"Intuition" (Latin intueri, to look into) is a psychological and philosophical term which designates the process of immediate apprehension or perception of an actual fact, being, or relation between two terms and its results. (Catholic Encyclopedia, "Intuition")

"Mystical Intuition" is a psychological, philosophical, and theological term which designates the process of awareness, experience, or perception of God, although in an obscure and ineffable manner, through a Divine touch or Divine activity. For Jordan Aumann tells us in Spiritual Theology, "...as a psychological fact, mysticism is an awareness of the divine activity on the soul." According to St Thomas, as repeated by Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, this "awareness" of the Divine Presence in mysticism and contemplation is not an immediate intuition of the essence of God as He is in Himself. It is not a direct experience of grace. Rather it is a "quasi-experience" of Divine Presence, which means God is experienced in His Loving "Effects" in the soul, rather than directly, in Himself. He is experienced in His activity in the soul. In particular, the actuation of the gift of Wisdom gives us the "taste" of the Love of God. "It is not a question of the immediate vision of God as He is, but, as St Thomas says, of a quasi-experimental knowledge of God in the infused love which He inspires in us for Himself."(Father Garrigou-Lagrange,O.P., "Three Ages of the Interior Life," p. 340, No.6)

"The term "quasi-experimental" is applied to this knowledge for two reasons: (1) because it does not attain God in an absolutely immediate manner, as happens in the beatific vision, but in the act of filial love which He produces in us; (2) because we cannot discern with absolute certitide these supernatural acts of love from the natural impulses of the heart that resemble them."(Fr. Garrigou-LaGrange, "Three Ages of the Interior Life").

So mystical experience is an experimental, intuitive contact of the substance of our soul with God present in us, realised under the action of the Holy Ghost in a being wholly given over to Him. The "contact," however we define it, powerfully transforms our soul in Charity, i.e., conformity with the Will of Christ. For God "is" Love. This contact is expressed by the the infusion of light to the intellect, and by the union of love."(Dom Charles Coster, O.S.B., "Temoignages," n.5)

Now this one contact of God, the doctor of our soul, has many different aspects, most loving, some painful, connected with perfection of our soul. Sometimes He provides a medicine of healing for the senses that requires dryness in our prayer and sensible affections in order to prepare them for participation in a greater love. And our contemplative prayer is affected by this same medicine of dryness. And our general definition of mystical experience must not overlook that our perceptions of God in such prayer vary according to what He is doing for our soul at that particular time. So it's necessary to consider the factors that comprise the essence of contemplative intuition.

Normally the "light" shining in the intellect is "overwhelming light," intuited without the finite parameters of forms or concepts, resulting in realization of a definite something, called "ineffable," as well as "generalized" and "obscure." Much of the time, the nature of this powerful spiritual contact gives us a feeling of great certainty that we are in touch with God, Himself, in this mystical experience. And over time, the effects in our lives will prove whether our belief was proven correct.

Now we know we can only see the essence of God clearly in the Beatific Vision of the next life through a special grace called "the lumne gloriae." And although theologians correctly point out that our intellect doesn't directly "see" the supernatural essence of God in this life in the obscure and confused light overpowering "the intuitive act" of contemplation, there is no disagreement among most theologians about the substantial elements or essence of contemplation, itself.

All agree that through the act of contemplative prayer "it is God Himself" with whom we are in contact through the actuation of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit on the infused virtues, particularly wisdom and understanding acting on faith informed by Charity. And all agree, as stated by St John of the Cross below, that it is He Himself Who is someway(directly or indirectly) perceived and tasted at the time. Finally, all agree that contemplative prayer, provides for the exercise of Charity and the infused virtues at a "supernatural," and sometimes heroic level of intensity which powerfully sanctifies and perfects the contemplative soul beyond anything possible through non-contemplative prayer.

Through the gift of sanctifying grace, we are "deified" in our intellects and our will. And even though we are deified, we remain finite beings, distinct from God, who participate by grace in the Divine Life.(Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange,O.P. "Three Ages of Interior Life, p. 34)

In infused contemplation "it is not a question of the immediate vision of God as He is but, as St Thomas says, of a quasi-experimental knowledge of God in the infused love which He inspires in us for Himself. We must always revert to the definition of infused contemplation given by St John of the Cross in "The dark Night," ...'Contemplation is the science of love, which is an infused loving knowledge of God.' In this definition St John does not speak of a direct and immedite intuition of the superntural gifts of grace and of the infused virtues, an intuition which, moreover, would give us a certitude of being in the state of grace before even reaching the transforming union." (Fr. R. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., "Three Ages Of The Interior Life, pp.340-341)

"The constitutive element of mystical experience is the actuation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the divine or supernatural mode, which normally produces a passive experience of God or of his divine activity in the soul. (Father Jordan Aumann, "Spiritual Theology")

The "experience," or "awareness," of God ranges from barely perceptible to overwhelmingly manifest depending on a variety of spiritual factors, a significant one being the level of perfection of the soul. God was strikingly manifest through the Contemplative Gifts in the lives of most of the great saints like St. John of the Cross, St Teresa of Avila, St Francis of Assisi, St Catherine of Siena, etc. The Gifts of the Holy Spirit(which are mystical dispositions) are given to the soul as permanent dispositions with sanctifying grace at Baptism, which render a man, in the state of grace, permanently docile to Divine Inspirations. Therefore, the possibility of supernatural contemplation, or the divine mode of the gifts( with or without singular awareness of God) is there at all stages of the spiritual life(a gloss from Fr Garrigou-Lagrange,O.P., Three Ages of Interior Life, p. 81)

"We hve often affirmed that ordinarily the superhuman mode of the gifts(contemplation) is at first quite hidden, that is, in the ascetical life, and that the mode becomes more manifest in the mystical life, at least for an experienced director. All spiritual writers admit that this special inspiration, which resembles the breeze that comes up at the right moment, is ordinarily latent and almost imperceptible at first, and that, if not resisted, it generally becomes stronger and more urgent. We may state this teaching more exactly by stating that in the ascetical life the influence of the gifts is either latent and quite frequent(it makes one think of the breeze which facilitates the work of the rowers), or manifest but rare(in certain striking circumstances), whereas, on the contrary, in the mystical life the influence of the gifts is both frequent and "manifest." It is not, however, always striking, as in the case of the great contemplatives(where it is striking), but occasionally difuse, very real nonetheless, as in the case in saints who have an active vocation, such as St. Vincent de Paul." Also, even though the great contemplatives had mystical lives characterized by strikingly manifest awareness of God for a great deal of the time, they also had periods when the contemplative light was barely perceptible as pointed out by St. John of the Cross in The Ascent of Mount Carmel: "...is at times so subtle and delicate, particularly when most pure, simple, perfect, spiritual, and interior, that the soul, though in the practice thereof, is not observant or conscious of it."(ibid. Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange)

"By experimental knowledge it is understood that which comes from the object itself and makes it known not only as possible but as existing, and in such and such conditions. This is the case with mystical union: God is therein perceived as well as conceived. Hence, in mystical union, we have experimental knowledge of God and of His presence, but it does not at all follow that this knowledge is of the same nature as the Beatific Vision.("Contemplation," Aug. Poulain, Catholic Encyclopedia)

"On the contrary, what constitutes the common basis of all the degrees of mystical union is that the spiritual impression by which God manifests His presence makes that presence felt in the way of an interior something with which the soul is penetrated; it is a sensation of absorption, of fusion, of immersion.(Ibid.)

"For the sake of greater clearness the sensation one experiences may be designated as interior touch. The following comparison will aid us in forming an exact idea of the physiognomy of mystical union. We may say that it is in a precisely similar way that we feel the presence of our body when we remain perfectly immobile and close our eyes. If we know that our body is present, it is not because we see it or have been told of the fact. It is the result of a special sensation (coenaesthesis), an interior impression, very simple and yet impossible to analyse. Thus it is that in mystical union we feel God within us and in a very simple way. The soul absorbed in mystical union that is not too elevated may be said to resemble a man placed near one of his friends in an impenetrably dark place and in utter silence He neither sees nor hears his friend whose hand he holds within his own, but through means of touch, he feels his presence. He thus remains thinking of his friend and loving him, although amid distractions. (Ibid.)

"The knowledge of God in mystical union is obscure and confused; hence the expression to enter into Divine obscurity or into Divine darkness. In ecstasy one has intellectual visions of the Divinity, and the loftier these become, the more they surpass our understanding. Then is reached blinding contemplation, a mixture of light and darkness. The great darkness is the name given to the contemplation of such Divine attributes are never shared by any creature, for instance, infinity, eternity, immutability, etc. (Ibid.)

Mystical Intuition,(Contemplation) as the "cognitive awareness-affective" element in contemplative prayer is, on an ongoing basis, the vehicle for transformation of the "will" in Charity, perfecting the true-self, Image of God, New Man, from the false-self, Old Man. This is the result of the actuation of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit on the spiritual organism, in a Divine Mode of activity, and most pointedly the impact of the Gift of "Wisdom" as it raises the Theological Virtue of "Charity" to the level of Heroic Love. So through the practice of Contemplative Prayer our "will" is perfected in conformity with the "Will" of Christ.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary: Intuition-: "the power or faculty of attaining to direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference." (The objects of "sensory" intuition are material things as "directly apprehended"; the objects of "intellectual" intuition are immaterial things directly apprehended like "insight" knowledge, spiritual "touches," and ideas)

We also speak of "intuition" whereby one immediately grasps the truth of a situation, the realtionship between "a" and "b," without going through cognitive discursive processes. Many of the great discoveries of science came to the scientist in a sudden "intuition" of complex truth that had to be later methodically analyzed into its implications and the mathematical underpinnings.

As in the above definition, intuition in connection with mystical knowing means simple awareness of something, without processing the information through discursive processes. To further develop the understanding of the meaning of intuition, imagine you close your eyes and then feel something touching your bare arm. That's intuitive perception of the effect of something, without clear knowledge, moving from your bodily senses on to your spiritual senses, which is your conscious intellect. You know something's there, but, with your eyes closed, you can't be sure of the nature of its parameters. Then you open your eyes and see the bullet your Indian friend has placed on your arm. You process the imagery(actively call up memory, make comparisons, inferences) and say outloud, "Oh that's just you Little Hawk!

Your friend responds, "About time you wake up, a party of Crow are coming, and they are after our scalps!" You say, "Thanks Little Hawk!" Your friend responds, "It's a good day to die!" Now you have clear ideas and information as to what happened. You say to your horse, "Steady War Paint," then you draw your pearl handled revolvers, and obliterate a party of 13 Crow. Little Hawk remarks, "You really something White Eyes." You reply, "I know I am, Little hawk, but how did you know I needed another bullet for my six shooters?" Little Hawk replies, "This may come as big shock, White Eyes, but I count!" You reply, "Of course you count, Little Hawk." And then the two of you ride off in the direction of Fort Sam Hill!

You've moved beyond the simple awareness of "passive intuition" to complex knowledge. To get that knowledge, you "activated your discursive intellect" and compared the incoming sense data with information already learned, and stored in your image bank memory.

The spiritual docility required to be attentive to the annointings of the Holy Spirit takes the form of surrender to the Spirit in an intuitive, simple awareness of unknowing during Contemplative Prayer. However, in this case, it is not initiated through perception of the external senses. It is initiated directly within your spirit by the activity of the Holy Spirit. You are by no means completely passive.

The Spirit Prays in you, and you are "actively" involved in a Loving Exchange with the Beloved; you respond with your whole being, rather than just the process of mentally saying prayers: The maintenance of the listening, receptive unknowing, intuitive mental state, the refusal to shift out of unknowing to the active knowing necesary for chasing distractions, and the response of Love emanating from your will, becomes your contribution to the spiritual process through which one engages in Contemplative Prayer. As you can see, your spirit is far from totally passive, for you cannot help but engage in a wordless, "vital response" of your essence and your spirit to The One for Whom it was created. It is a "Love Affair" between you and the Holy Spirit in which you "let go" of mental activity in favor of surrendering to the One you Love. While your intellect is in the "passive mode" of "receptivity," your will is engaged in a powerful exchange of "Love." And you always remember that, when powerful seductive images threaten to overwhelm you during passive prayer, you must shift out of contemplation to "active prayer," and call on Jesus Christ to aid you in the battle with the forces trying to destroy you. When the temptations subside, you may safely return to passive receptivity for contemplative prayer.

During Contemplation, the Spirit invades your spirit and abides within it, filling it with Living Water. Your will is totally captivated by this Loving Presence, with the accompanying "delight," and returns the Love, which is the incentive to maintain your relative passivity rather than trying to "figure it all out with your active rational processes." Once you decide to try and "figure it out," you withdraw your will from the Spirit, and use willpower to call up natural and secular images and begin analysis, ideation, and active understanding. You break the connection. The whole matter becomes primarily, although not totally, a "natural" process under grace at that point, (rather than the fullness of "supernatural" transformation) once you activate your will and discursive intellect.

To repeat, in Contemplative Prayer, the soul has a direct experience of the touch of God within itself, involving the cognitive and affective powers. It is a touch of passive, "intuitive," awareness of the Word of God, within, although in an obscure and confused manner, characteristic of Faith. It is a spiritual awareness or feeling distinguished from clear knowledge and ideas, in the sense that the awareness is a passive, "receiving" of the supernatural activity of God through the contemplative Gifts; clear knowledge, on the other hand, requires voluntary transition from a passive, "receptive" state, necessary for receipt of the supernatural action, to a natural state involving normal "activity" of the intellect on natural objects. For man to have direct, "clear" knowledge of God through understanding of the intellect is not possible in this life, for the supernatural is infinitely beyond the capacity of natural efforts of the intellect.

This will happen to a much greater extent in the next life when we shall have a special power(lumen gloriae) which will enhance our natural intellectual faculty with a capacity for the supernatural, although not an infinite capacity, and enable us to directly see the Face, or Essence, of God in the Beatific Vision. In this Vision, we will see God, directly and clearly, not with our resurrected bodily eyes, but through participation of our consciousness(intellect) in His Conscious Vision of Himself, in the Word. In a similar manner, we will see the "New Heavens and New Earth" imbued with the Glory of God, as He sees them. And one of our greatest joys will be the Vision of God we will see in the Glorified Body of Jesus Christ.

So in this life we have what some theologians call an obscure experience, or a quasi-experience, of God. This awareness of God through Contemplation impacts us with the awe, grandeur, splendor and quality of God's Spiritual Characteristics. We "taste" them in a manner called "ineffable," which is not the same as clear ideas and discursive knowledge. Our spirits fill with delight from the perception of His activity in our soul, even though our intellects remain in obscurity as far as a clear understanding is concerned at the actual time of contemplative prayer. And except in the very early stages, and for certain periods of spiritual purgation, when the experience of God's Presence is absent, this subtle, delightful awareness, accompanying the experience of the actuation of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, is a normal characteristic of such prayer. Sometimes the delight intensifies after actual prayer time. And in very advanced contemplative stages, the contemplative, other than during purgation, is regularly aware of the "Companionship of God" within the soul. Then, even the purgative periods disappear after the spiritual marriage.

"Although that which the soul tastes in this touch of God is not perfect, it does in fact have a certain savor of eternal life, as was mentioned. And this is not incredible if we believe, as we should, that this is a touch of substances, that is, of the substance of God in the substance of the soul."(St John of the Cross, Living Flame of Love, stanza 2, 21-36)

"Contemplation is a distinctive type of knowledge. It is an experimental knowledge in the sense that it calls into play the affective powers of the individual. Contemplation is, therefore, an operation in which one experiences the happy blending of the cognitive and the affective powers in an activity providing great delight. The knowledge involved is not discursive but "intuitive"..."(Fr. Jordan Aumann, Spiritual Theology, Part II, Ch.12, Grades of Prayer)

"The experimental knowledge of God enjoyed during contemplation is not clear and distinct but obscure and confused. St. John of the Cross explains this characteristic of infused contemplation in The Ascent of Mount Carmel. The theological reason for this confused and obscure knowledge is that the contemplative light of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is cast upon the act of faith to illumine it extrinsically and subjectively, but not intrinsically and objectively, since faith is of things not seen. Only the light of glory (lumen gloriae) will give us a clear and distinct contemplation of God and his mysteries, and this occurs in the beatific vision. In this life, however, so long as we live by faith, the knowledge of the contemplative must necessarily be obscure and confused.(Ibid Fr Aumann)

"Nevertheless, it is possible that certain extraordinary phenomena that are clear and distinct may occur during the mystical experience. There are certain gratiae gratis datae, such as visions and locutions, that present new infused species but are the result of a special divine action that is gratuitous and extraordinary. The extraordinary phenomena are not the normal activity of infused contemplation.(Ibid Fr. Aumann)

CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA
(George M Sauvage, "Intuition," Transcribed by Tomas Hancil)

"the intuitive act of intellectual knowledge is, by its nature, the most perfect act of knowledge, since it is an immediate apprehension of and contact with reality in its concrete existence, and our supreme reward in the supernatural order will consist in the intuitive apprehension of God by our intelligence: the beatific vision.

"All our knowledge has its starting-point in the intuitive data of sense experience, but in order to penetrate the nature of these data, their laws and causes, we must have recourse to abstraction and discursive reasoning. It is also through those processes and through them alone that we can arrive at the notion of immaterial beings and of God himself (St. Thomas "Contra Gentes", I, 12; "Summa Theologica" I:84-88, etc.)

"Our mind has the intuition of primary principles (intellectus) but their application, in order to give us a scientific and philosophical knowledge of things, is subject to the laws of abstraction and successive reasoning (ratio, discursus, cf. I:58:3, II-II:49:5, ad 2um). Such a necessity is...(the way) of human intelligence; it is the natural limit which determines the place of the human mind in the scale of intellectual beings.(Ibid)

"Concepts and reasoning therefore are in themselves inferior to intuition; but they are the normal processes of human knowledge. They are not, however a deformation of reality, though they give only an imperfect and inadequate representation of reality -- and the more so according to the excellency of the objects represented -- they are a true representation of it.(Ibid)

"The mystical experience is indescribable. The mystics are unable to express clearly what they experience in their mystical activities. It is only by means of examples, comparisons and metaphors, or circumlocution that they are able to give some notion of what transpires during these operations. Unless a person has had the same experience, the descriptions given by mystics may seem to be exaggerated or open to misinterpretation. The reason is that the activity of the gifts transcends the discursive power of human reason. Mystical experiences are intuitive, and as such they can be experienced, but they cannot be expressed in human language. (Fr. Jordan Aumann, Spiritual Theology, Part II, Ch.12, Grades of Prayer)

St John of the Cross has something to say about the intuitive exchange when the soul experiences the Word of God, and is mystically "touched" by the activity of His Holy Spirit:

"Oh, happy is the soul that you, being terrible and strong, gently and lightly touch! Proclaim this to the world! But you are unwilling to proclaim this to the world because it does not know of a mild breeze, and will not experience you, for it can neither receive nor see you. But they, O my God and my life, will see and experience your mild touch who withdraw from the world and become mild, bringing the mild into harmony with the mild, thus enabling themselves to experience and enjoy you. The more you dwell permanently hidden within them, the more gently you touch them, for the substance of their soul is now refined, cleansed, and purified, withdrawn from every creature and every touch and trace of creature. As a result you hide them in the secret of your face, which is the Word, from human disturbance.

"O, then again, repeatedly delicate touch, so much stronger and mightier the more you are delicate, since you detach and withdraw the soul from all the other touches of created things by the might of your delicacy, and reserve it for and unite it to yourself alone, so mild an effect do you leave in the soul, that every other touch of all things both high and low seems coarse and spurious. It displeases the soul to look at these things, and to deal with them is a heavy pain and torment to it.

"It should be known that the breadth and capacity of an object corresponds to its refinement, and the more diffuse and communicative it is, the more it is subtle and delicate. The Word is immensely subtle and delicate, for he is the touch that comes into contact with the soul. The soul is the vessel having breadth and capacity because of its remarkable purity and refinement in this state.

"Although that which the soul tastes in this touch of God is not perfect, it does in fact have a certain savor of eternal life, as was mentioned. And this is not incredible if we believe, as we should, that this is a touch of substances, that is, of the substance of God in the substance of the soul. Many saints have attained to this substantial touch during their lives on earth. (St John of the Cross, Living Flame of Love, stanza 2, 21-36)

St John of the Cross, in the same "Living Flame of Love," explains the theological understanding underlying the soul's "taste" of God through passive, intuitive contemplation. The experience of God begins within the soul with the actuation of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, by God, Himself, as a contemplative act. The "feeling" of the soul is the reaction of the substance of the soul to the enjoyment and excellence of God experienced through the faculties of memory, intellect, and will. The memory becomes the "archive" of this taste and the feelings. Through the intellect and will the soul experiences and feels knowledge, savor, and delight of the wisdom and love in the divine communication. This communication is less than God is in Himself because it is an experience limited by the capacity of the natural soul and its faculites(intellect, memory, and will).

"By the "feeling" of the soul, the verse refers to the power and strength the substance of the soul has for feeling and enjoying the objects of the spiritual faculties; through these faculties a person tastes the wisdom and love and communication of God.25 The soul here calls these three faculties (memory, intellect, and will) "the deep caverns of feeling" because through them and in them it deeply experiences and enjoys the grandeurs of God's wisdom and excellence. It very appropriately calls them the deep caverns of feeling because, since it feels that the deep knowledge and splendors of the lamps of fire fit into them, it knows that its capacity and recesses correspond to the particular things it receives from the knowledge, savor, joy, delight, and so on, of God.

"All these things are received and seated in this feeling of the soul which, as I say, is its power and capacity for experiencing, possessing, and tasting them all. And the caverns of the faculties administer them to it, just as the bodily senses go to assist the common sense of the phantasy with the forms of their objects, and this common sense becomes the receptacle and archives of these forms. Hence this common sense, or feeling, of the soul, which has become the receptacle or archives of God's grandeurs, is illumined and enriched according to what it attains of this high and enlightened possession. ("Living Flame of Love," Stanza 3)

"Hence the words Intuitionism or Intuitionalism mean those systems in philosophy which consider intuition as the fundamental process of our knowledge or at least give to intuition a large place (the Scottish school), and the words Intuitive Morality and Intuitional Ethics denote those ethical theories which base morality on an intuitive apprehension of the moral principles and laws, or consider intuition as capable of distinguishing the moral qualities of our actions.(Catholic Encyclopedia, "Intuition")

"As an element of educational method intuition means the grasp of knowledge by concrete, experimental or intellectual, ways of apprehension.(Ibid.)

"The immediate perception of sensuous or material objects by our senses is called sensuous or empirical intuition, the immediate apprehension of intellectual or immaterial objects by our intelligence is called intellectual intuition. (Ibid.)

"Again, our intuitions may be called external or internal, according as the objects perceived are external objects or internal objects or acts.(Ibid.)

"...it is intuition which furnishes us with the first experimental data as well as with the primary concepts and the fundamental judgments or principles which are the primitive elements and the foundation of every scientific and philosophical speculation.(Ibid)

"For the Schoolmen(Scholastic theory of knowledge) the intuitive act of intellectual knowledge is, by its nature, the most perfect act of knowledge, since it is an immediate apprehension of and contact with reality in its concrete existence, and our supreme reward m the supernatural order will consist in the intuitive apprehension of God by our intelligence: the beatific vision. But in our present conditions of earthly life, our knowledge must of necessity make use of concepts and reasoning.(Ibid.)

"All our knowledge has its starting-point in the intuitive data of sense experience, but in order to penetrate the nature of these data, their laws and causes, we must have recourse to abstraction and discursive reasoning.(discursive knowledge comes about according as from something previously known one attains to the knowledge of what is afterwards known, and which was previously unknown) It is also through those processes and through them alone that we can arrive at the notion of immaterial beings and of God himself (St. Thomas "Contra Gentes", I, 12; "Summa Theologica" I:84-88, etc.)

"But, if from the knowledge of a known principle they were straightway to perceive as known all its consequent conclusions, then there would be no discursive process at all. Such is the condition of the angels, because in the truths which they know naturally, they at once behold all things whatsoever that can be known in them. (Ibid. St. Thomas)

"Although intelligence and reason are not different powers, yet they are named after different acts. For intelligence takes its name from being an intimate penetration of the truth, while reason is so called from being inquisitive and discursive. Hence each is accounted a part of reason as explained above.(Ibid. St. Thomas)

"Concepts and reasoning therefore are in themselves inferior to intuition; but they are the normal processes of human knowledge. They are not, however a deformation of reality, though they give only an imperfect and inadequate representation of reality -- and the more so according to the excellency of the objects represented -- they are a true representation of it. (Catholic Encyclopedia, GEORGE M. SAUVAGE transcribed by Tomas Hancil)

Definitions of mystical contemplation

mysticism-direct, unitive experience of God in an intuitive loving manner. (cognitive The experience of a personal relationship of love between two spirits, the spirit of man and the (Holy)Spirit of God.(Catholic Dictionary)

Origin's definition-"that by which we transcend visible things and contemplate something of divine and heavenly things, and gaze at them with the mind alone, since they transcend corporeal appearance." (This is imageless, pure knowing within one's consciousness.)

mystic union(Origin)-both knowing God, and being known by God; it is union with God, and the vision by which the image of God, that we are, is reformed(transformation from Old Man to New Man, false self to real self); contemplation is the process by which the soul's highest point, the mind, rediscovers its true nature.

Though couched in the language of love, an important element of this experience is the rediscovery of the soul as an existing "entity" in its own right, as distinct from the "objects" which come and go in consciousness.

mysticism-Pseudo- Dionysius-"the experience of the divine, passively received." (Note that "passivity" or "receptivity," a mental listening,"within the spirit is a necessary element for the intuitive connecting with the Spirit of God in St John of the Cross and apophatic contemplation. This receptive state of mind is also a feature of the spiritual "surrender" and "humility" necessary to know God in this life through apophatic, mystical prayer. A.R.)

"Mysticism is a passive and not an active experience because -- and here also there is a general agreement among theologians -- only the Holy Spirit can produce this experience in us by the actuation of his gifts. We are referring, of course, to a relative passivity; that is, the principal agent is the Holy Spirit, but the soul reacts in a vital manner to his movement. As St. Teresa says, "the will consents" by cooperating with the divine action in a free and voluntary manner. And thus liberty and merit are preserved under the activity of the gifts." (Fr. Jordan Aumann, "Spiritual Theology")

"Since the actuation of the gifts is the primary and essential element of mysticism, it is never lacking in any of the mystical states or mystical acts. The experience of the divine is one of the most frequent and ordinary manifestations in the activity of the gifts, but it is not absolutely essential. It can be lacking; and, as a matter of fact, it is lacking during the dark nights of the soul or passive purifications that are nevertheless truly mystical.(2) What can never be lacking is the supernatural manner in which the soul operates as a result of being moved by the gifts of the Holy Spirit and its awareness that it is being acted upon by a divine power"(Ibid Aumann)

"The constitutive element of mystical experience is the actuation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the divine or supernatural mode, which normally produces a passive experience of God or of his divine activity in the soul. We are not referring to any external characteristic or psychological manifestation that may accompany the mystical experience. We are speaking of the essential note that intrinsically constitutes mysticism." (Ibid Aumann, "Spiritual Theology")

"As a psychological fact, mysticism is an awareness of the divine activity on the soul"(Ibid Aumann)

"But an isolated actuation of a gift of the Holy Spirit does not suffice to constitute the mystical state. A state is something fixed, stable, permanent, and habitual. Consequently there is no mystical state until the actuation of the gifts is so intense and frequent that this operation habitually predominates over the simple exercise of the infused virtues in a human mode." (Ibid Aumann)

CONTEMPLATION

(Catholic Encyclopedia, AUG. POULAIN, Transcribed by Christine J. Murray)

CHARACTERS OF MYSTICAL UNION "The different states of mystical union possess twelve characters. The first two are the most important; the first because it denotes the basis of this grace, the other because it represents its physiognomy.

"First character: The presence felt

(a) "The real difference between mystical union and the recollection of ordinary prayer is that, in the former, God is not satisfied with helping us to think of Him and reminding us of that presence.

(b) "However, in the lower degrees (spiritual quiet) God does this in a rather obscure way. The more elevated the order of the union the clearer the manifestation. The obscurity just mentioned is a source of interior suffering to beginners. During the period of spiritual quiet they instinctively believe in the preceding doctrine, but afterwards, because of their preconceived ideas, they begin to reason and relapse into hesitation and the fear of going astray. The remedy lies in providing them with a learned director or a book that treats these matters clearly.

"By experimental knowledge it is understood that which comes from the object itself and makes it known not only as possible but as existing, and in such and such conditions. This is the case with mystical union: God is therein perceived as well as conceived. Hence, in mystical union, we have experimental knowledge of God and of His presence, but it does not at all follow that this knowledge is of the same nature as the Beatific Vision. The angels, the souls of the departed, and devils know one another experimentally but in an inferior way to that in which God will be manifested to us in heaven. Theologians express this principle by saying that it is a knowledge by impressed or intelligible species.

(a) "In states inferior to ecstasy one cannot say that he sees God, unless indeed in exceptional cases. Nor is one instinctively led to use the word see.

(b) "On the contrary, what constitutes the common basis of all the degrees of mystical union is that the spiritual impression by which God manifests His presence makes that presence felt in the way of an interior something with which the soul is penetrated; it is a sensation of absorption, of fusion, of immersion.

(c) "For the sake of greater clearness the sensation one experiences may be designated as interior touch. This very clear expression of spiritual sensation is used by Scaramelli (Directoire mystique, Tr. iii, no. 26) and had already been resorted to by Father de la Reguera (Praxis theologiae mysticae, vol. I, no. 735). The following comparison will aid us in forming an exact idea of the physiognomy of mystical union:

"We may say that it is in a precisely similar way that we feel the presence of our body when we remain perfectly immobile and close our eyes. If we know that our body is present, it is not because we see it or have been told of the fact. It is the result of a special sensation (coenaesthesis), an interior impression, very simple and yet impossible to analyse. Thus it is that in mystical union we feel God within us and in a very simple way. The soul absorbed in mystical union that is not too elevated may be said to resemble a man placed near one of his friends in an impenetrably dark place and in utter silence He neither sees nor hears his friend whose hand he holds within his own, but through means of touch, he feels his presence. He thus remains thinking of his friend and loving him, although amid distractions. (Catholic Encyclopedia, AUG. POULAIN, Transcribed by Christine J. Murray)

"St Teresa's "Prayer of Quiet" is a contemplative grace in which God begins supernatural prayer in the soul and bestows upon it obscure knowledge, love, and the sweetness of Himself. A soul given this grace is apt to be thoughtless in regard to other things. God Who already dwells in the souls of the just, manifests His presence there in a manner that must be experienced to be understood. Our soul really perceives its possession of God. It perceives that it is in a way plunged and thoroughly absorbed into Him. Now when this impression is strong it is like a loving spiritual embrace; and then our soul is as sure of the presence of God as if He were beheld with eyes or touched by hands.

"The soul can actually feel Him within. This is a fact established by the experience of all mystics, and no author denies it. Father Poulain defends this expression by authority that is diverse and decisive. Among others, St Teresa learned in this way that God dwells within the soul. She could never believe that a soul had been favored with the prayer of union unless it could be absolutely sure afterwards that it had been with God. She affirms in ten places that the feeling of the presence of God is first encountered in the Prayer of Quiet. And though obscure and veiled while the mystical inflow is weak, God's presence is manifest when it is strong.

And Saint Francis of Sales says, "When delicately feeling the divine presence, the soul enjoys a sweet repose." This feeling of His presence is no product of imagination according to Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez, but is certitude received from on high, it is the spiritual experimental certitude that God is in the soul.

"The perception of God is calm, peace and happiness. It is born in that most hidden and sweet recess where God is present in the soul," in the words of Scaramelli.

"And Mother Teresa Couderc tells of the tast of God, "We may describe it as a feeling of the love and presence of God, the soul realizes such goodness and is so totally recollected in Him, that it can scarcely turn away. Every other pleasure is insipid, after the taste of God." And those who are habitually imbued with the unitive taste of God continually find all other pleasures insipid and barely desirable since one's desires are absorbed with the most desirable treasure within. (Dom Godefroid Belorgey, O.C.S.O., "The Practice of Mental Prayer," pp.121-2)

Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., discusses the limits of intuitive knowledge in Beatitude:

"This vision, though it is intuitive and without medium, is still not comprehensive. God alone can know Himself to the full extent of His knowableness. This limitation involves no contradiction. Here on earth many persons may see the same scene in different degrees, according as their vision is more or less good. Many intellects see one and the same truth more or less profoundly. Each grasps the proposition, subject, verb, and attribute, but more or less perfectly. Thus in heaven all the blessed see God without medium, but with a penetration that varies in proportion to their merits, but none as profoundly as God knows Himself, all that He is, all that He can do, all that He will do.(Fr. R. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., Life Everlasting, Beatitude of Heaven, p. V)

"According to the definition of Benedict XII, [565] this act of the blessed intellect is a vision, clear, intuitive, immediate, of the divine essence. Without being comprehensive, it still enables us to know God as He is.(Ibid)

"By its clarity this vision is distinguished from the obscure knowledge which we have of God, either by reason or by faith. By its intuitive and immediate character it is immeasurably superior to all knowledge that is discursive and analogical, which does not reach God except by using His effects as principle. This intuitive vision is higher than all abstraction, all reasoning, and all analogy. It is immediate intuition of the supreme reality of the living God. Hence it surpasses by far all vision, even the intellectual visions which the great mystics receive here on earth, because these visions remain within the order of faith and do not give intrinsic evidence of the Trinity. The beatific vision, on the contrary, does give this evidence, showing that God, if He were not triune, would not be God.(Ibid)