Evelyn Underhill speaks of the Holy Jubilation of the perfect soul:

"In contemplative transformation, the Spirit of God more and more dominates the morose resignation of the natural man undergoing purification, and, eventually, like the spring blossom of a beautiful flower, bursts forth in triumph as it establishes a permanent spirit of holy jubilation and youthful good humor. Dante, for example, sees the universe laugh with delight as it glorifies God. The transfigured souls move to the measures of a "love dance" which persists in mirth without comparison, through every outward hardship and tribulation. They possess a childlike gaiety and inextinguishable gladness of heart, showing high spirits peculiar to high spirituality, and shock the world by a delicate playfulness. "What are the servants of the Lord but His minstrels?" said St. Francis, who saw nothing inconsistent between the Celestial Melodies and the Stigmata of Christ. Moreover the songs of such troubadours, as the hermit of Hampole learned in his wilderness, are not only sweet but playful. Dwelling always in a light of which we hardly dare to think, save in the extreme terms of reverence and awe, they are not afraid; they are at home, possessed at last of the fullness of life. Such souls show forth an unselfconscious playfulness, like a little child: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.(dev. from Evelyn Underhill)

However, it should be rememberd that the individual who has received the Spiritual Marriage still lives in "Hope." Most of the time, the individual experiences ongoing satisfaction and joy. However, the soul in this state still longs for the consummation of its Love in the Beatific Vision. And periodically, for short periods, even the ongoing satisfaction connected with this state may be withdrawn as part of the continual advancement of the transformed soul in the perfection of Charity.

St John of the Cross, in the Spiritual Canticle, reminds us:

"Since perfection consists in this poverty of spirit, in which God is possessed by a very intimate and special grace, the soul, having attained it, lives in this life with some satisfaction, although not complete. For David, in spite of all his perfection, hoped to have this fullness in heaven, saying: When your glory appears, I shall be filled." [Ps. 17:15]

"As a result, the peace, tranquility, and satisfaction of heart attainable in this life is insufficient to prevent the soul from moaning within itself - although this moan may be tranquil and painless - hoping for what it lacks. Moaning is connected with hope, and the Apostle affirmed that he and others moaned even though they were perfect: We ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit moan within ourselves, hoping for the adoption of the children of God" [Rom. 8:23]

ST TERESA AND THE PERFECT UNION OF SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE:

l. "One is brought into preparation for this state by an intellectual vision of the Holy Trinity, in which, without image, one understands that there are three Persons in One God. Later, this is followed, in some cases, by an imaginary vision of the Sacred Humanity of Our Lord, coming with extreme force from a new place, the center of the soul. From then on, with or without the preliminary "imaginary" vision, the soul in Transforming Union is in possession of this Divine Companionship, and, through an ongoing "intellectual" vision, the Human Companionship of Our Lord.

2. "In all that pertains to the service of God, the soul is more alert than ever before, and when not otherwise occupied, rests in that happy Companionship.

3. "Although the intensity of this experience varies, the soul is always aware it is experiencing this Companionship.

4. "The person is better in every way, however numerous the trials and business worries, the essential part of the soul never seems to move from that dwelling place.

5. "The person is conscious of a division between that part of the soul enjoying the Companionship of the Lord in its spiritual center, and the other part of the soul, including the faculties, simultaneously going through trials and business worries.

6. "The Spiritual Marriage is perceived as being a Presence in the soul, rather than the body. It's effects overflow from the spirit and provide a sense of general, well-being for the body, while subduing bodily passions. Because it is a "spiritual" event, it can, at times, come in great power, lasting for hours-on-end, without any bodily, negative after-effect.

7. "The initial, instantaneous communication of Our Lord to the soul, is so sublime a favor, so great a secret, and such delight is felt by the soul, that it is comparable to an experience of the glory of heaven. During the initial period following this event, the person is unable to undertake any activity, other than delighting in the Lord.

8. "The experience is perceived as a "uniting" with God, so that the two can no longer be separated. It's a unique experience of God entering the center of the soul so that one proclaims, "I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me!" Nonetheless, in this life, St Teresa says we must always walk warily for fear that mortal sin might separate us from God.

9. "With the passage of time, the effects of the union become more evident, and one is convinced that one is endowed with life by God, in this new perceptible manner.

10. "There is complete self-forgetfulness, as the soul dwells on the things that it may do for God. It is aware that He is doing everything and that it can do very little. However, every insignificant act performed by the soul takes on eternal significance as it is performed in union with the Lord, Himself.

11. "With little perceived, personal effort, the transformed soul is able to attract and influence people through love, and, with consummate grace, to move mountains in the service of the Lord.

12. "These souls have profound humility, sometimes feeling unworthy to raise their eyes from the ground. They "love" their enemies, and go out of their way to help those who dislike and persecute them.

l3. "All the weakness which the soul used to think it had when it came to doing penance is now turned into strength. It is no longer bound by ties of relationship, friendship or property. Previously all its acts of will and resolutions and desires were powerless to loosen these.

l4. "Those who attain to this state have peace, and to a very high degree, for even their trials are of such sublimity and come from so noble a source that, severe though they may be, they bring peace and contentment.

l5. "Have you not heard concerning the Bride that God put her in the cellar of wine and ordained charity in her? Well, that is the position here. That soul has now delivered itself into His hands and His great love has so completely subdued it that it neither knows nor desires anything save that God shall do with it what He wills. Never, I think, will God grant this favour save to the soul which He takes for His very own.

l6. "Oh, how much to be desired is this union! Happy the soul that has attained to it, for it will live peacefully both in this life and in the next as well. Nothing that happens on earth will afflict it unless it finds itself in peril of losing God, or sees that He is offended -- neither sickness nor poverty nor death, except when someone dies who was needed by the Church of God. For this soul sees clearly that He knows what He does better than it knows itself what it desires.

l7. "The transforming union with God's Spirit places concupiscence under powerful control. The bodily passions which have refused to be curbed prior to this, are now found to be almost fully subdued. Temptations of all kinds have lost most of their power.

l8. "The love of neighbor is now an ongoing spiritual reality, with a new, compassionate understanding of our brothers and sisters in Christ. This replaces the former weak and variable attitude maintained in our relations with others.

l9. Fear gives way to confidence and peace; the things that used to cause fear lose their power as confidence fills the soul due to the constant companionship of Our Lord; the fear of death is conquered, and thoughts about death are no more fearful than the thought of a gentle rapture.

20. "The life of these souls partakes of "heaven on earth," as they are full of praise for God and the wonder of His gifts, as they live a life of thanksgiving and joyful service to the Lord.(St Teresa of Avila, "Interior Castle," Seventh Mansion)

OTHER COMMENTATORS ON PERFECT UNION:

Father Reginald LaGrange speaks of the perfect soul in transforming union:

"What is the spiritual state of the perfect after this purgation, which has been like a third conversion for them? They know God with a knowledge which is quasi-experimental and almost continuous; not merely during times of prayer or the divine office, but in the midst of external occupations, they have a constant sense of the presence of God. Whereas at the beginning man had been selfish, thinking constantly of himself and, unconsciously, directing all things to himself, the perfect soul thinks constantly of God, of His glory, of the salvation of souls and, as though instinctively, causes all things to converge upon that end.

"The reason of this is that he no longer contemplates God merely in the mirror of the things of sense, no longer merely in parables or even in the mirror of the mysteries of the life of Christ, for this cannot continue throughout the whole day, but he contemplates the divine goodness in itself, very much in the way in which we constantly see light diffused about us and illuminating all things from on high. In the terminology of Dionysius, employed also by St. Thomas, it is a movement of contemplation, no longer straight nor spiral, but circular, like the flight of the eagle which, after rising to a great height, circles round and round, and hovers to view the horizon.

"This simple contemplation removes those imperfections that arise from natural eagerness, from unconscious self-seeking and from the lack of habitual recollection.

"The perfect know themselves no longer merely in themselves, but in God, their source and their end, they examine themselves, pondering what is written of their existence in the book of life, and they never cease to see the infinite distance that separates them from their Creator. Hence their humility. This quasi-experimental contemplation of God proceeds from the gift of wisdom, and, by reason of its simplicity, it can be almost continuous; it can persist in the midst of intellectual work, conversation, external occupations, such continuity being impossible in the case of a knowledge of God which uses the mirror of parables or that of the mysteries of Christ.

"Finally, whereas the egoist, thinking always of himself, wrongly loves himself in all things, the perfect, thinking nearly always of God, loves Him constantly, and loves Him, not merely by avoiding sin and by imitating the virtues of our Lord, but ' by adhering to Him, enjoying Him, desiring, as St. Paul said, to be dissolved and to be with Christ. ' It is the pure love of God and the love of souls in God; it is apostolic zeal, zealous beyond measure; but humble, patient and gentle.

"This is to love God, no longer merely ' with the whole heart, with the whole soul, with the whole strength, ' but continuing up the scale, ' with the whole mind. ' For he that is perfect is no longer merely rising gradually to this highest region in himself; he is established there; he is spiritualized and super-naturalized; he has now become truly ' an adorer in spirit and in truth. These souls preserve peace almost constantly amidst even the most distressful and unforeseen circumstances, and they communicate it to others who are troubled. This is why St. Augustine says that the beatitude of the peacemakers corresponds to the gift of wisdom, which, together with charity, holds dominion over these souls. The great model of such souls, after the holy soul of Christ, is the Blessed Virgin Mary.

"So those who follow the way of generosity, self-denial, and self-sacrifice which the saints have taught, will come at length to know and taste the joys of God's complete dominion within us.

"Truly spiritual delights have their source in the cross, in the spirit of sacrifice which causes disordered inclinations to die in us and gives the first place to the love of God and the love of souls in God, which installs in the throne of our souls that charity which is the source of peace, the tranquility of order. These deep joys cannot enter into the soul until the senses and the spirit have been purged and refined by tribulations and sufferings which detach us from things created. As we read in the Acts of the Apostles: ' Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. '

"After the dark and painful night of the spirit there is, St. John of the Cross tells us, a divine awakening: ' The soul uses a similitude of the breathing of one that awakens from his sleep, ' and says, ' How gentle and loving is... thine awakening, O Word and Spouse, in the centre and depth of my soul... wherein alone, secretly and in silence, Thou dwellest as its Lord. ' This divine awakening is an inspiration of the Word manifesting His dominion, His glory and His intimate sweetness.

"This inspiration shows the face of God radiant with graces and the works which He accomplishes. ' This is the great delight of this awakening: to know the creatures through God and not God through the creatures; to know the effects through the cause and not the cause through the effects. Then is the prayer of the Psalmist fulfilled: ' Arise, Lord, why sleepest thou ? ' ' Arise, Lord, ' that is to say, remarks St. John of the Cross, ' do thou awaken us, and enlighten us, my Lord, that we may know and love the blessings that Thou hast ever set before us. '

"The same grace is described in the 39th Psalm: ' With expectation I have waited for the Lord, and he was attentive to me. And he heard my prayers and brought me out of the pit of misery and the mire of dregs; and he set my feet upon a rock and directed my steps, and he put a new canticle into my mouth. '

"In this ' powerful and glorious awakening' the soul receives, as it were, an aspiration of the Holy Spirit, who fills it to overflowing with His goodness and His glory, ' wherein He has inspired it with love for Himself, which transcends all description and all sense, in the deep things of God. '

"These graces are a preparation for that other awakening of the supreme moment of death, when the soul issuing forth from the body will see itself immediately as a spiritual substance, as the angels see themselves. And the last awakening of all will be in the moment of entrance into glory, when the soul, separated from the body, sees God face to face, and sees itself in God. Happy the saints who go straight to heaven. While those about them are lamenting their departure, they have reached the end of their journey in the clearness of the vision that gives them joy. As the Gospel says, they have entered into the joy of their Lord.

"Already here on earth the divine awakening produces in the soul of the perfect a flame of love which is a participation of that living flame which is the Holy Spirit Himself. ' This flame the soul feels within it, not only as a fire that has consumed and transformed it in sweet love, but also as a fire which burns within it and sends out flame.... And this is the operation of the Holy Spirit in the soul that is transformed in love, that His interior actions cause it to send out flames....

"And thus these acts of the soul are most precious, and even one of them is of greater merit and worth than all that the soul may have done in this life apart from this transformation, however much this may be;... it is the same difference as that between the log of wood that is enkindled and the flame which it sends forth.... In this state, therefore, the soul can perform no acts, but it is the Holy Spirit that moves it to perform them.... Hence it seems to the soul that whensoever this flame breaks forth... it is granting it eternal life... it teaches the soul what is the savour of eternal life... it causes the soul to experience the life of God, even as David says: My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God. '

"This flame wounds the soul as it is given, but the wound is tender, salutary and, instead of causing death, it increases life; for the soul is holiest that is most wounded by love. Thus St. John of the Cross says that ' this wound is delectable, ' and he adds that this ' came to pass when the seraph wounded the soul of St. Francis (of Assisi) with love. '

"When the heart is thus burning with love for its God, the soul is contemplating lamps of fire which enlighten all things from on high. These are the divine perfections: Wisdom, Goodness, Mercy, Justice, Providence, Omnipotence. They are, so to speak, the colours of the divine rainbow which, without destroying one another, are identified in the intimate life of God, in the Deity, as the seven colours of the rainbow are united in the one white light from which they proceed. ' All these are one lamp, which is the Word.... This lamp is all these lamps, since it gives light and burns in all these ways. '

"The powers of the soul are then as though melted in the splendour of the divine lamps ; it is truly a prelude to eternal life.

"The soul is completely absorbed in these delicate flames, and wounded subtly in each of them, and in all of them more deeply and subtly wounded in love of life, so that it can see quite clearly that that love belongs to life eternal, which is the union of all blessings. So that the soul in that state knows well the truth of those words of the Spouse in the Songs, where He says that the lamps of love were lamps of fire and flame.

' "The flame which the wise virgins must tend in their lamps is The following lines from a recent commentary on the Canticle of Canticles are worth pondering: ' The divine love is a consuming fire. It penetrates the soul to its depth. It burns and consumes, but it does not destroy; it transforms into itself. Material fire which burns wood to its innermost fibres and iron to its last molecules, is an image of that fire, but how feeble an image ! At times, under the influence of a specially powerful grace, the soul that is on fire with divine love sends forth flames. They ascend straight to God. He is their principle as He is their end; and it is for His sake that the soul is consumed with love. The charity that elevates the soul to God is only a created, finite, analogical participation of uncreated charity; but it is nevertheless a real, positive and formal participation of the substantial flame of Jehovah. '

"We can understand, therefore, why St. John of the Cross often compares the soul that is penetrated by God with the union of air and fire in a flame, which is nothing else but air on fire. Doubtless there is always an infinite distance between the Creator and the creature, but God by His action enters so intimately into the purified soul that He deifies it, giving it an increase of sanctifying grace. And sanctifying grace is a real and formal participation of His inner life, His own nature, which is Deity.

"Unitive love then becomes in the soul like a sea of fire that ' reaches to the farthest heights and depths, filling it wholly with love. ' This love, hardly perceptible at first, grows more and more until the soul experiences an ever-increasing hunger for God and a burning thirst, of which the Psalmist says: ' For thee my soul hath thirsted; for thee my flesh, O, how many ways ! This is truly the beatitude of those that hunger and thirst after justice; this is truly the prelude to the life of heaven, truly a beginning of eternal life, as St. Thomas has said. This is the supreme, but normal, development of the life of grace on earth, the seed of glory, semen gloriae.

"What are we to conclude from this doctrine, which may appear too sublime for us poor mortals ?

"It would certainly be too sublime for us if we had not received in baptism that life of grace which, in us too, must develop into eternal life; if we had not often received Holy Communion, the precise effect of which is to increase that grace within us. Let us remind ourselves that each of our Communions ought to be substantially more fervent than the preceding, since each of them ought to increase the love of God in us, and thus dispose us to receive our Lord with a greater fervour of will on the following day.

"As St. John of the Cross says 'spiritual souls that desire this union would attain it if they did not flee from those trials which God sends them for their purification.'

"Exactly the same doctrine is found in the Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, where we are given the explanation of those words of Christ: ' If any man thirst let him come to me and drink.... Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. '

"You were all invited, generally and in particular, by My Truth when He cried in the Temple, saying: " If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink.... " So that you are invited to the fountain of living water of Grace, and it is right for you, with perseverance to keep by Him who is become for you a bridge, not being turned back by any contrary winds that may arise, either of prosperity or adversity, and to persevere until you find Me, Who give the water of Life, by means of this sweet Word of love, my only-begotten Son.... '

"But you must have thirst, because only those that thirst are invited. " If any man thirst, " He says, " let him come to me and drink. " He who has no thirst will not persevere, for either fatigue causes him to stop, or pleasure distracts him... he turns back at the smallest persecution, for he likes it not... The intellect must gaze into the ineffable love which I have shown thee by means of My only-begotten Son.... A man who is full of My love and the love of his neighbour finds himself the companion of many real virtues; and then the soul is disposed to thirst: it thirsts for virtue, and the honour of My name and the salvation of souls, every other thirst in him is spent and dead. The soul then walks securely... being stripped of self-love; it is raised above itself and above transitory things.... It contemplates the deep love that I have manifested to you in Christ crucified.... The heart, emptied of the things that pass away, becomes filled with heavenly love which gives access to the waters of grace. Having arrived there, the soul passes through the door of Christ crucified and tastes the water of life, slaking his thirst in Me, who am the Ocean of Peace. '

"What practical conclusion are we to draw from all this ? We ought to say and repeat this prayer to our Blessed Lord:

'Lord, teach me to know the obstacles that, consciously or unconsciously, I am placing in the way of Thy grace in me. Give me the strength to put them aside, and if I am negligent therein, vouchsafe Thyself to remove them, howsoever I may suffer thereby. What wouldst Thou have me to do for Thee this day, my God ? Show me what it is in me that displeaseth Thee. Teach me rightly to value the Precious Blood which Thou didst shed for me, of the sacramental or spiritual communion by which we are enabled to drink that Blood from the wound of Thy most loving Heart.

"Make me, O Lord, to grow in love of Thee. Grant that our inner conversation may never cease; that I may never separate myself from Thee; that I may receive all that Thou dost deign to give me; and that I may not stand in the way of the grace which through me should be poured out upon other souls to give them light and life. '

"And thus, in the words of St. Thomas, man lives no longer for himself, but for God. He may say, with St. Paul: ' To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. ' Life for me is not study, not work, or natural activity of any kind, but Christ.

"Such is the way that leads to this quasi-experimental and almost continuous knowledge of the Blessed Trinity dwelling within us. (Father Reginald Garrigou LaGrange, "Three Ways of the Spiritual Life," Ch. 5,6, Resources)

Here is what Fr. Augustine Baker has to say:

"Writers do teach that the proper end of a contemplative life is the attaining unto an habitual and almost uninterrupted perfect union with God in the supreme point of the spirit; and such an union as gives the soul a fruitive possession of Him, and a real experimental perception of His divine presence in the depth and centre of the spirit, which is fully possessed and filled with Him alone; not only all deliberate affections to creatures being excluded, but in a manner all images of them also, at least so far as they may be distractive to the soul.

"The effects of this blessed, perceptible presence of God in perfect souls are unspeakable and divine; for He is in them both as a principle of all their actions internal and external, being the life of their life and spirit of their spirits; and also as the end of them, directing both the actions and persons to Himself only. He is all in all things unto them: a light to direct securely all their steps, and to order all their workings, even those also which seem the most indifferent, the which by the guidance of God's Holy Spirit do cause a farther advancement of them to a yet more immediate union.

"He is a shield to protect them in all temptations and dangers, an internal force and vigour within them, to make them do and suffer all things whatsoever His pleasure is they should do or suffer. They not only believe and know, but even feel and taste Him to be the universal, infinite Good. By means of a continual conversation with Him they are reduced to a blessed state of a perfect denudation of spirit, to an absolute, internal solitude, a transcendancy and forgetfulness of all created things, and especially of themselves, to an heavenly-mindedness and fixed attention to God only, and this even in the midst of employments to others ever so distractive; and finally, to a gustful knowledge of all His infinite perfections, and a strict application of their spirits by love above knowledge, joined with a fruition and repose in Him with the whole extent of their wills; so that they become after an inexpressible manner partakers of the divine nature; yea, one spirit, one will, one love with Him, being in a sort deified, and enjoying as much of heaven here as mortality is capable of. (Ven. F. Augustine Baker, "Contemplative Wisdom," CCEL)