> [[at-sl-31|← B3 Ch. II Art. II]] # "Footnotes — Book Iii, Ch. Ii: Infused Contemplation" [1] ST. THOMAS, IIa IIæ, q. 180-182; St. BONAVENTURE, De triplici via; Itinerarium mentis ad Deum; H. SUSO, The little Book of Eternal wisdom; Le livre de la vérité; Bx F. RUISBROECK, L’ornement des noces spirituelles; GERSON, La montagne de la contemplation; La théologie mystique spéculative et pratique; DENIS THE CARTHUSIAN, De Fonte Lucis et semitis vitæ;De contemplatione; BLOSIUS (Louis de Blois), A Book of Spiritual Instruction; D. A. BAKER, Sancta Sophia;ST. TERESA, Life by Herself; The Way of Perfection; The Interior Castle; ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS, The Ascent of Mount Carmel; The Dark Night of the Soul; Living Flame; ST. FRANCIS DE SALES, The Love of God, Books VI-VII; ALVAREZ DE PAZ, De Vita Spirituali, T. III, Lib. V;M. GODINEZ, Praxis Theologiæ Mysticæ; LALLEMANT, Spiritual Doctrine, Principle VII; SCARAMELLI, Direttorio mistico; RIBET. La Mystique divine; DE MAUMIGNY, Practice of Mental Prayer; POULAIN, The Graces of Interior Prayer; LEHODEY, The Ways of Mental Prayer; SAUDREAU, The Degrees of the Spiritual Life, Vol. II; MEYNARD. Traité de la vie intérieure; LAMBALLE, Mystical Contemplation; FARGES, Mystical Phenomena; JORET, La contemplation mystique d’après saint Thomas; GARRIGOU-LAGRANGE, Perfect. chrét. et contemplation; LEJEUNE, An Introduction to the Mystical Life; WILLIAMSON, Supernatural Mysticism; A. B. SHARPE Mysticism, Its nature and value; HOWLEY, Psychology and Mystical Phenomena. [2] Sum. theol., IIa IIæ, q. 180, a. 3, c. et ad 1 a. 7, c. e1 ad 1: “Contemplation regards the simple act of gazing on the truth… It has its beginning in the appetite since it is through charity that one is urged to the contemplation of God. And since the end corresponds to the beginning, it follows that the term also and the end of the contemplative life has its being in the appetite, since one delights in seeing the object loved, and the very delight in the object seen arouses a yet greater love.” [3] Love of God, Bk. VI, C. 3. [1] Relation 54. [2] Life, C. XVIII. [3] The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk I, C. XIII, (Translation by David Lewis M. A. London, 1889). [1] The Living Flame, III Stanza. [2] L’état mystique, 2e éd., 1921, p. 19-20. — Father Janvier affirms the same doctrine (Carême 1923, Retraite, 2e Instr.): “Infused contemplation is an eminent and singular grace which we do not obtain by our own efforts; God grauts it to whom He pleases, when He pleases, and to the extent in which He pleases.” [3] A Book of Spiritual Instruction. London, 1900, c. XII. [1] Sum. theol., IIa IIæ, q. 175, a. 3, ad 1. [2] SUAREZ, in Iam, c. 30, n. 18: “We should not be too quick to affirm or to extend such privileges. It may be piously believed that this favor was accorded the Most Blessed Virgin, and indeed, that if it was granted to any one, it was given to her above all.” [1] L. DE BLOIS, A Book of Spiritual Intruction, c. XII. [2] ST. TERESA, 2nd Relation to Fr. Rodrigo; Way of Perfection, C. XXXI. [1] ST. TERESA, 2nd Relation, 1. c. [2] Sermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon LXXIV, n. 5-6. Translation by S. J. Eales, London, 1896. [1] JOHN OF ST. THOMAS, in Iam IIæ, q. 68-70, disp. 18, n. 11-12; JORET, Vie Spirituelle, Sept. 1920, p. 455-456. [1] Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. II, C. 17. Translation by David Lewis, London, 1891. [2] Mystical Theology, C. I, § 3. [1] Comment. de div. nomin., c. XIII, lect. 3. [2] ST. THOM., I Sent., dist. 8, q. I, a. 1, ad 4. [3] Sermons on the Song of Songs, Sermon I, n. 11-12. [1] Thus, FATHER POULAIN, Graces of Interior Prayer, C. V, while giving as the fundamental element of contemplation the presence of God felt, adds that in the lower degrees, the prayer of quiet, God makes His presence felt only in a rather obscure manner. [2] ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS, Living Flame, Stan. III, v. 5 and 6. [1] ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS, Living Flame, Stan. III, v. 3. [2] Living Flame, Stan. III, v. I. [3] Life by Herself, C. XII. [1] John, XVII, 26. [2] Love of God, Bk. VI, C. 3. [3] Love of God, Bk. VI, C. 3. [1] Way of Perfection, C. XVI. [2] Concepts of Divine Love, C. VI. [1] IIa IIæ q. 180, a. 2. [2] Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, C. 13. [3] Interior Castle, IV Mansion, C. II and III. [4] Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. I, C. XI. [1] “A Spiritual director who, like a rough blacksmith, knows only the use of his hammer, and who, because all his knowledge is limited to the coarser work, will say “Come, get rid of this, this is waste of time and idleness: arise and meditate, resume thine interior acts, … everything else is delusion and folly… Such a director as this does not understand the degrees of prayer, nor the ways of the Spirit … understands not that the soul has already attained to the life of the Spirit… where God is Himself the agent in a special way, and is speaking in secret to the solitary soul. Directors of this kind bedaub the soul with the coarse ointments of particular knowledge and sensible sweetness to which they bring it back.” (Living Flame, Stan. III, V. 3). St. Teresa also complains of such directors, who force the faculties to work even on Sundays. (Life by Herself, C. XIII). [2] Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II. C. XI. [1] The explanations of each of these three signs are found in the fourteenth chapter of the Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book II. [2] Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, C. XIV. [3] Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, C. XIV. [1] Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, C. XIV. [2] Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, C. XIV. [3] Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II, C. XV. [4] Congrès carmélitain de Madrid, theme VI. [1] Cf. Mère Suzanne-Marie de Riants de Villerey; Ami du Clergé, 2 Août 1923. [2] M. J. RIBET, Mystique divine, t. I, ch. X, enumerates the main classifications. Alvarez de Paz counts 15: intuition of truth, interior concentration of the energies of the soul, silence, repose, union, hearing of God’s word, spiritual sleep, ecstasy, rapture, bodily apparition, imaginative apparition, intellectual vision, divine darkness, manifestations of God, intuitive vision of God. Schram has a more complete and more obscure nomenclature. Scaramelli distinguishes twelve degrees: recollection, spiritual silence, quietude, inebriation of love, spiritual sleep, the anxieties and thirst of love, the divine touch, the simple mystic union, ecstasy, rapture, stable and perfect union. Father Philip of the Blessed Trinity numbers six: recollection, quietude, ordinary union, the divine impulse, rapture, spiritual marriage. [1] The Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. I, C. XI. [1] Night, Bk. I, C. IX. [2] Night, Bk. II, C. X. [3] Another comparison may further illustrate this state of soul: when we examine a glass of water with the naked eye, we see nothing in it to startle us; but if we look at that same water through the microscope, we shudder at the sight of the living germs we now discover. Now, contemplation is like a microscope which helps us to see better our faults. [1] Night, Bk. I, C. IX. [1] Night, Bk. 1, C. XI. [2] LEHODEY, The Ways of Mental Prayer, P. III, C. III. [1] Night, Bk. I, C. XIV. [2] II Tim., III, 12. [1] Night, Bk. I, C. XII. [2] Night, Bk. I, C. XIV. [3] Night, Bk. I, C. XII. [1] Night, Bk. II, C. XIII. [2] Matth., XXVI, 39. [3] Luke, XXII, 43. [4] Life by Herself, C. VIII. [1] Night, Bk. I, C. XI. [2] Cardinal BONA (Via Compendii ad Deum, C. 10, n. 6) says that St. Francis of Assisi spent two years in these purifying trials; St. Teresa eighteen; Blessed Claire of Montefalco fifteen; St. Catherine of Bologna five; St. Magdalen of Pazzi five years at first and sixteen subsequently; the Venerable Balthassar Alvarez sixteen. These figures embrace, no doubt, the duration of the two Nights, which are generally divided by a notable interval of sweet consolations. [3] The Interior Castle, composed in the year 1577, at the Monastery of Toledo, five years before her death, at the request of Father Gratian and Father Velasquez, is the crown and synthesis of all her works. In it she clearly and accurately describes the seven principal degrees of prayer corresponding to the seven stages of the spiritual life. On the eve of the Feast of the Blessed Trinity, she was asking herself what would be the fundamental idea of this Treatise, when God deigned Himself to suggest it. He showed her the soul in the state of grace as a magnificent crystal globe, having the shape of a castle with seven mansions, the seventh the center, in which God Himself dwells, radiant with a marvellous brightness by which all the mansions are illumined, each more brilliant as it stands closer to the center. Outside the castle there are only darkness and uncleanness, and poisonous creatures which attack those who venture near. The. entrance to the castle is mental prayer, which makes us enter into ourselves and find God. One leaves the castle through mortal sin, of which the Saint gives a terrifying description (I Mansion, C. II). There are seven Mansions: the first two correspond to the purgative way; the third to the illuminative way; and with the fourth begins infused contemplation. [1] ST. TERESA, Interior Castle, IV Mansion, C. 3. [2] Letter to Father Rodrigo Alvarez. [1] Interior Castle, IV Mansion, C. 3. [2] Love of God, Bk. VI, C. 7. [3] Interior Castle, Mansion IV, C. 3. [1] Interior Castle, Mansion IV, C. 3. [2] Way of Perfection, C. XXXI. The Saint speaks only of the will, because being the master-faculty, it is seized first and foremost, for contemplation is rather an act of love than of knowledge. However since the will acts only when enlightened by the intelligence, the latter likewise comes to some extent within the Divine grasp. [3] Way of Perfection, C. XXXI. [4] Life by Herself, C. XIV. [5] Interior Castle, IV Mansion, C. 1. [1] Interior Castle, IV Mansion, C. 2. [2] Interior Castle, IV Mansion, C. 2. [3] Life by Herself, C. XIV. [4] Life by Herself, C. XIV. [5] Ibid., 1. c. [1] Interior Castle, IV Mansion, C. 3. [2] St. John of the Cross remarks (Ascent, Bk. III, C. XIV) that the time passes so rapidly when one is in the state of contemplation that at times one mistakes its duration: what seems to have lasted but two or three minutes, may very well have lasted longer. [1] CASSIAN had already noted these varieties, Conf., X, C. 24. [2] Way of Perfection, C. XXXI. [3] Life by Herself, C. XVI. [4] Love of God, Bk. VI, C. VI. [1] Way of Perfection, C. XXXI. [1] ST. TERESA, Life by Herself, C. XV. [2] Love of God, Bk. VI, C. X. [3] Interior Castle, V Mansion, C. I; cf. Life, C. XVIII. [4] St. Teresa gives the reason why, Interior Castle, V Mansion, C. I: “I dare venture to assert that His Divine Majesty is so joined and united with the essence of the soul, that the devil dare not approach…” [5] Interior Castle, V Mansion, C. I. [1] “This prayer, however long it may last, produces no inconvenience, at least I feel none; nor do I remember when Our Lord bestowed this favor on me, however ill I might be, that I ever found myself worse: I was, on the other hand, much better.” Life, C. XVIII. [2] Life by Herself, C. XVIII. [3] Interior Castle, V Mansion, C. II. [1] Interior Castle, V Mansion, C. II. [2] Ibid. [3] Love of God, Bk. VII, C. IV and V. [1] Love of God, Bk. VII, C. V. [2] Life by Herself, C. XVIII and XX. [1] Interior Castle, VI Mansion, C. II. [1] Life by Herself, C. XX. [2] Interior Castle, VI Mansion, C. IV. [3] Ibid. [4] Interior Castle, VI Mansion, C. V. [5] Love of God, Bk. VII, C. VII. [1] Dark Night, Bk. II, C. II. [1] Night, Bk. II, C. V. [1] Night, Bk. II, C. IX. [1] Night, Bk. II, C. XIX-XX. [2] Interior Castle, VII Mansion, C. II. [1] Spiritual Canticle, Stanza XXII. [2] Interior Castle, VII Mansion, C. II. [3] At times the spiritual marriage is celebrated with special ceremonies, exchange of rings, angelic, hymns, etc. Following the example of St. Teresa we leave aside any description of these accessory details. [4] Interior Castle, VII Mansion, C. II. [5] Relation XXV. [6] Interior Castle, VII Mansion, C. II. [1] Note these expressions which point out the immense difference between the simple act of faith and the knowledge or conviction given by contemplation. [2] Interior Castle, VII Mansion, C. I. [3] Interior Castle, VII Mansion, C. IV. [1] Interior Castle, VII Mansion, C. III. [2] Interior Castle, VII Mansion, C. III. [3] Interior Castle, VII Mansion, C. III. [4] Ibid. [5] Interior Castle, VII Mansion, C. IV. [6] Ibid. [1] Interior Castle, VII Mansion, C. IV. [2] John, XVII, 21. [1] P. POURRAT, Christian Spirituality, I, p. 62-68: II, p. 211-216; Cath. Encyc., Beghards and Beguines. [2] P. DUDON, Le Quiétiste Espagnol Michel Molinos, Paris, 1921; Cath. Encyc., Molinos, Mysticism, Quietism. [1] In order to see how far Molinos goes, one has but to read the propositions taken from his books or from his statements and condemned by Innocent XI (Decree of August 28, and Constit., Cœlestis Pastor, November 19, 1687) cf. DENZINGER, Enchiridion, n. 1221-1288. [2] FÉNELON, Maximes des Saints, nouv. éd. par A. Cherel, 1911; GOSSELIN, Œuvres de Fénelon, t. IV; L. CROUSLÉ, Bossuet et Fénelon, 1894; HUVELIN, Bossuet, Fénelon, le quiétisme; A. LARGENT, Fénelon, (Dict, de Théol. t. V, col. 2138-2169); Cath. Encyc., Fénelon, Guyon. [1] Denzinger’s Enchiridion (1327-1349) contains Fénelon’s propositions con demned by Innocent XII. [2] These articles were redacted at the Seminary of Issy, as the result of the discussions conducted by Bossuet, Noailles, Bishop of Chalons, Fénelon, and Father Tronson, 1694-1695. [3] P. JOSÉ , Etudes relig., 20 déc. 1897, p. 804; MGR FARGES, Mystical phenomena. --- > [[at-sl-31|← B3 Ch. II Art. II]]