A SIMP LE METH OD O F RAISIN G

T HE S OU L T O C O N TEMP LAT ION

 A S IMP LE MET HOD
OF RAIS IN G T H E S OU L
T O C ONTEMPLATION

I N T H E F ORM O F A DI A L O G U E BY

F RAN COI S MAL AVAL

1 62 7 1 7 1 9

T RAN SL AT ED B Y

LU C Y MENZ I E S
W IT H A N INTRO D U C TIO N BY

EVE LYN U N D ERHILL

L ON D O N
AN D T ORO N TO
M . D ENT AN D S ON S LTD .
 A ll n g hts reserved
Pr mted 111 Grea t Bn tai n at

T he T emple Press L etchworth, H erts

,

F i rs t pub li s hed m E ngli s h 111 1 9 3 1

Hvz s s
 I N T ROD U CT I ON

The long life of Francois Malaval whose only important

,

work is now for the rst time translated into English

, , ,

covered the second phase and nal decadenc e o f that

great outburst of mystical reLi gio n whi ch distinguished

s eventeenth century Fran ce When he was born in 1 6 2 7
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,

Madame Acari e and S t Franc ois de S ales were already

.

dead S t Chantal had fourteen years to live P ascal was

. . ,

four years o ld H e was the contemporary of Brother

.

L awrence ; and there are many points at whi ch the teach ~

ing of the scholar saint of Marseilles reminds us of that

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o f the simpl e and u ntaught Carm elite Though his work.

preceded that o f the Quietists he lived through and

, ,

suffe red under the disastrous results of their excess es

, .

D uring t he latter part of his life he saw the ris e and fall
,

o f Madam e Guyon and the new mystics and the coni ct

,

between Bossuet and F en elon ; and shared as most

r ead ers will feel
unjustly i n the condemnation meted
,

o ut to t he do ct rin es o f Molinos and Falconi A few .

echoes of the controversies which led up t o these events ,

with other traces of contemporary inuences upon his

thought will be found in his book ; but do nothing to
,

disturb its d eep and t ranquil beauty .

It is tempting to nd in t he circumstanc es of Malaval s '

life a clue to the special character of his teaching A .

P rovenc al by birth the son of a rich and highly resp e cted

,

V
vi I N TRODU C TION
citizen o f Marseilles he became blind when nin e months
,

o l d ; but his father se ems to have dete rmine d from the rst
,

that this misfortun e shoul d d o nothing to deprive him of

his intellectual inheritan ce As soon as he was old .

enough Francois was sent to the O ratorian fathe rs o f

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Marseill es to be edu cated H ere with the help of a .

,

reader secretary provid ed by his father he l earnt Greek

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,

and L atin and began the study of philosophy ; passing

,

on to the D ominican cours es in theology and canon law ,

and taking his doctor s d egree Great intellectual power

.
,

an amazingly retentive memory and a gay and courageous ,

spirit helped him to triu mph over his blindness and build
, ,

up in the darkness a far richer and fuller life than that

enjoyed by the majority o f men N o r must we think of .

him as a hermit contemplative totally absorb ed in t he

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,

study o f divinity o r the wonde rs of his secret communion

With God He s et great store o n human intercourse and
.
,

always encourage d his pupils t o seek it From the age .

of twenty one he made eve ry effo rt to get into touch with

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t he chief scholars o f the day lost no opportunity of meet

,

ing and talking with th em was seen everywhere took a

, ,

ke en interest in scienti c p roblems and was o ne of the ,

founders of the Academy of Marseilles His reputation .

grew quickly S cholars and ec clesiastics resorted to him

.

both for intellectual and fo r spiritual help Cardinal .

Cibo Car d inal Bona and Queen Christina of S wed en

, ,

we re among his friends ; and before he was thirty he had

laid the foundations of t he vast correspondence whi ch
continued to incr ease until his d eath at the age of ninety two -
.

The apparatus by which the blind scholar thus main

t ained his contacts with the wo rl d o f action and thought
was organized with chara ct eristic care Throughout his .

life it was his habit to take boys into his house and
,

educate them in exchange fo r their services as readers

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 I N TRODUCTIO N vii
and secretaries : forming each according to his capacity ,

and training m any for the religious life Good families .

were eager t o avail themselves of this privilege ; and

the pupils who remaine d with him for many years b e
, ,

came e xpert librarians handled the immense and grow

,

ing correspondence and acted as the eyes of their blind

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maste r It is needless to insist o n the difculties and

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limitations of such a method its ceaseless demands on

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patience and courage Yet no one ever heard Malaval

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complain of his afiction o r s aw in him any traces of

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depression Being blind I wish to carry this cros s

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with gaiety till death was his only reply t o a poet who
,

had ventu red to offer his sympathy in somewhat lugubrious

.

verse That tranquil death to self which he set s o high

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in the ranks o f the spiritual virtues included a quiet ,

forgetfulness of his own 1053 : and few reading the pas ,

sages i n which he urges his pupil to open her eyes by a

lively faith or exclaims that G o d is a S u n who shines
,

day and night on us and in us and we will hardly open

,

our eyes to look at Him " would guess that these experi
"

en ces wer e never known to the writer in the physi c al sense .

Yet when we do know this we perceiv e that the ,

extraordinary simplicity and straightforwardn ess which

mark his d escriptions o f contemplative prayer t he power ,

with which he handles the dif cult con cept of imageless

"
thought and the vivid life he infuses into the most
,

abstract te rms of mystical d evotion do owe something to ,

that closing o f the eye o f nature which lent a greater

intensity and concentration to the interior sight He .

who sees God in this darkness sees a great Abyss

"
and sees all things plunged in this innit e Abyss The .

doctrine is in essence that of D ionysius the Areopagite .

Yet the realism and vigour of its p resentation surely

witness to the peculiar a ttrai t and se cret experience of
viii I N TRODUCTIO N
the blind saint ; of whom we could say as he says of the ,
"
Fathers the o ne thing that charmed them most was God
, .

Meditative by nature and contemplative by vocation , ,

Malaval s interior life seems to have matured quickly

.

He was a profound student of the mysti cs ; and his book

reve als to us something of the depth and beauty of that
life of prayer to which he attained under their guidance .

We may well suppose that personal experience lies behind

such passages as that in which he tells his pupil that
sometimes three and four hours may pass with such
facility and sweetness in contemplation that a soul ,

which ab andoned itself without res erve would be exhausted .

When your so ul has learn ed no t to receive too many out

ward impressions he says to her again G o d will b ecome
, ,

the light of your eyes s o that you will s ee everything fo r

,

Him and in Him Co ntemporary opinion soon came to
.

regard him as a saint All the p ens in the world says
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,

o ne witness cannot exp ress that which was seen and
,

felt when Malaval was prostrate before the holy altars

,
"
.

Being constantly asked fo r advice upon mental prayer ,

which was at this period the special preoccupation of the

devout whilst he was still in the early thirties he put
,

together in L atin some notes in scholastic terms o n the

, ,

P rayer o f Quiet This littl e wo rk was circulated p rivately

.
,

but soon became gene rally known ; and was so widely

appreciated that Malaval was urged to publish something
,

o f a simpler and more generally comp rehensible kind on

the same theme T he result was the First Treatise

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of the present book which was issued alone in 1 664

, .

Its declared object was to teach in a si mple and practical ,

way that acquired contemplation
,
that practi ce of the
,

P resence of God which Malaval b elieved to be the real

,

devotional path o f many souls The instant success o f .

this book which passed quickly through three editions

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 I N TRODUCTIO N ix
was translated into Italian and approved by many of the
,

chi ef religious personalities of the time led him to expound ,

his doctrine more fully in the D ialogu es o f the S econd

Treatise ; for the benet as he ironically obse rves o f
, ,

those spiritu al persons who are not sufci ently simple

"
i n their minds to be content with s o simple a practice
as that which the First Treatise describes The complete .

work in its present form was issued in 1 66 9 furnished with ,

ofcial approbations and d edicated to Cardinal Bona

, ,

o ne o f its writer s rmes t fri ends It was w ell received

. ,

and became extremely popular From this time until its

.

condemnation in 1 6 9 5 by Bossuet who had at rst

approved i t
it was said to be f in all han d s including ,

we m ay be su re many in which its writ er would no t have

,

wishe d to place it N o doubts were cast upon the ortho

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doxy of its doctrine It was highly valued by the austere

.

G uillo r ; and the ce leb rated Abbe d E s t ival one of

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,

Malaval s most ardent disciples p rea ched on it and

recomm en d ed its t eaching .

N evertheless this beautiful book had appeared at a

,

moment in whi ch it had most to suffer from the circum

stanc es of the time The great mystical movement of the
.

s eventeenth century had now almost spent itself and ,

Was already appro aching that pe rilous phase in which

the inte rior life threatens to become popular ; its most
sacred mysteries are freely discussed and easy going ,
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imitations o f passiv e prayer s eem an attractive alternative

to the disciplines of ordinary piety Nothing was farther .

from Malaval s mind than this shallow mysticality yet it

,

was inevitable that the rea ct ion it p rovoked should also

be directed against his teaching T he very frank d es cri p .

tion in D ialogue VI of the common objections urged

against contemplative prayer and the ease with which its
,

nature was misunderstood reveal s the state of the religious

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 INTRODU C TIO N
climate in his day Those who are always demanding
.

something of God he says abuse those who demand
, ,

nothing but G o d -
the perennial quarrel between the
Marthas and Marys o f t he d evotional life Though his .

creative period preceded by some years the real Quietist

movement and though he safeguards his own su blime
,

doctrine against quietistic interpretation at every point ,

the P reface t o the S econd Treatise makes it cl ear that he

roused hostile criticism among opinionated spirits from
the rst Nevertheless he continued for s everal years
.
,

t o enjoy full o fcial approval In 1 6 7 4 at the requ est of

.
,

Cardinal Bona P ope Clement X p ermitted him by special

dispensation to receive minor o rdersfor no blind man
, ,

may be a priest and this admittanc e to ecclesiastical
status gave Malaval great joy The rst attack upon his .

work came in 1 6 8 2 from the Italian J esuit S egneri ;

, ,

and though S egneri was c ensured the trouble broke out ,

again a few years later The S p iri tual Guide of Molinos

.

had appeared in 1 6 7 5 The excessive character of its

.

doct rine and t he dangerous results of its popularity were

, ,

soon recognized It caused a widespread d istrust o f the

.

"
whole theory and practice of passive p rayer which was ,

regarded as hostile to institutional and sacramental

r eligion ; and even o n the strength o f som e of the more

extreme statements o f the Qui etists t o morality itself .

In the gene ral and often ill informed campaign against

,
-
,

Qui etist tendencies which was now s et going the most ,

innocent teachers o f contemplative p raye r fell under

suspicion ; and amongst them Malaval Madame Guyon s .

Moy en Court had appeared in 1 6 8 5; and its enthusiastic

outpourings and wholesal e recommendations o f passivity
were said with entire injustice to reproduce his opinions
, , .

T he book itself was sometimes even confused with the

P ra tiq ue F aci le Molinos was condemn ed in 1 6 8 7 and
. ,
 I N TRODU C TIO N xi
it was rumou red that he had b een Malaval s master
.

Madame Guyon was imp risoned in 1 6 8 8 and in the same ,

year the Italian translation of Mal aval s book was pro '

scribed along with t he A lp habet of the S panish Quietist

, ,

F alconi Malaval at once submitted saying

. I lay my , ,

book at the feet of Holy Church and my heart will no t be ,

"
troubled thereby He sent his act of submission to al l the
.

ecclesiastical authorities and entered into silence o n the

,

subj ect of Quietism The book nevertheless continued

.
, ,

t o circulate in France ; and Marseil le s remained loyal to

its deeply loved saint
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Malaval onl y broke silence once again B o s s uet s .

intense and unfortunate rea ction t o the clumsy ext rava

gances o f the new mystics and his deplorable conict ,

with F en elon are well known He included in his con .

d emnati o n Malaval whos e work he had previously

,

approved Y et a careful comparison of the P ra tiq ue

.

F aci le with t he doctrine of B os s uet s E tats d Oraison i n

which Malaval is contemptuously dismissed as a layman

without theology shows how littl e really separated these
two great lovers of prayer It is one of the tragedies of
.

spiritual history that those who are f ollowing the same

path to the same end should waste so much energy in
,

criticizing o ne another s boots : and this futile occupation

was develope d to a ne art in the Quie tist controversies

o f t he seventeenth century The chief accusation which
.

Bossuet b rought against Mal aval that of failing to give

due place to the Humanity of Christ might be brought ,

in some d egree against all Catholic mystics of the theo

,

centric and D ionysian type ; such as the author of The

C loud of Unknowing or even S t Augustine or S t John
, . .

of the Cross But any o ne who reads with care the Fifth
.

D ialogue o f this book will perceive how ill founded it is -

in his case In a P as toral Charge of i 6th April 1 69 5

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x 1i IN TRODUCTION
Bossuet denitely associated Malaval s name in o ne con

d emnat io n with thos e of Molinos and Madame G uyon .

"
H e replied in an Open L etter j ustifying the o rthodoxy
,

of his own life wo rks and p ra ctice and refuting the

, , ,

sixty eight condemned propositions o f Molinos This

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lette r was s ent to all the Fren ch bishops ; but was igno red
by Bossu et who d esired no che cks o n his anti Quietist
,
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campaign In 1 7 03 it was pla ced on the Ind ex Malaval

. .

was no w an old man T he last years of his long life

.

app ear to have been sp ent in a retirement which we may

believe to have been full of the p ea ce that his writings

exhal e . P hilosophers know G o d ; Christians believe in
Him ; meditative souls consider Him ; but the contem
"
p l at ive possesses Him .

If we are to grasp the real intention o f Malaval s te a ching

,

and avoid the misconceptions to which it has been exposed ,

the re are certain plain facts which we must keep in mind .

First the scope of his book is strictly that o f its titl e It

, .

does no t p rofess to d eal with the whol e vast country o f

spiritual experience or to teach a p ractice suited to all
,

souls D i d it offer itself as a complete guid e to Christian

.

spirituality we should have to acknowledge that its writer

,

was d ecient both in the historic and institutional sense ,

too individualistic too abstract But this woul d b e

, .

entirely to misunderstand his aim There are important .

aspects of the life of p rayer and paths to union with G o d

, ,

o n which he do es no t touch ; yet which he would certainly

a cknowledge to be the true attrai t of many souls Though .

he holds and surely with justice that his own path is
open in its simplicity to many who have not yet tried it he ,
 I N TRODUCTIO N xiii
is keenly alive to the diversity between spirits and anxious ,

to safeguard the rightful liberty o f each All t he practice s

.

"
of the Church are good but they do not suit everybody
,

and agai n We are not obliged to draw water from every
,

fountain of a city provide d that the fountain from which

,

we do draw gives sufcient water to quench our thi rst .

The acute knowledge of human temperaments displayed

in his list of persons for whom he does not wish con
"
t emplat io n and his constant warning against browsing
,

on mystical books show how safely he may b e trusted on

these points He writes by de claration for those capable
.

of interior things well mortied in the ext erior senses and

,
"
passions greatly attracted to Go d and His P ure L ove
,

in fact for P hilothea the soul that desires Him with
, ,

a love that is above all love and a delight above all delight
, .

That whi ch Malaval o ffers us therefore is not a co m

, ,

p l et e treatise on the interior life but a strictly

, practical
introduction to contemplative prayer ; which takes for
granted the normal Christian background o f discipline
and practice and assumes that those who desire its teach
,

ing are already faithful and fervent memb ers o f the Chur ch .

He tak es up the training o f the soul at the point at which

it has already achieved conquest over the senses and ,

mo rtied at least the cruder expressions of self love -

.

To read him without realizing this is like reading the ,

s econd part o f The Ascen t of Moun t Carmel and igno ring ,

t he existen c e o f the rst His real meaning and inten

.

tion will only be understood when these facts are borne

in mind ; and even s o perhaps only completely understood
,

by the souls whom he addresses and who can s ay with,

P hilothea , You rather arouse the remembrance of what

takes place in me than give me fresh light
, T h e d ecep .

tive simpli city and homeliness of the t eaching may easily

blind the rest of us to its lofty character unless we read ,
xiv IN TRODU C TIO N
with great humility of mind Those who think there is .

nothing he re beyond an invitation to cultivate the loving

gaze of simple piety or the art of waiting in the silence
, ,

should take to heart this warning

When t he S aints are obl i ged to d eclare these great
things in o rdinary wo rds their sayings have always two
,

meanings ; the one clear t he other profound ; the one

,

which is understood o f all the other which though , ,

expressed by the same wo rds is only comprehensible to ,

"
thos e who have expe rien ced the thing spoken of .

Next Malaval s doctrin e whilst undoubt edly har

,

,

mo nio us with his o wn expe rience and owing its richn ess ,

and realism to the intensity of his Godward life is solidly ,

bas ed on the great Catholi c tradition of contemplative

p rayer : a fact upon which he insists in the First Treatise .

Thre e names as we read him constantly com e to our

, ,

minds : D ionysius the Areopagite the write r o f The Cloud ,

of Unkn owing and S t John o f the Cross T he direct

, . .

inu ence o f the rst of these is manifest esp ecially in ,

the magni cent D ialogue IV The Cloud at many points

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s o c lose t o his tea ching and b eloved by his English

,

cont emporary Father Au gustin e Bake r he mi ght well

, ,

have known in the fteenth c entury L atin t ranslation : for

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it was read and valued in the monasti c lib rari es o f t he

L ow Countries and F ran ce He was certainly familiar .

with the works o f the S panish Ca rmelites Though .

it is S t Teresa t o whos e autho rity he app eals in

.

D ialogue III page after page could be gloss ed from the

,

writings of S t John o f the Cross B esides these he

. ,

d ep ends clos ely for his theology o n S t Thomas ; and for .

spi ritual doctrine o n S t Augustine S t G regory S t

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, . ,

B ernard and S t Bonaventura the usual source books -

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,

fo r writers o n cont emplation and also as we might ,

e xpect o n his immediate predecessors and compatriots ;

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 I N TRODU C TIO N it

especially I think P ierre de B erulle and S t Fran c ois de

, , .

S ales It will be observed that in this list of authorities

.

there is no name tainted with Quietism Indeed but fo r .

,

the fact that it appeared at the most unfortunate moment

possible for a book dealing with passive prayer it seems ,

unlikely that the P ra tique F acile would ever have fallen

under suspicion .

The line which separates Quietism from the true and

fruitful P rayer of Quiet is admittedly thin : and has not
always been d rawn in quite the same place The most .

orthodox writings on mystical prayer contain statements

which if taken o ut o f th eir context and given a general
,

application could b e interp reted in a dangerous and

,

Quietistic s ense If Malaval sins he re he does s o in the

.
,

company o f such classic teachers as S t John of the Cross .

,

S t Chantal S t Fran c ois de S ales Grou and Caussade

.
, .
, .

According to the denition o f Bossuet Quietists are ,

those who by a total cessa tion o f acts towards G o d bring

, ,
"
into contempt the holy peace o f the P rayer o f Quiet .

Their erro r then does no t so mu ch consist in the adoption

, ,

o f a wholly fals e principle as in pushing to excess and

, ,

applying without discrimination ove r the whole d evotional

eld a p rinciple which is true enough when rightly under
,

stood and kept in its own place ; that is to say the s ub ,

ordination o f the soul s a ctivity to t he over ruling D ivine

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act They make perfe ction consist he says again in

.
, ,

something w hich is impossible in this life namely a ,

ceas eless state of contemplations u ppressing or dis co urag

ing many essential religious exercis es ; such as a cts reec ,

tions vocal prayers meditations on the Christian mysteries

, , ,

and all petitions even those contained in the L ord s

,

P rayer its elf 1

Thus a sacr ed and fruitful condition truly
.
,

characteristic of certain souls at certain ti mes was dragged ,

1
B os s uet : I ns tructi on sur les E tats d Orais on
'
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xvi INTRODUCTIO N
into harsh daylight vulgarized misunderstood and pro
, , ,

claimed as a short cut to union with God open to all

,

who chose to embra ce it : and the re was associated with it

the s o call ed doctrine of the One Act whi ch taught that
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,

when we have once given ourselves to God this act holds ,

good for ever unl ess we revoke it and need not be repeate d
, ,

o r renewed The disregard of common human nature
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its weakness vanity and power of self deception which is

, ,
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,

manifested in this clumsy caricature of the great truth of

self abandonment to the D ivin e action was not only ,

ridiculous but dangerous to spiritual health ; and fully

,

explains the alarm which it inspired in those who we re

responsible fo r the general well being o f the Church - .

"
W ho would believe says Bremond with justice , that , ,

a doctrine even more idiotic than scandalous could ever

have been approved by saints and scholars? 2

But in spite o f a few passages which might be open to

misunderstanding if read alone Malaval cannot seriously ,

be charged with Quietist errors In the First Treatise .

alone the direct references t o the S acraments and the

,

In carnation and the lesson in simple contemplation based

,

o n the L ord s P rayer show ho w orthodox was his attitude

,

in respect of the mysteries of faith and how carefully he ,

strove to maintain the balance between visibl e and invisible

r eligion If his book is read as a whole the ste ady
.
,

insistence o n the soul s rightful activity and the need of

,

its willed response to the D ivine action comes out clearly ; ,

indeed his d enition of p rayer as a certain impulse o f
,
"
the will tending towards God with all its strength should ,

alone be enough to acquit him o f Quietism Where he .

has b een misunderstood this seems to have been the result

,

of attributing a supercial and general meaning to sayings

whi ch are really addressed only to particular souls and are ,

1
Op . ci t .
2
H is toi re L i tterai re, vol . i i , p . 6 02 .
xviii I N TRODUCTIO N
particular point Thus health or beauty may be a habi tus
.

of the body ; any intellectual or moral quality a habi tus of

t he soul In this sense acquired contemplation arises
.
,

from and expresses that soul s fundamental habi tus or

,

,

tendency to G o d It is in essen c e .

nothing but a , ,
"
habitual gaze xed on God P res ent This habitude as .
,

it develops more and more abolishes the ne ed for s uc

,

c ess ive d evotional acts L ike a carpenter who do es not .

r equire to s ay Now I am going to work " ev ery time

,
"

he picks up a tool b ecause he has the habit of regular

,

work and naturally resumes it ; s o the soul accustomed to

simple contemplation need not deliberately renew her
habitual desire t o p ractise that P resence o f God whi ch
has become as natural as breathing and is the expression ,

of her profound metaphysical thirst It was perhaps this .

passage s o innocent when read in its context whi ch

, ,

c aused Malaval to b e suspected of teaching the ext rava

gan ces of the One Act .

"
It is true that even acquired contemplation depends
,

on God s prevenient action ; since H e is always t he

immanent First Mover of the soul and real caus e of all ,

i ts acts , seeking us with an even greater thirst and

eagerness than we seek Him In a magnicent passage .

o f the Fi rst Treatis e Malaval declar es the august truth of

,

the D ivine Immanence in creation and the dwelling o f

creation in G o d as the very sanction and foundation of
,

contemplative prayer What happiness to be always in

.

G o d "and how little recognized that happiness is "

"

Nevertheless this prayer is produced and maintained by

,

the soul s own effort and intention

All God s dealings .

with men are reasonable and humane : and He wishes

that we should do all that we can do before He does for ,
"
us what is beyond our o wn powers It is true His .

s te ady action over rules o ur s mall activity, which i s

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by ,
 IN TRODUCTION xix
turns too fast too slow to o d evious But no one must
, , , .

s ay that we d o no t truly act h ere fo r willed attention

and adherence to G o d is the most absolute action of which

t h e soul is capable That simple pure and gen eral
. , ,
"
gaze is a real act o f will ; and the soul further co operates -

with t he D ivine action to the fullest extent possibl e t o it

by receiving without resistance t he penetrating and
purifying effects of that sight with its ceaseless mo rti ca
,

tion o f s elf love and manifesting its fruit in its daily life
-
,
.

Acquired contemplation as Malaval really taught it

, ,

therefore seems clear of the s uspicion of Quietism A .

willed act of co rrespondence with God however d eeply ,

hidden b elow t he conscious levels is at its very heart , .

When he goes o n t o sp eak of infused contemplation ,

however his language is more easily misunderstood ;

,

especially by thos e fo r whom his t ea ching is not intended .

F o r in this state t h e so ul s own action is held t o be mo re

,

and mo re sup ers ed ed by the D ivine action It is .

wholly abandoned and God Himself acts in it But

, .

this distin ction real enou gh for theology is o ne which

, ,

the soul itself need not and should not make It is .

enough for it t o be led by the hand without being ,

shown the way it is b eing l ed What does i t matter

.
,

says P hilothea whether the steps we are mounting are

,

concrete or marble so long as they lead t o G o d ? The

,

truly contemplative soul drawing nearer and nearer to

,

the Holy as mo re and more it leaves itself b ehi n d ,

d o es not desire t o know anyt hing with it s o wn know

ledge or love anything with its o wn love : it desires t o
know with t he knowledge of God and love with His
divine love . Thou art the love whe rewith the heart
loves Thee said S t Augustine Those fo r whom the
, . .

collect for the S ixth S unday after Trinity is a realistic

ac count of possibl e experienc e and not m erely a pious,
xx I N TRODU C TIO N
formula have grasped t he very ess ence of infused con
,

t empl ati o n . But its pains and joys can only be known
,

to those who are abandoned in naked faith to the intimate

action o f God .

P hiloth e j ay p retendu d e vous i ntrodui re d ans l e jardi n d e

l esp oux, mai s non p as d e vous en d cri re l es eurs et l es frui ts

'
.

C e jardi n d e l a cont empl ati on es t grand et vas t e, c es t a l uy d e

vous mener par l es all es q u i l luy plai ra ; s oyez d ell e et D i eu s era

li b eral
. N e p revenez jamai s D i eu, s ui vez-l e to ujours , et ne vous
mettez en p ei ne q ue d ai mer et non p as d e voir

.

E VE LYN U N D E RH I L L .
 T RAN S L AT OR S N OT E

When I ac cepted the rare p rivilege of translating the

P ratiq ue faci le p our lever l fl me d la Contemp la tion I was

,

living a life of comparative leisure I kn ew nothing about .

Malaval s history but meant to take the rst oppo rtunity

,

of nding o ut in the British Museum what t he outward

, ,

circumstan c es of his life had b een for o ne does no t live ,

in the mind o f an author as one must do in translating

,

his work without wishing to know all o ne can about him

, .

But I had no sooner received the book whi ch is of
priceless value being s o far as we can ascertain t he only
, , ,

copy in existen ce then I was asked to undertake a post
whi ch has since made it impossible for me to work in the
Museum And s o I had to translate the book without
.

knowing anything about its author It puzzled me a good .

deal ; the author had evide ntly not read his proofs ; there

wer e many obvious misprints many more printer s errors

,

than o ne wo uld expect a careful author to overlook Here .

and there lines whi c h evidently ought to be o n one page

,

were found on another ; and nally the rst page of ,

the First Treatise was identical with the rst page of the
S e cond One o f them had evidently been copied from
.

t he other ; and the context suggests that t he rst page o f

the First Treatise is missing altogether and that a resourc e ,

ful printer knowing that something must be printed there

, , ,

had had the happy thought o f simply reprinting the rst

page of the S econd Treatis e This all se emed very strange
.
,

that a man of Malaval s ideals should let his book go out

in such an untidy state .

xxii TRA N SLATOR S N OTE

And then I l earnt as you have read in the Introduction

, ,

that Malaval was blind almost from his birth I have .

ventured to relate thes e p ersonal particulars because the

knowledge o f Malaval s blindness thus suddenly revealed

,

to me has lled me with overwhelming wonder and

,

admiration fo r his book ; it throws an other worldly light -

on many o f his similes and particularly o n t he light

,

imagery which in common with s o many o f the S aints he

, , ,

s o constantly uses He writes in s o many places of spiritual

.

darkness and blindness that when in his D edication to

Cardinal Bona he touchingly thanks G o d for the
,

exterior darkn ess which has covered my eyes almost sinc e

"
the beginning o f my life I did not realize he was
,

writing of actual physical blindness S piritual blindness .

,

he tells us is the obscurity o f some and the light of others

, .

From his obscurity Malaval shows us a great light H e

, .

has ind eed brought down t he greates t lights of Heaven

to illumine the things of G od and this light whi ch ,

springs from faith and is indeed faith itself becomes

, ,

cleare r and mo re l u minous the more we try t o enter into

his mind the more we try to follow the teaching he o ffers
,

us. His utter simplicity -his crystal clearness and his

, ,

certainty as well as his a rtl essness and deli cate humour

,

all make us delight in his book but the fact that it

was written by a blind man seems to shed a peculiar
radiance over it .

I have mention ed the obscurities o f the text becaus e I

want the reade r to realize that in many places it is difcult
t o be certain as to the exact word Malaval intended .

Another reason besides that o f typographical errors is

, ,

that during the two hund red and sixty years of its existence ,

-
this little vellum covered volume yellowe d by age and ,

reminiscent of an Elzevir in beauty o f form and type

had o ffered hospitality to a bookworm other than the

TRA N SLATOR S N OTE xxiii
human kind It had eaten its way d elicately up and down
.

the book devoting most of its attention t o t he margins

, ,

but once o r twice greedy o f knowledge eating along the

, ,

line and s o removing a wo rd o r part of a word altogether

, .

There is little to s ay about t he actual translation ; the

translator sh elters her inadequacy behind Malaval s

excuses fo r S t Teresa when he writes of the occasional

.

"
ambiguity of her expression ; too great exactitude he ,

nai vely remarks might l ead to doubt whether it was
,
"
real ly a woman who wrot e On the autho rity o f Baron
.

vo n Hugel who rega rded it as untrans lateab l e the word

, ,

a ttra i t so chara cteristic o f Malaval has b een retained in

, ,

the original and italicized throughout Wherever the

, .

sense permits scriptural quotati ons have bee n given in

,

t he Authoriz ed Version .

As to bibliographical d etails : t he First Treatise of t he

P ra tiq ue F aci le was published in 1 66 4 : the whole work
was enlarged and republished with the D edication to
Cardinal Bona in 1 6 6 9 It was then translated into .

Italian and a third French edition app eared in 1 67 3

, .

Malaval s othe r wo rks are without importance His

.

P os ies S p i ri tuelles were published in P aris in 1 6 7 1 and ,

his Vie de S P hi lipp e B eniz i in Mars eill es in 1 6 7 2 F rom

. .

1 6 6 4 to 1 6 9 5 the P ra ti q ue F aci le had a great circulation in

France But the evil noto riety given to Quietism by the

.

Molinos controversy in 1 68 5 and the extravagances of ,

Madame Guyon who was imprisoned in 1 6 8 8 led to

, ,

Malaval being condemned and his books being put o n ,

th e Index the Italian edition also b eing p roscribed in

,

1 68 8
. Malaval submitted but his work remained on the ,

Ind ex and the letter in which he defended himself against

,

sharing the e rrors o f Molinos (Malaval was said quite

falsely to be his pupil) was also put o n the Index in 1 7 0 3
, .

These facts account fo r the rarity of this book .

 TRA N SLATO R S NOTE

It remains for the writer o f the Introdu ction and t he

translator to express their thanks to the owner o f this
pric eless original who has s o generously lent it for the
,

purposes o f translation ; thus permitting them the great

privilege of making a lost masterpiece of seventeenth
centu ry s pirituality available to modern readers For
, .
,

s o far as they know no oth er version i n any language now

,

exists Their warmest gratitude is also due to the Abb e

'

Bremond who has kindly and fully put at their disposal

,

hi s expert knowledge o f the sources for Malaval s life

.

The translator having the last word wishes to use it

,

to express her deep indebtedness to the writer of the

Introduction not only for revising the translation and
, ,

for adding the footnotes but for her most generous

,

help and guidance throughout .

S acramentum Regis abscondere b onum es t
m D el
op era a ute revel are et con tere honoricum est .

T ob ai e . 12.

l
I t is good to k eep c ose the secret of a King,
b ut to reveal glori ous ly the works of G od .
 C ON T E N T S

I N TROD UCTION
T RAN SL AT oR s N oT E

DE I ATION
D C

P REF ACE xxx vii

I
F RS T T RE AT I S E

After what manner contemp l ati o n and the l

know ed ge of
l
G o d s hou d b e earned l

S E C ON D T RE AT I S E
P REF ACE

D IALOGUE I
w
Aft er hat manner contemp l ati on and the knowl ed ge of

G o d s h o ul d b e earnedl
D IALOGUE II
I n whi ch t h e nature of t hat h ab i tua contemp ati on i s l l
l
explai ned wh i ch h as a read y b eco me h ab i tua and whi ch l
l
p ro duces a fami i ari ty b etween G od and th e s ou l
D IALOGUE III
l l
I n whi ch facu ty of the s ou contemp ation takes p ace ; l l
whi ch act i t i s of thi s facul ty ; what s us p ens i on o ne
exerci s es in i t, and wh eth er th e so u i s p ure y p as s ive l l
in thi s state

D i AL oGUE I V
T hat G od , p ure and i neffab e, ab s tracted from al l

l
p arti cu ar t hought, i s th e o b ject o f p erfect con
l
templati on, even a though wh en we so des i re, we can
l
contemp at e oth er D ivi ne things

xxvi i
xxviii CO N TE N TS

D IALOG UE V
T hat th e humani ty of Our L ord Jes us Chri s t i s a
s trength to contempl ati on and h ow i t i s to b e mad e

use o f

D i AL oGUE VI

(i ) As to who are th e soundes t judges of the s pi ri tua l

s tate o f s o uls

(i i ) W h eth er prid e i s to b e feared i n conte mp lati on

(iii) H ow we are to i nterp ret thi s s ayi ng, th at we mus t put
l l
o urs elves i n t h e owes t p ace and wai t ti G od rai s es us ll
(iv) W h ether i n great t emp tati ons i t i s b etter to medi tate o r
to contemp late

(v) W hether i n d ryness we s hou d l return to co nte mplati on

(vi) W heth er wh en we d o not feel the a ttrazt of G od we
s ho u ld return to medi tation
(Vi i ) W hat are the drynes s es whi ch ob li ge the sou lto return

to medi tation

D i AL oGUE VI I

(i) W hat d egree of morti cation i s req uis i te to con

templation

( i i ) W h et h er a so ul m u s t h av e l o n g p racti s e d m ed i t at i on
b efore advancing to contemplation
i
( )ii W h et h er eve ry so ul i s call ed t o co nt e mp l at i o n

D IALOGUE VI I I

(1) W hether one can s eek conte mp lati on

(ii ) W hether one o ught to reco mmend a metho d for th e

practi ce of conte mplation

( )
iii W h et h er t h e c earnes s l
wi t h whi ch o ne s trives to exp ai n l
l
contemp ation takes away from th e d i gni ty o f t hat s tate

D IALOGUE IX

()
i W h et h er co ntemp l ati on d es troys th e practi ce of

medi tation
( ) W hether
ii one v
gri e es G o d in prep aring no material
 CO N TENTS xxix

D IALOGUE X
(1) W h eth er th e soul i s i dle in contemplation
(i i ) H ow that d es ti tuti on i s to b e und ers tood to whi ch the
so ul red uces i ts elf i n o rd er to contempl ate

D IALOGUE XI
l
(i) W hether one s hou d read i n or er to d conte mplate
l
(11) H ow one s hou d us e voca prayer l
D IALOGUE XI I
l
Recapi tu ation of t e w h hl o e matter mplati on
of cont e

l l
wi th s p eci a exp anati ons
AP P ROB ATION OF T H E D O CTORS
E XTRA CT FROM TH E S AN CTION OF T H E KIN G
 DE D I CA TI ON

To H is E minence Monseigneur Cardinal B ON A

MON S E I GN E UR ,

B y the time the f m n n m n h d

news o E i e
y c
oue
r s p ro o t i o a

reached the Chris ti an world, this work was a lready i n the

P ress . I had resolved to commi t i t to P rovidence, and to

gi ve i t no other P ro tec tor than God Hi m self w ho i s i ts O bjec t
and i ts material and f w
or h o s e l
g yor i t ha s b ee n w r i t ten . B u t
P rovi dence would seem to ha ve exp ressed H imself in this
even t, and after the sp eci al marks of k indness wi th whi ch y ou

ha ve honoured me, I feel as if H ea ven were p romp ting me by

this new p romoti on to gi ve some p ublic tes timony of my

gr a ti t ud e a nd to m ak e y o u a so l e mn a ss u r an ce of y m
resp ect and venera ti on i n ofering to y ou this S econd Trea tise

which I now p ublish P ro vidence, M ON S E I GN E UR, to

.

whom I ha ve always found i t well to abandon myself b lindly ,

has allowed me to see the frui ts of my F i rs t Trea tise, and has
insp i red me wi th the thought of wri ting a S econd to elucida te
the s ame s ubject more fully .

P ersons of learn ing and p iety ha ving taken cap ies of my

F i rs t Trea tise (which had been rep rinted for the thi rd time)
to Rome, i t was honoured by y our app robation, and you had
the goodness to make i nq ui ries about i ts a uthor . That
which I now offer Y O UR E MI N E N CE is nothing b ut an
am p li ca ti on of tha t w h i ch y o u d eig n ed to app ro v e , a fu lle r

eluci da tion, I mean to sa , of tha t excellen t ti c e of co n

y p ra c

temp lati on exp eri enced by so many good souls, and in whi ch
even those who accom n th i l n in g w i th tr u e p yi et
p y
a e r ea r
c
x xxii DED I CATION
nd every d a y m or e s ig n i ca n t o b sc u r i ti es ; a d a r k n e ss m o r e

l uminous than all the learning of the day . W hat a great

g o o d i t i s, M O N S E I G N E U R , to con tem p la t e G o d i n c e s

santly , to admi re H i m, to tas te H i m, to nd i n H i m all our

jy
o a n d a ll o u r p e a ce. H o w s m a ll i n d ee d are H ea v e n a n d
ea rth comp a red wi th H im" H ow good i t is to res t in nothi ng

b ut God alone, and to concen tra te i n H im all our thoughts and

a ll our af f ec t i on s
. A n d , m or eo v er , th e d i v er s i ty f o Ch r is ti a n
works is never more lovely than when i t tends towards this
excellen t uni ty whi ch mak e us s ee God i n a ll things wi thout

di vi ding H im, and all things in God wi thout mingli ng them .

You are eminen tly aware of this truth, M ON S E I GN E UR,

and y ou delight i n i t . The uncti on y ou sp read ab road in
y o u r w or k s i s n o t t h e p u re res u l t of d r y o r or d i n a r y l e a r ni n g,
b ut of a veri tab le p rofus ion of the D i vine S p iri t which makes
use of y our lights and y our a rdours to i llumine and a rouse

y o u r re ad e r s t h r o u g h t h a t w h i ch y o u w r i te
. I t i s th i s s i n g u la r

p yi et a n d t h i s s u b li m e a n d u n i v er sal wisdom, whi ch, ha ving

made y ou so long an examp le and an oracle in the cap i tal of

Christiani ty , ha ve raised y ou to the rank y ou hold in the
.

Church to day ; i t is to y our grea t vi rtues and y our s hining

-

lights alone tha t y ou owe y our p urp le . I t was tting, after

ha ving b een so long cons ulted by S overeign P ontis and
by the different Congrega tions on all the dii culties which
p r e s en te d th e m se l v e s i n t h e m os t i m p or t a n t m a tt er s , th a t y o u

should ha ve become one of the p i lla rs and intelligences of the

Church ; that y our p articular beliefs as to doctrine and

cus tom should ha ve led to solemn and p ub li c decisions, and

tha t y ou should ha ve the glory of p residing i n this D igni ty

over A ssembli es i n whi ch y ou had p revi ously had the honour

of sp eaking wi th s uch wisdom and d iscreti on .

E very one who knows Y O UR E MI N E N CE intima tely

knows how carefully y ou ha ve alway s p reserved modera ti on
and humi li ty ami d the con tinual p laudi ts y ou ha ve recei ved
x xx1v DED I CATIO N
y ou might be a f
to the good, and a terror to the wicked,
re uge

H e has obl iged H imsel f f

to be the re uge of y our innocence,
and the terror of y our in visi ble enemies who may, p erhap s,
a ttack e mi nent vi rtue, b ut who have not the p ower to over
throw i t . You have made y our wisdom shine forth on all
celebra ted occasi ons on whi ch i t has been em p loy ed, and God
makes i t shine mos t brightly here in making y ou see more
clearly than ever tha t every thing i s van i ty on the earth, and

tha t the s up reme height of honour is to let God reign in him

who recei ves honour . B y y our examp le y ou ha ve radi a ted
an i n n i ty of good, not on ly on y our Order whi ch y ou ha ve

ruled wi th s uch glory , b ut a lso on all those who in thei r need

ha ve imp lored y our chari ty , and God p leases H i mself in the

rank y ou occupy to day to gi ve y ou the grea tes t of all blessings
-

and the mos t p erfect of a ll gifts whi ch can b e gi ven to those

who are raised above thei r fellows, namely to do all things

for H i s G lo ry a n d H i s L o v e, a n d to s ubmi t ran k and dign i ty

to H im wi th as much abandonmen t as the m s t triing action

o .

F inally, M ON S E I GN E UR, you ha ve been, as much as

lay wi thin y our p ower, a p attern of behaviour both in conduct

and i n sp eech . A nd now God renders H imself more directly
than ever y our P a ttern and y our L a w to the end tha t y our

ju s ti ce m ay b e a s em in e n t as y ou r ra n k , s o t ha t y o u w i ll ever

b ecome more worthy of governing . H e makes known to all

the world tha t i t was not so much the s urety of y our retreat
tha t made y ou good, as the p ossession of true vi rtue, and tha t,
ha ving recei ved so many graces by the liberali ty of H ea ven,
y o u h a v e re ce i ve d n ot h in g i n th is p ro m o ti o n , b u t th e m e ans of

letting those graces shine before the ey es of the Church of and

the world .

I therefore rep eat the congra tula tions I ha ve already had

the honour of addressing to y ou in p ri va te, and in offering

y o u th is w or k , I t a k e th e opp o rt un i ty f o m a k i ng p ubl i c m y
delight in a p romotion on which Rome congratulates herself
 DED I CATIO N xxxv
so heartily and in which all men of good wi ll ha ve s uch cause
f o r rej oi cin.
g
B ut, M ON S E I GN E UR, in dedica ting to y ou the second
p a rt of t h is T re a ti s e i t s eem s to m e th a t the rs t p a r t wi ll
recei ve new l ife, and tha t, even a l though many i mp ress ions

ha ve b een made of i t, i t will not b e ab le to accomp any the

other wi thout taking a large share i n the fa vourable welcome

which I trus t y ou wzll accord i t . The p erfume of your p ray ers

wi ll, doub tless, communicate to this work tha t good odour of
H eaven, which i ts author is p owerless to gi ve i t, and those
who take the trouble to read i t wi ll ga ther more frui t fromy our
blessing than from my work . A ll the consola tion which I
on my p a rt can hop e for i n p ub lishing thi s li ttle work is tha t

I a t leas t offer my readers a good s ubject, of which Grace

wi ll be the form, and that, wishing to tes tify to God my
g a ti tude for the exterior darkness wi th which H e has covered
r

my eyes almos t since the beginning of my life, I p resent to the

world tha t darkness which wi ll allow i t to see the l ight of
God, tha t holy and p recious darkness which is the vei l of the
D i vine, and which God p uts in to the world in order tha t those
who cannot see may be ab le to see, and that those who s ee
may become blind, i t being only too true tha t s uch darkness
is the obscuri ty of some and the light of others . N evertheless,
M ON S E I GNE UR, I p ray the God of lights that H e may
g i ve y o u a b un d a n t ly t h a t so vere ig n cla ri ty wi th wh i ch H e

i llumines those who do not ask to see every thing, b ut who s tudy
to humble thei r reason before the aby ss of F a i th .

I p ray tha t H e may long cause y ou to shine forth for H is

Glory and for the good of H is Church . I ask this of H i m
wi th all my heart, and I remai n, M ON S E I GN E UR, wi th
the mos t p rofound resp ect p ossib le to me,
Your E minence s very humble, very obedient, and very

g r a teful servant,
F rancois M ala val .
 AU T H OR S P RE F ACE

S OME time ago wishing to collect the lights which I had

,

d rawn here and there from my reections and reading o n

the subject of contemplation I wrot e a L atin Treatise
,

which I entitled in a well understood s ens e The P rayer

, ,

of Q ui et . This little work was favourably received by

persons who in this bran ch of knowledge have mor e
learnin g and suf ciency than mys elf and who by their
,

signal devotion have b rought d own the greatest lights of

H eaven to illumin e the things o f G o d But as I had .

written from t he standpoint of s cholastic Th eology and ,

could thus only b e of use to very few persons I was ,

immediately asked to make the s ubject more fami liar ,

and to treat o f it in our own language s o that it might be

,

more gene rally useful and better understood I r eplied

, .

that not having written save for myself alone and regarding,

nothing in my work as of any value save that with which

God might have inspired me I never dreamt of producing
,

anything on my part and only thought of instructin g

,

myself But the r equests of these p ersons were stronger

.

than my reasons and I have cons ented to treat in French

,

that which I had treated in L atin without publishing it .

At the same time this is no t me rely a translation o f my

former work ; it i s another work entirely different both
, ,

in reasoning and matter And G o d having had the

.

goodn ess t o spur my laziness and t o put strongly befo re

,

my eyes t he counsel I had b een given o f writin g a s e cond

time on this subject I aban d on mys elf with all my heart
,
xxxviii AUTH OR S PRE FACE

His lights and His guidance no t wishing anything of

to ,

Hi m save by Him and for love of Him I wish to teach .

the practice of Contemplation which tends to knowl edge

o f God and union with God by means o f faith and to ,

explain its natu re and its prop erties in s o cl ear a way

that I need ask nothing of those into whose hands this

book may fall other than a little reason common s ense
, ,

enough to understand these lessons and a little good ,

will to p ractise them if they are faithful to their a ttrai t

, .

I thought I could no t better arrive at the clea rness I

wish t o preserve throughout than by writin g in the form
o f a D ialogu e because of all ways o f treating a subject
, ,

this s eems to me the most familiar and that whi ch acco m

,

mo dat es itself the most to every sort of spirit .

I pray God H e may enlighten me by H is grace in so

obscure and s o difcult a path and that He may deign
,

to disclos e to my reader that of which I may be ignorant

myself S uch will doubtless come to pass if this teaching
.

is embraced with ardour and devotion there b eing nothing

,

which b etter discloses to a soul the inexhaustible treasures

of contemplation than contemplation itself
, .

But it is necessary to reply to certain objections which

may b e mad e against this little work Those who are .

well read in mystical writers may perhaps O bj ect that I

, ,

have treated this subj ect in to o familiar a way But I .

r eply to th em that the Chur ch like a good moth er uses

, ,

simpl e and familia r language wi th her well beloved children -

and that she sometimes displays her greatest treasures in

the simplest words and barest literal simplicity S uch is .

the tru e language of her Master and Bridegroom t he ,

language He speaks in Holy S cripture and in the sa cred

Gospel where the parables of the g tree of the mustard
-
,

s eed o f leaven Of a boat and o f she rmen carry more

, , ,

lig ht and blessing to a humble reader than many argu ,

 AUT H OR S PRE FA C E

ments in ated with all the pomp of r eason will carry ,

prot to a curious and proud reader .

Others may s ay that all d evout women will wish to

follow this way of prayer seeing it treated s o familiarly
,

and believing they will be able to practise it at once and

with ease I reply that I do no t write save for thos e
.

capable of interior things well mortied in the exterior

,

senses and passions greatly attracted by God to His P ure

,

L ove and thoroughly detached from all creatures ; and

,

that it would be necessary to burn many good books if

one wanted to prevent their being read by those who were
not dispos ed to enter into the sense in which their authors
wrote th em That is an old charge which has often been
.

l evelled at those who have written of these mystical matters ;

it is not worth my while to waste time over it I will .

only de clare that the soul must be thoroughly deta ched

from its senses and its passions by a particular grace of
God in order to embrace contemplation a state in which
, ,

the soul is above both senses and passions .

I mus t also insist that if I here prescrib e a method fo r

a prayer which is a pure gift from God when it has arrived
at the supernatural and which is a very great gift even if
, ,

it goes no further than to act as a simple support o f faith ,

the method I prescribe tends only to avert hindrances For .

even although the grace of God which s ancties us is the ,

most sublime gift He can bestow upon us and while it ,

recognizes nothi ng but the glory above it we do not cease

,

to prescribe methods prayers considerations and penances

, , ,

not as natural causes of grace but as instruments betting

,

to our weakness to keep the human heart in fervour and

, ,

t o empty it of everything whi c h is not G o d Add to this . ,

that of necessity grace enters into every method which a

good intention can propose to us and when the latter
,

disposes and determines us to s ome special course grace ,

xl AUT H OR S PRE F ACE

then forces us t o pay heed to that which we had att empt ed

t o discover . I have further marked the signs which o ne
ought t o recognize in souls before leading them to con
t emplati o n .May those who have non e of those signs not
pretend to have them and may they leave those who d o
,

indeed possess them in peace .

In e xchange 1 will enlighten many o f those whom God

Himself attracts into these ways of the spirit and I p ray
for the blessing of Heaven which alon e can give value to
my words I will try to shed some light o n the difculties
.

in whi ch most of thos e who attempt contemplation nd

thems elves ; to show som e how to recognize the signs o f
contemplation in themselves and othe rs how to manage ,

thems elves when they pass from meditation to contempla

tion S ome I will show how to explain to their D irectors
.
,

in spite o f their powerlessness to expr es s themselves a ,

c ertain solid foundation of faith and consciousness of the ,

presenc e of G o d which they feel in themselves without

discerning it and which does no t consist either in images
,

o r in terms or in reasons or in distinct affe ctions of the

,

will There are souls who weep for joy to nd their state
.

simply e xplained seeing that they had b efore regarded it

,

with scruple o r inquietude because it was s o abstract and

,

drawn away from sensibl e d evotion and the ordinary way

of prayer ; which they held to be s uspicious .

Many authors in all languages have treated o f con

t emplat io n but there is generally some drawback in th eir
,

manner of tre ating it S ome of them could only be

.

intelligible to learned men i n sp i te of the fact that the most

humble and ignorant are oft en called to the highest co n
t emplat io n Others certainly have written more familiarly
.
, ,

o f this matter than the rst but not contenting thems elv es
,

with contemplation alone they have mixed up other ,

subjects with it so that in making some souls curio us and

,
xlii AUTH OR S PRE FA C E

the fruits of gra ce which consist in the lights gifts and

, ,

sentiments with which the saints were lled Nevertheless .

,

those authors having written of contemplation in men who

were merely wise and pious and not in men who had
,

often tasted the D ivine clothed contemplation with their

,

own particular sentiments and lights founding their works

,

o n the ex amples of the saints interpreted in a literal and

rigorous way .

It naturally followed that others , treating this matter

like other theological ma tters made it subject to opinion ;
,

they wrote what they thought givi ng in this case good

, , ,

and holy pract ices but no t the true idea o f contemplation

, ,

which is an act of gre at purity in which G o d is regarded

as God a fact I cannot sufciently repeat And it i s pre
, .

ci s ely of such writers that we might complain that they

have treated contemplation by far fetched and studied

methods .

I do not speak here of those other writers who have

introduced an idle suspension o f the understanding and
the powers o f the soul or violent efforts to become brute
,

o r statue under pretext of purifying the soul and reducing

it as they s ay, to its rst state S t Teresa complains of

, . .

such people in some part of her L ife Others s ay that .

there are too many books of this sort o f spirituality that ,

our forefathers did no t walk s o circumspectly as we do ,

and that the main road is always t he s afest I reply to .

their rst Objection that there are not so many good books
o n this subject as they imagine seeing that one cannot
,

count among this number those written without experi

ence and only through vain imitation which by whatever , ,

knowledge it may be accompanied confounds and obscures

,

t he truth . I reply to the second objection that the matter

is utterly contrary to what such objectors think Our .

forefathers (if by that term we mean the early Christians) ,

 AUTH OR S PRE FA C E
xliii
did not cumber themselves with s o many methods or ,

meditations as we do as is clearly to be seen in the earliest

,

Rules of the Orders and in the lives o f the Fath ers I would .

also reply that that whi ch is to day called the main road con
-
,

sists o f a great numb er o f vocal prayers and a whole year

o f different meditations ; and if th ese are no t accompani e d

by interior morti catio n then they le ave persons of devo

tion more lukewarm after thirty years practice of th em
,

than they were at the beginning On the other hand if .

,

mo rti cation goes hand in hand with meditation then it ,

i s no longer the main road ; it is the straight and narrow

path An innity of really mortied souls would naturally
.

pas s on to contemplation if they were no t turned aside by

t he ignorance of some the vain wisdom o f others and the
, ,

special attachments o f persons of piety For such souls .

espousing their own particular devotion s with more fervour

than the love of G o d for which they were created and ,

occupying their whole spirits with a certain number of

vocal prayers good though they may be speak to G o d
, , ,

but never listen to Him It also happens that many are

.

never introdu ced to contemplation because they nd no

guide to lead them to it and God does not always wish to
,

work miracles That is why no o ne must neglect such

.

opportunities as do occur to embrace or to cultivate this

,

hidden treasure .

But what are we to s ay to another sort o f persons who

imagine that Mysticism is a new doctrine not practised

in the rst centuries alleging that there were then no

,

sp eci al treatis es on the subject as there are to day notably -

in recent years in this kingdom of France ? I would as k

such pers ons to consider that the Church grows daily in
wisdom and lights ; that it continues to rec eive the old
lights with added clearness and that it also receives new
lights Controversy was never more utterly put to rout
.
,
xliv AUTH OR S PRE FACE

sacred history n ever more enlighten ed the S criptures ,

n ever more learn edly and universally explained Christian ,

truths n ever brought into mo re open d aylight than they ,

are to day -
.

For more than a thousand years neither an ordered

Theology nor a body of Canon L aw had b een achieved ,

any more than methodical and solid treatises of devotion

and Christian perfection None the less how many holy .
,

and wise persons shon e forth in these faculties without ,

the fools and knaves o f t he doctrine having been able to

discredit its purity any more than the frequent and
'

pe rni cious heresi es have discredited the infallible trut h of

o ur dogmas . Our fo refathers ignored none of these
matte rs ; but they had no t the good fo rtune we have had of
se ei ng them either reformed or elucidated as we have seen
them because a long laps e of years has produced long
,

experience differ ent feelings different lights and we

, , ,

come as rich inheritors to reap the elds our forefathers

sowed and cultivated by the sweat of their brows Whether .

th ere wer e mor e saints then than there are no w this is ,

not the place to de cid e It is certain that G o d has hidden

.

treasure in all tim es and it is neither necessary nor ex

,

p ed i ent that all saints should b e c om e famous o r work

miracl es The re are criti cal minds in Christendom who
. ,

while d eploring t he abuses o f the time and the corrup ,

tion of morals as it is right they should b e deplored yet ,

do not sufci ently remind th ems elves of t he evils o f

former days res embling in this the P rophet Elias whose
, ,

fervour I well believe they imitat e F or he trembl ed

, , .

before God b ecause he thought he was the only spirit

who adored Him i n the whole of Israel And yet G o d .

led him to s ee that there were still ve thousand among

his people who had never bent their knees before the
idol of Baal .
 AUTH OR S PRE FACE

xlv
I beg my read er to accept this little work and I assure
,

him that when I point him to a way which has b een opened
up from t he b eginning by H eaven and by men I d o no t
, ,

fail to value other ways of d evotion which both Heaven

and men have taught exhorting each o ne not to go b efore
,

grace by useless industry but also no t to abandon it

,

when it calls him .

 F I RS T T RE AT IS E

After wha t manner conte mp lation and l

the know edge of God
should be l
earned .

P hilothea Your absence has been s o prolonged Father

. , ,

that it has given me time to collect many difculties

whether from my own experi ence o r from that of those
who have spoken to me about my method of prayer .

I am very anxious to enlighten myself .

D irector It is a grace P hiloth ea to have doubts and

.
, ,

difculti es at the beginning as to this method o f prayer

, .

God seems to make these problems arise in the sp i ri t i n

order that He may Himself answer them by e ffectual i n
t eri o r response And s o He i nstructs the spirit fully in all
.

that even the great D octors of Mysticism would not know

how to instruct it o n this matter being at once the Bride ,

groom and the Master of such chosen souls I have known .

some who after having faithfully abandoned themselves

,

to the S pirit of God received s o many graces and lights

,

that they hardly ever read spiritual books or consulted

masters of the spiritual life again except to conrm them
in their way ; they did not learn anything new from such
books or teachers but only assured themselves that they
,

were not being led astray when they followed their inspira
tions .
1
And s o you too, will no w be more free, more
,

detached and more content than you have ever been .

P hi lothea Ah "Father "

. you make me weep for joy in
1
p p
T he W hole of this as s age i s re eated at the o eni ng of the S econd p
p yb
Treatis e ( 6 8) W here i t reall elongs I t s eems to have een laced
. . b p
h ere i n the edi ti on of 1 6 7 0 a by p
ri nter s error and occu i es the rs t two p
p ages of th e text b
T h e true egi nning of the F i rs t Treatis e t h erefore
.

app ears to b e los t .

D
2 F IRST TREATISE
pro mising me s o happy a state I have never obeyed yo u
.

s ave with many imperfections and many ind eliti es ; and

that I have been able to obey yo u at all is a pure gift from
God who rewards your trouble rather than my obedience
, .

D i rector The Holy S pirit inspires whom He pleases

.

and when He pleases He has given me the desire to .

te a ch you in this matter and you the desire to learn from

me He gives us both grace to acquit ourselves well o f
.

our obligations .

But P hilothea though according to the precept I have

, ,

given you you approach the Blessed S acra ment before

,

consulting me and though I do the same before speaking

,

to yo u let us both now put ourselves in the presence of

,

God for the s pace of an Ave Maria without saying a word ,

in o ur spirits o r by our lips but only with the intention

, ,

of listening inwardly s o that He may s ay to o ur hearts

what He will and that He may bless our intercourse L et .

us be silent then i n sp iri t as in voice L et us listen to

, .

God

It is enough Well "have you done as I suggested ?

.

P hi lothea Y es F ather
. I put myself before God with
, .

o ut saying anything without thinking of anything

, .

D irector But in good faith did you really think of

.
,

nothing ?
P hilothea S ome triing thoughts may indeed have
. I

passed through my mind but I was not disturbed by ,

them I held my spirit in silence as far as I could

. .

D i rector Then P hilothea you have unconsciously made

.
, ,

the rst step in contemplation For the rst disposition .

of a soul desirous of contempla tion is a true desire to l isten

to God by making all its own thoughts affections and , ,

words to cease Till to -d ay P hilothe a you have willingly

.
, ,
4 F IRST TREATISE
P hilothea Will it then no longer be necessary to listen
.

to sermons o r to read spiritual books ? Will it not be

necessary to receive good thoughts and good inspirations
from others ?
D i rector I will answer each o f these questions separately
.
,

but here is the general rule you should keep When you .

formerly engaged in some spiritual exercise which furnished

matter for thought and which really inspired you you ,

welcomed such thoughts and inspirations as tted to

teach you to know and to love God ; they gave rise t o
continual reasonings and reections o n the part of the
understanding to high resolutions and good intentions
,

on the part of the will You must now act in a different

.

way for when thoughts or affections which can raise you

,

to God now present themselves to your spirit you must ,

receive them as a simple disposition to recollection and

not as m atter to occupy your mind That is to s ay that.
,

as soon as the thought o r the affection has once entered

your s oul you must leave it there and rest in G od alone
, , ,

without further recourse to the understanding or the will

or the memory as if in fa ct you had none of thos e
, .

P hilothea All that i s very difcult and I would require

.

some examples in order to understand it .

D irector I am just about to give yo u example s and you

.
,

will not nd so much difculty as you imagine S uppos e .

,

then, that a sermon or a lecture or a conversation o r

.

s omething of the sort has given rise in you to this thought

What power G o d has to have created heaven and

,

earth " As soon as this thought is formed there is no

,

need to talk of it nor to meditate o n it ; you mus t at once

,

cast a loving glance at G o d here present He being

, . ,

everywhere is also i n consequence in your soul Keep

, , , .

this simple regard of God as long as possible thinking of ,

nothing, des iring nothing during that time see ing that ,
 F IRST TREATISE 5
having God you have all things F or P hilothea if you.
, ,

were to make the most beautiful reections in the world,

o n the power of God on the Creator o f Heaven and earth
, ,

and if you knew in your prayer all that the D octors and
Fathers of the Church have ever known on this subject ,

what I ask yo u could all that amount to in comparison

, , ,

wi th seeing God in Himself ? I s not God greater than

power than he aven or earth than all the thoughts of men ?
, ,

I ask you which would be the wisest and best advised

o f two m aidens whom a king sent fo r to speak t o him ,

i n order to tell them all the secrets of his heart ; s he who ,

passing swiftly through the corridors and state apartments

o f the palace without looking carefully at anything but
, ,

only seeing what s he could as s he hurried by went straight ,

to the kin g s own ap artments ? Or s he who admiring

,

the beauties of the palace the marbles the paintings the

, , ,

tapestries , praised the magnicence of the king s posses
sions in each corridor and apartment but never came to ,

the king himself ?

P hi lothea There can be no doubt that the rst of tho s e
two maidens had more understa nding and wisdom than
the second ; it would be a much gre ater honour to s ee the
ki ng than to see his palace even were it an enchanted
,

palace .

D irector But further, what would you s ay if this king

. ,

wishing to marry the second of tho s e two maidens sent ,

her an eloquent letter in which he wrote of the be auty

and virtue he had recognized in her assuring her of his ,

love and protesting in the kindest way that s he had made a

complete conquest of his heart and that it only depended
,

o n herself whether s he would h ave him for her bridegroom ?

And further what would you think if, in sp ite of all

,

that this fortunate maiden could toy incontinently with s o

,

glorious an offer amusing herself by consi dering the king s

,

6 F IRST TREATISE
letter rememberi ng i ts words and gures of speech
, ,

weighing the delicacy o f its s entiments and the dignity,

o f its thoughts and nally making public in every place

, ,

and o n every occasion the love with which the king h ad

,

honoured her ? And all this without ever going to

s ee him ?

P hilothea S uch a maiden would render herself utterly

.

unworthy of her good fortune D i d s he not call down o n

.

herself the anger o f the king s he would at least never

,

deserve his c aresses .

D i rector That is well said

. But suppose, further that
.
,

regretting her delay s he nally went to the king D o you

, .

imagine that instead of looking with respect and affection

at this monarch who was to constitute all her happ iness ,

and who had had the goodness to wait for her s o long ,

s he would cas t her eyes rst o n the gorgeous robes in which

he was clothed then o n his crown and his sceptre but

, ,

never o n his face ?

P hilothea I could no t think much of her judgment
. ,

for in this action s he would show that s he cared more

for the king s robes and ornaments than for the king

himself .

D i rector But suppose that this time also s he recover ed

.

herself and seemed to desire nothi ng but the king That .

giving way to her feelings s he kissed his feet and his

knees and l aid her hands on his accompanying all these
, ,

actions with loving words and p assionate gestures which

clearly expressed the love s he felt within And yet .

suppose that the king seeing her do all this had not a
, ,

chance to say one single word becaus e s he was incess antly

embracing and speaking to him What would you think
.

of that P hilothea ?
,

P hilothea S uch behaviour would be uncouth and

.

importunate and would be more s upportable in th e

 F IRST TREATISE 7

simplicity of a child than in the years of discretion of a

maiden old enough to marry the king .

D i rector Well that is the whole parable

.
, I will now .

explain it to you clearly and in few words This king is .

God who wishes to espouse our s ouls even in t his life ,

and to be one with them through a very close and very

perfect love His royal palace is the universe composed
.
,

o f heaven and earth which he created with one wb rd This .

p alace therefore is not G od ; however beautiful however

, , ,

pe rfect it may be He could create o ne innitely more

,

beautiful more perfect And ap art from considerations

, .

of t his world which are a mere nothing the universe ,

cannot be our beatitude Mak e as many excellent reec .

tions as you like on stars animal s, plants precious stones , , ,

and every other p art of nature ; have even a profound

knowledge of man who resembles the world on a small
,

scale and is the epitome of the W orld and the being for ,

whom it was created All such reasonings are capable .

o f le a ding you t o G o d but neither the world nor your ,

re as onings are God If your soul is too much occupied

.

wi th the creature even S hould this be in a sanctied way

, ,

it is impossible for it to enjoy the Creator .

P hilothea Of what use then are all the meditations

.

one makes o n the works o f n ature and on the marvels ,

o f grace ?

Di rector They serve to le ad the soul up to G o d and

.

to iname it with His love But when the soul feels .

its elf raised up and irradiated then it is time for it to r est ,

i n G od alon e who is the term of its thoughts and its

,

ardours If you should climb up a high tower by a

.

ladder when you arrived at the top of the tower you

, ,

would no t drag the ladder up after you You mount up .

to God at one period of your life by the ladder of medita

tion but then you must le ave the ladder and possess God
,
8 F IRST TREATISE
by resting lovingly in Him When we blow up the .

re we blow till it i s well alight then we stop blowing or

, , ,

else we do not give the ame a chance to catch the wood ,

sometimes we even incur the danger of blowing it out .

Considerations and affections are like a favourable wind

which fans the ame of the love of God in the soul ; this
love being once lighted must be allowed unrestrainedly
and with a lively faith to leap upwards to G od who will
'

a chieve its purication and iname it with H is divine

ardours .

S uppose that an artist made you a present of a beautiful

picture of the s un in which he had employed all the
,

res ources of his art s o that you could not te ar your eyes
away from it so greatly were you ravished by the be auty
,

o f colour the boldness of technique the genius of co m

, ,

position and all its other be auties ; yet I am quite sure that
,

if you were very cold your picture of the sun would not
,

warm you nor, when you wanted to see or to walk s ome

,

where would i t furnish you with light You would h ave

, .

to go to the s un itself the subject of your picture and

, ,

not be content with an inanimate and op aque canvas .

This world is a beautiful and impressive picture of the

D ivine but it is from ce aselessly regarding the original
,

that we draw our he at and light The more we look at .

Him the more He imprints Himself on o ur s ouls the

, ,

more He make s us like Himself ; and it is in that that o ur

perfection consists You s ee from this P hilothea that
.
, ,

your soul must be like a clear and polished mirror in

which God can reect Himself at His pleasure And just .

as he who would paint or gild the glass of a mirror would

des troy its brightness and its transparency so that it
could no longer reect things except perhaps very dimly
, ,

in the same way when a soul lls itself continually with

conversations and distra ctions it cannot perfectly reect
 F IRST TREATISE 9

that pure and living likeness of God with which He ha d

intended to ll and adorn it Yo u must recall the general .

rule I once laid down to you P hilothea not in future to , ,

reas on in prayer but to take only a ve ry simple Christian

,

truth to rais e you as the Catechism teaches to God

, , .

Then hold yourself in H is presence and He will be your

Teacher and Mas t er .

P hilothea I think I understa nd the truth yo u are trying

.

t o te a ch me ; that all our o wn reas onin g i s weak all our own ,

fervour full of inconstancy and self love The only wise -

.

course i s to abandon ourselves to God who will S how us ,

clearly how to give ourselves up utterly to a strong and

veritable love But supposing the soul should still require
.

some truth to rais e it to contemplation what truth S hould ,

it choose ?
D i rector You already know the facts of your creation
. ,

P hilothea and some particul ars of the life of Jesus Christ

,

and of H is P assion Take whatsoever truth you prefer

. ,

without atta ching yourself to any special order as you did

in your meditati ons for otherwis e you would run the
,

risk of binding yourself to something whereas the point ,

now is to enter into perfect liberty of heart and spirit ,

to s ee nothing but G o d to love nothing but G o d no , ,

longer to do anythin g except for God and in the presence ,

of Go d .

Take for instance some article of the Apostles Creed

, ,

.

S ay My God "I rejoice that Thou art Almighty and

,

,

that Thou hast created he aven and earth Yea my God .

, ,

I rejoice but above all becaus e Thou art God " Repeat
,

the same article two or three times if necessary to recol ,

lect yourself better for except for that you will not think
, ,

o f it again during the rest of your prayer P resently you .

can s ay taking the second article :

,

0 Jesus "

I rejoice that Thou art the Only S on of the
10 F IRST TREATISE
Eternal Father that Thou art as wise as He is as powerful
, ,

as He is as good and perfect as He is and His equal in all

, ,

things I desire to belong utterly to Thee and utterly

.

to Thy Father .

At another time you say

0 Je s us " Tho u wast conceived for love of me F o r .

nine months Thou wast veiled in the esh o f Thy holy

mother What goodness "What love "May endless
.

thanks be rendered unto Thee in ti me and in eternity .

Thu s you may follow all the articles of the Apostles

Creed in their right order or not just as you ple as e

, , .

The L ord s P rayer also is a treasury of thought for rais ing

the soul :
Our F ather which art in H ea ven Yea my God " Thou .
,

art my Father my C reator my Saviour my King my

, , , ,

Judge my All "

,

H allowed be Thy N ame 0 my God " mayst Thou b e

.

known and adored and loved in heaven as on e arth .

Why 0 my God does one speak of anything but Thee ?

, ,

Why does o ne think of anything but Thee ? Why does

one wis h fo r a nything but Thee alone ? S eeing that in
Thee is every good and every perfe ct thing .

Thy Kingdom come My God "do Thou reign wholly

.

in me I will m ake Thee L ord over my words , my

.

thoughts my will L ord of all I am and all that I can be

, , .

And you can do the s ame with the Commandments .

Th at for example which forbids taking the name of the

, ,

L ord thy God in vain .

My G od " not only do I not wish to take Thy Name in

vain I make a rm resolve never to utter the sacred
,

n ames of God or of Jesus s ave with marks of love and of

respect never to use them in any profane m anner My
, .

God " I bless Thee for all those who have never blas phemed
Thee who will never blaspheme Thee on e arth Or in hell
,
.
12 F IRST TREATISE
become stronger in this way and have a cquired some ,

facility in recollecting yourself there will no longer be,

need of considerations or of reading ; it will sufce for you "

to say : My God "nothing but Thee o r My God "

, ,

Thou art all mine and I am all Thine "or O Goodness "

ll me with Thyself " O Almighty G od sustain me by ,

Thyself " O Wisdom o f God be here and everywhere ,

my one true L ight " L ove will supply you with a hundred
other aspirations o f this kind which will serve as s o many
impulses to embra ce God more closely But, P hilothe a .
,

if you are faithful to the grace of God who never fails a ,

soul in the state to which He has resolved to raise it a ,

time will come when as soon as yo u kneel down you will

, ,

nd yourself completely recollected without need of any ,

outward help And then and this must b e wisely under

.
,
-

stood one Veni S ancte S p iri tus will be too long for you
, .

Yo u will even nd it difcult to make the S ign of the

Cross so completely will you be caught up into God and
,

united to Him .

P hi lothea And wh at mus t one do then ?

.

D i rector Then everything is already done

. One must .

just hold oneself in the p resence of G o d Formerly you .

rea d and prayed i n order to recollect yourself but now , ,

when you know yourself recollected and in repose it ,

would be to step back if you still had recourse to s uch

,

petty preparations .

P hi lothea Yes Father I understand that I must no

.
, ,

longer use meditation But after I have recollected

.

myself what must I do to put myself in the presence o f

,

G o d and to assure myself that I am doing right ?

D i rector You must remind yourself P hilothea that
.
, ,

the whole world is full of God and that He is everywhere ,

not only by His grace and His virtue but also because ,

o f H is v ery nature There is not a single atom on the

.
 F IRST TREATISE 13

earth not a single drop in all the depths of the s e as not

, ,

a particle in the air or a point in the globes of the heavens

, ,

where God Father S on and Holy S pirit, i s not whole

, , , ,

and complete He is also complete and entire in animals

. ,

pl ants minerals and in all their smallest p arts of which

, , ,

there is an innity in each one of H is cre atures It is . ,

therefore an article of faith that God is in all things or

, ,

to speak more exactly and a ccording to the rigour of

theology that all things are i n God ; for we do not s ay
,

that the s ea i s i n the spon ge but we s ay on the contrary , , ,

that the sponge is in the s ea o f which it is full within , ,

without on every side and in all its substance

, , .

Consequently P hilothe a G od i s in yourself without

, , ,

your seeking Him outside of you He is in your body .

and in your s oul And if you could s ee how G o d is

.

within you or rather how you are i n God you would

, , ,

nd yourself s o s mall s o lost in that immensity that you

, ,

would in truth be lled with fear and you would recogniz e

, , ,

how of yourself you were nothing What is a drop of

, .

water in the oce an ? And have you never he ard it said

that the earth however vas t it may seem to us i s but a
, ,

speck in regard to the rmament in which it is enclosed ,

a fact which as tronomers demonstrate every day What .

are we then you and I P hilothe a considered in the

, , ,

innite ocean of the D ivine but nothings endowed with ,

a little life who would not know how to subsis t o r to

,

act out of the D ivine any more than a s h o ut of water ?

What happiness to be always in God and how little ,

recognized that happiness is " It is a s un which shines o n

us and in us , night and day and we wi ll no t deign to open
, ,

o ur eyes t o lo ok at it We remai n i n darkness in the very

.

midst of li ght and we are lukewarm and without heat in

,

the very mi ds t of the re which surrounds us .

Open your eyes , P hilothe a b y a lively faith t hat God ,

14 F IRS T TREATISE
is in you and you will b e at once in H is presence for
, ,

contempl ation is nothi ng but a loving regard xed o n

God present That is why after you have recollected

.
,

yourself you must remain steadfast in this xed regard

,

without picturing God to yourself like a judge o n a tribunal

o r a king on a throne for you would be thus merely making
,

imaginary pictures in your mind Regard Him rather as .

God Incomprehensible i n Himself above all form o r ,

i magination or understanding who Himself alone can ,

make uS know what He is And to this end s ay to Him :

.

My G o d "I am here to gaze on nothing but Thee ;
to desire nothing but Thee to remind myself of nothing
,

but Thee "D o with me whatsoever pleases Thee ; I

submit myself utterly to Thy will .

P hilothea S hould I s ay this after I a m recollected ?

.

D irector It would be a good thing P hilothea to renew

.
, ,

this protest for several days in your prayer so that you ,

may have something o n which to support yourself and in ,

order that you may not think you have remained in futile
idleness in your oratory If yo u were courageous it
.

would sufce if you made this act once But it will all .

come in good time I do no t wish you to throw your

.

self suddenly into the s ea and s o I give you this piece of

,

cork to support you for a short time When this time .

shall have passed then you will be content in the pure

,

faith of a pre s ent God and with the s imple intention of

abandoning yourself to Him without producing any new
,

acts .

P hilothea But is it not nece ssary that I should at least

.

remind myself that I am before God ?

D i rector Faith and a good intention have the virtue of
.

producing this reminder ; otherwise you might s ay to this

end I remember that Thou art in me and I desire to
,

give myself to Thee " For a lready as a Christian you

 F IRST TREATISE 1 5
believe that G o d lives in you and for some days you have
been maki ng an inviolable as sertion of believing this .

And more than that you have the will to pray you prepare
, ,

yourself recollect yourself and yo u no longer desire as

, , ,

formerly to meditate o n anyt hing but only to contemplate

,

G o d in Himself That being s o you can well s ee that

.
, ,

insensibly and without making any reection a bout it ,

you produce in yourself the thou ght of God yo u had asked

for F or the simpler this thought or remembrance

.

without sound of words and without thoughts the more

spiritual it is and the more worthy of God Would you .

not be discourteous if, being i n the presence of the king *

you were to say to him : S ire " I believe that you are here
Faith is the eye with which one sees God and if one rmly ,

believes then there is no need to s ay My God "

, Thou art ,

here "because one knows it And one never gives better

.

proof of believing it than when o ne performs some good

work which is the conrmation and fruit of this belief
, .

That is what happens when the hour o f prayer being, ,

come yo u betake yourself to contemplate God

, F or then .

faith and actual intention of praying both lead you as

by the hand to your prayer and they evoke from yo u a ,

more solid and admirable act than any you would know
how to make of yourself The reason i s that your simple.

a ct is one which passes ; it ceas es to exist as s oon as words

and thought cease While faith and intention on the
.
,

other hand by the aid o f which you enter prayer never

, ,

cease in you your prayer is as continuous as you wish it

,

to be ; and moreover as I shall teach you presently it

, ,

may be made perpetual in virtue of this intention and

this faith .

F or example he who has once been baptized does not

,

need to s ay or to reect every day that he is a Christi an ; ,

he is o nly obliged to do good works whi ch are the proofs ,

16 F IRST TREATISE
of his religion and his faith and to believe more by results
,

than by words In the same way the contemplative soul

.

which is onc e solidly convi nced that G o d dwells very

intimately in it and in all its powers and which has further
,

declared that from that time forth it does not wish to live
o r to act except fo r God and i n the pre s ence of God ;

such a s oul must be content with i ts a ctual faith and

.

intention in all its acts and in all its exercises without ,

expressly making new acts of belief or assertion .

When i n obedience to the command of the Church you

hear Mass on S undays and feast days you d o not make ,

an express act in which you s ay I come to hear Mass

,

i n order to obey the l aws of the Church ; but in hearing
Mass you sufciently full your duty After a woman . ,

givi ng her hand to her husband in the presence of the

priest who marries them has promised him union and
,

delity s he does not need to s ay on every occasion , I am

,

yours "but s he must express this union by her obedience

and by her love He who signs a company contract with

.

another does not repeat the articles of the contract when

,

he has to do or decide anything for the good of the com

p any ; he acts quite simply and goes on in good faith with
,

his associates in virtue o f their agreement They may .

be thirty o r forty years together in business without ever

mentioning the agreement they signed They know once
.

and for all that it is recorded by their lawyer and that ,

they agree in everything .

Trust yourself to God P hilothea ; He will remember

,

very well what you believed and what you promised Him .

F o r those who renew the same acts again and again are
apt to grow tired of saying to God : L ord " remember the
a greement I entered into with Thee and do not regard
,

me as a useless creature " S uch people really rely far

more on their own a cts than o n God ; they think they are
 F IRST TREATISE 17

doing nothing if they d o not feel and touch, and they

would rather have the slight fervour with which their
act may be accompanied than S imple contemplation in ,

whi ch God operates a solid love which is as far above ,

feelings and tendernesses as the spirit is above the body ,

gra ce above nature faith above reason , .

But I do not say that if you were in an extreme luke

warmness i f you were ra cked by temptations which threw
,

your s oul into darkness and mistrust it would not be ,

wise to have recourse to faith and to refresh your inten

tions But be careful for the scrupulous ness of an
.
,

introspective soul i s a very different thing from the neces

s i ty of which we have been s e aking S uch a necessity
p .

is very rare so much s o that so long as you know in you r

,

conscience that you are actually persevering in the belief

in a present God and in the pure intention of s eeing nothing
,

but Him i n all your a cts then you may put your inquietude
,

courageously behind you and know that the more you ,

abstain from attempting to make an a ct and are content ,

t o remain abandoned and in a ctive in simple contempl a tion,

the more will yo u conrm yourself in your faith and i n
purity o f spirit F or i t is enough if you say incess antly
.

and determinedly in yourself against your dryness and ,

against the evil one, It sufces me that G o d is with me .

I wish nothing I seek nothing but Him
, In this way .

every moment of prayer will strengthen you in your

purpose and strip you of your s elf love
,
-
.

P hilothea From what you say Father it appea rs t o me

.
, , ,

that a person who was l azy or who had even gone to sleep ,

in prayer might believe falsely that she had made a good

,

contemplation and justify herself by virtue of her rst

,

intention .

D i rector I touched imperceptibly i n what I s aid o n

.
, , ,

two kinds o f intentions The o ne deals wi th the past

. ,

E
18 F IRST TREATISE
and is nothing but acting or contemplating in virtue of the
act of faith o ne has previously made of believing in a
present God and in the purpose o ne has formed of seeing
,

Him alone and invariably in all one s actions S uch an

.

intention is called a virtual intention .

The second intention of which I spoke i s that extremely

subtle and spiritual remembrance of God which holds
the soul as it wer bound to the object of its desire and
its love without saying or wishing or loving expressly ;
, ,

it wishes and loves with an exceeding gentleness and a

marvellous peace S o much s o that if o ne asked some
.
,

o ne kneeling i n her ora tory or even occupied in some other ,

way but in this sense in the presence of God Where is
, ,

your heart ? s he could reply without dissimulation ,

My heart is in God " I do not wish to think of anything

but Him nor love anything but Him and that as much
, ,

as I am able S he would not say that in virtue of her
.

rst intentions but principally because of her conscious

,

recollection in God in which s he makes an effort to remain

,

as long as her we akness permits Thi s recollection i .

called a special intention in s o far as it comprises in itself

,

all the acts of faith humility and charity the soul has
, ,

ever known how to make though all of those together are ,

not to be compared to this steadfast and lively vision of

God seeing that all other acts are nothing but means
, ,

and that in God the soul has happily found the end it
sought by all other means .

P hilothea But how is one to produ ce in oneself this

.

vision of God ?
D i rector The vision of G o d P hilothea will begin to
. , ,

form itself in you from the rst two o r three days in which
you make your afrmation in the way I have shown you .

Afterwards in continuing such prayer it will grow in you

, ,

till by the grace o f God it will become a habit and you

, , ,
 F IRST TREATISE
in all places in every society and on every occas ion the
, ,

soul may enjoy G od secretly i f i t a ccus toms itself to reti re

into i ts own depths and to give to exterior occupations
only the attention it cannot refuse them .

It would seem P hilothe a, from what we have said that

, ,

a lazy person or one who went to S leep could not really

, ,

understand what we mean by contemplation see ing that ,

a virtual intention i s no t suffi cient but that a highly ,

exalted i ntention must be added to it in order to recognize

,

an experience o f God present which is entirely spiritu al ,

without image o r gure an experience which would enable

,

such a soul to reply to any one who might as k what it

it was doing I am in the presence o f God
, .

P hi lothea I thank God Father that owing to the

'

.
, ,

clearness with which you have explained contemplation to

me you give me an eager desire to embrace it I long
, .

to have at least some experience o f it if you will allow

me L et me at all events put my little doubts before
.
, ,

you in order that I m ay establish myself better i n this

teaching .

D i rector That is o nl y right P hilothea and indeed

.
, , , ,

the be s t way to learn how to contemplate is to practise

contemplation and from time to time to allow your
,

D irector to explain your difculties to you But before .

replying to the difculties which may have occurred to

y o u in this di a logue let us follow
, the allegory o f the king
and his bride which I began to explain to you a little
, ,

further Yo u will be better able to understand the rest

.

o f it after wh at I h ave just told you ; the allegory will ,

indeed be like a summary of what I h ave just said

, .

P hi lothea I shall be glad to hear it, F ather

. You have .

already shown me how the maiden who hurried through

the corridors of the palace without stopping to examine
them closely but went straight to the king represented
, ,
 F IRST TREATISE
the soul who recollecting itself i nwardly after a simple
,

regard of creatures went straight to G o d

, .

D i rector The letter which the king wrote to her so

. ,

brilliant in words s o rich in thought s o profound in

, ,

light and s o prolic in ardours to iname his bride

, ,

represents the Holy S criptures the works o f the Fathers

,

of the Church in a word all spiritual and mystic al books

, ,

in which God through the pen of man , has communicated

,

heavenly wisdom to the world and has written o f His ,

love towards His elect Al l these books are beautiful,

.

and cap able of enlightening and quickening all who read

them ; but it i s quite another matter to bring oneself ne ar
t o God who is the living source o f doctrine o f wisdom and ,

o f love . He has only caused these books to be written

in order to give us a high sense of His greatness s o that ,

if we love Him in that which has been said about Him ,

we will love Him more in Himself S uch works tell us .

marvellous things of G o d as do all Holy S criptures which

,

God has had the goodness to dictate to the authors who

have given them to us as to His faithful secretaries
, .

Nevertheless, they merely touch the surface they are ,

wayl aid by the supercial because G o d being i nco mpre ,

hensi b l e to o ur spiri ts is inexplicable in our language and

, ,

we drag Him down in attempting to reveal Him .

And even when G od has deigned to speak of Himself

in Holy S cripture He has been obliged to us e our
,

terms in order that we might understand and seeing that ,

our terms can only deal with creatures they s et limits to ,

everything they try to express , and to all that they s ignify .

It follows that G o d accommodating Himself to our under

,

Standing has not spoken of faith save by comparisons

, , ,

and that He has given us H is sh adow rather than His

portrait F or I ask you, P hilothea when G od s ays that

.
,

He is a consuming Fire that He is a S un a Vine a L ion

, , , ,
22 F IRST TREATISE
a L amb o
d yo u think such expressions worthy o f t he

Majesty of God ? When he says that He is higher than

the heavens deeper than hell greater than the earth
, , ,

and vaster than the s ea does it not s eem as if He were

,

s peaking of a great giant of an enormous body rather

, ,

than of innite S pirit ? When he declares that we may

s ee Him in the person of Abraham Isaac Jacob and the , , ,

other P atriarchs o r the S criptural P rophets is it not a ,

m ask He shows us rather than His own face ? seeing that

even i f all men were S eraphim they would only be earth
worms dust and nothingness innitely far removed from
, , ,

the least perfection of the D ivine nature I s ay the .

le ast in an attempt to express myself for in God every ,

thing is equal I t was in the S ame sense that S t Augustine

. .

said that if all the world were full of books and all cre atures ,

were writers and all the waters o f the s ea were turned

,

i nto ink all that would not s ufce to expl ain one solitary
,

perfection of G od in all its excellencies .

Nothing but God Himself can explain God to the soul ;

and this He does in an ine ffable manner He who requires .

neither words nor human thought who without making

, , ,

Himself understood makes us at least aware that H e is

,
~

incomprehens ible and m akes us feel it more vividly and

,

certainly than all the eloquence of human rhetoric This is .

a light which springs from faith o r rather it is faith itself

, ,

which becomes clearer and more luminous as the soul

follows the contemplation I teach you F o r P hilothea .
, ,

if no o ne but God Himself knows God perfectly you will ,

agree that no human being can know Him except through

the knowledge it pleases Him to give But it is by faith .

that He makes us know that which He is because having , ,

revealed to us that which we believe of Him He cannot ,

have told us anything about Himself except that whi ch He

is in very truth Thus seeing that by an a ct o f faith we
.
,
 F IRST TREATISE 2 3

s ay, I believe that Go d is innitely good we understand ,

more from these few words than all the language of men
and angels could express the more that we rest in God s
,

knowledge of H is own goodness which is i ncomprehen ,

sible save to Him Thus it is neither the term good nor

.

the term inni tely which expresses that which we know

o f the goodness o f God ; but it is interior faith super ,

naturally i nfused in the souls of all Christians and resting

o n revelation which gives weight and authority to those
,

words and which m akes them innitely signicant The

, .

s ame applies when we s ay that God is o ur Father that He ,

i s i mmovable that He is ete rnal that He is perfect fo r

, , ,

a single o ne of thos e words proceeding from faith says

more of G o d than if we wrote whole volumes o n each o ne
of them .

If we examine these terms ap art from the light o f faith ,

we nd them clumsy and unworthy of being applied to the

S overeign Majesty of God The word good signi es in
.
,

hum an language that which is seemly to each nature and

, ,

that which may make it desired by another An apple is .

good in so far as it has the sweetness suitable to it by its

n ature and by this means it excites our appetite to desire
,

it In the s ame way the proposition God is good signies

.
, ,

that the D ivine N ature possesses in itself everything b e

tti ng it and that for this reason all creatures as far as
, , ,

lies in their power desire to unite themselves t o it as

,

t heir centre and the s ource of their happiness But .

,

after all when we h ave s aid this o f G o d what more do

, ,

we know of Him ? We h ave s aid that He possessed

everything betting His nature but in spite o f that we
, ,

neither know His nature nor do we know what bets it .

We only form a general and confus ed idea of the D ivine

goodness in accordance with the goodness we know in
,

created things Just in the same way that when we d o

.
24 F IRST TREATISE
not know and cannot express the sweetness of a fruit
someone brings us from the Indies we s ay that it is as ,

sweet as honey or as sugar which does not really explain,

its true nature but describes it in the best way we can

, .

We s aid that all creatures sought to unite themselves to

God and yet we do not know in what manner they tend
,

towards God except in a general sense any more than we

, ,

know themovements o r the specic and particular instincts

o f created beings S o it is very true that we can only
.

speak imperfectly o f God ; as cre atures are far removed

from the Creator s o far are our terms removed from the
,

incomprehensible truth of His Essence .

The same feebleness of expression into which we have

fallen in speaking of goodness is inevitable regard ing ,

whatsoever attribute of God we wish to think about .

T o s ay that God is perfect is to s ay th at nothing is lacking

,

to Him and that He possesses in His Being all imaginable

,

perfection But look at the miserable inadequacy of our

.

reasoning "We s ay of God to express His perfection , ,

that nothing is l a cking to Him N ow by these word s .

,

nothing is lacking to H im we me an that He has all th at He

,

ought to have but that is just where we understand s o

,

little of God for as we do not know what He is, it follows

,

that we cannot know what He has ; o r else we understand

by these words that He lacks nothing of that which we
remark in cre atures and so we speak very unworthily of
,

God for even if there were no world God would no t

, ,

cease to be all that He is and if He were to create an ,

innity of be auties and perfections He Hims elf could ,

acquire nothing new We say that G od is all powerful ;

.
-

but have we any idea what is possible to Him ?

In a word P hil othea the highest knowledge we have of
, ,

God is feeble and puerile s o much s o that imitating the

, ,

Church which s ays to Him in one of its hymns N on

, ,
 F IRST TREATISE 25

horruis ti Vi rginis uteru to Him : L ord "

m, we can it s ay

is only because of Thy extreme goodness that Thou dost

not abhor being praised by o ur poor lips nor submitting ,

Thy greatness to the feebleness of our words .

But P hil othea even although we are mere children

, ,

when it comes to prais ing God faith m akes up for our ,

unworthiness and powerlessnes s very fully and when we ,

say that God is good t hat He is perfect that He is almighty

, , ,

we must support ourselves on the word of God Himself ,

which has been revealed to us We have the honour o f .

speaking of G o d as God spoke of Himself because we try ,

to express by o ur words all that God knows His mercy , ,

H is perfection H is power and o ur faith seeks the s i gni

, ,

cance of the terms we offer in the unders tanding and in

,

the hear t of the D ivine .

Contemplation then follows which aided by the opera

, ,

tion of the Holy S pirit perfects faith ; and just s o much as

,

it holds us always in the presence of God our faith becomes ,

in time s o lively and s o strong that it almost makes us s ee

and touch that whi ch before we merely believed We .

seem no longer to be pilgrims s o intimately and familiarly

,

do we live in the heart of God What contemplative soul

.

is there who never says I b elieve without some shame and

confusion because faith implies obscurity repugnance to
, ,

reason distance between heaven and earth He on the

, .
,

Contrary nds himself enlightened at the summit of his

, ,

spirit (that is to say P hilothea in the highest and most

, ,

subtle part of the soul) by an i nterior light which

,

enables him to look without trembling into the darkness

of faith He is convinced even although he does not s ee ;
.
,

and he would rather doubt that he was a man than doubt ,

a truth of Christianity because he regards the P rincipl e

,

of all Truth without ceasi ng a living vivifying P rinciple

, , ,

which by a reciprocal acti on tracing itself and imprinting

,
26 F IRS T TREATISE
itself o n his soul communicates its own lights and senti
,

ments proportionately to him It follows that the con .

t empl ative without turning as in ordinary meditations

, ,

no w t o the goodness now to the s anctity now to the, ,

eternity o f God attends to nothing s ave to keeping his

,

gaze xed on God alone and as God comprises everything ,

in Himself this soul by an uninterrupted act of faith

, ,

towards the D ivine comprises in o ne act all the detailed

,

and particular acts of faith which it could exercise towards

other truths .

The refore P hilothea if God i s incomprehensible and

, ,

ineffable if an act of faith says more than all human

,

knowledge and if contempl ation is the most perfect

,

exercise of faith uniting in one single act all the divine

,

truths seeing that this act i s to regard God in Himself

, ,

He who comprises all things and unites all things in

Himself then neither meditation nor reading are any
more required nothing but a tranquil resting in God by
,

me ans of a lively faith, esteeming nothing in heaven or

earth greater or more precious than such pos s es Sion of
, ,

God S uch is the only true happiness of which we are

.

capable in this life ; some have it more and others less ,

according as it pleases God to give His grace and e s tablish

Himself in the soul .

P hilosophers know God ; Christians believe in H im ;

meditative souls consider Him but the contemplative ,

alone pos sesses Him because he looks xedly and invariably

at nothing but God Himself .

Here love follows knowledge to achieve o ur be atitude ,

and as this knowledge is a gaze xed on G od and not on ,

His goodness or H is power or His wisdom or any other

attribute of His perfection in the same way such love is ,

solely love of God and not of H is goodness or H i s wisdom

,

or His power or any other attribute to the end that the

, ,
28 F IRST TREATISE
not some perfection or some mystery and nally that He , ,

i s the King of Israel He alone meriting to reign alone in

,

all the powers of your S OuI And because , as I s ay you

.
,

already recognize this truth I as sure yo u you will experi

,

ence much greater things The lowest degree of con

.

t emplati on to which it may ple as e God t o raise you through

the exercise of your faith will bring you substantial lights
,

and true happiness as if the whole world together con

,

spired to enlighten you and make you happy .

0 G od " m ake all men to know how good it is to possess

Thee by loving contemplation "But do Thou make this
known above all to those many spiritual souls who misled ,

by their own piety die of hunger and thirs t beside the

,

source of all good and who walk with God without ever
looking at Him .

P hi lothea S hould I then F ather say farewell to all

.
, ,

s piritu al books and such pr a ctices and aspir ations as I

have been accustomed to us e during the day ?

D i rector As for books you may read s ometimes by
. ,

way of instruction when you need to le arn something

special concerning your s alvation or your spiritual state
, ,

o r your way o f prayer, a nd yo u may sometimes read as

occup ation for such good material always serves to drive

,

away foolish thoughts and to maintain the s oul in fervour .

And yo u may read at other times to recollect yourself

when domestic affairs have seriously distracted your spirit .

But from the moment God calls you seriously to con

t emplati o n yo u should no t read any longer neither to
, ,

carry some subject for medit ation into your prayer nor ,

in order to emphasize any special point for in this exercise ,

God alone is your support and your light .

Remember also when you do re ad to i nterrup t your

, ,

reading fro m time to time in order to recollect yourself

, ,

for a moment i n God ; that will allow G od like a good and ,

 F IRST TREAT I SE 29

helpful D irector to use the matter you are reading which

, ,

you will thus offer Him by this interruption He will .

give you the increas e with interest illuminating interiorly

, ,

either at that moment o r when you require it whatever

, ,

may be obscure in the book you are reading and perfecting ,

your knowledge by H is light in s o admirable a way that ,

instead of remaining i n your memory as it used to do ,

that which you re ad will pass uncons ciously into your will ,

and you will soon recognize what a wonderful benet it

is to read what o ne re ads with God .

As to pra ctices and as to the ej a culatory prayers which

,

you h ave been in the habit of using during the d ay, I will
now only allow you two o r three very brief prayers as if
,

y o u should say ,L ord " I will never separ a te myself from

Thee " Jesus "Be Thou all mine " and other similar

ejacul ations But you will not us e them in the way you
.

used to do for as soon as you are lifted up to G od you

, ,

will let your spirit fall back o n its rst thoughts and you ,

will s et it utterly at liberty as if it had nothing more to do .

S uch ej a culations must now be as means only to help you

to recollect yourself in G od and to dwell in Him as much
,

as you can even in the midst of your most important

,

dutie s as I shall expl ain more fully later o n In the

, .

meantime I will continue the explanation of our allegory .

When our imaginary bride stops to consider the purple

robe the crown and sceptre of the king without ever
, ,

glancing at his fa ce S he represents a soul who being

, , ,

called to the contemplation of the D ivine o nly considers,

the humanity of the S aviour of the World (that i s the

purple in which God has clothed Hims elf for love of us )
as she does when s he meditates on the reign of Jesus
Christ in this world and o n the glory of H is a cts (which is

what I mean by the s ceptre and crown) without ever
regarding H is D ivinity Now the aim of the Incarn ation
.
3 0 F IRS T TREATISE
is to make us know God by me ans of the humanity of the
S aviour Thus P hilothea the humanity of Jesus Christ
.
, ,

is the most holy and perfect way by which to approach

God ; it is the sovereign instrument of our s alvation ; it
i s the connecting link between the Old and the N ew
Testaments ; it is the channel through which all the bless
ings we await must ow to us But this humanity is not
.

the S overeign Good which consists solely in the vision

,

of G o d . In the same way everything that the mos t

,

holy humanity has done or s aid o n earth carries life and ,

grace into our souls and leads us excellently and i nfallibly

,

to God ; but when w e are in God which is what we a spire

,

to in considering the L ife and P assion of the S aviour ,

we must not turn back by return i ng to meditation or to

re asoning about His life o r His P assion ; we must not quit
the end for the me ans He who has arrived at the end
.

o f hi s j ourneying and of his desire no longer thinks of

,

the ro ad by which he has been obliged to travel even ,

had it been a road p aved with marble and porphyry He .

rel axes all his effort s and refres hes himself at his ease .

He is no longer a pilgrim ; he has come to a stopping place -

he remains in that place If he sometimes thinks of the

.

route by which he has travelled it is to remind himself of

it not to return by it After we have meditated for many
, .

years on the humani ty of the S aviour of the world we

must nally le arn to rest in God to whom this path has
led us And every ti me we remind ourselves of His holy
.

humani ty we must at once remind ourselves that it is

,

inseparable from the D ivinity to which it leads us and

unite s us, being itself united to it And thus this simple
.

and holy remembrance le ads u s back to God to embrace ,

H i m with greater ardour Jes us Christ who has suffered

.
,

s o much in His holy humanity for us and who has died

for us must also be our Beloved ; and we thin k often of

,
 F IRST TREATISE 3 1

Him whom we love But for those who have passed the
.

stage of meditation in which they exercised themselves

t o iname their love ; when their love i s inamed they have
arrived through grace at pure contemplation where there ,

are no longer either meditations or reasoned acts Their .

remembrance is pure faith and conceives of Jesus Christ ,

Man and God in one glance at H is spirit without thought

, ,

of any kind whatever except that the Holy S pirit some

,

times leads to consideration of the S acred Human ity by

the D ivine Will and not by our own will which no longer
,

acts nor by our own choice It is thus a special grace

, .

when God wills that a soul should attach itself to the

thought of the sufferings o f Christ to have compassion ,

o n Him But if the Holy S pirit le aves us to ourselves

.

and gives us liberty of thought it seems to us as if we were ,

out of o ur centre or el ement which is G od and that we , ,

had as it were come out of God and had strayed while

, , , ,

in fa ct we have not come out of Him Then in this .

,

liberty we must s et our thoughts on o ur well beloved -

J esus Christ embr,a cing Him as M a n and God in o ne

simple glance of the spirit and with some little word of ,

love but without thought or reection F or when we

, .

thought we had strayed it was merely into the path into

,

whi ch we must always turn ourselves anew and which

le ads us at once to G o d and restores us to G od The .

soul of the contemplative walking through the desert o f

,

faith is always supported by i ts Well beloved even when

,
-
,

i t does not feel His support and often indeed when it , , ,

does not even think of Him This is taught us i n the .

Canticle in the words H ow admirable is s he who cometh

,

up from the wilderness covered with delights and lean

,

ing on her beloved But the soul is conscious of His
.

continual support whenever it is free to think and to

remember fo r it thinks at once o f Jesus who dwells in
,
32 F IRST TREATISE
its depths and it says to Him in spirit some little words
,

o f love to which it has s o accustomed itself that it does

,

not need to think in order to utter them ; they come

instinctively to i ts lips This is no longer accompanied
.
-

by reasoned meditations on the acts and sufferings of His

holy humanity which it no longer distinguishes from H is
D ivinity for such meditations were means to le ad the
,

soul to love and are no longer needed now that it does love
, .

P hilothea Is there then Father any moment in o ur

.
, , ,

lives when we do not need to think of Jesus Christ seeing ,

that the Church herself by festivals Masses O fces , , , ,

and in a hundred other ways refreshes our memories daily ? ,

D irector Jesus Christ is greater in H is divinity than

.

i n His humanity and so he whose thoughts always tend

,

God wards always tends Christ wards But more than

-
,
-
.

that faith being more alive and more active in the

, ,

contemplative life because of the continual prese nce of

,

God which forties it regards things concerning the life

,

o f Christ in a more noble and lofty manner than if it

considered them in d etail F or example when the con .

,

t emplative goes to Mass he is sure to remind himself ,

that the Mass which he hopes to hear is a representation ,

o r rather a continu ation o f the sac rice which Our L ord

,

o ffered on the Cross ; and here we have a thought of the

humanity of Jesus Christ which simple though i t be , , ,

sufces to raise the contempl ative soul to G od and he ,

he ars Mass in the sight of G o d as Jesus Christ Hims elf

made His sacrice in the sight of God And this is .

worth innitely more than all the meditations and prayers

we could make o n the Mass ; because following the ,

teaching that I have explained to you the soul which ,

believes by faith that which the Mass represents to i t ,

believes of this august sacrice all that God knows o f it .

And in s o far as action must follow faith it is certain ,

 F IRST TREATISE 33

that the soul which professes to believe in this myst ery

present to it all that which God knows of it will also
, ,

operate and act in this mystery in the most excellent and

glorifying way that God wills that it should operate and
act But recognizing its impotence to do anything for
.

God it n aughts itself in His presence and it is as if it

, ,

sai d something like this albeit it s ays nothing

,

My ,

G od " I would have innite love and innite humility in

order to respond to the excellence of this mystery And .

s ince I am not capable of the excellence of the s e dis

positions I strip myself gladly of all my acts and all my

,

practices desiring only to be here in order that I may

,

unite my will with Thine and comport myself in this ~

mystery a ccording to all the knowledge Thou hast of

i t s dignit y .

But P hilothea the s oul as I have told you does not

, , , ,

produce the interior act I h ave just described in thoughts

o r in words but by abolishing all i t s own a cts that it may
,

enter into the simple sight of G od ; it says more and thinks

more of the mystery in this lofty act than all the world
together could contrive to think or speak of it The reason .

i s that as G o d comprises everyt hing in Himself the S ight ,

which the contemplative soul has of G od supported by ,

faith compris es everything in itself and i s innitely

,

higher than all other a cts The contemplative does not

.

desire to know anything in his own understanding nor ,

to love anything in his o wn love ; he desires to understand

through the unders tanding of G o d and to love through His
D ivine L ove .

The same is true of all the mysteries and festivals of

the year for the mere thought or remembrance of such a
,

mystery or festival suf ces to raise the contemplative

up to God engulng and losing himself i n this vision of
,

G od s o that he remembers nothing save Him who i s

F
34 F IRST TREATISE
above all mysteries ; thus he honours the mystery i nnitely
,

more than if he made many meditations and prayers on

the subject And then God, wishing to recompense the
.

contemplative s perfect abnegation of his own acts com

,

muni cates imperceptibly to him lights and sentiments o f

,

the mystery which has been represented to him ; these

far surpass all the knowledge and all the movements his
'

own meditation could pos sibly have furnished him with

Yo u must know P hilothea that all the acts and all the
, ,

words of the S aviour of the world penetrate the soul more

ef cacio us ly when it regards them with a simple sight ,

having rst put itself in t he presence of God who is

concealed in the acts and wo rds of the S aviour F or we .

must rmly believe that each word and act of Jesus Christ
possesses innite merits which all the efforts of o ur reason
would be powerless to attain ; after a s imple representa
tion our silence which is nothing but a result o f the faith
, ,

to which we subject our understanding and the living ,

presence of God in sight of whom we wish to be silent

o ur S ilence honours an act or word o f Our S aviour more

than all we could s ay or think Thus when I have s et

.
,

before myself these words of Christ s H e who is exalted ,

shall be b rought low, and he who humbles himself shall be

exalted, I r emain in silen c e looking at G o d ; i t is as if I

said, My God " it is Thou Thyself who hast taught me

the me aning of these words and who hast given me their
fruit. I am no t capable of either understanding or
pra ctising the truth but I believe of these words all Thou
,

und ers tand es t in them and I hope Thou wilt give me of

their meaning anything tting for me to have
, .

If I think of Our L ord fasting in the wild erness and ,

if o n this vision as o n wings I y straight to God it is as

, , ,

if I said (but without saying it) My God " ,who but Thou
can know the glory of this fast o r how much Jesus Christ
3 6 F IRST TREATISE
perfection of Go d is God all the s ame i n s o far as our

, ,

spirit is limited and can only consider things in a material

,

and general way it happens that when for example o ur

, , ,

spirit considers the wis dom of God it cannot think of His ,

goodness and that when it thinks of His goodness i t can

,

not think of H is wisdom and s o it appears to separate

,

G od into different parts While on the contrary when

.
,

i t regards G o d i n Himself by His simple presence then ,

it regards Him with all His perfections and not in detail

as before . It sees God as He is in Himself and not as He
is conceived by us That i s the reason why the contem
.

l
p tive nds afterwards that he has considered the good
a

ness and the power and the wisdom o f G od who i s the ,

centre of goodness power wisdom and all other per

, , ,

fections. It i s thus that the contemplative will attract

to himself lights and communications whether sensible ,

o r secret ,touching the perfection of the D ivine which ,

will surp ass all human considerations and his knowledge ,

will be a ccompanied by a sweet savour not to be found in

the sterile and laborious subtleties of the human spirit ,

a s avour which is more spiritual more lofty and more ,

unifying than that produced by the grace of ordinary

meditation The soul therefore which aspire s to con
, ,

templati on in no wise resembles the thoughtles s bride ,

who a muses herself by ki ssing the king s feet and knees

,

fondling his hands and overwhelming him with i mpor

, ;

t unate embraces wi thout giving him the opportunity o f

sayi ng even one word to her For the feet signify the .

power and sovereignty of God ; the knees His mercy ; the

hands His magnicence or H is justice and the embraces ,

the thoughts of the creature accompanied by a tumult,

o f diverse a ffections which prevent God from a cting in

the soul with the power with which He wishes to act and
which do not cre ate the tran q uillity, attention and silence ,
 F IRS T TREATISE 37
which dispose the soul to receive H is D ivine messages .

The bride would gain more from the king and would ,

lead him to look at her more attentively by a tranquil ,

and loving regard than by all these over eager gestur es

,
-

and ardent words which hinder their union and prevent

their tranquillity and peace .

You can gather P hilothe a, from all that has been said
, ,

that contemplation is not consideration o f the works of

nature nor reection o n p ass ages of Holy S cripture o r
,

the writings of the Fathers o r the lives of the saints o r

spiritual books neither is it meditation o n the life or
,

death of the S aviour o f the World nor lofty speculation ,

on the attribut es o f G o d Neither is it a variety of reason

.

ings in the understanding nor a multitude of affections i n

,

the will nor a remembrance o f p ious ideas stored in the

,

memory nor a visualizing o f the gures of the imagina

,

tion You will realiz e that it is neither tenderness nor

.

sweetness nor feelings nothing but a simple and loving

,

regard of God present a regard which rests on the belief

,

that God is everywhere and that He is everything For

, .

all things of nature and of grace howsoever perfect t hey ,

may be are nothing but means to raise us to G o d as we

,

consider them in passing and in s o far as we have need

,

o f them to recollect ourselves and dissip ate the dis tr a ctions

and thoughts which might keep us from His nearer presence .

P hi lothea I thank God Father that I am permitted

.
, ,

to unde rstand cle arly what you have taught me What .

must the happiness of those souls be who taste the joys of

recollection and experience God in the depth o f their
hearts and enter into His presence whenever it pleases
,

them "
D i rector D o no t s ay
. whenever it pleases them ,

P hilothe a Contempl ation i s a prayer which has the

.

privilege o f being perpetual and of being possible

 F IRST TREATISE
everywhere It is of course necessary to reserve o ne or
.
, ,

t wo hours a day during which o ne can disengage oneself

from every other occupation to give oneself up entirely to
this holy exercise But even in the midst o f necessary
.

occupations it is possible to contemplate more or less at

, ,

etntively according to the spirit, the temperament and the

,

profession of each o ne F or as contemplation is nothing

.

but the s imple and loving regard of God present by

the help of faith the spirit is occupied neither with
,

thoughts nor re asonings and it does not lose the liberty

,

o f applying itself to that which it is necessary for it t o

know nor of considering from time to time the bus iness

,

and the necessities of life It sufces therefore to be

.
, ,

conscious of G o d in the point of the spirit and to be rmly

resolved never to lose this consciousness although it is ,

no t necessary to have it always as distin ctly present as if

one were in one s oratory away from conversation and
,

interruption .

I S it not the case that the multitude o f things which p ass

before our eyes every moment o f the day never prevent us ,

from seeing light and that for two reasons : rst because
, ,

without the help of light we would not be able to see these

things ; and secondly because light has no t in itself separate
,

or distinct parts which can arrest o ur eyes and turn them

aside to other things ? It is just the same with this loving
regard of God ; it helps us as a soverei gn light to s ee all
things with purity and innocence according to the good
pleasure of His D ivine Majesty and as moreover, it , ,

consists neither in gures nor in distinct images it does ,

not prevent us from considering according to our neces

,

sities the different things which present themselves to us

,

in t he business of life .

And there is yet another cause which makes the presence

o f God compatible wi th the c ares and distractions in
 F IRST TREATISE 29

which the world entangles us and that is that its most

,

precious part resides in the will which has a perpetual

desire to be always bound and united to its Well B eloved -
.

But the will has this quality of i ts own that by a single ,

minded des ire it c an of itself maintain itself in the a ct

and hold there for a long period the other faculties it
dominates without requiring to repeat its act When a
, .

man begins to walk forward in order to get to a certain

place although every step he takes is voluntary it is not
, ,

necessary for him to make an act o f will at each step or ,

to create a new desire by which he would s ay I will go ,

forward It is rather in virtue of his rst desire to go
.

forward that his will perseveres in him and s o he walks ,

forward without saying that he does so but yet not with ,

o ut willing to d o so More than that by a single act of

.
,

the will this man walks speaks sees hears and makes
, , , ,

different actions all at once And thus the contempl ative

. , ,

by a simple resolution he makes no t to leave the presence

o f God keeps himself steadfastly there whatever he may
, ,

do and to whatever employmen t he may give himself

,

throughout the day ; because he has formed through the ,

grace of his a ttrai t and his continual exercises s o strong ,

a habit of producing the gentle and loving act of contempla

tion that he make s it almost insensibly in the midst of
,

his occup ations and affairs sometimes stronger s ome

, ,

times weaker according to the power he has o f recollecting

,

himself .

Yo u must note that I do not speak here only of virtual

intention under pretext of which o ne might let one s
,

spirit wander in perfect liberty ; but rather of a remem

brance of God which we ought often to feel actually at ,

all times and in all places, s ometimes more sometimes

, ,

less according as things occupy us and carry us away

, .

That becomes easy by the grace of God once the habit is ,

4 0 F IRST TREATISE
formed for it entertains a gentle almost imperceptible ,
, ,

feeling of God present whi ch endures throughout the

great tri als of the soul like a little glowing red coal among
,

the cinders whic h when we s o wish lights up again and

, ,

becomes stronger and more active according to the trouble

we take to recollect ourselves And if this feeling is not
.

always equally strong we must not be disquieted ; our

,

souls are limited and cannot look at many different things

at the same time o r with the same attention The S aints .

deplored not being s o deeply recollected amid the conversa

tion of men as they were in their solitudes It sufces .

that we do not dissipate our soul s energy either by negli
gence or by over eagerness in what we do and that the
-
,

work with which we are occupied should be done for the

glory of God fo r our salvation and for the good of o ur
, ,

neighbour ; that it should b et o ur vocation and that God ,

sends it to us wit hout our seeking it for ourselves either

through false zeal or from a secret desire of being noticed
o r from a desire for exterior co nsolation These conditions .

fullled there i s even merit in losing some of this sweet

,

presence which we might procure for ourselves in order ,

to full more perfectly the duties o f our a ctive lives ; duties

which we cannot evade and which might be interrupted
,

by to o great an attention to the sweetness which they ,

would never be by the presence of God Thus there .

might be self love in a too eager desire for conscious

-

enjoyment of God s presence .

All the s ame we must fortify this presence of faith from

,

time to time by recollection interrupting o ur work o r

,

conversation or reading for a moment and we will nd ,

that as God had ordained the keeping of the S abbath D ay

in the anci ent law in order to releas e men from their work
,

and make them remember Him (which are the reasons He

gave to Moses for this institution) s o this praiseworthy ,
 F IRST TREATISE 4 1

i nterruption which we will practise from time to time

during the cours e of our work will relax o ur spirits and
,

will make God always more present and more intimate .

P erfect love i s fertile in nding occasions in which to

enjoy these precious moments a thousand times a day ,

in spite of the most engrossing occupations It will .

restrain an innity of i dle thoughts useless curiosities , ,

foolish affections and inopportune memories the re

, ,

memb rance of which would continually ll a soul not o n

i ts gua rd and which would thus remain darkened and
,

confused to such an extent as not to be able even to

recogniz e i tself ; just as he who walks in the country i s
prevented from s ee i ng the view when the wind raises
clouds of dust .

And nally love becoming always more enlightened and

,

more desirous of possessing the one object of its love ,

comes insensibly to discover a notable imperfection of the

soul which i s the origin of all other imperfections ; n amely
that it is more occupied and encumbered by i ts pleasures ,

its cares , and i ts own particular imagination s than it is by

intercourse with or affairs of the world It i s not things
, , .

which trouble us ; we trouble ourselves because of them ,

and our impulses would never carry us beyond reason if

we regarded everything reasonably that is to s ay i n the
, ,

light of G od In this way the contemplative will nd

.

more time than he expects for remaining in the presence

o f God and he will only give the worl d the remainder o f
,

his attention that part of it which he cannot restrain

,

owing to the i nrmi ty of his nature .

Courage, therefore P hilothea "Enter now into this

,

P aradise and never le ave it whatever may happen to you .

Open wide your soul to God and be ashamed to ll it with

the bagatelles of the world seeing that nothing but God
?

can truly ll it and that even if it were lled w ith all that
,
42 FI RST TREATISE
G od has made it would always be empty if it were
, , no t

full ofGod Himself who has made everything .

P hilothea Father "I d esire with all my heart neither

.

to love nor to esteem anything but the possession of God .

He who has God has everything and he who possesses ,

everything without G o d has nothing I rmly believe .

that contemplation is the true way of possessing Him .

B ut in order that I may the sooner acquire s o sanctied a

way of prayer , tell me I beg you what are the hindrances
, ,

whi ch may stop me o n the way and retard my happiness .

D i rector Everything I have S ai d to you and everything

.
,
K

you may previously have read regarding the morti catio n

o f the interior and exterior senses must be taken for ,

granted in this way of prayer The more mortied you .

are the purer the more ardent and more tranquil will
, ,

your contemplation be But I as k for a disciplined

.

morticatio n which must be proportioned to the strength

,

and the condition of each soul giving you this piece o f ,

advice among others that faithful contemplation aided

, ,

by the grace of God will h ave more power to mortify

,

yo u and strip yo u o f yourself than all the rule s y

,o u could
ever observe The S pirit of G od when it does truly
.
,

dwell in us by this constant and loving presence, subdues

the esh helps us to despise the world and vanquishes
, ,

the power of the d evil who makes his gre atest assaults o n
,

our bodies and our senses .

You wi ll thus nd no pleasure in Seeing evil or even

useless things Yo u will not willingly hear anything
.

except that which is necessary to your salvation and your

state And above all you will mortify your tastes and
.
, ,

affections which are the most usual sourc es o f excess and

, ,

which lead to the most violent passions .

On this subject yo u should consider an important

principl e n amely that everything in our ve bodily senses
, ,
44 F IRST TREATISE
dis tra ction s useles s thoughts and ridiculo us phantasies
, , .

But the soul is troubled above all during the time of

prayer because as we force ourselves to hold it in check
, ,

in order that it may not attach itself to any but one sole
object it constantly escapes and wanders away seeking
,

change and variety as being more in keeping with its usual

habits and inclinations But nally when once thoroughly
.
,

emptied o f creatures it regards its object which is G o d

, , ,

more xedly ; and bein g then drawn by H is attrai t it no

longer has any desire to run after phantoms even although ,

it i s always inclined to wander to the worldly business in

which necessity engages it and in which it s till lls itself
,

incessantly with different impressions .

And therefore P hilothea in order to prevent thi s

, ,

multiplicity, you must have little intercourse with the

world and give little attention to worldly things For .

then you will not receive too many outward impressions ,

and such as you may receive will not make such a deep
impression on your spirit, and will not have the power to
distract it with foolish and useless things Yo u will .

then nd th at you come to enjoy marvellous tranquillity ,

and that God nding no hindrance to His dwelling within

,

you will be your host your guest and your sweet and
, , ,

perpetual peace ; and that the more for love of Him you
,

s hut the door on the senses and prevent them from coming

in to interrupt the intercourse He would have with your

soul the mo re H e will be the light o f your eyes s o that
, ,

you will s ee everything for Him and in Him ; and the more
He will be the guardian of your ears to the end that every
thing you hear will cause you to seek Him and bless
Him And nally He will have a special care o f your
.
,

senses in order that yo u may not be sensible o f anything

s ave for Him and that you may no t be a ffected S ave by
,

that which pleases Him This same precept will protect

.
 F IRST TREATISE 45
you from s in and from occasions of s i n ; the world will
become indifferent to you when once you have quitted it
for the love of G od .

P hilothea It is very true as I have always heard it s aid

.
, ,

that death enters by the windows ; the only thing to do ,

therefore is to keep them as tightly shut as one c an and

, ,

stay quietly recollected within .

But Father I should be gr ateful if you could explain

, ,

to me what the faculties of the soul are which receive and

form ideas s o that i n distinguishing them I may learn
,

better how to guide them .

D i rector Imagine P hilothea that the s oul is a s if

.
, ,

divided into two parts ; the one is animal and is called the
lower part the other is re ason able and is called the higher
,

p art The animal or lower p art which is also c alled the

.
,

S ens itive part comprises the inward s enses and the

,

appetite There are four inward s enses ; the rst is a

.

common or general sense which is a faculty of the s oul ,

wherein are gathered together all the images which the

ve senses of our bodies receive and from this it is called ,

common o r general For you will notice that after you

.
,

have seen something the i mage o f that which you have seen
,

pas s es i nto your mind s o completely that after having ,

closed your eyes you do not cease to s ee within you a true

and real represent ation of that which yo u have seen .

It is the same with that which enters by the hearing ,

since we still retain the noise and sound of it in the same

way in which we heard it S o also scen ts s avours cold
.
, , ,

heat dampnes s dryness all le ave an impres sion in the

, , ,

general o r common sense after they have passed ; here ,

then is the rst o f the inward senses which preserve the

,

i mages either useful or useless of all discou rses and all

, ,

distractions wherefrom the o ther inward senses draw

,

their material .
46 F IRST TREATISE
The second inward sense is the im aginati on or phantasy ,

which i s a faculty of the soul cap able of forming new images

from those which have been gathered in the general
sens e ; s o that drawing from the storehouse o f the general
sens e a materi al all ready to its hand the soul composes
, ,

from it its phantoms i ts phantasies and its imaginations

, , ,

which are all really the same thing F or example you have
.
,

just seen two men ; their images pass through the eyes
into the general s ense and at once the imagination seizing
, ,

o n these t wo objects makes from them a hundred more at

,

i ts o wn pleasure . It c onsiders that one is o ld and the

other young ; that o ne is dressed i n o ne way the other in ,

another ; that the bearing o f the rst is more serious than

that of the second and s o o n It i s not even necessary that
, .

the gene ral sense should represent two men to it ; for on

t he subject o f o ne man only his feet his hands his hair
, , , ,

his habits the imagination will play in a thous and different

,

ways imagining what it will without e ffort almost without

, ,

attention and with a natural facility and impetuosity

,

which i n o ne moment lls the soul with a multitude of

images .

The third inward sen s e is judgment ; it is a faculty of

the soul which judges whether the images of the general
sense are good o r bad worthy of love or hatred and thus
, ,

seemly or uns eemly whichever it may be The general

, .

sense has received the images of two men ; the imagination

has compared them together and judgment decides
,

whether they should be liked or disliked And here the .

judgments multiply themselves in proportion to the

image s .

The fourth inward sense is that of the memory ; i t i s a

faculty which retains and preserve s all that the general
sense has received all that the imagination has invented
, ,

and all that the judgment has judged good or bad And .
 F IRST TR EATISE 47

that is all that it i s necessary for yo u t o know abo ut the

inward sens es .

The appeti te follows the senses wherefore it is call e d ,

sens itive ; or by spiri tual writers sens uality th e es h con

, , ,

cup is cence . It is a facul ty of the soul whi ch is moved ,

change d and troubled by the obj e cts which the inwar d

,

senses have pr esented t o it Thi s is why as soon as our

.

imaginati on has conceived anyt hi ng the appetite begins ,

either to des ire it or to ee from it accor ding as it a ects

, ,

the natu re of the cr eature The sens itive appetite is

.

t wofold : o n t he one han d desirous ; on the othe r irascible

, , .

The des ir ou s appeti te i s a facul t y tendin g to pursue the

good whi ch is proper to the creature and to ee and ,

detes t the evil whi ch is contr ary to it It is by this .

appetite that the creatur e loves i ts own kind and feels ,

an aversion for that whi ch shocks it ; it seeks life and

ees from d eath and in S hort loves all that which serves
, , ,

i ts subsis tence and i ts pleas ure and detes ts eve ryt hing
,

whi ch oppos es either of those .

The irasci ble appeti te i s a facul ty of the s oul whi ch

atta cks the difcu lties and res istances it encount ers eith er ,

in the pursuit of good or in the i ght fr om evil Each of .

th es e appetites has i ts own passions : whi c h are as it were , ,

the instruments it makes us e of in order to operate The .

d esirous appeti te has S ix passions : love and hate des ire ,

and repugnance joy and pain T he iras cible appetite

, .

has ve : hope and despai r fear rage and anger

, , And .

th ese eleven pas sions form and compose many o t hers .

But P hilothea unl es s the soul i s extremely watchful

, , ,

no i mag e enters the inward sens es which does not at once

move th e appeti te and whi ch d o es not exci te one or o t her
,

o f these eleven passions which we have named eithe r fo r ,

good or evil S o many obje cts so many movements ;

.
,

as many impress ions as are received o n the one han d so ,

48 F IRS T TREATISE
many perturb ations will there be on the other and they ,

will be stronger or weaker ac cording to the nature of the

things concerned From which it follows as I have told
.
,

you that the appetite is called sensual because it i s in that

,

part that the soul is sensitive and that it experiences its

,

likes and dislike s .

And that P hilothe a in few words i s what concerns the

, , ,

lower part of the soul which is common to us with the

,

rest of the animal world ; and in which there would be ,

strictly speaking nothing voluntary if the higher part

, ,

approving or disapproving of that which takes place in

the lower part and consenting to it did not render good ,

or b a d that which is indi fferent in itself .

The higher part therefore a ccording to which we are

, ,

free and reasoning men distinguished from the rest of

,

the animal creation is dowered with three faculties whi ch

,

are the understanding the will and the intellectual

, ,

memory The understanding is a faculty which discerns

.

by reasoning the true from the false and the good from the ,

evil, in so far as this concerns the perfection of man I s ay .

that the understanding discerns by re asoning differing here ,

from the inward senses which of themselves only discern

,

the true and the good by gross images and judge things ,

rather b y instinct and impetuosity than by intelligence or

reasoning This is common to all the animal creation
.

and consequently to man considered in his lower part, .

I s ay in the second place that the understanding discerns

,

and judges in so far as this is in conformity with the per

fection of man in s o much as all the objects of the world
, ,

without speaking here of thei r natural goodness and truth ,

cannot be applied to the good and the end of man s ave by

the reason and will of man Everythi ng i s otherwise .

in di fferent ; the objects themselves as well as the images ,

of them we receive by the sens es Nothing is good or bad .

 F IRST TREATISE 49
to us s ave through the choice we make o f it S o much s o .

that the understanding in order to carry things to a

,

legitimate and perfect end judges them rst of all by

,

what they are in their own n ature and then when that is , ,

cl early recogniz ed it judges what o ne can do with them

,

of good or evil Just as a workman when he has seen

.
,

that his tool is rightly fashioned longs at once to m ake

,

us e of i t to produce some fair work of his craft But since .

the understanding does nothing without the will i t proposes ,

things to the will as it knows them, and then the will

approves or rejects them using its freedom as it pleases
, .

The will o r the reasonable appetite of man is a faculty

o f the soul which following upon the knowledge of the
,

understanding embraces the good and rejects the evil

, .

It is in this faculty alone that man is free and it is the ,

will alone which makes all the acts of body and soul good
o r b a d a ccording as by its natural freedom it directs
, ,

them to a good o r a bad end The will i s the principle

.

o f merit o r demerit in man ; the senses and the other facul

ties are not c apable either o f goodness or of malice except

by the consent of the will It follows from this that when
.
,

the will cannot operate freely as in the enraged or as in

,

those asleep all the a ctions performed by man are animal

, .

and not human and cannot render him either good or evil
, .

The i ntellectual memory is a faculty of the soul which

retai ns and preserves everythi ng the understanding h as
known and everything the will has elected just i n the
, ,

same way that we noted the sensitive memory stored up

the products of the s en s es and the appetites And this .
,

P hilothea is wh at concerns the higher part of the soul

, .

In summing up then all this teaching, you s ee that

, ,

the outward senses send their images to the inward senses ,

and that the appetite forms from them its passions and
its movements That then the understanding reasons o n
.

G
 50 F IRST TREAT I S E
that which happens in the lower part and the will decide s ,

for good or evil This is why P hilothea the morti ca

.
, ,

tion and training o f the soul must rst begin in the outward
senses and o n the wise management of those senses depends
,

the tranquillity the perfection and the free us e of all the

, ,

other faculties of man If the outward se nses do not

.

receive too great a multitude of objects the inward senses ,

do not form to o many images phantoms opinions , , ,

memories ; the desirous and irascible appetites do not

produce too many passions ; the understanding will not
h ave to reason so much and nding itself void of creatures
,

will ll i tself the more with God The intellectu al .

memory will not store up too many things to cause co n

t inual distraction to the soul And nally the will uniting.
,

itself to God as to its unique and sovereign Good will not ,

be always troubled amidst an importunate multitude of

diverse things as to what it ought to choose and what to
,

avoid.

It i s not however sufcient to mortify the outward

, ,

senses ; the inward senses must be restrained in order

.

that they may not escape o n every occasion We must .

never give o ur cons ent to passions which might mislead

us ; we check them in mistrusting them We must .

abstain from all useless reasoning and from all designs

which do not tend to the glory of G od and our salvation ;
for you may rest assured P hilothea that outside of those
, ,

two motives all our actions are nothing but s in and

,

imperfection .

The grace of G od is necessary in order to obtain this

liberty of soul but that grace is never lacking to thos e who
,

as k fo r it and especially to those who are called to thi s

,

exercise of contemplation Beyond that h e re are the . ,

two governing principles which if faithfully practised, , ,

will raise you in a very sho rt time to real contemplation .

52 F IRST TREATISE
for o ur nec essities when we do not think o f them ourselves .

H as He not told us that he who loses his soul fo r love of

God wi ll nd it ? I think He means by that all the ,

satisfactions of the s oul in the inward and outward senses ,

all the thoughts of the soul its knowledge its affections , , ,

its sentiments its memor ies i n a word all that is not G o d

, , , .

He who loses all that to nd God will lose nothing but , ,

will nd God more perfectly 1

For after all He who is .
, ,

wisdom itself does He not know what it is necess a ry fo r

,

us to think and to know for our needs and for o ur pro

t ectio n ? And what does all the rest matter to us ? That
which we have given to God in base metal He will change
for us into gold and it will be the easier for us to carry
, .

One of the thoughts He will give us will be worth a hundred

o f these we h ave given up for love of Him I even think .

that as He is innitely generous He will repay us an ,

hundredfold For if He has promised to give life eternal

.

and an hundredfold to him who for love of G o d will , ,

give up his eld or his house what graces will He not ,

bestow o n him who give s up his understanding and his

will ? And so far as I understand it that really means ,

giving up one s whole being G o d grant that I may be

.

enabled to pra ctise this abandonment .

But two things give me courage to set out along the way
o f contemplation : rst that I have a good guide in you ;
,

and second that I have great desire in myself Yet two

, .

other things which are just as necessary may be wanting

,

in me diligence and vocation .

D irector The gra ce of vocation will bring dil i gence

.

with it P hilothea if yo u co operate faithfully AS regards

, ,
-
.

vocati on here are the principal signs o f it The soul

, .

1
b
T he doctri ne of a ando nment here s et forth Mal aval i s not to b e by
p
s us ected as q ui eti s ti c I t i s s tri ctl i n harmon
. y
i th th e

uri cati on yw p
o f memor y
and und ers tandi ng taught b y S t John of t he Cross i n The
.

Ascent of Mount Carmel .

 F IRS T TREATISE 53

whi ch is called t o contempl ation can no longer meditate ,

or at leas t onl y with much dif cul ty though the disabili ty ,

does no t proceed from bodi ly indi sposition nor depres sion , ,

nor want o f prepar ati on nor from want of attention in

,

prayer nor from l azines s (for thes e ve things are t o be

,

suspected when we nd powerless ness to meditate) .

Moreover the soul is aware ami dst the violence it doe s

, ,

its elf in order to medi tate of an attrait of sweetness and

,

devoti on whi ch carries it away breaking as if by force the ,

threads of meditati on by which it strives to bind its elf ,

and rai sing it to a state of peace from which it would wish

never to emerge S uch gentle peace may remain with it
.

throughout the day ; such a soul would do anyt hi ng for

God though it can no longer nd Him i n i ts ordinary
exer cis es of devoti on which indeed prevent it from
, , ,

experienci ng t his gentle peace S uch a soul seeks soli tude ;.

conversati on no longer pleases it as it used t o do ; spiritual

reading wearies it Yet this wearin ess comes from the

.

fact th at it experi ences interiorly a peace o f which ordinary

b ooks tell it no t hing and S O it nds its elf torn be t ween the
,

d esire to enjoy and anxi e ty about i ts state unti l someone

, ,

versed in such matters or some boo k which P rovidence

,

puts in its way explains to it what it is experiencing

,

with out reco gnizing it thus expl aining it to its elf And so
, .

it regains its condence and i s lled with eagerness to be

more perfectly ins tructed .

S o that if after being reas sured and co nrmed in i ts

,

way of prayer by the spoken words o f a direct or or by

readi ng a soul proceeds to abandon medi tati on for con
,

t emplati o n it can spend o ne hour or even two hours in

, , ,

this way wi thout fatigue and in great tranquillity There .

are some who from the very beginning are so much at

home in t his kind o f prayer tha t it s eems as if they ha d
practised it all their lives and they p ass whole years in ,
54 F IRST TREATISE
the pure and spiritual sweetness of this peace This kind .

of prayer is accompanied sometimes by contrition some ,

times by touches of the love o f God sometimes by tears , ,

som etimes by the desire o f suffering sometimes by sudden

,

lights on the mysteries o f the Faith by a profound rever

,

ence for the recognized presence of God by a knowl edge ,

of s elf which brings with it both confusion and condence ;

by an esteem o f God above all created things by a dis ,

trust of creatures by a rm resolve to persevere in the way

,

of contemplation ; and nally by many insights and move

, ,

ments according to the n eeds which God sees in each one .

But all these acts present themselves to the soul in

prayer without being desired or sought fo r They pre
, .

sent themselves also o ut of t he times of prayer above all ,

when the soul is recolle cted and in the p resen ce of G o d .

But even when the soul does not experience these acts
it does no t cease to be in contemplation because con ,

t empl atio n is nothing but a regard xed o n God present ;

all the rest being nothing but e ffects and results .

However this may be the soul always brings back

,

fruits from such prayer ; for when need arises it has now ,

more power to do good and to r epulse evil There is .

that good habit for instance and that difcult virtue

, ,

which it has acquired almost without e ffort on its own

part And on the other hand that vice and that bad habit
.
,

o f which it nds itself sudd enly free d without knowing

how Because the Holy S pirit having become more than

.
,

formerly the maste r of the soul by the abandonment

,

the soul makes to it of i ts powers and its acts do es what it ,

pleases ; its action is no longer impeded by the action o f

the soul whose o wn act is apt to be sometimes too soon ,

sometimes too late and sometimes contrary to what God

,

wishes to work in it And yet P hilothea no one could

.
, ,

s ay th at we do not act in such a case For by o ur own .

56 F IRST TREATISE
other Fathers and D octors who are highly commended
by the Church both for their knowledge and their sanctity
, .

It is also the doctrine of those authors who are most

familiar to us the author of the I mi tation of Christ and of
, ,

S t Fran c ois de S ales in his Treatise on the L ove of God

.
,

in which he has explained contemplation at once s o

lovingly and so devoutly .

S o that P hilothea my doctri ne is not mine but that

, , ,

of those great servants of God a doctrine which I have ,

drawn from their experiences and their lights and have ,

interpreted as God has inspired me conformably to the ,

doctrine of others .

P hi lothea I am thoroughly convinced by your argument

. ,

and it seems t o me that once a soul has truly experienced

God in contemplation it will never trouble itself about

,

authorities or proofs but will content itself by that

,

sufcient instruction which God achieves through experi

ence There for my part I will rest remembering how
.
, , ,

often I have heard the words of the P rophet O taste and ,

see which s i gni es as far as I can judge that in order to
.
f ,

know God o ne must rst taste Him .

D i rector That i s very true P hilothe a

. G o d alone can , .

make Himself present i n the soul that it may taste Him ,

and provided we have the pure intention of going straight

to Him as detached from all other things as is possible to
,

us detached from self love worldly affairs and every

,
-
, ,

other passion we shall never fail to nd Him And he

, .

who tastes H im well loses his taste for every other thing
, ,

and if sometimes through weakness or complais ance he

returns to the es hpo ts of Egypt the avour of the celestial ,

manna still remains in his mouth and forces him to seek ,

i t again with more avidity than before I have known .

people who for seven or eight ye ars had been drawn to

, ,

contempl ation without knowing it But there are als o .

 F IRST TREATISE 57

others who know all that their D irectors and their books
can teach them on this matter and who yet do not go fo r
ward with assurance But G o d is S O good that He some
.

ti mes makes clear to th em when they do come to Him , ,

all th at they woul d have gained in the preceding years if

they had recognized the road along which they were

wal king especially when it was not their fault that they
,

did not recogniz e it .

Ah P hi lothea what wonderful things God would b ring

, ,

to pass in men if t hey woul d onl y allow Him "But some

prevent Him others destroy His work others make Him
, ,

wai t at the door And He not wis hing to importune

.
,

any one unduly leaves His designs imperfect His lights

, ,

without result H is fruits without increase Our L ord

, .

always wishes to make us perfect as H is Heavenly Father ,

is perfect and to make us one with H im acco rding to the

,

promise He has s o often given us in the Gospels But .

we o n the other hand nd dif culty in keeping to the path

, ,

marked out for us by His commandments We fall away .

from the nobilit y of our Father who invites us to follow ,

H im in the light of reason and from motives of faith ,

in the interest of our s alvation and because of the obliga

tio ns of our state by the punishment of s ome and the
,

reward of others Yet in spite of all that we remain

.
, ,

languid and without vigour falling and rising again , ,

living and dying willing and not willing ; as if God were

,

merely an ordinary master as if the design He has fo r ,

o ur perfection was merely something probable and no t , ,

through H is grace an absolute certainty , .

Courage P hilothea "Embrace contemplation as the

,

shortest way to know and to full the designs o f G o d .

It is here that the creature makes a sacri ce of all his

powers reasonable voluntary and merito rious though
, , ,

they be to depend o n nothi ng but the Almi ghty T he

, .
 58 F IRST TREATISE
creature makes a sacrice of human wisdom in order to
be ll ed entirely with D ivine Wisdom He has no longer .

any will of his o wn in order that he may have only o ne

,

will He has no longer any memories in order that he

.
,

may have only one memory Never has the soul been .

nearer true happiness than when it looks continuously

towards G o d He who follows this path with the eyes of
.

faith will never walk in darkness ; the dim light of con

,

t emplati on makes him pe r ceive D ivine pe rfection and his

own faultin ess more cl early than all the light of human
wisdom could do Because such a light in making us see
.
,

God above every other thing makes us s ee o urSelves as ,

innitely removed from Him who is all and by the in ,

s ti nctive mistrust it giv es us of all creatures we learn to ,

despise ourselves rst of all and to esteem nothing but God .

And s o we s ee clearly that contemplation is the one true

.
t o
way knowledge of God and of self the two pole s of the
spiritual life .

This way is no t only the most direct it is also the most ,

certain S o much s o that he who enters on it as he should

.
, ,

seeking nothing but God in the purity of faith does not ,

claim to have anything neither great knowledge nor , ,

ardent fervours nor great consolations And when it

, .

pleases G o d to send him such favours he esteems God more ,

than H is gifts and nds more riches in the found ations

,

of his faith than in the most rare and supernatural com

muni cations .He believes in G o d more than he feels
Him more than he tastes Him and as God is his innitely
, ,

admirable and innitely lovable objective he regards ,

even the highest and most supernatural joys whether of ,

wisdom o r of love as small and disproportionate to the

,

Majesty of God It follows from all this that ariditie s

.

please the contemplative better than caresses a courageous ,

b elief b etter th an a s weet and consoling one For caress es .

60 F IRST TREATISE
from committing them seeing that it prevents distraction
,

o f spirit and the arousing of the passions which are the

usual caus es of o ur faults and falls It is certainly no .

mystery that the rst express and absolute advice for

attaining to perfection which God gives in Holy S cripture ,

is that of walking in His presence W alk before me . ,

He sai d to Abraham and be thou p erfect (Genesis xvii

, ,

There is no devotion which mo rties worldly lusts

more continuously than this which detaches the soul
,

more from things of the world and makes the wiles of

( ,

the devil more easily recognized by h olding the human ,

will detached and disinterested from all other loves For .

whoso pleases to see G od actually and not merely by

direction of intention accustoms himself to s ee nothin g
,

save of Him in Him and for Him S o that not seeing

, , .

God is the cause o f all the evil and confusion in the world ,

while to look at Him without ceasing is a certain and

familiar means of attaining to perfection and sanctity .

We abstain from S in in Church because we think God ,

more present there than elsewhere But a living faith .

which sees Him everywhere honours and loves Him ,

everywhere and thus makes all the world the Chur ch

, ,

the D ivine not b eing more present in o ne place than it

is in another Churches were only instituted in order
.

to give the opportunity of recollecting oneself better in

God and to elevate the senses by t he help of the repre
,

s entati o n of holy things But pu re faith animated by

.
,

holy love and fortied by real inte ntion to God achieves ,

all this mu ch mo re efcacious ly and strongly than the

nest buildings in the world or the most august religious
,

ceremonial .

An an cient philosopher advised his friend that if he

wanted quickly to become a perfect sage he would s et ,

before him so me great man as an example someone ,

 F IRST TREATISE 61

emi nent in wisdom and in virtue and that he should then ,

deliver all his discourses and carry out all his activiti es
as if that sage were listening t o him and looking at him

incessantly And there was once a King of P oland who

.

always carried a portrai t of his father about with him ,

i n order he said that in seeing it he S hould be reminded

, ,

that he was his s on and so might do nothing unworthy

of him . N ow P hilothea if such dead and imaginary
, ,

presences had the power to hold these men in virtue ,

what will the living and vivifying presence o f G o d who ,

wishes us innite good not do for us seeing that He , ,

seems forced to take more care and interest in us the

nearer we d raw to Him ?
In a word P hilothea it i s morally impossible for him
, ,

who dwells in the presence of God to lose himself ; it is

even impossible that he should not advance greatly through
this constant delity in which the grace of God never
fails And the most sanctied and greatest solitaries of
.

the Church with all their morti cations would have been
, ,

in many dangers imperfections and weakness es without

, ,

this blessed presence ; it being impossible that one can

entertain the S ight of God and s in at the same time or ,

that one should not always love Him whom one is always
regarding .

That i s why you must always remember P hilothea , ,

that the chief path to contemplation is this continual

presence ; and when you recollect yourself one hour o r
t wo hours in prayer that i s in order to strengthen the
,

presence of God in you and not in order to le ave it at ,

once afterwards .

P hi lothea I pray G o d that He may establish me rmly

.

in this p ath and that He will help me to renounce all my

,

o wn desires that I may have none other save that of

,

abiding in Him walking and conversing with Him I a m

, .
 F IRST TREATISE
utterly unworthy of s o great a good but my consol ation ,

is that G o d wills it and that willing it He will not fail

, ,

t o help me .

D i rector And now P hilothea that i s all you need to

.
, ,

know in the meantime Yo u have only to practise it

.

well and God who is here more parti cularly and more
, ,

interiorly your director than He ever has been will ,

teach you even greater things in your silence But as .

r egards the perfection of Christian virtue H e wills always ,

that we should submit ourselves to a dire ctor who will

help us to recognize the way we should walk in I will .

still tell yo u from time to tim e that which i t is necessary

, ,

for you t o know and will regulate my advice according

,

to your progress .

App robation f
o the D octors

W E , the undersigned D octors Theology of the Faculty

of

o f P aris certify that we have examined and read attentively

,

a book entitled P ra tique faci le p our lever l Ame it la Con

temp la tion the which we have found conformable to the

,

Holy D octri ne o f the Faith o f Holy Church .

Given at P ari s this third day of March 1 664

, , .

Fr er e N CH AS T EAV Religieux Carme

.
, .

F MI CH EL B AUD E N E T D octeur Regent

.
,

d es Carmes .
64 SE C OND TREATISE
contemplation for I shall treat it alone without dealing
,

with any other kind o f prayer .

Had I followed my own inclination I should have used

,

less argument and less doctrine than I have done ; I would

willingly have imitated in that way many holy men who have
made the whole force of similar treatises to consist in the
unction of the Holy S pirit But I have been obliged to
.

move with the times and to follow other writers of great

merit who also adopted this course with regret Never .

t hel ess I have sought to maintain a balance which while ,

sufciently explaining questionable points le aves them ,

still pleasant to the soul and which, while according with

r eason , does no t forbid the liberty of love I do not .

doubt that those who have no need of this explanation ,

whether on account of their knowledge o r of their experi

ence will yet take some pleasure in it and will perhaps
,

even be strengthened by it against doubts which often

do not come s o much from what people think themselves
as from what i s suggested to them from without Certain .

spirits are never more displeased with authors than when

they enlighten them on a subject they do not wish to
know about and on which they wish to remain op inion ated
,

all their lives in order to be able to follow their o wn

,

inclinations and interests with more liberty I am certain .

I will no t satisfy such spirits and that they will still nd

,

much to s ay about that which I write But I do not .

presume to satisfy them for they are not satised with

,

God or with themselves and the bond which attaches

,

them s o closely to their own opinions and their own par

ti cular spirit can never be broken s ave by a miracle .

They have risen up against the authors they, read and

they will always rise up against them and they will restate
"
,

an innity of things which have been often explained by

the apologetic o f the s aints whom they have attacked
-

,
 P RE FACE 65

whom they do not understand and whom they never wish

to understand .

And on this subject my dear reader I take this oppor

, ,

tuni ty of sayin g a wo r d to yo u about the recepti on which

has been accorded to the First Treatise in this book It is .

true t hat I have had the consolation o f knowing that o f ,

th e rea d e rs o f whom I have heard this work has been

,

most app reci ated by the most spiritual and the most
d etache d both in the world and in t he Clois te r Thi s is
, .

the fourth ti me it has been printed and I was told a short

,

t ime ago that it had been trans lated into Italian S eeing .

that I had never put my name to it and that few people

,

kn ew it was I who had written it I have been able to hear

,

dis interestedl y what has been said of it in different places .

God alone knows the good this littl e book has done and ,

it is to Hi m al on e that it must be attributed But if this .

Treatise has had the blessing o f Heaven it has certainly ,

had the pers ecution of men ; it has been persecuted by

opinionated spirits who by an over ardent zeal and by
,
-

attachment to their o wn particular ideas have been mo re ,

violent against it than those who professed no piety at all .

Things have been done and said about this little book which
p eople would nd it difcul t to believe The clearness .

with whi c h it was expressed has raise d up its principal

persecutors ; some have susp ected it because it was t oo
easy thinkin g nothi n g deep whi ch was not obscure
, .

Others who without morti cati o n and without a ttrai t

, ,

wi shed t o pas s to contemplati on imagining that they

,

could do eas ily that whi ch they could und ers tand easily ,

have turned their displeas ure agains t this book and have
thought t hat it deceived them becaus e they deceived
,

thems elves in reading it There have on the other hand

.
, ,

been souls who havi ng been disabused by read ing this

,

little book have wished to free thems elves from th e

,

H
66 SE C OND TREA T ISE
constraint i n which they had been held for long agai nst
their attrai t and who being in doubt beforehand as to the
,

state of their prayer have been enlightened and convi nced

, .

Both these two clas ses of readers have importuned those

who directed them with questions and h ave thus raised
,

a storm of indignation against this book as well as against

many other books they consulted For directors who
.

resist the a ttrai t to contemplation or who have not yet

experienced it will not believe that some who are under
,

their direction can practise contemplation because they ,

themselves are unable to do s o Others who have not

.

studied the matter do not know how to deal with i ts

difculties The errors of the simple have surprised s ome
.

directors who have imputed to this book the weakness es

o f those they directed ; even envy has crept into this

discussion envy against those who were able to make a

,

happier us e than the mselves of this pra ctice and this has ,

led to such disputes as take place in such cases

Then again many of my own friends through an over
, , ,

o fcio us Z eal have not fail ed to tell me o f charges against

,
l

my book of whi ch I was ignorant and I have endured

'

ex cellent morticatio ns through the discussions that have

been held and the libels that have been uttered against
,

it But I have hardly replied to such persecution save

.

by prayers for those who took part in it and by the example

,

of a disciplined life (receiving much comfort from seeing

myself ranged beside many great writers on this subject ,

writers of whom I am merely the shadow) and nally by ,

this S econd Treatis e where without attacking any one I

, , ,

reply sincerely to the dif culties to be met with in this

matter I refer those not satised by my arguments to
.

the many learned D octors who have treated more fully

o f these matters to the experiences of many holy souls
, ,

and to that truly apostolic charity which glories in believing

 D IALO G UE I
After what manner mp la tion
conte and the l
know edge f God
o
s hou ld b l e earned.

P hi lothea Your
. absence has been s o prolonged Fat her , ,

that it has given me time to collect many difculties ,

whether from my own experience or from the experiences

of those who have spoken to me about my method of
prayer I am ve ry anxious to enlighten myself
. .

D i rector It i s a gra c e P hilothea to have doubts and

.
, ,

dif culti es at the beginning as to this method of prayer

, .

G o d seems to make these problems arise in the spirit in

order that He may Himself answer them by effectual i n
t eri o r response . And s o He instructs the spirit fully in all
that even the gre at D o ctors of Mysticism would not know
ho w to te a ch it being at once the Bridegroom and the
,

Master of such chosen souls I have known some who after

.

having faithfully abandoned themselves to the spirit of God ,

received so many graces and lights that they hardly ever

read spiritual books or consulted masters o f the spiritual
life again save only to conrm them in their way ; they did
not learn anything new, but m erely assured themselves
that they were not being led astray when they followed
their inspirations .

Knowledge of the method of prayer called contemplation

is generally reserved by God in order that He may com
muni cate it Himself to the soul We shall not nd any .

book on this subject by a truly spiritual man which will

no t be unique in some points and contain some teaching
,

which will not b e found in other books .

68
 D IALO G UE I 69

The re as on why the Holy S pirit teaches this wisdom to

s oul s is because God P ure who is the object o f contempla
, ,

tion cannot be s o intimately known nor s o nobly expressed

,

by the terms of human knowledge which are material and ,

limited and which cannot make man know God except

,

in part and by distinct concepts .

The other reason is that most people prizing knowledge ,

which puffs up more than charity which edies do not ,

give themselves much to that prayer wherein God is

accustomed to purify their lights and transform them into
graces and feelings Thus keeping in themselves a know
.

ledge which is deprived of the S pirit of G o d they can ,

only communicate it in the ma nner in which they possess

it That is why God who pr efers to illuminate those who
.
,

humbly as k for His light rather than those who by their

, ,

presumption would snatch it from Him seeks from time

, ,

to time some solitary h eart some simple soul in order to

, ,

communicate to it the vast extent of H is love He works .

miracles of grace in such souls and gives them such ,

sublime lights that learned men are astonished Those .

who are not puffed up by pride o f their learning like ,

D octors frankly confess that they would consider it a

,

privilege to be the disciples of those souls whom G o d

s o specially trains Himself in order to learn from them
,

many things of which they themselves are ignorant .

The rst time Our L ord appeared in the midst of the

D octors in the synagogue He was only a child of twelve
,

years old and it was in the Temple that He spoke to them

,

after having left His parents It is a mystery revealed only

.

to those who have already learned much that nothing will ,

ever teach us the magnitude o f the great mysteries so

much as childlikeness and simplicity of heart And such .

teaching will not take place except in the Temple that ,

is t o say that it i s rather in praying than in studying that

,
7 0 SE C OND TREATISE
they will learn to understand these mysteries and that ,

such und erstanding will only come to them after they

have generously renounced all the interests of self love -
.

Their devotion will otherwise be as sterile as their know

ledge ; producing nothing more than acts of faith which
will not be accompanied either by great love or by great
courage to serve G o d .

The same L ord speaking through His apostle s, addresses

,

to them those words which He accompanies with a solemn

declaration in order that they shoul d weigh them more
seriously : Verily verily I say unto you except ye become
, , ,

as little children ye shall in nowise enter into the kingdom

of heaven (Matthew xviii

, N o w this saying must
not be taken to mean the submission which all schol ars
are obliged to make to the faith ; wise men believe i n our
mysteries even if they do no t always tremble before their
j r

majesty and their weight Nor must those words b e taken

.

to mean the obedience they owe the Church in sincerely

submitting their feelings and opinions to it Every one
.

knows well enough that he must give himself to the Chur c h

and conform to its tenets and beliefs ; but the childlikeness
to which the S aviour of the world wishes to reduce the
greatest scholars and doctors consists in stripping them
selves o f an immoderate love of their own branch of
knowl edge ; so that they are brought to abandon to Him
by respectful submission all their lights and sometimes
,

to s ay to Him

L ord "teach Thou me " For the teacher of whom
Thou art not the t eacher who does not draw his light from
,

Thee who art the living S ource of Truth is no t worthy

,

o f the name he bears L ord " I know not what to s ay

. .

All my lights are not worth a single ray o f Thy grace ,

and cannot produce in me one glimmer of Thy love ,

without Thy mercy . It is into such a disposition of
72 SE C OND TREATISE
Him incomparably better than I do because I would know ,

Him better .

D i rector It i s certainly true P hilothea that if one strove

.
, ,

to gain knowledge only in order to love God more then ,

scholars would have a great advantage over other men .

But just as those who have much knowledge do not seek

the re of the lo ve of God and as those who have a little
,

of the D ivi ne Fire wish to have more and more lights in

order to iname their love it follows that the o ne are
,

lled with doctrine and empty o f love a nd that the others ,

who have a little of the love of God instead o f trying to ,

purify and iname it under the guidance of the S pirit of

G o d stie it under a mass of knowledge to which their
,

self love sends them with avidity and without respite

-
.

That is why even although there are many who love G od,
,

there are few who attain to pure love for pure love of ,

G o d regards God only ; God being worthy of all honour

and of all love for Hims elf alone and not only for all the
thoughts and lights He give s us which make it possible
fo r us to know Him God unfolds everything to the soul
.

by which He is loved with purity and He lls it day by ,

day with so lofty a conception of His greatness that nally

it comes to love Him without knowing how and without ,

being able to give any special motive or reason for loving

Him It follows that many learned men have hardly
.

any love among the lights which surround them because , ,

being full o f self e s teem they are not capable of receiving

-
,

esteem o f G o d for that is incompatible with presumption

,

and a good opinion of self The creature who thus .

cherishes self love resembles a vase with holes pierced

-
,

i n it which can thus only retain the coarser part of the

,

precious balm wi th which God has the goodness to anoint

His chosen souls and of which these s ouls allow the most
,

precious part t o escape while they continue to te a ch and

 D IALO G UE I 73

pre ach to others A s maller numb er al lowing none of

.
,

the gifts of G od t o be los t, m ake a point of collecting and

cheri shi ng them from wh atsoever quarter they come .

I thank Thee 0 Father said the Saviour of the
, ,

world, that Thou has t hidden these great mysteries from

the wi se and prudent and hast revealed them unto b abes .

When He wanted to teach the woman of S amaria and

make her capable of unders tanding the hi ghe s t mysteries
of grace how to dis cern the law the goodness of the
, ,

Messiah the particular end for which He had come into

,

this world and how to worship G o d in spirit and in truth

, ,

s ee how He proceeded It was while He was making a

.

journey ; He went away from His disciples and s at down

on the well like a workman exhausted by his work who ,

did not care where he s at s o long as he could get some rest .

It was thus that He awaited the woman of Samari a and

asked her to give Him water to drink What humi lity .

o n the part o f o ur kindly Te a cher to te a ch a woman

,

well known to be a sinner and to implant holiness in her

,

soul " The rst thing He did was to dissociate Himself

from everything that could make Him appear like a
Master such as the number of disciples who accompanied
,

Him Then He s at down on the well as if He would

.

cover with H is body a place which guratively represented

,

the abyss of knowledge of the Old Testament being the ,

well of that Jacob who had seen G o d He showed us .

by that that s cholars who wis h to inspire the love of G o d

,

must as it were turn their b a cks on their o wn le arning

, ,

and look towards the S un which gives it to others He was .

tir ed and travel stained from His journey which con

-

strained Him to s it down th at also i s the rst fruit of

, ,

knowledge ; after much labour and study comes that rest

which the spirit nds in s acricing to God all its own
learning, in confes s ing before Him its powerlessness to
74 SE C OND TREATISE
penetrate into the Christian truths and in asking Him ,

wi th humility like S t Thomas not only the explanation

, .
,

o f that which it does not know but also the power to us e

,

well that which it does know .

But here is the fullment o f the mystery ; the S aviour

of o ur souls asked for a drink of water from a woman of
S amaria He who had such ample means of assuaging His
,

thirst without asking a notorious sinner for water He .

wished to teach learn ed people that when P rovidence

gives them opportunity they should ask frankly for water
,

from those to whom they themselves could give water .

That is to s ay that there are humble men and pious

m
,

women of S amaria who hav e drawn fro the sources of

grace before many learned men and women S u ch learned .

men and women could supply the humbl e with the water
o f knowledge ; whil e the humble in exchange could give

them a very different water which ows more directly

from the springs of heaven and which would take them
,

n earer God than that which they could draw elsewhere .

It is thus that the humble lead the lea rned to God and ,

that the learned conrm the humble in God ; that the

S imple light the ame in the hearts of the learned and that ,

the learned pour the light of God into the spirits of the
S imple ; the rst communicating His unction the second ,

communi cating material which will make the unction of

the simple more perfect and more efcacious s o that in ,

this admirable commerce the learned instruct the ignorant

,

and the ignorant sanctify the learned G o d not wishing ,

that humbl e and submissive teaching should be left

without help nor that simplicity full of love and condence
,

should be without power .

Happy then is the l earned man who humbles himself

, ,

i n the presence of the true servant of God for the greater ,

men are in le arning the more the homage they render

7 6 SE C OND TREA T ISE
appeared to them in His own person they still took Him ,

fo r a spirit or an apparition From which you must .

observe P hilothea that in order to found the apostolate

, ,

in the humility of the faith and to establish in it a spirit

,

o f si mplicity which would believe all cre atures for the

love of G od the Angels those gre at spirits to whom

, , ,

means of making themselves believed were not lacking ,

sent the Magdalene in their place ; and thus allowed a

woman to announce a mystery which would have been
difcult to accept even from the lips of the most learned
and holy men And further which is more to be admired
.
, ,

the mystery was announ ced by a woman impassioned and

transported by love for her Master a woman whose ,

extreme love might well have led to the truth of her state
ment being doubted if her hearers had been led by reason
which examines everything rather than by charity which
,

believes everything .

If then the mysteries o f the faith could be communi

, ,

cated by a woman (whom Origen has no hesitation in

calling for that reason the Apostle of the Apostles ) why

, ,

do we not often rece ive from the lips o f simple people

and from women the miracles of grace and the wonders
, ,

and miracles G od may have communicated to them ?

The great Tauler learnt the secret of perfection from the
answers of a beggar he found at a church door after ,

which he conside red his own knowledge With distrust and

compassion seeing that up till that ti me he had drawn
,

s o little help from it fo r advan cing in the ways o f God .

But after that time his sermons and discourses inamed

all those who heard them with D ivine L ove ; so that this
man who was already called a light in the world and was
, ,

highly esteemed becam e from that time an ardent re

, ,

setting on re all those with whom he came in contact .

S t Teres a too in her time became in mystical knowledge

.
,
 D IALO G UE I 77

the teacher of many learned men whom s he consulted

a bout other things and the Church abides gladly by her
,

doctrine That is to s ay P hilothea that you may have

.
, ,

as much knowledge of the things of the spirit as learned

men but that you must have simplicity and submission
, .

Yo u must submit your reason not only to the articles ,

of faith but also to the wisdom o f God who confounds

, ,

the vanity of the strong and makes the humility of the

,

weak to triumph those humble souls who seek Him in
spirit and in truth without artice o r self interest rst
,
-
,

in those clear and visible ways of Holy Church which ,

are the infallible rules by which to judge all others and ,

afterwards in delity to the inspirations God pours into

the hearts of the just in proportion to the love with which
they receive them and the diligence with which they
,

execute them .

P hilothea But Father I am not of the number of those

.
, ,

happy souls who m God Himself teaches interi orly My .

doubts increase day by day and I feel it a special consol a

,

ti on to be able to prot from your instruction .

D i rector My daughter God teaches souls interiorly in

.
,

three ways : rst in causing difculties to spring up in

,

the way in which they are already established in order ,

that in the meeting of those difculties those who deal ,

with them and those who hear them explained m ay learn

, ,

the secret commands of God For others would often .

have no idea of His commands if those who asked them

for enlightenment had not communicated them in stating
their difculties One can s ay o f such souls that they are
.

already instructed by God although they are afraid of not

,

being s o instructed .

The second way in which God te a ches the soul interiorly

is when without causing difculties to arise He imprints
, ,

on the soul a clear unders tandin g of its state that it may ,

78 SE C OND TREATISE
walk in simplicity receiving insights by instinct not
, ,

inquiring into either principles or consequences but ,

going forward simply in this way Just as a shepherd .

,

looking at a star declares with certitude that there will

,

be wind and that the weather will be good without

, ,

requiring to know the different properties of the different

stars nor all the results of the observations of the as trolo
,

gers . The spiritual man too judges his progress by , ,

instinct and directs his action according to the will of God

,

thus recognized .

The third way in which G o d teaches the soul interiorly

is when He directs us by His P rovidence to confessors ,

preachers friends o r books which teach us that which is

, ,

necessary for our state They put a word into our souls
.

which is as it were a seed sown there by God ; suddenly

, ,

or gradually it unfolds and develops into knowledge and ,

by its inspiration which says more than all we have

,

previously learnt it enlighten s us and leads us continuously

,

towards our goal It is thus that the soul is aware of

.

being enlightened without knowing how and that that ,

which it has gained from without seems almost nothing

compared with that which God has taught it .

But P hilothea G o d will teach you in the way which

, ,

seems best to Him whether through men or of Himself .

His holy will must always be your teacher and even after ,

men have taught you much God has depths o f wisdom ,

which are inexhaustible depths from whi ch lights and

l

instru ction will never cease to come For in this way He .

will exercis e your humility in causing you to learn from

without and your delity in making you lis ten within
, .

What more have yo u to ask me ?

80 SE C OND TREATISE
ceases and there remains the serene and pe a ceful habitude
,

o f the act we have s o often reiterated .

This habit of regarding God simply and naturally ,

without effort and without contention accustoms us , ,

little by little , to being in His company and enables us to

taste His sweetness There are good friends P hilothea
.
, ,

who have dispensed with compliments and c eremonies ;

we do no t waste time in making them useless and studied
compliments ; they come in unannounced and let us s ee ,

them quite naturally just as they are And it is thus .

with G o d who seeks us with even greater e agerness and

,

thirst than we seek Him not having come down to the

,

world for any other purpose than to dwell in us When .

once souls have received Him by the familiar presence He

communicates to them He is no longer merely their host
, ,

as in those who only think of Him at certain times and who ,

leave Him alone in their souls as in a fearful solitude ,

without looking at Him or speaking to Him He is their .

friend and familiar ; He speaks and is listened to ; He

illumines and is regarded ; He feeds and is tasted ; He
commands and is obeyed ; in ne He speaks lovingly with
the soul which o n its part keeps Him faithful and
,

continuous company F or to be real all love must be

.
,

reciprocal God thinks continuously o f each one of us as

.

if he had no one but ourselves ; it is therefore no more

than just if we think continuously of Him as if we had no ,

one but Himself Oh the blindness of men P hilothea who

. , , ,

not having yet understood that they were only created for
G o d dare to think it strange that we S hould always think
,

o f God and that we have no more familiar object than

,

God "There is a time to speak and a time to be silent ,

says the S age ; a time to laugh and a time to weep ; a time

to sow and a time to reap There are xed times for all
.

things and it would manifestly be out of order to do at

,
 D IALO G UE II 81

one moment what we ought to do at another But there .

is no time in which we ought not to love God and think o f

Him We ought to think of Him by day and by night
. ,

when we are busy and when we are at rest in company and ,

in solitude at all times and in every place The holy

, .

companionship of G o d never wearies us never embarrasses ,

us ; it is not troublesome nor bitter nor inconvenient and

, , ,

when we take it with us in our familiar thoughts it has ,

the blessed property of mingling with whatever we are

doing ; it never sep arates i tself from our affairs not eve n ,

from our most triing conversations .

But in what way they say are we always to think of

, ,

God s o that this continual appli cation shall not greatly

interfere with our worldly life ? Think o f Him often ,

P hilothea and such thoughts will not disturb or deect

,

y o u ; th ey will rather accompany yo u go before you , ,

follow yo u and generally awaken yo u If someone

, .

ordered you to make twenty ve or thirty respir ations -

every minute you would repulse such a suggestion ; you

,

would think it would impede all your actions Yet you .

breathe every moment without noticing it and you do not ,

cease to act with as much liberty as if nothing were going

o n in you Man is never without some passion some
.
,

present objective which has nothing to do with the gre at

objective he has in view and which is of no us e the greater
,

part of the time save to appease or exercise the perpetual

activity of the human mind And seeing that the mind.

cannot help being occupied by some vain and useless

thought in the midst of our most important occupations
, ,

it is far better to occupy it with G od who never enters

into uS without doing us good and who never dwells in ,

us without doing us more good .

P hi lothea Truly Father I can s ay that every good has

.
, ,

come to me through that sense of the familiar presence of

82 SE C OND TREATISE
God and that I do outside things with s o marvellous a
,

facility that it is rather His attrai t which carries me through

what I am doing than any application of my own The

, .

state in which I now am seems to me to be a perpetual and

actual invocation of the D ivine S pirit without neverthe , ,

less my making any express acts to invoke it How then

, .

can I fail to recogniz e His help in everything I do and ,

what could dis turb me seeing that I carry joy and peace
,

in my soul ?
D i rector If the words of the Apostle are true , that
where the S pirit o f God is there is freedomho w ca n they
.

fail to be even more true when we cherish the S pirit of

G o d in thinking continuously of Him ? And if the
Apostle exhorts us to rejoice when G od is near us , what
would he not exhort us to do when God has become
familiar to us ? The wings of the dove do not weigh it
down they carry and support it And s o the thought of
, .

God is never a burden ; it is like a gentle breeze which

bears us up a hand which supports us and raises us a
, ,

li ght which guides us and a spirit which Vi Vi es us even

,

although we do not feel i ts working .

That is what made you s ay P hilothea that your attrai t

, ,

is no longer a knowledge o f G o d, but something by which

you are seized and penetrated something yo u taste and ,

which never separates itself from you I will therefore .

, ,

use your own words in replying to you Contemplation .

is an experimental tast e of God P resent It is a taste .

,

because the soul does with delight that which before it

did with difculty and labour It is a taste because the
.
,

soul feels itself stronger and better supported than it was

before by a S imple light It is a taste because it tempers
. ,

and seasons with its sweetness everything we do ; it is an

experimental taste no t of opinion nor of reason ; for other
, ,

op i n ions and reasons mi ght lead us to change ; but a cle ar

84 SE C OND TREATISE
forced upon it but as a soul of which you touch the
,

springs and stir the depths You rather arouse the .

remembrance of what takes place in me than give me fresh

light But your reasoning is nevertheless very necessary
. , ,

to convince me because I should not have dared to believe

,

all that of myself and should have been afraid to give

,

myself any credit in matters s o spiritual and s o delicate .

Yo u are like those wise physici ans who touch certain parts
o f the body to which the invalid himself would not have

thought o f attributing his suffering F o r as the physician .

touches and reasons at the same time the invalid may ,

reply Yes " It was there that I felt the pain a reply

,

,

which he would not have known ho w to make before in ,

spite of all the reasonings and questionings that might

have been made to him .

How admirable G o d is F ather to precede even in

, ,

souls the teaching of men "L earned men S how us His

spirit ; they do not communicate it : they let us know what
is in the soul in dis closing its operation not in producing ,

it But in order the better t o discern what I feel through

.

the cle arness of your explanation and in order that I ,

may be able to communicate it to others tell me of your ,

goodness : Can knowledge o f God be found in contem

p l ati o n without love or love without
, knowledge ?
D irector It is rare that either in actual o r habitual
.

contemplation knowledge of G od is not united with love

, ,

because contemplation is a taste and an enjoyment of God ,

and the enjoyment of a good however imperfect it may ,

be is always accompanied by love God s aim in such
, .

a state is to elevate the soul to faith and He never elevates

, ,

the soul without inaming it with love at the same moment ,

because it is not knowl edge which unites us to G od but ,

love Moreover that which one knows in contemplation

. , ,

i s an ob s cure and incomprehensible knowledge of G o d .

 D IALO G UE II 85

For God is above every conception and every thought of

human knowledge and cannot be expressed by words ; as
,

we have i nsinuated several times and as all the mystics ,

tell us Thi s incomprehens ibility produces admiration

. ,

admiration produces delight delight produces love The , .

soul also knows that it is in rest and peace when i t i s

recollected by this a ttrai t If it is in this rest it follows
. ,

of necessity that it loves and that it can s ay wi th the

,

Bride of the Canticles S ub umbra i lli us q uem desideraveram

, ,

sedi et fructus ejus dulcis gutturi meo ( S ong o f S ongs ii ,

I s at do wn under his S hadow with delight ; and his fruit

was sweet to my
This shadow is nothing but the obscurity o f faith by ,

favour of which the soul is ra ised up to God It calls .

Him whom it has desired not knowing what name to give

,

Him because He is incomprehensible to it It is seated .

in order that it may taste the sweetness of His fru it ;

because its knowledge is no t idle and being a fruit of G o d , ,

it is there to be tasted and not simply to be se en as the

,

fruits of human knowledge are S o that P hilothea there .

, ,

is no contemplation without love it being produced for ,

love and nearly always by love itself .

P hilothea What you s ay is very true

. And yet one does .

not always feel thi s love although o ne is always con,

scious of it in the presence of G o d and this consciousness ,

is clearer and more natural than ordinary consciousness .

D i rector The love whi ch we feel towards creaturely

.

things P hil othea is a movement o r rathe r an inquietude

, , ,

o f soul which seeks to s a tisfy itself For as creaturely .

things are not our true end love of them is never o ur ,

true rest L ove of G o d on the contrary is not s o much a

.
, ,

movement towards as a union with our objective a rest ,

in God as far as that i s possible in thi s world It foll ows .

from this that love of creatures will stil l make itself felt
, ,
86 SE C OND TREATISE
and by an i mitation of nature love of G od will also make
, ,

itself felt when we seek it with effort and inspiration .

But when God communicates Himself to the soul with

this ray of faith which lifts it above the senses, love is as
little felt as knowledge following i n that the condition of
,

the object known which being very pure and very spiritual
, ,

only leaves the spirit o f love and not the consc iousness of
it There are certai n substances P hilothea which burn
.
, ,

without showing ame and there are souls which love

,

without being consciously inamed Thus you will per .

ceive in yours elf th e pr esence of G o d more easily than

the love of God even although the presence is never

,

without love .

If all love of God were sensibly felt then it would follow ,

that the S aints had never possessed it for they were often ,

s o overwhelmed by suffering that they cried o ut with the

S aviour of the world My G od " , my God " why hast Thou

forsaken me ? It would follow that purely spiritual
contrition was not real love because it was not consciously
,

felt L ove which c an be felt can be measured by the

.
,

feeling which perceives it ; but love of God must be

something innite seeing that the knowledge we have of
,

Him stretches to innity and so do the grace and faith

,

which are its natural sources the o ne being a parti c ip at ion

,

of D ivin e Truth the othe r of D ivine Charity And

, .

further P hilothea you have often heard it said that true

, ,

love o f God is an admiring love rather than a fervent love .

I as sure yo u that this admiring love is better practised in

contemplation than in any other state because admiratio n ,

is founded on the knowledge one has of that which one

admires How then shall we no t admire how shall we not
.
,

love Him whom we would not compare to anything i n the

world and whom we regard as above every created thing ?
,

There is yet another thing which leads to o ur not perceiv

88 SE C O N D TREATISE
P hi lothea .I would not lose this which I do not feel for
all I might ever feel and when it does happen to me that
,

the love of God i s sensibly felt the very feeling I receive

,

in it is as an opening through which I recognize the depth

and c ap a city of that love which never reaches to the senses
.

Just as o n a dull day he who feels a drop of rain o n his

face looks up into the s ky and sees dark clouds which would
fall in torrents and not in tiny drops were they not held ,

back by some disposition of the air How good it is to .

love G o d with the love of faith which does no t consist

,

simply in believing that one loves Him, for many peopl e

might thus deceive themselves as to their belief ; but which
is rather a certain impulse of the will which tends towards
God with all its strength and whi ch nding itself weighed
,

down with the weight of the inestimable good it embraces ,

remains powerless and speechless knowing rather that it

,

longs to love than that it truly does love The will in .

,

such a state res embles those invalids who are not aware of
,

their habitual languor but who recogniz e only too well

, ,

when they wish to m ake an effort that their strength is

,

nothing but weakness and that the difculty they have

,

in moving is a Sign that they have no longer any power

o f movement .

D i rector You explain yourself well P hilothea

. To , .

love in contemplation is to languish while to know is

, ,

not to s ee We do not feel in ourselves the movements of

.

the heart in the functions of our natural life and we are ,

not conscious of the movements of the will in the opera

tions of the life of the spirit For God because He is
.
,

above every intelligent being is not applied to the con

,

t emplative soul under the comparison of any created

thing ; because He i s neither substance quantity nor , ,

quality He is neither life nor goodness nor intelligence

, ,

understood after our human fashion as D ionysius expl ains

,
 D IALO G UE II 89

in the fourth and fth chapters of the Mystical Theology .

In the same way He is above all love s o that He cannot ,

be loved with that love with whi c h we love beauty good ,

ness pleasure glory magnicence ; nor with the love with

, , ,

which we love justice piety and all the other virtues ;

, ,

nor with the love with which we love plants animals , ,

men o r angels ; nor nally with that love with whi ch we

, , ,

love ourselves and our own happiness ; but with a love

above all love and with a delight above all delight T o
, .

know God in this way is a negation o f all distinct know

ledge to love Him thus is a negation of all distinct love
, .

0 L ove "0 Knowledge ineffable " how much better to

be ignorant of Thee than to comprehend Thee " In olden
times P hilothea the peopl e of God were led in the desert
, ,

by a pillar which was o f cloud by day and in the darkness ,

of night a light The s ame thing happens to the soul

, .

who walks in the interior desert ; the S un o f Re as on is no t

s o luminous for it as the D ivine D arkness which covers it ;

whil e on the contrary during the night and the voluntary

, ,

e clipses o f reason this D ivine D arknes s becomes light and

, ,

o ne sees it more clearly when o ne can no longer s ee

anything else .

P hi lothea But Father is there a lways knowledge in

.
, ,

contemplation ? I S L ove never met with alone ?

D irector It is sometimes possibl e to nd knowledge
.

without love b ut it is never possible to nd love without

,

knowledge The reason is that the understanding does

.

not require the action of the will in order to know its

object ; but the will always has need of the light of under
standing in order to love its object Every lovable .

object is a known good ; it is therefore known before it is

embraced as a good and even wh en the will attaches itself
,

to a false good under the appearance and shadow o f a

,

veritable good it is necessary that the understanding S hould

,
90 SE C O N D TREATISE
represent to it these appe arances and these shadows of
good and that it should deceive the will in order to make
,

its object appe ar agreeable seeing that it is not the province

,

of the will to discern but to love , .

And s o P hilothea there is no love of God without

, ,

knowledge of God Faith teaches us that He is Almighty

.
,

All wise All good Hope gives us courage to aspire

-
,
-
.

to possess Him ; which we could not otherwise dare to

hope considering our weakness and the innite dis pro
,

portion between us and this S overeign Being Charity .

,

borne on its two wings ies straight t o the h eart of God

,

and unites itself closely to Him being informed and ,

assured that He wishes to allow Himself to be loved by

His creature But the love which follows contemplatio n
.

is an inuence of D ivine Charity and in consequence it ,

presuppos es faith as well as the ray of contempl ation

which inames the will .

And further P hilothea charity gives the impulse to

, ,

all the Christian virtues but every virtue in p articular,

furnishes charity with i ts material If we humble o ur .

selves through love we must rst recognize our own

,

nothingness if we wish to show mercy towards our neigh

bour we must rst have known the misery which touched
,

o ur hearts and s o each virtue proposes a different motive

,

to the charity which arouses it and bears it forward ,

towards the object known L ove in contemplation is .

o f the same n ature being a love o f God and it works in

, ,

the s ame way From the time that the presence of God
.

is continual in a soul it is needless to as k whether love

,

suppos es knowledge and even when the presence comes in

,

ashes and from time to time it is always some movement ,

o f faith which produces it and thus the love which one ,

feels is the natural result of this faith .

P hilothea But, F a ther how many souls one sees who

.
,
92 SE C OND TREATISE
understand all that He is that He is only comprehensible
,

to Himself alone He is s o great that a single spark of

.

H is knowledge would s et a thousand worlds on re with

His love But what is it to know only that God is ? Is
.

it not to know much more than we can say or think ; and

must we not forget everything to enjoy this ine ffable

truth ?
It must be said P hilothea that in nature the sweet
, , ,

enjoyment of love sometimes overwhelms the soul and ,

makes it forget what it formerly knew of the merit and

excellence of its object because it is utterly absorbe d in
,

that which it loves But in the long run the economy of

.
,

grace is not in this matter contrary to the order of nature .

The will always depends on the understanding and o ne ,

would no t know how to love without rst having known .

L et me ad d here what I have already explained with

sufcient clearness that the act o f contemplation is no t a
,

distinct act seeing that the love which accompanies it

, ,

distinguishing very little itself s eems to know nothing

,

of the whole operation while in fact it does know some

,

thing which satises and sustains i t .

Yo u can also gather from this teaching that the love

may often be greater than the knowledge which produces
it it being much easier to love than to know The
, .

reason is that the understanding pursues its obje ct in a

very different way from the will for in order to know
clearly o ne must examine and dis cuss ; One must know the
,

essence the properties and the parts of the subject o ne

, ,

reasons about ; one must penetrate into the principles of

things and s ee things as they are in themselves and no t ,

me rely as they are in o ur opinion But to love much

.
,

one needs nothing but to look at the object loved however ,

simple it may be ; and the will enclosing it rmly in itself

,

at the same time loves it as much as it wishes o r as much as

,
 D IALO G UE II 93
it can It follows from this that many love a science of
.

which they have sometimes very S light knowledge merely ,

for i ts usefulness or for the glory it brings to those who

possess it There are peopl e who become passionately
.

enamoured of some beauty when one shows them a s light ,

representa tion of it And people will sometimes let

.

the ms elves be carried away by love for a great or wise

man or someone of extreme merit without really knowing ,

their eminent qualities and only because of a rumour

,

they have heard or some service they have received

, .

It is very much the same P hilothea with the love of God

, , .

The unders tanding cannot at all comprehend God for , ,

as the Apostle says we only s ee Him in a glass darkly

, .

But the will embraces Him all hidden and i nco mpre ,

hens ib le as He i s and in the words of S t Bonaventura

, .
,

L ove mounts higher than knowledge and appro a ches

God at a height which the understanding cannot attain
in this life It follows from this that many simple people
.

love Him more perfectly than the most enlightened and

sublime spirits that the whole L aw of God is r educed to
,

the commandment o f love and that it is by the greatness

,

o f love that sanctity is to be measured .

It is incredible P hilothea how far love will go when

, ,

once inamed by a simple ray of faith It is love which .

causes unions and transformations in God and not know ,

ledge ; God being proposed to man in this life as an object

of love in creating him in His o wn image and likeness ;
,

the whole life of His S on moreover being nothing but , ,

o ne continual love as well as H i s dying for the love He

,

bore us L ove makes all the saints on the earth as

.
,

knowledge makes all the blessed in heaven .

Courage P hilothea " it is not necessary to know much

in order to love but in loving yo u will always co m
,

, e to
know G od more perfectly and with a knowledge which ,
94 SE C OND TREATISE
S t Bonaventura calls affective and experimental
. which , in
love and light are so intermingled that one might almost
say the understanding wished to love God while the will ,

wished to know Hi m And thus the two acts of these

.

faculties s eem to be but one : all love is light and all light
is love The l ambs know their mothers by instinct and
.

b y sympathy they sometimes run towards them without

,

s eeing them The soul that is truly touched by the dart of

.

love does not simply know G o d ; it is con s cious of Him

in a shadow in a vestige in the slightest movement He
, ,

makes in a creature or of Himself in the heart however

, ,

i mperceptible such movement may be S ometimes the .

soul even feels God when He is silent and when He hides

Himself Many joyful thoughts of God and many lively
. ,

affections spring from that consciousness ; one cannot

,

expres s them for reason s upplies no suitable terms nor

,

words which adequately convey them And when the .

S aints are obliged to declare these great things in ordinary

words their sayings have always two meanings the one
, ,

clear the other profound ; the one which is understood

,

o f all ,the o ther which though expressed by the same

,

words is only comprehensible to those who have ex

,

p eri ence d the thing spoken of Just as in Holy S cripture

.

we s ee how the same passage adequately instructs the

simple and deeply exercises the minds of scholars : Holy
,

S cripture being in the words of S t Gregory a deep and
, .
,

full river in which lambs may wade and elephants swim .

Many instead of considering this trut h in reading the

,

a ffective lives and meditations of the saints often imagine ,

that they merely repeat the same things S uch people .

allow themselves to be deceived by the similarity of terms ,

and the indispensable necessity the saints had to follow ,

o f speaking as tho s e who spe ak even although their

thoughts soar far ab ove their expressions and their words ,

 D IALO G UE III
l l l
I n which facu ty of the sou contemp ation tak es p ace ; which act l
i t is of this faculty ; what susp ens ion one exercises i n i t, and whether the
l
sou is p urely p assi ve in this s tate .

P hi lothea One must admit Father that the habit of

.
, ,

contemplation establishes itself so gently in a soul that it

gradually takes possession of all the faculties till there is ,

not one which does not participate in some degree in its

a ttrai t .The understanding nds itself plunged in a
confused knowledge of the D ivine which though containing ,

neither image no r words yet represents G od more vividly

,

than the clearest images of the senses The understanding .

is thus penetrated more profoundly than by the most

l ofty reasoning gazing ceaselessly at God as i ncompre
,

hens ib l e and ine ffabl e The will too has its share in
.
, ,

so great a good loving God in the same way that the

,

understanding knows Him ; rejoicing that God is what

He is and possessing Him under this general concept as
,

the most perfect Good the most lovable Being in the

,

whole world The memory reminds itself of Him with a

.

memory that is confused in proportion to its knowledge .

And if the inward senses which cannot attach thems elves

, ,

save to ph antoms and images are not allowed to share in ,

this happy communication of the D ivine o ne would at least ,

s ay that they made an e ffort to p a rticipate ; and that they

gave evidence by their distraction and by the impatience

they showed at being kept thus within their bounds that ,

they are not content to be in the abandonment in which

they are left while the rest of the soul seems to be in
,

enjoyment .
 D IALO G UE I I I 97

But tell me Father which is precisely the faculty of

, ,

the soul in which contemplation resides and from which ,

it radiates out on the other faculties which receive it ?

D i rector It would seem that you are well instructed in
.

the economy of the soul which I spoke o f in the First

Treatis e and that you conne contemplation to the higher
,

part of the soul and hold the lower part incapable of

,

participating in it F or if devout people had even a

.

slight knowledge of the faculties of the soul distinguish ,

ing their acts and their different methods of procedure ,

they would save themselves the innity of trouble such

ignorance causes them o r rather which the little reection
,

they make gives them It is a fact which exp erience proves

.

to us every day that the activity of the faculties of o ur

,

souls produces a mass of strange imaginations and reason

ings according to the natural disposition and profession
,

o f each o ne o f us This mass oppresses us and ll s our

.

life with distraction and inquietude ; whereas we would

absolutely distrust it were we once thoroughly convinced
that it all proceeds rather from a soul which is to o eager
and too active than from the designs of God or the
, ,

nesse of the devi l or even from our own will when it is

,

controlled and does not allow itself to follow the perpetual

ux and reux of images and things Remember carefully . ,

P hilothea what I will teach yo u in this dialogue and

, ,

us e carefully the remedy I recommend to you here to ,

arrest this feverish activity The greater part of the

.

wisdom of the ancients who wished to live tranquilly ,

and a good part of Christian wisdom which wishes to ,

empty itself of everything in order to ll itself with God ,

consists in these two points : to know one s soul and to

,

moderate its activity .

I would therefore answer you thus P hilothea pre , ,

supposing the doctri ne I have already s et forth ; that

x
98 SE C O N D TREATISE
contemplation takes place in the understanding ; that to
contemplate is to know and that the understanding is
,

the only faculty o f the soul which knows It follows .

that those writers who have d ened contemplation have

dened it in terms concerned with the understanding ,

calling it at one time lofty knowledge at another ,

tasting wisdom experimental knowledge
,

s ecret ,

intercourse with God loving regard o f the D ivine
,

D ark , learned ignorance of God and describing it in ,

a hundred other ways which express either its nature or its ,

properties or its e ffects or its praises with regard to the

, ,

elevation o f the und erstanding .

But contemplation if it is acquired is nothing but a

, ,

very perfect exercise of faith a ccomp anied by the grac e

o f God ; if it is supernatur al it is i nfused light and all ,

light i s within the province of the understanding just as ,

all love human and D ivine exercises itself through the will
, , .

P hi lothea Why does one someti mes speak of the summit

.

o f the understanding ? Are there in the human under

standing two different powers and if s o in which of the , ,

two does contemplation take place ?

D irector There is neither height nor depth nor summit
.

no r surface in the soul of man b e caus e being spi ritual , ,

it has neither parts nor divisions S o that what I now tell .

you is very true that the whole of your soul is just as much
,

at the point of one of your ngers as in the whole of your

body : in the same way that the re ection o f a mountain
can be contained in a small eye just as well as in a big
o ne and that it can be found whole and enti re in t wo
,

hundred eyes as well as in one solitary eye The soul .

is therefore neither broad no r long nor deep ; it has neither

degrees nor strata ; i t i s neither coarse nor ne heavy ,

nor light ; it has none of the conditions which pertain to

material things But in so far as we judge spiritual things
.
1 00 SE C OND TREATISE
Intelligence understood in this way is called by the mystics
the summit or higher part of the understanding ; or in ,

other words which really mean the same thing it i s a ,

simple and general concept He who reasons conside rs

.

the parts of his object one after the other ; he examines

them denes them divides them exhibits them But
, , , .

he who regards things with a simple sight considers his

whole object at once without seeking either principle or
,

consequence and s o he enjoys it without trouble by a

,

general concept of all the particular truths to be found

within its compass .

A Christian who has so often heard Go d spoken of ,

forms for himself little by little from the diverse concepts

, ,

which have been offered him the most perfect idea of

,

God possible to his cap acity ; so much s o th at when he

comes to consider that God is gre at that He i s almighty , ,

o r that He i s good he does not have recourse t o e a ch of

,

those truths or to all the thoughts he has conceived about

,

them at various time s but relying on that which he knows

, ,

he embra ces each truth as infallible without proving or

contesting it The ray of faith makes him adhere the
.

more invariably to this proposition and if the help o f ,

conte mplation is added to special medit ation and to faith ,

these three operations united in which faith perfects

,

re ason and contemplation forties faith make it so certain ,

and so sensible a truth of religion that together they create

a happy necess ity of belief While on the other hand
.
,

those m any Christians who do not exercise themselves in

the practice of faith nd it a trouble and a captivity to
believe what it teaches .

You see therefore P hilothea that contemplation is

, , ,

no t an act of reason as meditation is ; it is rather an a ct o f

intelligence acquired by the light of faith which teaches
us that God is in us , and we a re in G od Contempl ation .
 D IALO G UE II I 1 01

is establis hed by the continual exercise the presence of of

Go d ; it is puried and perfected by the help of grace

which calls us attracts us establis hes us and preserves
, , ,

us in this wholly luminous and loving way of the D ivine ,

in which the soul declares continuously whil e saying ,

nothing that God is and in this truth it tastes other par

, ,

t i cul ar truths without either meditating or reasoning .

I s ay the s ame of the affection which follows this know

ledge for as the various considerations of God collect
,

togeth er and unite and meet in one sole idea which co m

prises them all S o too the distinct affections we have
, , ,

formed for God produce a univers al affection in which we

taste with much sweetness all the other affections S t . .

Fran c ois de S ales in the fth chapter o f his Treatise of the

L ove of God call s it a quintessence o f affectio ns a nd a

,

contemplative affection It is thus that one sees in
.

o ne comprehens ive glance all the be auties of a meadow ,

that one smells at the same moment all the different

owers of a bouquet that one hears simultaneously all
,

the different instruments of an orchestra without such ,

mingling of sight or s cent or sound in any way confusin g

the senses affected On the contrary they are marvellously
.
,

refreshed by the variety of u nited things and by the ,

union of m any different things But as the spirit is more .

universal and more lofty than the senses it has more p o wer ,

to u nite and S implify things whether through knowledge ,

or through love and the more the ide as that are

,

comprehended by it the more they are proportioned to

,

its excellence and its nobility .

P hilothea But how is this a ct which o ne calls intelli

.

gence more S imple and more pe rfect than reasoning ?

D i rector It is simpler because in its unity it comprises
.

the multiplicity of other thoughts just in the s ame way as ,

a piece of gold which is small and light contains th e value

1 02 SE C OND TREATISE
of many silver and copper coins o f less value S o that .

this act by which I say God is and which has pass ed into
,

a xed regard o f the D ivine comprises in itself all that

,

I know of God even although I do not stir up all my

,

particular and distinct knowledge o f Him ; and it is certain

that the faith and grace of contemplation make it more
pure and more universal Fro m which comes this height
.

and plenitude in which the s oul sometimes nds itself ,

and during which it cannot express its joy It would .

certainly d o so if its knowledge were anything but a

confused memory ; as when one looks at several things
at once which o ne can afterwards enumerate in general
but not in particular The soul is lled by something
.

which unites it and awakes it in itself Th at is why .

when one calls this act a confused act the term confused ,

does not signify anyt hing which troubles or embarrasses the

spirit ; it signies only that it is no t a distinct act of some
D ivine perfection but an act which contains in its elf the
,

idea o f G o d in an obscure general and unifying manner

, .

This a ct is also more perfect than reasoning because in

reasoning the soul speaks while in this act it enjoys
, .

Reasoning even in matters of faith convinces the soul

, ,

by its principles but here the soul i s rather illumined tha n

,

convinced it sees rather than examines Reas oning occu

, .

pies itself i n the consideration of a word a proposition , ,

or a discourse ; but this simple sight of God supposing ,

all re asonings as things passed and known contemplates ,

i ts object in G o d Himself Every reasoning is subject to

.

a contrary reasoning and every truth to an error directly

,

opposed to it But here the s oul does not reason at all

.
,

because it knows nothing in opposition to its obj ect any ,

more than he who sees light can imagine any quality

contrary to light excepting that darkness which is not
,

a contrary qu ality but purely and simply a privation

, .
1 04 SE C OND TREATISE
this D ivine L ight does not represent anything expres s o r
distinct as to the perfe ctions of God it yet expresses and ,

distinguis hes when need arises all the special things

, ,

which together constitute the universal object of the

D ivine But Father what can I s ay to those who protest
.
, ,

that the void in which the soul sets itself in order to

receive this light more perfectly is a dangerous s us pen ,

s ion and that S t

, Teresa among others whose teaching
.
,

is wholly celestial has condemned it in her works ?

,

D irector S t Te resa i s not understood by all those

. .

who conce rn themselves with her works and especially ,

not by those pious women who boast of having her books

constantly in their hands And because I have a profound .

veneration for this S aint and because I o we her many ,

favours I will explain to you in passing what things must

,

be observed by those who read her divine works if they ,

wish to re ad them with prot and not to confound her

doctrine with the opinions they themselves have espoused .

There are three things to consider in S t Teresa ; her .

style her matter her zeal As regards her style s he wrote

, , .
,

naively and in everyday language without any rigorou s ,

method although s he does not lack some method The

, .

matters of which s he treats are for the most part high and
exalted and her doctrine is that of he aven rather than
,

of earth Her z eal is directed towards i naming souls

.

i llumined by God holding them o n their way rather,

than teaching them As s he uses everyday language and

. ,

as s he takes for granted s he is speaking to experienced

persons s he does not always explain exactly what s he
,

means ; but s he says it as well as she can for G o d ,

has communicated great and lofty things through the

weakness of her expression lest too great exactitude ,

S hould le a d to doubt as to whether it was re ally a woman

who wrote Moreover s he wrote rather to conrm those
.
 D IALO G UE III 1 05

whom heaven teaches directl y than for those s cholars

,

who seeking an exact knowledge of heavenly things only

, ,

ai m a t being able in their role as doctors t o make them ,

intelligible to those who know nothing about them and

whom God wishes to instru ct through mas ters ; no t as ,

S t Teres a intends to allow them to be savoured by those

.
,

who already know them .

It follows that her method of writing and choosing her

,

materi al being neither p remeditated nor s elf chosen s he -

,

groups many thi ngs together which ought to be con

s id ered separately if they are to be really understood ,

and that sometimes that which follows is s o different from

that which precedes it that the re are rather two distinct
subjects than one continuous subject ; our S aint all owing
herself more often to be led by G o d than to follow out ,

her own thought .

Now ins tead of realizing this method of writing m any

, ,

in reading the works of S t Teresa connect things whi ch are

.

separated and divide things whi ch are united ; that is why

there are only two kinds of people who ought to read the
luminous parts of her works those who have experience
,

and who dis tinguish the ways of God in themselves by a

nai ve repres entati on of that whi ch they possess and tho s e ,

who are learned in mystical matters and weigh things

rather than words All others who read the works of
.

S t Teresa onl y confus e or deceive themselves about things

.

which are beyond their vocation and their powers I .

except certain very humble souls they are indeed very

few who taking prot from everything humbling them
, ,

selves and at the same time rejoicin g before G o d at the

sight of those high truths bless the D ivine Majes ty equally
,

for those things they do not und erstand but which others ,

whom they esteem better than themselves savour and

practis e .
 06 SE C O N D TREATISE
The zeal of S t Teresa of which we have spoken , also
.
,

causes a holy confusion in these matters ; b ecause from

time to time she is caught up to God : sometimes too s he , ,

makes long digressions which are outs ide her subject as ,

if she had fo rgotten what s he was writing about and had

lost the thread of her discourse All this confuses and
.

b ewilders those who read without close attention without ,

experience or without doctrine S he also indulges in

, .

r epetitio ns and one deceives ones elf in taking these as

,

different subjects instead of which they are the same

,

thoughts which love or n ecessity have applied differently

, .

But I return to your question and will explain things in

,

such a way that yo u will be able to respond fully to all

the teachings of S t Teresa and to hold them in their
.

purity The suspension of which s he writes P hilothea

.
, ,

is a voluntary cessation of all operations o f the soul .

This suspension is either total or partial Total suspension .

is an absolute cessation of all operations of the soul

that we can produce by our own industry S uch cessation .

occurs in sle ep in ecstasy or in great weakness P artial

, , .

s uspension is a cessation o f some faculty of the soul ;

at one time of the understanding when the will acts ,

alone ; at another of the will when our reasoning facul

,

ties ceas e ; at another time of the memory when we no ,

longer act through remembrance This particular s us .

pension occurs even in the acts o f civil life according to

the need we have of it the soul no t b eing able to attend
,

to two acts and two things at the same time even although ,

it passes in a moment from the one to the other with such

facility that one would s ay it exercised all its faculties at
once Thus in prayer when we meditate the will is at
.
, ,

rest ; when the will draws the affections the understanding ,

i s suspended ; when we receive the memory of a mystery ,

the two other faculties await their object ; and yet we

 08 SE C OND TREATISE
These are the things S t Teres a rebukes when she speaks
.
,

of a bad or false suspension and we rebuke and ,

condemn them with her But the suspension which is

.

practis ed in the exercise of contemplation is not a sus

pension of the faculties of the soul ; for the understanding
i s occupied with the pre s ence of G o d the will is inamed ,

by H is love the memory recalls His perfection All this

, .

takes place in an immediate lively and gentle way the under

, ,

standing being the motive power the will and the memory ,

letting themselves go without effort and almost without

application at the impulse of the unders tanding Just
, .

as when the surface o f the sea has been struck by a stone ,

one circle produces another circle and others follow from ,

the impulse of the rst ; even s o the soul is not purely ,

suspended by the a ct of contemplation but gently and ,

imperceptibly plunged in its object .

P hi lothea Yet it does seem to me th at this void of every

.

So rt o f image is a suspension .

D i rector It is true that it is a suspension but it is a

.
,

suspension of distinct and p articul ar acts in order to give ,

place to a general and univers al a ct of the presence o f

God ; thus the soul is always occupied and always lled .

It is to suspend a lesser good for a more perfect good ; or

to express it better it is to free the soul from the weight
,

o f its many thoughts and reasonings to enlighten and ,

p urify it rather than to suspend it .

But P hilothea the souls which are not called to this

, ,

exercise or who do not understand how to a chieve it do

, ,

themselves great violence in order to attain it ; they worry

and vex their spirit horribly in order to arrest it and
,

suspend it in spite of itself urged by envy of those who

,

contemplate whol esomely ; and after judging others by

their o wn experience they call contempl ation a sus
,

pension a perpetual distraction a vexation a lazines s a

, , , ,
 D IALO G UE III 1 09

drowsiness and a hundred other names which merely
mark their own inquietude or little intelligence .

P hi lothea Is the soul passive in contempl ation o r only

.
,

active ?
D i rector To be pas sive is to receive something in
.

oneself in such a way that o ne does no t contribute either

to the receiving or the producing of it Thus we s ay .

that wood is passive in regard to re because it receives ,

in itself the action of the re and does not produce it , .

Air is p as sive as regards light ; a canvas on which we paint

a picture is passive as regards the brush ; seeing that the
,

air makes no action in order to receive light and the canvas ,

does not bestir itself t o receive the picture about to be

p ainted o n it The soul therefofe will be purely passive
.
, ,

if it does not accompany the impression it receives with

any movement but allows itself to be a cted upon without
,

doing anything of itself except giving itself up and

,

ab andoning itself to the agent .

But in the things of God the soul may be considered

,

passive in two ways : passive as regards principle and ,

p assive as regards action As to the rst we s ay that a

.
,

soul is pas sive in regard to the grace which cause s it to

act more especially as such grace is not a natural o r
,

acquired principle but a principle purely infused by the

, ,

help of which the soul produces actions just and agree able
to God We s ay als o that it is p as s ive as regards faith
. ,

because faith i s an infused light which is not produced

by the operations of the soul but by the help of which the
,

soul believes that which is above both nature and reason .

Regarding this you will observe P hilothea that two , ,

things contribute to the action of the soul ; a faculty and a ,

related principle which determines this faculty and the

kind of act For him who wishes to produce philosophic
.

reasoning it is no t enough that he should possess the

1 10 SE C OND TREATISE
faculty of understanding ; it is necessary that he should
also have the habit of philosophic thinking in order to ,

produce his reasoning with understanding And for him .

who wishes to reason about worldly things or about his ,

own family it is necess ary that as well as understanding

, , ,

he should also have sufcient knowledge o f the things o f

which he wishes to reason In the same way he who
.
,

wishes to reason about G o d must have knowledge of

God to serve as the principle of his reasoning If this .

knowledge is acquired by science it is a principle which

,

t he soul has built up for itself by a succes s ion o f acts ,

and s o we do not s ay that the soul must be passive in

order to possess such a principle for it has not received
,

it it has formed it But when Go d through His liberality

, .

gratuitously communicate s to the soul a ray which passes ,

or even a light which remains o r some other excellent gift

, ,

by the help o f which the s oul afterwards produces thoughts

and affections which are conformed to His grace then the ,

soul is passive as far as the principle is concerned ; it has

no t produced it from i ts o wn depths it has received it
, .

The soul may be considered passive in the second place , ,

as r egards the action ; this will be so if the action o f the

soul is produced by G o d in the soul without the soul ,

cont ributing anything to it F or example if God besides

.
, ,

the principle of faith which He has communicated to the

soul produced in it also the acts by which it believes and
, ,

if besides the supernatural quality of charity He produced

, ,

also in it acts of love then the soul would be passive both

,

as regards principles and actions Now P hilothea the

. , ,

general opinion o f theologians accepts the rst manner

in which the soul is passive ; recognizing an innity of
supernatural help whether in the act itself or in the habit
, ,

both o f which are given gratuitously to the soul in the order

o f its salvation and in the production o f which it h as no
,
1 12 SECOND TREATISE
example of the b eatic vis ion ; where the soul after having ,

been reclothed in light and glory and raised to a state in

which it i s in complete union with G o d once supposing ,

this elevation knows God by its own knowledge loves

, ,

Him with its own love adores Him praises Him glories
, , ,

Him by actions which are entirely its own If this can .

take place in a state of beatitude in which the soul is s o

strongly drawn away from its own natural state then with ,

more reason can the soul act by its own actions in all the
states of grace however lofty they can possibly be and it
, ,

is then only moved and actuated by God as a help and

aid to its own e fforts 1
.

This doctrine being thus established I say that if con ,

t empl atio n is supernatural the soul is passive in the

,

exercise of contemplation because of the principle of the

gift or of the help which is infused in it whether actually ,

o r h abitually But if the contemplation is only acquired

. ,

that is to s ay if it is a habit of holding oneself in the presence

o f God with more or less facility according to the progress
,

o f each soul then the so ul is not p as sive because its

, ,

principle is produced and acquired in i ts o wn depths and

i s nothing but a habit of regarding God always present .

It is very true that even in acquired contemplation ,

there are two supernatural states : grace which draws us ,

and solicits us to regard God P resent and faith which , ,

furnishes us with motives so to do and light to hold us

there ; but this grace is not properly Speaking the habit
, ,

o f contemplation neither is faith properly speaking con

, , ,

t empl atio n These are only the supernatural virtues

.

which a ccompany and fortify contemplation just as the ,

1
This p y p w
long and erfectl orthodox assage, i th i ts careful d is crimi na
ti ons , ought to b e enough by
i ts elf to d efend Mal aval from th e charge of

q uieti sm p p w
I t s tates the ri nci les hi ch govern the hole of his t eachi ng ;
. w
and s hould b e borne i n mi nd w
hen jud gi ng t he si gnicance of i solated
references to p ass i ve ra er p y .
 D IALO G UE III 13

S ame grace and faith help us on the countless other occa

sions in which we act by our o wn habits For contempla .

tion to be entirely supernatural must be so not only in

, , ,

i ts motive and in its a ttrai t but also in i ts habit ; which is

,

a quality infused by God independent of the soul as

,

much in the manner of its production as in the manner

of its action Or at least the soul must sometimes receive
.

supernatural help which raises it even if the habit has not

,

yet been given to it .

P hilothea I have understood two things it seems to

.
,

me from what you have just s aid The rst is that o f

, .

ourselves we can produce nothing o f the supern atural ,

unless a supern atural principle is communicated to us but ,

also that by means of this principle the acts of the under

s tanding and the will are our o wn That helps me to
.

understand those passages in S t P aul where he says

.
,

that we cannot think anything ourselves as of ourselves ,

and that we cannot even pronounce the name o f Jesus ,

except with the help of the S pirit of God By which the .

Apostle means to s ay that we require a permanent gift o r at ,

least an actual grace to raise our souls which are merely

, ,

p as sive and receptive in regard to this supernatural aid ,

but that following this gift o r grace they act love think , , ,

by their own proper action .

And I realize now much more clearly the difference

between the two kinds of contemplation ; the one is a
s upernatural and gratuitous gift the other an acquired
,

habit accompanied by these two supern atural conditions ,

grace which draws us and faith which furnishes the matter

and the motives for putting us in the pres ence of God .

But alas "my Father how this teaching bars the way
,

to the solution o f many o f the difculties which have

been put before me S ome s ay that if contemplation is
.

a gift o f G o d i t is foolishness to aspire to it through mere

,
1 14 SE C O N D TREATISE
method ; othe rs insist that there can be thus no exercise
of contemplation .

But i s it necessary that a spiritual person should recog

nize in hims elf when contemplation is supernatural and
when it is acquired ?
D i rector No P hilothea th at distinct feeling is not at
.
, ,

all neces sary ; the nature of the contemplation cannot even

be discerned by natural s igns The knowledge a soul
.

would have of its own elevation might lead it into pride

and caus e it to lose all its favours Neither would its .

faith be s o greatly exercised and moreover such actual

, ,

knowledge making it s ee its obligation s ve ry clearly would

, ,

cause it to make too great efforts to comply with these

obligations o r else would throw it into despair of ever
,

being able to co oper ate faithfully That is why G o d s o

-
.

wisely directs the work of our salvation that He takes us

by the hand without letting us see the way He is leading
us save what is necessary and a ccording to the capacity
,

of each o ne .

The S aviour of the world made Himself known to the

Jews yet nevertheless He always hid Himself from them
, .

He let them know His wonderful charity and His vast

knowledge which penetrated right into their he arts ; and
,

He showed them the power He had over all creatures ,

which was manifested by an innite numb er of miracles .

All this was more than sufcient to convince the Jews

that He was a man sent by God who would do them all
,

manner of good and who could not be associated with any

sort o f evil
.

But as they did not respond to thos e powerful demon

s t rat io ns they did not deserve to advance farther and ,

they themselves obstructed by their hardness of heart

, ,

the channel of grace which would have made them aware

that Christ was the veritable S on of God and would have
1 16 SE C O N D TREATISE
so eminent in graces and lights yet doubted whether ,

God had pardoned his sins ; and that was one of the things
he wished to know from his sister who appeared to him ,

after her death bearing the marks of her glory and her joy .

S o that if grace which is the portion of all the just

, ,

and without which no one can call himself a child of

God i s not recognized by those who possess it even
, ,

although it is this grace in them which makes them active

in every good work according to these words of the
,

Apostle As many as are led by the S piri t of God they

, ,

are the sons of God ; if grace is not recogniz ed one ,

must not pr esume that supernatural contemplation will

be recognized with the necessary cle arness by those to
whom God communicates it The more so that if it is the .
,

gift of wisdom one of the gifts of the Holy S pirit which

, ,

more particularly exercises its inuence on the soul one ,

would infallibly recognize grace in recognizing such a gift

which is ins ep arable from it ; o r if as some think it is a, ,

gift distinguished from the seven others it is nevertheles s , , ,

always a gift from God which is incompatible with mortal

sin and in cons equence of which o ne would always take
, ,

for granted that one was in the grace of God This is .

not of course necessary for the good of man ; who to the

, ,

end must work out his salvation with fear and trembling .

Never as k therefore whether your contemplation is

, ,

acquired or whether it is supernatural but co operate ,

-

faithfully with the S pirit of God which bloweth where

it listeth according to the Gospel ; you will never know
,

whence it came nor whither it goeth For P hilothea . , ,

if the just knew whence the spirit came which moves them
and impels them they would know as s uredly that it was
,

the S pirit of G o d seeing that the S pirit o f G o d can only

,

come from God .

It follows from th at also th at the s ame e ffects which

 D IALO G UE III 1 17

derive from supernatural co ntemplation may derive from ,

a cquired contemplation for we s ee that al l the virtues which

,

compose th e body of sanctity are conferred by God by

different means S ome souls obtain all their graces
.

through prayer others through penitence others by the

, ,

frequent receiving of the Holy S acrament others by the ,

faithful exercis e of a p articular virtue such as chastity , ,

pati ence gentleness charity towar ds the poor or some other

, , ,

virtue which draws all blessings down upon them In the .

same way that which God gives gratuitous ly following

, ,

th e gift of infused contemplation He may also give by ,

way of reward for th e exercise of acquired contemplation ;

which as I will presentl y S how you is of even greater
, ,

merit even although it is a great good to have supernatural

,

contemplation .

It is for the same reason that the signs of acquired con

t emplati on which we discus sed in the previous dialogue
, ,

ar e not di fferent from those o f supernatural contemplation ;

both of them suppose vocation tend towards the same end

, ,

and may produce the same e ffects .

It is true that as sanctifyin g grace which cannot be ,

recogni z ed by infallible signs may be recogniz ed by

,

r easonable and mo ral conjectures infus ed contemplation

,

also has S igns by which we may recognize in some meas ure

that it resi d es in the soul A gentle strong and continuous
.
, ,

presence of G o d ; a profound peace a mi dst the affairs and

distractions of the world ; an inux of love and light on
occas ions on which thoughts and affecti ons present them
selves spontaneously without trouble and without being
,

sought after ; detachment from things of the world which

fort i es the sense of presen ce ; and nally a powerful
a ttrai t which leads us t o recollectionth es e are some of
, ,

the eas ily recognized signs of contemplati on But ea ch .

one mus t rather recogniz e it in others than in hims elf and

1 18 SE C OND TREATISE
a ct sincerely and without reection seeking with all , hi s
strength to love G o d holding himself in H is presence ,
,

and desiring to live unknown to himself .

P hi lothea Certainly, provided that we d o ascend towards

.

heaven we need never look to see whether the steps are

o f marble or concrete ; it matters only that we continue to

ascend by whatever means it may be I remember, when .

we were children we used to have little feasts on leaden

,

plates and dishes and we thought our sweets as delicious as

,

if they had been served on silver vessels God will attract .

me to Himself in the way that pleases Him ; He does not

tell me to examine His a ttrai t but to follow it faithfully
,

I was created for nothing but to obey Him .

D i rector This is moreover the ordinary procedure o f

.
, ,

God though His supreme will does not bind itself to

proceed always in the same way that souls pass from
meditation to affective prayer from affective prayer to
,

ordinary contemplation from ordinary contemplation to

,

infused contemplation one kind of prayer thus serving

,

as a step and dispos ition to the other .

P hi lothea Is it possible that infused and a cquired

.

contemplation may be met with together in the same

person ?
D i rector I have already s hown yo u suffi ciently how
.

difcult it would be to distinguish the one from the other ,

and I have no doubt at all that they can occur together .

We s ee that reason often exercises itself over the objects

of faith because faith does not destroy the exercise of
reason ; there is therefore no difculty in believing that
, ,

one can contemplate by an acquired habit when o ne

aims at the same end as when o ne contemplates by a
,

supernatural gift God Himself raising us up to do s o ;

,

it being clearly evident that infused help communicates

a certain supplenes s and facility to the understanding which
1 20 SE C OND TREATISE
this exercise that which they had lost by their own
,

indelity or by a D ivine dispensation It happens some

.

times to certain souls to be reduced to powerlessness

to use their habitual contemplation whether such power
,

lessness arises from an introversion which binds the

faculties or from an attrai t of the S pirit of God which
, ,

though it l eaves the soul full liberty and power of action

,

yet commands it interiorly to remain inactive But .

such a state is an extraordinary state and it is very

,

necessary before accepting it as such to make great

, ,

e fforts to s ee whether it really comes from God for fear

,

of encouraging our laziness or our pride by presuming we

possess such a grace .
 D IALO G UE I V
l
Tha t God, p ure and ineable, abs tracted from all p articu ar thought,
l
is the object of p erfect contemp lation, even a though, when we so des i re,
we can contemp late other D i vine things .

P hi lothea What joy it is to contempl ate the G o d of

.

gen tleness and to press closely to our hearts by holy

,

charity the Innite Object of our love " He who could

,

think incessantly of God or receive all other thoughts in

His presence would have found P aradise o n e arth and
,

would never be crushed under the weight of earthly things .

I know this truth very well yet I am so unfo rtunate that

,

my own weakness makes me more afraid than true con

d ence in God makes me courageous I raise myself up
.

to God and afterwards all at once I fall back o n myself

, ,

and from the moment that I begin to delight in G o d ; an

upri s mg of nature comes to trouble my joy ; some worldly
sound disturbs my peace ; some importunate creature
sn atches from my mouth the morsel of honey I was about
to eat . Happy are those who are de ad to all things who ,

do not feel the pricks of the world and never turn away
,

from the embraces o f the Beloved whatever noi s e and

,

tumult may be going on around their hearts But Father .

, ,

those who take from me the sensible s weetness o f my

peace are powerless to take from me the faith which
produces it and I remain invariably united and attached
,

to my God by His continual presence even though such

,

people cry out from time to time : Where is now your
God ? Can G od be your familiar and present object
in this earthly life ? No one has ever known God in
12 1
122 SECO N D TREATISE
Himself but always some work of G o d God P ure can
, .

only be the object of the blessed It i s an extreme of .

temerity to consider Him in this life apart from our ,

terms and reasonings and to wish to savour that which God

,

is not seeing that we can taste at our ease that which He

,
1
appears to be in creatures I assure you Father in the .
, ,

presence of G o d that such talk morties me not indeed for

, ,

myself but for many others Because for all the subtlety
, .
,

of such people I do no t leave God and God does not

,

leave me ; and I s ay in a transport : All men are liars if ,

truth does not itself teach them And truth never teaches .

those who inate themselves with passions not even those ,

who so inate themselves in defence of the truth It is a .

strange thing that those who disagree with me would like

me to believe th at I did not s ee the sun just because there ,

are people who do not s ee it They tell me that my .

contemplation is a chimera because one cannot conceive ,

it without images ; and what is more wonderful is that ,

enjoying great peace and profound tranquillity as I assure

them they undertake t o persuade me that it is not true
,

that I enjoy this peace and that if I wish to acquire it , ,

I must always meditate always think always act , , .

D i rector Once and for all P hilothea yo u must bear

.
, ,

with those who teach the contrary of what you with ,

many others enjoy and with those who believe them

, , .

D esire fo r the one and fo r the other with all your heart
the plenitude of Go d for which such people wish to sub,

s titut e good thoughts and holy images ; pray God that He

may make them taste in the spirit of truth that which has
become in their eyes a thing o f bitterness and reproach .

Instead you speak against such people ; who to my mind

, , ,

1
T o tas te t hat w
hi ch G o d is not refers to the D i on s i an negati ve y
path of cont em lati on, as o p
os ed to th e ors hi pp
of G o d as revealed i n w p
b
His attri utes and orks w .
1 24 SE C O ND TREATISE
known to the people of Israel rather by a title of power ,

seeing that He had to rescue them from the captivity of

the Egyptians ; o r by a title of goodness seeing that H e ,

wished to lead them to the P romised L and by s o many

miracles and favours ; or nally by a title of wisdom seeing ,

that He was about to overthrow the arti ces and the power
o f P haraoh ? But He s ays nevertheless in o ne word by ,

this adorable expression all that He is in order powerfully

, ,

and suddenly to arouse the faith of Israel who h ad not ,

known Him up to then save under shadows and gures ;

who had only heard Him called the God of Abraham and
o f Jacob ; and at that time found themselves amongst

ridiculous idolators who yet nevertheless were the wisest

and most learned people of the worldfor Moses him
self is praised for having been instructed in the wisdom
of Egypt . They had therefore need of an idea of the
, ,

D ivine which would abase in their spirits all images ,

whether false or true and which would represent to them

,

a grandeur with which nothing cre ated or conceived by

the human spirit c ould be compared For there is .

nothing but God which could be I AM ; creatures are

not the Being who is but that which they have received
,

from the First Being In consequence P hilothea all the

.
, ,

thoughts o f God which are borrowed from expressions

o r comparisons with created things can never arrive at
,

this noble expression of the First Being however lofty ,

they may be And the expressions the power of God

.
, ,

the wisdom of G o d , the goodness o f God d o not ,

at all signify H e who is because after o ur human and

, ,

limited manner of conceiving each attribute of the D ivine

,

is conceived separately in our minds and one of those ,

conceptions does not at all represent to us what another

represents ; but H e who is compris es all that He is and all
that we can conceive of H is perfections .
 D I ALO G UE IV 125

This great N ame was reveal ed to Moses before

the L aw becaus e it is more excellent than all the terms
,

o f the L aw a nd the P rophets and because the L aw and

,

the P rophets explained nothing but this Name Now when .

the contempl ative soul rais ed by a movement of grace

, ,

represents God in Himself without any express or distin ct

notion it says this S overeign Name without saying it ; the
,

more that it proposes to regard God P erfect Innite and , ,

sep arated from every created thing which could not be ,

done save by this universal concept of the Being of Beings ;

an idea which in a short time is no longer an idea but a t as te ;
no longer a thought but an experience ; no longer a S ig
ni cant expression but a s atisfying sentiment a vivifying ,

light a knowledge wholly e ffective and wholly affective

, , ,

and neither dry nor scholastic as many people imagine it to

,

be It is the same scriptur al sense of this expression that

.

S t Thomas proves in his S umma P art 1 Question 1 3

.
, , ,

Article 1 1 ; that this name is particularly suited t o God

for three reas ons First b ecause it signies Being in s o far
.
, ,

as it is convertible with the Essence of God which is His

being I will explain myself further P hilothea When

.
, .

we say H e who is we can never mean anyt hing but God

, ,

just as when we s ay God we can only mean H e who is .

We cannot say the same of the perfection s o f God ; for

even though G o d is powerful even though He is good , ,

we cannot afrm f or that reason by a reciprocal proposi

tion that that which is good is G od that that which is
, ,

powerful is G o d the more that there are good and powerful

,

beings who are not God But when we s ay H e who is it

. ,

is necessarily God we mean and not any other Being ,

for nothing in the world is H e who is but every creature ,

which is produced is only that which God has made it

under nite and determinate conditions In just the .

s a me way that we say th a t lig ht is not s omething illu mined ,

126 SE C OND TREATISE
nor heat something hot but ea ch o ne of those qualities is
,

a separate quality and natural bodies receive them by

,

participation ; that is why they are illumined and yet are

not light why they are heated and yet are not heat
, .

All this leads us naturally to the second re ason

S t Thomas gives us for the tness of this name and that
.
,

is that it signies absolute Being without its being limited

by any form or notion as it would be if we said He who
, ,

is immense or He who is innite ; fo r t o be immense
o r to be innite is no t to be at all ; it is being limited t o

immensity o r innity That which signies immensity

.

does not signify innity and that which signies innity

does not signify immensity But he who says H e who is
.

says and comprehends in this term all that He is .

S t Thomas gives a third excellent reason fo r this ineffable

.

name and that is that it signies the present and not the
, ,

past nor the future For H e who is is not He who has

.

been nor He who will be ; H e is an unchangeable Being

who is Himself His measure and His eternity ; from whom
the past takes nothing and to whom the future brings
nothing ; who nds in Himself all that He has produced
and who already contains in Himself all that He ever will
produce S o that in saying H e who is we express all
.
,

creatures in Him of which the particular creatures which

,

pass away are in G o d an unchangeable verity which ,

does no t pass away We also express G o d present in all

.

Creature s cre ating them preserving the

, , m concurring with
,

their actions and yet not passing away when they pas s
,

away not receiving anything new when they are produced

, ,

and not awaiting anyt hing more perfect when they are
still to come .

May Thy Name be s anctied 0 Thou who art " ,

S anctify o ur nothingnes s to the end that our thoughts

may be reduced to silence to adoration to love F or
, , .
128 SE C O N D TREATISE
Be merciful un to me must always advance reasons and
motives why they should receive mercy as if they wanted ,

to convince God and who can never pray to God without

,

speaking much to Him .

But now Father, I have interrupted the thread o f your

,

discourse ; continue I pray you, to show me how o ne can

,

regard G o d without any distinct notion and explain to me

the other beauties of this Name .

D irector I am very glad you h ave made such a useful

.

digression P hilothea and while what I say sheds some

, ,

light on your mind , I see with joy that it also i names

your heart For after all why talk of God if not to make
.
, ,

Him beloved ?
Yo u have seen by the teaching we have established ,

that we can contemplate God without always having a

distinct ide a of His perfections There is nothing in .

the world which can call its elf H e who is ; there are no
thoughts whose terms respond to so high and lofty an
idea and yet, as I have said to you this idea, in dying
, ,

away transforms its elf in the contemplative into some

,

thing real and permanent which lls the soul with the
being of God in a very excellent way and which embra ces ,

all perfection in the universal idea with which it enriches

the soul A P rophet was in bygone days commanded to
.

e at a book and theologians still call wisdom a savouring

,

o f knowledge , and s o this thought of G o d is the taste ,

the support and nourishment of the soul and H e who is

, ,

vivi es him who i s not .

Here is another proof of this doctrine taken from the book

o f Genesis In the beginning God created the heaven
.

and the earth says the S cripture God is therefore neither

, .

heaven nor earth nor anything contained in heaven or

earth angels or men All our most universal and most
, .

s ublime terms have some rel ation to th at which God has

 D IALO G UE IV 129

created and in consequence He cannot be expressed by

,

o ur te rms If we contemplat e Him as good or powerful

. ,

we mark the relation He has t o created things ; o r if you ,

wish the relation He does not have as when we say

, ,

that H e is not nite not changeable not subj ect to time

, , .

S u ch contemplation may be practised in a most praise

worthy and useful way but that is not t o contemplate ,

G o d P ure and sol ely in Hims elf ; that i s no t to represent

to ourselves the Being of Beings ; it i s to limit Him by a
co nception which has a ne cessary relation to c reated things .

P hilothea But does that not also happen when we con

.

ceive God as H e who is ? D oes not some particular thought

or some spe c ial ti me always li mit H i m ?

D i rector It is certainly true that o ur thoughts however

.
,

vast they may be always limit our id eas by some particular

,

words or notions ; but here the signicance of this name i s

innite and universal Mor eove r o ur intention i s not to
.
,

limit our conception ; and after all this conception of God, ,

loses its elf and is absorbed in a sweet tasting of G o d ;

which without leaving the terms in the spirit leaves it the
, ,

spirit of the terms which is to contemplate G o d in Him

,

self Those words God is H e is who H e is composed of

.
, , ,

letters and syllables resemble the shell which we discard

,

when we eat the nut ; they are like the chariot of re in

which Elijah was transported ; there was no longer any
need for it from the time that he had arrived at the place
in which God had resolved to establish him .

After we have often represented to ourselves that God

is all we remain all in G o d without representing this t o
,

ourselves ; and when we represent it to ourselves again ,

we do not raise ourselves to a S tate in which we have

never been but conrm ourselves in the state in which
,

we were b efore .

Yo u need not then have any fears about limiting God ;

, ,

M
1 3 0 SE C OND TREATISE
it is an indispensable necessity to make use of a nite
term ; but the intention and the signicance perfect o ur
object ; and grace , while allowing the intention and s i g
ni cance t o d i e away leaves the obj ect in i ts plenitude
, .

P hi lothea When we raise ourselves by goodness or by

.

power do we not raise ourselves by an object which is

,

innite ? seeing that this very thought of goodness and

power when it passes has made us taste God just as
, ,

much as t he g eneral concept of which you spoke ?

D i rector It is true P hilothea that goodness and power
.
, ,

are innite ; but neither goodness nor power represent all

that G o d is ; which caused a certain famous manit was
Cardinal C j a et an to s ay that G o d was innitely innite
in innite perfections But the thought we form of o ne
.

o f His perfections limits Him to that perfe ction That .

is why in order to contemplate Him as worthily as we

,

know how we represent Him to ourselves under the

,

most general concept we can con ceive that concept mos t

, ,

separated from all created things S o that commencin g .

,

t o raise ours elves by thoughts o f His goodness or H i s

power we lose ourselves all at once in Him in losin g
, ,

the particular thought by which we raised ourselves W e .

thus enter into real and simple contemplation We are .

then like divers who not wishing to plunge at rst dee

, ,

down into the s ea whether from lack of courage or jus

,

because such is their pleasure rst make o ne or tw ,

t entative trials in the water and then plunge into th

depths with all their might when one least expects it
One can thus lose on es elf in G o d by the consideration 0
an attribut e or even o f a myste ry o r a creature whethe ,

because o ne is no t s ufciently accustomed to the universa

concept o f the pure D ivinity or whether one acts thus i
order to obey the a ttrai t one is conscious of towards s o m
particular attribute But all the same it is true that t h
.
1 32 SE C O N D TREATISE
same conception eve n though all that is in G od is God
, ,

without any distinction Ordinary people P hilothea put

.
, ,

this more familiarly for they form an idea of all that

,

they know of God the most p erfect and the most excellent
,

Being they can conceive and they bas e their belief o n this
,

idea sustained by faith when they invoke Him and when

,

they adore Him without troubling to distinguish anything

,

in particular .

Moreover S t Thomas speaking not o f Christians only

, .
,

but of all men s ays that we have all instinctively a vague

,

knowledge of the existence of God Here are his own .

words : It is a thing instinctively imprinted o n our

spirits to know under some universal term and in a vague
manner that God is in so far as God is the Be atitude of
,

man Because man instinctively desires his happiness

.
,

and that which man instinctively desire s he must instin o

t ively know ( S umma : P art 1 Question 2 Article , ,

What would you not s ay of a Christian assis ted by the

lights of faith and the inuence of grace when the Gospel ,

says he must love God above all things with all his he art ,

and with all his soul and with all his strength ? It doe s
not add because He is good o r because H e is holy but
, , ,

supposes in this idea a P erfect Being who expresses all

those excellencie s .

We s ee also that contrition is taught to all Christians in

this way ; to detest sin because it o ffends a God innitely
good This does not signify preciselythat we must detest
.

sin because God has innite goodness towards creatures ,

though we can add this consideration to the others ; but

that s in is to be detested becaus e God is innitely good in
Himself But what is it I ask you th at we call innitely
. , ,

good in Himself ? It is s omething that an ignorant person

cannot understand ; and consequently it is rather cal
culated

and this is the intention of contrition to lead
 D IALO G UE I V 1 93

a soul to consider God as innitely good without any

distinct notion ; which is to consider God in Himself .

From which you can s ee that ap art from this condition of

,

God o ffended the object o f contemplation becomes the

,

same as that of contrition That is to s ay God considered

. ,

in H imself and for Himself This manner of considerin g

.

God in Himself is suited to the strong and the weak to ,

the sincerely ignorant and to the humbly wise fo r good ,

sense enlightened by faith stays itself on G o d because He

is all Humble wisdom knowing that all we know of
.
,

God is as nothing and submitting all that it does know

, ,

plunges itself by faith into all that He is .

From whic h comes this ne saying o f S t Augustine in .

the book against Adimantus that the H oly S p i ri t wishing

,

to decla re the ineffable things of the D i vine has used exp res ,

si ons which are borrowed from the fa ul ts and weaknesses of

men; as when it says tha t God rep en ts that H e is angry , ,

that H e is touched wi th comp assion and other similar ,

expressions which surprised you P hilothea ; they seem to ,

charge G o d with our weaknesses and miseries but they ,

have been used thus in order that the indignit y of such

expressions of whi ch men are forced to make us e in order
,

t o express thems elve s may make them understand that

,

there is nothing more worthy of G od than their silence .

Thus when God made Himself man He spoke like men , ,

but when He wished to make men gods He reduced them ,

to D ivine silence .

In fact in the whole of the S ong of S ongs which con

, ,

tains the most lofty communications between G o d and

the soul between God and the Church between God and
, ,

the humanit y o f Jesus Christ according to the three ,

senses in which it is explained we nd nothin g but ,

simil itudes taken from gardens pasturages and the most, ,

ordinary everyday things connected with shepherds in ,

 34 SE C O N D TREATISE
order to teach us that it is more necessary to pay attention
to that whi ch G o d communicates to the soul than that
which is expressed in the S ong and that the farther the ,

words were separated from the Majesty of God the nearer ,

the interior sense approached H im If God chose com .

parisons taken from very loft y things we might think ,

that there might be some proportion between these lofty

things and God ; but we suspect nothing of that kind from
humble and rustic expressions One would think o n the
.
,

contrary that the more God disguised Hims elf the more
, ,

He would hide Himself just as it would be easier to

,

recognize a great king under the dress of a simple gentle

man than under that o f a valet But seeing that only the.

humblest spirits appreciate the subl im ity of the D ivine

operation God makes use o f the humblest and most
,

simple language which is only to be understood by the

,

humble in spirit .

There is therefore nothing P hilothea which expresses

, ,

G o d more perfectly and more nobly than silence ; for o n

the one hand sublime exp ressions might lead us to con
,

ceive some proportion between the nite and the innite ;

while o n the other hand humble words might drive away

,

such thoughts altogether if God Hims elf d i d not furnish

,

them only to absorb them at once After S ilence only .

love knows how to speak worthily of G o d and there ,

is nothing but love which understands that which love

says But love neither speaks nor understands save when
.

o ur knowledge has ceased and when we of ourselves

,

renounce it by abandoning our minds to G o d according ,

t o the a ttrai t o f each one .

We may conclude therefore that the object o f perfect

, ,

contemplation is God sought in interior silence ; but G o d

experienced God tasted God drawing us God raising
, , ,

us up in a very pure and very spiritual manner ; and this

 D IALO G UE V
That the humani ty of Our L ord J esus Chris t is a s trength
to Contemp lation, and how i t is to b e made use of 1
.

P hi lothea All wicked and full of sin as I am Father

.
, ,

I always feel a gentle love for Our L ord Jesus Christ ; and
I can call this love my earthly P aradise in such a way that
my soul is continuously steeped and soaked in sweetness .

I only need to look ceaselessly at Our L ord Jesus Christ

and I am in perpetual consolation When I hear the .

words of the Gospel and chiey those which fell from the
,

lips o f my dear Master it seems to me as if He were here

,

present or as if He Himself put those words into my

,

heart Everything I hear said about Jesus Christ unites

.

me gently to Him ; and then something happens to me

which I do not know if I can explain .

D i rector Explain it to me as well as yo u can P hilothe a

.
, ,

and I will supply what is lacking in your explanation .

P hilothea If I am distracted Father and someone

.
, ,

spe aks to me o f Jesus Christ something t akes place ,

within me like what happens to a pot which is on the re,

seething over with bubbles ; when someone pours a little
cold water on it all at once the bubbles die away and
, ,

that which is within the pot settles quietly down The .

1
Thi s di alo gue i s cruci al fo r the unders tandi ng of Mal aval s doctri ne

.

b
T he mai n charge ro ught agai ns t hi m by
B os s uet was t hat o f i gno ri ng the
w y
h umamty o f Ch ri s t : an accus atio n to hi c h all m s ti cs o f the theo centri c
typ e g t h e author o f t h e C loud of Unknowi ng and even S t Jo hn o f t he

e . . .

p
Cros s l ay t hems elves o en i n t h ei r mo re unguard ed utterances M alaval s

.

p os i ti on, as s et fo rth h ere, i s i n l i ne w

i th thes e great and o rthodox t each ers ;
p b by y
t ho ugh ro a l hi s meamng W i ll o nl b e full und ers tood y by
t hos e keenl y
py p
ali ve to the meta h s i cal as ect o f reli gi o us ex eri ence p .

1 36
 D IALO G UE V 1 37

name of Jesus a word of Jesus an act of Jesus of which

, , ,

any o ne talks to me or of which I think myself arrests

, ,

my spirit all at once calms it quietens it recollects it

, , , ,

and rais es it from the distraction in which it was in such ,

a way that one might s ay it was carried in a moment into

some serene and tranquil clime where it no longer hears
the noise of the world and no longer sees the crowd of
things which before importuned it .

D i rector But does this calm last long P hilothea ?

.
,

P hi lothea It lasts as long as my appli cation ; but nature

.

is weak and soon falls back into its ordinary distractions .

All the same it seems to me that afterwards they are not

,

so great nor so turbulent as those from which the soul has

just freed itself just in the same way as the pot which
,

I us ed as a comparison continu es to boil but not with ,

such agitation or vehemence as before .

D i rector Now supposing yo u had a devout thought

.

which was not of Jesus Christ would it produce the

same effect in you ?
P hi lothea It might recollect my sp i r i t to the truth for
.
,

I have learnt in the S chool o f Contemplation to recollect

myself with all things with men with animals with , ,

plants with everything o ne sees in the world and with

,

everything one hears whether good or ill and th at gently

, ,

in one moment in regarding simply that which seems to

,

have as its end the Almighty G o d who mad e it or permits

it ; just as there are certain fruits and ce rtain herbs of
which one tastes and eats nothing but the extremities .

But the thought of Jesus Christ does not simply bring

about recoll ection ; it leaves the sensible presence of Jesus
in the soul and a very delicate savour o f His company
, .

D i rector Is this presence an image a representat ion of

.
,

he P erson or of t he past acts o f Our L ord ?

P hilothea It is not an image it is a sentime nt of Je s us
.
,
1 38 SE C OND TREATISE
Christ present It is as when o ne walks With a friend
.

whom o ne does not constantly look at while one walks

with him but of whose company o ne has evident certitude
, .

This sentiment is most exquisite but it is difcult to ,

explain ; s o much s o that if God had taken it from me it ,

would be impossible for me to recall to myself what it

was like . But I have this presence nevertheless nearly
,
, ,

always wh en I wish it not by exciting my imagination or

,

my memory to repr es ent anything to myself for in that ,

case I could explain precisely that which I represent to

mys elf but a word of Jesus Christ s re calls this sensible
,

presence to me sometimes stronger sometimes weaker

, , ,

according as it pleases God to give it to me .

As for the taste which accompanies it always what can ,

I s ay to you of that ? I will make us e of the comparison

S t Bernard uses in speaking of Jesus Christ When we
. .

have taken a mouthful of honey and have swallowed it all ,

there still remains to us a sweetness which is no t the

distinct savour of honey but a certain impression a certain ,

delicious sensation like the satisfaction o ne feels after one

has eaten This taste o f Jesus Christ is an intimate and
.

subtle sweetness in the depths of the soul which holds it

enchanted in the presence of Jesus Christ and in truth , ,

Father greater or more vigorous application does not

,

augment it as it would a sweetness received by the senses ;

for the soul has nothing o f this sweetness save that which
God pours into it and it is always communicated in pro
,

portion to the presence of Jesus Christ .

D i rector I bl ess God for you P hilothea because of this

.
, ,

savour And if it proceeded from any other principle

.

than from grace I would bless it both for the sincere

, ,

intention with which yo u receive it and the good us e you

make o f it But I beg of you one more question : When
.
, ,

you think of the different states of Jesus Christ does His ,

1 40 SE C O N D TREATISE
D i rector
That is true P hilothea it is said in a hundred
.
,

pl a ces in the Gospel that Christ came only to make us

love and know His Father and in the same way that He ,

formerly made us e of clay to give S ight to the eyes of the

blind s o He makes us e of the body of His humani to
,

open the eyes of our souls And as the clay fell when .

the eyes of the blind man were opened so that thought ,

of His humanity vanishes to let us gaze in peace on

His D ivinity Thus Jesus Christ causes in us perfect
.

recognition of His Father ; fo r as His Father has drawn

us to Himself according to the words of the Gospel ,

N o man cometh un to the F ather b ut by Me so He brings ,

us back t o the bosom of the Father by the power which

has been given Him and as soon as we have received His
humanity in thought it raises us to His D ivinity The
, .

S aviour of the world is a magnet P hilothea ; all needles ,

touched by Him turn infallibly towards this pole ; I mean

to s ay that all souls touched by His virtue always point
towards God .

P hilothea H ow is it then Father that this ques tion

.
.

, , ,

i s always put fo rward : Whether those who are in the way

t

o f contemplation must always have the holy humanity

o f Jesus Christ present in their minds ? S ome writers

insist that this thought must never leave them .

D irector I have never read any author who said in s o

.

many words that it was necessary to abandon the humanity

of Jesus Christ ; nor on the other hand have I read any
, ,

author who taught that we must keep it ceaselessly before

our eyes Those two p ropositions go to the two extremes :
.

the one must leave it the other must never leave it There
, .

is some misunderstanding among writers who advance such

extremes but if they are truly spiritual they are in accord
, ,

as regards foundations for the Holy S pirit who leads them

, ,

never contradicts Hims elf And even though in my First

. ,
 D IALO G UE v 1 41

Treatise I instructed you sufciently on this point and ,

although you proted by it I should like nevertheless, , ,

to explain it more fully and to furnish re asons for what I

,

am about to s ay in order that you may instruct others

, .

It is therefore certain P hilothea that at whatever

, ,

elevation we may have arrived we must never abandon ,

the holy humanity of Jesus Christ ; but here is the way

in which we ought to preserve His presence One can .

retain the humanity of Jesus Christ in three ways The .

rst way is to consider the mysteries and actions of H is

life ; the second is to represent an image of His P erson to
ourselves and hold it fast in o ur imagination ; the third
,

is to think of Him through the understanding or remind ,

oneself of Him through the memory All three methods .

are good but one may be more protable than the other
, ,

according to the time the soul in que s tion and the

, ,

particular state of each .

There is a time for all Christians to consider the mysteries

of Jesus Christ : the Church putting the chief mysteries

before them once a year and r ecapitulating them in the

Holy Mass which is the memorial the idea and the crown
, , ,

of the whole life o f Christ Those who give themselves

.

to the life o f devotion do more th an the general body

,

of Christians ; they remind themselves of those mysteries

from time to time and make them the ordinary subject

,

of their meditations Above all those commencing this

.
,

life propose to themselves the life o f Christ as the model

of the perfect life ; studying H is life with care and con ,

s id eri ng it step by step in order t o follow it

, , But as it .

is the object of Jesus Christ to lead men to His Father

and to pure D ivinity there comes a time when spiritual
,

souls accustomed to a felt familiarity with the S aviour

, ,

pass from the mysteries of His life to the consideration of

the D ivine P erfections the Goodnes s, the Immensity the
, ,
 42 SE C O N D TREATISE
All powerfulness and other excelle ncies of the D ivine
-
,

Nature And s o they leave the myste ries fo r a time but

.
,

in order to do that they do not leave Jesus Christ because ,

they have within them the habit of faith and while they ,

think of the mysteries of the Trinity of the procession of

,

the Word o f the Holy S pirit o r the Holiness o f God they

, ,

cannot have at the same time the thought of the humanity ;

, ,

they merely preserve in themselves the habitual memory

of it which it would be impossible for them to lose It is
, .

as i f we told a s on that he must never abandon his father ;

we do no t m ean t o oblige him to keep his eyes constantly
xed o n him but to hold him fast in his memory and to
, ,

go to him at the time and in the place that he should go

,

to him And thus a Christian while he advances in

.
,

perfection does not meditate s o often on the mysteries

, ,

in which he is already instructed ; but he preserves in

himself the faith and the love of Christ being ready to do ,

for Him everything He may inspire in h i m He thus acts .

a ccording to his Master s precepts even though he doe s

,

not keep them constantly b efore his eyes .

There are others who, not content with considering

the mysteries s et before their m inds an image of Jesus
,

Christ and accustom their imaginations to represent His

P erson t o th emselves with a certain aspect or countenance
as if they actually s aw Him acting and s uffering In some .

souls such an image becomes s o xed and so familiar that

one may s ay their hea rts are a perpetual oratory in which
they pray to Jesus Christ at their ease s eeing Him speaking
, ,

t o Him and seeming to have Him at their disposition

, If .

such souls are pious and simple, such a representation does

them no more harm than they would receive from often
gazing at a crucix o r a picture of Jes us Christ .

There are other souls who give a different form to such

representations according to the different mysterie s on
,
 1 44 SE C OND TREATISE
P hilothea Even had I not the grace I have just heard
.

you speak of there are certainly Father many bonds

, , ,

which bind me inseparably to Jesus Christ ; faith in the

Incarnation which I could never lose ; thoughts of the
mysteries when they present themselves to my mind ,

living simple and lovely without form or shape and

, , ,

without images ; and nally the practice of the Christian

virtues and the S acraments of the S aviour a d ouble ,

channel of salvation and perfection which no one can

i gnore That is why I cannot understand wh at those
.

contemplatives are who think themselves able to leave the

humanity of Jesus Christ unless it be that there are souls
,

who cannot think as they should of Jesus Christ unless

they see Him and touch Him ; or others again who imagine

that it is necessary always to remember Him actually as ,

if the habit of faith we re not enough .

D i rector I t is certainly deplorable that among Christians

.

there is often more of what one might call images and

representations of piety than the spirit of faith which
ought to live in them We always want to love and
.

adore by gures without going to the substance of

things and we stop at the means without going to the
,

end We must seek Jesus Christ Himself and not merely

.

His mysteries or His images The humanity has been

.

united to the D ivinity by hypostatic union till there is ,

no longer any but one and the same P erson ; it i s here that
this humanity is most precious most resplendent and , ,

most D ivine God made Himself man in order that man

.

might become God It is not therefore enough to regard

.
, ,

the humanity in the D ivinity ; for since God only abased

Himself in order to raise man up to Himself after we ,

have regarded the D ivinity as swallowed up in the

humanity we must look at the humanity raised up t o
,

union with the D ivinity .

 D IALO G UE V 1 45

Jesus C hrist s aid I am the W ay the Truth, and the L ife

, , .

If He is the Way let us follow Him ; if He is the Truth and

,

the L ife let us stay and live in Him D o not, therefore

, .
,

form or retain too many images for Truth is not an image , ,

and whosoever once rests in t he Truth will no longer seek

shadows o r images however good they may be
, .

For the same reason why feed incessantly on this ,

mystery this miracle these words of Christ ? All these

, ,

things are the food of the soul but they are not its life , .

He who is always eating either has an ins atiable hunger

which no food satises or else becomes s o fat and heavy
,

that he is weighed down by his own esh .

L et us see then that our nourishment converts itself

, ,

into substance and not i nto an insatiable vora city o r a

body weighed down by fat After we have nourished .

ourselves and lled ourselves with many words and pious

considerations it is expedient that we S hould stay by a
,

tranquil act in L ife itself in order that He who wished to

,

enter into us through His word s should Himself become

the immanent and continual Word which illu mines and

warms us .

P hilothea You to uch here on two points which I have

.

often noticed in those who occupy themselves continuously

in con sidering what the S aviour of the world has said
and done but who do not sufciently love Jesus Christ
,

Himself S ome are always in a state of hunger without

.
,

satisfying or contenting either their affection s o r their

thoughts and they remain empty and sterile of love in
,

the midst o f all their good works because they have no t

Jesus Christ for their xed and perpetual object Others .
,

o n the other hand are lled and satised with that o n

,

which they have meditated They s ay marvellous things .

of God they make magnicent discourses sometimes even

, ,

complete books and fo r all that they have no familiar

, ,

N
1 46 SE C O N D TREATISE
intercourse Wi th Jesus Christ of whom they speak s o ,

fami liarly ; and He who shin es forth s o strongly in their

discourses hardly ever reigns in their hearts The more .

that being always dissipated by a multitude of good

thoughts they do not take trouble to recollect themselves
,

in Him who gives them those thoughts nor to hold their ,

hearts in peace .

D i rector L isten to wha t S t John says about th at

. . ,

P hilothea The Word was made flesh and d wel t among us

. , ,

and we b eheld H is glory the glory as of the only begotten of the

,
-

F a ther full of Grace and Truth (John i

, As if H e had ,

wished to s ay : The Word was made esh in order that He

might dwell among us ; but after he had dwelt among us He
did not wish that we should always regard Him from the
point of view of His esh He has shown us His glory and
.
,

not only a glory which strikes the senses which dazzles ,

the imagination and which penetrates the whole soul

,

with tender sweetness like that of the Transguration ,

but a glory worthy of the S on of God come upon earth ;

that is to say a plenitude of grace and truth ; wherea s in
,

the Old Testament we saw nothing but a plenitude of

ceremonies and gures
I and My F a ther are one He says naming H i m
.

self
, ,

rst to show H is equality ; if we know the F ather we

know Jesus Christ But P hilothea who is there who
.
, , ,

o n considering the Father would wish t o feel or imagine ,

anything in himself ; and who is there who in thinking of ,

the S on would not at once plunge himself in His pure

,

D ivinity ?
I t is good to be here said S t P eter on Mount Tabo r,
, .

but Jesus Christ said once when they called H im good ,

There is none good b ut one that is God , , .

S t P eter made for himself a tabernacle and a state of

.

devotion and he did not contempl ate G od for love of

, ,
1 48 SE C OND TREATISE
it abideth alone : but if it die it bringeth forth much

fruit . If the little s eed of o ur human reason, falling
on the ground of faith which is this ground renewed by ,

the Holy S pirit does not once die it remains alone

, ,

in a very inrm and very imperfect being ; but if it

dies the mystic death of contempl ation it bears much
fruit and faith through the practice of the Christian
, ,

life becomes o ur reason and our light

, .

L et us continue o ur consideration of the m anner in

which to contemplate Jesus Christ I f I go not away .
,

says Our L ord i n John xvi the Comforter will not come ,

un to you What an astonishing what a terrible pre

.
,

diction " The Apostles have received power to work

mira cles and they have wrought them ; the S aviour of the
,

world no longer regards them as His servants but as His

friends His brethren H is children even as His associates
, , ,

in judicial power having solemnly promised them th at

,

they should judge with Him the twelve tribes of Is rael .

Nevertheless they did not yet know Je s us Christ becaus e

,

they were not yet sufciently detached from that which was
sensible in the person of Jesus Christ N evertheless I tell .

y ou th e t r uth ; i t i s ex p edi e n t f y
or ou th a t I g o a w a y And S t . .

Augustine writing on S t John explains this passage thus

, .
,

I t is expedien t for you tha t this character of servi tor which

I bear should vanish from y our ey es
, I t is true that being
.

the Word I dwell in the esh among y ou, but I do not wish
,

that y ou should con tin ue to love Me after the flesh and con ten t

y ou rs el ve s w i t h t hi s m i lk of y M s en s i b le p re se nc e Y o u .

would thus always wish to remain children I t is exp edien t

.

f y
o r ou th a t I go a w a y b e ca us e ,if I d i d n ot g o th e H oly ,

S p i ri t would not descend on y ou I f I do not take from you

.

this tender nourishmen t on which I ha ve fed y ou up ti ll

now you wi ll never hunger for the solid food which mus t
,

feed you I f you a ttach yourselves to My flesh in a

.
 D IALO G UE v 1 49

car al
n manner you will never be cap able o f recei vi ng My
S p i ri t
.

And further P hilothe a Our L ord s aid to H is Apostles

, , ,

gentl y reproachi ng them S o long h ave I been a mong

,

you and yet ye have not known Me beca us e ye have never

,

gone beyond th at which ye have seen I am H e who is . ,

an d no t onl y such as I h ave appeared t o you t o be If ye .

h ad penetrated my Being with the eyes of faith which I

h ave opened for you for nearly three ye ars you would ,

have found my Father in me and with Him the Holy ,

S pirit which proceeds from me You must not therefore

.
, ,

be sad because I go to my Father in order that I may send

you the Holy S pirit for I a m never separated from the one
,

or the other and I o nly separate Myself from you in

,

order that losing the image of My esh yo u may know

, ,

more clearly that I am one with Them .

You see that sadness had lled the hearts of the Apostles
because the humanity of Jesus Chris t was separated from
them ; and yet this separation was a necessary disposition
to allow the D ivinit y to come to them Thus when the .

esh is cast down and when all the approaches of the soul

are shut to the conside ation of s ensible thi ngs even al
r

though these may be good and holy then God nds in
the so ul a temple worthy of Hi mself There is then no .

obstacle to hinder H is work no undue atta chment to

,

any other thing to retard it The Creator lls according

.
,

to His pleas ure the whole capacity of H is creature and by

, ,

H is immensity He dil ates even more fully the depths o f

the soul whi ch ope ns itself wide in love to receive Him
and is inamed by Him at the same moment in which
He lls it .

P hilothea Alas "

. how much are t hose to be pitied who ,

while never lifting their eyes from Jesus Christ yet do ,

not re alize either H is sovereignty o r His S pirit The .

1 50 SE C OND TREATISE
esh proteth nothing said the S aviour ; what does ,

prot us is the S pirit which vivies the esh and the

D ivinity which lls it D o not therefore let us leave the
.
, ,

humanity of Jesus Christ but let us consider it as lled ,

by His virtue and His D ivinity .

D i rector L isten once more to the S aviour of the world

.
,

P hilothea who speaking with human lips and earthly

, ,

words does not c ease to impress On His disciples how

,

excellent how spiritual and how d ivine the work of His

, ,

Most Holy S pirit in a soul ought to be I f a man love Me .

he will keep My words : and My F ather wi ll love him and W e

will come un to him and make Our abode wi th him 0 God " .

how truly spiritual is this dwelling in which the Father and

the S on love each other recip rocally in man and in loving ,

each other love man For what do those words signify.

,

and My F ather wi ll love him? Is this love simply sancti

fying grace ? But grace is nothing but participation in
D ivine Charity and there is here a cohabitation of the
,

Father and the S o n Are those gifts of the Holy S pirit ?

.

But gifts are inferior to sanctifying grace ; they are nothing

but emanations and channels There is certainly some .

greater treasure concealed under those words which , ,

while it is in all just men is nevertheless not perceived ,

by them all It is G o d the Father who lives in the

.

soul of the just in a very special manner who begets His ,

S on and who with Him produces the Holy S pirit in the

,

creature as if in a new being of which Wisdom has said ,

My delights are wi th the sons of men because I am pro ,

d uced in them in a new manner and by this production

am communicated to them very intimately ; s o that that
which My Father does in eternity in begetting Me takes ,

place in tim e i n every man who has the good fortune t o

possess Me .

As then there i s nothing human in the Trinity but as

, , ,
1 52 SE C O N D TREATISE
towards the humanity of Jesus Christ which he alters ,

and varies from time to time he never nds the true way ,

to set himself at liberty .

L et us go then P hilothea from Jesus Christ to Jesus

, , ,

Christ : from the touching of the hem of H is garment to

the clos e embrace of Him who is clothed in it from t he ,

humble servitor of the Heavenly Father to His well beloved -

S on If you hold Jesus Christ fast in your heart it i s

.
,

not necessary to have His name constantly on your lips .

That which God ha th joined let not man p ut as under L et .

him never consid er the humanity separated from the

D ivinity but let him rathe r make use o f the humanity in
,

enjoying the D ivinity For the same who said H e came

.
,

not to be minis tered un to b ut to minister said also I and , ,

My F ather are one .

Only think seriously and believe rmly that there is

no name under heaven save that o f Jesus Christ in virtue
o f which we are abl e to effect our salvation and acquire our

perfection Jesus Christ entering one single time into

.
,

the S anctuary has offered Himself for us as a Host agree

,

abl e to G o d ; an immaculate Host o f innite propitiation

and eternal paci cation He has m erited for us every .

aid which could lead us to ete rnal life and He has merited

,

such aid in abundance Believe that P hilothea and you.

, ,

have found the secret of the Christian life Moreover . ,

the more living your faith the more yo u will enter into ,

close intimacy with Jesus Christ ; not in always returning

in thought to the mysteries not in constantly reo ffering ,

your oblations ; not in repeated declarations and self

recommendations but in associating yourself with a true
,

heart with Jesus Christ living and reigning with Him ,

even in this world seeing that He said The Kingdom of

, ,

God is wi thin y ou .

Tell me P hilothea if the S aviour of the world did you

, ,
 D IALO G UE v 1 53

t he honour of being with you in His visible form in such

a way that n ever leaving your side He should be with
, ,

y o u in church in your house ,your orato ry in town and , ,

country then when there was question of praying to

, ,

Him woul d yo u s ay L ord "I wish to pray in Thy pre

, ,

sence and to o ffer Thy prayers to t he Eternal Father ?
H ow uncivil that would be "how useless "how futile "
F o r Jesus Christ accompanies you ceaselessly in order to
pray with you and yet you wish to make a new compac t
,

with Him that He S hould pray "Rather leave Jesus

Christ to pray in you P hilothea ; and associating yourself
, ,

once and for all with Him praying do not as k yourself by ,

continual reections and do not try to tell Him how yo u

, ,

pray ; for you will pray far b etter in conjunction with Him
than separated from Him But you do separate yourself .

from Him if during your prayers yo u make s o many re

,

ecti o ns on yourself as if He who is praying in you were

,

not present in you .

If in the same way when it was time to eat you said

, ,

beforehand to Jesus Christ who was conversing privately

with you L ord " ,

I wish to eat in Your company would ,

that not b e an offence against courtesy and proprie ty ?

That i s why it should suf ce you in all such actions to
know that you are with Jesus Christ and that He wishes ,

to do all things with you .

I d are s ay to you in truth P hilothea that Jesus Christ , ,

is more present to you and more united with you by grace

than by bodily presence ; we are reclothed in Him ; accord
ing to the words of the Apostl e He possesses us He , ,

penetrates us as much by His p resence as Creator and

P res erver as by H i s presen c e as Red eemer and S anc ti er
, .

This habitual and sometimes actual m emory sufces

us then in all that we do to do everything with Jesus
, , ,

Christ for He does no t dwell in us solely in order to

,
 54 SE C O N D TREATISE
give us inspiration and to make us pray but also i n order ,

that He may work all things in us ; while we on our part

co operate by faith and love , and while by close attention
-

we consent and gently acquiesce in all that Jesus Christ

works in us ; not by reiterating many acts of this consent
and acquiescence but by making a continuous and almost
,

uninterrupted act which absorb s contains and lls them , ,

all sufcientl y
P hi lothea But someone might s ay Father that the
.
, ,

memory of Jesus Christ did not sufce and that it was ,

necessary also to consider the mysteries of H is life and of

His passion as the channels of the many graces He pours
,

forth over us .

D irector I wish to consider that pomt P hilothe a and

. , ,

will do s o But it is not there that I should set contempla

.

tion We prepare it we entertain it and we nourish it

.
, ,

wi th this help ; conside ring chiey three things when we ,

wish to raise ourselve s to God by a mystery of the life of

Christ or by an attribute
, o f D
the ivinity that is to s ay ,

the necessity the manner and the duration For when

, , .

the soul is strongly and vigorously united to its G od s o ,

that it knows feels and experiences God present then it

, , ,

does not have recourse to other thoughts but delighti ng ,

in peace in its God and in i ts All it suspends all other

, ,

exercises howsoever holy and perfect they may be S o

, .

that if the soul nds itself sometimes too distracted by

a ffairs it recollects itself by a gentle b ut sudden act whi ch
,

i s noth ing else but a recollection o f God alone And if .

this act has not enough force particularly to bind the i n

,

ferior faculties o f the soul the general sen s e , imagination ,

,

and appetite which are the mischief making disturbing

-
, ,

and importunate faculties then the soul uses the con

,

sideration of its misery or of its nothi ngness or of a mystery ,

o r of the rst attribute which presents itself to bring itself ,

1 56 SE C OND TREATISE
fertilize the soul to a richer abundance That is why .
,

even although a soul which is as yet little established in

contemplation may be sometimes distracted and troubled
by the representation of a mystery ; yet all the mysteries
o f religion all the lights all the works and all the
, , ,

temptations would no t be able to draw a truly established

contemplative from his habitual state .

Nevertheless a fa ithful s oul takes good care to add

,

nothing to the S imple sight of G o d unless obliged by some ,

pressing necesgity to comfort itself or by the duties of its ,

profession which demand s ome express and distinct co n

,

sider ation F or the rest everyt hing we add without i ts

.
,

being necessary m arks the mistrust of the soul or S hows

,

forth i ts self love which no t contenting itself with G o d

-
, , ,

seeks to support itself o n the things of God ; which in a ,

poverty which i s most rich demands comfort for i ts ,

indigen ce, and nally not being able to s upport this

,

heaven given aridity seeks to be refreshed and watered

-
, .

Our G o d P hilothea is a jealous G o d He does not wish

, , .

us to mingle anything with the knowledge and the love

o f His D ivinity ; He aspire s to e s t ablish a soul in pure

contempl ation for all th at you consider i s below H im

,

whom you adore here present .

P hi lothea I c annot agree with you Father

. It s eems , .

to me that by this privation of every image you deprive ,

me of the union I wish to preserve with my ador able

Mediator I wish to protest to Him before giving mys elf
.

to prayer that I have the intention of remaining with Him

during that time and th at I wish never to be sep arated
,

from Him .

D i rector P hilothe a the desire you h ave to remain united

. ,

with Jesus Christ is already an evident S ign of your union

with Him Yo u do no t need to make long s peeches to
.

Him who penetrates all he arts but only t o take into H is ,

 D IALO G UE V 1 57
presence the intimate affection of the he art In fact .
,

when one is accustomed to this simple view it has the ,

virtue of so greatl y S implifying other acts that one often ,

multiplies them not truly without recognizing them but

, ,

without being able to distinguish exactly between them .

Moreover is he not sufciently united with Chris t

,

who through baptism which drowns s i n is enfolded

, ,

in Him whose death has vanquished our death ; who is

enrolled through conrmation in Christ s militia and in
,

both S acra ments be ars the ine ffaceable ch aracter of the

S aviour ?
H e who is reconciled by pen ance who is a dmitted to ,

Christ s Table in the Eucharist and happily changed into

Himself is he not suf ciently united ? Indeed o ne ,

Communion well made would be a n all sufcient

, ,

prep aration for the contempl ation of a whole ye ar .

What do we say of contemplative priests ? Are they not

united to Jesus Christ by a s ort of paternity which they
exercis e over Him in producing Him on the altar ?
All those things I have just mentioned prep are the soul
and r ais e it of themselve s to a clos e union with Jesus
Christ And here i s another a dmirable thought which
.

brings with it extreme consol ation ; when m an is jus tied ,

and when by virtue of penance he recovers the grace

, ,

which he h ad lost through sin he i s reestablis hed in the

,

parti cul ar grace s of all the S acraments he h ad f ormerly

received ; gr a ce s which h a d b een lost to him along with
s anctifying grace ; and he is renewed in all those rst rights

which he h ad lost This prep ar ation is very ample and

.

very sufcient fo r it is founded o n the merits of Jesus

,

Chris t nourished by a living faith and ince ss antly pre

, ,

served in the soul by the continu al a ct of contemplation .

S t P aul favours our doctrine in a marvellous way when

.

he exho rts us Whether we e at or drink or wh atever we do,

,
1 58 SE C OND TREATISE
to do all things in the n ame of Jesus Christ F or who
,
.

could imagine th at the Apostle would demand o f us as

many different obl ations of Christ as we perform different
a cts during the day ? A lively faith is a perpetual pledge
for us in regard to Jesus Christ and it e s t ablis hes between
,

us and Him an inviol able alliance which by virtue of , ,

contempl ation seems to renew and s trengthen itself

,

every moment .

Christians deplorable though it is do not real i ze this

, ,

truth even although Christians are the Chos en P eople

, ,

the Royal P riesthood the Holy Nation as S t P eter call s

, .

them and carry in their bosom a tre asure of holine s s of

,

which they ignore the price ; I mean faith in the b lood

and merits of the Saviour of the world Christiani ty to .
,

i ts sh ame s uffer s thirst in the midst of the fount ain which

,

could sl ake it ; and not knowmg the spiritual fertility of

which this faith would make it capable it le ave s the ,

S our ce for the rivulets it leave s the xed and loving regard
,

of Jesus Christ for those light affections which do nothing

but skim the surface of piety Thus Christi ans impose
.

o n themselves a yoke of innumer ab le voc al prayers ; they

load themselves with meditations and oblations to the

point of we ariness because , their faith being little
,

exercised they only believe s upercially that Christ is

,

pr aying in the m They hardly ever look at Him but

. ,

always at their own works and their own methods A .

s trange blindness P hilothe a not to recogni z e o ur felicity

, ,

but to s eek incess antly outside ours elves for a foundation

which we carry within ours elves .

But if ordinary Chris tians h ave not the courage to

raise themselves to this purity of faith would it not be ,

right that the learned thos e nourished in the exercise of

,

theology and Holy S cripture s hould revive in them

,

s elve s the use and value of tho s e precious gifts which

 D IALO G UE VI
As to who are the soundes t judges of the sp iri tua s tate of souls l .

W hether p ride is to b e feared in contemp ation l .

H ow we are to interp ret this say ing, that we mus t p ut ourse ves l
l
i n the owes t p l ace and wai t ti ll
God raises us .

W hether in great temp tations i t is better to medi tate or to

contemp late .

W hether in dry ness we should return to contemp lati on .

W hether when we do not feel the attrait of God we should

return to medi tation .

W hat the drynesses are which obl ige the sou l to return to
medi tation.

P hilothea .I am going to very be importunate Father , ,

and very contentious for I am going to ask you questions

,

which I have been asked not because I doubt in the very

,

least what you have taught me but in order to have reasons

,

to give those who are obstin ate in their contentions and ,

also to help the S imple and to justify your teaching .

D i rector If we were t o judge the ways of God according

.

to our own opinions we should never rightly know them .

We must h ave knowledge o r experience or infused light

, , .

And tho s e who attempt to deal with the interior life

without being armed with one of those three helps will ,

throw souls into great disorder into which they will al so

,

fall themselves by the secret justice of God which chastises ,

the temerity of o ur judgments when we try to submit the

spirit of His justice to our reason and judge the particular
,

a ttrai t of souls by o ur own obscurities and passions If .

a man were perfectly versed in all branches of theology

with the exception o f one treatise which he had not read ,

it would be impossible for him to give a good account of

that treatise and he would only have his own negligence
,

1 60
 D IALO G UE VI 1 61

to blame Thus the greatest theologian if he is not

. , ,

versed in Mystical Theology will no t be able to explain it

,

pertinently or solidly and all his lights will only serve to

,

confuse him the more I even say that when owing to

.
,

things which have happened to him he may have a cquired ,

a little expe rience it would still be a reproach to him not

,

to be able to coll ate his experience with his books seeing ,

that he professes expressly to be a student While should .

he be deprived of knowledge and experience all at once ,

I do no t know how he could dare to utter his judgment on

such matters
P hilothea Whom then would you prefer of all those
.
, ,

who can give solid judgment o n spiritual things ?

D i rector Those who besides possessing a knowledge of
. ,

theolo gy are enlightened by infused light This is to

, .

be recognized by the fact that they are never at a loss s o

long as they judge by the help of this light explaining , ,

even to the smallest details the operations that are put,

before them sometimes even divining them S uch men

, .

are to be consulted before all others After them the .

,

most solid judges are those learned men who have read
and digested such matters The last are the experi .

mentalists not that in some ways they are not more

certain of what they say than the scholars but that no ,

soul can have experienced all experiences in such a wide

eld while a scholar may have read of them all Mor e
, .

over experimentalists without knowledge have difculty

,

in explaining themselves if they do not meet with some

,

o ne learned in such matters t o serve as interpreter When .

,

however they can explain themselves it is a notable ad

, ,

vantage to those who consult th em it being a double grace ,

o f God to experience the D ivine action and to be able to ,

explain it to others .

P hi lothea Is it not to be feared Father that those who

.
, ,

0
 62 SECOND TREATISE
practise the prayer of recollection may fall insensibly into
pride and may i magine they are above their fellows ?
,

There are those it is said who are attached to their own

, ,

special opinions and do not willingly obey rules or

,

S uperiors because they want to be themselves their rule

and their judge and because they think themselves more
,

illumined than ordinary Christians .

D i rector P ride i s not the vice of prayer ; s o good a tree

.

does not bear such evil fruit ; but it may be the vice of those
who pra ctise praye r with imperfection Those who pray .

are human and even the S acraments which are the

, ,

immediate channels o f grace cannot remove all the,

weaknesse s of the soul Chastity is a gift o f God ; yet

.

the Virgins are accused of being proud : but pride does

not come from virginity it comes from corrupt nature
, ,

which always tends to evil I s ay to you n evertheless ,

.
,

P hilothe a th at great pride is not compatible with d eep

,

recollection and that it is almost impossible not to humble

,

oneself greatly when one is in the presence of God by a

living faith The fruits of such proud and false con
.

t emplatives would soon give them away ; if the worst came

t o the worst they would need to be punished for their
pride but their recollection would need to be left to them
, .

If a S uperior forbade such souls this method of prayer ,

it would be to mortify and test them and not i n order to ,

keep them long out o f the way in which God had put
them ; the business of the S uperior be ing to edify and not to
destroy ; to follow God in souls and not to make them ,

follow him or her When things are abused good practice s

.

must be re established but the things themselves must

-
,

not be lost .

That gardener would indeed be imprudent who would

te ar out a tree because it h a d contracted some dise ase or ,

because it did no t seem to be growing vigorously S uch .

1 64 SE C OND TREATISE
which comes from G o d from that which the creature
mingles with it of his o wn ; we corrupt the best things by
the bad us e we make of them ; but for all that we must not
make God an accomplice in our faults nor dishonour His
,

favours by the sight of the weaknesses with which we

sometimes acco mpany them I say to you neverth eless
.
, ,

Father that certain persons who put forward their own

,

judgments on such subjects often condemn as pride that

holy liberty of the soul which allows it to pass over many
sm all action s and break through the press of creatures
,

in order to join itself directly to its Creator If o ne .

does not obtain all the indulgences attached to the

churches of a town ; if one does not belong to all the
societies and confraternities which spring up from day
to day one is regarded as a singular being who acts
,

contrary to Christian humilit y It is a crime to s ay

.

ingenuously in the presence of such people that o ne must

no t stie oneself with meditations and prayers but must ,

leave something to the impulse of D ivine L ove in order ,

that it may draw us and gain us itself without our

always thinking always willing always demanding They
, , .

imagine when one trie s to put ex ecs es right that one

wants to abolish good practices and to retrench the
,

necessary and the superuous both at once That is why .

contemplation is sometimes called a cause of pride and ,

why those who advise it are considered proud souls who

wish to raise themselves above their neighbours .

Di rector All the pr a ctices of the Church are good

.

but they do not suit everybody ; we must weigh the

quantity and quality o f those we adopt What Our L ord.

said of the S abbath is true of every kind of devotion that ,

man was not made for the S abbath but that the S abbath
,

was made for m an We are not obliged to draw water

.

from every fountain of a city provided that the fountain

,
 D IALO G UE VI 1 65

from which we do d raw gives sufcient water to quench

our thirst And s o with regard to exterior practices we
. ,

must us e those necessary to o ur perfection and not every ,

thing which offers itself to us We should not advance .

in acting in su c h a way ; we should burden ourselves ,

overwhelm ourselves and weary ourselves , And in .

attempti ng always to satisfy a passing fervour for some

thing new we never light i n ourselves this D ivine Fire
,

which should be inextinguishable in o ur souls and which ,

b eing attached to its cent re which is G o d by His continual ,

presence rests in the depth of the heart peaceful calm

, , , ,

pure and radiant : in which it does not in the least re

,

semble a re which catches hold of pape r and sticks and ,

which after having crackled and sparked and smoked ,

dies away along with the matter it had lighted ; so much

so that he who Wishes to warm himself must keep o n
relighting it .

P hi lothea We must always take the lowest place we

.
,

are told till G o d raises us and not try to raise ourselves

, , .

D i rector If yo u interpret this advice quite literally to

.

mean that yo u must always take the lowest place it would ,

unwitti ngly lead to disorder Thus a superior would no t

. ,

wish to take any place but that of a novice ; a priest who

thought himself unworthy to celebrate Mass would not
do more than recite the Epistle Every one P hilothea .
, ,

must keep himself in that place in which it has pleased

God to put him being ready nevertheless to retire to a
, , ,

lower place should it please God s o to ordain it But we .

must never change without advice ; every one ought to

conform in that to the words of the Apostle to stay in ,

one s vocation He who is called to meditation does not
.

s et hims elf to vocal prayer when he i s given point s for

meditation ; and he who is called to ordinary or infused

1 66 SE C OND TREATISE
contemplation, does not fall back o n meditation under
pretext of humility It is his a ttrai t his state ; he has
.
,

seen the signs o f it ; he has not passed o n to this prayer

save under a dvice and with prudence To go back after .

that to a lower state of prayer would be tepidity i ncon ,

s t ancy clearly an indelity There are thousands o f

, .

occasions on which we can humble ourselves and take the

lowest place i n the practice of virtue : when we are praised ,

when we are blamed wrongfully when we are tried ; but

,

we must never quit our stat e or o ur vocation .

It is necessary that the soul should put its elf in the

lowest place when i t can still doubt whether God is
calling it to meditation It must never change its s tate
.

o n the rst awarene s s of such an invitation ; it must p r ove

such an attrai t question it deb ate it ; and while it is
, ,

nding out what it is meant to do it must hold itself to ,

meditation But it must not ligh tly fall back on medita

.

tion once it has quitted it One i s even obliged from the

, .
,

time o ne feels s o gre at an attrai t as all the masters of,

prayer a dvise slightly to relax one s manner of medita

,

tion ; one must content oneself with the S imple considera

tion of the mystery and some gentle and tranquil affective
prayer to judge in W
, hat state the s oul really is and to le ave ,

room for the a ttrai t of God in case His goodness wishes

,

to raise it to a more perfect prayer We are as dust before

.

God ; dus t lies on the ground but when the wind blows the
,

dust follows the movement o f the wind which raise s i t .

That is a comparison of S t Teresa s in o ne o f her letters ,

.

,

from which we gather that o ur interior disposition should

always be annihil ation of self but that true s eles s ness is
,

never contrary to D ivine inspiration or to good sense .

False humility is as insulting to G o d as real pride .

When the Angel came to announce to the Blessed

Virgin that s he was to be the Mother of God s he thought ,
1 68 SECOND TREATISE

from the king s banquet not from humility but because , ,

each o ne wished to follow his own spi rit and carry o ut

his o wn will and not that of the Master under the ,

pretext that the things which occupied him were not

bad things .

Be very humble P hilothea but do not convert your

, ,

humility into the prudence of the world under pretext

of good fo r then you will not be sincerely humbl e you
, ,

will rathe r be subtly and insidiously self willed -

.

P hi lothea I s ee clearly that true humility is no less a

.

gift from Heaven than the other Christian virtues and ,

that the world often shrinks from it only to ee it .

Is it not better at all times in great temptations to ,

meditate rather than to hold to contemplation a so ul

,

that is utterly empty and for that reason more openly

,

exposed to the attack o f evil ?

D i rector When those who are in the way of meditation
.

fall into t emptations during prayer they do not cease to ,

meditate and they drive away the temptation either by

, ,

some ejaculatory prayer o r by the very material o f their

,

prayer which supports them in occupying them But if the

, .

temptation continues in spite of all they can do then they ,

let the temptation go on but keep the will rm in following

,

their way ; for otherwise the will would be the sport of the
Evil One and sometimes even of nature itself diverting
, ,

itself in driving away the temptation without prosecuting

its prayer I s ay the same as regards contemplation ; those
.

who are tempted must bring themselves back the more

if possible into the presence o f G o d and even make use ,

o f some gentle aspirations according to the force o f the

temptation But if after some effort the temptation does

.

no t give way th en it must b e left and the soul must hold

, ,

itself in the presence o f G o d without quitting its way .

The grace of God sufces us and strength is made perfect ,

 D IALO G UE vi 1 69

in weakness We must not say that the soul is empty

. ,

seeing that it keeps within it G od P resent ; and there are

kinds of temptation which the soul even when full of the,

most devout considerations and burning with the purest

ames of devotion cannot drive away No one can drive
, .

them away s ave He who commanded the Waves ; who ,

coming and casting a glance o n the sea caused the tempest ,

to cease and tranquil lity to reign over everything He

, .

taxed the Apostles with their excessive fear and He would ,

have preferred their fervent faith in the midst of the tem

pest to their invoc ations and clamo urings bec ause even
, ,

tho ugh He had gone to sleep in the boat He had not ,

ce as ed to be present in their hearts .

P hilothea The soul which keeps silence i n the midst o f

.

temptation adores while not uttering o ne word the justice

, , ,

o f God which permits the temptation ; it awaits His mercy ,

it exercises patience and nally it quietly pursues i ts

,

course withdrawing from the clutches o f the temptation

, .

But what do you say of those souls who suffer such great
dryness that they c annot even realize God P resent ?
S hould they not then return humbly to meditation ?
D i rector There are great drynesses even in the way of
.

meditation ; the bread of prayer i s often without taste ;

the most beautiful thoughts often le ave nothing affective in
the soul and sometimes the drynesses pass into power
,

lessness to meditate But the soul in spite of the dryness

.
,

which has come to it db es not leave its meditation ; it

,

strains itself it goes over and over its material for medita
,

tion and when it can no longer do anything it resolves

,

to su ffer without inquietude this Cross being o f greater

,

merit than affections or thoughts Neither does the con

.

t emplat ive soul abandon its contemplation o n account of

dryness ; its nothingness sufces it in the presence of God ,

and dryness is , after all in greater conformity with its

,
1 70 SE C O N D TREATISE
state o f abnegation than consolations and sweetnesses .

The faith which upholds it is verily a dry ground but it is ,

a solid ground on which o ne can build rmer foundations

than o n ground wet with rain o r dew in which one s ,

feet sometimes sink down and bring back nothing but mud .

D ryness deprives o ne o f thought but it does no t deprive

,

one of the presence of God even although it c an deprive

,

o ne o f the feeling of this presence Faith is never really.

lost even in the greatest tribul ations and in consequence , , ,

the presence of God which nourishes it endures fo r ever , .

If nature becomes we ary it is an imperfection natural to it

and it is right and proper that grace should allow it to
become wearied Ah ".nature " said a so ul thou wilt

,

no t remain one hour in prayer and I would thou couldst

,

remain two " When the contemplative soul continues to

battle with the senses it s uffers wearisome d ryness till it

has thoroughly stripped itself ; but when the senses are
once thoroughly mortied the dryness will be wholly
,

spiritual The soul will no longer have anything and

. , ,

it will not desire anything but the good ple asure of

,

God .

Those who begin to enter on this blessed path will feel

such wonderful sweetness and s o great a quietude that
one would s ay all their passions were stilled and that ,

they could do all things suffer all things But after a

, .

time God wean s them ; nothing is left to them but faith

,

and God Is it necessary for that reason that they S hould

.

draw back and that they should seek meditation because

,

sensible sweetness is lacking to them ? sweetness which had

only been given to help them to pass from one sta te to
another ?
P hi lothea How then is o ne to interpret the holy
.
, ,

D octors who have often been quoted to me ? They say

that when a s oul does not feel the attrai t of God which
1 72 SE C OND TREATISE
their course with more love and more delity than
before .

In a word P hilothea tho s e great men illumined by

, , ,

doctrine and experien ce who knew that the loving con

,

templ ati on of God was a xed state for certain souls did ,

not expect that when such souls no longer had extra

ordinary gifts they should quit their way but rather that ,

they should return to their way and not now contemplate , ,

now meditate which would be an irregularity F or I

, .

presuppose as I have said that such a soul has received

, ,

all the S igns o f its state .

P hi lothea I have certainly seen souls misled by the

.

passage which says that when the soul no longer feels

anything it follows of necessity that it should meditate
, .

But is there no dryness s o great that a soul might be obliged

in order to escape from it to return to meditation ? ,

D i rector Those who would wish to raise themselves

.

by their o wn efforts to contemplation without any of the ,

usual signs without vocation and without advice ; who

,

atter themselves who seek idleness who leave meditation

, ,

from imitativeness and complaisance ; such souls must never

be content merely to suffer dryness and if they insist o n ,

merely suffering it then their dryness will turn now into

,

inquietude now into i llusions which will soon make them

, ,

aware that they have entered into the Chamber of the

Bridegroom without having been called F or those who .

are truly called their drynesses are never without s up

,

port and without a deep lying foundation of repose which

-

must sufce them in this way .

It i s true that even these last may have fallen into

imperfections and negligences which may notably have
turned them aside S ometimes even something which
.

demanded much attention and discussion may have lled

them with distractions especially if they are not yet well
,
 D IALO G UE VI 173

purged of thei over eagerness and solicitudes In such

r -
.

cas es it is expedient that the soul should recolle ct itself

by some reading or meditation ; but when it is re estab -

lis hed in i ts former calm then it must s et itself to its former

,

way of prayer ; but even in this necessity its meditation

,

must not be made by reas oning or by words but if it is , ,

possible by considerations and affections in order to move

, ,

the soul as little as possible from its true state .

 D IALO G UE VI I
(i) W hat degree of mortication is requisi te to contemp lation .

(ii ) W hether a soul mus t have long p ractised medi tation before
advancing to contem p la tion .

(iii ) W hether every soul is called to contemp lation .

P hi lothea Are only those souls which are perfectly

.

mortied called to contemplation ?

,

D i rector God being the Mas ter o f the order of things

.
,

He changes the order when it pleases Him in His produc

tions and His works As a rule the more mortied souls
.
,

receive more of His graces than others ; but G od does not

always abide by the degree of mortication and He some ,

times forestalls souls with H is gifts wishing to win them ,

by delights and attract ions before making them di e to self .

The Magdalene and the S amaritan were both gre at

sinners ; but nevertheless God raised them in a moment
, ,

to a great love and they at once enjoyed an ineffable peace

,

which would have cost others much labour to win But .

God understands how to have his recompense afterwards ,

and justice never loses anything even although mercy ,

m ay have run on before her This is clearly shown in

.

our day in S t Catherine of Genoa who was caught up

. ,

suddenly into the very heart of G o d but who in the , ,

course of time descended to His Tribunal where she was

, ,

treated as a criminal even although at the beginning s he

,

had been treated as a lover Thus G o d sometimes changes

.

the order setting those rst who have come last and giving
, ,

converted sinners the advantages and privileges o f good

souls far advanced .

But besides this re ason which comes from the liberty

,

1 74
1 76 SECO N D TREATISE
to suffer ; but when there comes a time to refuse the senses
many little diversions which before amused them and ,

many little satisfactions which nourished them then dry ,

ness becomes greater the soul is more naked and more

,

solitary and the approaches of God drive away all sensible

,

things from it with greater force though perhaps with ,

less feeling .

One can compare this suspension with the natural heat

o f o ur bodies which is used up insensibly by the s ame
,

things which contribute to make it even though we are ,

no t conscious o f its diminishing o r dwindling away .

P hilothea It i s surely this Father which deceives

.
, ,

many directors who seeing souls advance in an ordinary

, ,

enough way not apparently having followed the way of

,

penitence and mortication which is the mark o f notable

advancement cannot imagine that such souls can go much
,

farther than many others who are more mortied and more
penitent Nevertheless those austere souls are not yet
.
,

called by any sign they are aware of and it is the pure ,

mercy of God which here makes all the difference and ,

not a certain degree of penitence or morti cation .

D i rector That is so true that o ne knows from experience

.

ho w those who are most rigid and austere in the use of

physical mortications oppose themselves obstinately to
the way of contemplation thinking it a way o f idleness , ,

and that under pretext of interior prayer contemplative

, ,

souls ee e ffort or morti cation But in truth persons . ,

truly called to this prayer do not ee mortication they

seek it by another road and as if they wished to re ,

commence the course of their penitence they shut the door ,

of the s enses to all sweetness they detach their appetites ,

from the love of created things and sometimes leaving ,

the subjection of the body to the last know well that once ,
the spirit is conquered and humbled by this abstraction
 D IALO G UE VI I 1 77

from sensible things the body is much more easily sub

,

jected to all the pen anc es one wishes to impose upon it .

It is even very useful when a soul begins to give itself to

,

contemplation to override physical penances in order to

,

purify the self love one has for those penances then later
-

on to resume them with the moderation suitable to the

strength and the vocation o f each one For one sees people
.

numb and destroy their bodies with a pitiless severity ,

their spirit which is not yet destroyed being then only

, ,

wo rthy of compassion .

It is certainly easier to mortify the body through the

spirit than the spirit through the body Contemplation .

brings in its train s o admirabl e a morticatio n of the

senses by the abstraction from all sensible things to which
it reduces the soul that penance becomes gentle co m
,

pared with the terror it was before the body which is , ,

subdued by the suspension of the spirit no longer having ,

any of the re and vivacity which formerly made it sens itive

and tender towards austeri ties .

Moreover the high esteem of God which the soul con

,

ceives in dark contemplation would lead it to an excess o f

,

penance wer; it not restrained But the directors of such

.

souls must consider wisely that spirit and body must not
be consumed at the same time nor the strength be ,

exhausted by suffering seeing that it diminishes daily

,

through application .

There are also in this state purgations and interior

sufferings which take the place of the discipline and the
hair shirt Add to that that we have come to a different
-
.
,

age ; that the externals of penance have been s o corrupted

by the abuses to whi c h they have been subjected that ,

it is no wonder some souls only practise penance in the

sight of God through tribulation and suffering of spirit ;
nor that they receive more grace than many others who
p
 1 78 S E COND TREAT IS E
make their perfection con s ist in physic al pen ance ; every
one not being c alled to the s ame state and the sancti ,

cation of each being to do the will o f God .

It is therefore true P hilothea that the more our self

, ,

love and our passions are mortied the more we shall ,

advance in the way of contemplation if we are called to

that way ; but should we meet with initial gra ces which
d o not arise from extraordinary morti cation it is God ,

achieving with e fcacy on H is part that which He began

with some concession to our weakness .

P hi lothea I have no longer s o much difculty in re alizing

.

that it is really interior morticatio n which humbles the

soul We can often mortify ourselves without looking
.

at G o d but it is almost impossible to have G o d always

,

present without mortifying ourselves much ; the presence

o f God being incompatible with s i n and that which ,

destroys s in destroying also that self love which is the -

enemy of morti cati on .

D i rector Co oper ate on your part P hilothea with this

.
-
, ,

morti cation and never tell me that you die for love of

G o d if love of self is n ot dying within you

, The food .

of prayer is mo rtication and the soul of mo rtication i s

,

prayer P rayer without morti cation is merely an occupa

.

tion of the spirit which will soon become vanity of spirit ;

,

while austerity without much prayer is a burden to the

body which produces habit wretchedness vanity but very
, , , ,

seldom love But as for the mortication of the spirit it

. ,

may by its elf pass for prayer when it is voluntary and when
it is a ccompanied by love S o much s o P hilothea that

. , ,

if you had to fall back in one of those two things which

God does not wish I should rather s ee yo u lose two
degrees of prayer than o ne degree of this true mortication
o f spirit .

On which yo u will remark that there is a great difference

 1 80 SE C O N D TREATISE
But as for the mo rticatio n of the spirit and the regulat
ing of i ts passions which are the domestic counsellors of
,

s i n o ne must harry them to the death and pardon them

,

nothing no matter to what d egree of perfection the so ul

,

may have arrived .

This mo rticatio n of the spirit is s o n ecessary that even

those who are in the way of meditation no longer meditate
with prot if in meditating they do not mortify their
,

passions and it is an error to think that victory over the

,

passions is only to be expected of the contempl ative .

L isten to the author of the I mi tation of Christ who , ,

after having quoted some words of the S aviour s adds :

,

Those are the words of j esus Chris t by which we are

,

ad vised to imi ta te H is life and H is ways if we wish to be

truly i llumined and deli vered from all b lindness of heart .

The imitation of Our L ord Jesus Christ produces true

lights and chases away blindness of heart : s o that there are
none save those who imitate Him who are worthy to,

meditate on His works and His mysteries to the end that ,

His words may not fall into hearts which would allow them
to be stied Imitation i s the fruit of meditation and
.
,

meditation is the support of imitation It i s for want of.

this morti catio n of the spirit which is true imitation of

,

Our S aviour that nearly all meditations which are other

,

wise good and holy r emain fruitless

. The light o f o ur
.

redoubtable mysteries shines into dark and occupied

souls who pride themselves on one consideration and one
discourse ; their darkness does no t at all comprehend this
light ; because they think it is only necessary to talk they ,

do not remember it is necessary to die .

This morti cation is therefore not only necessary in

, ,

order to contemplate well but also to meditate well to ,

communicate well to preach well and worthily to full

, ,

the gre at works of God, who wills to be adored in spirit

 D IALO G UE VI I 81

and in truth and whose will it i s that meditation should

,

unite us mo re perfectly with Him All the same as I hav e .

,

said morti catio n in general has its degrees and it is fo r

, ,

expe rt dire ctors to judge them .

P hilothea Is it necessary to have practised meditati on

.

for long before being ready fo r Contemplation ?

,

D i rector Meditation can be considered in two ways ;

.

either as an instruction of the soul in the mysteries of the

Faith and the Christian virtues or as an affective medita ,

tion which fu rnishes the heart with material to s et it on

re with the love of God It is not s o much instructive
.

meditation which disposes to this prayer as inamed

meditation ; because the rst multiplies reasonings and
gures while the second contenting itself with little
, ,

matte r i names itself at rst by lively and eager affection

,

and seems to go more directly to God than the rst ,

approaching Him by the simpl e act of contemplation

whi ch inames the wi ll by simple faith in God P resent .

There is therefore no precise time at which one ought

, ,

t o ab ando r meditation ; but it is certain that those who

r
give themselves to G o d by affective meditation are more
disposed to contemplation than others S t Bonaventura . .

desired that some should meditate four months some ve , ,

and some s ix be cause amongst those who meditate one

,

sees some who make most progress in least time and others ,

who gain little prot in a long course of years S cholars .

who have already penetrated the Christian truths many

times ought as much as they feel themselves disposed to
, ,

throw themselves into the very heart of the naked S imple , ,

universal faith envisaging G o d P resent i n themselves

,

after having s o oft en searched for Him in creatures and ,

s o often examined that which He is and that which He i s

no t
. The simpl e who have never been capabl e of meditat
,

ing whether because they could no t read or because they

, ,
 82 SE C OND TREATISE
had no t a certain disposition of spirit necess ary to those
who would reason and discuss and who nevertheless , , ,

have hearts easily inamed for G o d must sigh for this ,

loving rest of contemplation and hold thems elves gently

in the presence of God, who is the end and the priz e o f all
which the others do .

As for those who have long practised meditation they ,

mus t gradually change their meditations into affections ;

and practising little paus es during their prayer must ,

accustom themselves to the loving presence of God It .

is a maxim of spiritual people that a good meditation

ends in contemplation for it would be an extravagance
,

to think that it is not praiseworthy and s ometime s neces

sary to hold oneself for a few minutes before G o d in
adoration and in silence whether to hear His inspirations
,

or to taste Him more fully present by the repose of the

spirit which is an essay towards that union towards which
,

all our prayers and all our works must tend .

P hi lothea It seems to me from what you s ay that you

.
,

would like to put the whole world into the way of con

t empl ati o n.But there are many people who are not
capable of holding themselves long in the presence of God .

And moreover it appears to me that no one should aspire

through his industry to a s tate which is beyond his own
powers .

D i rector Ah P hilothea who will give me a ton gue of re

. , ,

to pierce the hearts of those who s et themselves against the

truth the simplicity and the wholly pacic sweetness of
, ,

this state ? To forbid Christians who are capable o f it ,

who know it and need nothing but to be afrmed in it ,

to spend an hour of prayer in the simple presence of G o d "

to maintain that they are wasting time in regarding God

P resent is that not to do an injury to God and man ?
S uch people in order not to give up their own reasoning
,
1 84 SE C O N D TREATISE
many are called but few s o dispose themselves as to attain
, .

All the faithful are called to Christian perfection without

distinction of s ex o r condition and yet the greatest number
,

are those who do no t tend at all towards perfection Most .

men love evil better than good : most of those who love
good perform it imp erfectly And one sees an innite
.

number who cannot comprehend that a venial s in com

mitt ed with determination is s o insupportable in the sight
o f God that He would rather s ee the annihilation o f all

creatures and of both angelic and human nature did H is ,

goodness not restrain Him All ecclesiastics are called to

.

ecclesiastical perfection and all religious to religious per

,

fection. Yet how many ecclesiastics and religious there

are who content themselves with being in the state of per
fecti o n and never trouble about the perfection belonging
,

to their state " Our good God makes vocations while men
,

wish to make their own choice ; He orders everything

aright and we disorder all that He has ordered He .

wants to sanctify us all and each one rejects the way

,

of his own s ancticatio n .

I say the same of ordinary contemplation in the light

o f faith ; many are called to it but few are chosen . L eaving
the wicked aside good people who are learned are often
,

obstinate in their judgments ; they do not want to

read the books which treat of contemplation o r they ,

read them with preoc cupation ; they interest themselves

warmly in their own particular methods and sometimes
,

vanity even makes them think that simple souls who as k

their advice will never be able to attain t o a certain state ,
never realizing that they have not attained to it themselves .

Any abuse which may occur makes them angry and s us

p i ci o us o f many souls wh o have ab u sed nothing ; a di f
culty s et before them embarrasses them and they complain
,

of the time they are made to lose inste a d of humbly and

,
 D IALO G UE VI I 1 85

since rely sending such souls to those who have travelled

by the same path and can therefore understand them better
,

th an they do S o much s o that we can add to the number

.

of those who are not disposed to contemplation and ,

are unfaithful to the inspirations of God those whom ,

di rectors turn from it every day in order to act according ,

to their o wn particul ar views .

We mus t therefo re use discernment P hilothea and

, , , ,

di stinguish a little between souls in order that they may

not deceive th emselves and that those who direct them
may no t deceive the mselves either whether in turning ,

souls from the right road or in u rging them forward out

,

of reason .

P hilothea What a difcult thing the d irection of souls

.

must al ways be " One often sees that when those under
direction would like to follow the attrai t of G o d those who ,

direct them prevent them from obeying and when those ,

who dir ect are disposed to foll ow the l ea d in g of the Holy

S piri t in the government of souls it often happens that ,

souls withs tand their directors o r do not leave themselves

,

supple in their hands But it seems to me that in such

.

matters the dir ectors are more often to blame than the
souls they direct ; they S hould have more knowledge and
more experi en ce of the ways of God ; they should no longer
di rectly oppose the Holy S pirit who has seen t to com ,

muni cate H is graces and lights for the universal good of ,

the faithful t o all those who are established by the

,

authority of their l egitimate superiors in the service of the

Church In any case it is good to abandon oneself utterly
.

to God ; and I thi nk that when the intentio ns of those who

direct themselves are pure they will not nd place for
,

de ception or at least they will not b e deceived for long

, .

D i rector It is true P h ilothea that G o d sometimes

.
, ,

directs souls i mmediately of Himself and that making , ,

1 86 S ECON D TREATI S E
Himself powerful in them by signs and illuminations He ,

makes Himself obeyed by those He directs But such .

miracles do not happen every day and many souls remain

,

imperfect because they have no t taken care to seek the

best advice or to as k it of God with true detachment
, .

Never admit to contemplation P hilothea those whose

, ,

wills are utterly opposed to this state ; and pray God that
He may free them o f their passions and that He will ,

make them taste that which they have made a point o f

ghting against For it is in contemplation p articularly
.

that God asks for men of peace and good will .

Neither admit to this region of tranquillity certain

temperaments which are full of re to whom a moderate
,

application of the presence of God would certainly do no

harm but who would no t be capable of moderating their
,

application S uch natures are too impetuous and to o

.

restless and if exterior works and pen ance have not rst
,

calmed them down they will burn themselves up in this

,

path without ever advancing .

Neither do I wish for contemplation certain tempera

ments who are the opposite of the rs t I me an souls of
heavy lethargic nature who fall asleep in the midst of
, ,

their vigils and in whom the spirit seems to be buried

,

in the esh and not to have liberty for its oper ations .

Continual application would make such people even more

dangerously lethargic ; they would run a risk of contra ct
ing a weakness of body and spirit which would make them
t for nothing .

Invalids and those suffering from some special inrmity

,

which is not compatible with a moderate attention must ,

not give themselves to contemplation When the saints .

were ill it seems almost as if their powers of body were

changed into powers of soul and that these men of prayer
,

were s ustained by the special help of G o d Besides that, .

1 88 S ECOND TREATI S E
and their judgment unstable This comes from the in .

stability of their brain and can neither be corrected

,

by precept nor s trengthened by exercise S uch people .

would be astonished stunned and overwhelmed if o ne

, ,

asked them to hold themselves in the presence of G o d ,

and if from a hasty curiosity they wished to put themselves

in this prayer just in order to do as others d o they would ,

gain nothing from it but languors and extravagances and

all kinds of problems with which they would importune
their Confessors .

All those I have just spoken to you about P hilothe a , ,

without including wilful sinners are not at all tted for ,

contemplation either because of their n atural defects or

, ,

because of their inveterate defects of body and spirit ;

which defects cannot be overcome s ave by a mir a cle , and
such miracles seldom take place because God does not do ,

violence to nature and because His grace which over

, ,

comes p as sion and sins does no t change dispositions and

,

spirits save very rarely .

P hilothea We must admit Father, that a good dis

.
,

position of spirit and body 15 a great favour from Heaven .

I willingly repeat here what you have impressed on me s o

many times Grace supposes nature it does not give it ; ,

just as faith supposes reason but does not create it Grace

, .

achieves something from imperfection but it does not ,

create that which is not in nature .

D i rector The Wise Man testied in Holy S cripture

. ,

P hilothea that God had given him good sense and a ne

,

nature Many of the Fathers were shining lights in the

.

world and in the midst of P aganism itself before they ,

became great spirits in the Church ; and we s ee every

day that the best natures are more susceptible to Christian
discipline and virtues than natures which are cross grained -

and diametrically opposed to the others The Author o f .

 D IA L OG U E VI I 1 89

grace is also the Author of nature and when all things ,

remain in the order in which He has made them they are ,

more capable o f serving H is designs Give thanks to Him

.
,

therefore for all the mercies He has showered on you in

,

the order of nature as of grace The more spirit and good

.

sense you have the more blamewo rthy you will be if you
,

do not employ them to your salvation and to the glory ,

of Him who has given them to you fo r those two unique

ends Happy are they who use them well
. .

But what can we say of those souls called to recollection

who put s o many impediments in its way that they never
a chieve it ? F o r P hilothea one must count among them
, ,

those who by their fault or their lukewarmness even

althou gh otherwise good and just never make a single
step forward in Christianity if they are of the world nor ,

in ecclesiastical perfection if they are o f the priesthood ,

nor in religious perfection if they are religiou s The reason .

is that nonchalant souls are always apprehensive not ,

only in matters beyond their comprehension but also in ,

matters beyond their ordinary manner of living They .

think that impossible which they have never done and ,

a horrible negligence is rather their rule than their

weakness .

S o that P hilothea if we subtract from the number of

, ,

those whom God would call to contemplation the sick , ,

the indolent and the unfaithful we must not be surpris ed

, ,

that there are so few who enter on this way The multitude .

o f those who never embrace this prayer is not an argument

for i ts difcult y but a proof of the wretchedness and the

,

ingratitude of man For both o f thes e evils sometimes

.

pre vent the recognition of the true signs o f a vocation to

recollection in the righteous who are afraid to be too
,

righteous : even though I do no t deny that the D ivine

Wisdom m ay wish to keep certain devout s ouls all their
 go S ECOND TREATI S E
live s in the way of meditation yet this must not be taken
,

as a rule .

It sometimes happens also that God hides contempla

tion under the cloak s o to speak of meditation ; this happens
, ,

when the soul receives all that it reads and all that it ,

meditates about with s o great an avidity and s o ardent ,

a thirst that that which remains to it does not seem s o

,

much even as a drop of water compared to its ardours

, .

That is a sign that the deep spring it possesses comes from

another source than exterior words and that it possesses ,

a treasure which cannot much be added to from the few

grains of gold meditation brings it the meditation being
,

rather a tribute which the soul pays to humility o r to love ,

than a recognized need to meditate Moreover such .

,

souls never oppose themselves to contemplation ; neither

are they attached to meditation ; they obey simply the
a ttrai t of God That is how we ought to interpret what
.

Cassian observes in his Collations in connection with a

solitary who found all his spiritual life in those words :
D eus in adjatori um meum in tende D omine ad adjuvandum
.

me festina And als o that which is said of Gregory L opez,

.

the famous solitary of New S pain in his L ife that he spent

, ,

several years with those words P ater a t volun tas tua sicat
,

i n coelo et in term Amen j esu And what S t Teresa says

.
, . .

in the W ay of P erfection of a woman who in reciting the ,

L ord s P rayer was raised to highest union with God It .

is thus that God sometimes dis gu1s es thos e souls whose ,

directors might refuse to rele as e them from considerations

and ordinary prayer ; teaching them thus to study H is
ways and not to discipline them indis creetly .
 2 S ECOND TREATI S E
Just men always demand and seek poverty o f spirit
and pureness of heart ; and if they really understand what
they are asking for if they disguise nothing from them
,

selves they know that those are the two highest excel
,

l enci es of Christian perfection to which a man may aspire

in this world F o r by poverty of spirit one detaches
.

oneself from everything and by purity of heart o ne sees

, ,

even in this world and above all things Him who is all ,
.

Now contemplation is a sovereign m eans of attaining to

poverty of spirit seeing that it morties reason and puries
,

the heart seeing that it receives no affections either

, ,

human or celestial save in the sight of faith having G od

, ,

for the perpetual object o f the unde rstanding and G o d

for the perpetual object o f the will We may therefore . , ,

as k for contemplation ; he who s e eks t he end being per

mitted to seek the means which lead most directly to it .

And it is certain that the delight of G o d is to be with

the children of men as He hims elf declares Now this
, .

delight cannot be in the simple habit of charity and in

sanctifying grace for those who sleep those who are out
, ,

o f their minds , those who do not think of G o d at all ,

and those who actually commit some venial s in may have , ,

during that very time the habitude of grace And further

, . ,

who will believe that God who is a Reasonable Agent

, ,

can nd His delight in a man who far from giving Him a

, ,

a reciprocal love sometimes does not think of Him at all

, ,

and sometimes actuall y offends Him as we have remarked ,

.

As a matter of fact the holy Fath ers explain those words

,

of the actual communication Think of Me said God to a

. ,

holy soul and I will think of thee" God says in the

,

Apocalypse that He waits at the d oor ; that if any one hears

His voice and opens the door He will enter in to him ;
,

He will regale Himself with that just man and that just ,

man will regale himself with God Contemplation listens .

 D IAL OG U E VIII 3

to Go d because it puts the soul in silence It is a loving .

regard of God which draws Him into the soul We may

, .
,

th erefore seek it in order that God may dwell more per

,

fectl y more continuously and more actually in us and

, , ,

that He may communi cate to us the bl essings it pleases

Him to give us without our laying claim to anything in
particular save His love Meditati on is too active it
.
,

reects too much and it nearly always speaks without

,

listening ; loving contemplation on the other hand O ffers

the whole soul to God and o ffers Him all its emptiness to
be lled .

Moreover o ne may legitimately s eek a thing to which

,

God Himself invites us For ho w many times He urges

.

us theft we should come and drink o f H is spring that we ,

should dwell in His presence that we should look at ,

Him without ceasing that we should pray without ceasing

and s o on We may therefore seek an efcacious
,

.
, ,

means of carrying out His advice and contemplation is ,

such a means S eeing that He Himself asks us He

.
,

unquestionably asks for some effo rt and some co opera tion -

o n our part without o ur always expecting Him to shower

,

down manna on us Himself .

S t Bonaventura certainly held the View that we might

.

seek contemplation ; seeing that in the little work called

the S even W ays to E terni ty in the rst distinction of the
,

third way he puts at the beginning as title W hat is the ,

necessi ty of Con temp lation ? and without quoting to you

all that follows here is what he says at the end :
,

The necessi ty of con temp lation is clearly establi shed by

what I have already said the more tha t the movemen t made
,

i n the soul by medi ta tion would remain imp erfect and would ,

be of less use to the soul wi thout the end and the repose of _

con tem p l a ti on ; also th a t m ed i ta ti on co m es to a n e n d an,d

p asses in to co n tem p la ti on as in to th a t wh i ch i s th e m os t p erfect .

Q
1 94 S ECOND TREATI S E

Again, if according to this S eraphic D octor whose

, ,

advice i s worth that o f many others Con temp lation is ,

necessary to the p erfection of the soul it follows that we may

,

seek 1t and as k for it without compunction .

I say the same of infused contemplation ; for all the

D octors hold that acquired contemplation 1s a disposition
very ne ar to that of infused contemplation ; if then we may
seek a cquired contemplation with the help of grace we ,

may with the same help aspire to the infused leaving

, , ,

to G o d the time and manner of arriving at it and holding

ourselve s o n o ur part in profound humility and in a great ,

desire to please Him in that degree of perfection to which

He may nd it good to raise us .

It is o f infused contemplation that S t Bernard speaks .

in the Third Book o f the L ove of God when he says You ,

sigh p erhaps for the rep ose of con temp la ti on and y ou do well , .

S tri ve then to a ttain to that holy rep ose by the exercise of

, ,

the vi rtues We ought really to read that whole chapter

. ,

which deals entirely with infused contemplation It .

would be e as y for me to quote other D octors but they s ay ,

no more in substance than those I have quoted already .

Aspire more and more therefore P hilothea to contempla

, , ,

tion in accomplishing with delity on your part all that

you ought in abandoning yourself sincerely to the attrai t
,

of God who goes ahead o f the souls that seek Him and
, ,

gives Himself lovingly to those who trust themselves to

Him .

P hi lothea S t Bonaventura and S t Bernard will serve

. . .

me as guarantees for all the other D octors you might

quote But I am reproached because you prescribe me
.

a method in order to arrive at a state which is purely a

gift of G o d ; seeing that you have called your D ialogue
A S imp le M ethod of Raising the S oul to Contemplation .

D i rector It i s true that t he gifts o f G o d cannot be

.
 9 6 S ECOND TREATI S E
denition of the Chu rch notably in the Council of Trent
, .

And nevertheless the S aviour of the world says to us in

His Gospel H e who perseveres to the end shall be saved ;
,

a saying which exhorts us to do what we ought to do in

o rder that God may do in us what we are powerless to do
ourselves .

Justication is the greatest miracle which operate s in

the world and yet we prescribe methods to arouse tears
'

and contrition in order to obtain this favour .

He who wishes to recover health that is despaired of ,

tries the method of making devotions to some saint ,

hoping that he may work a miracle in his favour ; and the

s aint cure s him not because of the number of devotions
,

he performs or the number of rosaries he says but for the ,

love and faith which those devotions and rosaries have

aroused in his soul It i s his faith which procures him
.

the gra ce he asked of the saint .

The method is not used because of the gift but because ,

of him who awaits it or wishes to cultivate it Method .

does not produce the miracle ; it prepares the heart to

receive it without opposition without hindrance and , ,

without scruple There is no pro po rt1on between the

.

natural and the supernatural but there is some relation

,

o f the one to the other .

When Councils are summoned canonically their conclu

sions are infallible ; yet before determining anything
they examine with method the matters which have obliged
them to assemble and they dene nothing till they have
,

thoroughly debated and discussed everything Never .

theles s it is no t these discussions which cause the Holy

,

S pirit to descend on them but the Holy S pirit will not

,

descend before these debatable matters are settled All .

God s dealings with men are reasonable and humane ,

and He wishes that we shoul d do all that we can do

 D IA L OG U E VIII 1 97

before He does for us what is beyond o ur own powers ;

as S t. Augustine says D o what thou cans t and ask for
,

what thou canst not .

P hilothea It has been said to me : Your director makes

.

contemplation too easy ; he explains it s o clearly that even

those of mediocre intelligence can understand his book ,

because he takes s o much trouble to make clear a matter

which ought to remain obscure .

D i rector S ome have thought t to s ay that I was clear

. ,

and o thers that I was obscure There are eyes s o sensitive

.

that even shadows hurt them and light dazzles them .

Those who have read this Treatise have been surprised

at the facility with which I tre at a subject s o difcult and
s o obscure ; they grieve themselves bec ause owing to the ,

cle arness of the Treatise they seem to come s o near to

,

the goal while owing to their o wn disposition they nd

,

themselves still far removed from it But that is not the

.

fault of the author ; we no longer live in an age when we

must hide the mysteries Those who have made them
.

selves obscure have either had good re ason for s o doing ,

or a natural tendency towards obscurity .

After all this fa cility can deceive no one ; I take the dis
,

position towards contemplation for granted and I remark ,

on the signs of it ; fa cility o f understanding is a great help ,

but I have not claimed it as a reason for giving oneself to

contemplation On the contrary there is nothing which
.
,

more clearly discloses mistakes and abuses than t he clear

explanation of a m atter Obscurity sometimes serves as
.

an excuse for the slothful and a hindrance to feeble spirits ;

,

others would be more enlightened and more conrmed in

good ways if many writers did no t affect so much obscurity
, ,

and did not try to cover so much ground in one Treatise .

F o r in the First Treatise and in the S econd I treat of ,

nothing but this one unique point of contempl ation which , ,

1 98 S ECOND TREATI S E
be1ng once rmly established removes great difculties
,

from the spiritual life ; it conciliates authors who seem to

contradict each other and prepares a way free from d anger
fo r all those gift s which it pl eases G o d to communicate
.

For he who once thoroughly understands that G o d ,

lovingly r egarded in contemplation is above all the

,

beauties of n ature and all the gifts o f grace will await

,

nothing and desire nothing but His good pleasure .

zoo S ECOND TREATI S E
mean to say that on every occasion o n which we wish to
pray we must take Holy S cripture in our hands and pre ,

scribe ourselves two or three points for meditation He .

means to s ay that the An c ient L aw under which he lived

and the New L aw of which he prophesied must s erve us as,

a mirror and an ideal to mould all the actions of our lives ,

which we must have continually before o ur eyes as the

gage of Eternity and the Treaty of Alliance which G o d
has contracted with men He who contemplates does not
.

in any way oppose himself to this order ; he carries the

L aw imprinted in his heart by the loving and s avourous
knowledge of our mysteries and a single glance he gives
at one of the points of the L aw puts him in union with
,

God Moreover he can read Holy S cripture when it

.
,

seems good to him for his instruction for his consolation

, ,

or in order to explain it to others or for a hundred

,

other reasons which are in no wise contrary to prayer but ,

which also are not absolutely necessary to it A rich man .

would be starved indeed if he merely amassed his riches

in order to eat and a man of prayer would be utterly empty
,

and distracted if he never re ad anything except that which

would help him to pray It is certainly not necessary to
.

read in order to pray but it is sometimes necessary to

,

pray in order to read well There are times for reading

.

and times for prayer though it must be clearly understood

,

that neither reading nor any other ki nd of application can

distract him who is continually in prayer .

As for the holy Fathers they did no t l e ave us their

,

meditations in order to tell us that we must always meditate ,

but for many other reasons : to communicate to us their

lovely lights to unburden the fullness of their hearts
, ,

and give vent to the re of their love ; and it appears

quite clearly in the most excellent meditations they have
left us that there were in them many more transports than
 D IA L OG U E I X 2 01

discourses and that it was a perfect union with God

,

P resent in their souls which thus admirably spread itself

out into many diverse consider ations .

It is in fact a sufciently remarkable thing that m the

, ,

ordinary exercise of meditation whether practised in ,

Religious houses or in the world no us e is made of Holy ,

S cripture as material for prayer nor of the divine medit a ,

tions of the Fathers but that methodic al books of medita

,

tion are used instead This practice i s founded on good

.
v

reason s but it lets us s ee at the same time that the

, , ,

meditations of the Fathers were not composed as m aterial

for prayer ; they were rather a reux of their love and ad
mi ratio n The Fa thers spoke highly of God because they
.

had lis tened to Him well ; their interior silence was more
fruitful than o ur speech and all that they have written
,

communicates God to us because it comes from no other ,

source than God alone If we meditate as the Fathers

.

did we shall soon contemplate as they did ; the one thing

which charmed them most in their prayers was God ,

while we seek God last Of all We occupy ourselves .

round about Him but very rarely with Him considering ,

the things He has done and the things He has said but ,

not sufciently admiring Him who has done and said them .

As to the use of meditation which is establ ished in all

the Orders we must draw some distinctions There are
, .

more souls capable of meditation or at least more who ,

give themselves up to it than souls who can or who wish

,

to practise contemplation That is why it is expedient to

.

propose meditation to the greater number as the more

general way without allowing this practice to prevent
,

those from contemplating who feel a particular attrai t of

the D ivine S pirit F or as the prayer of contemplation
.

takes place entirely in the interior it does not des troy ,

the external dis cipline of a communi ty There are four .

 02 S ECOND TREATI S E
principal Rules 1n the Church : that of S t Basil that of .
,

S t Benedict the third of S t Augustine and the last of

.
, .
,

S t Francis ; and these Rules are the origin of many more

. .

But there is not o ne which prescribes meditation of three

or four points by way of precept but all ordain that the ,

soul must unite itself in holiness to God by H is continual

presence and pray to Him in spirit and in truth ; leaving
,

the leading of the Holy S pirit to attract souls whether by ,

consid erations o r by affections o r by a loving repose in

God who absorbs both considerations and affections and
, ,

attaches them to the wholly lovabl e Obje ct .

P hi lothea But some people tell me that it is grieving

.

God to give oneself to prayer without preparation just ,

as it would gri eve Him if one gave oneself to p rayer

without having read something beforehand to serve as

its object .

D i rector Those people grieve God P hiloth ea who g1ve

.
, ,

themselves to such prayer without feeling His a ttrai t ,

and a particular vocation from God to the prayer of recol

lection ; but it is not grieving God to hold oneself in His
presence in a spirit of love and adoration and in a state o f ,

abnegation which is a tacit declaration of o ur nothingness

before Him even although we do not produce it by express
,

acts The t eaching o f S t Fran c ois de S ales which I will

. .

quote here word for word should silenc e all such Ob jec
, ,

tions Here is what he says of the excellent abnegation

.

which the soul pra ctices in this state

My dear Theotimus let us take the liberty of framing
,

this i llus tra tion I f a s ta tue which i ts sculp tor had set up
.

in the gallery of some grea t p rince were endowed wi th

unders tanding and could reason and talk ; and if i t were

0 fai r s ta tue tell me now why a rt thou in tha t

asked , , ,

B eca use my mas ter p laced me

niche I t would ans wer ,
"
there . A nd if one should rep ly B ut why s tay est thou
,
2 04 S ECOND TREATI S E
Him without s aying anything and without doing anything .

It i s to gr1eve God to expect miracles and revelations but ,

not to look at Him and hold oneself in H is presence .

And as regards the exact preparation it is not necessary ,

t o read a meditation seeing that we do no t intend to medi

,

tate but in case of need we may read something to recollect

,

ourselves In any case the habit of recollection becomes

.

s o strong that the mere resolution one makes t o give oneself

to prayer awakes a lively presence of God which is itself

,

a preparation and the commencement of the prayer o ne

is about to make ; or t o put it better prayer is nothing but ,

an enhanced continuation of the pe rpetual prayer in which

the contemplative ought to keep himself D istra cted .

spirits who do not practise prayer save once a day cannot ,

comprehend this truth ; they must therefore trust to the

experience o f others and to the movement of grace .

I will also quote here Alvare z de P az who so thoroughly

1
,

plumbed all these matters Those he says who gi ve .

, ,

themsel ves to this manner of p ray er do not grieve God even ,

when they do nothing but p ut themsel ves in H is p resence and

a wai t H is action ; even when they p rep a re no materi al on

which to medi tate or by which to iname thei r souls and

, ,

even when they do i n H is P resence the rs t thing which

occurs to them They do not grieve H im at all for i t is

.
,

already a grea t good to p reserve a s im p le a n d h u m b le se n s e

of God s p resence, and H e often crowns such a s ta te wi th H is

love or wi th some other devout affection .

The same writer goes on thus : As regards p reparation ,

s ouls a t the commencemen t of this way when they are not

raised up by God H i mself by a singular p ri vi lege but being ,

sim pyl a w ak en ed by g ra ce p u t them sel v es i n H is p r ese n ce ,

p p
re a re som e de vou t a ec ti ons to occu py th ei r m in ds B u t .

1
AS p ani s h J es ui t o f th e p os t- Teresan peri od , who wro te u p on mys ti cal
p y
ra er. T he p as sage o ccurs in vol . ii i, cap . 1i , s ect . 3 of his D e Oratione .
 D IA L OG U E I X 2 05

after they have been long p ractised and sui ciently instructed
and are admi tted to grea t fami li ari ty wi th God, then they

ha ve no need of p rep ara tion ; for i n due course, they almos t

a lways exp eri ence the force of those in tercessi ons whi ch the

H oly S pi ri t i tself maketh for us wi th groanings whi ch cannot

be uttered .

I need add nothing, P hilothea , to s o clear and decisive

a passage save to refresh your memory Your ordinary
.

preparation for p rayer then must be an innocent life and

, , ,

a continual presence of God When you do that you need

.

ever fear to displease Him whatever you und ertake ; and

n
you will pray for thos e who are tempted to oppose your
way for lack of recognizing its wo rth .
 D IA L OG U E X

(i) W hether the soul is idle in contemp la tion .

(11) H ow tha t des ti tution is to be unders tood to which the l

sou
reduces i tself i n order to contemp la te .

P hilothea He who does no t wish to grieve G od does

.
,

not grieve Him Nevertheless Father here are the argu

.
, ,

ments with which the adversaries o f contemplation still

pursue me .

Is it necessary they say that in the presence of the

, ,

D ivine Majesty the soul should remain idle and without

thinking of anything whatsoever ? It is a creature ; it is
necessary that it S hould acknowledge its Creator It is .

a reasonable being ; 1t I S n ecessary that it should apply

itself to Him who does s o many things in it and who has ,

made the world for it It i s a free creature ; it is necessary

.

that it S hould love Him who communicates s o many

sublime things to it Finally the soul lays claim to
.
,

becoming just ; it is therefore necessary that it should

, ,

practice the works of Christian justice Instead o f remain .

ing lazy it S hould advance in justication that he who is ,

holy S hould make hims elf still more holy .

Di rector Contemplatives are certainly in agreement

.

with the t ruth stat ed by such people but they would not ,

agree with their manner of establishing it That soul is .

not idle P hilothea which holding itself in the presence

, , ,

of God keeps int erior silence in the powers of its love For .

the will to keep silence is an act o f veneration the presenc e ,

o f God is an act o f faith and even S ilence itself is a homage

,
.

The soul far from being idle exercises a univers al act

, ,

2 06
2 08 S ECOND TREATI S E
G od ; from tender and material affections with which we
think to hold God as with a holy grapnel while He would ,

enfold us and give Himself to us utterly and not merely ,

in little feelings and ashes He will deliver us from .

he aven He will deliver us from earth He will deliver us

, ,

from all things , from everything which i s not G od and from ,

everything which cannot draw us to G o d however noble ,

and exalted it may be if it attra cts us without the sovereign

,

will of G o d 1
.

D raw us after Thee O G o d and we wi ll run to the, ,

sweetness of Thy embrace But do not we pray Thee .

, ,

let Thy sweetness alone h ave the power to draw us for no ,

m an can come to Thee Thou most loving S aviour by all , ,

the sweet savour of devotion if Thy Father does not Him ,

self draw him, if He does not give to creatures the power

t o attract him For without this inux of grace on us and
.

o n all things everything may draw us away from G o d

, .

Thy humanity itself my S aviour which is the most

, ,

precious o f all creatures not being regarded as it S hould,

have been deceived the Jews tempted the Apostles and

, , ,

every d ay keeps people of real devotion from the way of

perfection Because the Jews did not recognize Thy
.

D ivinity the Apo s tles did no t sufciently regard it, and

,

the devout did not realize it stopping short at the humanity , .

The soul is not idle P hilothea when it takes its rest in

, ,

God ; but beyond this act which keeps it constantly ,

occupied God never fails to send it good inspirations and

,

s alutary thoughts The contemplative doe s not spend all

.

his time as some people think in driving away temptations ,

and distractions ; sometimes three or four hours may p ass

with S O much fa cility and sweetness that if discretion did ,

1
This s pl endi d and charact eri s ti c o ut bu t whi
rs t rs , ch may s eem at
s i ght exces s i ve, d oes not real l go e o y b y nd th
e cl as s i c d o ctri ne of
Chr1s t1 an mys trci s m Cf the Cloud of Unknowing, cap vi i, o r S t Jo hn
. . . .

of th e Cro ss , the Ascent of M ount Carmel, B o ok 1 1 1, cap xv . .

 D IA L OG U E X 2 09

not rul e this path the soul would consume itself in a short
,

time Believe me nature cannot deceive us in this matter

.
, ,

and as souls who are truly called soon taste the fruits o f
this prayer so those who are not thus called soon feel the
,

thorns I base my argument largely o n this principle of

.

the Gospel A good tree cannot b ring forth evil frui t nei ther
, ,

can a corrup t b ri ng forth good frui t

tree .

In the ordinary way, o ne must exercise the virtues one

after the other in order to a cquire facility
in making a cts ;
o ne must take attachments in particular and break each

one by a di fferent exercise ; one must attack one s im

perfections with sufcient S trategy and industry to destroy

them B ut this happy this lovely presence of G od this
.
, ,

loving and universal act s o questioned and s o resisted by

,

men establishes the virtues breaks o ff attachments sur

, , ,

mounts imperfections and o ne nds oneself free and

,

disengaged when occ asion arises sometimes without ,

having had one single thought in prayer of the blessings

God has the mercy to prepare for us .

That is why I will nish this D ialogue as S t D enis .

commences his with Timothy L et go P hilothea of all

, .
, ,

cre ated things all sensible things all intelligible things

, , ,

everything that is affective in fact everything which is

, ,

and everything which is not in order to throw yourself ,

into the very heart of God ; who will give you everything
y u may have abandoned
o accompanied with power,

and e fcacy to love Him more ardently This wi ll either .

make you produce the acts necessary to you or else hold ,

you in that blessed silence which is worth all a cts .

A great philosopher of o ur own day believed that in

order to acquire tru e philosophy and re establish it in its -

purity it was necessary that the human spirit should make

,

an e ffort to d isengage itself from all its p ast knowl edge ,

and that it should forget all that it had learned That then .
, ,

R
2 10 S ECOND TREATI S E
guiding its elf by the principles it had formulated all its ,

knowledge would beco me purer and more perfect ; that

truth would appear in its true character and that wisdom ,

would b e renewed This is not the place to argue whether

.

such a foundation Of philosophy is reasonable but in the ,

path of which we are talking it is certain that he who gives

,

up everything recovers that which he has given up more

, ,

perfect and more complete ; having God for principle for ,

means and for end o f the knowledge of heaven and the

,

re establishm ent o f spiritual man

-
.

This bl essed ignorance is the mistress of knowledge and ,

darkness is here the essence o f day and of light H ow .

great God seems P hilothea to him who knows Him wi th

, ,

out images how ineffable how inestimable "There are

, ,

souls who would not give one ray of this luminous darkness
for all the knowledge of the universe ; and God who cannot ,

make Hims elf comprehended of His creatures has found ,

the means to m ake them understand that He is i nco m

prehensible ; and to love His incomprehensibility He .

who sees G o d in this darkness P hilothea sees a great

.

, ,

abyss ; and this darkness has no light save that which is

n ecess ary to S how the soul the abyss and to plunge it into
,

such great amaz ement that in certain mo ments it no

longer sees heaven and earth men or angels save as
, ,

atoms lost in this innite abyss The soul rejoices that

.

God should be incomprehensibl e that there is nothing ,

like unto Him L ove Him ad m1re Him adore Him

.
, ,

within this august O bscurity ; and prize the obscurity you

are reproached for much more than the occupations o n
which the world prides itself and even many devout
,

persons who los e their peace in seeking it with too much

eagernes s and activity .

P hi lothea H ow good it i s to have doubts and difculties "

.

It seems that the conrmation o f truth may be something

2 12 S ECOND TREATI S E
worthy pilgrimage Those who practise meditation go
.

o n foot sta ff in hand : I mean to say that they have humility

,

and condence in G o d but they carry s o many acts and

,

s o many considerations o f their nothingness and t heir

spiritual poverty that often they are neither really poor

,

nor really detached That which they do is praise

.

worthy so long as they do it from vocation and s o long as ,

they add nothing to their vocation ; but the annihilation of

their powers is something more august mo re worthy of ,

the majesty of Go d To calm the senses make reaso n

.
,

keep silence command one s o wn will and humble all
, ,

one s powers in the presence of God is perfect homage

, ,

true love and the disposition fo r all the graces S o much

, .

so that that which deceives many people is that they make

contemplation consist in that void of images and forms
which spiritual writers s o expressly recommend But this .

void is certainly nothing but a disposition towards the

plenitude of God who having once succeeded in p ersuad
, ,

ing souls to have Him always present to them makes them ,

afterwards do everything that He pleases ; that is to say ,

everything those souls do who meditate and everything

they do not do acts of acknowledgment of love of , ,

condence and suchlike according to the disposition in

, ,

which God nds the soul or according to H is good

,

pleasure i n a simple strong gentle and almost imper

, , ,

cept i b l e manner .

The general and close knit a ct of contempl ation often

-

expands like a bouquet of owers which is in itself a

,

unity and yet allows many scents to be smelt at the same

,

time many colours to be seen simultaneously The heart

, .

is s o ravished by this rich profusion that in order to lose

none o f its rapture it does not take the trouble to look at
,

each ower in detail even though it recogniz es them and

,

is aware of their divers ity In the same way the general .

 D IA L OG U E X 2 13

act remai ns as a rule S O pure and s o simple that the soul ,

does not know how to s ay what it i s if no t that it feels

,

itself supported and lled and that it is certain that God

,

is present to it But this act sometimes spre ads out into

.

s o many other acts that the soul i s astonished and de

lighted ; and still it only enjoys one act and it takes no ,

account of the others it recognizes .

Emp ty your soul P hilothea and God will ll it This

, , .

v oluntary void is a depth from which God draws many

diverse and admirable forms It contains lights and.

S ha dows tendernesses and drynesses enjoyments and

, ,

sufferings but above all a great detachment from every

, , ,

thing which is not God even fro m His graces and favours
, ,

to attach oneself inviolably to God alone .

P hi lothea May those devout souls leave me my

.

destitution and I will leave them their riches ; and I

,

pray G o d that neither o ne no r other of us may ever

oppose ourselves to H is most holy will .
 D IA L OG U E X I

(1) Whether one should read in order to conte mp late .

ii
( ) H ow one shoul d us e voca l p ray er .

P hi lothea Tell me Father S hould one never read

.
, ,

when in this way of prayer ?

D i rector S t Augustine and S t Thomas were seraphic
. . .

contemplatives yet nevertheless they read and wrote

,

during nearly the whole of their lives Every o ne may .

read when it pleases him ; fo r his profession his need o r , ,

the instruction of his n eighbour But there are three .

things P hilothea fo r which a contemplative must never

, ,

read First he must never read books o f meditation

.
,

with any design o f meditating on them ; i n order th at

he may do nothing contrary to his attrai t nor fall into ,

some inconstancy under pretext of making a good medita

tion S uch books may induc e a soul to form distinct
.

acts and thus obscure and stie the general act and p ar
, ,

t i cul arly so in those who are only beginning to enter o n

this p ath : for those already far advanced are not e as ily
diverted from their aim .

S econdly contemplatives must never re ad out of pure

,

curiosity such spiritual books as are beyond their capacity

and out of their true path F o r imagination sometimes
.

deceives us and especially women We conceive an

, .

indiscreet desire to attain to extraordinary gifts to which

God does not yet call us and to whi ch He will perhaps
,

never call us ; this may cause over eagerness impatience -

, ,

envy and a desire of possession altogether contrary to

,

that spiritual abnegation which he who contemplates must

practise And moreover a strong and lively imaginati on
.
,

2 14
2 16 S ECOND TREATI S E
seeking in mystical books P hilothea without necessity and
, ,

without guidance causes more ill than good and confuses

, ,

souls instead of enlightening them .

P hilothea I would rather read books which would help

.

to nourish in me the love of God than those which merely

,

arouse curiosity L ove is a great mas ter Father and its

.
, ,

re gives more light than all the teaching of men .

But I want to as k your advice also concerning voc al

prayer whether o ne S hould us e it much or littl e in the
,

way of co ntemplation ?
Di rector The farther prayer i s removed from the
.

tongue, the nearer it draws to the heart It is commonly .

said that great sorrows are dumb , and it is true that all
the passions when they arrive at their height speak very
, ,

little or not at all ; that is to say if the he art being over full ,
-

and as it were O ppressed by its object does not take

, , ,

re fuge in speech and break o ut suddenly in sensible

,

transports and striking effusions .

The love of God when it is pure serene and tranquil

, , , ,

possesses the soul in such a way that it often does not leave
it liberty either to think or to speak The voice was only .

given to uS in order to declare o ur sentiments but from ,

the moment a good heart offers them to G o d a just so ul ,

who tastes God so present so familiar and s o intimate

, ,

has some difculty in ope ning its mouth to tell God that
which He already knows and that which the heart has
,

already presented to Him F or 1t 18 sometimes a S ign of

.

doubt to use the voice t o assure G o d of that which the

heart feels It is as if the soul wished to assure itself of
.

its own act and to recall to feeling a faith which is so much

,

the more pure when it is more spiritual The fact is that .

the soul wishes to taste and savour the love o f God by

exclaiming about it and showing it forth and it does not ,

s ee that it i s thu s converting it into i ts o wn self love -

.
 D IA L OG U E X 1 2 17

There are men who resemble those voluptuous creatures

who chew and taste the morsel they wish to enjoy s o
eagerly that their mouths are lled with nothing but water ;
the pal ate is refreshed but the heart is not rejoiced In
, .

the same way by conversations and exterior pr ayers o ne

,

sometimes satises rather one s self love in God than -
,

i names oneself by G o d .

I noti ce in Holy S cripture that great things are generally

as ked for by a very short prayer ; Tobi as and Sarah ,

after having celebrated their marriage spent three nights ,

in prayer and the p rayer of S arah consisted only of these

,

words H ave p i ty on us "L ord "mercifully ordain that we

,

may become aged together And Tobias in his heart

.

repeated the same prayer a hundred times by a loving ,

presence of God without using many a cts or repe at

,

ing many words D avid asks pardon for his adultery in

.

a P salm which i s not very long ; it was the heart that

showed penitence and said a hundred times without say
ing it H a ve mercy on me" If the prayers of the P atriarchs
,

and P rophets were sometimes longer it was because their ,

words comprised prophecies which concerned the future .

All the great miracles which the S aviour works in the

Gospels are obtained with short prayers : S on of D avid "
have mercy on us "say the blind men and they recover ,

their sight H a ve mercy on me "says the Canaanite woman

.
,

my daughter is grievously vexed wi th a devil " The crown

and glory of her prayer was the perseverance o f her faith .

L ord " said the leper I f thou wilt thou cans t make me clean "
, ,

and the confession he makes of the power of the S aviour

allows him to feel the effects of it in his body And the .

holy Mother of Our S aviour who was the model of prayer

, ,

when S he wished to obtain the famous miracle at the

Marriage of Cana s aid nothing but those words They
, ,

have no wine" and the water was changed i nto wi ne The .

 18 S ECOND TREATI S E
S av1our of the world Himself in H is agony, only repeated
,

a very S hort prayer three , times : F ather, if i t be possible,

let this cup p ass from M e : nevertheless not as I will, b ut as
Thou wi lt .

He has advised us not to let the strength of o ur prayers

consist in a multitude o f words and He Himself has pre ,

scribed for us a form of prayer which is conceived with

extreme brevity It is to be noted that in this prayer
.

there is no multiplication o f terms no expression of g reat ,

e ffort but merely a S imple expression of the desires and

,

requests it contains H allowed be Thy name; Thy king

.

dom come Thy wi ll be done

, One word says more when
.

the heart is lled with love and faith than long prayers
uttered by a l anguishing and distracted spirit .

S t Benedict followed in the footsteps of his Master

. .

L et us remember he s ays in his Rule tha t not for our much

, ,

sp eaking b ut for our p uri ty of hea rt and tears of comp unction

shall we be heardOur p ray er, therefore, ought to be short

.

and p ure, excep t p erchance i t be p rolonged by the insp i ra tion

of D i vi ne Grace B ut when we are gathered together i t is

.

ever to b e b ri ef (R ule of S t
. B en edi ct, cap x ) In. fact , . .

P hilothea, most vocal prayers consis t of nothing but

the voice ; the tongue is no t here the echo or interpreter
o f the heart It is true that sometimes alongside i ts Ofce
.

o f interpreter it arouses and urges the heart but when the ,

heart refuses to be aroused it is d isgusted it diss ipates

, ,

i ts force and seems to disavow by its conduct everything

,

uttered b y the tongue Our L ord might well s ay of .

thos e who pray in this manner what He s aid of old of

the Jewish people This peop le honoureth Me wi th their lips
, ,

b ut thei r heart is far from Me .

And Rab anus explaining the words I have quoted from

,

S t Benedict says : The reason why we must make brief

.
,

p yra er is les t re ligi ous should fall as leep duri ngp y

ra er tha t
 S ECOND TREATI S E
L et S t Thomas sum up for us he who being a religious
.
, ,

and obliged in consequence to recite the D ivine Ofce ,

explains himself as to vocal prayer nevertheless as a

true D octor He says that the general prayer the
.

Church offers for the faithful is a distinct thing and that ,

this must be vocal and even uttered in a loud voice in order

,

that it may be heard by the people fo r whom it is offered ;

but it is not thus as regards the prayer which e a ch one
o ffers for hims elf The prayer of individuals he says
.
, ,

need not of necessity be voc al but it may be ; and that ,

for three reasons First in order to arouse interior

.
,

devotion which can raise the spirit to God because the ,

understanding of man is in the habit of being moved

either by words o r by exterior actions and b ecause the ,

will Closely follows the impulse o f the understanding ,

to iname it to good That was why S t Augustine

. .
,

writihg to P roba said th at we arouse ourselves with

,

more vehemence by words and by other exterior things

to make holy desire grow in us And tha t is why in .
,

private or indivi dual prayer we must only make use o f

,

the voice and exterior signs as much as is necessary to

arouse the soul to devotion F o r if as S t Thom as goes
. , .

on the soul nds itself more distracted by such things

, ,

or if it is hindered in some way from satisfying its devotion ,

it must leave all those exterior things That is what .

happens in those whose souls who are sufciently disposed

t o devotion without having all the S igns o f it
, That is .

why the P rophet says (P salm xxvii) : W hen Thou saids t ,

S eek y e My face ; my heart said unto Thee Thy face L ord , , ,

wi ll I seek . And it is said of H annah in I S amuel that

S he spake in her heart .

The second reason says S t Thomas for making use of

, .

vocal prayer is as a form of duty in order that man may

, ,

serve God by everything that he holds from G od that is ,

 D IA L OG U E X I 21

to say not only by the spirit but also by the esh and
, ,

the whole being .

And nally we us e vo cal prayer through a ce rtain reex

,

action of the soul on the body following some vehement ,

a ffecti on a c cording to the words of the P salm : My heart

,

g re a tly j
re oi ceth ; and wi th my s ong wi ll I p ra is e H i m The .

holy D octor add s a little later Words which signify something

,

cap ab le of leading to devotion a rouse souls and esp eci a lly ,

those which ha ve leas t devotion Note these words well .

,

P hilo thea for S t Thomas makes devotion consist in

, .

1 nt er10r zeal ( S umma P art II 2 Question 8 3 Art

, , , , .

And it is also to be remarked that that which he prescribes

as regards vocal prayer must also b e understood as regards
reading and all exterior things which may arouse devotion
, ,

what S t Thomas calls the S ign of devotion

. .

I do not approve then any more than S t Thomas of

, , .
,

using too much vocal prayer For if some S aints have .

recited the P salter every day we must judge of that as of ,

their exterior penances ; these are devotions not rules , .

The wisdom of God is admirable in the diversity of its

ways When it pleases Him that we S hould us e much
.

exterior prayer whether as a good example or for any oth er

,

special reason He then has the goodness to take possession

,

o f the soul with more warmth to the end that it S hould ,

no t dissipate itself without But this is a favour which

.

those who make these long prayers and practise such

exterior things without advice and through self love i n -

devotion need not expect

, .
 D IA L OG U E X I I

Recap i tu ationl f
o the whole ma tter of conte mp lation wi th
l
sp eci al exp ana tions .

P hilothea It seems to me that I have perfectly under

.

stood what you have taught me about contemplation I .

can only hope that my practice may be true to the know

ledge yo u have gi ven me and that I may bring as much
,

delity to maintaining myself i n it and to advancing ,

myself to the state in which God would have me as you ,

have had patience in explaining to me But please think .

it permissible to have yet another talk with me in which ,

I will as k you briey about things which yo u may have

already explained to me in order to impress them more
,

rmly on my mind and to give you at the s ame time an

,

opportunity of teaching me other things which may serve

to my advancement a nd which have not been touched on
,

i n the preceding D ialogues .

D i rector I a m he artily ready to do as you wis h P hilo

.
,

the a Repetition of great truths brings new unction and

.

new light to those who make it The things of God never .

weary those who taste them becaus e in them they s eek ,

G o d rather than their own s atisfaction The word of .

God is a light and no one tires of seeing light The word

, .

o f God is the bread of souls and no one tires of eating ,

bre ad for without this univers al food of our bodies better

, ,

foods are insipid and the greatest sweetnesses breed disgust .

All the s ame I do not propose to give you merely a repeti

,

tion I will teach you in a new way things you know

222
224 S ECOND TREATI S E
of Him : He is incomprehensible The will does not know
.

what to will or what to desire ; He is innitely lovable .

The memory dare no t remind itself of anything in remind

i ng itself o f Him who is all Why therefore deceive
.
, ,

the imagination with pious images ? The soul tastes and

possesses the truth This silence attained by grace and
.
,

a ttrai t is followed by a great pe a ce ; for to contempl ate

,

i s not simply to cease to act ; it is to rest in God and to ,

gather up in this repose all the actions of the soul S leep .

is not S imply a cessation of being awake ; it is a refreshment

o f body a resto ration of nature
, .

I have said that in this prayer the whole soul is recollected

in adoration o f God ; for what homage c an be more pure
than that in which we come to rest in God P ure ? The
soul is recollected in admiration in affection and in
, ,

joy, which for all that are neither acts nor different
movements ; but a melting up and gushing forth of the
love of G od Nevertheless the highest point of this
.
,

recollection is attained through faith which doe s not ,

cease when the other attrai ts cease and which always

, ,

possesses its object .

I have said that the soul adores God P resent because ,

most men adore Him as if He were far removed from

them The tongue invites Him the unde rstanding seeks
. ,

Him the will desires Him the memory recalls Him the
, , ,

imagination pictures Him All this is good all this is

. ,

worship, all this is love But it is a thing more worthy of

.

God to nd God and to nd Him everywhere ; recognizing

Him even in our own heart which He asks us most of all
to do and which is the true way to love Him
, .

This prayer adores God P resent and not simply in His

p resence because it does not consist in represe nting to
,

ourselves some image of the D ivine Through faith and

.

gra ce it has acquired this habit by the exercise of a P resence

 D IA L OG U E X I I 225

so real that morally speaking it cannot doubt that God is

, , ,

i ts famili ar objective and that it is i n i ts o wn power to

,

think of Him when it wills without eagerness without , ,

e ffo rt and almost without any movement The soul is

, .

s o seized by this lovable object that it carries it with it

everywhere ; the soul is acti ve in the commerce of life

without disturbing the interi or commerce ; it sees it hears , ,

it goes abo ut and God is always p resent to it ; it falls

,

asleep and it awakes in this Object

,
1
.

P hi lothea Blessed habit "Blessed necessi ty "Blessed

.

posses sion " to carry G o d in one s heart at all times and in

all places " H o w dif cult it is t o separate oneself from

God by sin when o ne is united to Him by a continual

,

loving presence "

Could you perhaps furnis h me with some comparisons
to make me understand more fully this sureness and this
ins eparabil it y of the p resence of God ?
D i rector The comparison of an echo is suitable fo r
.

your end An echo is the reection of the voice from an

.

empty and hollow rock which sends i t back When one .

i s in such places it is impossible to s ay a wo rd which is

not sent back by the echo When the soul is empty o f .

everything except of that living re which is God it is ,

impossible to do or say anyt hing without eve rything

re echoing t hi s presence All things s ay God and the .
,

soul responds interiorly God ; for as every obje ct which ,

passes imprints i ts notion or idea o n the soul s o the ,

soul being lled by the D ivine every thought according , ,

1
I n readmg th e w w
hol e o f th e T elft h D i alogue, i th i ts fervent and w
b p
eauti ful d es cri ti ons o f th e achi eved contem l ati ve s tat e, we h ave to p
b
remem er th at M alaval i s no l onger i ns tructi n g th e b egmn er, or t h e
p ro ci ent , b ut gi vi ng a p
i cture o f th e ni s hed ro d uct ; t h e es ta li s hed p b
p p y
th eo ath eti c li fe o f th e man o f ra er wh o h as reach ed uni o n W i th G o d
"
.

p
W ere th es e com aris o ns i ntend ed t o b e of general a li cati on to all pp '

reco ll ect ed
"
so uls , th e yw
o ul d c ert ai nl b e exces s ive y
B ut t hi s i s not .

th e auth or s meaning

.

S
226 S ECOND TREATI S E
its quality either makes it love G od or mistrust every
'

to ,

thing whi ch is not God .

One nds in certain houses inner doors with little bells

xed on them ; it is not possible to open such doors
gently enough to avoid making some noise or to go in ,

o r out without warning those within Thus P hilothea .

, ,

whether things enter the soul or l eave it they must always ,

awaken this id ea of God and they warn the soul that God
,

is there T he habit of this presence produc es an act

.

which is almost co nt1nuo us and the soul can no more

,

forget G od than it can forget itself .

Thus contemplation to dene it for you anew is a

, ,

xed presence of God I do not say S imply a habit for

.
,

one nds habits even in those who S leep and such hab its ,

have strictly speaking no me rit Neither i s this an

, , .

ordinary exe rcise made only at certain hours and on certain

occasions ; it is a continuous act which is nothing properly ,

speaking but the repetition o f the same act but s o gently

, ,

and easily produced by the force of habit that o ne would

s ay it was one sol e act ; just as o ne sees that the eyes produce

at one moment an innity of glances though the natural ,

faculty of sight seems to render them only one S ingle

glance .

Contemplation is also a general sight of God P resent .

I say a sight because it is an act o f that understanding

,

which is the eye of the soul just as the will i s the eye o f
,

the heart S ight has this chara cteristic that it takes

. ,

place in a moment and that it is performed by the eye

,

without e ffort ; while speech only comes from the lips

o ne syllable after the other and strikes the ear in a s uc

c es s ion of sounds The reasoning o f meditation resembles

.

speech ; it is formed o f one thought after another and is

thus always in some kind of motion Contemplation o n .
,

the contrary is more like sight ; it attains i ts obje ct in

,
2 28 S ECOND TREATI S E
knows the more it longs to know ; the more it loves the
, ,

more it longs to love ; it has a longing for innite know

ledge and a longing for innite love In fact man is .
,

never satised in this world and this is a proof of his

,

immortality and o f the sovereign happiness for which

he is made All that the most perfect things of this world
.

can do is to occupy the soul ; nothing but God can ll it .

But P hilothea we are obliged in this very life to love

, ,

God with all our strength and with all the capacity of o ur
hearts ; the L aw of God commands us to do this and it ,

cannot command anything impossible And to love Him .

with all our hearts we must love Him as He is for neither

, ,

anything He has made in heaven or earth nor anything ,

we can imagine or conceive in o ur little way is as lovable ,

as God To love Him as He is in Himself it is necessary

.
,

to know Him as He is in Hims elf for the will is a blind ,

power which can only love things in the way the under
standing represents them to it If therefore the under .
, ,

standing represents G o d to the will under p articular

i mages it will not love Him save in H is perfection o r in
, ,

His works ; but if it represents Him as He is in Himself it ,

will love Him in Himself In fact the commandment

.
,

which imposes on us this glorious obligation to love God

with all our strength orders us also to love Him with all
,

o ur thought that i s t o say to make Him the most perfect

, ,

objective of our understanding as we have made Him the

most pure objective of o ur hearts Also nothing but G od .
,

can s atis fy the natural activity of the understanding and ,

nothing but God can s atisfy the natural ardour o f the

will S o that even in this world the good man is happy
.

because he possesses in G o d all that he can know and ,

all that he can love General contemplation is there

. ,

fore the most perfect the more that through the repos e
, ,

o f a living faith i t m ake s us embrace and as it were , ,

 D IA L OG U E X I I 229

comprehend the incomprehensible and by that outow of ,

love which foll ows faith it makes us love innitely that

,

whi ch is inni tely lovable .

And moreover no t only is God the one Objective which

,

can satisfy our un d erstanding and our will but there is ,

nothing but God alone whi c h ca n impress on us this

overwh elmi ng desire to be come happy and to possess the
S overeign Good He does this not only as the Author of
.

grace but also as the Author o f the nature of man ; it

,

follows from this that the wicked have an ardent d esire to

be happy and to be satise d as well as the good ; G o d
, ,

who is wanting in nothing impressing on all this universal

,

light with the same goodn ess with which He makes the
,

s un to rise on the good and on the bad and sends His ,

rain to the sinner as well as to the righteous For it i s .

more worthy of H i s wisdom to p rovide for the spiritual

good even in the o rder of that nature of which H e is
the Creator than to provide for the bodily good More
, .

over a particular caus e can never give this movement

,

towards the unive rsal Good ; no one can give save that
which he has and no individual being ca n communicate
,

happiness because he does not possess it N o w if to this

, .

general inuence of the Author of nature G o d comes to ,

add a movement o f grace this grace cleanses the eyes

,

from creaturely shadows and makes us s ee clearly that

which before we s aw with difculty Thus universal .

contemplation is more perfect because adding the light ,

of grace and of faith to the light of nature it dis ,

closes to us t he Good in itself and makes us love it for

what it is .

This is the doctrine o f S t Augustine in a thousan d

.

places where he speaks of God as immovable truth It .

i s also the doctrine of S t Thomas when he sp eaks o f G o d

.

as a good and as a universal power Men re ad that

, .
,
2 30 S ECOND TREATI S E
P hilothea, they know it they dis cuss it but since love
, ,

and humility which are lacking to them are unable to

, ,

give them the veritable taste they regard these wonderful

,

truths as speculations and learned ideas without gathering

from them the fruits the holy Fathers had intended In .

which they resemble those people who read of the marvels

of the Indies and the New World rather from curiosity ,

and as a form of entertainment, than because they wish to

believe in them themselves .

Contemplation may also be dened as a loving wisdom

which tastes God P resent Wisdom is knowledge of the
.

truth through its highest cause He who holds the rudder

.

of a S hip i s called wise in his art seeing that he knows the

,

stars and the winds necessary to navigation while the ,

sailors are merely occupied with sails and ropes The .

architec t is called wise in the art of building because he

draws the pl an which is the ultimate design of the building ,

while the masons merely deal with the stones and other
materi als .

He who contemplates God has true wisdom ; for he

contemplate s God because He is G od which is the most ,

noble manner o f knowing Him S uch wis dom loves .

Him and tastes Him ; it does no t reason it believes ; it does ,

not seek it enjoys The knowledge of G o d when we do

, . ,

not hinder its effect produces love just as the light of the
,

s un infallibly produces heat when it does no t meet with

either wind o r cloud but beats down upon the earth .

L et men believe what they will P hilothea it is impossible

, ,

t o look at G o d without loving Him o r to look a t Him ,

always without loving Him always for the object of such ,

regard is innitely lovable Nature 15 1nclined to love

.

the S overeign Good ; faith allows us to see it as it is ; the

a ttra i t of grace invites us to s ee it and love it ; the perpetual

presence conrms and familiariz es this love and always ,

2 32 S ECOND TREATI S E
will augment contempl ation and contemplati on will ,

iname love .

P hilothea I agree that this general contemplation of

.

God is the most perfect but I must still ask you to ,

tell me in a word how it becomes general .

Di rector God is nothing of that which the exterior

.

s en s es S how us He i s nothing o f that which the imagina

.

tion expresses He is nothing of that which reason con

.

ceives , because all that we know through the power s o f

the soul is nite and God is innite All that we know
, .

is comprehensible ; God alone is incomp rehensible It .

follows then that when by an e ffort of natural reason

, ,

we wish to know G od in His nature by H is resemblance to

things which we know either we change the creature i nto ,

G od like the idolaters who in seeking God through , ,

reason made gods for themselves out of all manner of

,

things ; o r else we bring God down to the creature like ,

s o many profane p eople who degrade Him by impiety ,

or ignorant people who abase Him through ignorance .

We must therefore purge o ur spirits of images of all

, ,

created things and our wills of affection for those things

, ,

in order to know God alone in Hims elf and love God

alone i n Himself It is not that men do not know God
.

through natural reason but th at they know rather that ,

He is than what He is ; and this knowledge is turned

,

by the corruption of our n ature into darkness and does ,

not give man any power to strip himself of his passions ,

which makes this darknes s deeper .

It is here with man as with a traveller who following a , ,

rather difcult road to travel from his o wn country to

another and not being able to nd his way save by follow
,

ing certain marks which have been left along the roadside,
would out of caprice rub out and do away with those
, ,

marks For then when he had arrived at the end of his

. ,
 D IA L OG U E X I I 33

journey he would not be able to nd the way back again

,

to his own country and could d o nothing but stray from

,

th e road and lose hi mself Man knows G o d through the .

ves ti ges of nature but as he abus es those vestiges and

,

changes th em or obliterates them by the unruliness of

hi s pass ions he no longer se es the traces which would
,

l ead hi m to God and thus he precipitat es hi ms elf into

,

a thousand errors .

Faith t hen com es to the help of nature : it r epresents

to it an innite G o d innitely lovable And as the light
, .

o f Glory puts t he bl essed in possession of that which

God i s s o faith is a light which puts us in possession

,

of that which the blessed s ee We s ee the same God .

,

but they s ee Him clearly while we s ee Him obscurely , .

They know that which He i s whil e we ratify that which ,

they know They s ee that He is no t any one of His

.

creatures and we also believe that H e i s not of the created

,

world But this faith P hil othea i s not a simple acq uies
.
, ,

c ence o f human reason in the truth as when we believe ,

what people tell us every day in the world It i s a super .

natural light which makes man rmly and invariably

consent to believe the exi sten c e of G o d S uch li ght i s no t .

reas oning for then it would be clear and its object would
, ,

be clear also It is an obscure light and i ts sub j ect 15

.
,

obscure In qualit y of light it co nrms and in quality

.
,

o f obs curi t y it sover eignly detaches the soul from all that

it knows by reason o f that which is clear and tting God .

,

says faith is neither nature nor created image nor

, , ,

possibility ; He i s that whi ch He is and He is all , .

In cons equence P hilothea faith comprehends all that

, ,

knowledge can conceive Of God and all that it cannot

conceive .

Thus contemplation is an act of faith in God P resent ,

which by the help of grace becomes continual and familiar ,

2 34 S ECOND TREATI S E
and thus it is universal like its light and its object Faith .

produces contemplation and contemplation illumines

Faith In the same way we s ee that a grain of mustard
.
,

s eed produces a great plant which was enclosed i n its ger m ,

and that afterwards this plant itself p roduces an innity

of seeds and germs F or contemplation augments faith
.

in an extraordinary way ; it makes it mo re e fcacious more ,

penetrating more luminous and more universal than

, ,

ever before By dint of reasoning with nature the spirit

.
,

m akes itself strong and by dint of believing through grace

, ,

the spirit renders itself divine Ah P hilothea "this .

,

m arvellous exercise of faith i s the blessing of this life .

B lessed are they that have not seen and y et ha ve believed ,

because great faith exercised through contemplation

, ,

produces great love and a very close and very perfect

,

union with God who i s our felicity .

P hi lothea How is it possible that prayer illumin es

.

faith seeing that faith in order to be faith and to h ave

, ,

the merit of submiss ion and of this voluntary captivity to

which reason s ubjects itself must by its very nature be ,

obs cure ?
D i rector Faith always rem ains obscure because of its
.

object but it draws from the light which comes from

,

prayer a greater force a greater certitude and a greater

, , ,

penetration Iron which has S imply been held near the

.

re becomes hot but when it has been made red hot in

,
-

the re o ne would s ay that re and iron were one s o

, ,

well are they blended and incorporated together By .

great exercise o f contemplation o ne would s ay that reason

becomes faith or that faith becomes reason s o greatly
, ,

has the soul the certitude and the co nv1ct1on of that which
i t believes Much more then P hilothea a greater light
.
, , ,

of contemplation produces a greater and more admirable

obscurity ; that is to s ay that it makes God appear to us

,
2 36 S ECOND TREATI S E
of faith : we no longer s ee the land that is to s ay e arthly , ,

things but the less we s ee of earthly things, the more we

,

s ee o f the immensities o f heaven .

Moreover P hilothea the greater this light of faith is

, , ,

the more it causes us a marvellous delight in G od alone .

There i s a certain contrivance of perspective which enchants

the eye by making it s ee as at a vast distance something ,

whi c h is quite close Faith is that which brings us nearest

.

t o God as well as that which removes us farthest from Him ,

and therefore the more contemplation illumines faith the ,

more it shows us simultaneously a God P resent and a God

Innite a God with us and a God above us ; it puts us in
, ,

the very heart of God at the s ame moment that it plunges

us into an abyss o f G o d We do not yet distinguish the.

being of God faith remaining always obscure but we s ee

, ,

it more clearly than before All the owers of a garden , .

and all the beauties of a meadow appear to us as they are ,

s o soon as the s un rises ; but when it is at its height we

s ee those owers and beauties with even greater pleasure ,

even though the sun no longer appears 0 lovely haZe .

which is an e ffect of radiance thou art more noble and ,

more excellent than light itself "And that of which we are

ignorant in God is incomparably more perfect than that
which we know This has been called by S t D enis and
.
, .

other contemplatives a learned ignorance 1

, .

P hi lothea What do they mean by th at ?

.

D i rector Contemplation is ignorance because it is

.

abnegation of all human knowledge silenc e of re ason and ,

the sense s but such ignorance is learned because in

,

denying all that God is not it embraces all that He is , .

And beyond what we have said P hilothea of the , ,

1
. y
Cf D i on s i us the Areo pag1te, D e My s ttca Theol ogta, I, I , and 3
T h e D ivme D ark i s naugh t el s e b ut th at 1nacc ess rb l e L 1gh t h erei n t h e w
L ord 1 5 s aid to d ell

w .
 D IA L OG U E X I I 2 37

cle arness with which contemplation illumines faith we ,

must further remark that even although this happens in

active contemplation every time that it passes into infused
,

or passive contemplation the gift of und erstanding which

, ,

is o ne of the seven gifts of the Holy S pirit illumines ,

faith more extraordinarily not only by a very gentle

,

consent but also by a more intimate penetration The

, .

gift of understanding is a gift which makes us believe t he

truths necessary to our salvation with invincible certitude ;
just in the same way as in human knowledge there is an
intelligence which makes us believe the rst principles o f
science indubitably and invin cibly fo r who among men ,

ever doubts that the whole is gre ater than the part o r ,

holds that one and the same thing can be and not be ?
Thus by the intelligence of the Holy S pirit which is
, ,

supernatural intelligence we come to believe without

, ,

reection and without ambiguity that there is a G o d that

, ,

the Father begets the S on and all the other truths o f the
,

faith But by the exercise of contemplation we co operat e

.
-

mor e efcaciously with this gift of intellect and its inuence

,

communicates itself better to us ; it enlightens faith and
makes it clearer than it was before .

P hi lothea D oes this gift of intellect not reside then in

.
, ,

all just men ? D o they not all contemplate ?

D i rector We must not doubt that the seven gifts of
.

the Holy S pirit accompany sanctifying grace 1n all souls ;

but the passions and the imperfections stie their inuence ,

and even though we cannot lose them save through mortal

s i n any more than we can lose grace itself it i s certain
, ,

that we only draw very little fruit from them because of

the S ins and other blemishes with which we ll ourselves

N ow the natural e ffect o f the gift of intellect being to

,

perfect the soul in matters o f faith the more the just man
,

exercises faith the more he attra cts the riches of this gift,
,
2 38 S ECOND TREATI S E
which was only given for this end This is the doctrine .

o f S t Thoma s in his S umma S pe aking of the gifts also

.
, , ,

that of S t Bon aventura and of many others While o n

. .

thi s subject I must say it always lls me with amazement

to see that some people will not allow that man S hould
be able to dispose himself to contemplation or even to ,

the supernatural ; seeing that he has already the habit of

s upernatural faith as a Christian and t he gift of intellect ,

as a righteous man S ince as God does not give those

.

two treasures in order that they may remain useless even

in ordinary good men and much more when He stirs and
,

i mpels them by a particular a ttrai t it is a deplorable thing ,

that those who are near the fountain should die of thirst ;
yet if some drink of this water which they possess in ,

themselves they regard it as an extraordinary water as

, ,

unnatural and far fetched because they do not wish to

-
,

drink it In this they are like a capricious man who being

. ,

sought after on account of his noble birth and not being ,

able to forget his rank would nevertheless belittle it out

, , ,

of spite to tarnish t he reputation of an enemy who sprang

,

from the same stock It is certain that we do not s ee

.

clearly what we can do save when we follow this movement

,

o f G o d with delity .

P hi lothea Yo u have told me that contemplation was

.

wisdom How then do you s ay now that it is aided by

.
, ,

the gift o f intellect ?

Di rector Here briey is how the matter stands
. When .

contemplation is active it is because the understanding

, ,

which is enlightened by faith reduces all the truths of faith

,

to this one truth of God in Himself But when contempla .

tion becomes supernatural the gift o f wisdom gathers

,

together and unites the s ame truths of the faith which

the gift of intellect has penetrated most highly and it ,

reduce s them all to this rs t and unique truth of God P ure .

 40 S ECOND TREATI S E
as ks fo r particular things exercises love but he who asks ,

nothing else but God rests in the very heart of love

, .

You ha ve wri tten well of me Thomas said the S aviour o f , ,

the world to this holy D octor ; what recompense would

y ou r e cei ve N othing b ut Thy self alone replied the S aint , .

S ouls really detached from all things have difculty in

asking anything of God if it is not His will But when
, .

God for certain reasons makes them determine to ask for

, ,

something then they conduct themselves like the servant

,

in the Gospel who went to lay at his master s feet the ve

,
'

talents he had entrusted to him and the other ve he had

gained by his industry Mas ter says the soul I submi t my
.
, ,

will and my req ues ts ; all are Thine use them as Thine own ,
.

And then G o d grants him his requests and He adds other

ten talents to this grace that is to s ay a greater possession
, ,

of Himself .

There are o fcers in the courts of princes who have

the duty of presenting their princes with lists of requests .

They simply present the lists without inte resting them

selves i n the requests printed on them sometimes without ,

even knowing what they are It is for the prince to .

grant them o r refus e them
L ord says a soul to . ,

God look what nature or necessity or charity to my

, , ,

neighbour makes me ask of Thee D o Thou grant it .

"
or refuse it I wish nothing but Thyself
. Thus the .

man who has only o ne will has never more than o ne

request to make and he asks everything in uniting himself
,

in love to Him who is all .

P hi lothea That i t seems to me is not to ask anything

.
, ,

new It is to cling more closely to that which one pos

.

sesses But how is such a prayer also a supplication ?

.

D i rector He who walks continu ally in the presence of

.

God supplicates Him sufciently by all that He is ; he

can o ffer Him no grander motive th an th at of the D ivi ne
 D IA L OG U E X I I 4 1

Majes ty He is like a man who being saved from the

.
,

hands of those who pursued him has taken refuge at the ,

foot of the Altar ; for without saying anything the Altar ,

defends and protects him He who holds a crucix in

.

hi s hands supplicates God mer ely by continuing that

acti on and he who holds himself in the presenc e o f God
,

supplicates Him insensibly by His very sanctity to

help him .

P hi lothea I implore Him by all that He is never to

.
,

drive me from His holy presence But how can this same.

prayer be on occasion a thanksgiving ?

D i rector I will help you to understand that by an
.

example There was once a devout woman who when

.
,

ever s he received a good thought felt herself s o deeply ,

indebted to G od in that He had deigned to abase Himself

in order to give her this good desire that s he wished He ,

had created a new hierarchy of S eraphim to give Him

thanks for o ne s rngle thought because of the lofty ,

esteem of God with which s he felt herself lled And as .

God had inspired her to communicate very often not ,

knowing ho w more to S how her regard for this S ingular

grace and feeling overwhelmed by the weight of o ne
,

single thought she said to Him one day Ah "L ord "
,

,

I know not any more what to s ay ; do Thou therefore , ,

thank Thyself and take my silence as an acknowled g

,

ment of Thy greatness and my weakness That is

just what a contemplative soul says P hilothea ; it thanks ,

God for everything in regarding Him ceaselessly ; i ts very

S ilence is an act of thanks and an august acknowledgment .

P hilothea There i s of course no one but G o d Himself

.
, ,

who could worthily thank Himself for all the benets He

bestows on us But how can such prayer be a preparation
.

for all things ?

 42 S ECOND TREATI S E
D i rector .Have you never heard tell of a philosopher who ,

having been S hipwrecked and standing naked o n the

S hore on which he had been cast up replied to those who
,

deplored his bad fortune I carry all my possessions wi th me

, .

He who performs some act of devotion always carries G o d

i n his he art by H is actual presence , and how better could
he prepare hi ms elf than by making thi s presence as far ,

as he can more actual and more loving ? He carries all

,

his possess ions and all his prep aration with him S t . .

Ignatius asked his religious one d ay during their recreation ,

how each of them would like to die Each o ne replied

.

as he thought best
AS for me
. s aid the saint I would
, ,

like to die while doing what I do meaning that the

,

best preparation in all things was to do what God wanted

o f us. He who always regards G od with love is always ,

re ady And if he does add other preparations o f obligation

.
,

or charity he refers them all to the rst

, .

Yo u may h ave noticed that sometimes poor girls are intro

d uced in processions and that they are decked out with
,

all the jewels of the place ; su ch girls have nothing but

their poverty ; all the rest does not belong to them and ,

nevertheless they are an adornment o f the general devotion .

The contemplative is the poor in spirit of the Gospel ; he

has nothing of his own to appear in before G od but he ,

has the jewel God has given him of a loving presence and ,

he presents God to God Himself as all the prep aration

that is needed .

P hilothea Then if I d o everything with God, I shall do

.

nothing that is not tting and I shall d o it with love

, .

But how i s it that this prayer contains all mysteries a s

well as all prayers and how does one make us e of this
,

prayer when a mystery presents itself to be considered ?

D i rector God is the beginning the end and the cons um
.
, ,
2 44 S ECOND TREATI S E
mystery into His love and thus we are inamed more by
,

God than by the mystery .

In fact P hilothea what for example is a greater thing

, , , ,

to consider in the birth of Our S aviour if not that it is a ,

God who is born ? And what is greater in H is death than

to know that it is a G o d who is dead ? One never knows
Jesus Christ better than when from the heart of the ,

Blessed Virgin we rise to the heart o f H is Father ; He did

but abase Himself down to us to raise us up to Himself .

In a word not only all the mysteries of faith but all the
,

objects of nature and of grace receive so wonderful a

radiance from their relation to God that the consideration ,

o f any o ne of them lls the soul with joy and sweetness

when they make uS taste God This loving p resence .

lends a splendour to all things : it makes everything more

beautiful and more living Thus the sweet and tranquil .

thought of the mysteries brings us close to God and God ,

illumines the thought without our requiring for that reason

to le ave H is presence .

When a priest vests himsel f from season to s eason in

the different colours of the Church when he changes the ,

ceremonies and mysteries according to the days it is ,

always for all that the same Victim and the s ame S acrice
, ,
.

In the same way although the soul changes i ts outward

,

disposition i ts interior sacrice is always the same The

, .

faculties are dead and the presence of God is always loving .

P hi lothea Oh what worthy homage we rend er G o d when

. ,

we contemplate the mysteries in Him " How precious

and how lovely all things are when viewed under this
regard "I no longer admire heaven and earth for their
beauties but for the adorable intimation of God which
,

shines through them .

But please have the goodness to explain to me further

 D IA L OG U E X I I 2 45

ho w th is marvellous prayer is a tacit exercise of all

t he virtues .

D i rector It is easy to s ee that in considering its n ature

. .

He who waits in sil ence in the presence of God exercis es ,

faith seeing that h e believes continually that God is his

,

S overeign Good He exercises hope seeing that suspend

.
, ,

ing his own acts with one sole exception he expects

, ,
'
nothing save from God s generous P rovidence He nobly .

practises love since there is no better token of perfect love

,

than that of wanting to live by nothing but the object o ne

loves He must have singular humility and at the same
.
,

time a sovereign esteem of God seeing that he annihilates ,

himself in order that God may be all things to him All .

the virtues are supernatural o r acquire d habits to per

fect the soul in good ; and he exercises them all at
once who by a continual love unites himself to the
,

S overeign Good Nevertheless the exercise of particular

. .
,

virtues is not incompatible with contemplation ; all the

virtues iname it and it inames all the virtues S oldiers
, .

never ght more valiantly than when they ght in the

presence of their prince and the virtues are never stronger
,

or more animated than when one exercises them in the

loving sight of God .

Words fail me P hiloth ea when I consider how much

, ,

all the labours o f active life to which we may be obliged

,

by o ur profession are accompanied by consolation and

,

d elight when we endure them in the presence of G o d

, .

Many people nd life tiresome because God is not their

companion D o eve rything and suffer everything in
.

His sight and everything will become easy to you and

, ,

wil l be the material of your perfection .

P hi lothea I have often heard it said that ch a rity

.

united in itself all the virtues I have no dif culty in .

2 46 S ECOND TREATI S E
und erstanding that the loving act of the presence of
God has the value of many acts and that it unites them
,

all together by its s trength .

D i rector That does not absolve u s P hilothea, from

.
,

producing the acts which duty imposes o n each one but ,

we must produce them c almly and without strain for ,

when they do not in any way disturb the universal act ,

they will be absorbed into it and thus our whole life will
,

be nothing but uniform and continual love .

P hilothea Ch arity urges me s till to as k you for my

.
,

neighbour s s ake , whether every one may properly aspire

to this prayer of quiet ?

D i rector All souls who aspire seriously to perfection
.
,

and who wish to die to themselves can according to the , ,

holy D octors who have written on this matter aspire to ,

either ordinary or infus ed contemplation ; not so much

because it is a high and noble prayer as because it is the
source of greater love of God and a more perfect union
,

with Him Those who know by re ading books on the

.
,

subject or by intercourse with experienced souls the ,

advantages contemplation brings must at least ask it of

,

God And those who become aware o f the signs of it

.

in themselves must not tarry to put themselves in this

way Contemplation establishes the soul in perfect
.

tranquillity and every one may ask for this tranquillity ;

,

it arouses great love and every o ne may ask to be put in

,

the way of great love It perfectl y annihilates man in the

.

eyes of God and every o ne may ask for his own annihila
,

tion The gift which God gives us of Himself in Holy

.

Communion is in truth in its substance a much greater

, , ,

gift than contemplation and all the privileges which

accompany it God requires no greater motive th an
.

H is own goodness to draw us to Himself in whatever

2 48 S ECOND TREATI S E
order to allow the will to act What res would spring
.

from such meditations "Whereas very often all that results

is a useless aridity and a sterile habit o f thinking of
,

good things without drawing good movements from them .

Certainly the smell of incense burning in a church or ,

the sound of noble music made there sometimes leads to ,

greater devotion than the gilded altars and marble pillars

with which the church may be embellished I can s ay in .

the same way that it is bette r worth while to arouse in one

self o ne good movement than many medio cre reasonings .

We pray in order to love and not in order to reason and ,

very little sufces a willing soul One must not seek to

.

raise oneself but to arouse oneself feed oneself That is

, , .

why we should advise those who meditate to subdue them

selves to love and to dispose themselves in that way to
,

this S imple and general act of the loving knowledge of

God Those who have not the power of control must
.

reduce themselves to S implicity lest by doing violence to

,

themselves their brains should become over excited a

,
-
,

thing which happens only to o often Those also who have

.

too strong and too lively an imagination must calm those

impetuositi es and sallies which leave such disorder in their
train ; and excite the will rather than the understanding .

L it tle matter and much love P hilothea and the re will

, ,

light itself s o often that at last it will remain always lighted .

Those who are at the beginning as well as those who are

,

advanced are right to produce the most perfect acts of

,

love that are possible to them ; even the conversion of

sinners must begin by love It is therefore not forbidden
.

to them to use in me d itation some act o f loving con

t empl at io n nor to introduce some int ervals of quiet in
,

ord er to taste G o d P ure in the midst of their prayer by a

gentle effort, which in makin g them sometime s le ave
,
 D IA L OG U E X I I 2 49

their di scourse es tablis hes them more perfectly in the

,

exercis e of a living fai th All love o f G o d tends to uni on

.

with Hi s nature ; if therefore those who co mmence can

, ,

love Go d they can also achieve u nion with Him each

, ,

acco rding to his powers and his in d ustry That is the .

do ctrin e o f S uarez in his Treatise on Religion in which he ,

exp ress ly decides in favour of those who are beginning

, ,

that it is not expedient that the unders tanding should be

in perpetual movement but that it must rest from time
,

to ti me in weighing and admi ring some truth S uarez .

ass ures us that t his quiet powerfully helps a soul to arouse

D ivine L ove in itself ; tha t this is a beginning of contempla
ti on and that the more the soul p ersists in this quiet
, ,

the more it will ad vance to that bles se d state ; that it is

necessary sometimes to try t o s ee whether G o d has opened
the doo r for us and that we mus t enter wh en He do es
,

open to us seeing that it is the Mas ter who calls us I

, .

sho uld be t oo lengthy if I quoted to yo u all that he says ,

or if I referred to all those teachers of their own vi ews

whom I o nl y cite with regret ; I would rather speak
o n t hi s matter by my o wn insight than by the light

We certainl y enter prayer in order t o speak to God ,

but we also enter it to list en to Him ; how shall we

hear Him if we are always speaki ng always dis cuss ,

ing always heaping o ne considerati on on anoth er ?

,

S ilence is an interior ear and when that which is in

,

spired in us is good when it i s in conformity with the

,

S criptures and the Church and when it is accompanied

by discretion why s o much debate and argument ?
,

H e who argues is no t anxious t o give way and he is ,

often more afrai d of bein g won over than of b ein g

deceived .
2 50 S ECOND TREATI S E
P hilothea I have often found myself inclined to let
.

myself pass into this gentle quiet during meditation and ,

I have more often experienced this quiet when I made

some ardent aspirations and longings towards God than ,

when I reasoned much There are nurses who please

.

themselves by dressing up the children they nurse, and

making them into dolls by covering them with trinkets
and a hundred little embellishment s Yet when they .

should be suckled they allow them to cry three or four

,

times In the s ame way I used to please mys elf exceed

.

i ngly by embellishing and adorning my meditation s o ,

much that I had hardly the strength to lift my eyes to

the heavens and my soul remained thirsty for God
, .

By what signs may o ne know when one should give

way to this gentle a ttrai t ?
D i rector When God invites us to this quiet He c auses
. ,

every movement contrary to Him to cease ; the imagina

tion can no longer supply itself with images the under ,

standing can no longer meditate and there remains to

,

the will nothing but a sweet and tranquil love of which

we are conscious during the quiet but which we should ,

very s oon extinguish by doing violence to ourselves .

And if any power of meditation should remain to the

soul at le ast meditation does not please it as it did before ;
,

the soul nds in it nothing but tedium and dryne s s The .

re ason of this change is that it has received the spirit and

the substance of the medi tation which was union and
,

repose with God When the soul abandons itself to its

.

attrai t it is utterly recollected ; it a dmire s it i s astounded

, , ,

it does no t know by what art it rests in G o d The very .

e fforts which the soul makes at this time in order to know

whether or not it deceives itself are really s o many signs
,

to it to est ablish itself for it feels its elf urged towards this
,
2 52 S ECOND TREATI S E
tranquil solicitude is then its most p erfect state Very .

soon after it tastes t he fruits of its patience by receiving

,

lights ardours and other extraordinary favours G od

, , .

never mo rties save to give more abundant life ; He never

starves save to feed more liberally .

P hi lothea Is this general act always perceptible to him

.

who has it ?
D i rector The purer it is the l ess perceptible it i s
.
, The .

less pure it is the more one perceives it because it is

, ,

mingled with something sensible and intelligible Water .

is no t pure when it has any taste or colour When the .

ame is dense it is a sign that there is smoke in its heart

, .

The ray of the sun which is too visible has found atoms
in the air which have troubled i ts purity ; when it i s quite
pure o ne can hardly s ee it at all Thus from the time .
,

when the soul has stripped itself of forms and images it ,

receives a ray of the D ivine purer and more imperceptible ;

,

but it recognizes its excellence by the repose in which it

leaves it and by the fruit it produces o n all occasi ons of
,

action or suffering .

S ometimes too God communicates Himself to the

, ,

soul with s o great a simplici ty that it no longer sees eith er

light or darkness For whilst the rst S hining of the
.
,

D ivine still allows the soul to perceive a certain darkness ,

this is a pure oblivion and the soul is as if lost in G o d .

The excellence of this oblivion is perceived also by its

fruits and generally in all the gifts of God ; whether the
,

S oul discerns them or not it becomes more holy more , ,

humble more faithful and more mortied than it

, , ,

was before .

P hi lothea I S this oblivion such that o ne no longer

.

remembers G o d ?
D i rector The oblivion may be complete a s regards all
.
 D IA L OG U E X I I 2 53

created things but not as regards G o d otherwise it would

, ,

be a sleep and no t a prayer It is true that the thought of .

Go d is sometimes s o general and s o pu re that the ,

soul does not perceive it sensibly especially when the ,

light is in the understanding without acting at all on the

will But the soul always adheres to God and it fe els
. ,

some ti me afterwards what God has wrought in it during

its oblivion Joseph deceived his brothers very pleasantly
.

when along with the grain he had sold them he had

, ,

mon ey put into their sacks When the soul abandons .

itself to God in the quiet to which He attracts it without

, ,

any affectation and without wishing to know what He

,

i s doing in it it nds itself rich at t he end and nds things

, ,

in itself which it can explain in general as well as other ,

things which it cannot expl ain at all .

P hi lothea Will you not tell me something of the

.

privileges of contemplation and of the great blessings

which accompany it ?
D i rector P hilothea I have attempted to take you into
.
,

the garden of the Bridegroom but no t to describe to you ,

the fruits and owers This Garden of Contemplation .

is vast and great ; it is for Him to lead you along its paths
as it pleases Him Be faithful to God and God will be
.
,

liberal to you Never try to go before God ; follow Him

.

always and do not trouble about anything but loving Him

, ,

never mind if you cannot s ee Him The rst woman was .

curious and s he became the last of all creatures : the

,

Blessed Virgin was humble and s he became the Mother ,

of God Whosoever desires anything beyond G o d if

.
,

it is not for God Himself deserves to los e God Humility , .

will serve yo u as an anchor in the haven of the graces and ,

not allow you to lose yourself among favours or in repose ,

and this humility will also be your trusty ves s el on the

2 54 S ECOND TREATI S E
ocean of tribulation to carry you safe to port There are
, .

great graces and great tribulations in the way of God .

L eave Him to dispense His treasures and His pains with

His incomparable wisdom and do not try to le arn things ,

except o n occasion and in need Remind yourself of .

what I have told you regarding mystical books that o ne ,

S hould never read them save under advice They are .

like those elixirs and es sences whi ch work wonders in

sick bodie s but which burn and consume those who
,

a re not sick ; they are pernicious to s ome and never ,

thel es s necessary to others not in order to teach them

, , ,

but to guide them and conrm them in that which

God does .

I pray God that you may ever draw nearer and nearer
to Him while moving ever farther and farther away from
,

yourself .

App robati on f
o the D octors

We the undersigned D octors of the Fa culty of Theology

,

o f P aris certify that we have read the book entitled

,

P ra tique F aci le p our lever l Ame a la Con temp la tion

,

written by F M in which we have found nothing which

. .
,

is not conformable to the Catholic F aith and to good

practices in token o f which we have signed here
, .

Given at P aris this fteenth of July 1 66 9 , .

N . P I GNAY
M . H UMB EL OT