Note: There are many writings by religious and laypeople dealing with the value of the contemplative spiritual life, contemplative union, and the spiritual marriage. Some say that such a spiritual life, leading to the transforming union with God, doesn’t amount to much in terms of happiness, and that one's life isn’t changed significantly by such events. Some say that, in their experience, it is normal to be in the state of such transformation without any conscious knowledge of it whatsoever because the transcendent work of God is beyond the capacity of man’s natural intellect and will. Others talk about the many professional contemplative religious they know who suffer much, but never experience any sense of the good things of God or His impact on their spiritual life through their contemplative union and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

No one can deny that this has been the character of their spiritual journey, and that they are telling it as they see it. However, it often seems to the reader that they present the contemplative life with a personal negative bias, describing it as a strange, unhappy thing, amounting to just a long dark night of the spirit. One reads their works and wonders how they were able to spend thirty, forty, or fifty years in suffering with no apparent joy from their religious vocation.

And then, when we compare their negative descriptions of the life of contemplative union with the descriptions presented by such mystical doctors as St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross, or with such current Retreat Masters as Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M., we find that there is a tremendous difference between their attitude in terms of the value of the contemplative life. For in speaking of the summit of the contemplative life, and the spiritual marriage, St Teresa says, " The little butterfly has died 'with the greatest joy' at having found rest at last, and now Christ lives in her."(seventh mansion)

In his book, “Fire Within,” Father Dubay, who has over thirty years as a Retreat Master and Spiritual Director, is positive about the value of infused contemplation today in producing saints, who can be recognized by the heroic virtue they demonstrate in their lives and manifest in the works they leave behind. He finds that the contemplative life and sanctity go hand in hand, and provide the Gospel Way to happiness in this life, as far as this is possible. He says that in over thirty years as a Retreat Master, and Confessor, he has encountered many religious, priests and nuns, who are enjoying advanced levels of infused prayer when they are living up to the spiritual standards established by the Doctors of the Mystical Life, such as St Teresa of Avila, and St John of the Cross, who represent the Mind of the Church in their teaching. This means they take the Cross and detachment from the pleasures of this life, and the spirit of the world, seriously, as the Way to Resurrection.

It would seem that those who take the negative perspective of "ongoing spiritual darkness" as characteristic of the contemplative life have failed to perceive that even though the senses and the faculties are dark in terms of contemplative communication, communication from God may take place at a simpler, more fundamental spiritual level. St John tells us that God can awaken profound delight, joy, and spiritual light within the very substance and center of the spirit by substantial touches of divinity that transcend the senses and the faculties of intellect, will, memory. Such touches feed the the spirit from a source hidden from the senses and the enemies of the soul, and yet can be clearly discerned by the contemplative by the fruits they produce, the fruits of "spiritual joy," "abiding peace," and a "sense of the companionship of Christ"s Holy Spirit." St John of the Cross describes such fruits in stanza 24 of the Spiritual Canticle where he says, speaking of the spiritual marriage: "The bride-soul's song ...(tells of) the happy and high state in which she has been placed, and its security. Third, she tells of the rich gifts and virtues with which she sees herself endowed and adorned in the nuptial chamber of her Bridegroom, for she says she is now in union with God and possesses the virtues with fortitude. Fourth, she relates that she now has perfect love. Fifth, that she has perfect spiritual peace, and all is enriched and made beautiful with gifts and virtues to the measure that can be possessed and enjoyed in this life." So from this, we can see how St John's description of contemplative union in marriage, reflecting as it does the truth of the Church and the Holy Spirit, differs from the union weighed down by darkness presented by some of the religious who have used their own experience as the guide for their teaching.

Then in The Living Flame of Love, St John pays the ultimate tribute to the contemplative spiritual life in that one touch of God may more than compensate for all the trials and suffering the contemplative has undergone in their whole life prior to that point:

“The soul affirms this because in the taste of eternal life, which it here enjoys, it feels the reward for the trials it passed through in order to reach this state. It feels not only that it has been compensated and satisfied justly but that it has been rewarded exceedingly. It thoroughly understands the truth of the promise made by the Bridegroom in the Gospel that he would repay a hundredfold [Mt. 19:29]. It has endured no tribulation or penance or trial to which there does not correspond a hundredfold of consolation and delight in this life; and it can truly say: "and pays every debt."(Living Flame of Love, Stanza 2)

We must, therefore, keep in mind, when reading the works of this or that contemplative expert, that there is a large body of work representing the “mind of the Church” in connection with a proper understanding of contemplation and mystical theology. An excellent example following the teaching of the mystical doctors of the Church is the "Spiritual Theology" available on the internet and presented by Fr. Jordan Aumann, O.P. Fr. Aumann draws from the works of the above mentioned mystical doctors as well as St Thomas Acquinas, and the many Dominican saints and teachers, who were contemplatives, and manifested the abiding companionship of God in their contemplative union, giving them continuous peace in the center of their soul even when they lived with a good deal of upset and suffering all around them.

Finally, the Church sets St Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross before us as mystical doctors and experts on the contemplative life who will keep us on the correct path with the truth of the Holy Spirit in dealing with the light and darkness of the contemplative journey. Their teaching keeps us in line with the “mind of the Church,” and the Way of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we should go to them, or those who teach their doctrine, for the ultimate understanding of contemplative issues, or when we are in need of solid doctrine in the field of mystical theology. This does not mean we should discount the teachings of the many other religious experts in the field. Rather we should learn what we can from them without failing to compare their teachings in the light of what we have been taught by the Church through the Magisterium and these mystical doctors.

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APPETITES: Generally: inordinate affective desires in which the will participates; that is, wilful desires not rightly ordered to a moral or spiritual good. When habitual, such inordinate desire both impede union with God and weary, torment, darken, defile, and weaken the soul. Before the soul can become one with God in the union of transformation, there must be just one desire dominating the life of the soul: the desire for God, which fulfils the First Commandment to love the Lord God with one’s whole heart, mind, and strength.. This one desire is supernaturally infused by God into a soul that is detached from all inordinate natural desires which compete with God for the affections and love of the soul.

APPREHENSIONS: The activity and content of perception. Are distinct sensory, spiritual, natural or supernatural. They are contradistinguished from contemplation, which is a general, obscure knowledge given in faith..

BEGINNERS: Those in the first stage of the spiritual life finding motivation for denying their appetites mainly through mediation on the life of Christ(using discourse and the imagination) and through the satisfaction coming from love and consolation in the sensory part of the soul.

COMMUNICATION: God’s communication is the loving knowledge of himself that he shares with humans. He begins by giving it through elements that are palpable and accommodated to sense, and thus only in “morsels.” The more spiritual a communication becomes, the more abundant it is, and the less comprehensible to the senses.

CONTEMPLATION: The communication of God to the soul untied to the senses, or the particular, received passively by the spirit in an attitude of faith and love, and of general loving attention. A supernatural contact between the substance of the soul and the substance of God, in which the divine life is infused into the soul in a manner secret from the operations of the natural faculties of intellect, will, and memory, and which generates wisdom and loving knowledge of God within the soul through the supernatural operations of the gifts of the Holy Spriit, gradually transforming it into the image of God. Apophatic contemplation is the imageless, most pure form of such contemplative communication, occurring in the purity of faith, with least interference to the activity of the Holy Spirit by the natural activity of the soul, in great emptiness and silence in the natural faculties.

Cataphatic contemplation is a less pure form of such prayer, in terms of unknowing and the purity of faith. It is the form of contemplation in which the action of the Holy Spirit takes place through the gifts of wisdom and understanding, even while the attention and faculties are partially occupied by concepts and images of faith. It is Infused, loving knowledge received passively by the soul concerning the truths of the faith and the mysteries of revelation(as compared to loving knowledge of God, himself, in apophatic contemplation). Such contemplative insights are brought about by the divine actuation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and begin and end at the pleasure of Almighty God. The soul can only prepare itself to receive them. An act of the intellect superior to reasoning, a simple view of the truth, giving rise in us to an act of infused love and living, penetrating, sweet faith, which shows us how revealed mysteries, although still obscure, wonderfully correspond to our deepest and loftiest aspirations.

Supernatural or infused contemplation has been defined by various formulas, but the essential note that all definitions have in common is that supernatural contemplation is an experimental knowledge of God. Moreover, as a supernatural activity, infused contemplation requires the operation of faculties that are likewise supernatural, both in their substance and in their mode of operation. Consequently when we speak of contemplation as a grade of mystical prayer, we restrict the word to signify the loving knowledge of God that is experienced through the operation of the gifts of wisdom and understanding, presupposing, of course, faith informed by charity.(Fr. Jordan Aumann, O.P., Spiritual Theology, Contemplative Prayer)

"Infused contemplation, on the contrary, is not in our power; it proceeds not from our activity aided by grace, but from the more or less manifest special inspiration of the Holy Ghost, which is indispensable here. Therefore, in this case, the difference is not one of degree, but of nature, for the special inspiration is not only a stronger actual grace; it is not only moving but regulating; it contains a superior rule. Similarly, there is a specific difference between even the infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Ghost: the infused virtues are by themselves principles of acts which we can produce at will, whereas the gifts dispose us to receive with docility the impulsion of the Holy Ghost for acts whose superhuman mode, springing from a superior rule, specifically surpasses our activity aided by common grace. As St. Thomas shows,(23) there is in this case a specific difference, just as there is more than a difference of degree between the work of the oars that makes a boat advance and the impulsion of a favorable wind that makes rowing unnecessary.(Fr. R. Garrigou-LaGrange, O.P.)

"In the ascetical life, before the passive purification of the senses, in which infused contemplation begins, the gifts of the Holy Ghost still intervene only weakly, and often they are as if bound by some attachment to venial sin,(25) like sails which have not yet been spread. Later, in the mystical life, the intellectual gifts of understanding and wisdom, which are both speculative and practical,(26) appear in some under a clearly contemplative form and in others, as in St. Vincent de Paul, under a form more directed toward action.

(Ibid) "Lastly, it should be noted that the act of infused contemplation proceeds from living faith as from its radical principle, and from the gift of wisdom or that of understanding as from its proximate principle actualized by the divine inspiration. It is an act of penetrating and sweet faith; the superior inspiration received through the gifts adds to this act of faith the precious modalities of penetration and sweetness, which increase with the touch of the Holy Ghost to the point of becoming a taste of eternal life. Here we find, therefore, in a subordinated manner the formal motive of infused faith (the authority of God revealing), that of charity (the divine goodness sovereignly lovable for its own sake), and that of the gifts mentioned (the illumination of the Holy Ghost, which is regulating and inspiring). Consequently this simple act of penetrating and sweet faith deserves to be called infused in order to distinguish it from the act of faith which we commonly make at will, without special inspiration, for example, in order to say the prayers that we recite daily.

(Ibid Fr. R. Garrigou-LaGrange, O.P.)

DETACHMENT: Poverty of spirit, or freedom from the appetites so the heart may be surrendered entirely to God in the union of faith, hope, and love.

DRYNESS: A lack of satisfaction and savor in one’s prayer and spiritual practices. As an effect of God’s communication, purifies and is discernible as purgative through the solicitude of love that accompanies it in various degrees of intensity.

ENEMIES OF THE SOUL: The world, the devil, and the flesh are the three enemies that war against the soul trying to prevent its progress on the spiritual journey. The means of defending oneself against these enemies are the theological virtues: hope in struggling against the world, faith in combating the devil, and love in gaining dominion over the flesh. The world represents such things as the favour of others, friends, reputation, importance, wealth, delights, and comforts. The devil, usually placed second in the group, is a spiritual being that personifies evil and disguises himself as an angel of light, as good. In his attacks he is more difficult to understand because of his deceit and cunning. The flesh is the mst tenacious in the group and represents the sensory appetites and natural affections that covet against the spirit.

FAITH: The theological virtue that brings together, from the objective viewpoint, Christ, who is God’s full revelation of himself, and, from the subjective viewpoint, the soul insofar as it adheres and responds. As subjective or personal denotes an attitude of fidelity to the divine person, the Word, which involves the whole of one’s life. Demands the exclusion of every purely human or natural criterion; excludes every support outside itself. Detached from such supports, one must be guided only by the reality that faith communicates. But this reality surpasses earthly understanding, and thus the articles of faith are dark to the intellect. Insofar as faith involvers the whole person, it is a living faith and moves lovingly toward God whom the articles hide, and away from reliance on particular knowledge, on supernatural visions and revelations. The dark night of faith enters the soul imperceptibly insofar as one adapts to its demands. At the end of the journey in faithfulness, the soul finds itself completely illumined, in a “highly illumined faith,” and contemplates God through what becomes but a thin veil, a veil that disappears with the beatific vision.

FATHER (ETERNAL). Where the Son of God is hidden. The Son is his only delight and place of rest. The Son prays that where he is those whom the Father has given him will also be; there are many mansions in the Father’s house. Delights to be with the children of the earth. Gentle and bountiful, he gives his Son, the splendour of his glory, as his gift to souls.

FORM. Also referred to by terms such as figure, image, species, or accident. As sensory, the particular representation of some thing produced in the phantasy or imagination through which one comes to knowledge; as intelligible, the object of the intellect, the particular idea. In contemplation one receives communications and knowledge without these forms. The nature of a thing as distinguished from matter.

FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT AND BEATITUDES: In his letter to the Galatians, St. Paul provides a listing of the fruits of the flesh and the fruits of the spirit. The latter fruits are nine in number: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, fidelity, meekness, and continence. Theologians from the time of St. Augustine have maintained that St. Paul's enumeration of the gifts is by no means a complete list, but only a sampling, as it .were, of the fruits of the Spirit. This is indicated by the fact that St. Paul lists fifteen fruits of the flesh and makes it clear that the list is not complete.

The first thing to be noted about the fruits of the Spirit is that they are virtuous acts or works performed by those who are "guided by the Spirit" (Gal. 5:18). These works are in opposition to those that proceed from the flesh, as St. Paul states: "My point is that you should live in accord with the Spirit and you will not yield to the cravings of the flesh. The flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh; the two are directly opposed" (Gal. 5:16-17). Consequently, the works of the spirit give testimony that one is being guided by and is obedient to the Holy Spirit.

GOD: The central reality of the soul and the whole world, designated also by the threefold personal name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Both one and three, he has his own intimate life of love and communion. Is both transcendent and immanent . Reveals himself and his plan for his creatures fully in Jesus Christ. Divinizes humans, and they become God through participation.

HOLY SPIRIT: The third person of the blessed Trinity, the love between the Father and the Son. The inspirer of Sacred Scripture. The principal agent of sanctification. Moves and illumines the intellect. Prepares one for union and brings it abut. Teaches the bride how to love as she is loved. In the state of union the soul loves with the strength of God himself through the Holly Spirit who is given to her.

HISTORY OF SPIRITUALITY: Another important source of information for the theology of the spiritual life is the history of spirituality. Although the Christian life is essentially the same for all individuals in all ages, it admits of secondary differences and modifications. The reason for this is that grace does not change nature but perfects it by working through it, and therefore individual personalities, national temperaments, and the needs or charisms of a given age are dominant factors in the variety of religious experiences and the classification of schools of spirituality. A knowledge of the history of spirituality enables the theologian to recognize the laws or constants that prevail throughout the centuries and at the same time to discern a progressive development and evolution in Christian holiness as manifested in the Church. Finally, the history of spirituality provides the experiential data so necessary for the practical science of spiritual theology, without which the theologian would have to depend exclusively on the a priori method of deduction from the principles of speculative theology and the teaching of the Magisterium.

Closely related to the history of spirituality are the writings of saints and mystics, their autobiographies, and their biographies. Apart from having descriptive value, such works also provide models worthy of imitation. However, the writings should be authentic and critically sound, and preference should be given to those works that have received the positive approbation of the Church. As a rule it is also safer to read the instructive and expository writings rather than personal letters or ardent exhortations, where exaggeration or misinterpretation may readily occur. The value of these works for spiritual theology is that they provide factual testimony of the wonderful and mysterious ways in which God is glorified in his saints.

HOPE; One of the three theological virtues, which, in its more specific function, unites the memory with God and empties it of all possessions. To live in pure theological hope one must turn to God in loving affection, away from distinct ideas, forms, and images when they arise, in emptiness of everything rememberable. The more the memory gives up the possession of things, the more hope it has, and the more hope it has the greater will be its union with God. No harm comes to this hope, though, from use of the memory in the fulfilment of one’s obligations. Hope also implies a “moaning” in that it keeps glory in mind and longs for the full possession of it. Also, one of the four passions of the soul.

IMAGINATION: A human power or faculty belonging to the interior sensory part of the soul and often used, without differentiation, together with the term phantasy. The power of forming material images, put to use naturally through meditations. Does not have the capacity to reach God, nor does it serve proximately as a means to union. Must be quieted in order to enter the way of the spirit.

IMPERFECTIONS: The dark night purges the soul of its habitual imperfections. In the spiritual marriage, all the bride’s words, thoughts, and works are of God and directed toward him without any of the former imperfections. Even after reaching this union one may fall into imperfections, but without advertence, or knowledge, or control. Of these semivoluntary imperfections it is written that the just one falls seven times a day.

INTELLECT: a spiritual power or faculty for knowing, which in its ordinary functioning receives help from the external and internal senses. The active intellect abstracts the immaterial or universal form, or species, from the sensible form provided by the interior senses and impresses it on the passive intellect. Understanding comes about through this interdependence. No material or created thing serves the intellect as a proximate means to union with God. Only by means of faith is the intellect united with God. The intellect may receive communications passively in ways different from its ordinary functioning. Mystical knowledge is given to the passive intellect.

INTERDEPENDENT: The sense and the spirit, the senses and the intellect in the knowing process, and the cognitive and affective capacities interact and are interdependent.

JESUS CHRIST: God the infinite, transcendent Creator, having left some trace of who he is in creation, becomes human in Jesus Christ, and reveals himself fully. In the strict sense of the word, the only authentic spirituality is a spirituality centered in Jesus Christ and through him to the Trinity. This is true not only because created grace, the vital principle of the spiritual life, comes to us only through the mediation of Jesus Christ, but also because those who cultivate the spiritual life must consciously or unconsciously follow the teachings of Christ, regardless of :their religious affiliation. Vatican Council II has promulgated this ,doctrine in the declaration on non-Christian religions:

“The Catholic Church rejects nothing of what is true and holy in these religions. She has a high regard for the manner of life and conduct, the precepts and doctrines which, although differing in many ways from her own teaching, nevertheless often reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all men. Yet she proclaims and is in duty bound to proclaim without fail, Christ who is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). In him, in whom God reconciled all things to himself (2 Con 5:18-19), men find the fullness of the religious life

“Again, speaking of the Church in the modern world, the Council affirms that there is only one spirituality for all, and it consists in a participation in the mystery of Christ: In reality it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man truly becomes clear .... Christ the Lord ... fully reveals man to himself and brings to light his most high calling .... The Christian is certainly bound both by need and by duty to struggle with evil through many afflictions and to suffer death; but, as one who has been made a part in the paschal mystery, and as one who has been configured to the death of Christ, he will go forward, strengthened by hope, to the resurrection. All this holds true not for Christians only but also for all men of good will in whose hearts grace is active invisibly. For since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery.”

“Christian spirituality is therefore a participation in the mystery of Christ through the interior life of grace, actuated by faith, charity, and the other Christian virtues. The life that the individual receives through participation in Christ is the same life that animated the God-man, the life that the Incarnate Word shares with the Father and the Holy Spirit; it is, therefore, the life of God in the august mystery of the Trinity. Through Christ, the spiritual life of the Christian is eminently Trinitarian.

LOVE: Used most frequently in referring to the theological virtue of charity. From this perspective, is associated with the will. As such, has primacy over all other human activities. It is the property of love to make the lover equal to the loved one. Since what God wants most is to exalt his bride by making her his equal, he is pleased only with love. Love imposes the discipline of emptying oneself for God of all inordinate attachments. Finds satisfaction in nothing less than God. Love of neighbour increases with love of God. The appetites destroy both. Self-love is seeking one’s own satisfaction in preference to God.

MEDITATION: A discursive activity proper to beginners and built on images formed in the imagination and phantasy. Serving as a remote means to union by habituating the spirit to spiritual things through the use of the senses, it empties the imagination of profane images. Its purpose is to acquire some knowledge and love of God. It is helpful for learning how to follow Christ. As the acts of knowledge and love of God increase, a habit of knowing and loving God is begotten in the meditator and the activity of meditation simplifies into a loving attention. In the simplification of meditation one begins to perceive the three signs and pass to contemplation.

MEMORY: One of the three spiritual faculties of the soul, it represents a power to recall and relive what is past. The seat of theological hope: hope both empties it of its finite possessions and unites it with God.

MORTIFICATION: A radical attitude of putting to death of all inordinate appetites within ourself(and all actions deriving from them). One cannot find God without mortifying evil within oneself; this gets to the root of the practice of all virtues. This death is embraced out of love for Jesus Christ and patterned after his death.

MYSTICAL: An adjective meaning secret or hidden that at times accompanies the words “knowledge,”wisdom,” and “theology. Used in this way, it is another term for contemplation. MYSTICAL THEOLOGY: In modern times two Dominicans, Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange and John Arintero, defended and restored the traditional teaching: there is but one path to Christian perfection, though it admits of ascetical and mystical stages, and the mystical life is not the result of extraordinary graces but the normal development and perfection of the grace received by every Christian at baptism. Vatican Council II made this same doctrine its own when it stated:

The Lord Jesus, divine teacher and model of all perfection, preached holiness of life (of which he is the author and maker) to each and every one of his disciples without distinction: "In a word, you must be made perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). For he sent the Holy Spirit to all to move them interiorly to love God with their whole heart, with their whole soul, with their whole understanding, and with their whole strength (cf. Mark 12:30), and to love one another as Christ loved them (cf. John 13:34; 15:12) .... It is therefore quite clear that all Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of love .... The forms and tasks of life are many but holiness is one -- that sanctity which is cultivated by all who act under God's Spirit and, obeying the Father's voice and adoring God the Father in spirit and in truth, follow Christ, poor, humble and cross-bearing, that they may deserve to be partakers of his glory.

NIGHT: In comparing contemplation to natural night, different aspects might so become the focus that the night is “dark,” “tranquil,” or “serene.” Expresses the privation of satisfaction and activity consequent on one’s communion with God, who is both near and transcendent. Insofar as it refers to a privation of satisfaction or to the darkening light of faith, it has different stages and characteristics: active and passive; of the senses and the spirit. One must pass through the dark night in order to reach union with God. The dark night par excellence is the passive night of the spirit; the causes of its darkness and affliction are human misery and the abundance of divine light.

NOTHING(NADA): A privation of all reality. A reality lacking meaning and value. The reverse side(poverty of spirit, emptiness)of the theological virtues. In contemplation “doing nothing” is a spiritual attitude of “receptivity.”

PASSIONS; Also called emotions, belong, with the appetites, to the human affective part. The eleven classic passions defined by Aristotle can e reduced to four principal ones: joy, hope, fear, and sorrow. In them, interlinked in their activity, lies one’s strength. When unbridled, become the source of all vices and imperfections; when properly regulated, give rise to all the virtues. In divine union, are alive but so transformed that God alone is their rule.

PERFECT: Those who have passed through the night of purification and have reached perfection, or the full union of spiritual marriage, in which one lives only for the service of the Bridegroom, and has no other manner or style that the exercise of love.

PHANTASY: An interior sense faculty, along with the imagination and the sense memory, that receives sense images, naturally or supernaturally, contains them within itself, and in turn presents them to the intellect.

POVERTY OF SPIRIT: A detachment from particular knowledge, earthly and heavenly, and from satisfaction and pleasure. The reality indicated by other expressions such as purity of heart, emptiness(void), night, nothing(nada), detachment, and nakedness(denudation). The negative aspect of the theological virtues, which bring it about. Those who have attained it are blessed; only they find complete satisfaction of heart.

PRAYER: Communion with God, requiring a will that is with him and a mind set on him. Its aims should be what is more pleasing to God. Objects and places should b e means to help one pray in the living temple, which is interior recollection. All the prayer osf the Church are reducible to the Our Father. May be meditative or contemplative In union it becomes wholly the exercise of love.

PROFICIENTS: Persons who are in the second of the three stages of the spiritual journey, or the illuminative way. Their prayer is contemplative . May experience imaginative visions and ecstasies. May suffer from physical, psychological, and moral limitations; from aridity, darkness, and longings of love. May know deep quiet, peace, and love in God’s presence. Bring to prayer no other support than faith, hope, and love.

PURIFICATION: The process in which one eliminates, through the theological virtues, all that is contrary to receiving into one’s own life the fullness of God’s life. Both a disposition for and an effect of union. From the perspective of the source of a privation, it may be either active or passive. The expression purgative way is applied to beginners. But the work of purification is brought to completion especially through the passive spiritual suffering of the dark night, which belongs to the illuminative way. The entire spiritual journey, however, is purifying, comprising God’s communication and the human person’s efforts to respond.

SENSE: In the plural(senses), refers to the bodily faculties or powers that have corporeal things as their objects. The exterior senses are sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. The interior senses that are mentioned include the phantasy, the imagination, and sense memory. The sense, or sensory part, designates all the faculties taken together (interior and exterior), or the whole person under the rule of the values perceived by them. It comes into play both in the natural and supernatural realm. God cannot be grasped by the senses. They are not capable of spiritual things. As a part of the soul, the lower, inferior, or exterior part.

SOUL: Frequently used in referring to the whole person ( a soul or souls) with an emphasis on the spiritual dimension. A beautiful image of God, where God dwells. Comprises two main parts: sense and spirit, but the emphasis placed on the purification of these two parts does not seek to establish a dichotomy in the human being. In its operations it has a cognitive and an affective, or appetitive, dimension. Its deep center or depth may refer either to its substance or to the limit to which the active or receptive capacity of the individual can reach. In accommodation to the bridal symbolism, is the bride; Christ, the bridegroom.

SPIRIT: The higher superior, or interior part of the soul in contradistinction to the sensory part. In it reside the three faculties of intellect, memory, and will. Is the part that communes with God. It may also refer to what is most profound about something, its substance or truth. The loving knowledge or participation in the Holy Spirit. Pure spirit refers to what has no ties to the material. The Holy Spirit.

SPIRITUAL BETROTHAL. Also called spiritual espousal, it is a symbolic term for an elevated degree of union that takes place in the illuminative way. In it there is a fluctuating between the feelings of God’s nearness, the sweetness of his communication, and the experience both of his absence and of other painful trials of purification by which the sensory part is gradually accomodated to the spirit. The coming to completion of the espousal brought about by Christ through the cross and baptism. Sometimes used to refer to a full union of love, like the spiritual marriage.

SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE: A symbolic expression with roots in the Bible designating full union with God or transformation in God, the highest spiritual state attainable. A mutual, total surrender of love between the soul and God. This union is permanent or "habitual" in the substance of the soul. However, it does not always extend to the involvement of the faculties of intellect, will, and imagination. When it does involve those faculties, as well as the substance, then the union is referred to as "actual." In frequent actual unions, God communicates his secrets and love to the soul in a direct manner. She corresponds fully, able to love as much as she is loved (that is with all her being).affectively and effectively (through works of service). Being so united with Christ she enters into and shares the intimate life of the Blessed Trinity.

SPIRITUAL SENSES: Capacities of the spirit analogous to those of the senses; receive spiritual visions, locutions, and feelings (fragrances, tastes, and touches).

STAGES: States, degrees, or ways of spiritual growth or development. The main classifications are: beginners, proficients, and perfect; or purgative , illuminative, and unitive ways.

SUBSTANCE: In general, that which is most inward, deep, and authentic in God, persons, and things. Used in contradistinction both to the accidents (species, images) of knowledge and to the faculties. The substance of the soul is a deep secret region that escapes ordinary psychological observation.

SOURCES OF SPIRITUAL THEOLOGY(Fr. Jordan Aumann, O.P.): The question of method leads logically to a discussion of the sources of the theology of the spiritual life. Some of these sources are common to theology in general; others are proper to spiritual theology. The primary source of spiritual theology, and of theology in general, is Sacred Scripture and Tradition. Thus, Vatican Council II has stated: "Sacred theology relies on the written Word of God, taken together with sacred Tradition, as on a permanent foundation .... Therefore, the study of the sacred page should be the very soul of sacred theology."(10)

The Scriptures unquestionably present God as transcendent and immanent, as the beginning and the ultimate end of a person's life, but the primary witness of Scripture is that God has intervened in human history to fulfill in humankind the designs of his providence. Therefore, we study the divine mysteries revealed by God to know not only what they are in themselves but also what they are for us. Revealing to us our high destiny, the Scriptures answer our innate desire to rise from a fallen condition in order to experience the divine. The Bible is therefore the rule and standard of all authentic spirituality. The fundamental message that comes to us in the gradual revelation of the Old Testament is that God loves us and asks our response through faith and obedience. Then, in the New Testament, God's covenant with Abraham culminates in Christ, who is the "last revelation" and the source and model of our life in God.

Vatican Council II has stated that Scripture, which is "the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit," and Tradition, which "transmits in its entirety the Word of God that has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit," are closely bound together and "make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God."(11) However, Tradition is not the purely mechanical transmission of static truth; it is a seed that must develop; it is a living tradition that has continuity in history. Thus, Vatican II has asserted:

The Tradition that comes from the apostles makes progress in the Church, with the help of the Holy Spirit. There is a growth in insight into the realities and words that are being passed on. This comes about in various ways. It comes through the contemplation and study of believers who ponder these things in their hearts. It comes from the intimate sense of spiritual realities that they experience. And it comes from the preaching of those who have received, along with their right of succession in the episcopate, the sure charism of truth. Thus, as the centuries go by, the Church is always advancing toward the plenitude of divine truth, until eventually the words of God are fulfilled in her.(12)

Tradition is therefore a source of spiritual theology at the same level as Scripture because it includes Scripture in the sense that the oral transmission of revealed truths preceded the written record. Moreover, St. John states at the end of his Gospel: "But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written" (John 21:25).

We also speak of Tradition as the transmission of the deposit of faith from one generation to another under the magisterial guidance of the Church, which proclaims, explains, and applies the revealed truths throughout the centuries. Unlike purely human tradition, which is subject to error, the living tradition of the Church is infallible as regards the essential content of the deposit of faith, as has been affirmed by Vatican Council II:

The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly, guards it with dedication, and expounds it faithfully. All that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is drawn from this single deposit of faith.

It is clear, therefore, that, in the supremely wise arrangement of God, sacred Tradition, sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the others. Working together, each in its own way under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively to the salvation of souls.(13)

It is evident, therefore, that the Magisterium of the Church is likewise a primary theological source for the study of the spiritual life and Christian perfection.

SPIRITUAL LIFE: PUTTING OLD SELF TO DEATH IN FAVOR OF THE LIFE OF THE NEW SELF(TRUE SELF)

“Let it be known that what the soul calls death is all that goes to make up the old self: the entire engagement of the faculties (memory, intellect, and will) in the things of the world, and the indulgence of the appetites in the pleasures of creatures. All this is the activity of the old life, which is the death of the new spiritual life. The soul is unable to live perfectly in this new life if the old self does not die completely. The Apostle warns: Take off the old self and put on the new self who according to God is created in justice and holiness [Eph. 4:22-24]. In this new life that the soul lives when it has arrived at the perfect union with God here being discussed, all the inclinations and activity of the appetites and faculties - of their own the operation of death and the privation of the spiritual life - become divine.”(St John of the Cross, Living Flame of Love, stanza 2, para 33)

THE SUPERNATURAL ORGANISM: Each of us is a complex being composed of body and soul, of matter and spirit, intimately united to form one person. It has been said that each of us is a microcosm, a synthesis of all creation. We have existence, as do inanimate things; we are nourished, reproduce, and grow, as do plants; we have sensate knowledge, passions, and the power of locomotion, as do animals; and like the angels, we can know the spiritual truth and be drawn to spiritual good. All these vital powers -- vegetative, sensitive, and rational -- constitute the natural life of man. They are not superimposed one on the other; they compenetrate one another and mutually complement one another, to lead to the natural perfection of the whole person.

There is nothing in our nature that postulates, either proximately or remotely, the supernatural order. The elevation to this order is a totally gratuitous favor of God that infinitely transcends all the exigencies of nature. Nevertheless, there is a close analogy between the natural and the supernatural orders, for grace does not destroy nature but perfects and elevates it.

The supernatural order constitutes a true life for us and has an organism that is similar to the natural vital organism. As in the natural order we can distinguish four basic elements in human life -- the living subject, the formal principle of life, the faculties or powers, and the operations of those faculties -- so we can find similar elements in our supernatural organism. The subject is the soul; the formal principle of supernatural life is sanctifying grace; the faculties are the infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit; and the operations are the acts of those virtues and gifts.

The human soul is a spiritual substance that is independent of matter in its being and its operations, although while it is in the body it makes use of bodily powers for the exercise of various functions. But the soul is not a completely independent substance, nor can the soul alone be properly called a person. A person is not the body alone nor the soul alone, but the composite that results from the substantial union of the two.

UNION: The prayer of union is that grade of mystical prayer in which all the internal faculties are gradually captivated and occupied with God. In the prayer of quiet only the will was captivated; in the sleep of the faculties the intellect was also captivated, although the memory and the imagination remained free. In the prayer of union all the interior faculties, including the memory and the imagination, are captivated. Only the external bodily senses are now free, but they too will be captivated in the following grade of prayer.

Nature of the Prayer of Union

The intensity of the mystical experience caused by the prayer of union is indescribable. It is superior beyond compare to that of the preceding grade, to the point that the body itself is affected by the working of God in the soul. Without being entirely captivated, the external senses become almost helpless and inoperative. The soul experiences divine reality with such intensity that it could easily fall into ecstasy. At the beginning, this sublime absorption of the faculties in God lasts but a short time (a half hour at most), but as the intensity increases, it may be prolonged for several hours.

The following excerpt from the writings of St. Teresa describes the prayer of union:

It seems to me that this kind of prayer is very definitely a union of the entire soul with God, although it seems that his Majesty desires to give permission to the faculties to understand and enjoy the great things that he is effecting there. It sometimes happens, and indeed very often, that when the will is in union, the soul understands that the will is captive and enjoying fruition and that the will alone is experiencing much quiet, while the intellect and the memory are so free that they can attend to other matters and be engaged in works of charity. This, although it may seem to be the same, is actually different from the prayer of quiet of which I have already spoken, partly because, in that prayer, the soul would not wish to be occupied in anything else, or to be active, since it is enjoying the holy repose of Mary; but in this prayer it can also be Martha, so that it is, as it were, occupied in both the active and the contemplative life, performing works of charity and the duties of its state, and reading, although souls in this state are not masters of themselves and they realize that the better part of the soul is occupied elsewhere. It is as if we were speaking to one person while another person is speaking to us, with the result that we cannot be fully attentive to the one or the other.(31)

St. Teresa lists the principal effects of the prayer of union in the Fifth Mansions of her Interior Castle. The soul is so anxious to praise God that it would gladly die a thousand deaths for his sake. It has an intense longing to suffer great trials, and experiences vehement desires for penance and solitude. It wishes that all souls would know God, and it is greatly saddened when it sees that God is offended. The soul is dissatisfied with everything that it sees on earth, since God has given it wings so that it can fly to him. And whatever it does for God seems very little by comparison with what it desires to do. Its weakness has been turned into strength, and it is no longer bound by any ties of relationship or friendship or worldly possessions. It is grieved at having to be concerned with the things of earth, lest these things should cause it to sin against God. Everything wearies it because it can find no true rest in any created thing.

Concomitant Phenomena The prayer of union is usually accompanied by certain concomitant phenomena distinct from gratiae gratis datae. Although these phenomena do not occur at any definite moment and are transitory graces that God grants according to his good pleasure, they are usually experienced when the soul reaches this degree of prayer. There are four principal concomitant phenomena: mystical touches, flights of the spirit, fiery darts of love, and wounds of love. St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila give detailed descriptions of these phenomena.(34)

The mystical touches are a kind of instantaneous supernatural impression that gives the soul a sensation of having been touched by God himself. This divine contact imparts to the soul an ineffable delight that defies description. The soul sometimes utters a cry or falls into ecstasy. The touches themselves admit of varying degrees of intensity; the most sublime are those that St. John of the Cross describes as "substantial touches." The expression designates that the soul senses the mystical touches as if they had been experienced in the very center or substance of the soul, although in reality they are experienced in the spiritual faculties of intellect and will. St. John of the Cross warns souls that they should not attempt to experience these mystical touches by their own efforts but should remain humble and resigned before God and passively receive whatever he deigns to send them.(35)

Flights of the spirit, as the name indicates, are strong and unexpected impulses of love of God that leave the soul with a consuming thirst for God. The soul feels that it could never satiate its thirst for love, even if all creation were permeated with divine love. Sometimes the mere mention of God causes the soul to react with such a violent impetus that the body is overwhelmed by an ecstatic trance. A remarkable note in regard to these violent impulses is that they never cause any physical or mental harm to the individual, although any similar impulse in the purely natural order could be seriously harmful. St. Teresa wisely cautions individuals to make a careful distinction between those impulses of love that flow from some natural cause, and must therefore be controlled by reason, and the truly mystical touches that are passively received by the soul from God.(36)

According to St. John of the Cross, the fiery darts of love are certain hidden touches that, like a fiery arrow, burn and pierce the soul and leave it completely cauterized by the fire of love.(37) St. Teresa describes this phenomenon as a wounding of the soul, as if an arrow pierced the soul. It causes great affliction, and at the same time it is very delectable. The wound is not a physical one, but it is felt deep within the soul and seems to spring from the soul's inmost depths. It arouses profound desires for God and a kind of hatred of the body, which seems at that time to be an obstacle to the soul's fruition of God.

The wounds of love are similar to the preceding phenomenon, but they are more profound and more lasting.(38) St. John of the Cross remarks that the fiery darts of love are usually caused by the knowledge of God that the soul receives through created things, while the wounds of love are caused by the knowledge of the works of the Incarnation and the mysteries of faith. The effects of these wounds are similar to the effects of the fiery darts, but they are more profound. The soul lovingly complains to God at not being able to leave this life and to enjoy the intimate union with him in heaven. One of the best commentaries on this phenomenon is to be found in The Spiritual Canticle, Stanzas 9-11.

THE PRAYER OF CONFORMING UNION: The prayer of union, as we have seen, unites the soul intimately with God and is, in a sense, the last grade of mystical prayer, although it admits of degrees of intensity. St. Teresa treats of the prayer of union in the last three mansions of The Interior Castle and assigns the types of this prayer as follows: fifth mansions, the prayer of union; sixth mansions, spiritual betrothal; seventh mansions, spiritual marriage. But she likewise explains that these three are generically the same prayer; the difference lies in the degree to which God unites the soul to himself.(39)

Some authors, wishing to use St. Teresa's terminology, call this degree of union the spiritual betrothal or espousal; others call it the prayer of ecstatic union, taking the name from the predominant external phenomenon of this prayer. We prefer, however, to use the expressions conforming and transforming union for these last two degrees of mystical prayer; first, because some persons find the betrothal and marriage symbols distasteful, and secondly because the term ecstatic union stresses a concomitant phenomenon rather than the union between the soul and God.

Nature of Conforming Union

In the prayer of simple union all the interior faculties of the soul are centered on God alone; only the external senses are still free. But in the prayer of conforming union God captivates even the external senses, with the result that the soul is totally divinized, so to speak, and prepared by God to move to the full and final commitment of the transforming union. This means that the conforming union is closely connected with the prayer of simple union and is indeed its expansion. St. Teresa says as much when she remarks that what there is in the fifth and sixth mansions is the same, but the effects are different (40)

In the prayer of conforming union, therefore, the soul loses the use of its external senses, either partially or totally, because all the interior faculties are absorbed in God and the senses are alienated from their proper natural functioning. It is with difficulty that the soul turns its attention to external activity, though it knows that sometimes it must "leave God for God" in performing its duties or services of charity for others. But the predominant sentiment of these souls is the longing for full and perfect union with God, accompanied by a longing for death. The soul now echoes the yearning of St. Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ (Phil. 1:23) and the statement of St. Teresa as a child: "I want to see God, but to see God we must die."

TRANSFORMING UNION: The highest state possible in this life, the state of spiritual perfection, the full development of the grace of the virtues and the gifts: “The perfect spiritual life” consisting of the possession of God by the union of love. The transforming union is, therefore, most intimate; it brings with it great, inalterable peace, the peace of God, at least to the summit of the higher faculties.

Yet the soul thus favored may still at times be “sorrowful unto death” if Jesus wishes to associate it with His life of reparation and lead it to Gethsemane for the salvation of sinners. This might be particularly true of certain souls chosen as victims of reparation in connection with the founding of religious orders dedicated to reparation for sin, such as St Paul of the Cross and the Passionist Fathers, or other orders destined to perform great works for God in the salvation of souls. These souls are definitively marked with the image of Christ. The apostolic life(manifest or hidden) or the life of reparation overflows from the plenitude of their contemplation and union with God