In this sonnet, Shakespeare presents some thoughts on the value of memory:

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste.
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight.
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, Dear Friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.

William Shakespeare

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St John of the Cross tells us that the spiritual man must habitually exercise caution in connection with the use of his memory, and the things that he hears, sees, smells, tastes, or touches, he must be careful not to store up or collect, but he must allow himself to forget them immediately, and this he must accomplish, if need be, with the same efficacy as that with which others contrive to remember them, so that there remains in his memory no knowledge or image of them whatsoever. It must be with him as if they existed not in the world, and his memory must be left free and disencumbered of them, and be tied to no consideration, whether from above or from below; as if he had no faculty of memory; he must freely allow everything to fall into oblivion as though all things were a hindrance to him; and in fact everything that is natural, if one attempt to make use of it in supernatural matters, is a hindrance rather than a help.(Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Bk III, Ch II, para. l4)

For desires and attachments arise naturally in the soul whenever we entertain reflections and memories of past events. For the natural life we cling to is comprised of the thoughts, forms, images, rights, attachments, and self-boundaries established in our memories. Those who have entered the Contemplative Way, are not meant to live in the world of these memories. We must die to our natural selves so that we can live anew in Jesus Christ. And living anew in Jesus Christ means living in God's presence in the reality of the present moment. For the mystery of God's Will unfolds in the reality around us in the present moment. And when we are "stuck" in the world of memories and daydreams, we are not available to God's Will. And, on the other hand, when we are liberated from the burden of living in our thoughts and memories, with their concommitant negative and positive emotional charges, we are free to respond to what God is asking of us in the "here and now." And this is what it means to "surrender" to God's Will. It means giving up the attachments, rights, and demands of our false-self so that we may be free to lovingly surrender to God...in the present moment.

At the same time, by refusing to live in the memories, thoughts, and affections or dislikes of the past, we are "practicing the presence of God." For the Spirit of God dwells in the present reality rather than in our memories. So one who is seeking spiritual transformation does well to keep his eye set on Jesus Christ, and to refuse memories entrance to his consciousness. That, of course, applies only to memories not connected with one's duties or the very practice of spirituality and religion, i.e., all the rest of those thoughts and daydreams of the past which take us away from God. For the union with God, to which the spiritual transformation is directed, takes place in the now. And if we would join God in that reality, we must leave behind the world of dreams and memories, with their related attachments.

However, in order for one to participate in transformation and the radical union of supernatural life in God, one must take-on the characteristics of that union. And the virtue singled out by St. Teresa as being most necessary at the advanced stages of the spiritual life is the virtue of "courage." For we must exercise courage to operate in a dimension beyond our natural powers, and to trust in God's providence in the present moment, living without thoughts about what the future may hold for us.

For in the dark nights of purgation, God works on our memory to dislodge us from our false-self image so that the transformative union may move forward. For, as Christ says, "A man cannot serve two masters." In the following, the poet catches the mood of one divided between two worlds, caught-up in the romantic seduction of memories:

Thou wast all that to me, love,
For which my soul did pine-
A green isle in the sea, love,
A fountain and a shrine,
All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,
And all the flowers were mine.
Ah, dream too bright to last!
Ah, starry Hope! that didst arise
But to be overcast!
A voice from out the Future cries,
"On! on!"- but o'er the Past
(Dim gulf!) my spirit hovering lies
Mute, motionless, aghast!

For, alas! alas! me
The light of Life is o'er!
"No more- no more- no more-"
(Such language holds the solemn sea
To the sands upon the shore)
Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree
Or the stricken eagle soar!

And all my days are trances,
And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy grey eye glances,
And where thy footstep gleams-
In what ethereal dances,
By what eternal streams.

Edgar Allan Poe, "Ode to One in Paradise"

A man cannot serve his attachments to self-love and memories and, at the same time, single-mindedly serve the Spirit of God. So at times, those in the way of Contemplative Prayer will find that the Spirit of God helps them break free from bondage to memories, and they are unable to remember things, and their memory seems constrained by a spiritual touch. This is a normal, temporary phenomena, and part of the change from the Old False Self to the New Man in Jesus Christ. And one must cooperate with this self-forgetting process over the years. For it is leading to completion of the transformation, where the memory and all the other faculties regain their proper role as servants of the spirit of man, and no longer have the power to hinder the soul from living in the reality of the present moment, in transforming union with the Spirit of God.

However, Almighty God sometimes allows memories of painful and humiliating events, and the people connected with them, to recur and come to mind in order to bring about, or sustain, the specific quality of spiritual perfection and truth that He is developing in a particular individual. As a result of Original Sin, we are born with an inclination to pride, and the exaltation of self is an ongoing problem for those who are receiving, or who will receive, powerful gifts of Love from the abundance of God's treasury. And, therefore, our spirituality is always in danger of going off-track in some flight of airey-fairey, otherwolrldly angelism that is rapidly reoriented to the right direction by memories and pain that remind us of the earthly dimensions of who we are.

And so, in spite of the overwhelming goodness we receive through grace, these purgative reminders remain with us and, from time to time, resurface to keep us spiritually on-target, in terms of the "depths," as well as the heights of our personal earthly reality. Our job when such humiliations recur is to "accept them," and thank God for reminding us of reality, and our true position as part of a world infected by Original Sin, and of our humble need for His Flesh and Blood Son who came from the heights into "the depths," so that He might transform our misery and sorrow and our "woundedness." And we add the people connected with these humiliating events to the circle of those who are already there in our past, and we pray for all the members of this group whenever they come to mind. In this way we prove our love for "our enemies." And in this manner we turn our enemies into friends of our soul who keep us spiritually on target. So we should revere "these wounds," and this critical circle of negative people, for they give testament to the marks and suffering that personally identify us, and unite us with the "Sacred Wounds" of the Flesh and Blood Life of Jesus Christ, lived in the Shadow of the Cross. And like Him, it is through "our wounds accepted," that we shall "overcome" the world, and be worthy of the "Resurrection" of our "wounded flesh" in the Wounds of His Transfigured Mystical Body, sharing in the Glory of "Eternal Life!"

For our painful memories sometimes inform our timidity, and have us ever asking ourselves, "What if this happens again?" or "What if that happens?" And how can I live with these painful memories? And in the process of "taking thought for the morrow," we break our single-minded purpose, and the bond of trust we have with the Spirit in the present moment, telling God we don't trust Him to take care of us, and that, while we will accept the good things he sends us, we want no part of the suffering and woundedness by which He transforms us into the Image of His Son. And we move from the supernatural back into the natural world of self, memories, anxiety, and fears about the future. We take back the life we have "surrendered" to God, and disconnect from the process of transformation. We'd rather "be in control" than trust ourselves to someone outside ourselves, in a world capable of hurting us. The only problem with this arrangement is that union with God is not available to a fearful, timid soul clinging to memories, and the natural life. For transforming union can only take place in one who courageously and heroically overcomes natural fears and radically "trusts" in the supernatural reality of the Goodness of God, by refusing to remain nostalgically locked in the past, or to entertain anxious thoughts of the future, no matter what happens, and no matter how wounded we are by memories. The radical transformation in Jesus Christ to which we are called takes place, in the company of our woundedness, in the "courage" required to live in the here and now!

"Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead... I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."(Phil.3:13)