> [[at-sl-27|← B2 Ch. IV]] | [[at-spiritual-life-toc|TOC]] | [[at-sl-29|B3 Ch. I →]] # Book III. The Unitive Way 1289\. Once we have purified our soul and adorned it by the practice of the virtues, we are ripe, so to speak, for habitual and intimate union with God, that is, for entrance into the Unitive Way. PRELIMINARY REMARKS[1] Before entering into the different questions in detail, we must briefly explain: 1° the end to be attained in the unitive way; 2° the distinguishing marks of this way; 3° the general notion of contemplation, which is one of its general characteristics; 4° the order to be followed in this third part. ## I. The End to Be Attained 1290\. This end is none other than habitual and intimate union with God, through Jesus Christ. It is very well expressed in these words of Father Olier at the beginning of his “Pietas Seminarii”: “The first and last aim of this Institution is to live supremely unto God, in Christ Jesus Our Lord, so that our inmost hearts may be penetrated with the interior dispositions of the Son of God, and each may be able to say what St. Paul truly said of himself: I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me.”[2] To live altogether unto God, the Living God, the Most Blessed Trinity dwelling in us, to praise God, serve Him, revere Him and love Him, such is the aim of the perfect Christian; to live, not on the level of mediocrity, but to live intensely, with all the fervor that love imparts. Hence, we must aim at forgetting ourselves so as to think only of that God Who deigns to live within us, to love Him with our whole soul and to make all our thoughts, all our longings, all our actions converge towards Him. In this way will be realized what we ask in the office at Prime: “Vouchsafe this day, Lord God of Heaven and Earth, to direct and sanctify, rule and govern our body and soul, our thoughts, words and actions in the keeping of Thy law and in the observance of Thy commandments.” 1291\. Since we are of ourselves incapable of all this, we must unite ourselves intimately with Our Lord. Made one with Him through Baptism, we are to render this union even closer by the frequent reception of the Sacraments, especially by the reception of Holy Communion. This communion is prolonged by habitual recollection in order that His interior dispositions may become ours and may inspire all our actions, and that we may thus be able to repeat and actually live the words of St. Paul: “I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me.” [1] In order to obtain this happy result, Jesus sends us, through His merits and His intercession, His Holy Spirit, that same Holy Spirit Who produced in His soul the perfect dispositions where-with it was animated. By allowing this Divine Spirit to lead us, by being prompt and generous in obeying His inspirations, we come to think, speak and act as Jesus would were He in our place. Then it is that Christ actually lives in us; with us and through us He glorifies God, sanctifies us, and helps us to sanctify our brethren. If therefore devotion to the Most Blessed Trinity becomes predominant in the unitive way, we do not for that reason cease to unite ourselves with the Incarnate Word through Whom we are to ascend to the Father: “No man cometh to the Father, but by me.” [2] ## II\. The Characteristics of the Unitive Way All these characteristics are embodied in one, the need of simplifying all, of reducing all to unity, that is, of bringing all things to converge towards intimate union with God through charity. 1292\. 1° The soul lives continually in the presence of God; it delights to contemplate Him living in the heart, “to walk inwardly with God.” In order to live thus, it carefully detaches itself from creatures, so as “to be held by no outward affection.” It is on this account that the soul seeks solitude and silence; it gradually builds in the heart a sanctuary where it finds God and converses with Him heart to heart. Then there is established between the soul and God a sweet and loving intimacy. “Intimacy,” says Monsignor Gay,[1] “is the consciousness, on the part of those who love, of mutual understanding and sympathy, a consciousness rich in light and feeling and joy and fruit. It is the sense and experience of their mutual attraction, of their fellowship and of their absolute accord, if not of their perfect similarity. It is a union that results in oneness… It is unbounded reliance and confidence in one another, it is a spontaneous candor which makes the heart transparent. Finally, it is as a consequence a mutual liberty, freely given, of contemplating one another and of looking into the very depths of the soul.” Now, it is such intimacy that God permits and even deigns to offer to those who lead an interior life, as the Author of the Imitation so well explains: “Many are His visits to the man of interior life, and sweet the conversation that He holdeth with him; plenteous His consolation, His peace, and His familiarity.”[2] 1293\. 2° In this way the love of God becomes not only the principal virtue of the soul, but, one may say, its only virtue, in the sense that all the other virtues which it practices are for it but so many acts of love. Thus, prudence becomes a loving consideration of things divine for the purpose of finding therein the standard of its judgments; justice becomes an imitation, as perfect as possible, of Divine righteousness; fortitude, the complete mastery of the passions; temperance, the utter forgetfulness of earthly pleasures, in order to make room for thoughts of Heaven. [3] Still more do the theological virtues now become an exercise of perfect lové: faith is no longer limited to occasional acts, but becomes the spirit of faith, the life of faith animated by charity, “the faith that works through charity;” hope becomes filial confidence, a holy abandonment to God. At such heights, all the virtues are but one; they are so to speak but different forms of charity: “Charity is patient, is kind, etc…” 1294\. 3° A similar simplifying process takes place with regard to prayer: reasonings gradually disappear to make room for pious sentiments, which in turn become more simple, as we shall soon explain, until they become but a loving, lingering thought of God. 1295\. 4° All this results in a simplification of our whole life. Whilst previously there were set hours of meditation and prayer, now life is a perpetual prayer: whether working, or recreating, whether alone or in the company of others, we continually rise towards God by conforming our will to His: “I do always the things that please Him.”[4] This conformity is but an act of love and of abandonment into His Hands: prayers, ordinary actions, sufferings, humiliations, all are but so many means of manifesting our love for God: “My God and my All.” 1296\. Conclusion. From what has been said, one can readily see which persons belong to the unitive way: they are those in whom the three following conditions are verified: a) A great purity of heart, that is to say, not merely the expiation and reparation of past faults, but detachment from whatever may lead to sin, horror for all deliberate venial sins, and even for any wilful resistance to grace. This however does not imply exemption from certain venial faults of frailty, which are forthwith deeply regretted. This purification of the soul, begun in the purgative way and gradually perfected in the illuminative way by the positive practice of the virtues and the generous acceptance of providential crosses, is finally completed in the unitive way by passive trials, which we shall soon describe. b) A great mastery over self, acquired by the mortification of the passions and the practice of the moral and theological virtues, which, by disciplining the faculties, subject them little by little to the will, and the will in turn to God. In this way the original order of things is to some extent restored, and the soul now in the full control, can give itself entirely to God. c) A constant need of thinking of God, of conversing with Him and of performing every action with the view of pleasing Him. Real suffering is experienced at not being able to be constantly occupied with the thought of God, and, should the duties of state demand that attention be given to earthly cares, strenuous efforts are made to keep in mind His presence and to turn constantly towards Him: “My eyes are ever towards the Lord.” [1] ### III\. General Notion of Contemplation [2] By dint of thinking of God, the soul lovingly fastens its gaze on Him. This is contemplation, which is one of the characteristic marks of this stage of the spiritual life. 1297\. 1° Natural Contemplation. In general, to contemplate means to look admiringly at an object. There is a natural contemplation, which may be sensitive, imaginative, or intellectual. 1\) It is sensitive when we linger with admiration on some beautiful scene, the vastness of the ocean, for example, or a range of mountains. 2) It is called imaginative, when we picture with admiration and affection some person or thing we love. 3) It is termed intellectual or philosophic when our mind dwells admiringly with one simple glance on some great philosophical synthesis, for instance, the absolutely simple and immutable Being, the beginning and end of all things. 1298\. 2° Supernatural Contemplation. There is also a supernatural contemplation with which we are here concerned, the notion and species of which we shall now explain. A) Notion. The term contemplation in its proper signification designates the act by which the mind simply looks upon some object, apart from the various emotional or imaginative elements which accompany this act. However, when the object of contemplation is beautiful and lovable, contemplation is attended by admiration and love. By extension of the term, we call contemplation a prayer characterized by the predominance of that simple intellectual gaze; hence, this act need not last as long as the meditation lasts, but it suffices that it recur frequently during the prayer and that it be accompanied by affections. In this way contemplative prayer differs from discursive or reasoned prayer (n. 667), since it excludes long reasonings; it differs, too, from affective prayer (n. 976), because it excludes the multiplicity of acts which characterize this latter. Contemplative prayer, then, may be defined as a simple and affectionate gaze on God or things divine. It is more briefly defined by St. Thomas as a simple gaze on truth.[1] 1299\. B) Species. We can distinguish three kinds of contemplation: acquired, infused, and mixed contemplation.[2] a) Acquired contemplation is, at bottom, nothing more than a simplified affective prayer, and may be defined as contemplation in which the simplification of our intellectual and affective acts is the result of our own activity aided by grace. Frequently even the Gifts of the Holy Ghost exert their hidden influence, especially the gifts of knowledge, of understanding and of wisdom, in order to help us fix our gaze lovingly on God, as we shall explain further on. p.1300\. b) Infused or passive contemplation is necessarily a free gift; we cannot obtain it by our efforts even with the help of ordinary grace. It is a kind of contemplation in which the acts of the mind and of the will have become simplified under the influence of a special grace which takes hold of us and causes us to receive lights and affections which God produces in us with our consent. It is called infused, not because it proceeds from the infused virtues, since acquired contemplation likewise proceeds from them, but because it is not within our power to produce such acts, even with the aid of ordinary grace; and yet, it is not God alone that acts in us, but it is God acting in us with our consent, in the sense that we freely accept what He gives us. If our soul under the influence of operating grace is said to be passive, it is because it receives divine gifts, but it receives them freely,[1] as we shall explain later on. It is called supernatural by St. Theresa for a twofold reason: on the same ground that other acts are supernatural, and because God operates in us in a very special way. p.1301\. The third kind of contemplation is called mixed contemplation. We shall see later that infused contemplation is at times of very short duration. It may therefore happen that, in the course of the same prayer, the acts arising from our own initiative alternate with those produced by the special action of operating grace. This is exactly what occurs in the case of those who are being initiated into infused contemplation. Contemplation is then mixed, that is to say, it is alternately active and passive; however, this kind of contemplation is generally referred to infused contemplation of which it constitutes, so to speak, the first degree. ### IV\. Division of the Third Book 1302\. In the unitive way two distinct[2] forms or phases may be distinguished: 1° The simple or active unitive way, characterized by the cultivation of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, especially the active gifts, and by the simplification of prayer, which becomes the prayer of simplicity, called by many active contemplation. 2° The passive or mystic unitive way, characterized by infused contemplation, or contemplation properly so-called. 3° Moreover, contemplation is at times attended by extraordinary phenomena such as visions and revelations, to which are opposed the diabolical counterfeits of obsession and possession. 4° In matters of so difficult a nature, it is not surprising to find varying opinions or controverted questions. These we shall examine in a special chapter. In the conclusion we shall point out what should be the attitude of the spiritual director toward contemplatives. CHAPTER I The Simple or Active Unitive Way CHAPTER II The Mystic or Passive Unitive Way CHAPTER III Extraordinary Mystical Phenomena CHAPTER IV Controverted Questions CONCLUSION : The Spiritual Direction of Contemplatives [[at-sl-fn-28|Fn: Book III]] --- ![[maps/bibliography#^biblio-tan]] > [[at-sl-27|← B2 Ch. IV]] | [[at-spiritual-life-toc|TOC]] | [[at-sl-29|B3 Ch. I →]]