The body should be properly cared for by recreations"holy ones, such as conversation or going out into the fields." 1956 Notwithstanding these obstacles and apparent failures, which God permits for a good purpose, beginners are to persist in their efforts toward holiness. We must renew our strength to serve Him, and strive not to be ungrateful because it is on this condition that our Lord dispenses His treasures. 1957 2. The Prayer of Quiet or Recollection.58 This is like the drawing of water out of the well with the aid of a windlass and bucket with less labor than in the first degree and with intervals of rest and quiet. "The soul is now touching on the supernatural- for it never could by any efforts attain to this." The will is wholly in unison with God's will. Without knowing it, it "consents to become a prisoner of God." The other faculties, the understanding and the memory, may help the will and "render it capable of the fruition of so great a good." They may, however, become distracted and "hinder the will very much.' "59 The consolations of God come with but slight labor; and prayer, even if persisted in for a long time, is never wearisome. The tears which flow are tears of joy and are not the result of any effort of our own. The virtues thrive much more "beyond all comparison, than they did in the previous state of prayer." 60 Once the soul has reached this stage, it begins to lose the desire of earthly things, for it sees clearly that there are no earthly riches that can for a moment be compared with the things of the Spirit. The soul, also, has a sense of the nearness of God. So 56 Autobiography, chap. 11, 24. near is He" that messengers need not be sent to Him," but one may speak to Him directly; " and not with a loud crying, because so near is He already, that He understands even the movement of its lips.” 61 In this stage, however, man is not yet wholly passive, though far less active than in the first stage. The power of God works in greater measure and with less resistance and more voluntary coöperation on the part of man. 3. The Prayer of Union. This is like the watering of a garden by a flowing river or brook; the water needs not be drawn, only directed.62 The Lord takes upon Himself "the work of the gardener refusing to let the soul undergo any labor whatever." It takes its ease, consenting to the grace of God. The soul has completely abandoned itself to God. While the will is abiding in peaceful union, "the understanding and memory are so free that they can be employed in affairs and be occupied in works of charity." 63 In the prayer of quiet, the second degree, the soul which would willingly neither stir nor move, is delighting in the holy repose of Mary; but in this prayer, the prayer of union, the soul can be like Martha also. Thus it may live the active and contemplative life at once, and be able to attend to deeds of mercy and the affairs of its state and to spiritual reading.64 What the soul has tried to bring about by fatiguing the understanding for twenty years and failed, God accomplishes in an instant. The virtues, also, are now stronger than ever before. The pleasure and sweetness are incomparably greater than in the former state. St. Theresa uses terms like the following to express her sense of delight: "beside myself," "drunk with love," "heavenly madness." 65 61 Autobiography, chap. 14, 7. 62 Autobiography, chap. 16. 64 Autobiography, chap. 17, 6. Relations, VIII, 6. 4. The Prayer of Rapture or Ecstasy.66 In this state, which rarely lasts more than a half hour, body and soul are passive. How the ecstasy is effected the Saint cannot tell. It is the experience of Paul (II Cor. 12:2-3) who knew not whether he was in the body or out of the body. The soul is wholly insensible to its surroundings. There is "only fruition, without understanding what that is the fruition of which is granted," though "it is understood that the fruition is of a certain good containing in itself all good together at once." "The senses are so occupied that not one of them is at liberty, so as to be able to attend to anything else, whether outward or inward." Body and soul feel themselves penetrated with a sweet holy pain as of the most fearful heat or of the highest degree of weakness or of a sense of choking. Yet, withal, there is a powerful uplift of the spirit which gives the body an ethereal feeling. The soul, however, even if it wished, cannot make known its feelings. After one recovers from the ecstasy, there remains an exceedingly great tenderness" in the soul. It is possessed of so much courage, that if it were now hewn in pieces for God, it would be a great consolation to it." This is the time "of heroic determinations, of the living energy of good desires, of the beginning of hatred of the world, and of the most clear perceptions of its vanity." 67 66 In The Interior Castle, written fifteen years after the Autobiography, St. Theresa describes a state higher than that of the fourth degree of prayer. The beginning of it was a vision of the Most Sacred Humanity. He appeared to her, after she had communicated, in "a figure of great splendor just as He was after His resurrection." He said to her: Now was the time she should consider His affairs as hers and that He would take care of hers.' This was the consummation of the "spiritual nuptials." 66 Autobiography, chap. 18. 67 Autobiography, chap, 19, 2. As great is the difference between the spiritual espousals and the spiritual marriage as there is between those who are affianced and those who are really united in matrimony." 68 The effect of this union is felt in the body and the soul. The body is no more remembered than if the soul were out of it." 69 The Lord appears in the center of the soul and is seen not by the bodily eye but by intellectual vision. Thus He appeared to the apostles, without entering in at the door,70 when He said to them: Pax vobis." Even the persons of the Holy Trinity discovered themselves to her. God and the soul can now no more be separated; they blend as water from heaven flowing into a river or spring. Three effects are clearly marked: 1. Forgetfulness of self, so that one truly seems no longer to exist; 2. A great desire for suffering and joy in persecution; 3: Desire to serve Him and to benefit some soul; the cessation of all raptures, except at rare intervals. There are no more ecstasies or flights of the spirit.71 In this state St. Theresa discovered that the psychological effects, which had reached their culmination in ecstasy, ceased or at least greatly diminished; and that she could experience even higher communications than before without any suspension of the bodily faculties; nay more, that the peace of "quiet" or union was no longer needed, for she could be conscious of mystical light and of the Trinity," while giving her mind fully to necessary occupations.73 Her sane and practical view of the religious life is summarized when she said: "Believe me, Martha and Mary 68 Interior Castle, p. 210. 69 Interior Castle, p. 211. 70 Interior Castle, p. 211. 71 Interior Castle, pp. 217-221. 72" The imaginary visions have ceased but the intellectual vision of the Three Persons and the Sacred Humanity seems ever present, and that, I believe is a vision of a much higher kind." Revelation XI, 3. 78 Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, IX, p. 98. must go together in entertaining our Lord and in order to have Him always with us, we must treat Him well and provide food for Him," and "His food is that we should strive in every possible way that souls may be saved, and may praise Him." 74 V Her prayer was accompanied by strange and varied mystical phenomena. Of these she speaks in the Autobiography and especially in the Relations of Her Spiritual State. She had her first rapture when she was repeating the Veni Creator in the oratory." 75 "I fell into a trance so suddenly that I was, as it were, carried out of myself." In that condition breathing and all bodily strength failed. The hands could not be moved without great pain. The eyes closed involuntarily, and if they opened they saw nothing. The ears heard, but what was heard could not be comprehended. It was useless to speak because it was not possible to conceive a word. Different names are given to the same experience. Rapture, transport, flight of the spirit, and trance she considered the same thing as ecstasy.77 76 She had numerous visions, bright and dark. She beheld Jesus frequently, both beside her and within her, the Holy Trinity, the Mother of God descending from heaven, a soul in a state of grace, truth itself and how all things are in God. At one time she saw hell and the horrors of a lost soul. The devil and his emissaries appeared in frightful forms to disturb her devotions. Occasionally things heavenly appeared in a gross and almost repulsive way. One day while at prayer Jesus showed her His hands of indescribable beauty, afterwards His face, and 74 The Interior Castle, p. 229. 75 Autobiography, chap. 24, 6, 7. 76 Autobiography, chap. 18, 14. 77 Autobiography, chap. 18, 14. |