first requisite for listening."

The desire to foster the contemplative gifts of children is something which is also at the core of The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, which originated in Rome in 1954. A Catholic childrens' religious education program, it was inspired by the Montessori principles of education, and quickly spread throughout the world. You can find out more about it here, at The National Association of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd .

In Canada, on the website of the Archdiocese of Toronto, where the program was established more than twenty-five years ago, we are told that The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, "highlights essential aspects of the Christian message that nurture the child’s need to love and be loved and the child’s capacity to enjoy God’s presence in her/his life. It is rooted in the Bible, the liturgy of the Church, and the educational principles of Maria Montessori." The Archdiocese of Toronto website goes on to say:

"... young children live their relationship with God in enchanted wonder and profound joy which gives peace, in the satisfaction - it could be said - of a deep and vital need. In our view, the "vital need" is for relationship, which the Bible expresses as "covenant". It is the joy of the children's encounter with God that has given birth to the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd which, always and everywhere, is nourished by the same joy. It has also been observed that children of the same developmental stage respond to certain themes of the Christian Message in the same way, though belonging to different cultural backgrounds."

Over the decades, The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd has been adapted by numerous Christian denominations - Anglican, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Methodist, to name a few - most recently being adapted for Protestant Evangelicals, by [long, contemplative drumroll here] fellow-blogger TrueVyne. When TrueVyne left a comment on my blog back in April 06 to the effect that she would have some things to "share" of a contemplative nature by the fall, I had no idea what she was working so busily on. In October, TrueVyne attended a wonderful conference which you can read about Here, and she has opened a website dedicated to this work at her beautiful new site named The Shepherd's Call.

The sharing of The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is probably the finest, and most successful, example of practising Christian unity that I have ever come across. Fostering, nurturing, supporting and sustaining the contemplative gifts of our children, in Christian unity. Now that is something I can understand.


Children in Prayer








posted by Gabrielle at 10:50 PM |

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

In the House of Tomorrow


Children

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons
and daughters of Life's longing for
itself.
They come through you, but
not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to
you.
You may give them your love, but not your thoughts,
For they have their
own thoughts.
You may house their bodies, but not their souls.
For their
souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in
your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them
like you.

For life goes not backwards, nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living
arrows are sent
forth.
The Archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite
and He
bends you with His might,
So that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the Archer's hand be for gladness.
For even as
He loves the arrow that flies,
So He loves also the bow that is
stable.


Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

posted by Gabrielle at 11:35 PM |

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Our Songs

Forget me not, friend and fellow-blogger (at Beyond the Horizon II), has re-posted, at my request, her very moving poem, All I Can Give. Forget me not has acknowledged that her heart-gripping imagery and cries to the Lord stem from years of childhood abuse. Her original posting of this poem, back in July on her old blog, was also intended to introduce us to Mary's Hope, an organization dedicated to offering spiritual healing and recovery for childhood abuse of any kind.

Forget me not relates how her poem was based on a reflection by the French poet Marie Noel, entitled, "The Rag Collector". Profoundly moved by forget me not's poem, and never having heard of Marie Noel before, I searched for her poetry online. I was not able to find any in English to which I could link, but here is a site with some of her poetry in French: Marie Noel

As I read through her poetry, one line stayed with me for days from her poem entitled, 'Prière du poète' (The Poet's Prayer): "Donne-moi du bonheur, s'il faut que je le chante", she says to the Lord. "Donne-moi du bonheur, s'il faut que je le chante" - "Give me happiness if I must sing of it."

I began to realize how blessed we are by all those who sing anyway, of the grief and of the pain, even though they may believe the Lord would prefer them to sing of joy, or they would naturally prefer that themselves. Are not the Psalms abundant with songs of both kinds? Each one of us has a unique song; some are written and sung while in the depths of despair, while enduring the anguish of a dark night. Others are written and sung during the process of healing. Still others go beyond the process of healing, to the glory of the Lord, for there are many whom He has called to triumph over man's evil and show others the way. I think of these words of Jean-Pierre de Caussade, in Abandonment to Divine Providence:

"Souls who walk in light sing the hymns of light; those who walk in the shadows chant the hymns of darkness. Each must be allowed to sing through to the end the words and melody which God has given him. Nothing must be changed in what he has composed."

Forget me not, by the grace of God and through her own sweet soul and hard work, has triumphed over man's evil. She herself is like a song that the Lord is singing, and she desires to help many, not only through her online writing but perhaps in other venues.

As a description for her blog, forget me not uses a quote from Etty Hillesum: "One would wish to be a balm for so many wounds." There is no doubt in my mind that forget me not is, and will be, exactly that. I don't think she would mind if I shared a little something she told me, since forget me not has already spoken of her experiences online; it is something she revealed to me recently, before she knew the exact subject-matter of my reflection on Marie Noel. She said, "My Soul Magnifies the Lord is the song I sing deep inside as I ponder God's goodness to me."

I thank God for forget me not's powerful healing. May she continue to sing all the days of her life.

posted by Gabrielle at 10:00 AM |

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Just the Love

As we went through Interior Castle, one of my biggest regrets was that so much had to remain unsaid. Before moving along to other topics, and then some contemplative reflections for Advent, I would just like to add something in reference to my last post.

Our service, whether before or after the Spiritual Marriage, can be humble, can be hidden. We are not all called to some of the more visible ways of serving our neighbour, such as building orphanages, working in hospices, or helping with inner-city ministries. Let us thank God for the ones who are, and let us listen for what God may be asking us to do in our state in life.

Our service may be to give our children a loving, nurturing environment, and help them come to know the Lord. It may be intercessory prayer. It may be to remain focused on contemplative prayer, whether in the world or in a cloister, because contemplative prayer itself aids our brothers and sisters. Our service may be to build houses for Habitat for Humanity, or it may be to remain on our knees in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Our service may be to write, to console, to lead, to follow, to teach, to listen, to heal.

Let us listen for the call of the Lord, for the whispers of the Holy Spirit, as we remember what St. Teresa taught:

"...the Lord does not look so much at the magnitude of anything we do as at the love with which we do it."

posted by Gabrielle at 11:25 PM |

Friday, November 24, 2006

Seventh Mansions (Part 3 of 3)

Lord, What Wilt Thou Have Me To Do?

As with the stages of prayer throughout each of the Mansions, the benefit of attaining the Spiritual Marriage can only be seen by the effects and the fruits.

St. Teresa outlines eight main effects of the Spiritual Marriage: self-forgetfulness; a great desire to suffer, but only if it is God’s will; interior joy when persecuted along with a love for enemies; a great desire to live in order to serve Him; no desire for favours and consolations and no more raptures, transports or flights of the spirit; a marked detachment; no aridities or interior trials; and caution, through humility, concerning the possibility of slipping back into sin. St. Teresa wishes to make it clear that all of these effects are not necessarily present in the soul at all times, and for this reason she refers to them as being “habitually present”.

But why does the Lord give the soul so many favours and consolations along the journey, finally bringing it into the Transforming Union, the Spiritual Marriage? Is it simply to give a soul the glory and joy of being One with the Lord? No, says St. Teresa. She wants no one to believe that, “He does it simply to give these souls pleasure.” She tells us that she is certain that it is to strengthen the soul, so that one is able to imitate Christ’s sufferings: “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.” In the Transforming Union the soul is, “made one with the Strong”, and shall “gain strength through the most sovereign union of spirit with Spirit.”

St. Teresa refutes the notion that souls who have reached the heights of contemplation spend the rest of their lives simply enjoying the Lord for their own peace and personal fulfillment. She writes, “…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.”

Why are they getting less and less outward repose? Here is perhaps the startling answer, the reason why the soul has undergone this steady stream of strengthening in contemplative prayer: not for our enjoyment, says St. Teresa, “but for the sake of acquiring this strength which fits us for service.”

St. Teresa tells us, “…if the Lord makes His special abode in the soul…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.”

But has not the soul surpassed this requirement now, of performing service, since it has reached the heights of contemplation? Have we not been taught to imitate Mary rather than Martha – Mary, who is said to have chosen the better part?

Yes, says St. Teresa, we are to imitate Mary, but that is not the whole of it, for “…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.”

Martha’s service, although well intended, was not performed in full union with the Lord. Mary’s contemplation, her union with the Lord, had not yet born fruit. It is only after the Spiritual Marriage that both Martha and Mary will be brought to perfection. It is only after the Transforming Union that one's personal contemplative Mary will bear fruit, a spiritualized Martha-like service. The better part will be elevated to the best.

Is it any wonder that the Catholic church believes there is a universal call to contemplation, for the result of the Transforming Union is nothing less than the fulfillment of the Great Commandment, perfect contemplation resulting in perfect service: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and love your neighbour as yourself. The Lord brings the soul to the heights of contemplation for one purpose only, to make the soul One with the Lord, so that it can imitate Christ by pouring itself out for others.

St. Teresa asks how we know when people truly become spiritual. This is her answer:

“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.”

posted by Gabrielle at 11:25 AM |

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Seventh Mansions (Part 2 of 3)

The Divine and Spiritual Marriage:

St. Teresa describes the Spiritual Marriage as a, “secret union [which] takes place in the deepest centre of the soul, which must be where God Himself dwells.” Through an intellectual vision, in an “instantaneous communication”, Jesus appears in the soul’s centre. The soul is filled with an indescribable delight, and Jesus shows the soul the glory of Heaven. Then:

“the soul (I mean the spirit of this soul) is made one with God, Who, being likewise a Spirit…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.”


Although there had been a type of union earlier on, in the spiritual betrothal, at that time the divine companionship was intermittent, and when not in union (insofar as the soul could understand), the two parties could, “be separated and remain a thing by itself.” Not so after the Spiritual Marriage, where the soul, “remains all the time in that centre with its God.” God and the soul have become as one, and can be no more separated, says St. Teresa, than one could separate rain from a river into which it has fallen, or a stream that has entered the sea, or light that has entered a room from two different windows.

St. Teresa is reminded of St. Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians Ch. VI:17: “He who is joined to God becomes one spirit with Him.” She thinks perhaps he is referring to, “this sovereign Marriage, which presupposes the entrance of His Majesty into the soul by union.” It is at this point, St. Teresa tells us, that the little butterfly which has been flitting from Mansion to Mansion throughout this journey, finally dies, “and with the greatest joy, because Christ is now its life.”


St. Teresa speaks of the soul at this point as being, "in a state of pure spirituality, so that it might be joined with Uncreated Spirit in this celestial union."


She reiterates the Martha/Mary analogy, explaining that the Spiritual Marriage does not mean that the faculties, senses and passions will always be in a state of peace, but only the soul itself. Conflicts, trials and weariness will undoubtedly continue, but will not disturb the peace of the soul.

St. Teresa realizes how difficult this is to understand – the fact that the soul can be in complete peace after the Spiritual Marriage no matter what chaos may be going on all around it - and admits that “this ‘centre’ of our soul, or ‘spirit’, is something so difficult to describe…”. Yet she is adamant, to the point where this ever-humble, always cautious woman is capable of saying: “Think what you will; what I have said is the truth.”


Here, in the Seventh Mansions, says St. Teresa, is where God grants the bride’s request of, “Let him kiss me with kisses of his mouth!”, the first line of “The Song of Songs”. Here is part of that beautiful song/poem, from the verse called, “Love’s Union” :

I belong to my lover
and for me he yearns.
Come, my lover, let us go forth
to the fields
and spend the night among
the villages.
Let us go early to the vineyards,
and see
if the vines are in bloom,
If the buds have opened
if the pomegranates have
blossomed;
There will I give you my love.


(Eva Cassidy, singer and artist, died in 1996 of melanoma, at the age of 33)

posted by Gabrielle at 8:45 AM |

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Seventh Mansions (Part 1 of 3)

Although the soul will continue to advance in love once in the Seventh Mansions, and as St. Teresa says, “will be greatly assisted to go onward in perfection”, there is no higher spiritual state while on earth. It is also known as the Transforming Union, and can be surpassed only after death, with the Beatific Vision.

The Soul is Brought In:

“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.”

The soul is brought into this last mansion by “a representation of the truth”, by the granting of an intellectual vision of the Holy Trinity in which It reveals Itself in all three Persons. Saint Teresa tells us, “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 by sight…” In this intellectual vision, all Three Persons, “communicate Themselves to the soul and speak to the soul…”

From this day forward, the soul “perceives quite clearly” that the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity, “are in the interior of her heart – in the most interior place of all and in its greatest depths.” The soul now has complete confidence that God will never leave her, never allow her to fall out of His hand, but even so, says St. Teresa, the soul is, “walking more carefully than ever, so that she may displease Him in nothing.” St. Teresa believes that it is possible to lose this favour of having been brought into the Seventh Mansions, if the soul, “fails God”, and in this respect differs from St. John of the Cross, for example, who teaches that once a soul is in the Transforming Union there is no possibility of returning to a lower spiritual state, that it is confirmed in grace. Father Dubay notes that this is, "one of the rare differences between the two Carmelite Doctors."

After this initial intellectual vision, this “Presence is not of course always realized so fully”, nor so clearly, admits St. Teresa, but the soul feels a constant Divine companionship nevertheless. Something else comes into being now, something which Father Thomas Dubay calls “dual awareness and operation”, and which St. Teresa describes by using a ‘Martha-Mary’ analogy. The person will be functioning quite normally in day-to-day life, even experiencing many trials and worries, yet, “the essential part of her soul [seems] never to move from that dwelling-place.”. The part of oneself that is busily undergoing trials and worries will actually wish to complain about the part of oneself that is experiencing the peaceful and quiet Divine companionship, just as Martha complained about Mary. St. Teresa attempts to explain this, saying that it almost seems as if the soul is divided, although it really is not; she goes on to say that she believes there is, “some kind of difference, and a very definite one, between the soul and the spirit, although they are both one.” She finds herself incapable of explaining this, nor the fact that she believes that, “the soul is a different thing from the faculties”. It is apparent that she has reflected deeply on these things, but does not dwell on what she calls the "subtle things in the interior life". She writes:

“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.”

posted by Gabrielle at 2:45 PM |

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Like Purgatory on Earth (A Snippet from the 6th)

In the final chapter of the Sixth Mansions, St. Teresa gives an account of the state of the soul just prior to its being brought into the last of the Mansions.

The soul has generally received many favours by this time, usually over a number of years, although St. Teresa tells us that because God has no limitations, “He can raise a soul to the highest point here mentioned in a single moment.”

The favours bestowed on the soul cause more pain than joy at this point. The soul, continually learning more about God’s greatness, experiences longing, love and desire for Him to such a degree and with such intensity, that the unfulfillment of complete union is almost unbearable.

St. Teresa again describes the smouldering fire within the soul - how the soul is interiorly burning. It is hypersensitive to its inability to totally enjoy the Lord, and all it takes is a “mere fleeting thought” or a remark overheard about “death’s long tarrying” for the soul to feel as if it has been struck a blow, or wounded by an arrow of fire (as discussed in an earlier post). The wound is deep, but, “not, I think, in any region where physical pain can be felt, but in the soul’s most intimate depths.” St. Teresa describes how the senses and faculties are enraptured when this occurs, except in whatever way allows the soul to experience this pain and distress, a distress of the soul so powerful that one will cry aloud.

This suffering of the soul, says St. Teresa, “resembles that of souls in purgatory”. It involves “great peril of death”, leaving “the limbs quite disjointed, and, for as long as it continues, the pulse is as feeble as though the soul were about to render itself up to God.”

Although the soul may have spent nearly a lifetime in abandonment to God, that is not now the case. All the soul knows now is that, “she is absent from her Good”, and the only question becomes, “why should she wish to live?” The soul finds itself in a “strange solitude”, with no companions on earth, desiring only His companionship in heaven. One feels suspended, “unable either to come down and rest anywhere on earth or to ascend into Heaven.” The soul experiences an intolerable, unquenchable thirst.

What is really happening here, just prior to entering the Seventh Mansions? We must remember that what will occur in the Seventh Mansions, the Spiritual Marriage, is the highest possible spiritual state attainable while in the body. For a soul who has attained to this spiritual level, a purification similar to that which occurs in Purgatory must take place. St. Teresa tells us, “It is well that great things should cost a great deal, especially if the soul can be purified by suffering and enabled to enter the seventh Mansion, just as those who are to enter Heaven are cleansed in purgatory. If this is possible, its suffering is no more than a drop of water in the sea.”

This type of distress of the soul comes and goes, and as St. Teresa recounts, can last anywhere from fifteen minutes to three or four hours. There is no way of, “dispelling the distress until the Lord Himself dispels it for her. This He does, as a general rule, by granting her a deep rapture or some kind of vision, in which the true Comforter comforts and strengthens her so that she can wish to live for as long as He wills.”

At this point, souls have reached the heights of suffering but not the heights of joy, for they are about to be brought into the Seventh Mansions, where, “He repays them for everything at once.”

posted by Gabrielle at 11:42 PM |

Monday, November 13, 2006

Arms of Love

posted by Gabrielle at 1:47 PM |

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Sin and Truth (A Snippet from the 6th)

In Chapter 10 of the Sixth Mansions, St. Teresa speaks of two very important points.

The first is that God will sometimes, in an intellectual vision, communicate secret things to the soul which it, “seems to see within God Himself.” It is revealed to the soul, “how all things are seen in God, and how within Himself He contains them all.”

St. Teresa goes directly to the heart of the matter, to the deepest ramifications of this truth, the horror of sin. For if all things are contained within God, then, she says, this is, “showing us clearly how wrongly we are acting when we offend God, since it is within God Himself – because we dwell within Him.”

Although God cannot sin, although He can be in the midst of sin yet be untouched by it, all of the sins we commit are committed within Him. Since all things are contained in God, it is impossible to go away from Him while we are committing sin. St. Teresa tells us that if we really, truly understood this reality of sinning within God, “I do not think we could possibly be so presumptuous.” It is certainly a horrific thing upon which to meditate, and would do much to spur us on in trying to practise virtuous lives, if we dwell on St. Teresa’s words: “these abominations and dishonourable actions and evil deeds which we sinners commit are done within the palace itself – that is, within God.”

The second point is that God will sometimes very suddenly, “reveal a truth that is in Himself and that makes any truth to be found in the creatures seem like thick darkness.” Here St. Teresa is speaking of the Lord revealing one, or more, of His Divine Attributes. We see this also, for example, in the Diary of St. Faustina, where she tells us that one time, during Advent, her “spirit rushed toward God with all its might. During that time, the Lord gave me much light to know His attributes.” Sr. Faustina, at that time, was given knowledge of God in four of His Divine Attributes: Holiness, Justice, Love and Mercy.

St. Teresa, in the Sixth Mansions, goes on to tell us that not only will God reveal truths that are in Himself, but that, “He will also manifest very clearly that He alone is truth and cannot lie.”

St. Teresa recounts, “I remember that story about Pilate, who asked Our Lord so many questions, and at the time of His Passion said to Him: ‘What is truth?’ And then I reflect how little we understand of this Sovereign Truth here on earth.”

posted by Gabrielle at 10:35 PM |

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Feastday of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

For ccheryl

"I no longer know anything, I do not want to know anything except to know Him, to share in His sufferings, to become like Him in His death. Those whom God has foreknown He has also predestined to become conformed to the image of His divine Son, the One crucified by love. When I am wholly identified with this divine Exemplar, when I have wholly passed into Him and He into me, then I will fulfill my eternal vocation: the one for which God has chosen me in Him in principio, the one I will continue in aeternum when, immersed in the bosom of my Trinity, I will be the unceasing praise of His glory, Laudem gloriae ejus."
(From the First Day of her Last Retreat)

posted by Gabrielle at 12:45 AM |

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Intellectual Visions (A Snippet from the 6th)

"Most perfect of all visions are the intellectual. They are immaterial, spiritual and without the traits of sense; as the name indicates, they are seen by the intellect alone."
Father Thomas Dubay (Fire Within)

St. Teresa refers to intellectual visions as 'sublime', and tells us that, "it is not fitting for those who live on earth to understand them in such a way that they can describe them." She writes that, in an intellectual vision, one may be shown many things which are indescribable, such as, "a host of angels, with their Lord", but that it is not with the eyes of the body [corporeal vision] or with the eyes of the soul [imaginary vision], but "by means of an admirable kind of knowledge."

In, "Christian Perfection and Contemplation", Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange explains that with an intellectual vision, an object is manifested to the intellect, "without any actual dependance on sensible images." It can be brought about either by ideas which the intellect has already acquired, and which are then, "supernaturally co-ordinated or modified", or by ideas infused by God, "which are sometimes of angelic order." Father Garrigou-Lagrange tells us that intellectual visions require infused light, "that of the gift of wisdom or prophecy."

Sometimes an intellectual vision is rapid in nature, and in this case Father Garrigou-Lagrange explains that it will be clear and distinct, "a sort of intuition of divine truths or of created things in God." St. Teresa describes this type of intellectual vision in Chapter 28 of her Autobiography; she writes: "...through the intellectual vision...we are given an understanding of how God is powerful, that He can do all things, that He commands all and governs all, and that His love permeates all things."

But in, Interior Castle, St. Teresa concentrates on a different type of intellectual vision, one that can last, "for many days - sometimes for more than a year." She tells us that it may happen that the soul becomes, “conscious that Jesus Christ Our Lord is near to it, though it cannot see Him either with the eyes of the body or with those of the soul." St. Teresa experienced this prolonged intellectual vision of the Lord herself, although she uses the third person when describing the experience: "She was conscious that He was walking at her right hand, but this consciousness arose, not from those senses which tell us that another person is near us, but in another and a subtler way which is indescribable."

As opposed to a rapid intellectual vision, which we have seen is clear and distinct, Father Garrigou-Lagrange explains that this type of prolonged intellectual vision is obscure and indistinct. St. Teresa was very aware that Jesus was beside her for extended periods, and although she could not understand how she knew this to be true, she was absolutely certain about it. Father Garrigou-Lagrange tells us that an intellectual vision of this type, "manifests with certitude the presence of the object without any detail as to its intimate nature."

Sometimes, rather than Jesus, the felt presence is that of a saint or the Blessed Virgin Mary. The soul knows exactly who it is, even though the presence is not visible. The purpose of this type of intellectual vision appears to be the companionship it provides, which strengthens and gladdens the soul. St. Teresa describes this, again in the third person: “For she saw plainly that it was a great help to her to be habitually thinking of God wherever she went and to be taking such care to do nothing which would displease Him because she felt that He was always looking at her.”

In, The Ascent of Mount Carmel, St. John of the Cross tells us that we can recognize the divine origin of these intellectual visions by their effects, which are deep peace, holy joy, profound humility, and unshakable attachment to virtue.

Of the prolonged intellectual vision, St. Teresa says:

“[it] brings a special knowledge of God, and from this constant companionship is born a most tender love toward His Majesty, and yearnings, even deeper than those already described, to give oneself wholly up to His service, and a great purity of conscience; for the Presence Which the soul has at its side makes it sensitive to everything.”

posted by Gabrielle at 10:45 AM |

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Imaginary Visions (A Snippet from the 6th)

Note: Anyone who wishes to leave a comment, please feel free to do so; but just to let you know that the next post will be on "Intellectual Visions", if you wish to wait and see how St. Teresa explains the difference between the two.

When a soul receives an imaginary vision, the Lord gives it, "a clear revelation of His sacred Humanity, either as He was when He lived in the world, or as He was after His resurrection; ... he does this so quickly that we might liken the action to a flash of lightning..." An imaginary vision, "far exceeds all that our imagination and understanding can compass," and the soul knows that it is Jesus in the vision because, "He reveals Himself quite clearly as the Lord of Heaven and earth."

Speed is one of the telltale signs that marks an imaginary vision. It must pass quickly, because the soul's interior sight could not withstand the radiance of this type of vision any more than one's human eyes could withstand staring directly at the sun: "The brilliance of this vision is like that of infused light or of a sun covered with some material of the transparency of a diamond..."

St. Teresa explains that if a person is able to look for a long time at the Lord, she believes that this would not be an imaginary vision, but only a, "striking idea [which] creates a picture in the imagination: but this will be a dead image by comparison with the other." With the simple imagination, explains St. Teresa, a person usually builds up the picture little by little, whereas with an imaginary vision, "all of a sudden the whole vision is revealed." Another distinguishing feature of a true imaginary vision is that the individual is not only, "far from expecting to see anything", but the essence of the vision is something which has never even entered the person's mind. The person has no control over the vision; as Father Thomas Dubay explains in, Fire Within:

"It all happens exactly as the Lord wishes; there is no inducing or stopping it. Desire to see or not to see has no effect. If the recipient even tries to focus on some specific aspect of the vision, it simply ceases. God is in entire control."

Neither are these to be confused with corporeal visions, those seen with the human eye. St. Teresa says that, "the medium by which all such things [imaginary visions] are seen", is "interior sight". St. Teresa emphasizes that an imaginary vision is not like a painting; she describes it as being, "really alive, and sometimes even speaks to the soul and shows it things both great and secret." She tells us: "Almost invariably the soul on which God bestows this favour remains in rapture..."

One must never, "beseech or desire Him to lead you along this road" of imaginary visions. St. Teresa gives us six reasons why not:
  1. it shows a lack of humility;
  2. a person desirous of visions would be "quite certain" to be deceived by the devil;
  3. the desire would cause the imagination to persuade the person that he is really having imaginary visions, when in reality, he is not;
  4. it is presumptuous to wish to choose one's own path instead of allowing the Lord to lead us;
  5. the trials of those who receive imaginary visions are heavy and of many kinds, and one does not know whether or not one could bear them;
  6. they may bring one loss rather than the gain that one desired.

As always, St. Teresa reminds us of the fact that imaginary visions, as with any consolations or favours, are bestowed according to the will of the Lord:

"And you must note that you will merit no more glory for having received many of these favours; on the contrary, the fact that you are receiving more imposes on you greater obligations to serve."

posted by Gabrielle at 11:05 AM |