St John of the Cross teaches us that "contemplation," or the (quasi)experience of God in the soul is secret from our normal process of knowing through active intellection connected with forms and images, but is not necessarily secret from our passive "understanding," which may function without forms, and receive generalized, obscure awareness and receive hidden knowledge through direct intuition. Moreover, he points out, this latter generalized understanding does not lend itself to clear explanation in words and concepts, the vehicles by which we normally explain our experience to others.

St John tells us in the Spiritual Canticle:

"In contemplation God teaches the soul very quietly and secretly, without its knowing how, without the sound of words, and without the help of any bodily or spiritual faculty, in silence and quietude, in darkness to all sensory and natural things. Some spiritual persons call this contemplation knowing by unknowing. For this knowledge is not produced by the intellect that the philosophers call the "agent intellect," which works on the forms, phantasies, and apprehensions of the corporal faculties; rather it is produced in the possible or "passive intellect." This possible intellect, without the reception of these forms, and so on, "receives passively only substantial knowledge," which is divested of images and given without any work or active function of the intellect.(Spiritual Canticle, stanza 39)

On the other hand, God often increases love in the contemplative without an increase of knowledge, as St John explains below:

"Naturally, it is impossible to love without first understanding what is loved, but, supernaturally, God can easily infuse and increase love without the infusion or increase of particular knowledge. This is the experience of many spiritual persons; they frequently feel they are burning in love of God, with no more particular knowledge than before. They understand little but love a great deal, or understand a great deal but love little. As a matter of fact those spiritual persons whose understanding of God is not very advanced usually make progress according to their wills, while infused faith suffices for their knowledge. By means of this faith God infuses charity in them and augments this charity and its act, which means greater love, although, as we said, their knowledge is not increased."(Spiritual Canticle, stanza 26)

"For, as that inward wisdom is so simple, so general and so spiritual that it has not entered into the understanding enwrapped or cloaked in any form or image subject to sense, it follows that sense and imagination (as it has not entered through them nor has taken their form and colour) cannot account for it or imagine it, so as to say anything concerning it, although the soul be clearly aware that it is experiencing and partaking of that rare and delectable wisdom. (St John of the Cross, "Dark Night of the Soul") (Contemplation may be secret from sense and imagination, because it lacks the form by which they operate. But it is not necessarily secret from awareness or understanding because this quality of the human mind or spirit can operate intuitively, without forms, passive/receptively experiencing reality in an obscure, generalized sense.)

"It is called night because contemplation is dim; and that is the reason why it is also called mystical theology, that is, secret or hidden wisdom of God, where, without the sound of words, or the intervention of any bodily or spiritual sense, as were in silence and in repose, in the darkness of sense and nature, God teaches the soul-and the soul knows not how-in a most secret and hidden way...(St John of the Cross, "Spiritual Canticle")

"Some spiritual writers call this 'understanding without understanding,' because it does not take place in what philosophers call the active understanding, which is conversant with the forms, fancies, and apprehensions of the physical faculties, but in the understanding as it is possible and passive, which without receiving such forms, receives passively only the substantial knowledge of them free from all imagery. This occurs without effort or exertion on its part, and for this reason contemplation is called night.(Ibid.)

The prayer of Mysticism, of which Contemplation is part, most often brings deligtful awareness, but it can be secret, hidden, or masked in several different ways. Whether delightful or purgative, the soul is normally aware that "something" is going on in connection with such prayer and the soul's relationship with Almighty God. Sometimes the real impact takes place after one has left prayer. For Mysticism involves the actuation of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, when God so chooses. And there are seven Gifts: Wisdom, Knowledge, Understanding, Fortitude, Counsel, Piety, and Fear of the Lord.

Now when God actuates the Gifts of Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge, more intensely than the other Gifts, we call that "Contemplation," and it is characterized by delightful awareness of His Presence or activity. But when the soul is in the purgative states of the Nights of Sense and Spirit, God is emphasizing the actuation of other Gifts such as fortitude and fear of the Lord. Here the "delight" is hidden or no longer present as the soul experiences the mystical act as painful "aridity." So in this sense the soul is still aware of the mystical prayer in its painful presence.

Then there's another sense in which such mystical prayer is secret, even though the soul may be experiencing a pleasant delight during or shortly after such prayer through the Gift of Wisdom. In this case powerful annointings which transform the soul in counsel, fortitude, and charity might be taking place in the depts of the soul while the soul experiences only the normal delight which characterizes most contemplative prayer. Such a case might eventuate in connection with mystical acts in a soul already somewhat purified and, therefore, no longer subject to the former painful purgation. Therefore, we could call some of the actions of the Gifts secret, although the soul is still aware of the presence of mystical prayer.

Another way in which mystical prayer is secret is when it first begins and the soul can barely perceive it. The contemplative delight from the act of the Gift of Wisdom is present, but one in the meditative state might not perceive it due to impurity of the soul from its habit of participating in gross sensible pleasures. The soul is jaded, and the subtle delights of the spirit remain obscured by grosser sensual pleasures and attachments.

There is also the possibility that a soul that has passed through all the stages of purification, might be barely aware of Contemplative Prayer when it is praying. So in this sense the mystical act would be secret. Such a soul, like Brother Lawrence, might be often in a state of joy and happiness, characteristic of the transforming union, such that he becomes "acclimatized" to it, and the added accidental delight coming from acts of Contemplative Prayer would not noticeably add to the delight already in his consciousness. In fact, in his daily joy of living and doing, he might not find reason or desire to reflect back on himself. His attention could be so delightfully absorbed in God, and withdrawn from less delightful thoughts of himself and other things, that he might be unaware that "he" was praying. He would, however, still have un-"self"conscious "awareness" of delight and bliss in his prayer, in his consciousness, and in his activities. But lost in the joy, he, like the philosopher lost in study, would not be aware of time passing, or that "he" was enjoying it all. So in this latte sense his prayer would be secret, and some would say more perfect, in that he was not aware he was praying.

Jac Maritain says the following:

It follows that souls which have entered into the way of the spirit will be able to travel it in very different ways and according to extremely different styles. With some it is the highest gifts, the gifts of Wisdom and Understanding, which are exercised to a high degree; these souls represent mystical life in its normal plenitude, and they will have the grace of contemplation in its typical forms, be they arid or consoling. With others it is the other gifts which are exercised above all;[7] these souls will live a mystical life, but chiefly as to their activities and their works, and they will not have the typical and normal forms of contemplation.(Jac Maritain, Litugy and Contemplation, "Resources")

"It is not however that they are deprived of contemplation, of the loving experience of divine things; for according to the teaching of Saint Thomas all the gifts of the Holy Spirit are connected ("Sum. theol.," III, 68, 5), they cannot therefore exist in a soul without the gift of Wisdom, which, in the case we are speaking of, is exercised still, although in a less apparent way. Those souls whose style of life is active will have the grace of contemplation, but of a masked and unapparent contemplation; perhaps they will be capable only of reciting rosaries, and mental prayer will bring them only a headache or sleep. Mysterious contemplation will not be in their conscious prayer, but perhaps in the glance with which they will look at a poor man, or look at suffering."(Ibid)

In the above passages from the Spiritual Canticle St John of the Cross describes the nature of secret understanding coming through the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Wisdom and Understanding, during contemplation, when the intellect is in the "passive" or receptive mode required for contemplative prayer. The "secret" part, in this instance, relates the the "way" God operates during contemplation in "teaching the soul knowledge." It is secret from our normal understanding, which takes place through the "active" intellection involving sense data, phantasms, forms, reason, discursis, and concepts, It doesn't take place through the physical faculties by which the understanding "comprehends" the limited boundaries of an idea, and normally gains knowledge.

Nonetheless, there is still knowledge being conferred, and "understanding" taking place, although without the normal limits of forms, and, therefore, in a generalized, obscure and confused manner. And the obscure aspect of contemplation is not necessarily secret from the soul, i.e., the soul is aware of a manifest ineffable "something." It is infused directly into the passive intellect through "passive intuition." It is regularly accompanied by delight, fueled within a spirit of loving surrender, except during certain purgative phases. The soul has a generalized "awareness" providing great certainty of God's Presence and activity within it. At certain times, this same contemplation, still secret from active understandings, and the normal process of intellection, may provide "light" and "love" in a rapid flash of understanding connected with divine truths, or created things in God, as in seeing things through "the Eyes of God." It takes place within the order of faith.

"This divine knowledge concerning God never relates to particular things, because it is conversant with the highest, and therefore cannot be explained unless when it is extended to some truth less than God, which is capable of being described; but this general knowledge is eneffable. It is only a soul in union with god that is capable of this profound loving knowlege, for it is itself that union. This knowledge consists in a certain contact of the soul with the Divinity, and it is God Himself who is then felt and tasted."(St John of the Cross, Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Bk.II, Ch.26)

So within the context of this understanding of ineffable knowledge hidden from the normal way the soul understands, St John of the Cross tells us that the infusion of God's Loving Wisdom into the soul during contemplative prayer is essentially secret from the soul. It is secret to the soul in a most complete sense during the actual time of prayer as the soul may have little awareness of it, when it is being most purely received. Shortly, thereafter, the "effects" are usually discernible in the soul, e.g., delight, or an indescribeable sublime Presence, a feeling of unimaginable power, or of sublime humility. For, in this life, we are able to directly discern the effects of God's Presence in our soul, but not the Essence of His Spirit, which causes these effects.

Father Garrigou-Lagrange has something to say about this latter point:

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)

"And so greatly does this abyss of wisdom raise up and exalt the soul at this time, making it to penetrate the veins of the science of love, that it not only shows it how base are all properties of the creatures by comparison with this supreme knowledge and Divine feeling, but likewise it learns how base and defective, and, in some measure, how inapt, are all the terms and words which are used in this life to treat of Divine things, and how impossible it is, in any natural way or manner, however learnedly and sublimely they may be spoken of, to be able to know and perceive them as they are, save by the illumination of this mystical theology. And thus, when by means of this illumination the soul discerns this truth, namely, that it cannot reach it, still less explain it, by common or human language, it rightly calls it secret.(St John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul, Bk II, Ch. l5)

It should be emphasized that both apophatic and cataphatic contemplation partake of the order of Faith. In apophatic contemplation we go directly to Imageless, Pure Divinity in surrender and adoration. In cataphatic contemplation, we use an image to mediate our adoration, which moves from active engagement with the finite image(by our will) to passive engagement with the Infinite Exemplar of the image(by God's Will). In the latter, we are able to describe characteristics of the finite image or species mediating our adoration, and illuminated by loving wisdom and understanding in contemplative prayer. However, our description, however clear, remains at the natural level, and is made of finite images, ideas, and comparisons. We remain in the obscurity of Faith as to the supernatural, contemplative aspect of the prayer, and the Mysterious Essence of the Infinite God.

In order to imagine the awareness one has of the Presence of God, without intellectual clarity, consider the following similitude. Close your eyes and experience your awareness of your own body. You're definitely aware its there. However, your general feeling of awareness of your body is not the same as clear vision and understanding of the nature of the body. You're not aware of the organization of interacting neurons, cells, vessels, bones, organs and flesh for the achievement of life in a rational animal. It's somewhat the same with the awareness of God, as Loving Wisdom, in your soul without seeing His Nature as Three in One. Moreover, with the Presence of God, you have to add to your descrption of His awareness descriptive terms like: "delight, sublime Presence, satisfaction, majesty and power, etc."

However, there are certain times when a contemplative participates in the essence of the act of contemplation, the actuation of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, without consciously realizing anything other than a sense of general well-being and that everything seems to be going as it should. This contemplation of a "most pure" sort is free from bodily and spiritual affective reactions, other than those mentioned, and is somewhat secret from the intellect. There is nothing illogical about such contemplation because the manifest "delightful awareness" part of it is incidental(accidental) and not of the essence of the act. There are other times when the contemplation is "manifest" to the intellect during the Nights, but in a painful, dark, obscure manner without the "delightful" aspect to it. This too is called secret contemplation because the act is taking place without knowledge of the normal positive identifiers of contemplation and the good which is being wrought in the soul through suffering. Contemplation can also be secret from one when "one is not aware one is praying." This doesn't necessarily mean one's prayer is empty of manifest elements. It can also mean that the prayer takes place manifestly, although one has lost a conscious sense of oneself, of being consciously different from the experience.

Normally, outside of the painful parts of the Nights of Sense and Spirit, contemplation provides the soul with a delightful awareness of God's mysterious presence within it. This is supported by the experience of the contemplatives quoted below. But as in the Nights, there are other times when the contemplative receives the essence of the act of contemplation without being aware of it. The quotes below concerning the "feeling" of the Presence of God in the soul are taken from works by Dom Lehodey in the work called "The Practice of mental Prayer," by Dom Godefroid Belorgey, O.C.S.O.

"A soul given this incomparable grace(of contemplation) is apt to be thoughtless in regard to other things. In ordinary kinds of prayer we have a remembrance,... or we are mindful of God; we know and love Him by faith. In passive contemplation the soul generally feels a mysterious impression. God, Who dwells in the soul 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, its union with Him; 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.(Ibid Belorgey)

"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, Saint Teresa learned in this way that God dwells within the soul. She could never believe that a soul had been favoured with the prayer of union unless it was absolutely sure, afterwards, that it had been with God. She affirms in tens places that the feeling of the presence of God is first encountered in the prayer of quietude. And though obscure and veiled while the mystical inflow is weak, God's presence is "manifest" when it is strong.(Ibid)

"And St. Francis of Sales says, 'When delicately feeling the divine presence, the soul enjoys a sweet repose. This presence is a sweetness in-drawn insensibly. There is no need for a word...The sweet sight and presence of its Spouse leaves the soul speechless.'(Ibid)

"St Alphonsus Rodriguez says the certain experience of God is received from on high. Scaramelli says, 'The perception of God is calm, peace and happiness. It is born in that most hidden and sweet recess where God is present to the soul. And Mother Teresa Couderc tells of the taste of God: 'We may describe it as a sweet feeling of the love and presence of God; the soul realises 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.'(Ibid)

In addition, because contemplation is described as secret, as explained above, and God's Spirit cannot be seen in contemplative prayer, and the intellect remains in obscurity in terms of clear knowledge, some conclude that there is, therefore, no way for a contemplative to ever know the level of prayer which describes their practice. What they overlook is the visibility of "the effects" of contemplative prayer. For example, when one is able to reason and meditate on the images and truths the Church sets before us, and to benefit from such meditation, we surmise that they are not yet receiving the graces of contemplation. Then, when their meditation turns arid, and they can no longer benefit from lengthy reasoning and discursis, and they have a longing to be alone with God, we surmise that they may need to radically simplify their prayer, perhaps to the slow repetition of the single Word, "Jesus," as they are in the first stages of passive contemplation. This also called the "prayer of quiet" by St. Teresa.

There are indicators as to the type of prayer most probably appropriate for each stage of a person's prayer life based on the effects they describe to their director, or to themselves. In the Prayer of Contemplative Quiet, the will is held captive and the intellect is left free to roam about seeking distractions which disturb contemplation. As a second example of indicators, 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." (Father Jordan Aumann, O.P., Spiritual Theology, p.340)

"Accordingly, the essential characteristics of the prayer of union and the signs by which it can be recognized and distinguished from previous grades of prayer are a) absence of distractions which are psychologically impossible; b) certitude of being intimately united with God in which the soul cannot doubt that it experiences God during this prayer; c) absence of weariness and tedium in which the soul absorbed in God never wearies of its union with the Beloved, however long it may last. (Fr. Aumann, Cf. Ibid, pp.341-342).

With these above examples of indicators in mind, see Father Jordan Aumann's " 9 Grades of Prayer," in Resources. They show that, in most cases, it is not correct to say that one can have no idea as to the level of one's prayer. St John of the Cross supports this point of view in the paragraph below:

"For it is love alone that unites and joins the soul with God. To the end that this may be seen more clearly, we shall here indicate the steps of this Divine ladder one by one, pointing out briefly the marks and effects of each, "so that the soul may conjecture hereby on which of them it is standing." We shall therefore distinguish them by their effects, as do Saint Bernard and Saint Thomas, for to know them in themselves is not possible after a natural manner, inasmuch as this ladder of love is, as we have said, so secret that God alone is He that measures and weighs it.(St John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul, Bk II, Ch. l5)

However, there are some souls whose contemplation is of a sort that seems to escape any attempt to identify its characteristics. They are described by St John below:

"We may deduce from this the reason why certain persons--good and fearful souls--who walk along this road and would like to give an account of their spiritual state to their director, are neither able to do so nor know how. For the reason we have described, they have a great repugnance in speaking of it, especially when their contemplation is of the purer sort, so that the soul itself is hardly conscious of it. Such a person is only able to say that he is satisfied, tranquil and contented and that he is conscious of the presence of God, and that, as it seems to him, all is going well with him; but he cannot describe the state of his soul, nor can he say anything about it save in general terms like these."(St John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul, Bk II, Ch. l5)

In "Dark Night of the Soul, St John tells us:

"And it is not for this reason alone that it(contemplation) may be called secret, but likewise because of the effects which it produces in the soul. For it is secret not only in the darknesses and afflictions of purgation, when this wisdom of love purges the soul, and the soul is unable to speak of it, but equally so afterwards in illumination, when this wisdom is communicated to it most clearly. Even then it is still so secret that the soul cannot speak of it and give it a name whereby it may be called; for, apart from the fact that the soul has no desire to speak of it, it can find no suitable way or manner or similitude by which it may be able to describe such lofty understanding and such delicate spiritual feeling.(St John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul, Bk II, Ch. l5)

( Note: Although it remains secret from normal understanding, which means the soul can find no way to "clearly describe" contemplative knowledge in its effects on the soul during "illumination," we, as does St John, may still be very much aware that we are as he says, 'experiencing and partaking of that rare and delectable wisdom,' and we can find ways to describe it in terms that convey a generalized, obscure knowlege such as "Presence," Ineffable, Peaceful, Delightful, Loving Awareness, 'Taste' of Divinity, etc. Moreover, the effect of contemplation on the type of prayer, as well as the "fruits" in the life of the contemplative, in terms of an increase in charity, can normally be clearly discerned.)

"And thus, even though the soul might have a great desire to express it and might find many ways in which to describe it, it would still be secret and remain undescribed. For, as that inward wisdom is so simple, so general and so spiritual that it has not entered into the understanding enwrapped or cloaked in any form or image subject to sense, it follows that sense and imagination (as it has not entered through them nor has taken their form and colour) cannot account for it or imagine it, so as to say anything concerning it, 'although the soul be clearly aware that it is experiencing and partaking of that rare and delectable wisdom.'"(Ibid.)

"It is like one who sees something never seen before, whereof he has not even seen the like; although he might understand its nature and have experience of it, he would be unable to give it a name, or say what it is, however much he tried to do so, and this in spite of its being a thing which he had perceived with the senses. How much less, then, could he describe a thing that has not entered through the senses! For the language of God has this characteristic that, since it is very intimate and spiritual in its relations with the soul, it transcends every sense and at once makes all harmony and capacity of the outward and inward senses to cease and be dumb.(Ibid.)

"All these particularities (which are for the security and safekeeping of the soul) are caused by this dark contemplation, because it brings the soul nearer to God. For the nearer the soul approaches Him, the blacker is the darkness which it feels and the deeper is the obscurity which comes through its weakness; just as, the nearer a man approaches the sun, the greater are the darkness and the affliction caused him through the great splendour of the sun and through the weakness and impurity of his eyes. In the same way, so immense is the spiritual light of God, and so greatly does it transcend our natural understanding, that the nearer we approach it, the more it blinds and darkens us.(Ibid.)

"First, it describes this dark contemplation as 'secret,' since, as we have indicated above, it is mystical theology, which theologians call secret wisdom, and which, as Saint Thomas says is communicated and infused into the soul through love. This happens secretly and in darkness, so as to be hidden from the work of the understanding and of other faculties. Wherefore, inasmuch as the faculties aforementioned attain not to it, but the Holy Spirit infuses and orders it in the soul, as says the Bride in the Songs, without either its knowledge or its understanding, it is called secret. And, in truth, not only does the soul not understand it, but there is none that does so, not even the devil; inasmuch as the Master Who teaches the soul is within it in its substance, to which the devil may not attain, neither may natural sense nor understanding.(Ibid.)

"Wherefore, inasmuch as the wisdom of this contemplation is the language of God to the soul, addressed by pure spirit to pure spirit, naught that is less than spirit, such as the senses, can perceive it, and thus to them it is secret, and they know it not, neither can they say it, nor do they desire to do so, because they see it not.(Ibid)

"This property of secrecy and superiority over natural capacity, which belongs to this Divine contemplation, belongs to it, not only because it is supernatural, but also inasmuch as it is a road that guides and leads the soul to the perfections of union with God; which, as they are things unknown after a human manner, must be approached, after a human manner, by unknowing and by Divine ignorance. (St John of the Cross, Dark Night,Bk II, Ch.l8)