> [[at-sl-32|← B3 Ch. III]] | [[at-spiritual-life-toc|TOC]] | [[at-sl-34|Appendices →]] # Chapter IV. Controverted Questions [1] 1550\. So far we have explained the doctrine commonly held by all Schools of spirituality, and our readers have no doubt been able to recognize that this teaching fully suffices to lead and raise souls to the highest degrees of perfection. God does not make growth in holiness dependent upon the solution of controverted questions. Now, however, we can afford to touch briefly upon the main points under discussion. This we shall do as impartially as possible, aiming not at making divergent opinions appear identical (which cannot be done), but at showing that the differences among the more moderate exponents of the various Schools are not as great as they may at first sight seem to be. 1551\. Causes of these divergences. 1) The first cause, no doubt, is to be found in the very difficulty and obscurity of the matters at issue. It is not an easy task to look into the secret designs of God concerning the universal call of all baptized persons to infused contemplation, or to determine the very nature of that mysterious act wherein God is the principal agent and wherein the soul is more passive than active, receiving light and love without forfeiting its freedom. It is not surprising then, that writers striving to understand these wonders do not always offer the same explanations. 2\) Another cause of the existing differences is the diversity of method employed. As we have said (n. 28), all Schools strive to combine the two methods, the experimental and the deductive; but, whilst some employ chiefly the former, others rely more on the latter. Hence the differences in the conclusions reached: the former, impressed by the small number of contemplatives, will say that not all are called to contemplation; the latter, seeing that we all possess a supernatural organism adequate for the attainment of contemplation, will conclude that if there are not many contemplatives, it is because there are not many generous souls ready to make the sacrifices demanded by contemplation. 1552\. 3) This divergence of opinion is further accentuated by temperament, education and actual occupation. Some persons are better fitted for contemplation than others, and when this natural aptitude is further developed by education and occupation, or by manner of life, one is naturally inclined to think that contemplation is the normal thing. There are others of a more active disposition, whose temperament and occupation are rather obstacles to contemplation, and who are therefore readily led to believe that contemplation is an extraordinary state. 4\) Moreover, it must not be forgotten that the philosophical and theological systems which one may have adopted concerning knowledge and love, efficacious and sufficient grace, make their influence felt in mystical theology. If, for instance, one admits with the Thomists that grace is intrinsically efficacious, one is more inclined to consider the passive state a continuation of the active state, since even in the latter one acts under efficacious motions of grace. We should not be astonished at these divergent opinions in matters of so delicate a nature; we are free to choose the system which in our judgment has the more solid foundation. The points of present-day discussion may be reduced to these three: 1° the nature of infused contemplation; 2° the universal call thereto; 3° the normal time at which it begins. ## § I. Controversy Regarding the Nature of Contemplation 1553\. All admit that infused or mystic contemplation is a free gift of God, Who places us in the passive state and gives us a knowledge and a love of Himself which we have but to accept. But in what does this knowledge consist? It is evidentally not identical with the knowledge which comes from the light of faith, for everyone admits that it is an experimental or quasi-experimental knowledge (n. 1394). But does this knowledge come directly and immediately, that is, without any intermediary, or indirectly and mediately, that is, through acquired or infused ideas? Two answers have been given to this question. 1554\. 1° The theory of immediate knowledge. This theory, which claims the authority of Pseudo-Dionysius, of the School of St. Victor, and the Flemish School of Mysticism, maintains that infused contemplation is a perception or an intuition or a direct vision of god, although obscure and vague. Being direct, it differs from the ordinary knowledge given by faith, and being obscure, it differs from the Beatific Vision. There are slight differences in the various expositions of this theory. Father Poulain, basing his explanation upon the theory of the spiritual senses, thinks that the contemplative soul feels directly the presence of God. “During the union, when it is not too exalted, we are like a man placed beside one of his friends, in complete darkness and silence. He does not see him, therefore; he does not hear him; he only feels that he is there by the sense of touch, because he holds his hand in his own. And so he continues to think and to love him.”[1] 1555\. Father Marechal, having ascertained that mystics affirm the existence of an intellectual intuition of Code and of the Indivisible Trinity during moments of exalted contemplation, is of the opinion “that in high contemplation a new element is involved, distinct in quality from normal activities and from ordinary grace… the active, not symbolic, presentation of God to the soul, with its corresponding psychology : the direct intuition of God by the soul.”[2] This, he adds, does not seem strange if one admits (as he previously explains) that the intuition of being is, so to speak, the center of perspective in human psychology. This theory is completed by Father Picard.[3] After explaining that from a natural point of view the direct, but vague and obscure apprehension or intuition of God is not impossible once one has demonstrated by the traditional proofs the fact of His existence, he applies this theory to mystic contemplation. That same God, Whose living presence makes itself felt in the depths of the soul “sometimes takes possession of it by focusing its cognitive faculties upon Himself in silence, in wonder and in peace; at other times by seizing upon its will and its affections… When this seizure of the soul is felt rather by the cognitive faculties, we have the prayer of recollection; when by the volitional and emotional faculties, we have the prayer of quiet.” The author then goes on to show that in proportion as God tightens His hold, as He takes a more absolute, a more exclusive and a more extensive control, the soul advances to the higher degrees of contemplation. Father Picard concludes by saying that this theory differs vastly from Ontologism, for it affirms that the notion of being has its origin in the perception of finite being; that it is analogous, and can be applied to God only after a demonstration of His existence. He rejects the theory that we see on earth all things in the essence of God. It is, he says, our own finite and imperfect intellect with the sole aid of its own finite and imperfect ideas and acts which perceives all the truths of which it has any knowledge. Moreover, he speaks of an intuition which is essentially vague and obscure. 1556\. 2° The theory of mediate knowledge. The opinion commonly accepted is that the knowledge of the contemplative, howsoever perfect it may be, is mediate and at the same time vague and obscure, although it is quasi-experimental. In the first degrees of contemplation God contents Himself with projecting His light, the light of the Gifts, upon the ideas already possessed, either by attracting attention to an idea in a way that is calculated to make a deep impression, or by making the mind draw from two premises some striking conclusion (n. 1390). In the higher states, as in the ecstatic union, God infuses new ideas which represent divine truths much more clearly and impressively than do naturally acquired concepts. It is now that the soul is enraptured at perceiving truths which it had never known before. And since the soul lives these truths and really relishes them, it acquires of them a quasi-experimental knowledge. This knowledge is still within the realms of faith, but it is much more vivid and above all much more affectionate than ordinary knowledge, from which it is distinguished by the fact that it is God-given, and that the soul receiving it receives both knowledge and love, and has only to consent to the divine action which produces in it these priceless gifts. 1557\. We adopt this view, which we have already exposed in the second chapter of this book. It seems to preserve better the essential difference between contemplation and the Beatific Vision, the former remaining mediate and obscure, “as through a glass in a dark manner,” the latter being direct and clear. However, we are careful to refrain from making charges of Ontologism against those who maintain as probable the opinion of a direct intuition, so long as they stress its vague and obscure character and reject the basic principle of Ontologism by asserting that the intellect does not reach God except through creatures.[1] It is true that many mystics make use of bold expressions which at first sight seem to imply that they are in direct contact with the Divine Substance and that they see God; still, when we examine the context, we find that these words must be understood of the effects produced in the soul by the divine action.[2] Through the gift of wisdom one is made to relish the love, the joy, the spiritual peace which God infuses into the soul : hence the name of divine delights given by St. Teresa to the prayer of quiet. Through the divine touches, mystics seem to feel the very substance of their soul moved, so deep is the impression produced by divine love. But the descriptions they give us of these impressions can all be referred to the different effects of an ardent and generous love. It may be said therefore that if they use expressions which appear too strong, it is due to the inadequacy of human language for describing the effects of grace produced in their soul. ## § II. Universal Call to Contemplation 1558\. It is not question here of the individual and proximate call to infused contemplation of which we spoke in number 1406. On this point every one accepts the doctrine of Tauler and of St. John of the Cross. What is meant is the remotely sufficient and general call; in other words, we ask whether all souls in the state of grace are remotely and sufficiently called to infused contemplation. Once more we meet with two very different answers which flow, to a great extent at least, from the different views held concerning contemplation. 1559\. 1° A universal call, remote and sufficient, is today admitted with slight variations by a great number of writers belonging to different Religious Orders, such as the Dominicans,[1] the Benedictines,[2] the Franciscans,[3] the Carmelites,[4] the Jesuits,[5] the Eudists,[6] as well as by a number of secular priests.[7] Various Reviews, notably la Vie Spirituelle, have been published in order to defend and propagate this opinion. Father Garrigou-Lagrange vigorously expounds it when he strives to prove that the mystical life is the normal development of the interior life and that consequently all souls in the state of grace are called thereto. We give a brief summary of his arguments. a) The fundamental principle of the mystic life is the very same as that of the ordinary, interior life, that is, sanctifying grace or the grace of the virtues and the gifts. These gifts increase with charity, and, once they have attained their full development, they act in us according to their supra-human mode of action and put us in the passive or mystic state. Hence, the principle of the interior life contains in germ the mystic life, which is here below the flowering, as it were, of the spiritual life. 1560\. b) The purification of the soul as it advances in the interior life is not completed except through the passive trials. Now, these purifications or trials are of a mystical nature. Hence, the interior life cannot attain its full development in any other way than through the mystic life. c) The end of the interior life is the same as that of the mystic life, that is, a perfect disposition for the reception of the light of glory immediately after death. “Now, the perfect disposition for the reception of the beatific vision immediately after death can be none other than the intense charity of a soul thoroughly purified and possessed of an ardent desire of seeing God, such as we find in the mystic union, and particularly in the transforming union. The latter is therefore the highest development here below of the life of grace.”[1] 1561\. 2° Theory of a special and restricted call. The foregoing arguments do not appear convincing to all, and a great number of spiritual writers belonging to the Society of Jesus, such as Cardinal Billot, Fathers Maumigny, Poulain, Bainvel, J. de Guibert, and to the Discalced Carmelites, such as Father Mary Joseph of the Sacred Heart, and others outside these two Schools of thought, such as Mgr. Lejeune and Mgr. Farges, think that acquired contemplation is a free gift which is not bestowed upon all, and which moreover is not necessary for the attainment of sanctity. Their arguments are these:[2] a) The theory of a universal call is indeed constructed along superb theological lines, but all of the structure is not equally solid. It has not been proved, for instance, “that the seven gifts correspond to seven distinct infused habits and not to seven kinds of graces for the reception of which the intellect and the will are prepared by a single habit. Moreover, even were this demonstrated, one would still need to prove that the gifts of wisdom and understanding can function perfectly only during contemplation and not during the reception of enlightening graces which do not necessarily include this particular form of prayer. Such demonstration has never been made.[3] Nor has it been proved that the gifts always act in a supra-human way. Cardinal Billot[4] thinks that they act m two ways, now in an ordinary manner, accommodating themselves to our human mode of action, now in an extraordinary way by producing in us infused contemplation. 1562\. b) No doubt, the passive trials seem to be the more potent means of purifying the soul, since they make the soul pass through a veritable purgatory; but in this vale of tears, where the occasions for suffering and mortification are so numerous, is it not possible to effect this purification by a sweet resignation to the will of God and by positive acts of mortification performed under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and the guidance of a prudent director? Has it been demonstrated that the graces of contemplation are the only choice graces of God? Every one admits that there are persons who have not yet been raised to infused contemplation and who are more perfect than others whom God has freely brought thereto precisely in order to make them become holy (n. 1407). And since they are more perfect, they are by that fact more thoroughly purified. It may well be therefore, that at the moment of death their purification is complete. c) It is indeed true that the end of the interior life as well as that of the mystic life is to prepare for the beatific vision, and that the transforming union is for certain souls the best preparation for it. But is this the only preparation? There are persons continuing in discursive and affective prayer who are models of heroic virtue, who are outwardly, and in the estimation of those who know them well, just as virtuous as some contemplatives, or even more so. Has it been shown conclusively that the gifts of the Holy Ghost have no part in the thousand ejaculatory prayers offered up by many persons while performing their daily occupations? Has it been proved that the said gifts exert no influence on the constant and supernatural performance of professional duties, which by the very fact that they are so constant, require heroic courage? And yet, when one questions these persons, one finds no signs of contemplation properly so-called. Must we not then admit that God, Who knows how to adapt His graces to the character, training and circumstances of each individual, does not lead all souls by the same way, and that although He demands of all a perfect docility to the inspirations of the Holy Ghost, He makes use of different means to sanctify them? 1563\. 3° While weighing the arguments advanced by both sides of the controversy, it seems to us that the two opinions are not so far apart as they may appear. A) Let us first of all examine the points on which the moderate exponents of either view agree: a) There have been and there are contemplatives of every temperament and of every condition of life; still, in point of fact, there are temperaments and modes of life which lend themselves better to infused contemplation. The reason for this is that contemplation is a free gift bestowed by God when and on whom He pleases (n. 1387), and that moreover God is wont to adapt His graces to the temperament and the duties of state of each individual. b) Contemplation is not sanctity, but only one of the most effective means of attaining it. Sanctity really consists in charity, in intimate and habitual union with God. Now, although contemplation is in itself the highway to this union, it is not the only way. There are indeed persons who are not contemplatives “who are more advanced in virtue, in true charity, than others who have already received infused contemplation.”[1] c) We have all received in Baptism a supernatural organism (habitual grace, the virtues and the gifts) which, when it attains its full development, leads normally to contemplation in the sense that it imparts that docility which permits God to put us in the passive state when He pleases and in the way He pleases. But as a matter of fact, there are souls who through no fault of theirs never attain to contemplation here below.[2] 1564\. B) Despite agreement upon these important points, there remain divergences which proceed, in our opinion, from tendencies more or less favorable to the mystical state and from the more or less extraordinary character attributed to that state. We shall in all modesty offer our solution in two assertions: a) Infused contemplation considered in itself is a normal development of the Christian life. b) In point of fact, however, not all souls in the state of grace seem to be called to such contemplation inclusive of the transforming union. a) Infused contemplation when considered independently of the extraordinary mystical phenomena which attend it, is not of a miraculous or of an abnormal nature; it is simply the resultant of two causes: the cultivation of our supernatural organism, especially of the gifts of the Holy Ghost (n. 1355), and of a special grace which of itself has nothing of the miraculous about it. We said that the infusion of new ideas is not necessary for the first degrees of contemplation (n. 1390). We might even assert with the Carmelite Congress of Madrid that in itself contemplation is the most perfect state of union between the soul and God that can be had in this life, the highest ideal and, as it were, the last stage of the Christian life in this world for souls called to mystic union with God, the ordinary way of sanctity and of habitual heroic virtue.[3] This seems indeed to be the traditional teaching as found in the mystic writers from Clement of Alexandria to St. Francis de Sales. 1565\. b) However, it does not necessarily follow from these premises that all souls in the state of grace are truly called, even in a remote way, to the transforming union. Just as in heaven there are different degrees of glory, “for star differeth from star in glory,”[1] so there are on earth different degrees of sanctity to which souls are called. Now, God, Who is ever free in the distribution of His gifts, and Who knows how to adapt His action to the temperament, education and manner of life of each individual, can raise souls by divers ways to the heights of holiness to which He destines them. To those who by their more active character and their more absorbing occupations seem to be made for action, He gives graces especially suited to the exercise of the active gifts. Such persons live in intimate, habitual union with God; at times they even multiply their ejaculatory prayers beyond what seems possible to human power. Above all else they perform out of love for God, and with heroic constancy and docility to the inspirations of grace, the thousand and one little duties of daily life. Thus, they reach the degree of sanctity to which God destines them, and this without the help (at least habitual) of infused contemplation. They are in the simple unitive way, such as we have described it (n. 1303 and foll.). No doubt, one might say that such persons are exceptions and that the normal way to sanctity is contemplation.[2] Still, when such exceptions are numerous, must one not take account of them in the problem of a remote call, since temperament and duties of state are elements which aid in deciding the question of vocation? At bottom, the agreement of these authors is more real than the difference of language would seem to indicate. Some, viewing the matter in an abstract and formal way, admit numerous exceptions to the universal call while maintaining the principle of its universality; others, taking a more practical view, prefer to say simply that the call is not universal albeit that contemplation is the normal development of the Christian life. 1566\. c) The solution we propose is, it seems, based on traditional teaching. 1) On the one hand, well-nigh all the spiritual writers, from Clement of Alexandria to St. Francis de Sales, speak of contemplation as the normal consummation of the spiritual life.[3] 2) On the other hand, rather few of them explicitly examine the question of a universal call to contemplation. Those that do so have in mind most of the time choice souls living in contemplative communities, or at least, very fervent souls. When, therefore, they assert that all or nearly all can arrive at the fountain of living waters (contemplation), it is for the members of their communities that they speak, and not for all souls in the state of grace. Besides, from the seventeenth century on, from which time greater precision of language began to prevail in these matters, a great number of writers require for infused contemplation a special call, and many positively assert that one can arrive at sanctity without contemplation.[1] The two questions are therefore not to be confounded, for one can admit that contemplation is the normal development of the spiritual life without affirming that all souls in the state of grace are called to the transforming union. 1567\. Let us add that the attainment of sanctity and the direction of the souls tending thereto do not depend upon the solution of such a difficult problem. By insisting upon the cultivation of the gifts of the Holy Ghost as well as upon perfect detachment from self and from creatures, by gradually leading souls to the prayer of simplicity, by teaching them to listen to the voice of God and to follow His inspirations, one places them in the way that leads to contemplation; the rest belongs to God, Who alone can lay hold of these souls, and, according to St. Teresa’s graceful metaphor, place them in the nest, that is to say, in the contemplative repose. 1568\. With most authors we think that infused contemplation belongs to the unitive way. Of course, there are exceptional cases in which God raises less perfect souls to contemplation, precisely with the intent of perfecting them more effectively (n. 1407). This is not however what He ordinarily does. Still, there are writers of note, such as Father Garrigou-Lagrange, who refer the purification of the senses and the prayer of quiet to the illuminative way. They take their stand on the authority of St. John of the Cross, who in the Dark Night writes : “The night of sense is common, and the lot of many : these are the beginners…[1] The soul began to set out on the way of the spirit, the way of proficients,which is also called the illuminative way, or the way of infused contemplation, wherein God Himself teaches and refreshes the soul.”[2] We have been for a long time acquainted with this text, but like H. Hoornaert,[3] who has translated the works of the great mystic, we find in it quite a different meaning. In his various works, St. John of the Cross speaks only of infused contemplation; now, as regards this contemplation there are beginners, proficients and perfect souls : for him, the beginners are those who are about to enter into the passive purification of the senses : this is why he speaks of them from the very first chapter of the Dark Night. By the proficients he means those who have entered upon infused contemplation, quietude and full union. The perfect are those who have gone through the night of the spirit and are in the ecstatic or in the transforming union. This is an altogether different point of view. 1569\. Furthermore, since we are writing a text-book, it is important to bring together and compare all that relates to the various kinds of contemplation, in order to bring out more clearly its nature and divers degrees. This is why we thought we should keep to the plan commonly followed. But we hasten to add that God, Whose ways are as manifold as they are wonderful, does not always follow the logical lines we strive to trace. It is therefore important that the spiritual director follow and not anticipate the motions of divine grace. 1570\. Hence, we conclude with these words of L’Ami du Clergé: “What is so energetically discussed in theory does not prevent certitude regarding a goodly number of essential practical rules… In order to profit by the medicinal qualities of a plant, it is not absolutely necessary to know its history and nomenclature. The same may be said of contemplation : there is no agreement concerning its definition or its place in theological classifications… Without waiting for technical and theoretical conclusions, directors are quite able to distinguish the goal towards which generous and predestined souls turn their steps, and to help them reach it.”[4] ## Conclusion: The Spiritual Direction of Contemplatives CONCLUSION OF BOOK III: SPIRITUAL DIRECTION OF CONTEMPLATIVES In several places of this book we have laid down rules for the direction of contemplatives; however, it may be well to give a resume of them here and to point out what course the spiritual director should follow in order to prepare souls for contemplation, to guide them through its dangers, and to lift them up if they falter in the way. 1571\. 1° It is the duty of the director, if he has in his care generous souls, to prepare them little by little for the unitive way and for contemplation. He must avoid two extremes : that of urging indiscriminately and too hastily all fervent souls to contemplation, and that of not being concerned at all about this matter. 1572\. A) In order to avoid the first mistake, a) the spiritual director should remember that one cannot ordinarily aim at contemplation until one has for a long time exercised oneself in prayer and in the practice of the Christian virtues of purity of heart, detachment from self and from creatures, humility, obedience, conformity to the Will of God, the spirit of faith, of trust and of love. He should call to mind the teaching of St. Bernard :[1] If among the monks there are any contemplatives, they are not the novices in virtue, who but erstwhile dead to sin, labour in tears and in the dread of judgment in order to heal their as yet fresh wounds. They are rather those who after a long co-operation with grace have made solid progress in virtue, who need no longer revolve again and again in their minds the sorrowful picture of their sins, but, on the contrary, find their delight in meditating day and night and in keeping the law of God. b) Should the director notice that the desire of contemplation is excessive and even presumptuous, he must seek to restrain it, recalling that no one can force his way into contemplation, and that moreover the joys of prayer generally come only after bitter trials. c) He must carefully guard against mistaking the sensible consolations of beginners, or even the spiritual ones of advanced souls for the divine delights (n. 1439), and he should wait, before passing judgment on the entrance of a soul into the passive state, for the three distinct signs which we indicated in numbers 1413-1416. 1573\. B) In order to avoid the second error, he should remember that God, ever prodigal of His gifts, gives Himself generously to fervent and docile souls. a) Without speaking explicitly about contemplation, he should exercise these good souls not only in virtue, but also in devotion to the Holy Ghost. He should frequently speak to them of the indwelling of that Divine Spirit in the human soul, of the duty of thinking often of Him, of adoring Him, of obeying His inspirations, of cultivating His gifts. b) He must teach them to make their prayer more and more affective, to prolong the acts of religion, of love, of self-offering, of self-abandonment to the Will of God, and to repeat these acts frequently during the course of the day by a simple elevation of the heart without in any way neglecting duties of state or the exercise of virtue. When he notices that they are inclined to remain in silence in the presence of God in order to listen to Him and to do His bidding, he must encourage them by extolling this practice as excellent and exceedingly fruitful. 1574\. 2° Once the soul has entered into the mystic ways, the director will need the greatest prudence in order to be a faithful guide amidst the aridities and the divine delights. A) He must lend his help during the passive trials so that the soul may be able to fight off discouragement and the other temptations of which we spoke in numbers 1432-1434. B) In sweet contemplation, the soul may be exposed to spiritual gluttony and to vain-complacency. a) In order to avoid the first of these defects, it is important ever to remember that we must love the God of consolations rather than the consolations of God, that consolations are only a means to unite us to Him, and that we must be ready to renounce them completely the moment it pleases God to withdraw them : God alone sufficeth. b) Sometimes God Himself undertakes to curb the impulses of pride by vividly impressing upon the soul a sense of its nothingness and its miseries, and by showing clearly that His favors are pure gifts in which we can in no way glory. As long as souls have not been completely purified through the night of the spirit, they need, as St. Teresa says, to be exercised in humility and in conformity to the Will of God (n. 1447, 1474). Above all, they must be warned against the desire of visions, revelations and other extraordinary phenomena. We are never permitted to desire these, and the Saints went so far as to repel them by acts of humility (n. 1496). 1575\. C) We must not forget that ecstasy is but an illusion if, to use the expression of St. Francis de Sales, it is unrelated to ecstatic manner of life, that is to say, to the practice of heroic virtue (n. 1461). It would be a serious mistake to neglect our duties of state in order to give more time to contemplation. Father Balthazar Alvarez, confessor to St. Teresa, distinctly declared that one must relinquish contemplation in order to fulfil one’s duties or to minister to the neighbor’s needs, and that God bestows upon him who thus learns to mortify himself more light and more love in one hour of prayer than He gives to others during several hours.[1] 1576\. D) It would be a still greater mistake to imagine that contemplation confers the privilege of impeccability. History shows that false mystics, like the Beghards and the Quietists, who thought themselves impeccable, fell into the grossest vices. St. Teresa insists constantly upon the necessity of watchfulness in order to avoid sin, even after the highest degrees of contemplation have been reached, and St. Philip Neri was used to say : “My God, beware of Philip, or he will betray Thee.” Indeed we can not persevere for long without a special grace, and this grace is given to the humble who know how to distrust themselves and to place all their confidence in God. 1577\. 3° We must therefore realize that contemplative souls can fall into sin. Such falls may come from several causes: a) The soul may have been raised to contemplation before it had sufficiently mastered its passions. Instead of courageously keeping up the fight, it lulled itself to sleep in the sweetness of repose. Then violent temptations arose, and the soul, trusting overmuch in its own strength, fell a victim to sin. The means of restoration are compunction of heart, return to God with a contrite and humbled heart, and long and laborious penance. The greater the heights from which one has fallen, the more humble and constant must be the efforts to take up the long and arduous climb once more. It is the office of the director to drive home this truth with kindness but also with firmness. b) There are contemplatives who fought valiantly and successfully to bring their evil tendencies into subjection. But imagining that the struggle was over, they relaxed their efforts and became less generous in fulfilling certain duties which they looked upon as less important. Indifference gradually set in and finally begot lukewarmness. Now, the director must check this downward movement by reminding them that the more generous God has been with them, the more they must increase their fervor, that the least negligence on the part of God’s friends hurts to the quick Him Who bestows His favors so freely upon them. One should read St. Margaret Mary’s autobiography in which she relates the severe reproaches Our Lord addressed to her in order to correct her smallest infidelities, her lack of respect and attention during the Office and during mental prayer, her lack of uprightness and purity of intention, her vain curiosity, her least failings in obedience, even when these latter were due to an attempt to increase her austerities. This reading should move the director to work energetically for the return of such souls to fervor. 1578\. c) Other souls expected to find only sweetness and divine delights in contemplation, once the first passive trials were over. But in reality God continues to send them alternately desolation and consolation, so as to sanctify them all the more effectively. They give way to discouragement and thus lay themselves open to laxity and its consequences. The director should teach them to apply the great remedy, love for the Cross. Not that the Cross is in itself lovable, but because it renders us more conformable to Jesus Crucified. The sainted Curé of Ars used to say : “The cross is the gift which God makes to His friends. The love of crosses must be asked for. Then they become sweet. I have tried it… O, I had plenty of crosses; I almost had more than I could bear! I began to ask for a love of crosses; then I became happy… Truly, there is no happiness except there.”[1] One word may sum up the duty of the spiritual director towards contemplatives : to study the works and the biographies of the mystics, and to beg for the gift of counsel, so as never to address these souls without having previously consulted the Holy Ghost. ## Epilogue: The Three Ways and the Liturgical Cycle EPILOGUE : THE THREE WAYS AND THE LITURGICAL CYCLE[2] 1579\. After taking a survey of the Three Ways, or the three stages, which lead to perfection, it will not be without profit to see how each year Holy Mother the Church invites us through her liturgy to start a new and to perfect the work of our sanctification with its three degrees of purification, illumination and union with God. The spiritual life is in truth a continuous series of new beginnings, and the liturgical cycle comes each year to inspire us to new efforts. Everything in the liturgy conters about the Incarnate Word, our Mediator and Redeemer, presented to us not only as a model for imitation, but also as the Head of a mystical body, Who comes to live in His members in order to enable them to practise the virtues of which He has given them the example. Each festival, each liturgical period recalls to us some one or other of the virtues of Jesus and brings to us the graces which He has merited and which enable us with His co-operation to reproduce these virtues in ourselves. 1580\. The liturgical year, which corresponds to the four seasons of the year, also symbolizes the four main phases of the spiritual life.[1] Advent corresponds to the purgative way; Christmastide and Epiphany to the illuminative way wherein we follow Jesus by the imitation of His virtues; the period of Septuagesima and the season of Lent bring about a second purification of the soul more thorough than the first; Paschal time typifies the unitive way, the union with the Risen Christ, a union perfected by the Ascension and the Descent of the Holy Ghost. We add a brief explanation of this liturgical year. 1581\. 1° Advent, which signifies a coming, is a preparation for the coming of the Savior, and as such is a period of purification and penance. The Church invites us to meditate upon the threefold coming of Christ : His advent upon earth through the Incarnation, His entrance into the souls of men through grace, and His appearance at the end of time to judge all mankind. It is chiefly upon the first coming that the Church centers our attention : she recalls to us the longings of the Patriarchs and the Prophets, in order to make us long with them for the coming of the promised Redeemer and the establishment or strengthening of His Kingdom in our souls. This is, then, a time of holy desires and ardent supplications, a time when we ask God to pour down upon us the dew of grace, and above all, the Redeemer Himself : “Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just!” This prayer takes on the character of still more earnest longing in the great antiphones, O Emmanuel, King of Glory, etc… which, by recalling the glorious titles given by the Prophets to the Messias and the chief characteristics of His mission, make us yearn for the coming of Him Who alone can relieve our misery. 1582\. But Advent is also a season of penance. It is then that the Church reminds us of the Last Judgment for which we must make ready by the expiation of our sins : the preaching of St. John the Baptist invites us to do penance and thus to prepare the way for the Savior : “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”[2] Formerly, Christians fasted three days a week, a practice still kept up by some Religious Orders, and if the Church no longer holds her children to this fast, she urges them to make up for it by other practices of mortification. In order to remind us of our duty of penance, she has her priests celebrate the Masses of Advent in violet vestments, the color of mourning. These holy desires and penitential practices evidently tend to purify the soul and thus prepare it for the reign of Christ. 1583\. 2° Christmastide. The Word appears in the weakness of our flesh, with the charms of childhood, but also with its helplessness. He invites us to open our hearts to Him that He may reign therein as our King and enable us to share in His dispositions and His virtues. This is the beginning of the illuminative way. Purified of our faults and separated from sin and its causes, we unite ourselves more and more closely to Jesus in order to share in His abasement, in His virtues of humility, obedience and poverty, which He practised from the very first moment of His birth. He comes to redeem the world; but, who is there to welcome Him? None but a few shepherds and the three Wise Men from the East come to offer Him their homage. The Jews, His Chosen People, refuse to receive Him : “He came unto his own,and his own received him not.”[1] He is forced to flee into the land of Egypt. Returning, He buries Himself in a small Galilean village and there He remains for thirty years, growing in wisdom and knowledge as well as in age, performing the manual labor of a simple tradesman, and being in all things subject to Mary and Joseph. Such is the vision which the Liturgy brings before us during the season of Christmas and Epiphany in order to present us with the examples we are to imitate. At the same time, it invites us to adore profoundly the Infant-God Who abases Himself for us, and it bids us offer our thanks and our love to “Him Who has loved us so much.” 1584\. 3° But before we can taste the joys of divine union, a new purification more painful and far-reaching than the former is required. This purification is to take place during the seasons of Septuagesima and Lent. Septuagesima is a prelude, as it were, to Lent. The Church, placing before us in the Bible-lessons of the Divine Office the fall of man and the sins which followed in its wake, the deluge which came as a punishment for these sins, and the holy lives of the Patriarchs which were to expiate them, urges us to consider in the bitterness of our soul all our personal sins, to detest them sincerely and to expiate them through a whole-hearted penance. The means which the Church proposes towards this end are : 1) work, or the faithful accomplishment of all our duties of state for the love of God : “Go you also into my vineyard;”[2] 2) struggle against the passions : in the Epistle of the Mass the Church compares us to athletes taking part in a race or a wrestling contest in order to win the prize, and she urges us to chastise our body even as these men do in order to bring it into subjection; 3) voluntary acceptance of sufferings and trials, our just punishment, together with a humble prayer that we may profit thereby : “The sorrows of death encompassed me… and in my affliction I called upon the Lord.”[1] 1585\. Lent offers us some additional means whereby to purify our hearts still more and to triumph over temptation : fasting, abstinence and almsgiving. We shall use these means in union with Jesus, Who for forty days withdrew into the desert, there to do penance in our stead, and Who consented to be tempted in order to teach us how to overcome Satan. The Preface of the Mass will remind us that fasting curbs our evil tendencies, elevates our heart to God and obtains for us an increase of virtue and of merit. The scene on Mount Thabor described in the Gospel for the Second Sunday of Lent will show us that penance has its joys, once we have learned to perform it in a spirit of prayer, and to raise up our eyes to God in search of help : “My eyes are towards the Lord, for he shall pluck my feet out of the snare.”[2] The Introit for the Fourth Sunday, “Rejoice, O Jerusalem,” will sustain our courage by enabling us to discern the joys of heaven, joys of which Holy Communion, symbolized by the multiplication of the loaves, gives us a foretaste. 1586\. On Passion Sunday the standard of the Cross is raised : “Abroad the Royal Banners fly.” It is the Cross alone that appears, for the image of the Savior is veiled as a sign of mourning and sorrow, in order to remind us that moments will come when we must suffer without consolations. But the Epistle of the day will bring us comfort by showing us our High priest, Who by the shedding of His blood enters into the Holy of Holies, and by telling us again that the Cross, the symbol of death, has become a source of life: “That whence came death, thence also life might arise.”[3] Palm Sunday, soon to be followed by the sorrowful mysteries, will teach us how ephemeral are earthly triumphs, and how the deepest humiliations follow close upon them. Then out of the depths of a soul in anguish will rise the cry : “My God, my God, look upon me : why hast thou forsaken me?”[4] It is the cry of Jesus in the Garden of Olives and on Calvary. It is the cry of the Christian soul when visited by interior sufferings or exposed to calumny. The Epistle however will bring us consolation by urging us to make our own the interior sentiments of Jesus obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross, but soon after rewarded by such an exaltation that every knee bends before Him. If therefore we share in His suffering, we shall likewise share in His victory : “Yet so if we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him.”[1] 1587\. 4° The Feast of the Resurrection and the season of Easter recall to us Christ’s glorious risen life, the model of the unitive way. This life is heavenly rather than earthly. During the time of His ministry Our Lord dwelt constantly upon earth; He labored, conversed with men and exercised His apostolate. After His resurrection He lives more than ever apart from external things, appearing but rarely to His Apostles to give them His last instructions, and then He returns to His Father : “Appearing to them and speaking of the kingdom of God.”[2] This is the model for souls in the unitive way, henceforth seeking solitude in order to converse intimately with God. If their duties of state oblige them to deal with others, they do so with the hope of sanctifying them. They strive in all things to approach the ideal of Christ described by St. Paul: “Therefore, if you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon earth. For you are dead : and your life is hid with Christ in God.”[3] The Ascension symbolizes a still higher degree of union with God. Henceforth Jesus lives in heavenly places, at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us without ceasing. His apostolate becomes only the more fruitful, because He sends His Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, Who transforms the Apostles, and through them, millions of souls. In like manner contemplatives who in heart and mind already live in heaven, do not cease to pray and to sacrifice themselves for the salvation of their brethren, and thus their apostolate becomes all the more fruitful. 1588\. Pentecost symbolizes the descent of the Holy Ghost upon individual souls in order to work in a more gradual and hidden manner the wondrous internal transformation which He wrought in the Apostles. The Mystery of the Holy Trinity comes to place before our eyes the grand object of our faith and of our religion, the efficient and exemplary cause of our sanctification. The feasts of Corpus Christi and of the Sacred Heart tell us once more that Our Lord, Who in the Holy Eucharist manifests the riches of His Sacred Heart, has a strict right to our adoration and our love, and that He is at the same time the great Worshipper of the Father through Whom and in Whom we can render due homage to the Most Adorable Trinity. The various Sundays which follow upon Pentecost represent the full development of the work of the Holy Ghost, not only in the Church of God, but also in every Christian soul, and they invite us to produce under the action of this Holy Spirit abundant fruits of salvation, even until the day when we shall go to heaven to join with Him Who has gone before us to prepare a place for us. 1589\. Within this liturgical cycle occur the feasts of the Saints. The examples of these persons, members of Christ like ourselves, who reproduced His virtues in spite of all kinds of temptations and obstacles, serve as a powerful stimulus. We hear them saying to us with St. Paul: “Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ;”[1] and while reading in the Breviary the story of their heroic virtues, we repeat to ourselves the words of St. Augustine: “Could you not also do what these men and women have done?” It is above all from the feasts of Our Lady that we draw inspiration, from that Queen of the Angels and the Saints, from that Mother of the world’s Savior, who is constantly associated with her Son in the Liturgy of the Church, the Son whom we cannot honor without at the same time honoring, loving and imitating His Blessed Mother. Thus, sustained and helped by the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, and incorporated into the Word Made flesh, we draw nearer to God while we follow the liturgical cycle each succeeding year. 1590\. But in order to profit well by the abundant means of sanctification which the Church offers us, we must draw unto ourselves the interior dispositions of Jesus. To accomplish this end we can avail ourselves of the beautiful and highly efficacious prayer, “O Jesus Living in Mary.” We cannot bring this compendium to a close in a more fitting manner than by giving a brief explanation of this prayer. PRAYER : TO JESUS LIVING IN MARY[2] O Jesu vivens in Maria O Jesus living in Mary, veni et vive in famulis tuis, come and live in Thy servants, in spiritu sanctitatis tuæ, in the spirit of Thy holiness, in plenitudine virtutis tuæ, in the fulness of Thy power, in perfectione viarum tuarum, in the perfection of Thy ways, in veritate virtutum tuarum, in the truth of Thy virtues, in communione mysteriorum tuorum; in the fellowship of Thy mysteries, dominare omni adversæ potestati, rule Thou over every adverse power, in Spiritu tuo ad gloriam Patris. in Thy Spirit, for the glory of the Father. The prayer is obviously made up of three parts of unequal length: the first part indicates the person addressed; the second, the object of the prayer; the third, the final aim of the prayer. 1591\. 1° The Person addressed is Jesus, living in Mary, that is to say, the Incarnate Word, the God-Man, Who in the oneness of His Person possesses at once the divine and the human natures and Who is the meritorious, the exemplary and the vital cause of our sanctification (n. 132). We address ourselves to Him as living in Mary. For nine months He dwelt physically in her virginal womb : our prayer does not allude to this indwelling in Mary which ended with Our Savior’s birth. He also lived in Mary sacramentally through Holy Communion, but this sacramental presence came to an end with Mary’s last Communion on earth. He lived, and still lives in her mystically, as the Head of a mystical body of which all Christians are indeed members, but Mary the most exalted of all, since she occupies the place of honor in that body (n. 155-162). He lives in Mary through His Divine Spirit,that is to say, through the Holy Ghost, Whom He imparts to His Holy Mother in order that this Spirit may produce in her dispositions similar to those which He wrought in His own holy soul. By virtue of the merits and prayers of the Savior, the Holy Ghost comes then to sanctify and glorify Mary, to make her more and more like Jesus until she becomes the most perfect living image of Christ. Father Olier [1] explains this well : “What Our Lord is to the Church, that He is preëminently to His Holy Mother. Thus He constitutes her interior and divine plenitude of grace, and as He sacrificed Himself more particularly for her than for the whole Church, He imparts to her God’s life more abundantly than to the entire Church. This He does from a sense of gratitude, in return for the life which He received from her; for just as He promised to render to all His members a hundredfold for what they give Him here on earth, so He wills to render to His Mother a hundredfold for that human life which He received from her love and devotion. This hundredfold is the Divine Life of infinite value… We must then regard Jesus as Our All, living in the Most Blessed Virgin in the plenitude of Divine Life, of that Life which He received from the Father, and of that other life which He acquired and merited for men through the mediation of His Mother. It is in her that we must see all the treasures of His riches, the glory of His beauty and the bliss of the Divine Life… There He dwells in all His fulness; there He works with all the power of His Divine Spirit; He is but one heart, one soul, one life with her.”[2] 1592\. Jesus lives fully in Mary in order to sanctify not only her, but through her, the other members of His mystical body. She is, as St. Bernard says, the aqueduct through which all the graces merited by her Son reach us : “He willed us to have all things through Marry.” It is therefore most pleasing to Jesus and most profitable to our soul that we address ourselves to Jesus living in Mary. 1593\. 2° The object of this prayer is the interior life with all its constituent elements, which is nothing less than a participation in that life which Jesus communicates to His Mother and which we beg Him to deign to communicate to us as well. A) Since Jesus living in Mary is the source of this life, we humbly beg Him to come and live in us, and we promise Him to submit in all docility to His influence: COME AND LIVE IN THY SERVANTS. a) He comes to us as He comes to Mary, through His Divine Spirit through habitual grace. Every time sanctifying grace is increased, the Spirit of Jesus likewise grows in our soul, and consequently each time we perform a supernatural, meritorious act, this Divine Spirit comes to us and makes our soul still more like the soul of Jesus and that of Mary. What a powerful motive for multiplying and intensifying our meritorious actions by animating them with divine love! b) He acts in us through actual grace which He merited for us and which He imparts to us through His Divine Spirit: “He worketh in us both to will and to accomplish.”[1] He becomes the mainspring of our interior movements, of our interior dispositions, so much so that our acts proceed only from Jesus communicating to us His Own Life, His sentiments, His affections, His desires. Then we can say with St. Paul: “I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me.”[2] c) That this be so, we must let ourselves be led by Him as faithful servants and we must co-operate with His grace. Like the humble Virgin we must say in all sincerity: “Behold the servant of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word.” Conscious of our misery and our helplessness, we must obey promptly the least inspirations of His grace. This means for us honorable servitude, for to serve Him is to reign. It means a service of love that subjects us to Him Who is indeed Our Master, but also Our Father, Our Friend, and Who commands nothing that is not profitable to our own soul. Let us then open our hearts to Christ Jesus and to His Divine Spirit that He may reign therein as He reigned in the heart of His Blessed Mother! 1594\. B) Because Jesus is the source of all holiness, we ask Him to live and to act in us, in order that He may communicate to us His Own sanctity: In the spirit of thy holiness. There is in Him a twofold holiness: substantial holiness which flows from the hypostatic union, and participated holiness which is nothing else but created grace (n. 105). It is this latter holiness that we beg Him to communicate to us. It consists first of all in a horror of sin and in the severance from whatever may lead thereto, in a thorough detachment from creatures and from all self-seeking; but it consists also in a participation in the Divine Life; in an intimate union with the Three Divine Persons; in a love for God which controls every other affection; in a word, in positive sanctity. 1595\. Since we are unable to acquire such an exalted sanctity through our own efforts, we beg Him to come to us in the fulness of his power. Nay, since we fear lest we turn traitors to God, we pray with the Church that He “deign to subject to His sway our rebellious faculties.” It is an efficacious grace therefore that we beg for, which, while it respects our liberty, knows how to touch the secret springs of the will and to procure its free consent; a grace which is not rendered powerless by our instinctive repugnance or our irrational opposition, but which sweetly and firmly works in us to will and to accomplish. 1596\. C) Since holiness cannot be attained without the imitation of Our Divine Model, we beg Him to make us walk in the perfection of his ways, that is to say, to make us able to imitate His conduct, His exterior and interior actions, in all their perfection. In other words, we ask to become living images of Jesus, other Christs, that like St. Paul we may be able to say to those who would learn of us : “Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ.”So perfect is this ideal that, of ourselves, we can not realize it. But Jesus becomes our way : “I am the way,” a shining and living way, a moving way, so to speak, which draws us in its wake : “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself.”[1] We shall willingly allow ourselves to be drawn by Thee, O Divine Model, and we shall strive to reproduce Thy virtues! 1597\. D) Hence we add : in the truth of thy virtues. The virtues we ask for are real virtues. There are persons who, under a veneer of exterior righteousness, conceal a pagan pride and sensuality. External manners do not constitute holiness. What Jesus comes to bring us therefore are interior virtues, crucifying virtues: humility, poverty, mortification, perfect chastity of mind, heart and body; and unifying virtues: the spirit of faith, of confidence and of love. This is what makes the Christian and this is what transforms him into another Christ. 1598\. E) Jesus practised all these virtues especially in His mysteries, and on this account we pray Him to make us partake in the grace of His mysteries: in the fellowship of thy mysteries. No doubt, all the principal actions of Our Lord are called mysteries, but more especially those six great mysteries described by Father Olier in his Christian Catechism : the Incarnation, which invites us to put off all self-love in order to consecrate ourselves entirely to the Father in union with Jesus: “Behold I come to do thy will, O God;” the Crucifixion, Death and Burial, which express so many degrees of that total immolation of self by which we crucify our disordered nature and seek to put off and bury our evil inclinations; the Resurrection and the Ascension, which are the symbols of a perfect detachment from creatures and of the altogether heavenly life which we desire to lead in order to reach heaven. 1599\. F) We can not assuredly attain such perfection unless Jesus comes to vanquish our powerful enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil: to rule over every adverse power. These three enemies will never cease their bitter onslaughts, nor will they be completely annihilated as long as we live upon this earth. But Jesus, Who triumphed over them, can thwart them and subjugate them by giving us efficacious graces wherewith to resist their attacks. It is this for which we humbly pray. 3° Lastly, in order to obtain this grace more readily, we proclaim that with Him we have but one end in view, to procure the glory of the Father under the action of the Holy Ghost: by thy spirit unto the glory of the Father. Since He is come to earth to seek His Father’s glory, “I glorify the Father,” we beg Him to fulfil His work in us and to impart to us His own interior holiness, so that with Him and through Him we may be enabled to give glory to that same Father, and that we may have Him glorified by those about us. Then shall we be truly members of His mystical body, true worshippers of God, and He will live and reign in our hearts for the greater glory of the Most Adorable Trinity. This prayer therefore constitutes a synthesis of the spiritual life and a summary of our Compendium. In bringing our work to a close, we cannot but bless, and invite our readers to bless with us, that God of love, that loving Father, Who in making us partakers of His Own Life, has filled us with all manner of blessings in His Son. BLESSED BE THE GOD AND FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, WHO HATH BLESSED US WITH SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS IN HEAVENLY PLACES, IN CHRIST. THE END. [[at-sl-fn-33|Fn: B3 Ch. IV]] --- ![[maps/bibliography#^biblio-tan]] > [[at-sl-32|← B3 Ch. III]] | [[at-spiritual-life-toc|TOC]] | [[at-sl-34|Appendices →]]