The contemplative life is based on the realization that man is a creature who was created in the Trinitarian Image of God, created to love, and be loved in return. Like the Trinity, Man was created to “give himself totally away,” in a dynamic personal relationship with “An Other,” a loving relationship with a person who, in return, gives Himself totally away, to him. This was man’s state of Original Joy before he rejected his Beloved in favour of the selfish lure of adultery…with himself. Rejecting his marriage with God, man chose a marriage with creatures, he chose to make a god of himself, his wife, and worldly possessions. He decided he would be happier “having his own possessions,” and “doing it his way,” rather than obeying the “Will of God,” and enjoying a union with a Beloved from whom he continuously “received” everything, his wife, his possessions, his home in the Earth, the Universe, and, most importantly of all, abundant supernatural life and joy, and all he could possibly need to make himself happy.

The contemplative, then, is one who believes God, and His Self-revelation, and spends his life seeking to restore the lost relationship, and union with the Beloved. In order to achieve this, he must free his adulterous will from its competitive grasping of possessions, free his adulterous will from its demeaning marriage relationship with the creatures of the Earth, and the things God created. He must free his will from the slavery of these entanglements so as to be spiritually available, once again, to give himself completely away to “the Other,” for Whom he was created. Then, through the supernatural graces of contemplative prayer, and the actuation of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, he will begin to live “the Abundant Life,” Christ promised, and in the Image of the Trinity to “receive” and “give” the supernatural love and charity for which he was created.

“The act of contemplation, imperfect as it needs be, is of all human acts one of the most sublime, one of those which render the greatest honor to God, bring the greatest good to the soul, and enable it most efficaciously to become a means of salvation and manifold blessing to others. According to St. Bernard (De Consider., lib. I, c. vii), it is the highest form of human worship, as it is essentially an act of adoration and of utter self-surrender of man's whole being. The soul in contemplation is a soul lying prostrate before God, convinced of and confessing its own nothingness, and His worthiness to receive all love and glory and honor and blessings from those He has created. It is a soul lost in admiration and love of the Eternal Beauty, the sight of which though but a feeble reflection, fill it with a joy naught else in the world can give -- a joy which, far more eloquently than speech, testifies that the soul rates that Beauty above all other beauties, and finds in It the completion of all its desires. It is the jubilant worship of the whole heart, mind, and soul, the worship "in spirit and in truth" of the "true adorers", such as the Father seeks to adore Him” (John 4:23)(Catholic Encyclopedia)

"Without contemplation," writes Father Lallemant, "one will never make much progress in virtue.... One will never entirely get out of his weaknesses and his imperfections. One will always be attached to the earth, and will never rise much above the sentiments of nature. Never will one render to God a perfect service. But with it one will do more in a month, both for himself and for others, than one would do without it in ten years. It produces . . . most sublime acts of love of God, which one only very rarely makes without this gift . . . and finally it perfects faith and all the virtues . . .(La Doctrine Spirituelle," pp. 429-30. 27. Garrigou-Lagrange, op. cit., t. I, p. 39)

So the contemplative is one who joins the duties of his profession, and the spirit of charity, along with his own share in suffering, to the suffering of Jesus Christ for the redemption of the world. For the perfection of the Christian life is found most fully in the contemplative vocation, whether lay or religious. And as St John of the Cross, the mystical doctor of the Church, reminds us: "A very little of this pure love of contemplation is more precious in the sight of God and of greater profit to the Church, even though the soul appear to be doing nothing, than are all other works put together."

And St Teresa de los Andes reminds us of a profound truth:

"Those dedicated to the apostolate must have a deep interior life so their works may bear fruit. For they must give God to souls and must themselves remain with God, and, if they do not, they have nothinhg to give."

So, a devout soul, living as a contemplative in the world, ought to conceive herself obliged as truly and as properly as any of a religious profession to the following practices:

1. A strong resolution, notwithstanding any contradictions and difficulties, to pursue, by the divine assistance, the ways tending to contemplation and the lay contemplative life.

2. Determination to insure that contemplative fruits overflow from prayer into social life through the ongoing practice of virtue, the renunciation of self-will, and the practice of generosity, carried to the point of perfection, in regard to the duties of one's state of life. Such latter perfection will reflect the virtues inherent in the spiritual teaching of the Church, and "the mind of Christ," rather than the values of the world and worldly success.

The regular practice of recollection(active and passive) in Jesus Christ, through silent repetition of the Holy Name. During the time one is recollected in one's center with Jesus Christ, one is living as one's true self, and is perfectly fulfilling the demands of the First Commandment, even as one carries out the external duties of one's profession with appropriate attention and care. As one continues in such recollection, one is perfecting spiritual solitude, or freedom from worldly attachments. The love of God, or the pure gift of self-giving in person to Person charity, rushes in to fill the emptiness and solitude of such an integrated, centered soul, transforming it in divine union, and conformity to Jesus Christ, during the period of such recollection in the Person of the Word of God. .

3.. An equal care to observe, and faithfully to execute, (always within the context of obedience to the commands of the Church), all divine inspirations leading to greater perfection in charity, and to dispose herself likewise for the better receiving and discerning of them.

"Oh how happy are they who keep their hearts open to holy inspirations! For these are never wanting to any, in so far as they are necessary for living well and devoutly, according to each one's condition of life, or for fulfilling holily the duties of his profession. For as God, by the ministry of nature, furnishes every animal with the instincts which are necessary for its preservation and the exercise of its natural powers, so if we resist not God's grace, he bestows on every one of us the inspirations necessary to live, to work, and to preserve our spiritual life."(St Francis de Sales)

4. The exercise of daily mental prayer, vocal, meditative, and contemplative, according to one's spiritual state, and the several degrees of prayer appropriate to it. .For it is the duty of all Christians to serve God; but, beyond this, it is the contemplative's duty to adhere inseparably unto Him. It belongs to all to believe, to know, to love, to adore God; but to contemplatives, alone, to taste, to understand, to be familiarly acquainted with, and to enjoy Him.

It is always good to remember thtat when people say they don’t have any personal experience of the reality of God, and don't believe there is anything to this contemplative prayer and enjoyment, it is well to remember that we are all brought up in a fallen world of self-centeredness, seemingly bereft of God, where it is not possible to experience the reality of His love, or simple light, without a special grace from Him, capable of breaking through the hard shell formed by years of pride, selfishness, and earthly attachments which blind us to Him. And unfortunately, even when God's powerful grace breaks through our shell, during the time of our special visitation by the Holy Spirit, we are free to ignore it and continue on with our “business as usual,” selfish lifestyle. So when people deny the reality of contemplative prayer, and criticize the contemplative lifestlye, remember where they are coming from. Recall the length and depth of the dark nights of sense and spirit which contemplatives undergo before they begin to be free of such earthly attachments, and gradually begin to personally experience the reality of God’s Spirit working in their purified souls. Is it any wonder then, that in such a world, many people, even religious people, find contemplation a waste of time, and say they find no evidence of God in such spiritual practice?

"It strikes us immediately that the blind brother, with all possible stress, maintains that we are called to the mystical life, all of us; that the mystical life, the familiar intercourse with God, the experiencing god, the enjoyment of God, is something God will grant man on earth, nay, grants it to many if only they make themselves susceptible to it and place no limit or hindrance to His love..."(Blessed Titus Brandsma, 0. Carm)

In preparing one's soul for contemplation through the practice of virtue, and the removal of hindrances to His love, St John of the Cross reminds us:

"All of a person's attachments to creatures are pure darkness in God's sight. Clothed in these affections, people are incapable of the enlightenment and dominating fullness of God's pure and simple light; first they must reject them. There can be no concordance between light and darkness. The reason, as we learn in philosophy, is that two contraries cannot coexist in the same subject. Darkness, an attachment to creatures, and light, which is God, are contraries and bear no likeness toward each other.”(Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Ch4, 4.1)

In the following, the Ven. Father Augustine Baker, O.S.B., has provided many insights and principles regarding the lay contemplative life from which one may draw as appropriate to one's own vocational circumstances:

"Moreover, mystic 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.

"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, contemplative souls are reduced to a blessed state of a perfect denudation of spirit, to an absolute, internal solitude, a transcendancy and forgetfulness of unnecessary 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 never so distractive; and finally, to a gustful knowledge of all His infinite perfections, and a strict application of their spirits by love above knowledge.

"Happy, therefore, are those souls upon which God bestows a desire and ambition so glorious as seriously and effectually to tend, aspire, and endeavour the compassing a design so heavenly: qualifying them not only with good natural propensions to those internal ways of love leading to this end, but also calling them to a state of life, even in the world, yet abstracted from the world, and the vanities and solicitudes of it. He provides them with all supernatural light to direct them in the secret paths of this love; and lastly, strong resolutions, and perseverance with courage to break through all discouragements, difficulties, persecutions, aridities, and whatsoever oppositions shall be made against them either from concupiscence within, or the world without, or the devil joining with both against a design of all others most hurtful to him and most destructive to his pretensions.

"First, therefore, such a soul(in the world), though she be not obliged really and personally to withdraw herself from worldly conversation, and to retire herself into a solitude as strict as that of religion, yet so much solitude and silence she must needs allow herself daily, as may be necessary for a due practice of internal prayer.

(The value of silence is that it allows us to listen to God in the depths of our being. The practice of silence is essential in the formation of a truly mature religious spirit. Without such a disposition it is difficult to see in the vicissitudes of life God¹s holy will and the touch of His loving Providence. Evem when surrounded by noise and chaos, this interior disposition remains at peace. Throughout her life the contemplative has ever to struggle to attain to this silence, for in this silence there is love.) (Our Lady of Bethlehem Abbey, Northern Ireland)

"Neither must she engage herself in any businesses of solicitude and distraction that do not necessarily belong to her vocation; and even those also must she perform with as much internal quietness and recollectedness as may be, carefully avoiding all anxiety of mind, care of multiplying riches, &c. And as for vain conversations, complimental visits, feastings, &c., she must not think to permit unto herself such a free scope as others do and as formerly herself did. But she must set a greater value upon her precious time, as much whereof as she can borrow from the necessary employments of her calling ought to be spent upon the advancing of her spirit in the way of contemplation. And she indeed will find the great inconveniences that do attend vain conversations, as dissipation of thoughts, engagements in new unnecessary affairs, sensual friendships, &c., all which she ought carefully to prevent and avoid.

"Secondly, such a soul is by virtue of her new divine vocation obliged studiously to imitate especially the internal solitude belonging to a religious person, abstracting her spirit as much as may be both from all affection to outward things, as riches, pleasures, &c., and likewise from the images of creatures and worldly objects. For which purpose she is to perform all the duties of her external vocation in order to God, and in subordination to her principal design, which is the perfectionating of her spirit in the divine love. She is therefore not to account herself as absolute mistress of the riches that God had given her, but only as His steward to manage them so as may be most to His glory. So that in the midst of them, she ought to exercise true poverty of spirit, renouncing all propriety joined with affection to them, so as not to be disquieted if God should take them from her, and making no more use of them for her own sensual contentment or for show in the world than shall in true discretion be necessary. This internal solitude, introversion, and nakedness of spirit she must increase, as much as may be, both in her affection to it and practice of it, so that it may become habitual to her. Because without it she will never be in a fit disposition to attend unto the divine inspirations, or to exercise the internal duties of prayer, &c., belonging to a state tending to contemplation.

"Thirdly, in conformity to religious obedience, she is to behave herself to all those in the world whom God hath set over her with a most profound submission of spirit, obeying them, or rather God in them, with all purity of intention. And moreover, she is, at the first especially, to put herself under the government of a spiritual director, if such an one be to be had, who is to teach her how she may discern the exercises of prayer and mortification proper for her. And in the choice of such an one she is to use the utmost of her prudence, recommending withal an affair of such importance in her prayers to God, that He would provide her one of sufficient abilities and virtue, and especially one that is experienced in those internal ways much exalted above the ordinary exercises of prayer commonly taught and practised. And when God has found out such an one for her, she is with all sincerity and humility to obey him, yet without prejudice to the duty which she principally owes to her divine internal Master, as hath been taught in the foregoing section, the doctrine and practice whereof doth as well belong to her as to any religious person.

"Fourthly, although such a soul be not by any vow or otherwise obliged to any rule, or restrained by any constitutions or regular observances, notwithstanding she is to reduce the whole course of her actions and behaviour to a certain order, regularity, and uniformity, observing in her retirements, reading, praying, as also her refection, sleep, &c., an orderly practice both for times and manner, according as prudence and her spiritual guide shall ordain. This order and uniformity observed discreetly (yet without any nice scrupulosity), is very requisite in an internal course; for otherwise, a soul being left at large will be unstable and uncertain in her most necessary duties.

"It will not be necessary to exemplify in any more particulars; for the same reflections and the like applications may a soul make from any other instructions and duties peculiarly designed for religious persons. Besides, if she pursue diligently and constantly her internal prayer, God will not be wanting to afford her sufficient internal light, and likewise strong impulses and spiritual force to follow such light; to which if she faithfully correspond, she will find that since God has not given her a vocation to religion, yet He has not deprived her of the means of enjoying in the world in a sufficient manner the principal advantages of a religious state (except the solemn vows themselves), yea, in this case she may, not altogether unprofitably, think that it was for her own particular good that God did not give her an opportunity to enter into religion.

"And whereas it was required of such souls that they should quit all solicitudes about temporal riches, let them not fear any great inconveniences by complying with this duty. For as the author of the Cloud of Unknowing observes, and confidently professeth, those whom God effectually calls from secular solicitudes to an internal abstracted life, may more than any others be confidently secure of His divine providence and special care over them and all that belong unto them, forasmuch as concerns a sufficient and contentful subsistence in this life. For though He should have called them into a wilderness, where no means of procuring corporal sustenance did appear, or if in the midst of a city He should call any one to lead an abstracted solitary life there, they are obliged to follow such a call, and may most securely do it, referring all care of their subsistence wholly to His divine providence, who infallibly, some way or other, either by ordinary or extraordinary means, will not be wanting to provide convenient maintenance for them, which, if it should happen to be with some scarcity, He will abundantly recompense that with feasting their spirits with far more desirable internal and celestial delicacies. And examples of God’s wonderful care over such peculiar servants of His are plentifully afforded us in ecclesiastical history, both ancient and modern. So that to the end of the world that will appear to be a most approved truth, which the Psalmist so long since delivered: 'the rich in the world have been brought to want and hunger; but such as truly seek our Lord shall not be unprovided of any kind of good things.'

"The end of a contemplative life, therefore, being so supereminently noble and divine that beatified souls do prosecute the same, and no other, in heaven, with this only difference, that the same beatifying object which is now obscurely seen by faith and imperfectly embraced by love shall hereafter be seen clearly and perfectly enjoyed, the primary and most general duty required in souls which by God’s vocation do walk in the ways of the spirit, is to admire, love, and long after this union, and to fix an immovable resolution through God’s grace and assistance to attempt and persevere in the prosecution of so glorious a design, in despite of all opposition, through light and darkness, through consolations and desolations, &c., as esteeming it to be cheaply purchased, though with the loss of all comforts that nature can find or expect in creatures.

"The fixing of such a courageous resolution is of so main importance and necessity that if it should happen to fail or yield to any, though the fiercest temptations, that may occur and are to be expected, so as not to be reassumed, the whole design will be ruined; and therefore devout souls are oftentimes to renew such a resolution, and especially when any difficulty presents itself; and for that purpose they will oft be put in mind thereof in these following instructions.

"It is not to be esteemed loftiness, presumption, or pride to tend to so sublime an end; but it is a good and laudable ambition, and most acceptable to God; yea, the root of it is true, solid humility joined with the love of God; for it proceeds from a vile esteem and some degrees of a holy hatred of ourselves, from whom we desire to fly; and a just esteem, obedience, and love of God, to whom only we desire to adhere and be inseparably united.

"Happy, therefore, is the soul that finds in herself an habitual thirst and longing after this union, if she will seek to assuage it by continual approaches to this Fountain of living waters, labouring thereto with daily external and internal workings. The very tendence to this union, in which our whole essential happiness consists, has in it some degrees of happiness, and is an imperfect union, disposing to a perfect one; for by such internal tendence and aspiring we get by little and little out of nature into God. And that without such an interior tendence and desire no exterior sufferances or observances will imprint any true virtue in the soul, or bring her nearer to God, we see in the example of Suso, who for the first five years of a religious profession found no satisfaction in soul at all, notwithstanding all his care and exactness in exterior regular observances and mortifications: he perceived plainly that still he wanted something, but what that was he could not tell, till God was pleased to discover it to him, and put him in the way to attain to his desire, which was in spirit to tend continually to this union, without which all his austerities and observances served little or nothing, as proceeding principally from self-love, self-judgment, and the satisfying of nature even by crossing it.

"Let nothing, therefore, deter a well-minded soul from persevering with fervour in this firm resolution. No, not the sight of her daily defects, imperfections, or sins, or remorses for them; but rather let her increase in courage even from her falls, and from the experience of her own impotency let her be incited to run more earnestly and adhere more firmly unto God, by whom she will be enabled to do all things and conquer all resistances.

"The want of a due knowledge or consideration hereof is the cause that some good souls, after they have made some progress in internal ways, becomes disheartened, and in danger to stop or quite leave them; for though at the first, being (as usually they are) prevented by God with a tender sensible devotion, they do with much zeal and, as it seems to them., with good effect begin the exercises of mortification and prayer; yet afterward, such sensible fervour and tenderness ceasing (as it seldom fails to do) by that new light which they have gotten, they discern a world of defects, formerly undiscovered, which they erroneously think were not in them before; whereupon, fearing that instead of making progress, they are in a worse state than when they began, they will be apt to suspect that they are in a wrong way. This proceeds from a preconceived mistake, that because in times of light and devotion the soul finds herself carried with much fervour to God, and perceives but small contradictions and rebellions in inferior nature, therefore she is very forward in the way to perfection. Whereas it is far otherwise; for nature is not so easily conquered as she imagines, neither is the way to perfection so easy and short. Many changes she must expect; many risings and fallings; sometimes light, and sometimes darkness; sometimes calmness of passions, and presently after, it may be, fiercer combats than before; and these successions of changes repeated, God knows how oft, before the end approacheth.

"Yea, it will likely happen to such souls, that even the formerly well-known grosser defects in them will seem to increase, and to grow more hard to be quelled after they have been competently advanced in internal ways; and the reason is, because, having set themselves to combat corrupt nature in all her perverse, crooked, and impure desires, and having withdrawn from the vanities of the world, they find themselves in continual wrestlings and agonies, and want those pleasing diversions, conversations, and recreations, with which, whilst they lived a negligent life, they could interrupt or put off their melancholic thoughts and unquietness. But if they would take courage and, instead of seeking ease from nature (further than discretion allows), have recourse for remedy by prayer to God, they would find that such violent temptations are an assured sign that they are in a secure and happy way, and that when God sees it is best for them, they shall come off from such combats with victory and comfort.

"Now, as from the consideration of the tediousness of a perfect universal mortification of the corrupt affections of nature, it does appear that hasty perfection is not ordinarily to be expected, and where there are appearances of extraordinary lights and supernatural visits in souls not thoroughly mortified, it is to be feared that there hath been some secret exorbitancy in the proceedings of such souls, some deeply rooted pride, &c., which hath exposed them to the devil’s illusions, so that their state is very dangerous, the like will appear if we cast our eyes upon the nature and degrees of internal prayer, in the perfection of which the end of a contemplative life, which is perfect union in spirit with God, doth consist.

"Upon these grounds mystic authors do teach that, though it be a very great advantage to a soul to tread in these internal ways from her youth, before she be darkened and made sick with vicious habits, the combating against which will cause great difficulty, pain, and tediousness to her, yet she will hardly arrive unto the aforesaid active union and experimental perception of God’s presence in her till almost a declining age; by reason that though her natural ill inclinations may be mortified in a reasonable perfection before that time, yet till such age there will remain too much vigour in corporal nature, and an unstableness in the inward senses, which will hinder that quietness and composedness of mind necessary to such an union. Whereas some persons of a well-disposed temper and virtuous education have in a few years arrived thereunto, though they did not begin an internal course till their ripe age, but yet supplying that delay by an heroical resolution and vigorous pursuit of the practices proper thereunto; but as for those that have been viciously bred, there will be necessary a wonderful measure of grace and very extraordinary mortifications before such souls can be fitted thereunto.

"Now what hath been said concerning the length of the way, and the multiplicity of conditions requisite to the attaining to the end of it, is to be understood with relation to the ordinary course of God’s providence. But God, who is the free Master and Disposer of His own graces, may bestow them upon whom and when He pleases, either miraculously increasing His grace in some souls, or conferring His supernatural favours before the time that they are ripe for them, as He did to St. Catharine of Siena (and some others), who, in their younger years, have been favoured with a passive union. Mystic authors, likewise, except from the ordinary course, the case where God upon the death of well-willed and well-disposed souls happening before perfection attained, supplieth after some extraordinary manner what was wanting, and effects that in a moment which would otherwise have required a long space of time; and this, say they, God frequently doth in regard of the serious and fervent wills that He seeth in such souls, which were resolved to prosecute the way of His love for all their lives, though they should have lasted never so long.

"But be the way to perfection never so long, the design itself is so noble and the end so divine, that a soul cannot begin to aspire unto it too soon, nor take too much pains to procure it. Yea, the very desire and serious pursuance of so heavenly a design brings so great blessings to the soul, and puts her in so secure a way of salvation, though she should never perfectly attain unto it in this life, that there is none so old nor so overgrown with ill habits but ought to attempt, and with perseverance pursue it, being assured that at least after death he shall for his good desire and endeavours be rewarded with the crown due to contemplatives. For it is enough for a soul to be in the way, and to correspond to such enablements as she hath received; and then in what degree of spirit soever she dies, she dies according to the will and ordination of God, to whom she must be resigned, and consequently she will be very happy; whereas if, out of despair of attaining to perfection, she should rest and do as it were nothing, contenting herself with outward ceremonious observances, she will be accounted before God as having been wanting to perform that whereto her profession obliged her. Though the truth is, the soul being a pure spirit, consisting of mere activity, cannot cease doing and desiring something; so that if her desires and operations be not directed to the right end, they will go a wrong way; and if a soul do not continually strive to get out of nature, she will plunge herself deeper and deeper into it.

"The second motive to induce a soul to arm herself with a great courage and strong resolution in her tendence to perfection is because, as the wise man says, He that sets himself to serve our Lord (especially in so high and divine an employment as contemplation) must prepare his soul for temptations greater and more unusual than formerly he had experience of; the which temptations will come from all coasts, both from without and within.

"For an internal life, being not only a life hidden from the world, but likewise directly contrary to the ways of carnal reason, yea, even different from common notion of virtue and piety which ordinary Christians, yea, too many even in religion have also, who approve only of actions and ways which outwardly make a fair show, as solemn performance of divine offices, external formal regularities, mortifications, &c; hence it is that very sharp persecutions have almost always attended those whom God hath called to revive the true spirit of religion (too generally decayed, and in many religious communities utterly unknown), by teaching souls not to neglect, but on the contrary to be very careful in an exact performance and just esteem of such duties; but yet to place perfection in exercises of the spirit, and to esteem all other observances no further than as they serve to advance and increase perfection in spirit; since most certain it is, that if in and for themselves alone and without any interior direction for the purifying of the soul they be esteemed (and performed) as parts of real perfection, and not chiefly as helps of internal devotion and purity, they will rather become hindrances to contemplation, nourishing pride, contempt of others, &c., and be the ruin of true charity. Examples of such persecutions are obvious in stories, witness the sufferings of Suso, St. Teresa, St. John of the Cross, &c.

"Again, in the world, the lives of those that God hath called to the exercises of an internal life, being so different from and unlike to others, though ordinary, well-meaning Christians, by reason that they abstract themselves from secular businesses (except such as necessarily belong to their vocation), likewise from worldly conventions, correspondence, and vainly complying friendships; hence it is that the sight of them is unacceptable to their neighbors and acquaintance, as if they did silently condemn their liberties. For this reason, they are apt to raise and disperse evil reports of them, calling them illuminates, pretenders to extraordinary visits and lights, persons that walk in mirabilibus super se, &c.; or at least to deride them as silly, seduced, melancholy spirits, that follow unusual and dangerous ways.

"All these, and many others the like persecutions, calumnies, and contempts, a well-disposed soul that purely seeks God must expect and be armed against. And knowing that they do not come by chance, but by the most wise, holy, and merciful providence of God for her good, to exercise her courage in the beginning, and to give her an opportunity to testify her true esteem and love to God and spiritual things, let her hence not be affrighted, but rather pursue internal ways more vigorously, as knowing that there cannot be a better proof of the excellency of them than that they are displeasing to carnal or at least ignorant men unexperienced in such divine ways. Let her not with passion judge or condone those that are contrary to her, for many of them may have a good intention and zeal therein, though a zeal not directed by knowledge. If, therefore, she will attend God, following His divine inspirations, &c., she will see that God will give her light and courage, and much inward security in her way.

"But her greatest and more frequent persecutions will be from her own corrupt nature and vicious habits rooted in the soul, the which will assault her many times with temptations and inward bitternesses and agonies, sharper and stranger than she did expect, or could perhaps imagine. And no wonder, for her design and continual endeavours both in mortification and prayer being to raise herself out of, and above nature, to contradict nature in all its vain pleasures and interests, she can expect no other, but that nature will continually struggle against the spirit; especially being enflamed by the devil, who will not fail to employ all his arts, all his malice and fury, to disturb a design so utterly destructive to his infernal kingdom established in the souls of carnal men. The well-minded soul, therefore, must make a general strong resolution to bear all with as much quietness as may be, to distrust herself entirely, to rely only upon God, and to seek unto Him by prayer, and all will assuredly be well. She will find that the yoke of Christ, which at the first was burdensome, will, being borne with constancy, become easy and delightful; yea, though she should never be able to subdue the resistance of evil inclinations in her, yet as long as there remains in her a sincere endeavor after it, no such ill inclinations will hinder her happiness.

"A third yet more pressing motive to a courageous resolution of prosecuting internal ways once begun, and a strong proof of the extreme necessity thereof, is the consideration of the extreme danger and miseries unexpressible of a negligent and tepid life, whether in religion or in the world; the which not only renders perfection impossible to be attained, but endangers the very root of essential sanctity and all pretension to eternal happiness, as among other mystic writers, Harphius in his twelve mortifications earnestly demonstrates.

"Tepidity is a bitter poisonous root fixed in the minds of negligent Christians, who though out of a servile fear they abstain from an habitual practice of acknowledged mortal actual sins, and therefore (groundlessly enough) think themselves secure from danger, yet they perform their external necessary obligations to God and their brethren sleepily and heartlessly, without any true affection, contenting themselves with the things however outwardly done; yea, perhaps knowing no perfection beyond this; but in the mean time remain full of self-love, inward pride, sensual desires, aversion from internal conversation with God, &c. And the ground and cause of this pernicious tepidity is want of affection and esteem of spiritual things, and a voluntary affection to venial sins (not as they are sins, but as the objects of them are easeful or delightful to nature), joined with a willfulness not to avoid the occasions of them, nor to do any more in God’s service than what themselves judge to be necessary for the escaping of hell.

"Such persons, if they live in religion, must needs pass very uncomfortable and discontented lives, having excluded themselves from the vain entertainments and pleasures of the world, and yet retaining a strong affection to them in their hearts, with an incapacity of enjoying them. They must undergo all obligations, austerities, and crosses incident to a religious state without comfort, but only in having dispatched them, with very little benefit to their souls, and with extreme wearisomeness and unwillingness. Now, what a resemblance to hell hath such a life, where there is an impossibility freely to enjoy what the soul principally desires, and where she is forced continually to do and suffer such things as are extremely contrary to her inclinations!

"Whereas, if souls would courageously at once give themselves wholly to God, and with a discreet fervour combat against corrupt nature, pursuing their internal exercises, they would find that all things would coöperate, not only to their eternal good, but even to their present contentment and joy. They would find pleasure even in their greatest mortifications and crosses, by considering the love with which God sends them, and the great benefit that their spirit reaps by them. What contentment can be greater to any soul than to become a true inward friend of God, chained unto Him with a love, the like whereto never was between any mortal creatures?.(End Augustine Baker)

Finally, the atheist, looking out on a contemporary world filled with death, suffering, terrorism, and hopelessness, lashed out at the contemplative in cynical despair : "Where is your God in all this? The contemplative, startled by the force of anger and anguish in the man's challenge was momentarily struck dumb. So he turned within himself, asking God for a positive answer that would more than meet the pain and hopelessness manifest in the man's question. He said within his soul, "Oh God, why do you seem so absent in a world that needs you so much, in a world filled with so much pain and suffering? Suddenly, the contemplative saw a lonely hill near Jerusalem, with the Godman, Jesus Christ, hanging on a Cross. He heard Jesus sigh:

"I have no hands but your hands
To work an end of suffering today.
I have no feet but your feet
To lead men in My way;
I have no tongue but your tongue
To tell men why I died.
And no help but your help
To bring them to My side."

And so the life of a contemplative Christian, infused by the grace of God and the activity of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, is like that of David as he proclaims:

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish. (Psalm 1)