VOLUME 1

MYSTICAL

1 ewlutcn
in the Development and Vitality of the Church

Fr. John G Arintero, O.P
Translated by Fr. Jordan Aumann, O.P

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION
IN THE

DEVELOPMENT AND VITALITY

OF THE CHURCH

THE VERY REVEREND JOHN

G.

ARINTERO, O.P., S.T.M.

Translated by

FR. JORDAN AUMANN, O.P.
Dominican House of Studies

River Forest, Illinois

VOLUME ONE
MARY

StMI'-JARY LIBRARY
300 CHlWyiLLE ROAD
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TAN BOOKS AND PUBLISHERS, INC.
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NIHIL OBSTAT

Fr. Leonard™ Callahan, O.P.
Fr. Guillelmus Curran, O.P.

IMPRIMI POTEST

Fr. Petrus O'Brien, O.P.

Prior Provincialis
Chicago, III., 12 Junii, 1948

NIHIL OBSTAT
G. H. Guyot, C.M.

Censor Librorum
IMPRIMATUR
Ψ Joseph E. Ritter

Archiepiscopus
St. Ludovici, die 18 Martii, 1949

Copyright ® 1949 by B. Herder Book Co.

Copyright * 1978 by Tan Books and Publishers, Inc.

Originally published in English by B. Herder Book Co.
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 78-62254
ISBN: The Set —0-89555-071-7. Volume I —0-89555-072-5
Volume II — 0-89555-073-3

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

TAN BOOKS AND PUBLISHERS, INC.
P.O. Box 424
Rockford. Illinois 61105
1978

OMNIA PER MARIAM

Translator’s
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Inis translation of La Evolution Mistica introduces Father John
G. Arintero, O.P., to the English-reading public. Although com­
paratively unknown in the United States, except for passing refer­
ences to his writings which are found in a few theological works,
Father Arintero attained great renown in his native Spain for his
profound learning and his personal sanctity. Because of his success
as the champion of the true traditional doctrine in mystical theology,
he is acclaimed the precursor of the current movement toward the
realization of mystical ideals.
To forestall any criticism of Father Arintero’s style and method of
procedure, let it be remembered that he looked upon the sublime
truths of the supernatural life as one would gaze upon a precious
stone, turning it this way and that to catch its full brilliance and lus­
ter. There may be some persons who will question the wisdom of
including excerpts from the writings of modern mystics that as yet
are unknown to most readers. Many of these souls were under the
guidance of Father Arintero, and he saw in their experiences the
perpetual vitality of the mystical power of the Church. He uses
them, then, to show that the heights of the mystical life are by no
means a relic of the past, but that there are souls even today who
have scaled and are scaling the mount of perfection.
I here express my deep gratitude to the Very Reverend Father
Provincial of the Province of Spain, who gave permission for this
English translation of La Evolution Mistica; to the Very Reverend
Father Peter O’Brien, O.P., Provincial of the Province of St. Albert
the Great, for his kindly interest and unfailing encouragement ; to
Father Vitalis Fueyo, O.P., of Avila, Spain, for his careful reading
and checking of the entire translation; and to the Very Revet< nd
Father Sabino Lozano, O.P., of Salamanca, Spain, for his help! ul ad
vice.
v

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

Thanks arc due also to Sister M. Timothea, O.P., of Rosary Col­
lege, who first acquainted the translator with the works of Father
Arintero and gave many practical suggestions; to Father Mark Bar­
ron, (
of Madison, Wisconsin, for reading the entire manuscript;
and to the I )ominican Sisters of St. Catherine Convent, Racine, Wis­
consin, and Miss Elinor Martin, Chicago, Illinois, for typing the
manuscript. I am grateful also to countless others who, in one way
or another, have helped me in the task of preparing this book for
publication.
Finally, acknowledgment and gratitude must be voiced to the fol­
lowing publishers and individuals for permission to quote from their
works: Mr. Allison Peers, London, and Sheed and Ward, New York
and London, for quotations from the Complete Works of Saint
Teresa; Bcnziger Brothers, New York, and Burns Oates and Wash­
bourne, London: the English version of the Summa theologica and
the Summa contra Gentiles; Newman Bookshop, Westminster,
Maryland: Lallemant’s Spiritual Doctrine; Mr. Allison Peers, Burns
Oates and Washbourne, Newman Bookshop: Cotnplete Works of
St. John of the Cross; Mr. Louis Bernicken, Mt. Vernon, Ohio: the
Ven. Mary Agreda’s The City of God; Rev. Father Anselm Town­
send, O.P., Oak Park, Illinois, translator of Gardcil’s The Gifts of
the Holy Ghost in the Dominican Saints; Routledge and Kegan Paul,
London: Poulain’s The Graces of Interior Prayer; B. Herder Book
Co., St. Louis, Missouri: Tixeront’s History of Dogmas and Caussadc’s Abandonment to Divine Providence. The quotations from
Froget’s The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit are reprinted with per­
mission of the copyright owners, the Missionary Society of St. Paul
the Apostle in the State of New York.
May this book serve as an impetus to those who are still timid
about venturing into the realms of the supernatural life. May it
clarify the problems and difficulties which beset those who are well
along the way and those whose task it is to direct such souls.
Jordan Aumann, O.P.

Dominican House of Studies
River Forest, Illinois

vi

Foreword
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I KNEW Father Arintero in the famous Convent of St. Stephen in

Salamanca, the centuries-old seat of saints and scholars, when his
mystical activity had reached its full flowering both in his life and in
his works. When I arrived at Salamanca to pursue a course in the­
ology, Father Arintero had just retired from teaching. This he did
because his hearing was becoming more and more defective and also
because he wished, with the consent of his superiors, to devote the
rest of his life to the publication of the many books and articles that
he had conceived in his mind. Yet it was my good fortune to hear
him lecture now and then as a substitute when, for some reason or
other, the regular professor could not conduct class.
Father Arintero was always a model religious in his work and ac­
tivity. I never saw him waste a moment. Whenever he came down
to walk in the garden, he invariably carried a book in his hand or a
sheaf of galley proofs in one hand and a pencil in the other. On one
occasion I was fortunate enough to receive a small assignment from
him and thus contribute my little grain of sand to the great mystical
edifice which was erected by that master.
In addition to his intense literary activity, he maintained a vast
spiritual correspondence, especially with nuns. In his own religious
life, he lived what he taught. He scrupulously observed silence and
was most punctual for all community exercises. When the com­
munity entered choir, it always found Father Arintero in his place.
In the refectory he ate whatever was set before him, without the
slightest affectation, but he never overlooked any small detail that
might give him an opportunity to mortify his taste.
He was very observant of poverty. Any piece of paper no longer
useful for anything else, he used for his notes. I never saw him in
vii

FOREWORD

a new habit. During the winter, which is severe in Salamanca, he
used to wear a pair of home-made fleece-lined slippers. These slip­
pers were already old when 1 knew him, but each winter they would
reappear with more patches. I never saw him wear any others.
I noticed that Father Arintero limped slightly. This limp was
caused by the penitential band of netted wire which he wore around
one of his legs. Notwithstanding, he always had a smile on his face,
but without any affectation at all. His simplicity was natural, not
studied.
I Ic possessed a wonderful perspicacity for the discernment of
spirits. 1 recall that on one occasion there was proposed to us stu­
dents a certain written account in which a priest gave ample and
stirring testimony of the visions and revelations of a soul whom he
was directing. Later on we learned that this same account had been
shown to Father Arintero in order to obtain his impression and that,
after reading it carefully, he had answered in these words: “I do not
see the spirit of God in this.” Actually it was learned a little later
that the spirit of God had not been at work in that particular case.
In his younger days Father Arintero, who had been assigned by
his superiors to teach at the College at Vergara, dedicated himself
zealously to the natural sciences. I heard from one of his fellow
professors that on one occasion Father Arintero was sent to Paris
by his superiors to buy some equipment for the College laboratory.
In his journey by train, he traveled in the lowest class and ate only
bread and cheese during the entire trip in order to be able to pur­
chase more articles. His life was already tending to the heights of
mysticism at that time.
Through the multitude of his books and articles, the foundation
and direction of the magazine, La Vida Sobrenatural, which still
flourishes with the same energy and vigor which he imparted to it,
the intense direction of souls which occupied him during the second
phase of his life, Father Arintero has left a trail, a trend, a mystical
school that is well defined. His teachings have been accepted by
many writers and, what is more important, they have been and are
being lived by many souls who have traveled and are traveling along
that same mystical path. It is undeniable that to Father Arintero
belongs a place of honor in the present intense movement toward
mystical theology and the present-day living of the mystical fife by
viii

FOREWORD

many souls who, amid the tumult of this century, are continually
elevated to God.
For that reason I take special satisfaction in seeing this work of
Father Arintero translated into English. Thus many persons who
are unable to read this book in the language in which it was orig­
inally written, will gain profit from his wise doctrines.
Father Arintero did not concern himself with literary style. He
placed all his attention on the idea, the substance of the thing. Fre­
quently his paragraphs, his sentences, even his words, possess a mul­
tiple significance.
Therefore, dear reader, do not read this book rapidly. Do not let
your eyes quickly scan its pages as if you were reading a novel. Do
not even read it as you would any book of piety. Try to read it with
care and, if possible, to meditate upon it. In this way you will enrich
your understanding and you will more and more arouse the desire
to climb the mystical ladder which leads to the Supreme Good.
Fr. Emmanuel Suarez, O.P.
Master General

Dominican House of Studies
River Forest, Illinois

ix

i

Biographical Note
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Rther Arintero was bom at Lugueros in the province of Leon,
Spain, in i860. From childhood he felt a vocation to the religious life
and he realized this calling by receiving the Dominican habit at
Corias in 1875. There he made his novitiate and pursued his studies
in philosophy and theology. Before the end of his theological course,
he was sent to the University of Salamanca to study the natural
sciences. It was at that renowned University that he received his
degree of Licentiate in Philosophy and at the same time he received
from his Order the degree of Lector of Sacred Theology.
During the five years spent at Salamanca (1881-86), Father Ar­
intero came into contact with a number of French Dominicans who
had been expelled from their own country and had taken refuge
with their brethren in the convent of St. Stephen at Salamanca.
Among the refugees was Father Hyacinth-Marie Cormier, later to
become Master General of the Dominican Order, whose cause for
beatification is now being promoted in Rome.
From 1886 to 1898 Father Arintero was a professor in the field of
science and this work carried him into many colleges and univer­
sities of the Order at Vergara, Corias, Valladolid, Rome, and, finally,
Salamanca. The burdens of lecturing and teaching during this pe­
riod of his life did not prevent Father Arintero from devoting a
great deal of time and effort to writing. As one of his associates re­
marked, it was astonishing that one man could read so much and rc
tain so much of what he read. This was evidenced from the ease
with which he could locate citations which he needed for his book·,
and articles.
During this first period of his life, Father Arintcro’s works u ru
principally apologetic. Indeed, he showed a tendency to coiiudri
xi

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

scient ific st tidies as i he very foundation of any defense of the Church
and the only bulwark against the attacks of modern rationalist scien­
tists. I hciefore he placed his own vast knowledge of science at the
service of religion and Christian philosophy.
Among the books which came from the pen of Father Arintero at
this time were: La Evolution y la Filosofta Christiana, El Diluvio
Universal, La Evolution y la Mutabilidad, El Hexamer on y la Cien­
tia Moderna, La Providentia y la Evolution.
At this period of Father Arintero’s life a remarkable change took
place, for he then abandoned the natural sciences in order to embark
on a higher course. This change, however, was not a sudden one, for
he had been during many years the spiritual director of several
communities of nuns. As a director he had come into contact with
certain souls advanced in the spiritual life and, by a mutual inter­
action, he influenced and guided these souls with sound doctrine
while they, in turn, inspired and directed him by the holy example
of their lives. By the time Father Arintero returned to Salamanca
in 1903, his soul was a teeming caldron of things mystical. He had
come to realize that here in mystical theology he possessed all in
one piece what in the natural sciences he had possessed only in part.
It was laudable that he should have defended the faith against the
attacks of modern scientists, but it was much more praiseworthy, he
thought, to make known to the world the marvels which God works
in souls that give themselves to His loving direction.
From 1903 until 1928, the year he died, Father Arintero gave him­
self to the things of God, both in doctrine and in practice. His labors
in magazines, books, pamphlets, and especially in the direction of
souls, were truly amazing. It would be difficult to find any man who
used his time more profitably for the greater glory of God and the
good of souls. I lis spiritual correspondence alone, most of which has
been gathered together since his death, would fill volumes. In a short
time he became an authority in the discernment of spirits and the
direction of souls, so that it was common to hear the question: “ What
does Father Arintero think of this point?”
To him belongs the honor of being the leader of the modern trend
back to the traditional teaching of mystical theology. The works
written during this second phase of his life give evidence of
his whole-hearted devotion to mystical matters: La Evolution
xii

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Organica, La Evolution Doctrinal, La Evolution Mistica, El Méca­
nisme Divino, Grados de Oration, Questiones Misticas, La Verdadcro .Mistica Tradicional, Escala de Amor, and La Perfection
Cristiana.
In addition to the publication of so many books, Father Arintero
was responsible for the inauguration of the famous magazine, La
Vida So brenatural, which has gained world-wide renown. As a re­
ward for his labors and a recognition of his profound learning, the
Dominican Order conferred on him its highest degree, Master of
Sacred Theology.
The position of authority which this saintly Dominican has at­
tained in Europe as a master of the spiritual life and a staunch de­
fender of the traditional teaching on mystical theology is owing in
no small measure to the personal sanctity which accompanied his
erudition. His fellow religious have frequently testified to his strict
observance of the Dominican life; his extreme aversion to waste of
time; his dauntless courage in the face of the attacks and accusations
which were brought against him when he first began to write in de­
fense of the faith and the traditional mystical doctrine.
His life as a Dominican was characterized above all by his spirit
of poverty, his humility, and his zeal to aid souls by imparting sound
doctrine to them. During his last illness, Father Arintero assured
one of his brethren, “I promise you that if the Lord, in His infinite
mercy, deigns to take me to Himself, I shall be of more use to these
works from heaven than I was here on earth.” Shortly before his
death, the holy friar made this statement about his teaching and
writing: “Within a few hours I shall be brought before the tribunal
of God, and I assure you that our teachings concerning contempla­
tion are the true doctrines and that they represent the traditional
Christian teaching; but the contrary doctrines are deviations which
serve only to mislead souls.”
Since Father Arintero’s death in 1928, a great devotion has arisen
in his honor and many persons are working assiduously for his ulti
mate beatification. May all those who reap benefits from this trans
lation assist by their prayers in this cause.

xiii

Contents
CSsSSSjSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSS&sSSjSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSssSSsSSSssSSsSSSs

PAGE
Translator’sPreface.................................................................................................... v

Foreword............................................................................................................................vii

Biographical Note...................................................................................................... xi

Introduction

......................................................................................... i

PART I
THE SUPERNATURAL LIFE, ITS OPERATIONS
AND GROWTH
CHAPTER

I.

General Idea of the Mystical Life................................................... 16

A. Mysticism and Asceticism.................................................... 17
1. So-called Ordinary and Extraordinary Ways . . 19
2. Spiritual Infancy, Adolescence, and Maturity . 20
3. Renewal and Transformation.................................. 22
B. Justification by the Holy Ghost and Deification . . 23
1. Infinite Value of Grace.............................................. 24
2. Reality of Divine Adoption and Filiation .
. .26
3. Dignity of the Christian.............................................. 28
C. Sublime Notions of the Fathers Concerning Deification 29
1. The Role of the Holy Ghost .... 30
2. Abasement of the Word; Elevation of Man . . 33
3. Summary......................................................................34
4. Status of this Doctrine Today.................................. 38
II.

The Divine Life

of

Grace........................................................................ 41
article i

Concept

of the

Supernatural Life.................................................. 42

A. The Supernatural Order a Participation in the Divine
Life....................................................................................... 43
I. Ineffable Realities........................................................45
xv

CONTENTS
PAGE

CHAPTKH

B.

i. Incorporation in Christ............................................. 48
Deification and Union with God........................................54
1. Harmony of the Natural and Supernatural . . 54
2. The Divine Life in Itself and in Us .... 58
3. The linage and Likeness of God.......................... 60
4. Restoration and Elevation....................................... 62
5. The Path of Calvary and Transfiguration ... 64
6. Words of Life and Their Incomprehensibility . 65
ARTICLE II

The Grace of God and the Communication of the Holy
Ghost.............................................................................................. 67

A. Sanctifying Grace................................................................ 67
1. Effects of Sanctifying Grace.................................... 68
2. Grace and Nature.................................................... 71
3. Our Creation in Jesus Christ................................... 75
B. Communication of the Holy Ghost.................................. 79
1. Life of the Head and the Members.............................80
2. Dignity of the Sons of God........................................ 83
3. Natural and Adoptive Filiation...................................84
4. Participation in the Spirit of Jesus Christ ... 85
ARTICLE III

Adoption and Justification.................................................... 86

J

A. Characteristics of Divine Adoption................................... 86
B. Sanctification and Justification........................................ 90
1. The Power of Grace and Its Manifestations . . 90
2. Falsity of Imputed Justice........................................ 93
3. Justification a Renewal and Continual Growth . 94
4. Catholic Dogmas and True Progress .... 98
Appendix.................................................................................102
article iv

Indwelling of the Holy Ghost............................................. 106

A. Grace and the Divine Indwelling....................................... 107
1. Presence of God in the Just Soul........................... 108
2. Vivifying Action of the Holy Ghost .... 109
3. Mission, Giving, and Indwelling of the Holy
Ghost.......................................................................... in
B. The Loving Presence of the Trinity................................. 113
1. Ignorance of This Doctrine....................................... 114
2. The Beauty of the House of God........................... 115
Appendix.................................................................................117
xvi

CONTENTS
ARTICLE V
PAC»

CHAPTER

Grace and Glory....................................................................... 119

A. Eternal Life, Inchoate and Perfect................................ 120
1. Happiness of the Saints on Earth and the Blessed
in Heaven...................................
... 121
2. Vision of God in the Word through the Holy
Ghost.......................................................................... 124
3. Union of Beatific Love............................................. 128
B. Identity of the Life of Glory and the Life of Grace
130
1. Union of Faith, Hope, and Charity Augmented
by the Gifts
.................................................. 130
2. Present Glory of the Sons of God........................131
3. The Delights of Divine Friendship........................... 132
C. The Supernatural Life, the Kingdom of God on Earth 135
1. Manifestation of the Divine Life
. 136
2. Longings for Dissolution and Union with God . 139
article vi

... 140
A. Fellowship with God and Participation in His Life . 140
1. Proper Attribution and Appropriation
. 141
2. Role of Each Person in Adoption and Deification 144
3. Divine Indwelling...................................................148
4. Divine Paternity.........................................................150
B. Relations with the Word...................................................152
1. Christ as Our Brother............................................. 152
2. Christ, the Good Shepherd and Cornerstone . .155
3. Christ as Spouse of our Souls
... 156
4. Christ, the Head of the Mystical Body . . .157
C. The Divine Spouse.............................................................. 160
1. Espousal of the Word with Just Souls ...
162
2. Characteristics, Intimacy, and Fruits of This
Union.......................................................................... 164
3. SingularDignity ofConsecrated Virgins . . .169
Appendix................................................................................ 171
D. Relations with theHoly Ghost........................................ 173
1. The Floly Ghost as the Spirit of Love . . . .173
2. Gift of God and Fount of Living Water . . .175
3. Source of AllSanctity
........................................ 177
4. Spirit ofAdoptionand Mystical Unction .
.180
5. Influence of the Holy Ghost on Christ and the
Faithful.....................................................................181
Appendix................................................................................ 187

Familiar Relations with the Divine Persons

xvii

CONTENTS
CHArT»

the Divine Activity....................................... 195
A. I he Operation of Grace.................................................. 195
1. Necessity of Infused Powers................................. 197
2. Natural and Supernatural Potencies .... 199
The Two Supernatural Principles of Operation 201
B. The Supernatural Virtues.................................................. 204
1. Division and Number of Supernatural Virtues . 205
2. The Theological Virtues...................................... 206
3. The .Moral Virtues.................................................. 209
4. Necessity of Acquired and Infused Moral Virtues 209
C. The Gifts of the Holy Ghost...................................... 216
1. Comparison of the Gifts and the Virtues . . .216
2. The Gifts and the Mystical Life...........................220
3. Necessity of the Motion and Promptings of the
Holy Ghost.............................................................. 224
D. Existence of the Gifts in All the Just
.... 228
1. Importance and Nature of theGifts . . . .229
2. Alode of Operation of the Gifts........................... 232
3. Rare Discretion of the Saints......................... 236
E. Pneumatic Psychology............................................. 238
1. Life-giving Action and Inspiration of the Holy
Ghost; Diabolical Possession and Suggestion . .239
2. Awareness of the Divine Indwelling
.241
3. Laborious Activity of Meditation; Fruitful Pas­
sivity of Contemplation........................................ 243
Appendix................................................................................ 246
F. Special Work of Each of the Gifts . . . . . . 257
1. Manifestation of the Gifts...................................... 261
2. Excellence of the Gifts............................................ 263
3. Pneumatic Psychology and the Organism of the
Church.......................
267
G. Fruits of the Holy Ghost and the Beatitudes .
. 273
1. Comparison of the Gifts with the Fruits and Beati­
tudes
...........................................
... 276
2. The Working of the Holy Ghost in Souls . , . 281
Appendix................................................................................ 284

III.

Participation in

IV.

Spiritual Growth.................................................................... 289

A. Necessity of Growth in God as Individuals and as
A l embers of the Church.................................................. 289
1. Growth and Merit.................................................. 290
2. Spiritual Growth of the Individual...........................294
xviii

CONTENTS
CHAPTER

PAGE

3. Growth of Members of the Mystical Body . .295
B. Individual Growth and Particular Functions . . . 298
1. Recollection in God.................................................. 299
2. Prayer.......................................................................... 300
3. Exterior Works........................................................ 303
4. Mortification and Humility...................................... 306
5. General and Particular Examination .... 307
6. Need for Aloderation and Direction .... 307
7. Qualifications of a Spiritual Director .... 309
8. The Religious Vows.................................................. 312
9. Pious Conversations and Spiritual Reading . - 313
Appendix................................................................................ 314
C. Collective Growth and the Sacramental Functions . 318
1. The Role of Each Sacrament................................ 319
2. Importance of the Eucharist and Penance . . .321
3. The Sacramentals........................................................ 325
4. Devotion to the Blessed Virgin................................ 326
D. Singular Importance of the Eucharist...........................328
1. Eucharistic Union and the Mystical Marriage . 329
2. More Intimate Union with the Father, Holy
Ghost, and Blessed Virgin...................................... 335
3. Fruits of the Eucharist.............................................338
Appendix................................................................................ 343
V.

Summary and Conclusions.................................................. 347

A. Concept of the Life of Grace . ....................................... 347
B. Nature, Function, and Growth of the Supernatural
Life.....................................................
353

Introduction
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We must here examine and consider attentively the hidden and
mysterious development of the inner life of the Church. This con­
sideration is fundamental and the most important of all, because that
inner life and the exigencies of the vital process are the source of the
Church’s development in doctrine and organization.
The organization of the Church is a necessary condition for the
visible manifestation of her internal efficacy; her doctrine is an ex­
pression of the law of her organic and vital relationships. Thus, the
external progress of the Church, be it organic or doctrinal, dis­
ciplinary or liturgical, bespeaks an internal progress, an increase
of life. This latter, indeed, is the essential and fundamental progress
on which the others depend and to which they are ordained and sub­
ordinated. Without it they would be meaningless, for the inner life
of the Church is the final cause and motivation of all her external
growth.
Without the ardor of charity, which is the characteristic prop­
erty and the certain indication of that interior life, all things else
profit nothing.1 The mere increase of organs without a correspond­
ing vital energy would do nothing more than multiply needs and
afllictions. “Thou hast multiplied the nation, and hast not increased
the joy.” 2 But if “the flesh profits nothing,” the spirit of Jesus Christ
"gives life” and the words of our Savior are all “spirit and life.” 3
I he Son of God came into the world to incorporate us into Him( II and to make us live by Him as He Himself lives by the Father.
I Ic came that men might possess life eternal and that this life might
1 ( Ί. I Cor. ij.
* Irni. ç:j.
* John 6:64.

I

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

be manifested in them more and more fully, “that they may have life
and may have it more abundantly.” 4 That mysterious life is the life
of 11 is grace, it tie eternal life, in which St. Peter commands us to
grow when he says: “But grow in grace and in the knowledge of
our I ,<>rd and Savior Jesus Christ.” 5 This progress or growth in the
life of grace is what constitutes the mystical evolution.
I his mysterious evolution by which Christ Himself is formed in
uti " i·. the principal purpose of divine revelation and the basis for all
growth and development. To this evolution is ordained the divine
light of faith, to it the entire gospel, to it the institution of the
( ihurch and even the incarnation of the divine Word. For faith is or­
dained to charity, which is the bond of perfection; and the dogmas
of our faith, as a modern apologist puts it, are not so much for find­
ing intellectual satisfaction as for motivating us to seek the gift of
( iod, the living water of the Holy Ghost, and the power of His
vivifying grace. The Gospel was written “that believing, you may
have life in His name,” 7 and the purpose of the Church is the sancti­
fication of souls.
The Word came into this world and became the Son of Man to
make men sons of God and to fill them with His life, restoring and
gathering together all things to draw them to Himself.8 For that
reason He told us: “I am come to cast fire on the earth; and what
will I, but that it be kindled?” 9 This fire is that of the Holy Ghost
which must animate us, inflame us, purify us, renew and perfect us,
transforming us even to the point of deifying us.
From this truth can be concluded the tremendous importance of
these studies in which is treated the search for the precious pearl
and the digging of the hidden treasure of the Gospel. To some de­
gree these studies draw aside the veil of the great mysteries of the
kingdom of God in souls and disclose the adequate cause for the
manifold and resplendent manifestations of the life and infinite
powers of the holy Catholic Church. By means of these studies is
discovered that ineffable supernatural life which animates and sus‘ John to: io. Cf. 6:55-58.
‘Cf. II Pet. 3:18.
• Gal. 4:19.
’ John 20:31.
"John 1:1243:16; 12:32.
" Luke 12:49.
2

INTRODUCTION

tains the Church and which, in spite of the malice and sloth of men,
the hostility from without and the indolence, inertia, and sluggish­
ness within, gives the Church an imperishable and autonomous ex­
istence and fills it with indescribable charm. This supernatural
life conducts the Church with infallible security along the divine
paths of truth and goodness while merely human societies obstinately
move in the same cycle of error and vice.
If any study is edifying and instructive to the highest degree, and
at the same time apologetic, it is certainly the study of the mystical
evolution; of that prodigious expansion of grace as the vital prin­
ciple of a divine order, and of its multiple manifestations and glori­
ous effects in the Church as a bio-social organism and in each of the
faithful as members of that mystical body.10 In this study even the
most humble Christian will learn how to appreciate worthily his im­
measurable dignity as a son of God and to act in all things in con­
formity with that dignity, despising the grandeurs of the world.11
He will learn to cherish the divine gift, to love it with all his heart
and to cultivate it with all possible solicitude. As a result, he will
wholeheartedly detest sin, not only serious sin, which despoils him
of that dignity and makes him fall miserably into the power of dark­
ness, but even light sins which place an obstacle to the friendship of
God and the uninterrupted flow of His grace, thereby conditioning
him for an irreparable fall. He will be inspired to undertake sacrifice
in order to root out the very last seed of evil and to acquire the divine
virtues. He will, as a consequence, be permeated and transformed
by the mystical evangelical ferment. Moreover, he will generously
resolve to pass through fire and water to purge himself completely
of all earthly dross and to abandon himself fully to the hands of
God so that he may be converted, as St. Gregory Nazianzen so
beautifully says, into a finely tuned instrument whence the Holy
Ghost draws divine melodies.12
The priest, who ought to indoctrinate and direct souls both from
the pulpit and in the sacred tribunal of penance, will learn how to
10 See the interesting article, Deificacion, (in Ideates, July and August, 1907) by
Father Joseph Cuervo, O.P., to whom I must express my gratitude for the great help
he gave me in this work.
11 St. Jerome, Ep. ÿ: “Learn holy pride; know that it is greater than those othris
12 St. Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. ad popul., 43, no. 67: “A musical ..............
vibrated by the Spirit, proclaiming in melody, the divine power and glory."
3

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

inculcate in them the true spirit of Jesus Christ, to preserve them
from the misguidance of an individualistic spirit and from the count­
less snares which the world, the flesh, and the devil hold for them.
He will learn how to direct, encourage, and stimulate souls, when,
under the impulse of the divine Guest, they begin the way which is
at once the sorrowful and glorious way of configuration with the
Savior. I he minister of God will then be able to comfort and direct
them, instead of paralyzing them through his ignorance or discon­
certing them or exposing them to ruin, as unfortunately often hap­
pens.
It is certain that ignorance and the lack of ardor in directors are
the cause of the ruin of many souls. Some of these souls remain
stationary, others are misguided and never find the path of the
mystical life. Even the more generous souls needlessly suffer inde­
scribable hardships and interior trials. They are unable to walk be­
cause God wishes to lead them by a different path, and yet they do
not dare to fly, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, because
their wings are fettered by the imprudence of blind directors. How
often it happens that the little ones ask for the bread of the divine
word and there is no one to impart it to them! 13 From the lips of the
priest they seek knowledge of the ways of God and find only the
false lights of WOrldly prudence. Believing themselves to be in the
hands of an experienced guide, they let themselves be directed by a
blind man who leads them to the precipice.14 So it is that piety is
cooled and faith itself is lost because of the lack of masters who
know how to speak with grace 15 and to exhort with sound doc­
trine.18
Why is it that our holy religion has less and less hold on the
people? Why, instead of the spirit and life that it is, is it so often re­
duced to empty externals, routine practices, and a dead symbolism?
Why that cold indifference with which the generality of those who
call themselves Christians look upon sacred things?
Undoubtedly one of the most weighty reasons is that today few
persons feel keenly and understand deeply and attempt to make
known in a fitting manner the great mysteries of the kingdom of
18 Lam. 4:4.
14 Matt. 15:14.
18 Col. 4:6.
18 Titus 119.
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INTRODUCTION

God in souls and the marvels which the vivifying Spirit works in
them.17 Studies of the Christian life are looked upon with disdain.
Few speak to the people in language that is frank and simple, vital
and not artificial, and that comes from an inflamed and illuminated
heart. Seldom do we hear that energetic, animated, and throbbing
language which is associated with the apostles and the Fathers. It is
not to be wondered at, then, that many of the faithful, like the
disciples at Ephesus, have not even heard, nor do they know, that
there is a Holy Ghost who sanctifies souls (Acts 19:2).18
Such Christians will be unable to give a reason for their faith to
those who ask it, as St. Peter commands, and yet this is necessary for
all of us today. They will not be able to fulfill the wish of St. Paul:
17 Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. Ill, chap. 45: “Wherefore, however lofty be the
doctrine that is preached, and however choice the rhetoric and sublime the style
wherein it is clothed, it brings as a rule no more benefit than is present in the spirit
of the preacher.”
18 “If those who are noble according to worldly standards are so much interested
in verifying the lineage of their illustrious ancestry, how is it possible,” asks Father
Terrien (La grâce et la gloire, Introd.), “that we Christians, who, through baptism
belong to the lineage of God Himself and are His sons by adoption and the brothers
of Jesus Christ, ignore or understand so poorly the grandeur and glory which are
contained in these titles? Do not ask those who are Christians in name only; ask even
the great number of those who glory in professing their faith, and, what is more, in
practicing it. Ask them how much they value their divine filiation and their state of
grace, which is the most highly esteemed after that of glory. On hearing their
answers you will see with what reason Christ could say to them: ‘If you but knew
the gift of God!’ The very most that they can imagine is that they live in peace
with Him, that their sins have been forgiven, and that if they do not commit new
sins they will one day enjoy eternal bliss. But few understand and meditate upon
that wonderful divine renewal which takes place in their hearts, that regeneration
which transforms the innermost nature and faculties of the adopted sons of God,
that deification which makes man God. As a consequence they value but little
what they understand so poorly and they make no effort to acquire, preserve, and
increase this unknown treasure. . . .
“If the faithful live in such ignorance of the treasures with which they have been
so liberally endowed by the Father of mercy, the blame falls in great part on those
who, by vocation, are charged to instruct them. . . . Seldom do they speak of these
mysteries; and when they do, it is done in a manner so vague and with words so
ambiguous that their hearers are enchanted by the language but do not comprehend
the thought. Nor let it be said, as sometimes happens, that these matters are too
lofty to be grasped by the simple faithful. . . . The apostles did not proceed in this
way. What are the Epistles of St. Paul (not to mention the other Epistles), but a
continual preaching of the mysteries of grace and divine filiation? Yet they were
addressed to all Christians. ... To say that Christians today lack the culture neces­
sary to understand these things is to forget the activity of the divine Spirit who
interiorly enlightens the intellect of the faithful that they may understand the truths
which are announced to them. ‘That we may know the things that are given us
from God’ (I Cor. 2:12).”

5

THE MYSTICAL FAOLUTION

“Walk with wisdom towards them that are without, redeeming the
time.” 18*Not knowing how to give an answer, they will repel out­
siders instead of attracting them, and they will even place themselves
in great danger. If they do not walk with that wisdom which is not
conquered by evil, they will easily be led along the path to perdition.
In other times the generality of the faithful keenly appreciated the
divine mysteries. When asked about them, they could reply divinely
for it was not they who spoke, but the Spirit of the Father who
spoke in them.20 We are not surprised that they captivated the
enemy by their sublime speech.
Today, unfortunately, the situation has been reversed, and many
Christians, instead of converting others, are themselves misled “by
philosophy and vain deceit, according to the tradition of men, ac­
cording to the elements of the world.” 21 In their hearts is not the
true light of life; nor on their lips, the word of salutary wisdom.22
“The heart of a wise man understandeth the time and answer,” 23
but those who arc ignorant of the things of God devote themselves
uselessly to the study of the mentality of their adversaries in order
to adapt themselves to it. Since they do not sacrifice themselves to
become all things to all men to gain them for Jesus Christ, they
themselves are lost through lack of divine discretion and learned zeal.
The growing prestige of the natural sciences, which have made"
such rapid progress; the deep-seated prejudice in favor of the suf­
ficiency and complete autonomy of human reason; and the havoc
which rationalist criticism has caused: all of these explain the loss by
the supernatural order of its divine enchantment and its growing re­
pulsion for many people. On the one hand they look upon the super­
natural as the destroyer and disturber of reason itself, an alien and
violent invasion that would paralyze all human activities. On the
other hand the supernatural order is regarded as something impos­
sible of verification by such extrinsic arguments as are currently in
18 Col. 4:5; cf. Eph. 5:15 f.
20 Matt. 10:20.
21 Col. 2:8.
22 St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi exclaims: “O divine Word, Thou givest to him
who follows Thee a vivifying light, glorifying and eternal, which gives life to the
soul and controls and vivifies all its thoughts, words, and actions. So a word from
such a soul is as a fiery dart which pierces the hearts of creatures” (Œuvres, Part
III, chap. 5).
23 Eccles. 8:5.

6

INTRODUCTION

vogue. So it is that many sincere and learned men look upon the
supernatural order with aversion or disdain because of the false idea
they have formed about it. Unfortunately a number of ignorant
apologists have contributed to this condition by speaking of what
they do not understand.
How can we make a breach in these and many other souls, who,
from ignorance or malice, close their ears to the word of God and
their hearts to the influxes of His grace? How can they be made to
see that in the supernatural order they will not encounter death, but
rather that mode of life which they need? What method can we use
to lead the learned ones, haughty in their “inalienable autonomy”
and pompous science, to the humble service of Christ and the holy
folly of the Cross?
The apologetic method most universal, most efficacious, most
facile, and most in harmony with the systems of present-day thought
is a positive exposition, vital and pulsating with the mysteries of the
Christian life and the whole process of the deification of souls. Such
a method will demonstrate in a practical way that the supernatural
does not come to us as an exterior and violent imposition, oppressing
us and depriving us of our nature, but as an increase of life, freely
accepted, liberating and ennobling us. It does not destroy our
humanity; it makes us superhuman, sons of God, gods by partic­
ipation. “For God so loved the world as to give His only-begotten
Son; that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but may have
life everlasting.” 21
The living and true God, the God of infinite goodness, does not
come to us to kill or paralyze but to deify us, to make us participants
in His own life, virtue, dignity, happiness, and absolute power and
sovereignty. By communicating His Spirit to us He gives us the only
true autonomy and liberty, the glorious liberty of sons of God.
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” 25
If we could but make these sublime truths better understood, how
many souls would be captivated! To how many could be said what
the Savior said to the Samaritan woman: “If thou didst know the
gift of God!” 20 If they but knew the indescribable enchantments
"‘John 3:16.
” Cf. II Cor. 3:17.
’"John 4:10.
7

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

and ineffable delights which lie hidden beneath the external sorrows
and tribulations, it is certain that many of those who show so great
an aversion to the spiritual life would then desire it with all their
hearts and would strive in very truth to dedicate themselves entirely
to it, cooperating with that grace by which God stimulates them.
“All you that thirst, come to the waters.” 27 Taste, and you will see
how delicious they are. Heed the divine invitation, and your souls
will live. “You shall draw waters with joy out of the savior’s foun­
tains.” 28
If what cannot be assimilated and vivified seems violent and odious
or at least useless to us, then what gives an increase of true life is
profitable, desirable, and loved by all. If, in accordance with modern
taste, our holy religion were explained positively as the origin of in­
finite light and an inexhaustible fountain of life, many of its enemies
would then esteem it and be interested in it, instead of not even wish­
ing to hear it mentioned. Many learned men today remain obdurate
before the arguments of extrinsic apologetics, although composed
with the most commendable logic. 1 low enthusiastically xvould they
open their hungry hearts to the supernatural if they were to see it
presented as it is in itself, as an irradiation of the life and infinite
love of a God enamored of our souls! Many learned and distinguished
men, loving what is good and noble, sacrifice themselves in the
search for truth and virtue. But they are too much concerned with
scientific criticism and exasperated, perhaps, by the assaults of
thoughtless apologists who move on planes far removed from con­
temporary thought. Consequently these noble men obstinately resist
the terminology which today is rarely understood or considered.
These same men would give an attentive ear if only they recog27 Isa. 55: i. But “if you do not believe, you shall not understand” (Isa. 7:9), and
if you do not experience truth, you will never sec it. St. Thomas says: “Spiritual
things must be tasted before they are seen, for no one knows them unless first he
tastes them. For that reason it is said: ‘Taste and seel’ ” (In Ps. 33.)
“Seek the life of God which is filled with true life, sure delights, and permanent
joy. . . . Taste and you will see the sweetness of interior recollection in God, those
secret promptings, those gentle inspirations, those sweet impulses, those admirable
lights, that patience in suffering in God, that guiding love, that liberality in assisting,
that largess in rewarding. See how tenderly He loves, how gently He woos, how
fiercely He defends, how delicately He constrains. Outside of God you will not
find joy nor perfect friendship. . . . All other friendships are bonds which give
only the appearance of security and they arc artifices of affection.” Cf. Ven. Palafox,
Varan de deseos, Introd.
28 Isa. 12:3.
8

t

INTRODUCTION

nized that such terminology speaks to them frankly in accents of love
and sincerity, like that of the apostles and Fathers. For theirs was a
vital and pulsating language in which they said what they experi­
enced and which came from the depths of their hearts. They seemed
to infuse into the hearts of others the very spirit which they them­
selves possessed. If used today, that divine language, those words of
life confirmed by example and such works of light as glorify the
heavenly Father, would make us realize that we cannot be perfect
men without being perfect Christians. St. Augustine expresses it thus:
“There are as many perfect men as there are true sons of God.”
So, when men come to understand to some extent the divine gift
and to discover the hidden treasure, then will they exchange for it
all that they possess. They will reproach us for being so slow in mak­
ing known to them such an incomparable good. With ineffable joy
mixed with sweet tears, they will exclaim in the words of the great
convert: “O thou Beauty ever ancient yet ever new, too late have I
known Thee; too late have I loved Thee.” 29 They will lament hav­
ing been so vain in their own conceits, ashamed now of ever having
doubted the objective truth of our sacrosanct dogmas.
If this could happen to those who are enemies, with still greater
reason will it be so in the case of the many Christians who live in
complete ignorance of these truths. Many sinners would be con­
verted and many lukewarm Christians would be inflamed and would
resolve to follow valiantly the paths of virtue if they but knew the
incomparable dignity of a Christian as a son of God, brother of Jesus
Christ, and living temple of the Trinity, who dwells in so many
hearts without their realizing it or doing anything about it. Surely
many of those who seek frantically the fleeting goods of this world
would be able to live holy lives if they realized how important it is
that they preserve and cultivate the divine treasure, and how great
is their obligation to nurture the mystical seed of eternal life, a
treasure which they keep buried in their hearts without letting it in­
crease. Unfortunately, few know the rich and glorious heritage
which Jesus Christ has conferred upon His saints 30 and the rigorous
obligation which all of us have, by the mere fact of having been bap­
tized to Him, to be vested in Flim and to conform ourselves to Flis
28 St. Augustine, Confessions, Bk. X, chap. 27.
80 Eph. 1:18.
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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

likeness, truly aspiring to our sanctification in Truth as our only
goal.8182

“Jesus Christ,” observes Weiss,32 “founded His Church only that
it might be holy (Eph. 5:26). The true society of the faithful ought
to be a holy people (I Pet. 2:9). All who receive the Christian faith
are called to sanctity (Rom. 1:7; I Cor. 1:2). Either a person must
aspire to it, or he must renounce the name of Christian, the title of
saint. What God wills is our sanctification (cf. I Thess. 4:3).”
Spiritual souls should find in these studies much information
which should supply, in part, for the scarcity of directors which
they so frequently lament. They should here discover the solution
of many of their difficulties and most potent inducements to undergo
their Calvary. Inexplicable joy and tranquillity will be theirs at the
verification of their timid suspicions of the ineffable work of deifica­
tion as it is realized in themselves; of the deeply intimate activity of
the sanctifying Spirit; of the adorable presence of the entire Trinity;
and of that sweet and loving relationship by which they are bound
to each one of the three divine Persons. Finally, how animated they
will become upon closer examination of the successive phases through
which they must pass in order to arrive at intimate union and trans­
formation, perfect configuration with Christ, and the solemn mo­
ment when, impressed with His divine image, they will be able to
say with the Apostle: “For me, to live is Christ”! 33
Therefore these humble pages are directed to all. Through these
pages we desire to serve all, saying with the Psalmist: “Who is the
man that desireth life: who loveth to see good days?” 34 Such a man
will find here, if not all that he desires on the subject or all that could
be said about it (for there are no limits), at least some indications of
the path which he must take to satisfy his hunger and thirst for
justice, life, truth, and love. On the other hand, this is the best de81 Cf. Rom. 8:29; Eph. 1:4; John 3:3; 17:17-26.
82 Apologie, art. 4.
88 “Contemplative souls,” says Alverez de Paz (De inquisitione pacis, Bk. V, Part
III, Introd.), “need to be made aware of this wisdom, for fear of the illusion that
they have been deceived—when as a matter of fact, they have not. Nor should they
weep, for they have not been victimized. The danger is that, when actually ensnared
by some wile of the devil, they should rejoice in vain confidence. Furthermore, they
need this precious wisdom to recognize and acknowledge the gifts they receive,
give thanks for them, and correspond with them by the purity of their lives.”
••Pi. 35:13.
10

INTRODUCTION

fense of the Church that we can make; the best means of guarding
against all aberrations and of avoiding and repairing the damage of
those exaggerated tendencies of speculative thought, sentimentality,
traditionalism, and modernism which cause so much agitation, con­
fusion, and lamentable desertions in our day.
Without an exposition, however brief, of the basis of the spiritual
life and the growth in Christian perfection, the defense of our re­
ligion would always be incomplete and defective.35 To make God’s
Church loved, no better way can be found than to show the ineffable
attractions of its inner life. To present only its inflexible exterior
aspect is almost to disfigure it and make it disagreeable; it is, in a
sense, to despoil it of its glory and its principal enchantments. All
its glory is from within. Today more than ever, as Blondel notes, to
attract men to the Church, it is essential to make known to them the
heavenly splendors of its divine spirit.
Presented as it is in itself, without disguise or mitigation, and with­
out weakening and disfigurement through the abject and narrow
standards of human evaluation, the Church, full of grace and truth
in imitation of its Spouse, gives perpetual testimony of its divine
mission and is its own best defense. Actually, divine truth needs no
defer.je; it needs only to be presented in its innate splendor and ir­
resistible force.
According to one type of symbol the Church appears as the house
and city of God, the gate of heaven, and the living temple of the
Holy Ghost. According to another type, it is a divine family, “a
chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased
people,” 36 a people ruled by God Himself, who converses famil­
iarly with His subjects, who are but so many sons. At other times the
Church is represented as a garden of divine delights where all virtue
and holiness bloom. Or it is a field where the divine word grows and
fructifies, a flock of sheep who know their Shepherd and follow Him
while He calls them by name and gives them eternal life.
Apart from these three types of symbols, which are called archi·· “In a defense of Christianity, so far as it is spirit and life,” says Weiss (Apologie,
Introd.), “the doctrine of perfection must be treated at any cost.” In another place
(ibid., nos. 6-9) he says: “The principal causes of spiritual frigidity and paralysis
in these days are the lack of an understanding of this salutary doctrine and the in­
difference to sanctity. What our age needs more than anything else is true saints,
new and perfect men, true Christians who are spiritual and perfect.”
·· Cf. I Pet. 2:9.
II

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

tectonic, sociological, and agricultural, there are two other types,
even more appropriate, which enable us to penetrate more deeply
and to soar more loftily in the consideration of the divine mysteries.
These are the sacramental and organo-anthropological symbols. Ac­
cording to them the Church is represented, respectively, as the spouse
of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, and as
the mystical body of Jesus Christ. We shall devote ourselves prefer­
ably to these two types of symbols without, however, excluding the
others when they are to the point.
These symbols are so varied and so numerous in order that we may
see that no single one of them nor all of them together is an adequate
representation of a reality so exalted that it surpasses the limits of
our poor language and all the categories of our limited thought,
transcending the most lofty knowledge and intuition of our weak
and vacillating reason. Each symbol portrays but one aspect of that
ineffable reality which is in some way conjectured but never fully
grasped; nor can it be explained by an adequate definition. All the
symbols taken together succeed in giving us a more exact idea,
obliging us at the same time to prescind in great measure from the
forms which seem mutually to exclude each other. Such terms en­
able us to rise far above our weak sophisms and evaluations, to know
with the knowledge of Christ and to admire in silence and to con­
template by the light and grace of the Holy Ghost. Only thus can
we appreciate divinely what cannot be uttered in human words or
conceived by human thought.
If no symbol can exhaust the manifold vital aspects of the Church,
if no system can contain so striking a reality, then any attempt to de­
fine it technically is to debase and destroy it, as if of set purpose. Be­
cause it transcends all systems and human concepts, it cannot be
explained in terms peculiar to any epoch of history or school of
philosophy. More profitable if we should let the concepts pass
before the mind and admire their flexibility and richness than
chain them to the narrowness of our views. To contemplate in
silence the treasures of life and divine science contained in the mys­
tical body of Jesus Christ, and to ponder them in the daring and in­
spired phrases of Sacred Scripture and the great saints who felt these
things keenly: surely this is better than to systematize them, in the
12

INTRODUCTION

vain hope of forcing them into the limited categories of our thought.
Even if such systematization could enable us to comprehend these
concepts, it would by that very fact disfigure what in itself is in­
comprehensible. If it is foolish to measure the water of the ocean
with a shell, it is much more foolish to measure with the human mind
the inexhaustible treasures of divine wisdom.
The prestige of the supernatural order cannot be re-established by
presenting it in the manner of those who defame it nor even as
we ourselves consider it humanly. It must be seen as it is in itself
and as it pleased God to embody it in His Church. Knowing well
what the Church is, we shall understand what her members ought to
be. Those members, in turn, will learn to appreciate the gift of God
and to correspond with His divine grace, striving to live ever as sons
of the light, nurturing the seed of divine life and imperishable glory
which they possess in themselves. To what a notable degree would
the level of Christian life be raised, and what an excellent defense of
religion the works of the generality of the faithful would provide, if
we would all trifly strive to know and appreciate the “new and liv­
ing way which He hath dedicated for us through the veil, that is to
say, His flesh”! 37 For we are members of the divine mystical body
and from its Head we are continually receiving wonderful influxes.
We cannot fully explain the things we shall now treat. Their
beauty, sublimity, and heavenly savor surpass the limits of human
speech. The inner nature of the supernatural life; its excellence,
which surpasses all created things; the way it is lived; the phases
through which souls successively pass, suffering and enjoying the
incredible until they are completely divested of the old man and
clothed with the new: all this is truly ineffable. “Of whom we have
much to say, and hard to be intelligibly uttered.” 38
This task is not only difficult, it seems almost temerarious. If the
great mystics, who were filled with the Holy Ghost and had died to
the world and were living a life hidden with Christ in God, rarely
succeeded in speaking of these things, what can we say who are so
unfamiliar with them? These are matters so sublime and so inde­
scribable, so incomprehensible and so inexplicable, that even when
87 Heb. 10:20.
88 Heb. 5:11.
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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

they arc experienced, one is scarcely able to understand them, much
less comprehend them. Even if they be comprehended ever so little,
yet it is impossible to speak of them.
But we must not for that reason remain silent, since mystical
growth is the principal purpose of divine revelation and the source
of every kind of progress in holy Church. Hence we must foster
this mystical growth at all costs.39 It is necessary, then, to recall
some of the things taught by the great mystical theologians who had
the good fortune to know and experience the mysteries of that
marvelous life and to be able to observe and describe in some measure
its wonderful growth.40 Therefore, to the best of our ability we must
summarize, coordinate, and translate into human language whatever
the mystical authors, especially such as are inspired, have told us in
their own language, which is truly divine.
To substantiate our particular conclusions we shall cite, in ap­
pendixes and notes, certain conclusive excerpts from the great spir­
itual masters and from souls who better understood or were better
38 “The desire of the indivisible Trinity, which is the source of life,” says St.
Dionysius (.Hier, eccles., chap, i, no. 3), “is the salvation of all rational creatures.
And salvation is found in deification, that is, in the most perfect assimilation and
union with God.”
St. Teresa, The Interior Castle, sixth mansions, chap. 4: “I cannot help feeling the
pity of it when 1 see how much we are losing, and all through our own fault. For,
true though it is that these are things which the Lord gives to whom Fie will, He
would give them to us all if we loved Him as He loves us. For He desires nothing
else but to have those to whom He may give them, and His riches are not diminished
by His readiness to give.” Our Lord once said to her (Life, chap. 40) : “Ah,
daughter, how few are they who love Me in truth! If people loved Me, I should
not hide My secrets from them.” Again, in her Way of Perfection, chap. 16, she
says: “Therefore, daughters, if you want me to tell you the way to attain to con­
templation, do allow me to speak at some length about these things. ... If you have
no wish either to hear about them or to practice them, ... I assure you, and all
persons who desire this blessing, that in my opinion you will not attain true con­
templation.” Ibid., chap. 17: “Let such a one make herself ready for God to lead
her by this road if He so wills; if He does not, the whole point of true humility is
that she should consider herself happy in serving the servants of the Lord and in
praising Him.” In another place, she adds (Life, chap. 18) : “My chief aim is to cause
souls to covet so sublime a blessing.”
40 St. Catherine of Genoa, Dialogues, Part III, chap. 11 : “Without some manifesta­
tion, however imperfect it might be, of the ineffable mysteries of the divine life
in souls, there would be in the world nothing but lying and confusion. Therefore
the soul illumined by the light from on high cannot be silent. Love inflames it to the
point of making it overcome all obstacles in order to diffuse the fruits of ineffable
peace which the God of all consolation produces in it (II Cor. 1). This will happen
all the more when the soul sees men foolishly lost in the search for worldly pleas­
ures which are incompatible with their future immortal glorification.”

«4

INTRODUCTION

able to reveal the ineffable impressions of the infinite reality. Since
the breathings of the Spirit are so varied and since each soul expe­
riences and describes them in his own way and from some particular
aspect, we shall take care that these texts are likewise varied. In this
way one can form a comparatively accurate idea of that inexpress­
ible treasure, and any soul which begins to experience these things
will be able to know and understand something of what is taking
place within itself.
Even if only one soul receives spiritual benefit, we shall consider
our efforts and labors well spent. If, then, anyone, in spite of our in­
competence, finds light and food here, thanks be to the Father of
Light who knows how to make use of unprofitable instruments. Let
such a soul offer a prayer that the author, who up to this time was
nothing more than a mere channel, be changed into a shell, to use the
phrase of St. Bernard (Serm. 18 in Cant.).
With divine help we shall treat, first, of the supernatural life and
its principal elements; secondly, of tie development of this life in
particular souls or of individual mystical growth; and thirdly, of the
mystical growth of the Church as a whole.

CHAPTER I

General Idea of the Mystical Life
SS&SSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSsiSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSsSSsSSSsSSSsSSSs

!\AySTICAL”

means the same as “hidden.” The mystical life

is the mysterious life of the grace of Jesus Christ in faithful souls
who, dead to themselves, live hidden with Him in God.1 More
properly it is that interior life which just souls experience when,
animated and possessed by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, they receive
more and more perfectly, and sometimes clearly perceive, His divine
impulses, delightful or painful, whereby they grow in union and
conformity with Him who is their Head until they become trans­
formed in Him.
By mystical evolution we understand the entire process of the
formation, growth, and expansion of that prodigious life until Christ
is formed in us,2 and we are transformed in His divine image.3
This life can be lived unconsciously, as an infant lives its rational
or specifically human life. It is in this way that beginners live and,
in general, all those who are called simple ascetics. They journey to
perfection by the “ordinary paths” of laborious meditation on the
divine mysteries, mortification of the passions, and the methodical
exercise of the virtues and pious practices. This life can also be
lived consciously, with a certain intimate experience of the mysteri­
ous touches, divine influxes, and vivifying presence of the Holy
Ghost. This is the way the generality of more advanced souls are
accustomed to live, those who have arrived at the perfect practice
of the virtues, and also those other privileged souls whom God freely
'Col. 3:3.
2 Gal. 4:19.
8 See II Cor. 3:18.
16

GENERAL IDEA OF THE MYSTICAL LIFE

selects at a very early stage to carry them more quickly—in 1 lis
arms, as it were—through the extraordinary ways of infused con
tempiation.
Souls living thus, more or less conscious of the divine life, arc
usually called mystics or contemplatives: mystics, by reason of the
innermost experience which they have of the hidden mysteries of
God; contemplatives, because their habitual mode of prayer is that
contemplation which God Himself lovingly infuses in whom He
wishes, when He wishes, and as He wishes, without its being due
in any way to human industry in acquiring, perfecting, or even
prolonging it.
On the other hand, the habitual mode of prayer of ascetics is
discursive meditation. With that ordinary grace which is denied to
no one, all of us can attain and even perfect this form of prayer,
until it is changed imperceptibly into what is called the prayer of
simplicity. This latter is a sort of contemplation, partly infused and
partly acquired and usually accompanied by a lering presence of
God. Caused by a singular impulse from the consoling Spirit, this
presence of God effects the gradual transition from the ascetical to
the mystical state.
Mysticism and Asceticism

Ascetics (from ασχ^π/ς, meaning “to exercise”) is the name given
to that science which teaches the “ordinary” ways or, rather, the
rudiments or first stages of Christian perfection. More particularly,
it reveals the manner of meditating well in order to acquire virtues
and root out vices. Furthermore, it teaches how all the practices of
the purgative way and some of the practices of the illuminative and
unitive ways are to be performed.
The term “mysticism” is properly reserved for “the experimental
knowledge of the divine life in souls elevated to contemplation” 4
4 Says Gerson: “Mystical theology has for its object the experimental knowledge
of the things of God produced by the intimate union of love.” This knowledge is
acquired chiefly through the gift of wisdom which, as Sauvé remarks {Etats mys­
tiques, p. 120), “has as its characteristic to enable one to taste the things of faith.
'I hen the soul actually seems to taste, feel, touch, and experience these things in­
stead of seeing them imperfectly from a distance or knowing them by heal ing
alone.” This is in conformity with what St. Thomas teaches {In I Sent., disr. 1
q.z, a.2, ad 3): “through the gift [of wisdom] there is effected in us a union with

«7

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

although in general it embraces the whole spiritual life. This science
is essentially esoteric, as is the science of optics to the blind, and no
one can well understand or appreciate it without having been initi­
ated into it by his own experience. The efforts of the mystics to
I ranslatc such experience into intelligible language seems as enigmatic
to us who are ignorant as do colors to the blind. Yet such efforts are
of greater value and give us a better understanding of the ineffable
mysteries of the spiritual life than what could be taught by specu­
lative theology, which views these mysteries externally and only
through the investigations of reason.*
5 “The things also that are of
God no man knoweth, but the Spirit of God” 6 and him to whom
the Son chooses to reveal them.7
Those mysterious concepts which can be acquired without any
personal experience constitute the external aspect of mysticism.
However imperfect they may be, they are of the greatest interest
since they make possible the recognition of the sublime mysteries
of the spiritual life and of that marvelous growth in grace which
terminates in glory.8 Moreover, they are indispensable to every
spiritual director who wishes to fulfill his obligation of guiding
and not misleading souls. He who possesses a true spirit of piety
and something of a Christian sense—although through lack of ex­
God according to the mode proper to that Person; i.e., through love, when the
Holy Ghost is given. Hence this knowledge is quasi-experimental.” So it becomes
a prelude of glory. “The interior savor of divine wisdom is like a certain foretaste
of future happiness” (Opusc. 60, chap. 24).
5 Ven. Bartholomew of the Martyrs, O.P., writes: “Mystical theology consists in
lofty contemplation, ardent affection, and transcendent raptures by means of which
we are more easily able to arrive at a knowledge of God than by human studies.
This mysterious theology treats of the experimental knowledge of God, which the
saints call by various names because they are distinct aspects of this same knowl­
edge: contemplation, ecstasy, rapture, dissolution, transformation, union, exultation,
jubilation, entrance into the divine obscurity, taste of God, embrace or kiss of the
Spouse, etc. These things cannot be comprehended by those who have never ex­
perienced them, just as one can never make a blind man have a true concept of
color. . . . Concerning these things the Lord has said (Matt. 11) : ‘Thou hast hid
these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones.’ ” Cf.
Compendium mysticae doctrinae, chap. 26.
8 See I Cor. 2:11.
’ Matt. 11:27.
8 “What the mystics say of our transformation in God applies to the whole super­
natural life. The mystical life is nothing other than the life of grace made conscious
and known experimentally, js the life in heaven is that of grace developed, per­
fected, and brought to the completion of its slow and hidden growth” (Bainvel,
Nature et surnaturel, p. 76).

18

GENERAL IDEA OF THE MYSTICAL LIFE

perience he may not understand these concepts very well—will
surely not consider them incredible. Nor will he be shocked by
them, as is the case of those of little spirituality, who imitate the
unbelievers. “But the sensual man perceiveth not these things that
are of the Spirit of God. . . . But the spiritual man judgeth all
things; and he himself is judged of no man.” 9
I. SO-CALLED ORDINARY AND EXTRAORDINARY WAYS

Simple ascetics, although they sometimes feel or to some extent
perceive supernatural manifestations, are not yet able to note clearly
what those manifestations are since they are still infants in virtue.
Neither are such souls sufficiently conscious of these spiritual mani­
festations so as to know how to distinguish them from purely natural
phenomena. The ordinary principles of operation by which the spir­
itual life is exercised and manifested in simple ascetics are the infused
virtues. Although these are supernatural, they work in a connatural
or human manner. The gifts of the Holy Ghost, by which one works
supra modum humanum and exercises the mysterious spiritual senses,
as yet influence these souls but rarely, and even then very weakly.
Therefore it is seldom possible at this stage to distinguish and recog­
nize the supernatural except in those effects which are called “mir­
acles of grace,” those sudden conversions a soul sometimes experi­
ences when it finds itself fervent, strong, and filled with courage and
holy desires, where formerly it was lukewarm, fragile, inclined to
evil, and reluctant to do good.
Working as they do, in a human manner, such souls must be en­
couraged to proceed, as it were, on foot, and to arouse their own
initiative to practice virtue and overcome difficulties under the guid­
ance of the obscure light of faith and in accordance with the norms
of Christian prudence. Seldom will they note the continual impulses
of the divine Consoler, who secretly moves, sustains, and comforts
them. But when, confirmed in virtue and having conquered them­
selves, they conform their wills more and more to that of God, they
begin to feel and perceive certain desires, impulses, and instincts
which are entirely new and truly divine. These movements do not
proceed, nor could they proceed, from the souls themselves, for they
carry the soul on to something hitherto unknown, to a new type of
8 See I Cor. 2:14 f.
19

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

life and a much higher perfection. These souls now cannot rest until
they have faithfully set these desires and impulses to work, and in so
doing they enkindle other and even more lofty and ardent desires.
As these souls continue to follow the impulses of the Holy Ghost
with docility, they gradually perceive 1 lis touches more and more
clearly, taking note of His loving presence and recognizing the life
and virtues which He infuses in them. In this way they begin, little
by little, to work principally through the gifts, which are manifested
now to a high degree and as something superhuman. So they come
to possess an innermost experience of the supernatural within them­
selves and they enter fully into the mystical state.
In this happy state habitual prayer is manifestly produced in the
soul by the divine Consoler, who “pleads for us with inexpressible
groanings” and makes us pray as we ought. Now with greater fre­
quency and ever more clearly all His gifts guide the soul. Especially
is this true of the gift of wisdom, by which divine things are tasted
and experienced; and of the gift of understanding, by which the
profound secrets of God are penetrated. Also, at times, the gifts of
fear, of piety, of fortitude, of knowledge, or of prudence may pre­
dominate.
“The Spirit breatheth where He will; and thou hearcst His voice,
but thou knowest not whence He cometh and whither I le goeth. So
is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” 10 So it is that certain priv­
ileged souls begin to feel His delicate touches at a very early stage.
Ordinarily, however, the soul does not perceive these things clearly
as supernatural until it is far advanced on the path of virtue and so
united to the divine will that it neither softens nor stifles the voice of
the Spirit. At this stage it does not resist His impulses but follows
Him with docility, permitting Him to work freely in it.
2. SPIRITUAL INFANCY, ADOLESCENCE, AND MATURITY

In the beginning, then, we usually live this divine life uncon­
sciously and after the manner of infants, without recognizing the
new vital principle, the Holy Ghost Himself, who vivifies our souls,
renews our hearts, and enables us to be truly spiritual and to live as
worthy sons of God. Great numbers of Christians and even religious,
although these latter have vowed to follow diligently the path of
10 John 3:8.
20

GENERAL IDEA OF THE MYSTICAL LIFE

evangelical perfection, never leave this phase of spiritual infancy,
which is proper to ascetics and beginners. Yet would that many
Christians might at least be converted and become like unto little
children that they might be admitted into the kingdom of heaven.
Those “children” who do not yet realize that they are sons of God
and who, although they live by Him, work according to their own
designs and caprices and keep the spirit confined, must be considered
carnal and not spiritual men.11 They usually follow the prudence of
the flesh and are guided by the judgments of human prudence rather
than by those of Christian prudence, which, in conjunction with the
gift of counsel, constitutes the prudence of the spirit.
But if, perfected in virtue, they enter into the maturity of perfect
men, then the light and prudence of the Spirit of Jesus Christ will
begin to shine on their foreheads, according to the statement of the
Apostle: “Rise, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead; and
Christ shall enlighten thee.” 12 Once they have truly subjected the
prudence of the flesh, which is death, to that of the spirit, which is
life and peace, they will begin to live as spiritual men, as inspired
ones, moved by the impulses of the divine Consoler. They will feel
more or less keenly His vivifying influxes. Then, when they see
themselves moved by the Spirit of Christ, they will realize that they
are sons of God; for that same Spirit of adoption who animates them,
gives them evident testimony of the fact, as when He prompts them
to call the omnipotent God “Father.” 13 That action is an immediate
effect of the gift of piety. They call God by the loving name of
Father without ever realizing that it is the Spirit who prompts them
to do so.
All those who are unconsciously moved by the Spirit, though they
are sons of God by that very fact, are, nevertheless, no more than
simple ascetics; for as yet they lack that vivid innermost experience
of divine things. That experience or awareness is given by the gifts
of knowledge, counsel, and understanding, which bring them to the
spiritual age of discretion and make them conscious of what they
are. It is given in a special way by the gift of wisdom, which, with
the help of the diverse spiritual senses, enables them to recognize the
11 Cf. I Cor. 3:1.
12 Eph. 5:14.
13 Rom. 8:6-16.
2I

I III·: MYSTICAL EVOLUTION
touches of the Spirit and to feel, to taste, to see how sweet is the
Lord.14 Then it is that the soul enters fully into the mystical life
without fear of having to return to the ordinary practices of the
ascetical life each time the impulse and sweet inspiration of the Spirit
cease.
He breathes where He wills and when He wills, and the soul does
not usually know whither He goes; in spite of this fact, by His gentle
breathing He carries it under full sail to safe port. When that breath­
ing ceases, the soul must navigate by means of oars at the risk of be­
ing held back by the waves. But as the soul begins to enter upon the
high sea, the perpetual and tranquil currents of the ocean of living
water are observed and the impulses and inspirations are more and
more ceaseless. Then the “current of the river of grace gladdens the
city of God” and the breath of the Holy Ghost now shows whence
He comes and whither He is leading the soul.

3.

RENEWAL AND TRANSFORMATION

Then follows the prodigious working of grace, which is realized
in great part during the night of the senses. During this period, grace
subjects the senses to right reason illumined by Christian prudence.
It likewise ensures the practice of the supernatural virtues, uniting
the soul to God in perfect conformity of will and disposing it to fol­
low His promptings, which gradually become more and more con­
stant. Yet the operation of grace is realized still better in the night of
the spirit, wherein the supernaturalized reason is subjected to the
supreme and uniquely infallible norm of almost total direction by
the divine Consoler. It is then that the soul “in darkness and secure,
by the secret ladder, disguised” experiences a renewal or metamor­
phosis which enables it to pass from the simple conforming union in
which there yet remained, to some extent, its own proper initiative
and direction, to the transforming union in which God becomes “all
things in all,” the sole director and ordinary guide of its life.
In that former state the soul was like a silkworm buried in its
cocoon, inert, imprisoned, hidden. It comes forth now as something
entirely different: a butterfly, possessing organs suitable for life in
a more rarefied atmosphere, and able to feed on the nectar of flowers.
It is no longer a creeping thing as formerly, nor does it now feed on
14 See St. Augustine, Confessions, Bk. X, chap. 27.
22

GENERAL IDEA OF THE MYSTICAL. Lil I

base things. Such is the beautiful simile used by St. Teresa lft to ex
plain what takes place in the soul that comes forth entirely trans
formed and renewed and, as it were, possessed of new spiritual
organs, so that it lives now only according to the Spirit.
Thus the soul appears as something entirely different, with de­
sires, impulses, sentiments, and thoughts having nothing of the earth
about them nor anything human. They are absolutely divine, since
it is the very Spirit of God who excites and regulates them. Then
the soul perceives and understands that not only does it work with
the power of Christ; but that it has become entirely like to Jesus
Christ—having died and risen with Him and received the perfect
impress of His living Seal—and that He Himself works and lives
in it and through it and with it. Now in all truth the soul can say:
“I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me,” for the life of the soul is
Christ Himself, whose Spirit animates it completely and reigns
therein with absolute sovereignty.
Justification by the Holy Ghost and Deification

From what has been said, one can understand the supreme im­
portance of this mystical evolution which carries us, virtue by virtue,
to mystical union with God and the deifying transformation. Christ
said that He came to cast fire on the earth and He desired that the
earth be set on fire. This fire is the Holy Ghost, who must animate,
inflame, purify, and perfect us, transforming us to the point of deifi­
cation.
This deification, so well known to the Fathers but unfortunately
forgotten today, is the primary purpose of the Christian life. The
entire Christian life demands a continual growth so prodigious that
it has as its goal a perfection truly divine, for we must ultimately
resemble God as a son does his father. “Be you therefore perfect, as
also your heavenly Father is perfect.” 18 This is said to the sons of the
kingdom who, by the very fact that they are such, are already sons
of God. “Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” 16
17 It is said of the Word
16 The Interior Castle, fifth mansions, chap, a; seventh mansions, chap. 3.
16 Matt. 5:48.
17 John 3:3.
23

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

incarnate, in the wonderful words which we read every day in the
last Gospel of the Mass, that “as many as received Him, He gave
them the power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in
His name” 18*through sanctifying grace.

I. INFINITE VALUE OE GRACE

This grace is not, like the infused virtues, merely received in our
faculties to set these faculties to work. It is received into the very
substance of the soul and makes us a new creature and so transforms
and divinizes us. It gives us a manner of life which is truly divine;
whence flow certain powers and energies likewise divine, by which
we truly participate in the life, power, and merits of Jesus Christ.
Thus are we able to perform His very works, to accomplish His
divine mission, to complete, in a certain sense, the work of Redemp­
tion and the establishment of the Church. Thus do we become His
brothers and members, His lawful coheirs, worthy of glory and
eternal life.18
This eternal life consists, as St. John teaches, in being like unto
God and seeing Him as He is.20 This is nothing more than the simple
expansion or development of the life of grace. The difference be­
tween eternal life and the life of grace is similar to that between an
adult and an embryo; for grace, as St. Thomas teaches,21 is the seed
which, when full grown becomes eternal life. Grace is eternal life
18 John i: 12.
10 Cf. St. Thomas, De veritate, q.27, a.5 f.; De virt. in comm., a. 10; Summa theol.,
Ia Ilae, q.i10, a. 4.
20 See 1 John 3:2.
21 Ila Ilae, q.24, a.3, ad 211m: “Grace is nothing else titan a beginning of glory in
us.” In another place (la Ilae, q. 114, a.3, ad 3um), St. Thomas states: “Grace, . . .
although unequal to glory in act, is equal to it virtually as the seed of a tree, wherein
the whole tree is virtually.” Therefore by the life of grace “we are already sons of
God, we share in the divine life, we possess the Holy Ghost in our hearts. St. John
tells us of the eternal life which dwells within us (I John 3:14)· Glory is nothing
more than grace made external, evident, and manifest to others. For that reason St.
Paul says (Rom. 8:18): ‘The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared
with the glorv to come that shall be revealed in us.’ The more intense the aware­
ness of the supernatural and the more fully developed that divine life, so much the
more does the soul already possess that life of the world beyond the grave. The
soul dwells antecedently in heaven. That divine life enables us to pass from the
present to a future existence almost without any convulsive efforts. ‘But our
conversation is in heaven’ (Phil. 3:20).” See Broglie, Le surnaturel, Bk. I, pp.
38-40.
24

GENERAL IDEA OF THE MYSTICAL LIFE

inchoate and therefore merits the same name; gratia Dei, vita
aeterna.22
In grace are contained the three that bear witness on earth and
these three are one: 23 the Spirit who vivifies us and moves and di­
rects us to heaven; the blood that redeemed us and merited life for
us; and the water that regenerates us in Jesus Christ, burying us with
Him so that we might rise with Him to a new life. Hence without
Christ we can do absolutely nothing in regard to the supernatural
life; but with Him we can do all things. He Himself, by the com­
munication of His vivifying Spirit, is our true life, which gives us the
status of sons of God and the power to act as such. St. Paul expresses
this beautifully in his Epistle to the Romans:
You, however, are not carnal but spiritual, if indeed the Spirit of
God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he
does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, the body, it is true, is
dead by reason of sin, but the spirit is life by reason of justification. But
if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then
he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also bring to life your
mortal bodies because of his Spirit which dwells in you. . . .
For whoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Now you have not received a spirit of bondage so as to be again in fear,
but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons, by virtue of which we
cry: Abba (Father). The Spirit himself gives testimony to our spirit that
we are sons of God. But if we are sons, we are heirs also: heirs indeed
of God and joint heirs with Christ, provided however, we suffer with
him that we may also be glorified with him. . . .
But in like manner the Spirit also helps our weakness. For we do not
know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself pleads
for us with unutterable groanings. And he who searches the hearts knows
what the Spirit desires, that he pleads for the saints according to God
(Rom. 8:9-27).24

Without the communication of the vivifying Spirit, the soul is
dead to the supernatural life and can have no part with Christ. From
22 Rom. 6:23.
23 See I John 5:8.
24 St. Cyril of Alexandria, In Isai.: “The Son pours forth His Spirit upon us. . . ,
in Him we cry Abba, Father. Whence He calls us sons of God and of the Father
inasmuch as, being regenerated through the Spirit, we are called brothers of Him
who by nature is truly the Son. He says through the mouth of the Psalmist: Ί will
declare thy name to my brethren.’ ”
25

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

this it follows that the loss of grace is the greatest calamity that can
befall a man; and its acquisition, his greatest good fortune. With it,
all blessings come to us, for with it comes the Author of all goods;
without it all is lost, for then a man descends from the lofty and in­
comparable dignity of a son of God to the vile and abominable con­
dition of a son of death, perdition, and wrath.25
28 Therefore the saints
*27
teach that justification, by which the soul is created in Jesus Christ
and receives the divine substance of grace, is a work greater even
than the creation of heaven and earth.28
“W’hen the soul loses sanctifying grace,” says Bellamy,27 “it finds
itself in a condition analogous to that of primitive matter; it can be
said to be an abyss where there is nothing but darkness and chaos.
Dead to the supernatural life, it needs the Spirit of God to come and
deposit in its bosom the seeds of resurrection and to fructify them
by His omnipotent activity. Only then will the soul be able to find
the order, beauty, and life which are the fruits of divine organiza­
tion. Moreover, grace constitutes us sons of God; and this divine
filiation is nothing other than a reproduction, however remote, of
the eternal filiation of the Word. A consequence of this is that our
entire supernatural life should be an image and representation of
Him who is the splendor of the Father and the figure of His sub­
stance. “For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead cor­
poreally; and you are filled in him who is the head of all principality
and power.” 28
2. REALITY OF DIVINE ADOPTION AND FILIATION

This divine filiation is not improper, metaphorical, or simply
moral, as if it were due to a simple adoption similar to that among
human beings. This filiation is very true and very real in an inex­
plicable sense and even more proper and more lofty than is imagined.
25 Ven. Francesca of the Blessed Sacrament, in her life by Lanuza, chap, i: “God
has frequently shown me the state of a soul in mortal sin. Its ugliness and horror are
terrible; there is no monster in all the world to which it can be compared. He has
also shown me the state of a soul in grace. This is something most delightful and its
fairness and beauty can be compared neither to the sun nor to any other creature.”
28 “The justification of the ungodly which terminates at the eternal good of a
share in the Godhead, is greater than the creation of heaven and earth, which ter­
minates at the good of mutable nature” (la Ilae, q.113, a.9).
27 La vie surnaturelle, p. 72.
28 Col. 2:9.
26

GENERAL IDEA OF THE MYSTICAL LIU·.

It resembles, even more faithfully than does natural filiation by which
one man proceeds from another, the eternal filiation by which the
Word is born of the Father, “of whom all paternity in heaven and
earth is named.” 29
In moral adoption the son is not reborn of the adopting father,
and therefore he does not participate in the being, the life, and the
spirit of the father; nor is he interiorly moved by him. But the Spirit
of adoption which we have received gives us not only the honorable
title, inconceivable dignity, and inestimable rights, but also the mys­
terious and ineffable reality of sons of God. We are reborn of the
Father in the likeness of His eternal Word through the working of
His Spirit of love.30
Such charity did the Father manifest to us and such power and
mercy did He exercise in us that He was not content merely with
raising us from our poor and servile condition to the status of adopted
sons; He went further and, in adopting us, He willed that we should
be His true sons, actually reborn in Him (John 1:13) through the
grace and communication of His Spirit. Thereby we are incorpo­
rated into His only-begotten Son, from whom all things redound to
us as from the head to its members. We are, then, truly sons of God,
participators in His divine nature, and animated with His own Spirit,
as long as the Spirit of God dwells in us. Therefore, by communi­
cating to us His Spirit of adoption and incorporating us in His
Word, the Father has bestowed on us such love that we should be
called children of God; and such we are.31 As St. Augustine ob­
serves,32 we are reborn of that very same Spirit of whom Jesus Christ
was bom.33
Lessius states34 that through Jesus Christ, in whom dwells the
fullness of the divinity, “all those who adhere to Him as branches to
28Eph. 3:13.
80 See Illa, q.23, a.2, ad 3um: “Adoptive sonship is a certain likeness of the Eternal
Sonship. . . . Adoption, though common to the whole Trinity, is appropriated to
the Father, as its author; to the Son, as its exemplar; to the Holy Ghost, as imprint­
ing on us the likeness of this exemplar.”
81 John 3:1.
82 De praedest., 31: “One becomes a Christian by the same grace by which Christ
was made. He is reborn of the same Spirit of whom Christ was born.”
88 St. Athanasius {Contra Arianos, II, no. 59) says: “Since by their very nature
(men) are created (beings), they can in no other way become sons (of God) un­
less they shall receive the Spirit of Him who is the natural and true Son.”
·< De perfectionibus divinis, XII, 74-75.
27

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

the vine are adopted by God and made His true sons. For as soon
as one adheres to Christ and is engrafted on Him through baptism,
he is animated and vivified by the Spirit of Christ, which is His
divinity, and is thus made a son of God. He then lives by the same
spirit as that by which God lives, and by which Christ, the natural
Son of God, lives, although it is communicated in a different manner.
We are sons of God properly and formally, not so much by reason of
any created gift, as by the indwelling and possession of the divine
Spirit, who vivifies and directs our souls.” 3S
So it is that “this title of sons of God is not an empty name or
simple hyperbole. ... It indicates a real supernatural dignity es­
sential to all the just, a dignity which is the fruit of redemption and
the pledge of salvation. When we attain to this dignity through
sanctifying grace, in a certain measure we are to God by adoption
what His Son is to Him by essence. Without identifying or fusing us
with Himself, without destroying our nature, God unites us to His
own nature, makes us participate in His Spirit, in His lights by faith,
in His love by charity, in i lis activity by the power of His grace.
Fie places in our soul a new principle of operation, the seed of a
higher life, supernatural and divine, which is destined to grow and
develop in time and to manifest itself fully in eternity, when we shall
share in His glory and His kingdom.” 30

3-

DIGNITY OF THE CHRISTIAN

From this it will be seen how marvelous is the mystical evolution
which must be realized in us as a result of our regeneration and the
impulse of the new life which God infuses in us. This evolution en­
ables us to grow spiritually in grace and knowledge and in all per­
fection until we are completely assimilated in the only-begotten Son
of God, who, that He might be our life, our light, and our model,
appeared among us full of grace and truth. Compared with this prog­
ress which tends to engulf us in the infinite ocean of the Divinity
and to enrich us with the treasures of the divine perfections, all hu­
man progress, however glorious it may be, is shadowy and unsub­
stantial.
85 See la, q.43, a.3: “The Holy Ghost is possessed by man, and dwells within
him, in the very gift itself of sanctifying grace.”
8«Bacuez, Manuel biblique, IV, 216 (no. 587).

28

GENERAL IDEA OF THE MYSTICAL LilT

Because he rightly despises that false progress which perverts mid
degrades by sacrificing the moral for the material and the divine lot
the human, the good Christian is called antiquated and out of fashion.
Actually he is so enamored of true progress that he refuses to be
satisfied with perfections that are limited; he must tend with all the
ardor of his soul to an infinite and divine perfection, to be perfect
as is his heavenly Father.37
Christians, then, are a new and heavenly race of men of divine
lineage, deified men, “the offspring of God” (Acts 17:29 f.), sons
of God the Father, incorporated in the Word made flesh, and
animated by the Holy Ghost, men whose lives and conversations
ought to be altogether heavenly and divine.38 “If God humbled Him­
self to become man,” says St. Augustine (Serm. 166), “it was in
order to exalt men and to make them gods,” and He makes them to
be so “by deifying them with His grace; because, by the very fact
that He justifies them, He deifies them, making them sons of God
and by that fact, gods” (In Ps. 49, no. 2).
“Be mindful of your dignity, O Christian,” says St. Leo (Serin. I
de Nativ.), “and having been made a participator in the divine
nature, do not seek to degrade yourself with unworthy conversation
nor to return to your former baseness. Remember who is your head
and of whose body you are a member.”
Sublime Notions

of the

Fathers Concerning Deification

So common were these ideas concerning deification that not even
the heretics of the first centuries dared to deny them. The holy
Fathers extracted from these concepts an admirable defense for the
divinity of the Son and Holy Ghost against the Arians and Mace­
donians. The Scriptures, said the Fathers, present these two Persons
to us as vivifying, sanctifying, and divinizing of themselves the souls
in which they dwell and to whom they are communicated. They
impress on souls the divine likeness and make them participants in
8T Fonsegrive, Catholicisme et la vie de Γesprit, ρ. iç: “Is it possible to offer man
a life more lofty, more stable, more active than that of God Himself? . . . There
is no danger that the Catholic ideal will ever atrophy us.”
38 St. Peter Chrysologus, Sermon ya: “Therefore he who believes and professes
himself to be the son of such a Father should live a life worthy of his lineage, should
perform acts worthy of his Father, and in thought and deed should proclaim that he
has become divine in his nature.”
29

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

the divine nature. Yet only God, who is life, holiness, and deity by
nature, can of Himself and through His own communication, vivify,
sanctify, and deify.
To dwell in the soul, to vivify and refashion it, God must pene­
trate it substantially, and this is proper and exclusive to God.39 No
creature, says Didymus, can penetrate the very essence of the soul;
the knowledge and virtues which adorn it are not substances but
accidents which perfect its potencies. But the Holy Ghost dwells
substantially in the soul in company with the Father and the Son.40
I.

THE ROLE OF THE HOLY GHOST

It is the Holy Ghost, says St. Cyril, who imprints on us the divine
image; and if Fie were nothing more than a simple dispenser of grace,
then we should be made to the image of grace, and not to the image
of God.41 But no; He Himself is the stamp which impresses on us
that divine image and thus Fie refashions us, making us participate
89 St. Thomas teaches (Contra Gent., Bk. IV, chap. 17): “For no creature is in­
fused into a spiritual creature, since it is impossible to participate in a creature, and
rather it is the creature that participates. Now the Holy Ghost is infused into the
souls of the saints, so that they participate in Him as it were.” He adds (chap. 18):
“For, since the devil is a creature, as we have seen above, he cannot fill a man as
though a man could participate of the devil; nor can he dwell in a man’s soul participatively or substantially. But he is said to fill some men by the effect of his wick­
edness. . . . Whereas the Holy Ghost, being God, dwells in the soul by His
substance, and makes us good by participation of Him; for He is His own goodness,
since He is God; which cannot be true of any creature. This, however, does not
hinder Him from filling souls of holy men by the effect of His power.” He is not
content with communicating His gifts to us, but He Himself comes with them in
person. The Holy Doctor, always so moderate in his criticisms, holds the contrary
opinion to be a manifest error: “. . . the error of those who say that the Holy
Ghost is not given, but that His gifts are given,” and then he adds: “The Holy
Ghost is possessed by man, and dwells within Him, in the very gift itself of sanctify­
ing grace” (la, q.43, a.3). He explains this by the following significant words:
“We are said to possess only what we can freeiy use or enjoy. ... By the gift of
sanctifying grace the rational creature is perfected so that it can freely use not only
the created gift itself, but enjoy also the divine person Himself” (ibid., ad turn).
Speaking in another place of the power of the sacraments: “The interior sacra­
mental effect is the work of God alone: . . . because God alone can enter the soul
wherein the sacramental effect takes place” (Illa, q.64, a. 1).
40 “Indeed, I say that it is possible for knowledge, virtues, and arts to reside in
souls; not however as substances but as accidents. But it is impossible for a created
nature to reside in this manner. . . . Since, therefore, it is taught that the Holy
Ghost, as well as the Father and the Son, dwells in the soul and the interior man,
... it is impious to call Him a creature” (Didymus, De Spiritu Sancto, no. 25).
41 “A. Is it not the Spirit who impresses on us the divine image and sets upon us
after the manner of a seal supramundane beauty? B. Not as God, but as the dis­
penser of divine grace. A. Then He Himself is not impressed upon us, but through

3°

GENERAL IDEA OF THE MYSTICAL LIFE

in the divine nature itself.*42 This divine stamp or character which is
impressed upon us, says St. Basil, is a living thing; it molds us within
and without, penetrating into the very depth of the heart and soul,
and in this way it refashions us and makes us living images of God.43
Thus He consecrates us at the same time that He seals us and effects
in us a living pledge of the heavenly heritage, as the Apostle says.44
He is like a divine balm which penetrates and transforms us with
its unction (spiritualis unctio') and makes us exhale the fragrance of
Christ so that we can say with the Apostle: “For -we are the good
odor of Christ” (cf. II Cor. 2:15). What we receive is His own
divine substance and not simply the odor of balm.45
He is a fire which penetrates us most intimately; and, without de­
stroying our nature, Fie inflames it and gives it all the properties of
fire.46 He is a light which, illuminating souls, makes them luminous
Him grace is thus impressed? ... If so, then man should be called, not the image
of God, but the image of grace” (St. Cyril Alex., Dial. j de Trinit.).
42 “You . . . were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise, who is the pledge
of our inheritance . . .” (Eph. 1:13 f.). “If, being sealed with the Holy Ghost, we
are refashioned to God, how could that be something created, by which the image
of the divine essence and the signs of the uncreated nature are impressed upon us?
For the Holy Ghost does not depict the divine nature in us after the manner of a
painter . . . , but since He Himself is God . . . He is impressed on the hearts of
those who receive Him, like a seal upon wax, but invisibly. He depicts His own
nature through a communication and likeness of Himself to the beauty of the arch­
type, and He restores to man the image of God” (St. Cyril, Thesaurus, assertio 34').
43 “How shall the creature ascend to the likeness of God unless it share in the
divine character? Further, the divine character is not such as is a human character,
but it is a living and truly existing image, the cause of similitude by which all who
participate therein are constituted images of God” (St. Basil, Contra Eunont., Bk. 5).
44 Cf. II Cor. 1:21 f.: “Now He that confirmeth us with you in Christ, and that
hath anointed us, is God; who also hath sealed us and given the pledge of the Spirit
in our hearts.”
45 St. Cyril of Alexandria, In Joan., Bk. XI, chap. 2: “If the fragrance of spices
transmits its strength to the clothing and transforms into itself, as it were, those
things in which it resides, why cannot the Holy Ghost, since He naturally exists
in God, make those in whom He resides, participants of the divine nature?” “He
abounds in the faithful, not now through the grace of visitation and operation, but
through the presence of His majesty; and there flows into the vessel, not now the
odor of balsam, but the very substance of the sacred ointment” (St. Augustine,
Semio iS;, de Tenip.).
40 Cf. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catecheses, 17: “If the fire which interiorly pene­
trates the density of iron, turns the whole thing into fire . . . , why are you aston­
ished if the Holy Ghost enters into the innermost recesses of the soul?”
St. Basil, Contra Eunont., Bk. 3: “Just as iron thrown into the midst of a fire does
not lose the nature of iron; and yet, having been inflamed by the blazing fire, it will
have received the entire nature of fire and in its color, heat, and activity is changed
into fire; so, by reason of the communion which they have with Him who is holy
by His very nature, the powers of the soul receive His entire substance and possess,

31

THE MYSTICAL EXSOLUTION

and resplendent, radiant with grace and charity as truly divine suns,
for He makes them like unto God Himself and what is more, He
makes them gods.47 He is a most sweet guest {dulcis hospes animae)
who comes to converse familiarly with us, to delight us with His
presence, to console us in our labors, to encourage us in our dif­
ficulties, to advise us and prompt us to good, and to enrich us with
His precious gifts and fruits. Dwelling within us, He makes us holy
and living temples of God and, conversing familiarly with us, He
makes us His friends and therefore His equals, to a certain extent,48
and worthy of the name of gods.49 And if through the indwelling of
the Holy Ghost, say St. Epiphanius and St. Cyril, we are temples of
God and God Himself abides in us, how can He be less than God? 50
“It is necessary that He be God,” says St. Gregory Nazianzen,51 “if
He is to have the power to deify us.”
“Therefore, it is not to be understood,” observes St. Cyril,82 “that
any creature deifies. This is proper to God alone, who, communi­
as it were, an innate sanctification. The difference between them and the Holy
Ghost is this, that the Spirit is holiness by nature whereas sanctification is in them
by participation.”
47 Cf. St. Basil, De Spiritu Sancto, chap. 9, no. 23: “The union of the Spirit with
the soul is not effected by His drawing near according to place. Shining on those
who are purged of all dross, He makes them spiritual through union with Himself;
and, as bodies become bright and shining when a ray of light falls upon them, and
from their brilliance they diffuse a new luster, so souls that possess the Spirit within
themselves and are illumined by the Spirit, themselves become spiritual and send
forth grace to others. . . . Hence, the likeness to God and that than which nothing
more sublime could be desired, that you should become god.”
48 “Friendship either discovers equals or makes them” (Seneca).
40 Cf. St. Cyril, In Joan., I, 9: “For that reason we are called gods, not only be­
cause we have been raised to supernatural glory by divine grace, but because we now
possess God dwelling and abiding in us. . . . Otherwise, how are we temples of
God, according to Paul, possessing the Spirit dwelling within us, unless the Spirit
be God by nature?”
80 St. Epiphanius, Hacres., 74, no. 13: “If we arc called the temple of God by
reason of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, who would dare repudiate the Spirit
and reject Him from the substance of God, stating that we are not the temple of
God because of the Holy Ghost who dwells in the souls of the just, as the Apostle
clearly affirms?”
“Only the indwelling of God makes a soul a temple of God” (St. Thomas, In I
Cor. 3:16, lec. 3).
81 Orat. 34: “If the Holy Ghost is not God, let Him first be made God; and then
at last He shall deify me.”
But being deified oneself does not suffice to give the power to deify others; only
He who is God by nature can communicate a participation in divinity. St. Thomas
says: “For it is necessary that God alone should deify, bestowing a partaking of the
Divine Nature” (la Ilae, q.112, a. 1).
82 De Trinitate, Dial. 7.

32

GENERAL IDEA OF THE MYSTICAL LIFE

eating His Spirit to the souls of the just, makes them conformable
to His natural Son and therefore worthy to be called sons and even
gods. . . . Forit is the Spirit who unites us to God and by communi
eating Himself to us makes us participants in the divine nature. . . .
If we do not possess the Holy Ghost we can in no way become sons
of God. For how could we be so and how could we participate in the
divine partnership if God were not within us and if we were not
united to Him by the mere fact of receiving Flis Spirit?”
2. ABASEMENT OF THE WORD; ELEVATION OF MAN

In order to be defied in truth, the conformity of wills is not
enough; there must be a conformity of nature, and we possess this
if we clothe ourselves with the Son whose living image the Holy
Ghost imprints upon us.53 Putting on Jesus Christ and being made to
His image, we come to form a true fellowship with Him (I Cor.
i : 9) ; we are His friends, sharers in His divine secrets (John 15:15);
His brothers (John 20:17) an^ even more, His very members, so
intimate is the union in this divine fellow’ship. Thus there is given
to us the power to become sons of God (John 1:12) and gods by
participation. But He who is of Himself able to give us such exalted
power must be God Himself in person. By humbling Himself to our
level, He joins us to His own divine life and thus raises us from our
servile condition of simple creatures to the incomparable dignity of
gods. He enables us to call openly upon the eternal and omnipotent
One before whom the heavens tremble, not now by the terrible name
of Lord, but by the most sweet name of Father.54
St. Peter Chrysologus 55 declares: “That which the most exalted
53 St. Cyril, De Trinitate, Dial. 5: “For the likeness of will with the Father would
not form us to His natural image and similitude, but only the likeness of nature
and the universal conformity flowing from His very substance would effect this in
us. . . . Because we have the Son dwelling within us, and we have received the
divine character and we are enriched by Him; for through Him we have been made
conformable to God. That species which is the highest of all, namely, the Son, is
impressed on our souls through the Spirit.”
54 St. Cyril, In Joan., Bk. 12, chap. 15: “The creature is a slave and the Creator is
the master; yet the creature, conjoined with its Lord, is freed from its lowly con­
dition and raised to a better one. ... If, therefore, we are gods and sons through
grace, then the Word of God, by whose grace we have become gods and sons of
God, is Himself the true Son of God. But if He also were God through grace, I le
could not exalt us to a like grace. For a creature cannot give to others by its own
power that which it has not of itself, but from God.”
65 Serm. 12.
33

THE .MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

creatures never could have been able to say, that which would fill
the loftiest heavenly powers with terror and consternation, we say
confidently every day: Our Father, who art in heaven.’ Thus there
is established between the Creator and the creature a marvelous fel­
lowship, making Him equal to us so that we may become in a certain
way equal to Him. Who could ever have imagined such honor and
such an excess of love, that God should become man so that man
might become God, and that the Master should become a servant
so that the servant might become a son, thereby establishing between
divinity and humanity an ineffable and eternal parentage? Surely,
one does not know which to admire more, that God humbles Him­
self to our lowliness or that He deigns to raise us to His dignity.” 58
St. John Chrysostom observes 57 that it seems far more difficult
for God to become man than for man to become a son of God. But
He not only humbled Himself; He did so in order to exalt us. Fie
was born according to the flesh that we might be born according to
the Spirit; He was born of woman to make us sons of God. He de­
sires, says St. Augustine, that we should conduct ourselves as such;
that we should cease to be men, for He wishes to make us gods.58
3. SUMMARY

These wonderful and inconceivable relations which God has
deigned to establish and communicate to us are not simply moral,
Îl0Offic. Piirif. B.V.: “O marvelous exchange! The Creator of the human race, by
taking to Himself a living body, has bestowed on us His deity.” St. Athanasius,
Senn. 4 Contra Arianos: “As the Lord became man by taking to Himself a body,
so we men are deified by the Word of God.”
St. Augustine, Epist. 140 ad Honorat., chap. 4: “Therefore He descended that
we might ascend and, remaining in His own nature, He was made a sharer in our
nature that we, remaining in our nature, might be made sharers in His nature. This
is not accomplished in exactly the same way, however, for His participation in our
nature did not make Him inferior, but our participation in His nature made us
better.”
57 In Λ-Iath., Hom. 2: “For it is far more difficult, judging by human reason, for
God to become man than for a man to be consecrated a son of God. When, there­
fore, you hear that the Son of God is the Son of David and Abraham, doubt not any
longer that you who are the son of Adam will be the son of God. For not rashly
nor in vain did He stoop to such humiliation, but only that He might raise us from
our lowly state. For He was born according to the flesh that you might be born
according to the Spirit; He was born of a woman that you might cease to be the
son of a woman . . . and that He might make you a son of God.”
58 Cf. Senn. 166: “God commands this: that we be not men. . . . To this have
you been called by Him who was made man because of you; for God wills to make
you god.” Serm. 13 de Temp.: “God was made man that man might be made god.”
34

GENERAL IDEA OF THE MYSTICAL LIFE

but very real and ontological in a sense more exalted and more true
than one would imagine, even more than one could either conceive
or declare. The saints feel these things to a certain extent, but they
do not find expressions capable of transmitting such lofty sentiments.
Even the most daring language seems to them but a mere shadow of
so exalted a reality; and yet they do not cease to speak to us of “par­
ticipation in the divine nature itself,” “transformation in God,” and
“deification.” 59
Truly animated by the Spirit of Jesus, who dwells in us as in His
living temple and who lives in Jesus as He lives in the Father,60 we
are thus made participants in the divine nature itself, and we are truly
sons of God and brothers and co-heirs of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of
adoption which we have received animates us at the same time with
the life of grace. He purifies us and renews and perfects us, produc­
ing in us and with us the work of our sanctification. Thus, in mak­
ing us live a divine life, He deifies us, for then He Himself is “the
life of our soul as the soul is the life of our body,” according to the
powerful phrases of St. Basil and St. Augustine, not to mention all
the other Fathers.01
69 Sr. Cyril declares energetically (De Trinit., Dial. 4) that a mere moral union
would be illusory and that by participating in the divine nature through the Holy
Ghost we are truly in the Son as He is in the Father: “Let us acknowledge, more­
over, how the Son is in the Father naturally and not, as the adversaries state, ac­
cording to that fictitious relation which is based on the fact that He loves and is
loved. Similarly and in the same manner we are in Him and He in us. It is not only
a conjecture that we are sharers in the divine nature by our conformity to the Son
through the Spirit, but we are so in very truth. . . . Shall that mystery which is
within us be a fraud and a futile hope, and, as it seems, an imposture and deception,
a mere expression of opinion?” Dial. 7: “Why are we said to be and why are we
temples of God and therefore gods? Ask the adversaries whether we are indeed
participants of a barren grace lacking subsistence. It is not so; not at all. For we
are temples of an existing and subsisting Spirit. Moreover, on account of Him we
are even called gods, especially since we are participants with Him by reason of a
union, a conjunction with His divine and unspeakable nature. . . . The Spirit
deifies us through Himself. . . . How can He who is not God give deity to
others?”
60 John 6:58.
61 St. Basil, Contra Eunom., Bk. V: “The Holy Ghost is not distinct from the life
which He communicates to souls; so the divine life itself which He has by nature,
they enjoy by participation.” In another place (De Spiritu Sancto, chap. 26, no. 61 )
he states that the Spirit Himself acts as the formal principle in that divine life and
is to the soul what the visual power is to the eye: “Inasmuch as the Holy Ghost
possesses the power of perfecting rational creatures and of bringing them to the
very peak of their perfection, He has the status of a formal principle. For he is said
to be spiritual who lives now not according to the flesh but is led by the Spirit
of God and is called a son of God and has been made conformable to the image

35

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

In speaking of the indwelling by grace as an action proper to the
Holy Ghost, Father Froget makes the following observation:
The Fathers of the Church speak in exactly the same terms. The Holy
Spirit is the great Gift of God and the Guest of our soul. In giving
Himself to us, He makes us share in the Divine nature and constitutes
us the children of God, saints, Divine beings. He is spoken of as the
sanctifying Spirit, the principle of celestial and Divine life; some even
go so far as to call Him the form of our holiness, the soul of our soul, the
bond uniting us to the Father and the Son, as that One of the Divine
persons by Whom the other two dwell in us.
If Scripture and the Fathers lay so much stress upon the fact that this
indwelling by grace, like the work of our sanctification and adoption,
are the particular work of the Holy Ghost, is this not a sure sign, and a
strong proof that the Holy Spirit has special relations with our soul and
a mode of union which, in some true sense, He does not share with the
other two persons? 02

The same doctrine is taught by Petau and by Scheeben, Tomassin,
Ramière, and many other modern theologians. Leaning on the
patristic tradition, they maintain with very solid reasons that that
work is not, as current opinion affirms, entirely common to the three
divine Persons and only appropriated to the Holy Ghost, but that
it is truly proper to Him. He it is who directly unites Himself with
souls in order to vivify and sanctify them and, if the other two
Persons dwell and work in the souls at the same time, it is by
concomitance, immanence, or circuminsession, whereas He commuof the Son of God. So the operation of the Spirit is to a purified soul what the
power of sight is to a healthy eye.”
St. Augustine is even more decisive in affirming that God is formally the life of
the soul {Enarrat, in Ps. ηο, Semi. 2) : “1 shall say boldly, brethren, but truly: There
are two types of life; one of the body, the other of the soul. And as the soul is the
life of the body, so God is the life of the soul; whence if the soul departs, the body
dies; and if God departs, the soul dies.” On another occasion {Serm. 156, chap. 6,
no. 6) he asks: “Whence comes the life of your flesh? From your soul. Whence
comes the life of your soul? From your God. Each of these lives by its own life; for
the flesh is not its own life, but the soul is the life of the flesh; the soul is not its
own life, but God is the life of the soul.” The statement of St. Macarius is almost
identical: “The Lord truly takes the place of the soul in those on whom the grace
of the divine Spirit falls. O the goodness and condescension that has been shown
to the nature of man oppressed by sin!” {De libert. mentis, XII.)
02 Froget, The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Souls of the Just, Part III,
chap, i, pp. loj f.

3<5

GENERAL IDEA OF THE MYSTICAL LIFE

nicates Himself to souls immediately and personally, although not
hypostatically.63
However that may be, the most interesting truth of the deifica­
tion of souls will remain an unquestionable fact. It is likewise
indisputable that all the Fathers with one accord teach or recognize
a real filiation, which is founded on an actual participation in
the divine nature itself. We agree with Passaglia when he says: “The
Fathers confirm that the fellowship with the divine nature, which
Peter lists among the great and precious promises, is a fellowship that
is not merely affected and moral, but ontological and substantial.
Indeed, I make bold to contend that not even one ancient Father of
the Church can be cited who would circumscribe the participation
in the divine nature within the bonds and limits of a social or moral
union.” 64
“The great and precious promises which are here mentioned,” ob­
serves Bellamy, “oblige us to understand this participation in the
divine nature in the strictest sense possible, granting always the es­
sential difference between God and creature. . . . There is nothing
that could give the Christian a loftier idea of his grandeur or remind
him so eloquently of his obligations.” es
63 Petau, De Trin., Bk. VIII, chap. 6, no. 8: “The three Persons certainly dwell
in the just man, but only the Holy Ghost formally sanctifies him and makes him an
adoptive son through His communication. . . . Let the testimonies of the Fathers
and the places of Scripture be read again: . . . we shall find that a great many of
them assert that this is done through the Holy Ghost as the proximate cause, and,
as I have said, as the formal cause.” Many of the testimonies already cited actually
bear this out; and in particular, those of St. Augustine, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St.
Macarius, and St. Basil. Indeed, St. Basil expressly teaches that “through this (Spirit)
each of the saints is a god, for it was said to them ‘I have said, you are gods and
you are all sons of the Most High.’ But it is necessary that He who is the cause of
men’s being gods should be the divine Spirit and should Himself be from God”
{Contra Eunom., Bk. V). St. Irenaeus {Adv. haer., Bk. V, chap. 6) goes so far as
to assert that according to God a perfect man is composed of body and soul and
the vivifying Spirit; and when this whole composite conforms perfectly to the image
of the Son, then God is glorified in His work: “God is glorified in His creature,
adapting it in conformity with and after the pattern of His Son. Through the hands
of the Father, that is to say, through the Son and the Spirit, man is made according
to the likeness of God, but not only a part of man. . . . For the perfect man is a
commingling and union of a soul which takes to itself the Spirit and a body joined
to that soul, which is a creature in the image of God. . . . For man is not perfect
by reason of the fashioning of the flesh alone . . . nor by reason of his soul alone
. . . nor by reason of the Spirit alone . . . but the commingling and union of all
these things renders a man perfect.”
e‘ Comment., Bk. V, p. 43.
*5L« vie surnaturelle, p. 166.

37

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION
4. STATUS OF THIS DOCTRINE TODAY

Unfortunately these sublime and consoling doctrines are utterly
forgotten, as Cornelius a Lapide asserts: “Few there are who know
the privilege of such a dignity; fewer still who ponder it with the
gravity it deserves. Truly, each one should esteem it with reverence,
and doctors and preachers should explain and inculcate it in the peo­
ple so that the faithful and the saints might know that they are living
temples of ( >od, that they carry God Himself in their hearts, and
that therefore they should walk divinely with God and converse in
a manner befitting such a guest.” 00
Nevertheless (he echo of the unanimous voice of the Fathers still
resound·, among modern theologians. Notwithstanding the universal
forget I illness or why not say it?—the shameful deviations from
traditional teaching, there can yet be heard some dominant and
authoritative voices It is consoling to see how many writers are be­
ginning once again to employ almost the selfsame animated, expres­
sive, vibrant, and pulsating language of the Fathers and the great
mystics, especially since the learned admonitions of Leo XIII con­
cerning devotion to the divine Paraclete. This augurs a happy re­
birth of these fundamental doctrines which arc the very soul and
substance of t he Christian life.
In this regard Ramière writes: “It seems that the time has come
when the great dogma of the incorporation of Christians with Christ
will have the same importance in the common teaching of the faith­
ful as it had in the apostolic doctrine; a time when the point on
which St. Paul based all his teachings will not be considered a mere
accessory. It will be understood that this union, represented by the
divine Savior under the figure of the branches joined to the vine, is
not an empty metaphor but a reality; that through baptism we are
truly made participants in the life of Jesus Christ; that we receive
within ourselves, not in figure but in reality, the divine Spirit, who is
the principle of this life; and that, without being despoiled of our
human personality, we are made members of a divine body, thereby
acquiring divine powers.” 6T
In fact, these vital and consoling truths which so animated, inee In Os. 1:10.
81 Espérances de I’Eglise, Part III, chap. 4.
38

GENERAL IDEA OF THE MYSTICAL LIFE

11,lined, and fortified the early Christians68 are now beginning, for
I η i lately, to attract the attention of many apologists and theologians,
who fully understand the needs and exigencies of the age and are de­
sirous of finding an apt remedy for such evils as afflict and threaten
i cligion. In view of the general plague of prevailing indifference and
skeptical sloth and coldness which lead so many souls to defection,
io ruin, and even to disloyalty and a violent, fiery opposition to the
truth; at the same time taking heed of the status of subjective criti­
cism which enslaves modern thought, we believe the fulfillment of
i he needs and the correct remedy for the emergencies of our time lie
precisely in arousing the conscience and feeling of the faithful so
i hat they can appreciate, experience, and live as they ought, the life
which Jesus brought us from heaven.
08 The acts of the martyrs and the customs of the first centuries offer us interest­
ing evidences of this fact. The Christians of those times appreciated, understood,
and lived the supernatural life in such a way that they liked to be called Godbearers
or Christbearers. Therefore, when Trajan asked St. Ignatius: “Who is this God­
bearer?” the latter answered: “It is he who carries Christ in his heart.” “Then you
actually bear Christ?” “Without the slightest doubt, for it is written: ‘I shall make
My abode in them.’ ”
Speaking of St. Ignatius, Tixeront says (History of Dogmas, I, ijif.): “The
picture which the Bishop of Antioch sets before us of the life and organization of
Churches is completed by what he says of Christian life in each one of the faithful
in particular. He represents it most assuredly just as he conceived it and strove to
live it himself, in the ardor of love and eagerness for martyrdom, that were in his
soul. Jesus Christ is its principle and center. He is our life, not only inasmuch as He
brought us eternal life, but also because, dwelling personally in us, He is in us a
true and indefectible principle of life. . . . He dwells in us and we are His temples;
He is our God within us. . . .
“Hence the title of θεοφόροί assumed by Ignatius himself in the title of his Epistles,
and the names of θίοφόροι, ναοφόροι, χριστοψόροι, αγιοψόροι, he applies to the Ephesians
(9:2) : hence, too, the union with the flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ, with the Father
and Jesus, that he wishes to the Churches. . . .
“The condition and, at the same time, the expression of that life of Jesus in us
are faith and love: ‘Nothing shall be hid from you, if you have perfect faith and
charity in Christ Jesus, which are the beginning and the end of life: the beginning
is faith, the end, charity ... : all other things are the consequences of these for
a holy life’” (Eph. 14:1). · . .
“This charity, so intense in the heart of the Bishop of Antioch, leads him also to
the love of sufferings and to the thirst after martyrdom. . . . But it inspires him
too with accents of an impassioned mysticism: ‘My love is crucified and there is no
fire in me for what is material; but there is a water living and speaking that says to
me interiorly: Come to the Father.’ ”
St. Andronicus replied to the judge who threatened him: “I hold Christ within
me”; and St. Felicitas: “I possess the Holy Ghost, who will not allow me to be
overcome by the devil, and therefore I am confident.” In the same manner when
St. Lucy was asked by the judge, “Is the Holy Ghost within you?” replied with all
simplicity, “All those who live chastely and piously are temples of the Holy Ghost.”

39

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

Since the understanding of their sublime dignity lies dormant in
so many Christians, there follow that indifference or coldness in
their lives and the small regard which they have for that dignity,
even to the extent of being ashamed of it. Such Christians make our
name repulsive to those outside the Church, while actually the inner
life of the Catholic Church is filled with spiritual delight for those
within it and attraction for those outside it who look on it with
honesty. If we would manifest and reveal to them the soul of the
Church, as Blondel says, and if we would speak to them as the
Apostle commands (Col. 4:5 f.), in language full of grace and wis­
dom, showing them the beauty, the happiness, the delights, and the
grandeur of this divine life, we could attract and win, rather than
repel them.
As for those who accuse us of being “antiquated and opposed to
progress,” it would be sufficient, to stop their mouths and even to
make them change their opinion, if we were to tell them, op­
portunely and in the style of the holy Fathers, something of the
wonderful deification of Christian souls, where all is harmony, con­
tinuity, and orderly development, without the least disconnection,
incoherence, or haphazard procedure.
For that reason we deem it advisable to express in greater detail,
and as our abilities permit, some doctrines of great importance which
arc so poorly propagated and understood even among ourselves and
which arc so essential in a work on the life and evolution of the
Church. May ( îod enlighten us that we may proceed with prudence!
In this first part wc shall discuss the nature, elements, and qualities
of the supernatural life; ils principles of operation, that is, the divine
powers and faculties; and the principal means of spiritual growth.
Then, in the second parr, we shall examine the dispositions and
preparations this life requires; the obstacles it must overcome; the
ways it follows in its development; the means of fostering it and of
purifying ourselves so that wc shall not impede it; the principal steps
it traverses and. the phases it presents; the phenomena it normally
produces and the marvels that usually accompany it. After we have
revealed its priceless riches and the perfect continuity existing be­
tween the ascetical and the mystical life, we shall finally indicate,
in the third part, how this divine life is developed, manifested, and
perfected in the mystical body of the Church as a whole.
4°

CHAPTER II

The Divine Life of Grace
e$&SSSsSSSsSSSs5$SsSS&S&5SSs5S&sSSsiSSSsSSsSSSsiSSiS^^

To see what are the principal elements of the supernatural life, we
shall now consider and synthesize as far as possible the admirable
data of Scripture, patristic tradition, and the testimony of spiritual
souls who experienced these mysteries. In this way we shall realize
more profoundly the grandeur of the gifts we have received and we
shall the better be able to appreciate and preserve them and foster
their development.
In our humble opinion, that clearer understanding is not attained
by analyzing and systematizing this mysterious doctrine so as to
make it conform to our limited intellectual capacity, nor does it con­
sist in reducing it entirely to the level of our mental concepts, in order
to fit it into some human system. This would be to disfigure it. It
would deprive the mystical doctrine of that ineffable significance
which one admires in its living plenitude and which surpasses all
formulas, theses, and systems of either the present or the future. If
used correctly, these systems do give us some analogical representa­
tion of the divine mysteries; but to attempt to define with exactness
what is of itself absolute and indefinable and to try to systematize
that doctrine whose unutterable grandeur confounds and reduces
us to silence: this is to despoil such doctrine of its divine delight
and is to give to souls, instead of the sublime truth which delights
them, nothing more than paltry human evaluations which leave their
hearts cold and almost make the divine mysteries despicable.
This is the reason for the scant interest which the supernatural
arouses when it is presented in cold and abstract formulas. On the
other hand, although the animated and vibrant expressions of Scrip­

41

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

ture and of the saints who felt these things very keenly, are lacking
in precision, yet they inflame all the fibers of the soul. The more
unscientific and ambiguous the expressions, the more lofty the idea
which they give us of those incomprehensible realities which tran­
scend all formulas and even our most sublime concepts. Therefore
we do not intend to define or to systematize excessively but only
to present in an orderly fashion to souls thirsting for light and truth,
the marvelous contents of Catholic tradition concerning the divine
life in souls. Realizing our own blindness, with all our heart we ask
the Father of light to illumine us, saying with the Psalmist: “Send
forth Thy light and Thy truth: they have conducted me, and
brought me unto Thy holy hill, and into Thy tabernacles” (Ps.
42:3)·
According to Scripture and the Fathers, the following elements
definitely belong to the supernatural or Christian life: adoption, re­
generation, justification, renewal, deification, divine filiation, the re­
ception of new life and new energies, the development and expansion
of the divine seed of grace, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost and of
the entire Trinity, the friendly and intimate fellowship with the
three divine Persons, etc.1 We shall first consider these elements as
a whole and then each one in particular, fixing our attentoin on one
or another but never to the total exclusion of the rest, because an
actual separation or excessive abstraction would result in a vivisec­
tion of the very life we are trying to analyze.
ARTICLE I
Concept of the Supernatural Life

Through divine revelation and the actual experience of holy souls
we know that we have received the Spirit of adoption, through
which we piously dare to call our Creator by the most sweet name
of Father. Actually the eternal Father has called us to share in the
status of His Son. He transferred us from death to life and from
darkness to wondrous light that we might enter into the intimate
relations of life and fellowship with Himself, in such wise that our
1 See Broglie, Le surnaturel, Part I, pp. 14 ff.; Part II, p. 7.
42

THE DIVINE LIFE OF GRACE

> mivcrs.it ion should be in heaven and we should live in loving and
liiiniliar association with the three divine Persons.
Such is tlie true supernatural order, totally inconceivable to even
ih< most brilliant intellects, had God Himself not deigned to reveal
h and make it known as a fact. Such it is in reality and not as we
might fathom or surmise from a comparison with existing nature.
Notwithstanding the fact that traces of the supernatural are necesoily found in the natural order, any concept of the supernatural,
however lofty, that we might form would at the end be something
that is natural and founded on nothing more than the simple rela­
tionship of creature to Creator.
The Supernatural Order a Participation
in the Divine Life

In His interior and inscrutable life, God is something more than
I lie incomprehensible, transcendent, and unique Being whose exist­
ence is demonstrated by human reason. He is the ineffable Yahweh,
the mighty and living God, one and three, inaccessible to even the
most penetrating gaze and the most profound and daring feelings
and desires.1 Yet, through an inconceivable excess of love and good­
ness He could and did desire to abase Himself to the level of His
poor rational creatures in order to make them share in His infinite
life and happiness. He lowered Himself to elevate them and make
them, as it were, His equals; so that they might be able to live
eternally with Him in the intimate fellowship of close and cordial
friendship. The true supernatural order consists, then, in God’s
humbling Himself to the level of His creature and the creature’s be­
ing elevated, so far as is possible, to the level of the Creator. It con­
sists, in short, in the incarnation or humanization of God and the
deification of man. Such is the sublime order to which we have been
raised by the divine liberality.
By birth we were sons of wrath. We were not only mere creatures
without rights before our exalted Maker and absolute Lord and
totally incapable of seeing Him or conversing with Him, but we
1 Cf. I Tim. 6:16 “Who . . . inhabited! light inaccessible, whom no man hath
seen nor can see.”
43

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION
were guilty creatures who bore the stigma of our degradation, in­
gratitude, and disloyalty, and who deserved to be looked upon by
Him with abomination. But through a prodigy of His infinite mercy
God not only rids us of the stigma which made us abominable, He
ennobles us to the point of making us objects worthy of His delight.
To that end He infuses in us a participation in His own being, and
He transfigures us into the image of His only-begotten Son, so that
we might be a living splendor of the divine Word just as the Word is
“the brightness of His glory and the figure of His substance.” 2
Then, seeing His own Son resplendent in us, He sees Himself in us
and can look upon us with that infinite complacency which He en­
joys eternally in His adorable and absolute perfections.
Such is the mystery of the supernatural life: a resemblance of and
participation in the inner life of God, one and three. The august mys­
tery of the Trinity of persons in the unity of the divine nature is
the supernatural life in its essence; whereas deification—and we
might even add, “trinification”—of the rational creature is the super­
natural life as shared by us.3 This is the same eternal life which was
in the Father and which He manifested to us in the incarnate Word
so that we might enjoy that life by entering into an intimate and lov­
ing fellowship with the three adorable Persons (cf. I John 1:2 f.).
To that end I le gave us I lis only-begotten Son; to that end He
infused in us His Spirit of adoption: that we might have life and
have it more abundantly. For that reason also His adoption of us is
real and not simply juridical. I le gives us, together with the rights
and honors, the reality of true sons. I lis condescension was such that
He desired not only that we should be called so but that we should
be His sons in very truth, in the likeness of I lis only-begotten Son of
whom we become co-heirs and brothers. The Word Himself, by
His incarnation, merited for us the power to become sons of God
(cf. John 1:12).
To effect this filiation, the eternal Father regenerates us by com2 Heb. 1:3.
• Gay, De la vie et des vertus chrétiennes, Vol. I: “The life of grace is that holy,
radiant, and beatific life which is the ineffable circulation of divinity among the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Consequently, O Christians, a man can and even
must be a god and even here below live the life of a god and for that it is necessary
only that he live united to Christ . . . although he might never be or do anything
that would make him be or seem to be what the world calls a great man.”

44

THE DIVINE LIFE OF GRACE

municating to us a new life, a divine and eternal life, and by making
us participate in an ineffable manner in the generation of I lis Word
of life. Then both together instill in us their vivifying Spirit who
penetrates the very depth of our souls in order to animate, renew,
transform, and deify them. Thus do our souls share in the eternal
spiration of the mutual love of the Father and Son, which is the Holy
Ghost, the substantial and personal terminus of the operations ad
intra, and the bond of union in the adorable Trinity.
As a result, the regenerated and deified soul enters into intimate
and vital communication with each and all of the three divine Per­
sons, and in this fellowship is echoed the mystery of the operations
ad intra, which has been hidden from the beginning in the impene­
trable bosom of the Divinity. Here is a mystery of light and love
which no creature could ever have known or suspected, dreamed of
or longed for, were it not for that marvelous effusion of divine light
and charity? As the soul is purified and ceases to place obstacles to
that deifying influence—striving to grow in God and to be filled
with His plenitude—its regeneration is effected and it reproduces in
itself more and more clearly the enchanting image of the divine
Word. So also is it filled more and more with the Spirit of love, be­
ing united to God in such a way that in Him alone it finally rests,
“transformed and absorbed” (Blessed Nicholas Factor) and made
one spirit with Him.5
I. INEFFABLE REALITIES

Human reason grows faint before such incomprehensible mys­
teries, but illumined hearts feel and experience even in this life that
ineffable reality which cannot be expressed in words or concepts,
much less in human systems of thought. What these souls manage
to stammer disconcerts our weak understanding. They multiply
terms which seem most exaggerated, but even that does not prove
satisfactory. Always they see that such terms are inadequate and that
the reality is incomparably greater than anything that could be said
of it. Indeed, were it not that they possessed a lively appreciation of
* “The good which God has promised us,” says St. Thomas (De veritate, q. 14,
a.2), “so exceeds our nature that, far from being able to attain it, our natural fac­
ulties could never suspect it nor desire it.”
8 See I Cor. 6:17.

45

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

their own nothingness and a firm conviction of the complete dis­
tinction between nature and personality, we would believe that they
were teaching a doctrine of pantheistic identity or a truly hypostatic
union, as exists between the humanity of Jesus and the Word. For
that reason those who are accustomed to view and measure even the
most lofty things according to the limits of their own mental capa­
city are easily scandalized by such semi-divine language, which only
confounds their own pride. Therefore such persons do not hesitate
to brand as exaggerated or even pantheistic those vibrant statements
of an inflamed and illumined heart which seeks only to express as
best it can what it so vividly experiences.8
Preserving the distinction between nature and person, the trans­
formation which takes place in deified souls and the plenitude of
divine life which they receive are unbelievably greater than can be
imagined. Deeply submerged in that ocean of light, of love, and of
life, they become marked with the characteristics and properties of
the divine Persons in such a way that the adorable mystery of the
Trinity is reproduced and shines forth in them.7 St. Catherine of
Siena said that if we had eyes to see the beauty of a soul in grace, we
would adore it, believing that it was God Himself, for we would be
unable to conceive of any greater nobility and glory.
Moreover, deifying grace increases with each good work which
is prompted by divine charity; and the glory corresponding to each
increase of grace is such that to gain it, all the labors of the world
could be considered well spent.8 How many benefits do they lose
6 “It frequently happens,” says Cardinal Bona (.Principia et doctrina vitae Chris­
tianae, Part II, chap. 48), “that a man of the people who does not know how to
read, will speak more learnedly of God and divine things than a celebrated doctor
of theology, who spends all his life among books. This is due to the fact that ex­
perience excels speculation, and love surpasses knowledge. We are united to God
more intimately by the affections of the heart than by the meditations of the mind.”
7 If one could clearly see the interior of a deified soul, he would see in it not only
a veritable heaven but also the most august divine mysteries. Blosius, (Institutio
spiritualis, chap. 2, appendix), repeating the statement of Taulcr, says that this hap­
pened in the case of the most holy Virgin: “The very depth of her soul and her
whole interior life were so godlike that if anyone could have gazed upon her heart,
he would have seen God in all clarity and he would likewise have seen the pro­
cession of the Son and Holy Ghost. For never did her heart stray from God, even
for the briefest moment.”
8 St. Teresa, Life, chap. 37: “I can say, then, that if I were asked whether I should
prefer to endure all the trials in the world until the world itself ends, and after­
wards to gain a little more glory, or to have no trials and to attain to one degree
less of glory, I should answer that I would most gladly accept all the trials in ex­

46

THE DIVINE LIFE OF GRACE

who spend their lives on trifles, when at each moment they could
be making themselves more and more like to our Savior and amassing
treasures of enduring grace and glory!
Divine adoption, then, truly deifies us. It gives us a divine being,
regenerates us, creates us anew in Jesus Christ, makes us participate
in His own Spirit and thereby communicates to us a new and mys­
terious life. We receive, together with this life, a copious array of
potencies and proportionate energies by which we can live, grow,
and work as true sons of God, called from the kingdom of darkness
to the participation of His eternal light. By means of these new
powers we can discover the road to true life and thus arrive at the en­
joyment of God’s delightful presence.*
9
In what does that life consist; in what, those potencies? If we
could define them with nice precision, they would not be supernat­
ural nor ineffable. If, in our attempt to classify them, they were to
be placed in the categories of human thought, they would then be
as human as the thought which contains them. And if, knowing these
potencies to be ineffable and divine, we nevertheless endeavor to
narrow them to our mental capacity by reducing them to some sys­
tem, then we disfigure rather than clarify them. Our effort to make
them more comprehensible terminates in sterile formulas almost de­
void of reality and meaning which leave the heart cold, however
much the intellect is flattered and pleased.
The life of grace is not as our inquisitive reason would like to
represent it; rather, it is as the divine Word communicated it to us.
He who appeared among us full of grace and truth gave us an under­
change for a little more fruition in the understanding of the wonders of God, for
I see that he who understands Him best loves and praises Him best.”
9 Ps. 15:11: “Thou hast made known to me the ways of life, Thou shall fill me
with joy with Thy countenance: at Thy right hand are delights even to the end.”
Mary Agreda, Mystical City of God, Part I, Bk. II, chap. 13: “Remember that
there are only two ways to eternity: the one, which leads to eternal death by con­
tempt of virtue and ignorance of the Divinity; the other, which leads to eternal
life by the profitable knowledge of the Most High. . . . The way of death is trod­
den by innumerable wicked ones (Eccles. 1:14), who are unaware of their own
ignorance, presumption, and insipid pride. To those whom His mercy calls to His
admirable light (I Pet. 2:9) and whom He engenders anew as sons of light, God
gives by this regeneration a new being in faith, hope, and charity, making them
his own and heirs of an eternal and godlike fruition. Having been made sons, they
are endowed with the virtues accompanying the first justification, in order that as
sons of light, they may perform corresponding works of light; and over and above
they receive the gifts of the Holy Ghost.”

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THE MYSTICAL EXSOLUTION

standing of it according to the measure of our limited intellects. In
order worthily to appreciate it, then, we should observe the mys­
terious images and marvelous expressions by which it is portrayed
and explained in Sacred Scripture and in the writings of great souls
who were able to express more divinely the vital influxes which they
received from Jesus Christ. Above all, we should heed the voice of
holy Church, the spouse of Christ and the authentic organ of His
infallible truth. Ever bearing in mind those solemn definitions which
mark out for us the shining path and save us from deviation, we can
be certain that those admirable symbols and daring expressions in
which the Church and all its worthy members appear divinized and
made one with Christ, far from being exaggerations, are but pallid
reflections of the ineffable reality which could never be represented
adequately.
2.

INCORPORATION IN CHRIST

In the first chapter of another work 10 we endeavored to explain
in detail the principal symbols by which the Church is represented
in Scripture and tradition so that through them we might the better
be able to discover, evaluate, and admire its divine merits. So also
the holy Fathers and great mystics, instead of using merely specula­
tive and abstract formulas -except when the necessity of combat­
ting some error warranted it- were pleased, as St. Basil mentions and
as Bossuet notes, to increase the number of those concrete and
vibrant expressions. So full of life arc these expressions and symbols
that they arouse all hearts capable of feeling these mysteries, how­
ever much they may fill us with astonishment and leave frustrated
the curiosity of the intellect.’1
10 La Evolution Organica.
11 Bossuet, Lettre à une dem. de Metz: “One must adore the divine economy with
which the Holy Ghost manifests to us the simple unity of truth with a diversity
of expressions and figures. . . . One must note the particular aspect of each of them
in order to include them later in an integral consideration of revealed truth. Then
ought we to rise above all these figures in order to find out what is even more
profoundly contained in this truth. Whether considered individually or collectively,
none of these figures could adequately convey this truth. Only thus can we lose
ourselves in the profundity of God’s secrets, where the reality is seen to be much
different from what it had been surmised.” St. Basil (De Spiritu Sancto, chap. 8)
has said almost the same thing. See also Blessed Henry Suso, La union divina, chap.
7; St. Teresa, The Interior Castle, seventh mansions, chap. I.
Terrien, op. tit., I, 56: “If the formulas which express the mystery of our deifica­
tion are very numerous and infinitely varied, it is because the gifts of God are so
48

THE DIVINE LIFE OF GRACE

Of all these symbols there are two types that are most adequate.
On the one hand there are the sacramental figures which represent
the Church as the chaste spouse of Jesus Christ, made one with Him
in heart and spirit in order to bring forth new sons of God. On the
other hand, and more especially, there are the organic figures which
represent the Church as a great living body whose head is the Savior,
whose soul is His divine Spirit, and whose members are all those
rational creatures who participate in the life or at least the vital mo­
tion which that Spirit of love communicates.
The participation in the divine nature which each animated mem­
ber receives is sanctifying grace, making us live the selfsame life of
Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. It enables us to reproduce in our­
selves His divine likeness, to participate in His merits, to work with
His power, and, under His impulse and as His members, to perpetu­
ate His mission in the world. The mysterious faculties or powers
which the divine Spirit infuses in us together with that life are the in­
fused virtues, the faculties of our supernatural being by which we
are able to work as sons of God, “created in Christ Jesus in good
works.” 12 Some of these faculties or powers remain habitually even
in dead members to keep them united to the organism, to direct them
to life eternal, and to dispose them to recover life once more and thus
to rise from death to life; and these faculties are unformed faith and
hope.13 The transitory motions of the divine Consoler are those
graces which are called actual. The organic functions which con­
serve and develop the life of the whole organism, which restore what
is lost and revivify the wounded parts, are the sacraments. It is the
sacraments that make the blood of the Lamb who takes away the sins
of the world circulate throughout the whole mystical body.
The eternal Father adopts us and regenerates us through Jesus
Christ, His only-begotten Son; He vivifies, resurrects, and glorifies
us through the power of His Spirit. In the words of St. Paul: “But
God, who is rich in mercy, for His exceeding charity wherewith Fie
loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us toinestimable and His generosity so far surpasses our rights and our concepts that
all human language fails to give us any idea which accurately corresponds to their
sublimity.”
12 Eph. a: io.
18 Faith and hope are said to be unformed when they reside in a soul which docs
not possess the theological virtue of charity. (Tr.)

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H

S
’
'

gether in Christ (by whose grace you are saved), and hath raised us
up together in the heavenly places, through Christ Jesus.” “For we
are buried together with Him by baptism into death; that as Christ is
arisen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk
in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the like­
ness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.”
“And if Christ be in you, the body indeed is dead because of sin;
but the spirit liveth because of justification. And if the Spirit of Him
that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up
Jesus Christ from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies be­
cause of His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” 14
Thus God enables us to participate in His own nature; He renews
and transforms us so that we are like unto Him as His true sons.
Through this sonship we can enter into intimate friendship and fel­
lowship with Him and see Him as He is and become the rightful heirs
of His eternal glory.
I lence t he incarnate Word, as St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi so ad­
mirably puts it, is the key to the whole supernatural order. It pleased
the eternal Father to restore all things in Christ (or, as the Greek text
has it, to bring back all things under the headship of Christ), the
Head of bot h men and angels and of the entire Church, both militant
and triumphant; “and through Him to reconcile all things unto Him­
self, making peace through the blood of His cross, both as to the
things that arc on earth, and the things that are in heaven.” 15 For
that reason the Savior Himself said that on being raised up on the
cross He would draw all things to Himself. Drawing us by the bonds
of His love, He leads us to life eternal; He enlightens and fortifies us
for our journey, being at once the way, the truth, and the life. In­
deed, were it not for Him, no one could go to the eternal Father.16
It is in this way alone, and not in any manner which our own
crude evaluations might suggest, that we have been raised to the
supernatural order and a participation in the divine nature itself. We
live a life which the Spirit of Jesus Christ lovingly infuses in us, and
this most sweet Consoler, since He is the Spirit of Truth, enables us
14Eph. 2:5 f.; Rom. 6:4f.; 8:iof.
18 Col. 1:20. See also Eph. 1:10, 22.
18 John 14:6.

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THE DIVINE LIFE OF GRACE

to know this life truly 17 and makes us call God by the nain< ol
Father. He imprints on us the divine seal and fashions us in (he like·
ness of the only-begotten Son of God. He anoints us and makes us
truly anointed Christs in the image of Jesus. He dwells within us,
although in a hidden manner, as the vivifying principle, and consti­
tutes the pledge of eternal life.18*Without destroying our nature or
our personality, but rather enriching them, He renews, transforms,
and deifies us, making us one with Jesus Christ, our Savior, as mem­
bers of His mystical body, all of whom live one and the same life.
This life resides fully in Christ as Head and thence, according to the
measure of His giving and the dispositions which are found in His
distinct members, it is poured forth and redounds to all. When these
members, having rid themselves of all obstacles, receive this life in
great abundance, the Spirit who animates them will give them clear
testimony that they are sons of God and, as such, co-heirs with Jesus
Christ (Rom. 8:16 f.).
Actually “they are reborn in the same Spirit of which Jesus Christ
was born,” observes St. Augustine,18 and “the womb of the Church
is for us,” says St. Leo, “what the womb of the most holy Virgin was
for Him.” Whence it is that St. Irenaeus dares to call the Holy Ghost
the seed of the Father, semen Patris, because in reality we are born
into eternal life, “not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, by the
word of God,” 20 who freely begot us through the Word of truth.
17 St. Thomas, In I Cor. 2, lect. 2: “Since the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Truth
as proceeding from the Son, Who is the Truth of the Father, He inspires truth in
those to whom He is sent, just as the Son sent by the Father makes the Father known,
as it is written (Matt. 11:27): ‘nor does anyone know the Father except the Son,
and him to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’ Then . . . (the Apostle) shows
that wisdom is revealed to men through the Holy Ghost.”
18 See II Cor. 1:21 f.: “Now He . . . that hath anointed us, is God; who also
hath sealed us and given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts.” Eph. 1:13 f.: “In
whom you also, after you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salva­
tion; in whom also believing, you were signed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
who is the pledge of our inheritance.” A pledge, as distinct from a mere security,
is the very nature or substance of that which is promised.
St. Augustine, De verb, apost., Serm. 13: “What must the thing itself be if the
security is such! It must be called a pledge rather than a security, for when security
is given, it is taken away as soon as the thing itself has been returned. But a pledge
is given of that which is promsied to be given, so that when it is realized, that
which has been given is fulfilled and not changed.”
10 De praedest., 31.
s° See I Pet. 1:23.

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S
I
u

So it is that the incarnate Word gave us the power of becoming sons
of God, “who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man, but of God.” 21
We know that by the baptism of regeneration we die to the world
to live in Jesus Christ. We are buried with Him so that from those
waters made fruitful by the power of His Spirit, we may rise to the
new and glorious life which He merited for us. We are grafted on
Him that we may produce fruits of glory and not of earth. We are
incorporated with Him in His holy Church that we may live as His
worthy members, flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones: to live,
in fine, because of Him, and for Him to live in us. It is through the
faithful, His own true organs, that Christ performs the mystical vital
functions of that life by which He lives in His Church. In this way
also He completes the work of human redemption and the salvation
of the world. Vivified by His divine sap, we can produce fruits that
are not human. We receive incessantly the impulses of His Spirit
which place us in intimate union with the Father and strengthen the
tie that binds us to the other members of the Church. By means of
the sacramental functions He makes circulate through our veins His
most precious blood which purifies, animates, and strengthens us.22
We are incorporated in Jesus Christ, animated by His vivifying
Spirit, nourished with His body and blood, and washed with the
water from His sacred side. If, then, we remain faithful to His grace
and endeavor to keep our conversation in heaven and our life hidden
with Him in God, is it any wonder that we should live because of
Him as He lives because of the Father (John 6:58) and that both
should reside in us so that we may be perfected in unity and loved
with the selfsame love with which the divine Persons love each other
(John 17:23)? In the measure that we possess this substantial Love
of the Father and are made like to Christ—which is effected by the
charity which the divine Consoler infuses in our hearts—we shall
21 John 1:13.
22 “As soon as we can be considered members of Jesus Christ,” observes Weiss
(Apologie, X, 16), “we cease to be natural men and are elevated far beyond our
frailty, for then we are clothed in Him, His goods and powers are ours. He lives
in us, and we live in Him who is our life (John 15:5; Gal. 2:20; 3:27; Rom. 13:14;
Col. 3:4; Phil. 1:21). Our actions are the actions of Jesus Christ, whose life is mani­
fest in us (cf. II Cor. 4:10!.). Our frailty is made victorious and invincible; we
find the difficult easy, the heaviest burden light (Matt. 11:30), and we produce
abundant fruits (John 15:5) that will last not only for a time, but for all eternity.”

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THE DIVINE LIFE OF GRACE

become more sensitive and more vital organs in the mystical body ol
Jesus Christ, we shall receive more light and divine powers and be
better able to promote the health, well-being, and general growth of
i he whole body.
The heart of the Church is made up of those souls who are filled
with the Holy Ghost and who perceive the divine mysteries and the
invisible workings of Jesus Christ on the faithful and of the faithful
on others. Through this heart the Holy Ghost exercises a hidden
but salutary power over the other organs, even the highest, to aid
them in the discharge of their important functions. Those organs
that are weak and infirm, are cured and invigorated; those that are
completely dead, are enabled more easily to regain the life of grace.
Because of this activity, the divine Spirit, who is truly the soul of
the Church, is sometimes considered its heart. Although He is not
Himself an organ of this body, He liberally pours forth His charity
on the true organs and in them He secretly stores up vital energies
for the good of all.23
As all the throbbings of the adorable heart of Jesus Christ rever­
berate in souls thus deified, so also do His thoughts radiate and shine
with the light of life, in the illumined eyes of their heart which, aided
by the Spirit of understanding, penetrate the most august mys­
teries.24 if we were filled with the Holy Ghost, we would have in
mind what was also in Christ Jesus. Though He was by nature God,
He emptied Himself, taking the nature of a slave, being obedient to
death, even to death on a cross.25 So we ought also to humble our­
selves and empty ourselves, being all to all and sacrificing ourselves
for our brothers, even to the shedding of our blood for them if neces­
sary (cf. I John 3:16). Such is the mystery of the supernatural life
which the Fathers tried to synthesize in this one most extraordinary
word: deification.
28 Illa, q.8, a.i, ad 311m: “The head has a manifest pre-eminence over the other
exterior members; but the heart has a certain hidden influence. And hence the Holy
Ghost is likened to the heart, since He invisibly quickens and unifies the Church:
but Christ is likened to the Head in His visible nature.”
24 Eph. 1:18; I Cor. a: 10.
’•Phil. 2:5-8.

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Deification

I
11’

si
u
U!
st
g
I
I

and

Union

with

God

Considered from a purely human viewpoint, the work of our
deification would seem to be not only an exaggeration proper to
dreamers and deluded persons, but t.o be madness. Who could con­
ceive of this wonderful elevation of man whereby he comes to be
identified with divinity? Or who could imagine that inconceivable
abasement of God Himself whereby He communicates Himself to
His creatures to the extent of equality or even identity and takes His
delight in them, becoming man—and, indeed, an outcast of men—in
order to make men gods?
The greatest prodigy of infinite Goodness and Wisdom cannot but
appear as foolishness to the inflated egoistic reason. But all worldly
prudence is foolishness before God. None but the pure and simple
hearts to whom the Spirit of love Himself reveals them and makes
them known (Matt. 11:25-27; I Cor. 1:2) can realize the profundity
of these mysteries of infinite love which are hidden from even the
most piercing intellects. When they see these prodigies of light and
goodness they are enraptured. Perceiving the principles of divine
truth, they understand how limited and insignificant are all human
views; and what seems to us stupidity is to them a marvel of wis­
dom.
I. HARMONY OF THE NATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL

Speaking of the interpretation of deification as given by the
apostles, Bainvel26 says:
The apostles speak to us of the Christian vocation as a great mystery
hidden in God and surpassing all understanding. Only the divine Spirit,
who searches into the profundity of God Himself, can penetrate it; for
it is something divine.2’ They represent the Christian ideal as an adoption
and a divine filiation. God not only pardons us but makes us His sons,
and desires that wc call Him Father. The spirit of fear, which befits a
slave, gives way to filial love. By nature we were slaves; by grace we
are children, heirs of heaven, and coheirs with Jesus Christ with whom
we become one. . . .2S The apostles portray Him to us as the new Adam,
the supernatural Head of regenerated humanity, the exemplar of all the
28 Nature et surnaturel, pp. 66-69.
27 See I Cor. 2; Eph. 1-2; Col. 1.
28 Eph. i and 3; Gal. 4; Rom. 8.

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THE DIVINE LIFE OF GRACE
pu destined, our peace with God, our first-born Brother, and our very
llfr . . . Jesus is the Head; the Church is His mystical body; and we
uir the members of that body, sharing in the life of the Head and form­
mi' with Him a complete whole. Jesus is the Bridegroom and the Church
is i he Bride, as is each faithful soul. Beneath these images are discovered
Mil dime and admirable realities. This entire supernatural life is ordained
in the supreme good and to the vision and possession of God Himself,
who “inhabited! light inaccessible, whom no man hath seen nor can
ICC." 2*
St. Peter says the final word, the most profound: divinae consortes
naturae. This it is which explains our divine filiation and our incorporalion with Jesus and, through Him, with the Father. This explains our
life, which in a certain manner becomes identified with that of Jesus.
( )ur destiny is to participate in the glory which is the joy of the onlybegotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father; it is to see God face to
face and to know Him as He is known in Himself. What is strange about
all this if we participate in the divine nature?
But since we do not as yet share fully in the divine nature, all our
energies ought to be directed to a greater participation in it and to a
closer union and configuration with Jesus by living entirely according
to His Spirit. For this reason St. John represents as a divine seed that
indefinable participation in divinity which we enjoy here on earth and
which we are accustomed to call sanctifying grace.80 This is the same
concept as is found in St. Peter, but with an accessory idea, that of a
life which is incipient and not yet developed. Whence the beloved dis­
ciple tells us that we are sons of God, but our future development is not
yet known. Nondum apparuit quid erimus. “When He shall appear, we
shall be like to Him, because we shall see Him as He is.” 81 So grace is not
yet glory; it is only the seed of glory. We have divine life within us, but
we shall not possess its full development until heaven.32 Now, there is the
20 See I Tim. 6: i<5.
80 See I John 3:9.
81 Ibid., 3:2.
82 Lejeune, Manuel de théologie mystique, p. 173: “This divine life resides in our
souls without our being directly aware of it. Its presence is discovered at times by
the superhuman energy which it imparts to us and by the victories which it enables
us to win. But during our earthly existence we do not usually perceive these divine
realities directly or immediately. The veil will not be removed completely until
glory. We know only, as Bossuet says, ‘that the life of grace and that of glory are
one and the same inasmuch as between them there is no other difference than that
which exists between adolescence and maturity. Glory is nothing other than a dis­
closure of that life which is hidden in this world but will be fully manifest in the
next.’ ”
Froget, The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, pp. 83 f.: “God is therefore really and
55

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

I'

«I
II
II'

Nt

I’
I
I
I

laborious transformation from the old to the new man, the effort to form
Jesus within ourselves, to place our activity in unison with the divine
principle which ought to animate it, and to live in conformity with our
divine status. Such is the basis of Christian morality and that which dis­
tinguishes it essentially from natural morality.

For that reason the apostles, following out such testimonies, ex­
hort us to flee the world, to avoid earthly conversations, to purge
ourselves of all faults and imperfections, and to strive to live entirely
as Christians, as divine men, living images, brothers and members of
Christ Himself, animated by His Spirit.33
St. Paul, in speaking of the elect, says that God has predestined
them “to be made conformable to the image of His Son, that He
might be the first-born amongst many brethren.” 34 So it is that if
we are faithful, “we . . . are transformed into the same image from
glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 35 Therefore we should
strive always to put on Jesus Christ; and to such a degree that we
shall eventually become one thing with Him. In this way, as St.
John Chrysostom says, “we share in the selfsame parentage of the
Son of God and partake of the same lineage because we possess Him
and are transformed into His likeness. Even more, the Apostle is not
content with saying that we have put on Jesus Christ, but he adds
that we are one with Him; that is to say, we possess the same form,
the same character. Can there be anything more stupendous or more
worthy of consideration? He who formerly was a pagan, a Jew, or
substantially present to the Christian in the state of grace. His presence is not merely
a presence, but a real possession, which already begins to bear fruit of enjoyment.
It is a union far superior to that which binds unsanctificd beings to their Creator;
our union is surpassed only by the union of the two natures in the Person of the
Incarnate Word; a union which, when fervently cultivated, is so blissful as to be
in the true sense of the word a foretaste of heaven’s joys, a prelude to happiness
eternal. St. Thomas is not afraid, therefore, to assert that there is an imperfect be­
ginning in this life itself, of the future happiness of the saints, and he compares it
to the buds which are the promise and the earnest of the coming harvest (cf. la
Ilae, q.69, a.2).”
33 Leo XIII, Divinum illud: “Now this wonderful union, which is properly called
‘indwelling,’ differs only in degree or state from that with which God beatifies the
saints in heaven.” Hence the life of grace is already a true commencement of the
life of glory. In the words of St. Thomas (Ila Ilae, q.24, a.3, ad 2um):
. for
grace is nothing else than the beginning of glory in us.”
34Rom. 8:29.
85 See II Cor. 3:18.

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a slave, now bears the image, not of an angel or archangel, but of
the Lord of all things, since he represents Christ.” 36
This marvelous union of the infinite God with finite beings is not
an absurd Gnostic emanation or a repugnant pantheistic fusion. It
is an ineffable, loving, and free communication, though hidden and
inconceivable, of the divine life to rational çreatures, wherein the
supernatural and the natural, the divine and the human, are con­
joined, blended, and intermingled without being fused. God remains
ever the same—God is immutable—but man, without ceasing to be
man, is deified. Man’s integral nature continues, but in another form.
Not only is he purified and reinstated in his primitive beauty, but he
is raised and elevated to the heights of divinity, brilliantly shining
with true divine splendor. He is like the iron which, when placed in
the furnace, loses all its dross and, without ceasing to be iron, is
turned into fire.
Human reason alone could not even suspect this marvel of love,
and whenever it attempts to express its vague notions in terms com­
patible with the human mind, it falls into great errors. But divine
revelation harmonizes the extremes without confusing them, much
less destroying them; and thus it extends and immensely clarifies our
horizons. It enables us to see that the inner life of God is not that of
a unique and absolute Being—the God of the philosophers, who is
known only through the reflection of the unity of the divine nature
seen in the works of creation—but that of the true living God, who,
though one in nature, is three in Persons.
This admirable mystery of the divine life could never be known
by philosophy. The divine works ad extra, which are studied by the
philosopher, are common to the entire Trinity and can only indicate
in some measure the unity of power and essence. But the divine life
as known through revelation is the basis of the whole supernatural
order and is founded not on the simple relations of causality, such
as those which bind the creature to the Sovereign Creator, but on
the relationship of a cordial and intimate friendship which presup­
poses a true likeness. Everything which flows from that friendly
relationship—even the most insignificant works, such as washing
dishes, serving the sick, or washing the feet of the poor for the love
·’ St. John Chrysostom, In Gal. 3.

5Ί

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

of Jesus Christ—belongs entirely to the supernatural order. On the
other hand, the most lofty speculations of a philosopher on the won­
ders and infinite perfections of the supreme being, the absolute and
unknowable being who transcends all nature, if not illumined by the
divine light of faith, are purely natural and without the least meri­
torious value for eternal life.
So it is that the two orders can be distinguished in spite of the fact
that they arc intermingled. The supernatural is not a violent imposi­
tion nor an interpolation of the natural, destructive of its continuity
and harmony. It is an elevation of that nature, which, without losing
any of ils true perfections, becomes clothed in all its aspects with
marvelous enchantments and powers and is truly deified, or rather,
raised to a divine order. The supernatural is not, then, a disruption
of the natural, but an ordination to a higher state. It is not a foreign
and violent thing, bur an interior, comforting, and harmonious
reality, a new mode of life which entirely penetrates, ennobles, and
elevates the natural, just as the rational life ennobles and elevates
sensitive life, and sensitive life ennobles and elevates purely organic
life.
2. THE DIVINE LIFE IN ITSELF AND IN US

The participation which we enjoy in the inner life of God: that is
our supernatural life. The new relations which thereby bind us to
Him and to our neighbor are a reflection of those relations which
prevail among the three adorable Persons.37 The divine Trinity, as
we have said, is the supernatural life in essence; sanctifying grace,
which makes us sons of God, co-heirs with Christ, and living tem­
ples of the Holy Ghost, is the supernatural life redounding to us
through participation.
God is life itself, and that life is the light of men.38 Our God is not
a philosophical abstraction; He is the living God, the living One par
excellence, Vivens Pater. Moreover, for Him to live is to know and
to love, for His knowledge and love are His very life; and the ade­
quate terminus of His operations is His own divinity. In Him there
is an absolute simplicity, with perfect identity between His being
87 Cf. St. Magdalen of Pazzi, Œuvres, Part IV, chap. 9.
88 Cf. John 1.

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and His operations, between the principle and the term of action, b<
tween one attribute and the other. His essence is life, His life is sic
tivity, and His actions are not only vital but they are life itself.
Yet, there is in God a personal distinction. God the Father, living
in the plenitude of His life, knows Himself eternally and infinitely.
Knowing Himself, He produces or utters ab aeterno the Word of
His wisdom, the faithful, living, and personal representation of His
infinite Being; and this issuing forth of the Word, expressed by
knowledge and likeness, is His eternal generation. The Word is most
truly the Son of God the Father, from whom all fatherhood in
heaven and on earth receives its name; and He is, in turn, the model
of all filiation.
The Father and the Son contemplate and love each other in­
finitely, in the full communication of the selfsame essence. The
terminus of this impetus or spiration with which they love each
other, the eternal embrace by which they bind themselves to each
other, is an infinite Love which is personal at the same time that it is
co-substantial. This is the mystery of that ineffable life which hu­
man reason could never discover; and, even when manifested, could
never understand. But faith infallibly attests the reality of this life;
and illumined souls experience it with full certitude, even in this
world.39
God makes us participate in this same marvelous life by supernat­
uralizing our life to the point of deification. Through His conde­
scension we enter into fellowship with the three divine Persons
themselves, in such a way that there re-echoes in us that inexpressible
mystery: the Father reproducing His Word in our hearts and both
together infusing in us and breathing upon us their Spirit of love.40
Thus each divine Person impresses on us His characteristic property
and makes us participate in something of Himself. The Father gives
us His divine being; the Holy Ghost vivifies and sanctifies us by pour­
ing forth His charity in our hearts; and the Word, directly joined to
our nature through the Incarnation and united with the whole
Church and every just soul through the grace of His most sacred pas­
sion, fashions us to His own likeness.
88 Cf. St. Teresa, Interior Castle, seventh mansions, chap. I.
40 Cf. Tauler, Institutions, chaps. 33 f.

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The Father has predestined us to become conformed to the image
of His Son;41 to that end He calls us and justifies us and gives us the
Spirit of adoption and of promise. So, when the charity of the Father
dwells in us, the Father and the Son also dwell in us.42 We are then
living temples of the entire Trinity and a “little heaven” where God
reigns and is glorified. At the same time He glorifies Himself in us
by letting the innermost splendors of His eternal brilliance shine
forth in our souls 43 so that we become one with Him. Thus each
divine Person influences the work of our deification according to
His own particular property. He who possesses the Spirit of love,
possesses eternal life within himself; and that is the same life as was
in the Father and which I Ic manifested to us in the Word.44
If many of the Christians who strive to live in grace are not aware
of their own dignity and this glorious heritage of the servants of
God, it is because they live in a very lukewarm manner and do not
continually study the book of life, which is Jesus Christ our Savior,
the model and true light of men.45 If they would study and imitate
Him, it is certain that in I lis holy humanity they would discover
the ineffable mysteries of divinity and of the entire Trinity.46 They
would come to know the treasures of wisdom and knowledge which
are hidden in Him, and they would “be filled unto all the fullness
of God.” 47
3.

THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF GOD

God respects and does not destroy the nature formed by Him to
be a subject of grace. Although there cannot exist in us an absolute
simplicity and identity of essence, operation, and terminus of ac­
tivity, there does not, on that account, cease to exist in us a real and
physical participation of His own life. When it is reproduced in us
to the greatest possible extent and in harmony with our own life, it
does not make us cease to be men; rather it makes us perfect men at
the same time that it deifies us. This deification is so profound that
41 Rom. 8:29.
42 See John 14:23; I John 4:13, 16.
43 Cf. John 17:22.
44 See John 1:2-7; 3:15; 4:12 f.; 5:11 f.
45 Cf. Isa. 54:17; 55:1-6.
48See John 14:9-21; I John 5:20.
47 Eph. 3:17-19. Cf. Col. 2:2 f.

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it penetrates to the very core of our substance; and it is so intensive
and extensive that it elevates our being, our faculties, and our opera
tions to a divine order.
To a certain extent we are by nature images of God, although
only analogically and remotely. Our soul is spiritual and it knows
and loves the true and the good, and therein is found a semblance
of the adorable Trinity. The fullness of our natural happiness would
consist in the most perfect knowledge and love which we could ac­
quire by contemplating the divine splendors as seen solely in the
marvels of creation. Yet, however perfect might be that love and
knowledge, what a distance and what an impassable chasm ever re­
mains between the sovereign Creator as He is in Himself, and us, His
poor creatures!
If we had remained in the purely natural state and had not been
raised to supernatural life, knowledge, and love, we could never pos­
sess formally and physically anything divine; not even divine facul­
ties, powers, and energies. Our knowledge and love could then never
attain to God as He is in Himself and we could not embrace Him
with these two acts, which are the arms by which it is given to us now
to unite ourselves with Him. Spiritual intuition and the intimate and
friendly love of charity would be totally impossible. Instead of en­
joying God as substantially and lovingly communicated to our souls,
to make them participants in His own happiness, we would be for­
ever separated from Him as He is in Himself. We would con­
template a pure abstraction, a mere concept of God, instead of His
loving face. We would love a good which is far removed from our­
selves, instead of loving the God of our heart and our portion forever.
But by a prodigy of love which we can never sufficiently admire,
much less worthily acknowledge, He condescended to supernatural­
ize us from the beginning by elevating us to nothing less than His
own status, to make us share in His life, His infinite power, His own
operations, and His eternal happiness. He desired that we should be­
come gods, sons of the Most High (Ps. 81:6), domestics, servants,
friends, and heirs (Rom. 8:17; Eph. 2:19; John 15:14 f.) with whom
He converses affably, and to whom He manifests Himself (Wisd.
6:13 f.; 8:3; John 14:17-23; I John 4:7). He willed that we should
truly know and love Him in Himself and not be content with only
a vague idea of a divine Being.
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In the state of pure and integral nature, elevating grace was suf­
ficient to effect this transformation and deification. But through
original sin we were deprived of the divine inheritance along with
the dignity of sons of God, because w’e lost His grace and friend­
ship. Not only were we despoiled of His gratuitous gifts, but we
were also wounded in our very nature because of the disobedience
committed against the natural order. Not only did there vanish from
us the supernatural divine image which deified us, but even that like­
ness which we had by nature was disfigured almost to the point of
being effaced.
Thus we were born in the likeness of the Father of Lies and sons of
wrath, with a propensity to evil and an incapacity to practice all the
good which even natural reason proposes. Indeed we could not even
know or love it as perfectly as nature demands. Therefore, to re­
establish the primitive order, elevating grace alone was not sufficient.
There was required one which would heal and reintegrate our primi­
tive nature, at the same time that it transformed and elevated us to
the divine order. It was necessary to restore the obliterated traces of
the natural image of God so that upon them could be imprinted His
true supernatural likeness. Thus man, created in the image and like­
ness of God, needed to have that image restored according to the
divine likeness.

4.

RESTORATION AND ELEVATION

The Lord, in His infinite mercy, instead of abandoning us as He
did the rebellious angels, took compassion on our earthly weakness
and decreed that where the offense has abounded, grace should
abound yet more.48 He produced the marvel of the centuries when
Fie sent His Son not only to become incarnate and so deify us,40 but
to suffer also and so heal and purify, strengthen and teach us, pay our
debts, and store up such merits for us that we were converted from
debtors to creditors and were thereby raised to a much greater
height than was originally ours.50 The Word of God came to restore
48 Rom. 5:20.
49 John 1:12; St. Augustine, Sermons 13, 166; Letter 140; St. Athanasius, Sermon
4, Contra Arianos.
80 “Both on the part of the creature and on the part of the aggrieved Creator,”
said the eternal Father to St. Magdalen of Pazzi (Œuvres, Part HI, chap. 3), “the
Redemption was a much greater work than that of creation. Through it the creature

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nature and to enrich it with grace, by washing us with His blood in
the bath of regeneration that we might be reborn and resurrected
glorious and victorious over death.
So we are created anew in Jesus Christ in good works, in the image
and likeness of a celestial and divine man, after having been born to
the image and likeness of an earthly man. Thence the necessity of
despoiling ourselves of the latter in order to clothe ourselves in the
former (cf. 1 Cor. 15:47-49). That grace which heals and restores
us must work in a painful manner to cure such deep wounds. But
the more painful it is, the more glorious, since it enables us to crucify
our flesh with its vices and concupiscences and to proceed in all
things according to the Spirit by whom we live as members of
Christ.51 In this way we are carried progressively to perfect con­
figuration with our Savior and model, renewing ourselves accord­
ing to the Spirit of our mind, we put aside the habits of the old man
in order to put on the new man, who has been created according to
God in true holiness and justice.52
If, by living according to the flesh and not mortifying ourselves
as the Spirit commands (Rom. 8:13), we have the misfortune to die
as a result of losing that priceless life of grace through our own
weakness and malice, we can regain it anew by being sprinkled with
the blood of Jesus Christ in the sacrament of penance. This is not a
rebirth, but a resurrection from death to life, for as in nature, so also
in grace, one is not born more than once. And if we do not actually
lose this life by grave sin, but nevertheless weaken it by light faults
and thereby become sick, then that selfsame washing heals and re­
stores us at the same time that it aids our renewal by cleansing us of
the evil inclinations of the old man.53
In brief, were it not for sin, which overthrows the order of nature,
not only regained lost innocence but it acquired advantages which it did not for­
merly possess. . . . On being united to divinity, thanks to the merits of the Word,
it was made worthy of the beatific vision. ... So it is that certain creatures know
better than do the angels themselves the divine essence, My eternal being, and the
mode of union contracted by the Word with humanity, . . . and that is in recom­
pense for their virtue, which surpasses that of the angels. For these latter do not
have to suffer to preserve grace, while the creature is not preserved in grace except
at the cost of suffering and labor. It is just, therefore, that the creature should re­
ceive the greater reward.”
01 See Gal. 5:24^
52 See Eph. 4:22-24.
63 See St. Catherine of Siena, Letters 52,
58, 6o, 106.

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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

nothing other than elevating grace would be required for our deifica­
tion. Then, by means of the good works that we would joyfully per­
form under the influence of that grace and the subsequent virtues
and divine inspirations, we would grow in the supernatural life until
we arrived at the point where we could see God face to face by
entering into His glory. But by reason of the fijst fall and the further
degradation attendant upon new sins, we must at the same time be
elevated, rehabilitated, and reborn. This rebirth in God and the res­
toration of nature is effected by the healing and the elevating grace
of our Redeemer and Savior, the heavenly pelican who sprinkles us
with His blood that we may have life and have it abundantly, and
thus be truly holy and without blemish in the sight of God. To this
end He is offered to us as our guide, our model, and even as our food.
He is the way, the light, and the life, so that no one can go to the
Father but through 1 lim.54
5. TUB PATH OF CALVARY AND TRANSFIGURATION

As our true and living model, Christ vivifies us without any effort
on our part when we ourselves arc not yet in a position to cooperate,
as happens with infants. Nevertheless Fie does not exclude, but
rather He demands our full cooperation as soon as we can give it,
that we may be fashioned in His likeness and, by virtue of His blood,
be able to soar to great heights. As He suffered for love of us, so does
He desire that, like Him, we should suffer for love of Him; and this
to our own great benefit.
The healing of our wounds, the putting off of the old man and
the putting on of the new cannot be done without great violence
and suffering. Inclined as we are to evil, growth in the grace and
knowledge of God through meditation on His life and imitation of
His works and progress along the rugged path of Christian perfec­
tion cannot be realized without fatigue and laborious efforts, at least
not until we successfully root out our evil inclinations. So it is said
that the kingdom of God suffers violence and only the violent carry
it away (Matt. 11:12). Our God reigns from the Cross {regnabit a
ligno Deus') and, to achieve perfect union with Him, we must follow
Him along the painful and bloody paths to Calvary.55
84 See John 14:6.
68 Jaffre, Sacrifice et sacrement, p. 235: “The effects of sin which baptism does not

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Having been lifted up there, upon the cross, it is precisely then
that He draws all things to Himself. If we follow Him as our model
and the true light of the world, we shall not walk in darkness but we
shall possess the eternal light of life by which we shall know the
Father. Knowing Him and seeing in His light the very light of His
face, we shall experience the currents of everlasting life which come
to us with that light, and we shall drink of the fountain of living
water and the torrent of divine delights. We shall hear the most
sweet voice of the Shepherd who knows His sheep and is known by
them, who calls them by name and gives them life eternal.58
So if we grow in the grace of our Savior, we shall be deified even
in this life. \\ e shall possess the kingdom of God in our hearts; we
shall live in intimate fellowship with Him; we shall possess Him and
be possessed by Him, and we shall merit the name of gods. For we
become gods and the sons of the living God, capable of working
divinely and knowing and loving Him as He is in Himself, by re­
ceiving the grace which He deigned to communicate to us as a par­
ticipation in His own life through the merits of Jesus Christ. Gratia
Dei vita aeterna, in Christo Jesti (Rom. 6:23).
St. Dionysius says that deification is the most perfect possible as­
similation and union with God.57 It implies, on the one hand, the
innermost presence of that mysterious grace which, as the internal
form of our justification, purifies, transforms, sanctifies, and deifies
us. On the other hand, it implies the intimate and substantial presence
of the entire Trinity reigning in our hearts and giving us eternal life
as well as the friendly commerce with all and each of the divine Per­
sons through the operations of that life of grace. These operations
are the acts of knowledge, understanding, desire, and love which
have God Himself as their immediate object.

6.

WORDS OF LIFE AND THEIR INCOMPREHENSIBILITY

To proceed philosophically, we should now examine each one of
these things in particular, in order to specify in what each consists,
and thus be able to form a more exact idea of the whole. But since
destroy, it transforms, giving them an expiatory value and uniting them with the
satisfactions of Jesus Christ. Thus, after having suffered in His own body, He suf­
fers in His mystical body, even in the infant newly born to grace.”
06 See John to; Ps. 35:9 f.
87 See Eccl. hier., chap. 1, no. 3.

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this whole ineffable subject can be aptly appreciated only by con­
sidering it in its integrity and plenitude, to try to examine each point
separately would be to lose the lofty concept which we ought to
form of it. Therefore, when we strive to define or formulate any of
these things to our satisfaction, we despoil those notions of their
divine content. Instead of the ever mysterious supernatural life, we
have nothing but our sterile considerations, which leave us the more
cold and unmoved as they seem to become more clear and compre­
hensive. St. Teresa well states that, unlike the mysterious words of
the Gospel, which greatly impressed her, learned books were often
repugnant to her and killed her devotion.88 That is why, as OlleLaprune points out, “excessive abstraction can easily cause us to lose
sight of our true reality.” 89
We prefer, then, to imitate as much as possible the method of the
Fathers in not abstracting, much less separating, one concept from
the others. Like the Fathers, we shall always observe the reality
itself, but from different points of view, multiplying the aspects and
images for the sole purpose of seeing better that inexpressible and
integral whole which no number of terms or concepts can exhaust.
This method necessitates the frequent repetition of the same idea;
the necessity of speaking, for example, of the indwelling when treat­
ing of grace; of regeneration and adoption when considering sancti­
fication; and of sanctifying grace when considering charity and the
gifts, etc. But this same method is used in Scripture, the early
Fathers, and also in the great mystics, who speak of what they them­
selves experience. It is always the same ineffable reality which they
experience, but each time it is some new phase of its inexhaustible
aspects. True, their language may not allure impatient intellects
which maintain that they always hear in it the same unintelligible
song, but their language does move those profoundly Christian hearts
which beat intensely in the contemplation of that reality which
never satisfies completely but ever arouses new hunger. Qui edunt
me adhuc esurient. We shall observe that method even at the risk of
being tedious, in the assurance that those repetitions will be useful
to many souls.
88 See Way of Perfection, chap. it.
69 La vitalité chrétienne, p. 149.

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ARTICLE II
The Grace

of

God and the Communication
Holy Ghost

of the

Grace, as the Catechism of the Council of Trent says, is a divine
reality which makes man a son of God and an heir of heaven. In
this statement is said all that can be said. Our task is to appreciate
worthily the terms of this admirable definition, considering it as but
a pallid reflection of the reality itself and not as a presumptuous ex­
aggeration.
Sanctifying Grace

Sanctifying grace truly gives us a participation in the divine life
so far as it deifies us. It transforms us to our very depths and makes us
like unto God as His sons in truth, and not in name only or merely in
appearance.1 It is the true divine life (gratia Dei, vita aeterna'). So
the infusion of this new type of life elevates us in our very being,
not merely in appearance. St. Thomas says, “Vivere in viventibus est
ipsum esse."
Although grace can be called accidental with regard to man, since
it can be gained or lost without his ceasing to be what he is, yet in
regard to the good Christian, the homo divinus, it is so intimate that
without it he is dead and reduced to the level of the old Adam. Grace
it is which makes a man a son of God and a living member of Jesûs
Christ.2
Other gifts, although they make us change in appearance, leave us
1 Louis of Granada, The Sinner's Guide, p. 144: “Grace acts in like manner. As
a divine quality it is infused into the soul, and so transforms man into God, so that,
without ceasing to be man, he assumes the virtues and purity of God.”
2 Although theologians maintain that what is in God substantially is in the soul
of man accidentally, yet we can say that this “divine being” of grace is something
accidental quoad animam humanam, but it is the very life of the soul which lives
supernaturally (quoad vero animam viventem supernaturaliter).
St. Thomas, In II Sent., dist. 26, a.4, ad lum: “Although grace is not the principle
of natural existence, nevertheless it is the principle of spiritual existence whereby
the natural is perfected.”

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with the same nature, and for that reason they can vary in the same
subject. Grace cannot be reduced to the category of the properties,
for these flow from the nature itself and presuppose it. Being in­
separable from the nature, they characterize it but they do not con­
stitute it. According to our human mode of understanding, the life
of grace has as its properties charity and the infused virtues and habits
which always accompany it and disappear with it. These proper­
ties which flow from grace and which, for that reason, we receive
with it in a rudimentary state, constitute the operative potencies of
grace it·.<·If. I he accidents of this order are the changing aspects, the
transitory impulses, and the sudden transformations which occur in
the supernatural life.
I. I l I I CTS OF SANCTIFYING GRACE

Since grace elevates us in our very nature, it is received, as St.
Thomas teaches, not into the potencies of the soul, but into its very
essence in ordci to clcvaie it. I he soul’s potencies receive only the
virtues and operative powers, which strengthen and transform them,
ordaining them to the supernatural and making them capable of
divine works 1 Ibis doctrine of the reception of grace into the
essence of the soul is generally admitted today.4 Giles of Rome
(Acgidius Romanns), who is one of the greatest of the followers of
"St. Thomas, De virt. in connu , a. io: "Grace, through which the soul possesses
a certain spiritual nature, is divinely Infused in man that he may be able to perform
actions which are ordained to etvinal life." De veritate, q.27, a.6: “Grace resides
in the essence of the soul, perfecting it, so far as it gives to rhe soul a certain spiritual
nature and through a certain assimilation makes it participate in the divine nature,
just as the virtues perfect the faculties in regard to their operations.” Ibid., a.5, ad
lyum: “The immediate effect of grace is to confer a spiritual nature, and this per­
tains to its informing a subject . . . but in conjunction with the virtues and gifts,
its immediate effect is to elicit a meritorious act." la Ilae, q.uo, a.4: “For as a man
in his intellective power participates in the Divine knowledge through the virtue of
faith, and in his power of will participates in the Divine love through the virtue of
charity, so also in the nature of the soul does he participate in the Divine Nature,
after the manner of a likeness, through a certain regeneration or re-creation.”
4 Pourrat, in his Theology of the Sacraments, summarizes the scholastic doctrine
in these words: “Habitual grace is the divine life communicated to the soul. As re­
siding in the very substance of the soul to deify it, it is called sanctifying grace;
and as dwelling in the potencies of the soul to make them capable of working supernaturally, it is identified with the infused virtues, which are in turn related to the
gifts of the Holy Ghost. Sanctifying grace, the virtues, and the gifts constitute
habitual grace; and all the sacraments, without exception, produce it.”

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the Angelic Doctor, proved this same doctrine with many irrefu­
table arguments.5
Speaking of man’s justification by grace, Froget says:
And first, how does this deification take place? By what marvelous
process does a rational creature become inoculated with the life of God?
It is brought about regularly by baptism, and constitutes a real genera­
tion resulting in a real birth.
This is that new generation of which the holy Epistles make such fre­
quent mention; it is that second birth so much lauded by the Fathers, and
ever kept before our minds by the sacred liturgy of our holy religion—
a generation incomparably greater than our first and merely human
generation, since it transmits to us, instead of a natural and human life,
a life supernatural and divine; it is a wonderful birth that transforms each
one of us into that “new man’’ of which the Apostle speaks, “according
to God, created in justice and holiness of truth” 8—a generation wholly
spiritual yet nonetheless real, the principle of which is neither flesh, nor
blood, nor the will of man, but the gratuitous will of God;7 a mysterious
birth which springs not from seed subject to corruption, but from seed
Λ In 11 Sent., dist. 16, q.i, a. 3: “The spiritual nature which a man possesses, he
possesses by grace, as the Apostle states in his Epistle to the Corinthians: ‘By the
grace of God I am what I am,' . . . The esse refers to essence just as the posse
refers to potency. . . . Christ tells us that we have been reborn through water and
the Holy Ghost. . . . But this regeneration is through grace . . . for it is through
grace that we are made sons of God. . . . Therefore, as through natural generation
we receive a natural being, so through spiritual generation we receive a spiritual
being. . . .
“As a thing cannot perform a particular operation unless it possesses a particular
essence or nature, so we cannot perform a divine operation unless we have a divine
nature. Therefore the theological virtues, which reside in the faculties of the soul
and which perform divine actions, . . . cannot perform those actions unless we
possess that divine nature which is obtained through grace. Hence, as those virtues
reside in the faculties through which we act spiritually, so grace dwells in the very
essence of the soul and through it we are spiritual. ... For we can neither act nor
be acted upon spiritually unless we are essentially spiritual. . . .
“As the created image of God consists in the essence of the soul and in the three
faculties (because man has been made to the likeness of God and in him there is the
one essence of the soul and three faculties or powers, just as in God there is one
nature and three Persons), so in man there is the re-created image, so far as grace
is in the essence of the soul while the three theological virtues are in the three fac­
ulties. . . .
“As God in the act of creation first produces the nature or essence of a thing
and then produces the proper and natural accidents, so in the act of re-creation He
first perfects the essence of the soul through grace and then perfects the natural
potencies through the virtues.”
6 Eph. 4:24.
T Jas. 1:18.

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incorruptible by the word of God;8 a generation and a birth as in­
dispensable for living a life of grace as are carnal generation and birth
for natural life. For it is Truth itself who has said: “Unless a man be born
again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God. That which is bom of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of
the Spirit is spirit.” 9 And the Council of Trent says: “Unless (men) are
born again in Christ they can never be justified; it is only by that rebirth
through the merit of His passion, that the grace of justification is be­
stowed upon them.” 10
But what at bottom is the nature of this Divine and regenerating ele­
ment which baptism gives to our souls, and which makes us godlike?
What constitutes this root principle of supernatural life which a sacra­
ment confers on us and which other sacred ordinances [the other
sacraments] are destined to preserve, to increase, and, should we be so
unhappy as to lose it, to revive within us? And since this precious gift,
the formative cause of our justification and deification, is nothing else
but sanctifying grace, then what is this grace which sanctifies us?11

This is the great problem which our poor reason will never be
able to solve. We can adequately appreciate it only by contemplating
and admiring it through the sacred symbols of revelation and the
sublime statements divinely inspired or canonized by the Church.
Sanctifying grace is eternal life in Jesus Christ. It is the gift of God,
the living water that quenches all thirst and is converted into a foun­
tain of life and divine energies in the souls that receive it.
But Jesus said this same thing of the Holy Ghost whom His fol­
lowers were to receive.12 Therefore it is this divine Spirit who, by
animating and informing us, makes us live divinely by the grace of
His own communication and the communication of His grace.18
81 Pet. 1:23.
8 John 3:5 f.
10 Sess. VI, chap. 3.
11 Froget, The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, pp. 141 f.
12 John 4:10-15; 7:39.
18 St. Paul desires for the faithful “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the
communication of the Holy Ghost.” According to St. Gertrude (Exercises, no. 5),
he undoubtedly wishes to indicate to us by these words that “the communication
of the Holy Ghost is in its origins identified with the grace of the Savior. We know
that the Holy Ghost is given to us in baptism and confirmation. . . . There is, then,
in us a body and a soul, which are the elements of the natural life; and the Holy
Ghost, who is the principle of the supernatural life. And that is why St. Paul also
tells us that we are temples of the Holy Ghost.” Cf. St. Thomas, In III Sent., dist.
13, q.z, a.z. Petau (De Trinit., Bk. I, chaps. 4ff.) attempts to prove the following
proposition with a number of magnificent texts from the Fathers: “The very sub-

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Subjectively and intrinsically this communicated grace is, accord
ing to the statement of the Council of Trent: *1415
*“the justice of God,
not by which He Himself is just, but by which He makes us just; by
which, namely, we are renewed in the spirit of our mind; and not
only reputedly so, but we are called and truly are just.” That grace,
then, is like an impression of the divine seal within us; the unction
which permeates us, soothes, beautifies, and sanctifies us and fills us
with fragrance, causing us to exhale the sweet odor of Jesus Christ
and to be pleasing to God. It is, in brief, a transformation or interior
renewal which is effected in our very nature through the communi­
cation, animation, and vivifying presence of the sanctifying Spirit.18
2. GRACE AND NATURE

This grace infinitely exceeds every created faculty and all the nat­
ural powers of any creature, however exalted it may be, and this for
the reason that grace is a participation of the divine life, sanctity, and
justice.18 To pass from simply human life to a life that is so exalted,
we need the animation of a new vital principle that far transcends
our own. We need a principle which will give us a new sort of
being, a second nature with its own proper faculties or potencies, so
that we shall be able to live and work divinely and produce fruits of
eternal life. That second nature is constituted in us by sanctifying
grace, which is rooted in the transformed souls. The faculties of that
new nature are the theological virtues and the gifts of the Holy
Ghost, which give us new powers or faculties at the same time that
they elevate our own native potencies to produce supernatural works
in accordance with the motion of the Spirit, who animates us and
whose power gives to them all the value and merit they possess.17
stance of the Holy Ghost is the gift that is divinely infused to make men just and
adoptive sons of God, so that He is like a certain form, so to speak, whereby the
supernatural state is constituted.”
14 Sess. VI, chap. 6.
15 See Illa, q.7, a. 13.
18 la Ilae, q. 112, a. 1 : “Now the gift of grace surpasses every capability of created
nature since it is nothing short of a partaking of the Divine Nature. ... For it is
as necessary that God alone should deify, bestowing a partaking of the Divine Na­
ture by a participated likeness, as it is impossible that anything save fire should
enkindle.”
17 la Ilae, q. 114, a.3: “For thus the value of its merit (i.e., of a good work) de­
pends upon the power of the Holy Ghost moving us to life everlasting according
to John iv. 14: Shall become in biin a fount of water springing up into life ever
lasting.”

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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

The rest of the infused virtues, as also all inspirations and actual
graces, are so many other dispositions or higher forces which in­
vigorate our inherent weakness and aid us to work according to
God.18*
But the divine Consoler is not content with renewing, beautify­
ing, enriching, and strengthening us with His graces, virtues, and
most precious gifts. He even communicates Himself to us and gives
Himself as the true superior principle of our happiness and new
life.10 The Spirit of Jesus Christ desires to be the true life of all Chris­
tian souls.20
Therefore, in addition to the elevation and transformation which
the supernatural gifts produce in us there is an ineffable union with
God Himself. The Giver comes with His gifts. Therefore, as when
He gives us our natural being He remains with us as the author of
the natural order by His essence, presence, and power, so when He
gives us our supernatural being, He remains with us as the author of
this order, as a loving Father, a faithful Friend, a true Spouse, and a
sweet Guest of the soul. Fie resides in the soul as in His chosen tem18 Froget, The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, pp. 192 f.: “Let us recall, that to fit
man to elicit such aids as will finally lead him to the beatific vision, God first pours
into his soul sanctifying grace, which functions in the supernatural order as the
human soul in the natural order. Just as the soul, by uniting with the body, trans­
forms a vile and inert mass into a living human being, so grace, the true form of a
far superior order of life, communicates to him who receives it, a new being, spir­
itual and Divine, which makes him a Christian and a child of God. And because
being is the proper perfection of essence, just as operation is the proper perfection
of the faculties, grace it is that is communicated to the very essence of the soul,
which makes it participate in the Divine nature; whereas the virtues which ac­
company grace have their seat in the different human faculties, which they elevate
and perfect by adding to their natural forces a higher and more powerful energy,
which is supernatural.” Ibid., p. 194: “The infused virtues are therefore planted in
the soul to lift up and transform our natural energies that thev may be capable of
performing actions beyond nature’s powers and meritorious for eternal life. They
are grafted on to the soul like scions or grafts of a better and nobler tree grafted
upon a wild stock. In passing through the graft the natural sap is purified of its
defects, so that the tree which before bore sour and wild fruits now yields sweet
and delicious fruits.”
18 “And yet the Holy Ghost is possessed by man, and dwells within him, in the
very gift itself of sanctifying grace. Hence the Holy Ghost Himself is given and
sent.” “But we are said to possess what we can freely use or enjoy as we please. . . .
Thus a divine person can be given and can be a gift.” See la, q.43, a.3; q.38, a.t.
20 Palmieri, Comment, in Gal., p. 89: “It is a life of which Christ is the principle;
it is the life of Christ who operates in and through Paul himself and therefore Christ
lives in him. Vivit in me Christus—that is, Christ is the interior principle (per
Spiritum suum) of my thoughts and deeds.”

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pie and takes His delight therein; even more, He is the true principle
of that divine life which He communicates. From His intimate
presence, communication, and vivifying action, there results in the
soul sanctifying grace, by which He enriches and beautifies it, re­
news, and transforms it to the very depths of its substance. He pene­
trates and envelops it as a fire does iron and as a ray of light shining
through purest crystal.21
At the same time He infuses the supernatural virtues and gifts,
which perfect and transform the potencies in which they are rooted,
so that they may produce fruits of eternal life. As a result, it is the
soul itself which, thus renewed, enriched, and transformed, works
21 Blessed Henry Suso states that “the creature, since it is limited, cannot be com­
municated; but God, since He infinitely transcends all creatures, is communicated
in essence and in such a way that in this infinite and intimate communication He
gives His very substance, communicated according to the distinction of Persons”
{Union, chap. j).
“The soul,” says Father Juan de los Angeles {Triunfos del amor de Dios, II, chap.
12), “is made to participate with God Himself through a divine infiltration, that is,
through grace, a divine gift which comes down from God and saturates our whole
being so that we are deified.”
Father Hugon, writing in the Revue Thomiste, March, 1905, p. 45, says; “Grace
is an outpouring of the divine being in us, for God alone can communicate to us His
nature and His life.”
Monsabré, Conference 18: “The natural presence of God adds nothing to the
nature of a being; but His supernatural presence transforms it. The former leaves
the natural potencies with their own proper activity, but the supernatural presence
raises them to a divine mode of operation. Through the former He communicates
natural being to the creature, but through this other supernatural presence He makes
it participate in His own being, nature, and life. . . . Grace is to the soul what the
soul is to the body; that is, a form which makes the soul a supernatural being, as the
soul makes the body a human being. . . . Through grace the divine substance itself
is communicated to us and works in us; but we ourselves are cooperators and for
that reason we can merit. . . . Whether grace is a quality or a substance does not
matter. What we know for certain is that it is a permanent gift which affects the
very essence of the soul and, by making it participate truly in the divine nature and
life, it makes man a true son of God and it confers on him incomparable beauty and
grandeur. . . . God creates in us, by means of His efficacious presence, a new life;
and it is characteristic of life that it be as permanent a principle as the substance
which it vivifies. . . . O wonderful mystery! I am totally penetrated by God and I
share in His nature and His life. . . . How could I ever deny it . . . since His seed
is within me . . . and the power of His generation is that which conserves me?
(Cf. I John 3:9; 5:18.) . . . There is little that we can say, and it would avail us
more to attend to the language of Scripture and to listen to the sublime interpreta­
tions of the holy Fathers. . . . Grace! It is God who is united with us as fire is
united with iron and makes it like unto itself. ... It is God who compenetrates us
as rays of light in transparent bodies which receive the properties of light. . . . By
means of grace man produces divine actions; and these are of more value than all
those which proceed from his nature alone.”

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now as a beloved child of God, although all its value and merit pro­
ceed from the power of the Spirit who animates it. This entire
process, as Bainvcl observes,22 is clearly illustrated by comparing it
to the grafting of trees. “The ingrafted tree produces fruits which
of itself it could never produce. It produces them through the juice
of the sap and its natural potencies, as if they were its own. Grafting
improves the fruits, but the tree is also necessary; and evidently the
condition of the tree does not fail to influence the taste of the fruit.”
Theologians summarize all this by saying that grace is in us as a
second nature whose operative potencies are the supernatural virtues
or gifts. Contrary to what Protestants suppose, it is nature itself
which, by grace and the virtues, becomes renewed and transformed
in such a way that it thereby produces what it was incapable of
producing of itself. According to them, our nature is essentially
vitiated and corrupt and from it no good can come, even with the
help of grace. For that reason they deem useless and even impossible
the full cooperation of man in a supernatural act. But if that were
true, then sin would have penetrated more deeply than grace and
there would not be that grace which more abounds, as the Apostle
teaches.2" Reparation would not only be incomplete; it would be
futile. In vain would the performance of good works be recom­
mended to us with such great earnestness.24 Far from attempting to
absorb nature in grace, Protestants have been forced to maintain the
contrary extreme. They leave only the grafting without the tree,
they leave grace without the cooperation of nature. Therefore the
divine grafting is sterile, or rather, it cannot take root in such im­
pious souls 25 who do not aspire to be renewed in the Spirit and who
seek no more than a nominal justice, which is imputed and ficti­
tious.2® For that reason there remains for them nothing but natural
fruits. So it is that Protestants in general have given themselves over
22 Nature et surnaturel, pp. 154-56.
23 Rom. 5:20.
24Phil. 2:12: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation.” I Cor. 15:58:
“. . . always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not
in vain in the Lord.” II Pet. 1:10: “Wherefore, brethren, labor the more that by
good works you may make sure your calling and election.”
25 Wisd. 114: “For wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor swell in a body
subject to sins.”
2« Wisd. 1:5: “For the holy spirit of discipline will flee from the deceitful . . .
and he shall not abide when iniquity cometh in.”

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to pure naturalism, in spite of the fact that they call themselves Chris
tians or “reformed Christians.” 27

3.

OUR CREATION IN JESUS CHRIST

The New Testament frequently speaks to us of the new life which
Jesus brought to us that He might fill us wjth it and thereby restore
and revivify us. From the very beginning of his Gospel, St. John
shows us the life contained in the Word, like an infinite fountain
which pours forth its torrents on all those who believe in His name
and who receive Him.28 He gives them the power to become sons
of God. So it is that we have passed from death to life, and not to
any kind of life, but to an eternal life which remains in us.29 The
Lord vivified us who were dead by pardoning us our sins.30 For this
did Jesus come, “that they may have life, and may have it more
abundantly.” 31 “For God so loved the world as to give His onlybegotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but
may have life everlasting.” 32 For this was He sent into the world,
that the world might be saved by Him.
This principle of supernatural life which is infused in us is called
3T The famous Protestant doctor, Sabatier, like the rationalists, being unwilling to
recognize that divine life which renews and enriches the human being, even ridi­
culed “the old and futile antithesis of the natural and the supernatural.” As a re­
sult, observes Fonsegrive (Le Catholicisme et la vie de l'esprit, pp. 34 f.), “this
disciple of Jesus is condemned to naturalism and rationalism, because he let the
meaning of the doctrine of salvation grow vapid, placing all religion under natural
morality, without any idea of that which he calls the kingdom of God. . . . Cathol­
icism professes that the kingdom of heaven is nothing other than divinization, and
on this fundamental belief rests the whole doctrine of the supernatural. ... It is
evident that it cannot be natural to man to be made a participant in the divine nature.
Hence the necessity of grace and, presupposing the Fall, the necessity of redemption;
hence the necessity of the sacraments, which, by divine power, introduce, main­
tain, or renew the kingdom of grace; hence the necessity of the priesthood and the
Church and the superiority of religion over natural morality as that which completes
and perfects the latter. . . . Through charity, the gift of grace, the divine life makes
circulate through the veins of the Christian the mysterious sap of Jesus Christ: I
am the vine, you are the branches. . . . Formerly Luther absorbed nature in grace;
today the Protestants absorb grace in nature and make the supernatural disappear.
But Catholicism has always proclaimed the distinction and harmony between grace
and nature. Our fathers fought against Luther in defense of human nature and free
will; we today must defend the dominion of the supernatural against the sons of
Luther.”
38 John 1:12.
38 Ibid., 3:14 f.
80 Col. 2:13.
81 John 10:10.
82 Ibid., 3:16 f.

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now the seed of God, now a participation in the divine nature; and
it establishes true filiation.33 “Thus the divine life is to the soul,” says
Bellamy,34 “what the soul is to the body, and even more so. The dis­
tinction of natures does not prevent grace from being truly inherent
in the justified soul. It will never be proved that justification, instead
of being an interior renovation, is, as the Protestants would wish it,
a merely extrinsic favor of God, a conventional imputation of the
merits of Jesus Christ. There is in us a true life of an order superior
to that of natural life. Scripture speaks to us repeatedly of a spiritual
renewal and regeneration.35 By this regeneration the Christian is
established in justice and possesses the Holy Ghost in his heart. He
carries within himself the seal, the unction, and even the participation
of the divine nature.38 These energetic expressions are either devoid
of meaning or they designate, as the Council of Trent teaches, some­
thing inherent in the regenerated soul.” It is, then, as if we possessed
a new being, created in Jesus Christ and born of God.37 This is the
vital principle that remains dormant in infants, only to become in
adults a source of activity.38
This supernatural life does not take anything away from nature
nor impede its full development. Rather it heals it, completes and
perfects it. Grace raises nature from the abasement in which it finds
itself; it strengthens and enriches the energies of nature and directs
them to an incomparably higher goal. Grace renders easy the per­
formance of good works and prompts us to perform more perfectly
and for nobler reasons the very works which we are obliged to do
according to the natural law. At the same time it enables us to work
divinely and to produce the works of eternal life in conformity with
our higher calling.
Grace is not, then, as the generality of Protestants falsely presume,
a kind of mantle that makes us appear to be clothed in Jesus Christ
but permits all the stains of sin and the ugliness of our vitiated nature
to remain in our souls. Nor is it, as some of them maintain, the mere
88 See I John 3:1, 2, 9; II Pet. 1:4.
84 La vie surnaturelle, pp. 56 f.
85 Eph. 4:23; Titus 3:14.
88 Rom. 5:19; 8:11; John 3:9; II Cor. 1:21 f.; II Pet. 1:4.
87 Eph. 2:10; John 1:12 f.
88 St. Augustine, De peccat, remiss., Bk. I, chap. 9: “The grace of illumination and
justification is infused into infants. ... It is given to them as a principle of life,
although in a hidden manner; but in adults it bursts forth into activity.”

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presence of the Holy Ghost, who makes us resplendent with 1 lis
divine holiness and justice, while we ourselves do not truly possess
these attributes. Rather grace is something intimate and something
personal; something which has been made truly our own. It purifies
us, justifies us, renews us, reforms and transforms us, regenerates and
re-creates us. Grace makes us like unto God, inasmuch as it makes
us His sons, and therefore truly just; yet not with the same incom­
municable justice by which He is just, but with a participated justice,
by which we become just because He has made us so.39
As we received a natural being and a human life through creation,
so through regeneration we receive a supernatural quality and a new
Christian life. Hence justification is an added creation, a recrea­
tion, which gives us something new, not human, but divine. We
have been truly created in Jesus Christ in order to live another
type of life.40 Clearly, creation refers to the very roots of substantial
being and not merely to accidents and much less to appearances.
We have received with grace a new reality which is more than
substantial. In its own order of being it elevates us even more than
the infusion of a soul would elevate a corpse or a mineral substance.
Without grace we were, in respect to divine life, like fetid cadavers
or lifeless chemical substances; but with grace we are translated from
death to life, from the kingdom of darkness to that of divine light.
We were rough, unfinished stones in Adam’s quarry and, what is
worse, we were broken and deformed. Yet from those very stones
Jesus Christ was able to raise up true sons of God.41
By the very fact that grace regenerates us, it makes us sons of Him
89 If the Holy Ghost is truly the soul which gives life and unity to the mystical
body of the Church and animates and directs in an orderly fashion all the members
living in it, then grace is the internal and proper form of each of these elements
which constitute that living body. Through grace they become interiorly trans­
figured according to the degree of communication and animation which they re­
ceive from the divine Spirit. And this, says St. Thomas (III Sent., dist. 13, q.2, a. 2),
is “the ultimate and principal perfection of the entire mystical body.”
“Since the Holy Ghost is given to us,” says Alexander of Hales (Summ., Ill,
q.61, m.2, a.i, 2), “He transforms us into a divine species so that the soul itself is
assimilated to God. . . . First there is the transforming form, and this in uncreated
grace; . . . then there is the transformed form which remains in the soul after the
transformation, and this is created grace.”
40 Eph. 2:10: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good
works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them.”
41 Matt. 3:9; Luke 3:8: “God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abra­
ham.”

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who adopts us through grace. Through grace we receive that new
life, not human but divine, which is as eternal as is His own. It
formally constitutes the new entity which we possess and makes us
what we are in Jesus Christ.42 Being perfect Christians, we can say
that we are not now properly the sons of the old Adam, but of the
new; for now we are no longer made like to the image of an earthly
man, but a celestial one.43 We are reborn through God to a new life
in which everything is renewed and refashioned.44 For that purpose
we receive the Spirit of sanctification to renew us according to the
spirit of our mind, despoiling us of the old man. We are now a new
creature, or at least the seed or rudiment of a divine creature: Initium
aliquod creaturae ejus.
As the rational life, which manifests itself in due time, gives us a
being which is more essential or substantial than the sensitive being,
and that without destroying the latter but only subordinating it; so
the life of the Spirit gives us an entity which is as superior to the ra­
tional being as the divine is to the human.45
Since ( îod is infinitely nobler than our humble nature, or even any
other possible nature, in order to deify us, to make us like unto Him­
self and I lis I rue sons, He must work in us a most profound renewal
and transformation. That internal and proper form by which He
makes us just and godlike, not reputedly or in appearance merely,
but truly so, is that which, for lack of another name, is called grace
or created justice. It is so called to distinguish it from that justice
by which 1 le 1 limself is just and which could only be imputed to
us but never communicated. But that term, although useful at times
to avoid the errors of Protestantism and certain pantheistic difficul­
ties, if taken too rigorously, is frequently an occasion of serious mis­
42 See I Cor. 15:10: “But by the grace of God I am what I am.”
43 See II Cor. 3:18.
44Apoc. 21:5; II Cor. 5:17.
45 Sa vs Fr. Juan de los Angeles (Conquista, Diâlogo I, section 5): “The Apostle
dared to say while yet in mortal flesh: 1 live, now not 1, but Christ liveth in me,
which is as if he had said: In the spiritual order I have the accidental being of man,
but the substantial being of God. Such does I lis Majesty desire for us, that we should
be men accidentally but gods substantially, ruled bv His Spirit and conformable to
His will. . . . The soul transformed in God through love lives more for God than
for itself. ... It resides more where it loves than where it lives .... it belongs
more to the thing loved than to itself. In this sense it can be said that the just are
men accidentally and gods substantially for it is through the divine Spirit that they
are governed and live.”

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takes, which reduce to our human level the inestimable gift of God.
If this grace were part of nature itself, or rather of natural crea­
tion, it would be unable to deify that nature. At best our nature, on
receiving that new form, would participate with some other higher
natural being; it would not enjoy the ineffable participation in the
divine life itself.
Grace being a participation in eternal life, cannot perish in the
state of glory; neither can charity, which will never disappear.
Faith and hope, implying imperfection, will vanish in glory. There­
fore these last two virtues are not inseparable properties of grace
and can subsist without it. Although souls possessing only faith and
hope do not have life, the Holy Ghost arouses in them certain cor­
responding acts in order thereby to dispose them to receive life.48

Communication of the Holy Ghost

To understand better the contrast between created grace and un­
created grace, which is the Holy Ghost Himself (although it should
rather be said: between participated grace and grace in itself), it is
well for us to recall the comprehensive and significant organic sym­
bol mentioned previously. That grace which in itself is life eternal
appeared among us and was manifested to us in time. It is communi­
cated to us and shared by us when we are incorporated in our Lord
Jesus Christ. It makes us sons of God and participants in the divine
nature 47 and, by reason of that fact, gods,48 children of the light
and the light of the world.49
‘"See Illa, q.8, a.?, ad 2um. (Here St. Thomas says: “Such as are tainted with
these [mortal] sins are not members of Christ actually, but potentially, unless per­
haps imperfectly, by formless faith, which unites to God, relatively but not simply—
viz., so that man partakes of the life of grace. For as it is written (Jas. 2:20): Faith
without works is dead. Yet such as these receive from Christ a certain vital act—i.e.
to believe.”—Tr.)
4T See II Pet. 1:4.
48 St. Augustine, In Ps. 49: “So we have been made sons of God and even gods.”
49 Matt. 5:14; Eph. 5:8; I Thess. 5:5. “If grace appeared in Jesus Christ,” observes
St. Gertrude (Exercises, no. 5), “it is because it already existed in Him. . . . When
one speaks of grace, two types must be considered; uncreated grace, which is ( iod
Himself; and created or communicated grace, through which we participate in (îod.
. . . Grace is the communication which God makes to us of that which 1 le is by

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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION
I. LIFE OF THE HEAD AND THE MEMBERS

In Jesus Christ as the Head resides the plenitude of the Spirit
which thence redounds to all the members who offer no resistance,
and in this way they are “brought to life together with Christ”
(Eph. 2:5). But the participated life which is proper and immanent
to each member and which is received from the Head in a special
giving is something quite distinct from the fullness of life in Christ
as Head, the giver and dispenser of graces. Nevertheless all grace is
eternal life in Jesus Christ, of whose fullness we have all received.
Hence all who truly live the life of grace can say—and that with the
more truth as they live more intensely—that Christ is their life and
that it is no longer they who live, but Christ lives in them.
The Savior Himself desires that all the faithful should be one
with Him.50 This was accomplished in the early Christians of whom
it is written 51 that they had but one heart and one soul in God. Yet
they lived and were justified, not by that capital grace by which He
lives and is just and is the one who justifies, but by that grace which
is derived from I lim as the I lead and which informs and vivifies the
various members who live in 1 lim ami through Him.
The grace of God comes to us through the communication of
the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of truth, who resides fully in Jesus and
who is His Spirit. This communication justifies, vivifies, renews, and
sanctifies us, not with the selfsame holiness with which the divine
Consoler is eternally and absolutely the 1 loly Ghost, but with that
holiness which is imparted by 1 lim and which leaves us vivified, renature. In other words, when we receive created grace it is through a participation
with uncreated grace, which is God. Thereby we become sharers in the divine
nature.”
St. John of the Cross, Living Flame of Love, stanza II, no. 34: “The substance of
this soul, although it is not the substance of God, for into this it cannot be sub­
stantially changed, is nevertheless united in Him and absorbed in Him, and is thus
God by participation in God, which comes to pass in this perfect state of the spir­
itual life.”
“The divine substance,” says Fr. Godinez (Teologta Mistica, Bk. IV, chap. 11),
“can be so intimately incorporated with the soul that the soul acts in imitation of
divinity and knows and loves divinity. Then God is like a soul which assists our
own soul, through which He produces salutary acts which neither habitual grace
nor charity could produce outside this union.”
e0John 17:11-26.
el Acts 4:32.

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newed, and sanctified, and makes us living members of Christ.1"·
We all drink of the same Spirit who is the fount of living water
which bursts forth from our hearts unto life eternal. We all ought
to live the life of Christ as so many branches grafted on this divine
tree, so that we may grow in Him and put forth abundant fruit. For
if we do not receive His divine sap, we shall be cut off and be cast
into the fire (John 15:6).
Each member of His body, except the more vital and indispensable
organs, such as the heart or the head, can degenerate and die to that
life of grace but can again recover it by being revivified. But the
grace itself which is received neither dies nor is revived. It with­
draws, as it were, but returns again when it finds no obstacles, for
grace in itself is eternal life, although communicated and restricted
by time.
Grace can be compared to light, which is not destroyed when it
ceases to illumine some body. When the body is removed from the
light or when obstacles are placed in the way, the light follows its
course or its rays are reflected. Then the object ceases to be il­
lumined, although it can again be illumined if it is placed once more
in the rays of the light. Something similar happens in the case of
participated grace; as St. Thomas says,53 “for grace is caused in man
by the presence of the Godhead, as light in the air by the presence
of the sun.”
Sanctifying vivification is a work proper to the Spirit of Jesus
Christ. That which is proper to us is to be sanctified by receiving His
vivifying communication, that is, the participation of His grace; or
to cease to be sanctified through our own malice; or to recover our
sanctification through His goodness and mercy. That participated
62 Eph. 2:20-22: “You are . . . built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. In whom all the build­
ing, being framed together, groweth up into a holy temple in the Lord. In whom
you also are built together into a habitation of God in the Spirit.”
Col. 2:19: “. . . not holding the head, from which the whole body, bv joints and
bands, being supplied with nourishment and compacted, groweth unto the increase
of God.”
St. Augustine, Confessions, Bk. XII, chap. 15: “Great is the difference between the
illuminating Light and the light which is illumined; between creating Wisdom
and created wisdom; between justifying Justice and the justice that is effected
through justification.”
88 Illa, q.7, a. i j.

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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

grace which we possess as long as we have the good fortune to be
living members of the Church, the mystical body whose soul is the
Holy Ghost, cannot be destroyed nor contaminated, and it possesses
the power of deifying us. This grace is “a certain pure emanation of
the glory of the Almighty God; and therefore no defiled thing
cometh into her. For she is the brightness of eternal light: and the
unspotted mirror of God’s majesty, and the image of His good­
ness.” 54 So grace is effected in us by the vivifying presence of the
Sun of justice, and it is not destroyed when we force Him to with­
draw from us; but it does withdraw with Him and thus leaves us in
darkness or even in the shadows of death.65
We have already seen some of the comparisons used by the holy
doctors, who understood this doctrine keenly. St. Basil, and with
him St. Bernard, Tauler, and the generality of mystics, compares the
deified soul to iron tested in a furnace, where, without ceasing to
be iron, it becomes totally incandescent. Yet the fire or participated
heat by which the iron is made igneous is one thing, and the fire
which inflames the iron is another. Taken out of the furnace, the
iron loses its fiery condition; but as long as the iron is inflamed, it not
only appears to be fiery, but actually is. This is a weak image; yet,
considering our limited capacity, it is one of the most significant ex­
amples of the mysterious operation of the divine Spirit, who is quite
rightly called the fountain of life and the fire of divine love, who
infuses His charity into our hearts and renews them with His loving
unction.
St. Cyril of Alexandria says that He deifies us by impressing Him­
self on us both within and without as a living seal which reproduces
in us the true likeness of the only-begotten Son of God. St. Basil58
represents Him, now as a sculptor who makes that divine image ap­
pear in souls; now as a sun which penetrates souls and makes them
radiant with His own light, like illuminated clouds, pouring forth
on them life, immortality, and true holiness; again as a most precious
ointment whose very essence we absorb so that we exhale the good
64 Wisd. 7:25 f.
65 Luke 1:79. Father Juan de los Angeles, Dialogos sobre la conquista del Reina
de Dios, X, section 7: “When God enters the soul there is heat and life; when He
leaves, there is coldness, bitterness, and death.”
48 Adv. Eimom., I, 5.

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odor of Jesus Christ.57 St. Ambrose considers Him as a painter who
copies in souls the lifelike image of the AVord.58 But no one has
ever expressed what sanctifying grace is as exactly and as profoundly
as did the two princes of the apostles. St. Peter calls it a participation
in the divine nature in which is contained the most precious and
magnificent gifts. St. Paul speaks of it as eternal life.
2. DIGNITY OF THE SONS OF GOD

So it is that sanctifying grace enters into our very substance to
deify it. Since God’s nature is pure life, by participating therein we
cannot help but share in the divine life, in eternal life itself which re­
sides in the Father and was manifested to us for the precise purpose
of being communicated to us. Possessing divine life, we ought also
to possess the divine operations conformable to it, that we may pro­
ceed as true sons of God. Thus will be understood the magnificent
renewal which the Spirit of Jesus Christ works in us and which con­
stitutes the pledge of eternal life. In this way also will be understood
that mysterious rebirth through water and the Holy Ghost which
was so puzzling to Nicodemus.
This rebirth raises us to a dignity which seems to be almost iden­
tical with that of the only-begotten Son of the Father, to whose
image we are fashioned as His brothers and coheirs, and who is for
that reason called the first-born among many brethren. Through His
grace we become, in a certain sense, what Fie is by nature. But here
there is an infinite gap which keeps the saints humble, because by
virtue of their growth in God they are able to feel more keenly the
vast difference between their own nothingness and the divine all; be­
tween their own miseries and the inexhaustible mercy of our most
loving Savior who humbled Himself in order to exalt us.5*
iT Op. cit., I, 3.
68 Hexaem., Bk. VI, chaps. 7 f.
89 “What the Son of God was not by nature in virtue of His first birth,” says
St. Fulgence (Epist. /7), “He became through grace in virtue of His second birth,
that we might become, through the grace of our second birth, that which
we were not naturally through our first birth. God’s human birth is a grace which
He gives us. We receive also an entirely gratuitous grace when, through the
munificence of a God born of man, we become participants in the divine nature.”
St. Leo, Sermo in Nativitate Domini, 4: “Although it is from one and the same
compassion that the Creator grants anything to a creature, it is less to be wondered
at that men should attain to divinity than that God should descend to humanity.”

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3. NATURAL AND ADOPTIVE FILIATION

The divine filiation of Jesus Christ as the Word of the Father is
necessary and natural; ours is the result of a free and gratuitous adop­
tion. He was born God of God before all the ages, and through Him
all things were made. We, having been born of Adam, are reborn of
God and for God in the time assigned by His compassion and
liberality. He, as consubstantial with the Father, is the eternal splen­
dor of His glory and the most perfect image of His substance. In
the measure in which we happily lose our earthly form by putting
off the old man, we become transformed in His. We are made more
like unto Him and we progress from glory to glory according as we
permit ourselves to be led, fashioned, and informed by the Spirit,
who makes us adopted sons of God.00 He is from all eternity “be­
gotten and not made”; we are re-engendered in time and made gods
by participation. So He is eternally God because He cannot be other­
wise; we are deified only to a degree by the grace of adoption, from
which we can degenerate through our own wretched malice.61
We have been incorporated with Him through baptism and made
His members. We became grafted on Him so that through His power
we might produce fruits of glory and works worthy of eternal life.
Since He is our Head, we work under His continual influence and
we participate in His very divinity, His infinite power, and Flis life
and His Spirit. This it is that gives divine energy to our faculties and
infinite value to our actions.02
80 Cf. Illa, q.32, a.3; ibid., ad ium: “And if the likeness be perfect, the sonship is
perfect, whether in God or in man. But if the likeness be imperfect, the sonship is
imperfect. . . . Men who are fashioned spiritually by the Holy Ghost cannot be
called sons of God in that perfect sense of sonship. And therefore they are called
sons of God in respect of imperfect sonship, which is by reason of the likeness of
grace.”
61 “When, through His deifying influence,” says St. Dionysius (Divinis nomini­
bus, XI), “many are made gods according to the capacity of each one, it appears
that there is a division or multiplication of the one God. But He is the principle of
this deification . . . and is essentially the unique and undivided God.”
62 The Church says in the Mass: “O God, make us share in the divinity of Him
who desired to clothe Himself in our humanity.” In the Office of Corpus Christi the
Church repeats the words of St. Athanasius quoted by St. Thomas Aquinas: “The
Son of God assumed our nature to make us gods.”

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4. PARTICIPATION IN THE SPIRIT OF JESUS CHRIST

Jesus as Head has the plenitude of the Spirit which He communi­
cates to us according to the measure of His giving that we may al­
ways be moved by Him in the works of our particular ministry,
without ever resisting or afflicting Him, but always following His
loving impulses and faithfully cooperating with His actions, to be­
come perfect in all things. Thus we are Christians and sons of God
in the measure in which we permit ourselves to be governed and
moved by the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Monsignor Gay states that it is theologically indisputable that our
Lord as man could do nothing that was not under the impulse of the
Holy Ghost and dependent on Him. We also, he continues, in Jesus,
through Jesus, and like Jesus, possess within ourselves the Holy
Ghost, who becomes our own proper and characteristic spirit, as it
is written: “But he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit with Him”
(I Cor. 6:17). In another place: “If any man have not the Spirit of
Christ, he is none of His” (Rom. 8:9). On the contrary, they who
are animated and governed by the Spirit63 are true Christians, true
brothers and members of Christ, and true sons of the Father. The
Holy Ghost is in us as the living and permanent foundation of our
supernatural being, and He becomes the principle of all the works
which this holy state can produce.64
Bellamy adds that the Holy Ghost is in a certain sense the proper
and personal Spirit of Jesus Christ who works in Him both as God
and as man.65 He constitutes, so to speak, Christ’s birthright, and He
is the official consecrator of Christ’s holy humanity, to which is for­
ever communicated whatever is possible over and above the hypo­
static union. In us, on the other hand, the Holy Ghost is always a
stranger whose coming can be slow and whose parting sudden. He
gives Himself, or rather lie abandons Himself, to us with great
liberality, yet with a certain reserve.
Far from being perfect at the beginning, the measure of this giv­
ing can increase incessantly and in marvelous proportions, accord63 Rom. 8:14.
64 Gay, De la vie et des vertus chrétiennes, X.
βδ Op. cit., p. 248. Cf. Illa, q.8, a. i, ad him: “To give grace or the Holy Ghost
belongs to Christ as He is God, authoritatively; but instrumentally it belongs also
to Him as man, inasmuch as His manhood is the instrument of His Godhead.’"

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ing as we abandon ourselves to Him more and more through love.
There are countless grades of the divine union whose bonds can go
on tightening indefinitely. This union, as it becomes more and more
intimate, is augmented through an increase of sanctifying grace, or,
rather, through a real and more perfect assimilation with God. What­
ever may be the origin of this grace and the way it is manifested, it
is always accompanied by a more intimate and more abundant com­
munication of the Holy Ghost. So between Him and the just soul
there is effected a new manner and a new grade of union, which St.
Thomas calls an invisible mission of the divine Paraclete.68 Our
union with the Holy Ghost, then, is progressive.67

ARTICLE III
Adoption

and

Justification

Although our filiation is adoptive and not natural, the adoption
itself is not purely juridical or, so to speak a fictio juris. It is some­
thing very real, for actually it is a certain participation in the eternal
filiation itself. God does whatever lie says. For Him, to speak is to
produce; and when 1 le calls us sons, He makes us to be precisely
that.1
Characteristics of Divine Adoption

The first distinctive note of this divine adoption is its reality. The
Angelic Doctor2 states that God, by adopting us, makes us capable
of enjoying His eternal heritage. Through it also He grants us a re­
birth in His own Spirit; and thus we pass from a purely natural life
to the life of grace, which is the seed of glory and a true participa­
tion in the divine nature.3
ee Cf. la, q.43, a. 6.
07 Bellamy, La vie surnaturelle, p. 248.
1 Cf. Illa, q. 23, a. I, ad 211m: “Wherefore as by the whole work of creation the
Divine goodness is communicated to all creatures in a certain likeness, so by the
work of adoption, the likeness of natural sonship is communicated to men.”
2 See Illa, q.23, a. 1.
8 “If we are adopted sons of God,” says Terrien (Grâce et la gloire, I, pp. 78, 98),
“not in any manner whatsoever, but through a rebirth in Him, how could it be that
our adoption does not imply a certain divine reality within us? Can there be any
generation without a certain communication of nature between the father and the

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The second distinctive characteristic of this adoption is that it is
spontaneous, free, and loving. Men adopt because they lack chil­
dren of their own in whom they can find delight, but God the
Father finds infinite pleasure and delight in His only-begotten Son.
He possesses a Son so lovable, so beloved, and so loving that the re­
sult of this mutual love with which they love each other eternally, is
personal Love, the charity of God, the Spirit of love, who is the
bond of their infinite complacency. Yet, in order that those inex­
haustible delights might redound to us, God willed to communicate
to us this same Spirit of love as a pledge of our true adoption. He
loved us to the extent of giving us His only-begotten Son, that in
Him we might possess eternal life (John 3:16).
The third distinctive quality of this divine adoption is that it is
rich, precious, and fruitful, since it makes us co-heirs with Christ
Himself (Rom. 8:17). It gives us full rights to His inheritance,
which is not limited, paltry, and perishable, but eternal and infinite;
for it is the kingdom of God,*4 or rather God Himself.5 Such is the
heritage of the servants of the Lord: the full possession of His riches,
His happiness, and His own Spirit.6*
8This heritage is not reserved for
us for the future only; but He gives it to us immediately and per­
mits us to enjoy even now some of its first fruits. The kingdom of
God is within us. We need only penetrate into the center of our
son? And what would that communication be in this case but a transfusion of the
infinite substance into the regenerated man? . . . Such is the constitutive perfec­
tion of the sons of God in its supreme reality. It effects in us an irradiation of the
most elevated, intimate, profound, and naturally incommunicable divine substance.
Therefore he who is in God’s grace, as His son, is exalted above all created na­
ture.”
“How greatly this adoption exceeds that of men!” exclaims Father Monsabré
(Conference /S'). “All the tenderness of the human heart is impotent to transform
the nature of an adopted son who, to his credit or discredit, preserves in his veins
the blood of his progenitors. Nothing can be changed through adoption; the most
that can be granted to the adopted son is a title with its accompanying rights. But
God goes beyond that. He works in the very core of our substance and He re­
engenders us supernaturally, communicating His own nature to us. . . . We are
called His sons because we are truly that: Nominamur et sumus. Hence the title of
gods in the beautiful expression of St. Augustine: Si filii Dei facti sumus, et dii facti
suntus" (In Ps. 49).
4 Cf. Ia Hae, q. 114, a. 3: “And the worth of the work depends on the dignity of
grace, whereby a man, being made a partaker of the Divine Nature, is adopted as a
son of God, to whom the inheritance is due by right of adoption, according to Rom.
viii. 17: If sons, heirs also."
8 Gen. 15:1: “I am thy protector, and thy reward exceeding great.”
•Isa. 54:17; 55:1-0.

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hearts and the very core of our souls to find God with all His infinite
riches.7 There the eternal fountain of living water bursts forth and
quenches all earthly thirst. There sweetly reposes the loving Con­
soler, the pledge and security of everlasting life, in whom we shall
find all good things and innumerable riches through His hands.8
Thus are we filled with grace and truth in the likeness of the first­
born and model.9
The fourth quality of this adoption is that it is both general and
particular. If human adoption takes place when there is already a
legitimate heir, the true son becomes disturbed and prejudiced be­
cause of the lessening of his heritage and the division of paternal af­
fection. But the charity of the Son of God is such that, instead of
not wishing co-heirs, He acquired them at the cost of His own blood.
The inexhaustible and priceless riches of His glory, far from being
diminished by the addition of new heirs, seems rather to be increased
on being shared by others.10 Likewise, although He enjoys absolute
happiness in the bosom of the Father, He finds its complement or
redundance in the bosom of His brethren.11 And the joy of these
brethren increases in the measure in which new members arrive to
’ Our Lord once said to St. Catherine of Siena, “Contemplate me in the core of
your heart and you will see that 1 am your Creator and you will be happy” (Life,
I, chap. io).
Tauler, Institutions, chap. 34: “It is certain that God has selected for Himself
a special place in the soul, which is the very essence from which the superior
faculties How. . . . There the divine image shines forth and it bears such a re­
semblance to the Creator that he who knows the image, knows Him. God is present
most intimately in this depth of the soul, and there He continuously engenders His
Word; for wherever the Father is, it is necessary that He generate. He also en­
genders us that we may be His sons through the grace of adoption. From this depth
of the soul, then, proceeds all of a man’s life, action, and merit, which three things
God Himself works in man. . . . But to be aware of this rebirth and the presence
of God in a way that will produce abundant fruits, they must recollect the faculties
of the soul at their very source, where they touch the naked essence of the soul.
There they will discover the presence of God, and with this knowledge they will
be enraptured and, in a certain way, divinized. Then all the works which flow from
them will be rendered divine.”
8 Wisd. 7:11.
8 John 1:14.
10 St. Augustine, In Ps. 49, no. 2: “Such is the charity of that true Heir that He
wished to have co-heirs. . . . For that heritage in which we are co-heirs of Christ
is not lessened by an abundance of possessors, nor is it made more limited because
of the multiplicity of heirs. There is as much for many as for a few; as much for
each one as there is for all.”
11 Prov. 8:31: “And my delights were to be with the children of men.”

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drink of the fountain of life and to see the light of His light.1”
If material goods diminish and are exhausted on being distributed,
spiritual goods, even in this life, are rather increased and perfected.
A good teacher loses none of his knowledge by communicating it
to his students. Rather he enlarges and increases his own prestige and
happiness by forming great thinkers who will perpetuate his renown
and render his doctrine fruitful. What will happen, then, in the case
of spiritual goods that are infinite and eternal?
The essential joy of the saints, as St. Bernard says, is to possess
God, to see Him, to be with Him, and to live in Him, for in Him are
contained all riches and glory. Instead of this happiness being di­
minished, each saint enjoys it as many times over as there are lovable
co-heirs, and he loves them as himself as long as they possess this
integral happiness of union with God. Moreover, these co-heirs,
deified as they are and totally resplendent with infinite light, see each
other as most clear mirrors in which is vividly reproduced that eternal
Beauty which holds them in perpetual admiration. The sight of this
reflection in their own souls and in the souls of others would be suf­
ficient of itself to keep them perpetually absorbed. So that ineffable
joy is in no way lessened, but it redounds from heart to heart with
never-ending echoes.
Here, then, is the great mystery of our deification through grace.
Here, as St. Leo says, is the greatest of gifts: the privilege of calling
God by the sweet name of Father,13 and Jesus Christ by the name of
Brother. By virtue of our adoption as sons there is restored to
us that likeness to .God which we would have had in the state
of original justice. At the same tiitie, through the life of grace, there
is communicated to us a new image; and so faithful is this image that
we are truly deified and made living reproductions of God, partic­
ipants in His nature, His Spirit, and His divine life. So it is that we
are His true sons and we can in all truth be called gods. “I have said:
You are gods and all of you the sons of the most High” (Ps. 81:6).
But we are created gods, whereas He alone is the living and eternal
12 Ps. 35:9 f.: “They shall be inebriated with the plenty of Thy house; and Thou
shalt make them drink of the torrent of Thy pleasure. For with Thee is the fountain
of life; and in Thy light we shall see light.”
18 Sermo 4 de Nativitate: “This gift by which God calls man His son and man
calls God his Father exceeds all other gifts.”

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Jahweh who, being God by nature, can make us gods by participa­
tion.14 He is the deifying God; we are deified gods.15*
By the same token that we ought to glory in that lofty dignity, we
ought also to act in conformity with it to the end that God will be
glorified in us as we glorify ourselves in Him, as St. Leo observes.18
In all things we should act and shine forth as sons of God, that our
light may illumine the rest of men and that by our good works we
may glorify the heavenly Father.17
Sanctification and Justification

From what has been said it can be seen clearly how the soul be­
comes super naturalized, transformed, and, at least initially, deified in
its very essence and all its faculties through adoptive filiation, vivifica­
tion by the Holy Ghost, and the indwelling of the entire Trinity.
That which formerly could not perform any functions other than
those of mere earthly life, and even many of those with difficulty and
imperfectly, now finds itself possessed of divine potencies and ener­
gies capable of performing glorious works. Now the soul lives a
truly heavenly life whose connatural goal is the full vision and pos­
session of God.
I. THE POWER OF GRACE AND ITS MANIFESTATIONS

That sanctifying grace which lifts us to the dignity of sons of the
Most High is an endless source of power which enables us to soar
from earth to heaven, from the human to the divine. It is the mystical
14 St. Augustine, In Ps. 49, no. 1: “He calls men gods because they are deified by
His grace and not because they are born of His substance.”
15 Eadmer, a disciple of St. Anselm, writes in his Liber de similit., chap. 66: “God
makes other gods, but in such a fashion that He alone is the God who deifies and
we are the gods who are deified.”
St. Augustine, Sermo 66: “God desires to make you a god; not by nature as is
His own Son, but through grace and adoption. . . . Cease, then, to be a son of
Adam. Put on Jesus Christ, and then you will no longer be a man; and ceasing to
be a man, neither will you be a liar.”
ia Sermo 29 de ‘Nativitate, chap. 3.
17 Matt. 5:16. “The son of adoption whose works correspond to his birth,” ob­
serves Terrien (La grâce et la gloire, I, 272), “can truly apply to himself the words
of the only-begotten Son: He who sees me sees also the Father (John 14:9), not to
exalt himself, but to exalt Him who has done such great things in him. For I am a
mirror wherein the divine face shines forth; a portrait of Himself which He has
made by communicating His grace to me.”

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fount of living water which the Savior promised to us and merited
for us and, like a jet of infinite pressure, it springs forth from our
hearts unto life eternal.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, who, by infusing His grace in us, gives us
the inestimable power to become sons of God, is that symbolic
bridge between earth and heaven which St. Catherine of Siena saw.18
All of us are able to pass over this bridge and thus arrive at the other­
wise inaccessible heights of the divinity, where the face of the Father
is seen and intimate fellowship is possessed with the divine Persons.
But the generality of men are so blind and insensible that, although
they have been invited to pass over this bridge, they prefer to perish
by drowning or to live like crawling things, wriggling through the
mire of human corruption, in darkness and the shadows of death,
rather than exert a little violence on self and soar to those sublime
regions of light and life where they can breathe the pure and re­
freshing air.
As St. John says, grace is the seed of God which regenerates us so
that we may be able to live as gods even now. According to the ex­
pression of St. Peter, it is a real and formal participation in the divine
nature. St. Paul calls it true eternal life, which begins to develop now
and will flourish forever in glory when, being manifested as we are,
we shall appear like unto God, seeing Him as He is and knowing
Him as we are known by Him.
Even if our nature possessed its primitive integrity as it was in
Adam, we could say little more than we have said about this mys­
terious deification which we should feel, enjoy, and admire in silence,
rather than seek to describe. Since our nature was deeply confused,
wounded, and corrupted through sin, to be deified it must not only
be elevated, but also renewed, cured, purified, and restored to its
primitive integrity so that the natural image of the Creator may once
again shine forth in it in full splendor. Then upon this natural image
there must be superimposed the likeness of the living God, one and
three, as He is in Himself.
Hence it follows that purely elevating grace is not sufficient, but
there is required a type of grace which heals at the same time that
it elevates our nature. Hence also the laborious and most fruitful
work of purification and renewal must accompany this entire process
18 Dialogue, chaps. 21-31.

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of deification, or rather of illumination and union, and this even
after a soul has worked hard and long. Even the most valiant saints
found this work of purification very painful, for there is no one who
does not feel unspeakable sorrow and agony in stripping himself “of
the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new”;19 to purge
himself of every trace of the old leaven of rfialice and iniquity in
order to become “the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” 20
Without this work of purification, which so commends itself to
our cooperation and generous efforts, we would enjoy nothing more
than a painless and easy growth comparable to that of well-fed and
healthy children. We would receive and react to the beneficent and
delightful impulses of the vivifying Spirit without any resistance or
obstacle and even with great satisfaction and pleasure. But as those
vital impulses are tasted and enjoyed more and more intensely we
experience the bitterness and pain of extricating ourselves from vi­
cious habits and from the seeds of malice which are so deeply rooted
that they cannot be completely eradicated save at the cost of poignant
suffering. Especially at the beginning, when we are still full of evil,
we must use the greatest possible self-violence so that the seeds of
malice will not dominate us. We must die to ourselves that we may
live for God alone, for it is only after we have been greatly purged
of the taste for earthly things that we can have a palate healthy
enough to taste and enjoy divine things.21
Since grace is eternal life, the introduction of this new life pro­
duces in us a profound renewal and transformation. It is indisputable
that we die to the supernatural life if we have the incomparable mis­
fortune to commit a grave sin and that we rise from death to life
when we return to the friendship of God through sincere repentance.
For, as we are reborn through baptism, through penance we are
resurrected. We recover the life which was lost and we again be­
come living members of Christ, holy temples of God, and saints in
the incipient stage.
As a result of sin, which places an obstacle to grace and which
must be destroyed by justification, the infinite goodness and mercy
of the Father stand out in greater contrast. Although He looks upon
19 Col. 3:9 f.
99 See I Cor. 5:8.
21 St. Augustine, Confessions, VII, chap. 16.

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sinners as Plis enemies, Lie yet desires to deify them and is ready to
offer them life even after they have renounced it so ungratefully?'·*
This fact should prompt us to correspond with God by a more fer­
vent and disinterested love, seeing what love He has shown in offer­
ing us pardon so frequently and so readily and in bidding us to
share in His glory. Yet He also desires that we truly merit glory,
although from Him comes the power of meriting. Therefore, in
crowning our works, says St. Augustine, He crowns His own gifts.28
Although grace instantaneously vivifies us and translates us from
the shadows of death to the kingdom of light, destroying the sin
which made us archenemies of God, it does not, on that account,
completely destroy the fomes peccati, the disordered concupiscence
which inclines us to evil. By dint of our own efforts and with the
help of grace, we must subdue and conquer it, expurgating and root­
ing out the ferment of evil, all remnants of vice, and every seed of
sin and corruption. And since vicious habits are so deeply rooted in
us and have become, as it were, a second nature, thence follows the
painfulness of the task in banishing them entirely. Thence the cease­
less vigilance and sacrifices entailed in the work of our purification;
thence our inability to progress in sanctity and justice without ex­
erting violence to rid ourselves of all obstacles.
2. FALSITY OF IMPUTED JUSTICE

Those unfortunate heretics who reduce the whole function of
grace to the covering of our sins by the mantle of Christ and make
of justification a petrification of souls in the uniform molds of a
sanctity that is imputed and not real, have little knowledge of these
mysteries of renewal. They are unable to understand the cries of
pain which this renewal extracts from even the most generous and
heroic souls. According to these heretics, restoration in justice is
simply an amnesty granted to all who trust in the merits of the Savior.
Without any change in the internal disposition of the sinner, the de­
served punishment is remitted and he is permitted to enter into the
society of the sons of God. Radically he continues to be a servant of
sin. He is a whitened sepulcher, filled with the same stench and cor­
ruption as before, retaining all his evil desires and his evil life.
22 Eph. 2:5.
28 Ep. i s>4, no. 19.

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If anyone does not truly live in Christ, he cannot grow in Him.
Not possessing true justice, he will be unable to augment it by good
works and the faithful practice of the Christian virtues. Therefore
these heretics were consistent in their error by denying the neces­
sity of good works and considering them useless and even derogatory
of the merits of Jesus Christ.
One need not spend time in pondering over these things because
it is evident how contrary all this is to divine revelation and Christian
experience. The Savior came into this world that we might possess
eternal life and that we might be made sons of God by being reborn
in Him and that we might live a life that is more and more divine.24
Therefore He translated us from death to life; from the power of
darkness and the slavery of sin to the bright and glorious liberty of
the sons of God,25 making us true sons, and not sons in name only.26
This filiation interiorly transforms us to the point of deifying us,
and deification is impossible without a true interior justification
which destroys the sin that has caused an estrangement between
God and ourselves.27 Through the grace of justification we are
changed from enemies and sons of wrath into true sons and friends
of the eternal Father, and then it is that He takes delight in us. “The
love of God,” says the Angelic Doctor,28 “infuses and creates
goodness.”

3.

JUSTIFICATION A RENEWAL AND CONTINUAL GROWTH

The Council of Trent29 teaches: “Justification is not merely the
remission of sins, but it is also the sanctification and renovation of
the inner man.” So it is, according to the teaching of St. Augustine,
that “He who justifies us also deifies us, because in justifying us, He
makes us sons of God.” 30 Therefore the divine Lamb “who takes
away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) purifies us and with His
own blood cleanses our conscience of dead works to serve the living
God.31 He is come “that transgression may be finished, and sin may
24 John 1:3, 10.
25 Col. 1:13; I Pet. 2:9.
26 See I John 3:1-11.
2T Isa. 59:2.
28 See la, q.20, a. 2.
29 Sess. VI, can. 7.
80 In Ps. 49, 2.
81 Heb. 1:3; 9:14.

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have an end, and iniquity may be abolished, and everlasting justice
may be brought.” 82
For that reason we ought also to repent and be converted, that our
sins may be blotted out (Acts 3:19). Then the Lord, who through
His mercy blots out our sins (Isa. 43:25), will pour upon us clean
water and cleanse us from all our filthiness (Ezech. 36:25). Even
the saints beg Him to wash them yet more from their iniquity and
cleanse them from their sin for they know that He will wash them
and they will be made whiter than snow and He will give them joy
and gladness (Ps. 50).83 Through the ardor of charity their “sins
shall melt away, as the ice in the fair warm weather.” 34 The Lord
will put away our iniquities and He will cast all our sins into the bot­
tom of the sea (Mich. 7:19).88
The Apostle, after reminding the faithful of the most sorrowful
state in which they formerly found themselves, adds: “And such
some of you were; but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but
you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the spirit
of our God.” 38 And this divine Spirit of sanctification, through
whom we are created for eternal life by receiving Flis divine grace,
continually renews the face of our hearts.37 He charges us to be re­
newed in the spirit of our mind and to put on the new man (Eph.
4:23 f.) and to make sure our calling and election by means of good
works (II Pet. 1:10) through which we cooperate as much as pos­
sible in our renewal.38
In this way, using the waters of grace which wash and give fer­
tility, we shall grow luxuriant, like a tree planted near the running
waters which shall bring forth its fruit in due season (Ps. 1:3). We
82 Dan. 9:24.
88 Ps. 50:12: “Create a clean heart in me, O God; and renew a right spirit within
my bowels.”
84 Ecclus. 3:17.
85Ps. 102:12: “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our
iniquities from us.”
86 See I Cor. 6:it.
87 Ps. 103:30.
88 Rom. 12:2: “Be reformed in the newness of your mind.” Eph. 4:22-24: “To put
off, according to former conversation, the old man, who is corrupted according to
the desire of error. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put on the
new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth.” I Pet.
2:9: “You are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased
people; that you may declare His virtues, who hath called you out of darkness
into His marvelous light.”

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shall flourish like the palm tree and prosper like the cedars of Leb­
anon (Ps. 91:13).39 Thus does divine wisdom fructify in us and
we begin to exhale, not the stench of whitened sepulchers, but the
sweet odor of Christ (II Cor. 2:15).40
After we have been reborn of the Holy Ghost and renewed in
Him, we shall be truly spiritual41 and that to such an extent that He
can then say to our souls, “Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is
not a spot in thee.” 42 Growing in all things according to Him, we
shall “be filled unto all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19).43
Such is and ought to be the process of our deification. We are not
““Ecclus. 24:15-32.
40 Titus 2: it f.: “For the grace of God our Savior hath appeared to all men,
instructing us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we may live soberly
and justly and godly in this world.”
41 John 3:6: " That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” II Cor. 3:18: “But we all
beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed into the same
image front glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
43 Cant. 4:7.
43 St. Augustine, De peccatorum meritis et remissione, Bk. II, chaps. 9-12: “Men
become sons of God when they begin to live in newness of spirit, and to be re­
newed as to the inner man after the image of Him who created them (Col. 3:10).
For it is not from the moment of a man’s baptism that all his old infirmity is
destroyed. Renewal begins with the remission of all his sins and so far as he posseses
a taste for spiritual things. All things else are accomplished in hope, even to the
full renewal which we shall experience at the resurrection of the dead. This, too,
our Lord calls a regeneration, though not such as occurs through baptism, but a
regeneration wherein there is brought to perfection in the body that which has
begun in the spirit. . . . We have therefore even now begun to be like Him, having
the first fruits of the Spirit; but yet we are still unlike Him by reason of the rem­
nants of the old nature. . . . Finally, we shall possess this adoption completely, and
the sinful man within us will totally disappear, and no one will be able to find any
trace of him.”
St. John of the Cross, Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Bk. II, chap. 5: “And thus, when the
soul rids itself totally of that which is repugnant to the Divine will and conforms
not with it, it is transformed in God through love, . . . therefore must the soul be
stripped of all things created, and of its own actions and abilities—namely, of its
understanding, liking and feeling—so that, when all that is unlike God and uncon­
formed to Him is cast out, the soul may receive the likeness of God; and nothing
will then remain in it that is not the will of God, and it will thus be transformed
in God. . . . Wherefore God communicates Himself most to that soul that has
progressed farthest in love; namely, that has its will in closest conformity with the
will of God. And the soul that has attained complete conformity and likeness of
will is totally united and transformed in God supernaturally. ... In thus allowing
God to work in it, the soul (having rid itself of every mist and stain of the crea­
tures ... ) is at once illumined and transformed in God, and God communicates to
it His supernatural Being, in such wise that it appears to be God Himself, and has
all that God Himself has. And this union comes to pass when God grants the soul
this supernatural favour, that all the things of God and the soul are one in partici­
pant transformation; and the soul seems to be God rather than a soul, and is indeed

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so many mummies under the illusory wrappings of an imputed
justice, nor are we solidified in a changeless mold. Rather we air
obligated to cooperate with the grace which vivifies us in order to
increase it and to make fruitful the gifts we have received. There
fore we ought to grow in the grace and knowledge of God, and we
ought to die more and more to ourselves in order to live more and
more perfectly in Him. We must be renewed from day to day and
continually purify ourselves of the traces of the old ferment of in­
iniquity and be cleansed of the earthly dust which imperceptibly
clings to us. By truly cooperating with the grace which heals, puri­
fies, and deifies us; by being washed and inebriated with the blood of
Christ in the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist; and by shar­
ing His sufferings, we can repair the evils of our fallen state and, by
virtue of His most precious blood, arrive at a much greater height
than we could have attained in the state of original innocence.44 In­
deed, many saints believe that even had man retained his original
innocence the divine Word would have become incarnate in order
to deify us and to serve as the key to the supernatural order,45 but
He would not then have suffered for our redemption. By the same
token, we would not now have the good fortune of sharing in His
triumphs, which are as sublime as they are bloody and as glorious as
they are sorrowful, for we would not be able to follow Him valiantly
along the arduous path to Calvary.
God by participation; although it is true that its natural being, though thus trans­
formed, is as distinct from the Being of God as it was before.”
Fr. Juan de los Angeles, quoting hauler, says: “Having abandoned its own proper
form and being transformed and elevated beyond all possible images, the soul ar­
rives at a state which defies all representation by created things. It is completely
deified and in all that it is and all that it does, it is God who is and works in it.
All that God is by nature, the soul is through grace and, although it docs not cease
to be a creature, it is wholly divinized or deified and has the appearance of God.
. . . The created spirit is dissolved and submerged in the uncreated Spirit. . . .
Now nothing remains but pure divinity and essential unity” (Triunfos, II, chap. 7).
44 See Blessed Henry Suso, Eternal Wisdom, VII.
45 Sauvé, Le culte du Cœur de Jésus, 24: “To unite us not only to the works of
God, to the ideal and to the memory of God, but to God Himself; to establish a
vital relationship between our soul and the inner life of God, such is in very deed
the purpose of the Incarnation and the love of God as manifested in this mystery.
It was to make possible this union, these vital relations with God Himself and the
most holy Trinity, that the infinite Life in the bosom of the Father desired to unito
Himself to human nature and thus it was that He came to be the source of the
divine life.”

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4. CATHOLIC DOGMAS AND TRUE PROGRESS

Our dogmas, which are the true laws of eternal life, far from be­
ing incompatible with true progress (which is the modern accusa­
tion), presuppose and intimate a progress so prodigious that it knows
no limit other than deification. They would make men like unto
God in being, life, knowledge, love, and work. They would unite
men to God in such a way that they are engulfed in Him and trans­
formed into Him.40*
Actually, the modern accusation can be made only against those
outside the Church who reduce justification to a mere imputation
of the merits of Christ. According to them, good works are unable
to contribute anything to its increase, and evil works, however hor­
rible they may be, cannot impede it, as long as faith remains. As if
faith without good works performed under the influence of the
Holy Ghost were not dead.47
Catholicism, “instead of giving to its heroes the immobility of
statues cast in the mold of an imputed, uniform, and immutable
justice, incessantly spurs them to activity. It stimulates their most
generous efforts and encourages them in the struggle. Nor does it
hesitate to place the infinite ideal of sanctity at a distance far be­
yond even the most perfect.” 48
Catholicism continually commands all men in the words of St.
Paul to “walk worthy of God, in all things pleasing, being fruitful
in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” 40
The desire of the Church is expressed in the words of St. John: “and
he that is just, let him be justified still; and he that is holy, let him
40 See II Cor. 3:18: “But we all . . . are transformed into the same image.”
4TJas. 2:26: “For even as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith with­
out works is dead.”
48 Bellamy, La vie surnaturelle, p. 284. “If there is any doctrine,” he adds, “that
favors the true development of human activity and impresses on liberty a continuous
ascent to the supreme good, it is certainly the Catholic dogma of variable justifica­
tion and progressive sanctity with no limit but the infinite. Grace, then, truly merits
the name of supernatural life and has, therefore, the phases of growth and virility.
It is comparable to an edifice in which each good work is a stone and the stories are
always ascending until the roof touches the heavens.”
Jaffré, Sacrifice et sacrement, pp. 135 f.: “We are but the beginning of a divine
creature, and we must offer to God what we are in order to become that which
as yet we are not.”
49 Col. 1:10.
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be sanctified still.” 60 The Apostle admonishes us: “For you writ
heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord. Walk, then, as dill
dren of the light. For the fruit of the light is in all goodness and
justice and truth; proving what is well pleasing to God; and have no
fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove
them.” 51 “For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die; but if
by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live.” 52 So
we shall live by God’s grace as communicated to us by the Holy
Ghost, and this is eternal life in Jesus Christ. Living in Jesus and
animated by His Spirit, we shall be His members and true sons of
God.
If we work as true sons, the seed of eternal life will be happily de­
veloped in us. We shall continue the work of Jesus and we shall be
other Christs, or better still, we shall be Jesus Christ Himself as re­
produced in us. We shall effect the growth and perfection of that
mystical body to which we belong; for, as St. Augustine says, “The
sons of God are the body of His only-begotten Son. He is the Head
and we, the members. Together we constitute the Son of God.” 53
Rightly does he exclaim in another place, “Let us admire and re­
joice, for we have become Christ; since the Church is, as the Apostle
says (Eph. 1:23), His body and His fullness.” 54
In spite of this, Sabatier, the famous professor of Protestant the­
ology at the Sorbonne, never ceased to proclaim the “quietude and
sterility of Catholicism” and the “progress and fecundity of Protes­
tantism” in his fantastic notion of “direct union with God without
the need of a Church or the shackles of good works.” His subsequent
history resulted in what would logically follow: he imprudently
broke away from the Son of God, since he would not share the life
of His mystical body. In the beginning, Sabatier recognized the di­
vinity of the Savior as a “fundamental dogma without which Chris­
tianity would be reduced to a purely philosophic system.” At the
end, he denied this dogma and was content to recognize only God
the Father. In line with his thought, he should also have denied the
60 Apoc. 22:11.1 Pet. 3:15: “But sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts.”
61 Eph. 5:8-11.
82 Rom. 8:13.
63 In Joan., X, 3.
54 Loc. cit., XXL

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Father, as did many of his confreres, for the idea which he had of the
Father was more pantheistic than Christian.55
Actually, no one can know the true God the Father except
through the Son;56 so neither does anyone hear the Son, if he does
not hear His Church.57 The Church announces to all men, with St.
John, the eternal life which was in the Father and which was mani­
fested to us, so that all might form one society with us and that our
society might be with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. “He
that hath the Son, hath life. He that hath not the Son, hath not
life.” 58
Sabatier praises Protestantism because it is conformable to the
worldly type of nature, work, and thought. But the truly Christian
spirit is incompatible with the mundane spirit. “We know that we
are of God, and the whole world is seated in wickedness. And we
know that the Son of God is come; and He hath given us under­
standing, that we may know the true God and may be in His true
Son. . . . Whosoever is born of God, committeth not sin; for His
seed abideth in him, and he cannot sin. . . . Behold what manner of
charity the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called
and should be the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth not us
because it knew not Him.” 59
“As all things of His divine power which appertain to life and
godliness are given us, through the knowledge of Him who hath
called us by His own proper glory and virtue. By whom Ide hath
given us most great and precious promises, that by these you may
65 In 1868, when seeking for some sort of theology, he said that the divinity of
the Lord is the capital question which distinguishes the Gospel from that which is
not. “If Jesus Christ is only a man, then, however great He might be, Christianity
loses its characteristic of absolute truth and becomes a mere philosophy. If Jesus
is the Son of God, Christianity is a true revelation. ... I believe and confess with
St. Peter that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Revue de theol., May,
1897). But after he became a professor of Protestant theology, he no longer believed
in Christ. “I do not know,” he wrote (Relig. et cult., p. 192), “whence Jesus Christ
comes or how he entered into this world.”
68 Luke 10:16.
57 “The voice of God and that of the Church are one and the same thing, for He
it is who speaks through the mouth of the Church, our Mother, in the teachings,
counsels, and commands which she gives us” (Tauler, as quoted by Denifle in Das
Geistliche Leben, chap. 7).
68 I John 5:11 f. Cf. ibid., 1:1—3.
60 See I John 5:19 f.; 3:9 f., if.
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be made partakers of the divine nature, flying the corruption of that
concupiscence which is in the world.” 60
We should exercise ourselves in every manner of virtue and good
works and through them glorify the Father and become resplendent
with His light. Then we shall not appear empty and without fruit in
the presence of Jesus Christ. But he who neglects this “is blind and
groping, having forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
Therefore, brethren, labor the more, that by good works you may
make sure your calling and election. For doing these things, you shall
not sin at any time.” 81
Simple faith, without works in opposition to those of the world, is
not only dead, but it will bring about greater condemnation. Those
who are content with faith alone deny Christ in practice and show
themselves to be completely worldly. Therefore do they talk much
of the world, and the world listens to them and does not hate or
persecute them as it does good Catholics. The Protestants do not de­
serve this deference which rightfully belongs to the servants of
Christ.
“They are of the world; therefore of the world they speak, and
the world heareth them.” 82 “Now we have received not the spirit
of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the
things that are given us from God. Which things also we speak, not
in the learned words of human wisdom, but in the doctrine of the
Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” 83
All things in the kingdom of God are hidden mysteries which the
wise of this world know not, nor can they know. But we Catholics,
who are sons of God, know them; and we experience them because
God revealed them to us and made us feel them through His Spirit,
who penetrates all things. He did this that we might not be seduced
by the snares of the world nor be infected by its harmful influence.
To the world, which lacks understanding, those lofty truths which
constitute the life and experience of the Church seem foolish and ex­
travagant. Actually the foolishness is in him who loses himself in the
search for vain appearances, illusions, and snares; he who does not
80 See II Pet. i : j-j.
81 Ibid., 1:9 f.
82 See I John 4:5.
88 See I Cor. 2:12 f.

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see the Truth nor discover the Light of the world, nor do the umim
necessarium.6* But he who has a living faith and hope becomes holy,
just as God is holy;65 and perfect, just as the heavenly Father is perfect.ee

APPENDIX
i. Incorporation with Christ and Progressive Renewal

“Our incorporation with Christ is not merely a transformation
and metamorphosis. It is also a true creation, the production of a new
being with new rights and duties. ‘Do you not know,’ asks the
Apostle (Rom. 6:3-8), ‘that all we who have been baptized into
Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? For we were buried
with Him by means of baptism into death, in order that, as Christ
has arisen from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we may
walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in
the likeness of His death, we shall be so in the likeness of His resur­
rection also. For we know that our old self has been crucified with
Him, in order that the body of sin may be destroyed, that we may
no longer be slaves to sin; for he who is dead is acquitted of sin.
But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live
together with Christ’ ” (Prat, “La morale de St. Paul” in Revue practique d’apolog., May, 1907, p. 140).
According to St. Paul, as Prat observes {ibid., pp. 141-46), bap­
tism buries us with Jesus Christ, causing us to die to ourselves in order
to rise with Him to a new life. He grafts us on Himself that we may
be able to partake of the divine sap through union with His mystical
body. In that sacramental bath of regeneration there is a death and a
resurrection; a burial and a return to the light. These four qualities
which are effected by the rite which symbolizes them, should endure
and continually increase.
Death to sin is the definite characteristic of baptism because Jesus,
by His death, destroyed the rule of sin and, by making us live with
Him, He also enables us to share in His triumph. Unlike physical
death, spiritual death is capable of increase. Further, merely to pre“ See I Cor. 2.
·· See I John 3:3.
•’Matt. 5:48.

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serve this death to sin is not enough; it must be intensified. "For you
are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. . . . Mortify
therefore your members” (Col. 3:3-5). The Christian ought to press
ever forward in the mortification of Jesus. Likewise the life of grace
ought not only to be maintained but also developed, strengthened,
and renewed. “Therefore, if you be risen with Christ, seek the things
that are above. . . . Mind the things that are above, not the things
that are upon the earth” (Col. 3:1 f.).
Our burial in Christ ought to follow a similar pattern. Hence, after
reminding us that we have been baptized in Christ and have put on
Christ, the Apostle does not weary of telling us also that we must
continue to put on Christ more and more (Gal. 3:27; Rom. 13:14).
Finally, although baptism is itself a sort of enlightenment, St. Paul
implores for the neophytes new lights which are ever more brilliant
and he invites them to pass from glory to glory (Eph. 1:18; II Cor.
3:18).
The new life which we receive in baptism brings with it a new
series of operations and establishes in us four new relations with
their corresponding duties. These are, namely: 1. filiation to the
Father; 2. consecration by the Holy Ghost; 3. mystical identity with
Jesus Christ; and 4. supernatural solidarity with the other members
of Christ.
From the filial relation flows the obligation of honoring and imi­
tating the Father as His beloved sons. We must strive to be perfect
and holy like unto Him in order to please and glorify Him and
thereby make ourselves deserving of the eternal and glorious
heritage.
From the possession of the Spirit of adoption there follows the
obligation of not afflicting or suppressing 11 ini and especially of not
destroying or profaning His temple. In return 1 Ic will enrich us with
His charisms, His gifts, His fruits, the sacramental graces, and the
graces proper to our state in life. He will pour forth on us His unction
and His light and will engrave the divine law on our hearts with indelible characters of love, and this law will become an internal and
autonomous norm of our lives. Thus is explained the enigmatic state­
ment: “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law”
(Gal. 5:18). The Christian can obey the law without being under
the law, for the law is no longer for him an exterior yoke but an inner
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principle that animates and moves him. Far from enslaving or op­
pressing him, “the law of the Spirit of life, in Christ Jesus, hath de­
livered me from the law of sin and of death” (Rom. 8:2). For that
reason St. Augustine says that we must die to all that is death in or­
der that we may live in the true life alone (Confessions, Bk. VIII,
chap. 11).
The relation of mystical identity with Christ brings us to a con­
formity with Him in all things and likewise to a perfect harmony
with the rest of His members. St. Paul therefore urges us not only
to imitate Christ in Himself and His saints and faithful followers
(I Cor. 11:1), but to mold ourselves to Him and to be transformed
in Him. We must put on Jesus Christ and be filled with His senti­
ments until we realize perfectly that ideal: “And I live, now not I;
but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20). To put on Jesus Christ, to be
transformed to His likeness, to live in Him (Rom. 6:11), and to
grow in Him (Eph. 4:15): these are all various expressions of the
same idea. They infer much more than the simple imitation of Christ.
They imply the effort to assimilate more and more to ourselves the
divine sap of the Redeemer.
St. Paul describes the constitution of that mystical body, whose
Head is Jesus and whose soul is the Holy Ghost, and he shows the
need for a diversity of members enjoying the one life. From this he
deduces the reciprocal obligations of charity, solidarity, and justice
which each member must contribute to the common good (cf. I
Cor. 12:12-27; Rom. 12:4f.; Eph. 12: 4-16; Col. 2:19). All must
strive to arrive at the perfection of the Head. That there may be
harmony and proportion in the mystical Christ, each one of the
faithful must endeavor to grow according to the measure of Jesus
Christ and they must endeavor to hold as the ideal His own pleni­
tude.

2. Adoration

and

Reparation

“Were it not for sin, everything could be comprised under adora­
tion. But sin has desolated the world and our soul, and therefore
reparation is necessary. Nor is it sufficient to make reparation for
ourselves alone. . . . The soul which is not engaged in making
reparation for others, loves but little. It does not understand the
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heart of Jesus. Reparation for our own sins can be a work of fear.
What is performed for others is a work of love and, if any fear in
spires it, it is what is prompted by charity. Rightly ought we to fear
for the great number of terrible sinners on whom the stroke of divine
justice is to be inflicted” (Sauvé, Le culte du C. de J., elév. 52).
3. Creation and Restoration in the World;
Intervention of Mary

the

“Here is a mystery which I desire to reveal to you,” said the eternal
Father to St. Magdalen of Pazzi. “Even if Adam had not sinned, the
Word would nevertheless have become incarnate. But He would
not in that case have enjoyed the title of Victor nor would He have
enjoyed the honors of triumph. The glory which you would have
then received would be only partially merited . . . and My good­
ness and mercy would not have shone forth so brilliantly. More­
over, eternal glory and the beatific vision and all the goods which
flow therefrom would not have been granted you to such a high
degree. The blood of the Word, flowing over your souls, has made
them much more pure and beautiful and at the same time much
more suitable for the divine union. The sight of that blood moves
Ade to bestow on you still more love and to communicate to you
a greater knowledge and more perfect enjoyment of My divinity.
. . . There is the same difference between the glory which I now
give you and that which I would have given you had My Word not
died in satisfaction for your sins, as there is between the merits of the
Redeemer, which are the sole basis of your hope, and those merits
which are purely human. . . . So, you see, My much loved daugh­
ter and beloved spouse of My only-begotten Son, how useful Mary
has been to you through her fiat by which she gave the Word to you.
She was for you a source of very great blessings” (Œuvres, III, chap.
3)-(
“In this instant was decreed first of all, that the divine Word
should assume flesh and should become visible. . . . This hypostatic
union of the second Person of the most holy Trinity I understood
necessarily to have been the first incentive and object on account
of which, before all others, the divine intelligence and will issued
ad extra. ... It was also befitting and, as it were, necessary, that if
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God should create many creatures, He should create them in such
harmony and subordination, as would be the most admirable and
glorious within the reach of possibility. In conformity with this,
therefore, they must be subordinate to a supreme Chief, who should
be as far as possible united immediately with God, so that through
Him they may have communication and connection with His Di­
vinity. For these and for other reasons (which I cannot explain),
the dignity of the works of God could be provided for only by the
Incarnation of the Word; through Him creation should possess the
most beautiful order, which without Him was impossible.” Then
follows “the decree and predestination of the Mother of the Divine
Word incarnate; for here, I understand, was ordained that pure Crea­
ture before aught else whatever. Thus, before all other creatures, was
she conceived in the divine mind.” In regard to the creation of the
angels, the saintly visionary writes: “As they are created first of all
for the glory of God, to assist before His divine Majesty and to
know and love I lim, so secondarily they are ordained to assist,
glorify and honor, reverence and serve the deified humanity of the
eternal Word, recognizing Him as Head, and honoring Him also in
his Mother, the most holy Mary, Queen of these same angels.” In
the final instant was decreed the creation of mankind and “the fall
of Adam was foreseen and in him that of all others, except of the
Queen, who did not enter into this decree. As a remedy was it or­
dained, that the most holy humanity should be capable of suffering”
(Ven. Mary Agrcda, City of God, I, i, chap. 4).1

ARTICLE IV
Indwelling

of the

Holy Ghost

The doctrine on grace is clarified by that of the indwelling of the
Holy Ghost, the Master and Vivifier of souls. We know that sanc­
tifying grace not only justifies and vivifies us, blotting out our iniq­
uities and calling us from death to life; but it truly sanctifies and
deifies us by creating us anew in the likeness of Jesus Christ. The
1A classification of the divine decrees into six “instants” and what God decreed
to communicate ad extra in each of these instants. (Tr.)

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life which it bestows on us, though but a seed needing development
through our faithful cooperation, is true eternal life. Although n
does not transform us into God in such a way that our being, our
work, and the terminus of our operations are one and the same thing
(for this is impossible because of our nature), nevertheless it brings
God Himself, together with all His treasures, to reign in our hearts.
So we shall enjoy both Him and them if we wish to avail ourselves
of such condescension.
Grace and the Divine Indwelling

In the measure in which we are united with God in this friendly
commerce by the bonds of true and intimate knowledge and filial
love and are inflamed with the fire of His charity, in that measure
shall we succeed in purging ourselves of all earthly dross. Being trans­
formed from glory to glory, we shall cleave to Him and be one spirit
with Him (I Cor. 6:17).
Thus, living in God and by God, we can even now have all our
conversation in heaven, for from that moment we exercise the func­
tions characteristic of eternal life and we are able to make better
use of them as time goes on. These functions are to know God as
He is in Himself, to love Him with the same love with which He
loves Himself and us, to possess Him as He possesses Himself, and to
lose ourselves in the abyss of His eternal happiness.1
Then we no longer tend to God as something which is outside
ourselves. We possess Him here on earth in essentially the same way
as the way we hope to possess Him in glory. To enjoy Him beatifically it is sufficient to develop that seed of eternal life which has
been sown in our souls, to remove the earth that covers it, and to
clear away the obstacles that impede its growth, and to fix all our
attention on Him.2 We should enter within ourselves and converse
1 St. Thomas, 111 Sent., disc. 27, q.2, a.i, ad 911m: “Since men are made deiform
through charity, so they are more than men and their conversation is in heaven.”
2 Sauvé, op. cit., no. 27: “Theologians unanimously call grace the seed of glory. It
needs but be developed and it will divinely blossom into the beatific vision of (Sod,
and therefore he who possesses it will be in heaven. We are now sons of God, al­
though our filiation is not yet manifested. Although all these riches will not shine
forth until glory, when we shall be perfectly like unto God and shall see Him face
to face as He is in Himself; yet even now this mystery of filiation is in our soul

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with the God of our heart, who is our portion forever.3 Discovering
His glorious kingdom in our heart and drinking at the fount of liv­
ing water which springs from life eternal, we shall see that our hap­
piness lies in union with Him and we shall swoon with love. This
fountain is the Spirit whom we have received4 and from whom in­
cessantly flow the graces from which our souls receive moisture, are
beautified, purified, and made fertile.5
I. PRESENCE OF GOD IN THE JUST SOUL

Though God is and must be in all places by His power, presence,
and essence as Creator, First Mover, and Conserver of all things, He
is not omnipresent as a friend through the loving indwelling, but
only in rational creatures who accept His divine familiarity.® This
requires a prodigious elevation which will enable them to converse
with Him, not as lowly slaves to their mighty and powerful Lord,
nor as simple creatures to their supreme Maker, but in a certain way
as to an equal, a true friend and sweet guest, or as to a father or a
most loving spouse. It is necessary, then, that they depart from the
condition of slavery to enter into that of friendship and familiarity.
“God not only does not dwell in each and every creature to which
He is present; but in the very ones in whom He dwells He does not
dwell in all in the same measure.” 7 Whence comes the greater or
less perfection of the saints but from the fact that God dwells in
them more or less perfectly?
together with the divine likeness and union with God Himself. The divine Persons
dwell in us and are united to us, spirit to spirit and heart to heart so that this is
already heaven, but a hidden one. How important for us to have a knowledge of
this indwelling, which is so noble and so delightful!”
Tauler, Institutions, chap. 6: “If the omnipotent God is within us and more
intimate to us than we are to ourselves, why is it that we do not feel His presence?
The reason is that His grace cannot work in us; and it cannot work because we do
not seek it devoutly, eagerly, and with a humble heart; because we do not love
God whole-heartedly and with all our affection; . . . because the eye of our in­
tellect is filled with the dust and dirt of transitory things; . . . because we do not
wish to die to our sensuality and to be converted to God with our whole heart.
That is why the light of divine grace does not operate in us.”
8 Ps. 72:26.
* John 7:38 f.
8 St. Augustine, Confessions, Bk. X, chap. 20: “For when I seek Thee, my God,
I seek the blessed life. I will seek Thee that my soul may live. For my body liveth
by my soul, and my soul liveth by Thee.”
6 John 1:11 f.
T St. Augustine, Epist. 187 ad Dard., no. 41.

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And the more pleasant and copious this abode of God in the saints,
the more animated they are by His Spirit and the more inflamed with
the fire of His charity, which is translated into good w’orks. “If any­
one love Me,” says the Savior, “he will keep My word, and My
Father will love him, and We will come to him and will make Our
abode with him.” 8* “If we love one another,” adds the beloved
disciple, “God abideth in us, and Flis charity is perfected in us. In
this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He hath
given us of His Spirit.” 8 So charity, as the Angelic Doctor observes,
is not a virtue proper to man as such, but so far as he is made God.10
God cannot tolerate those who love and serve Him with luke­
warmness and He begins to vomit them out (Apoc. 3:15) because
they possess Him only in part. Yet He incessantly knocks at the
doors of all, desiring that they receive Him whole-heartedly, so that
He may celebrate with them the banquet of friendship {ibid., 20).
Though most close their doors to Him and are deaf to the sweet
voice which says: “Give Me thy heart,” as many as receive Him He
makes fellow citizens of the saints and, what is more, His servants
and true sons.
2. VIVIFYING ACTION OF THE HOLY GHOST

That loving indwelling, although common to the three divine Per­
sons, who can never be separated, is attributed in a singular manner
both in Scripture and in the Fathers to the consoling Spirit as though
He exercised in it a very special mission, while the Father and the
Son assist by concomitance.11 St. John indicates this to us, and the
Savior Himself gave us to understand the same thing when He said:
“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will ask the
Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide
8 John 14:23.
\
8 See I John 4:12-14.
10 Cf. la Ilae, q.62, a. 1, ad mm: “A certain nature may be ascribed to a certain
thing in two ways. First, essentially; and thus these theological virtues surpass the
nature of man. Secondly, by participation; . . . and thus, after a fashion, man be­
comes a partaker of the Divine Nature: so that these virtues are proportionate to
man in respect of the Nature of which he is made a partaker.”
11 “It can be said without presumption,” says St. Magdalen of Pazzi (Œuvres,
Part I, chap. 33), “that through baptism we are made children of God and that the
Third Person of the most Blessed Trinity descends upon us as He is inseparably
united with the other two, so that the entire Trinity dwells in us and finds pleasure
in us.”

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with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot re­
ceive, because it seeth Him not nor knoweth Him. But you shall
know Him, because He shall abide with you and shall be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while,
and the world seeth Me no more. But you see Me because I live, and
you shall live. In that day you shall know that I am in My Father,
and you in Me, and I in you. . . . But I tell you the truth: it is
expedient to you that I go. For if I go not, the Paraclete will not
come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” 12
The divine Spirit who abides eternally in the faithful is the one
who gives testimony of the truth (John 15:26 f.) and convicts the
world of sin (ibid., 16:8) and bears witness that Christ is the truth
(I John 5:6). And if, animated and moved by Him, we hearken to
His voice and do not afflict Him, He will also testify to us that we
are sons of God and therefore heirs, for His communication gives
us that divine being as such 18 and deifies us, impressing on us the
living image of the Word.14 He is the Spirit, Lord, and Vivifier, in
whom we believe and whose communication, derived as it is from
Jesus Christ, our divine Head, makes us living members of the
Church and holy temples of God.15 He is the Spirit of adoption
through whom we confidently call God by the name of Father and
who makes us live and act in conformity with our dignity as sons.16
Communicating Himself to us, He pours forth divine charity in us,17
He enables us to guard the divine deposit,18 and as the Spirit of
revelation and knowledge He discloses to us the most lofty mys­
teries of God and the unutterable grandeurs of Jesus Christ and
teaches us the way of life.19 Finally, Fie dwells in us as the living
I2 John 14:15-21; 16:7.
Rom. 8:14-17.
/14 See II Cor. 3:18.
/ 16 See I Cor. 3:16 f.; 4:19.
/ 16 Rom. 8:9-16; Gal. 4:5-7.
/ 17 Rom. 5:5. “Charity is called God and the gift of God, for substantial Charity
gives accidental charity. When it signifies the Giver, it is called substantial Charity;
when it signifies the gift, it is called accidental” (St. Bernard, Epist. it ad Guidon,
no. 4).
“In justification a double charity is given us, created and uncreated; the one by
which we love, the other by which we are loved” (St. Bonaventure, Comp, theol.
verit., Bk. I, chap. 9).
18 See II Tim. 6:20 f.
18 See I Cor. 2:10; Eph. 1:17; 3:5-15; Ps. 142:10.

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pledge of eternal life, a prevention against corruption and the seed
of our resurrection and immortality.20
All these and many other similar passages, whose obvious meaning
must be maintained at any cost as long as there is no evident incon­
sistency, seem to make it very clearly understood that the Holy
Ghost resides in souls in a proper and singular manner. The holy
Fathers, as we have already noted, instead of weakening that inter­
pretation, rather seek to emphasize it to show the vivifying action of
the divine Comforter.21
In conformity with this, the pure and simple souls who are able to
penetrate to some extent these mysteries of divine love through the
illuminated eyes of the heart, know and understand how the Father
and Son reign and sweetly repose in us as in their sanctified temple.
These two divine Persons delight in seeing the work of renovation
which their Spirit produces in us. They desire that we heed Him as
the director, comforter, counsellor, and master, who, at the same
time that He pours forth divine charity in us, also inspires and
prompts us and teaches us all truth.22
3. MISSION, GIVING, AND INDWELLING OF THE HOLY GHOST

Scripture repeatedly states that the Holy Ghost has been sent to
us, and in almost the same manner as it is said of the Son.23 St.
Thomas observes that a mission implies, together with the original
procession, a new and special mode of presence of the person who
is sent in those who receive him.24 At other times it is said that the
Holy Ghost is given,25 and this giving also supposes a unique pos­
session on the part of those who accept Him, to the extent that they
can freely enjoy the gift received. Whence the holy doctor states
20 See II Cor. 1:22; 5:5; Rom. 8:11.
21 Louis of Granada, The Sinner’s Guide, Bk. I, chap. 5: “The doctors of the
Church and theologians conclude that the Holy Spirit resides in a special manner
in the soul of a just man. . . . Entering such a soul, God transforms her into a
magnificent temple. He Himself purifies, sanctifies, and adorns her, making her a
fitting habitation for her supreme Guest.”
22 St. Augustine, Soliloquies, chap. 32: “Thou art true light and divine fire, O
Master of souls. ... As the Spirit of truth, Thou teachest us all truth through Thy
communication.”
28 John 14:26; 15:26; 16:7; Gal. 4:6.
24 Cf. la, q.43.
26 John 14:15; Rom. 5:5.

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that “the Holy Ghost is possessed by man and dwells within him, in
the very gift itself of sanctifying grace. Hence the Holy Ghost Him­
self is given and sent.” 28 Again, St. Thomas says: “But we are said
to possess what we can freely use or enjoy. . . . Thus a divine per­
son can be given, and can be a gift.” 27
Scripture also expressly states that this divine Spirit dwells in us
as absolute master and makes us holy temples of God which cannot
be violated without incurring divine indignation. “Know you not,”
asks the Apostle, “that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit
of God dwelleth in you? But if any man violate the temple of God,
him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which you
are.” 28 Later, he adds: “Know you not that your members are the
temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you, whom you have from God,
and that you are not your own?” 29
To beautify this temple the divine Spirit pours the charity of
God into our hearts. To consecrate and increase it—Sanctifier and
Vivifier that He is—He deifies us and fashions us in such a way that
we become “a habitation of God in the Spirit.” 30
Since this divine Giver comes to us together with His precious
gifts, with which He enriches us, and which adorn, strengthen, and
deify our faculties while He vivifies and deifies our very soul, it
seems certain that, according to the correct understanding of the
Fathers and Scripture, we must admit a mission, a giving, and an in­
dwelling proper in a special manner to the Holy Ghost. He is the
Gift par excellence who dwells in us not only as a comforter and
sweet guest, but as a perpetual fount of living water.
He has been given to us that He might possess us and we might
possess Him, and in this way He realizes in us very singularly the
mystical work of our deification.31 Possessing Him, we possess the
very charity of God which sanctifies Flis dwelling-place. We are
then able to observe faithfully His commandments, loving Him with
28 Cf. la, q.43, a. 3.
2T Cf. la, q. 38, a. 1.
28 See I Cor. 3:16 f.
29 See I Cor. 6:19.
80 Eph. 2:22.
81 St. Athanasius, Epist. ad Serap., I, no. 24: “Participation in the Holy Ghost is a
participation in the divine nature. ... If He descended upon men, it was to deify
them.”

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a true filial love. Then shall we be loved by the Father with the
selfsame love with which He loves His Son, and together they will
come to us to make our hearts their glorious dwelling place.32 There­
fore he who remains in charity, abides in God and God in him.33 The
Spirit of charity frees us from the slavery of vices and sins and gives
us that true liberty which can be only where He is.34
The Loving Presence of

the

Trinity

Although the doctrine of the indwelling or vivifying presence as
something proper and special to the Holy Ghost is a doctrine still
very much discussed, it is certain that He dwells in us as a sweet
guest, and with Him, either directly or by concomitance, the entire
most Holy Trinity.
Therefore, as St. Teresa observes,33 in our hearts there is a true
heaven, for God dwells there in all His glory. Though a Lord of
such infinite majesty condescends to be fashioned to our measure,
yet He enjoys perfect liberty, and He has the power to enlarge the
palace of our soul. St. Teresa marvels and laments, as does St. Au­
gustine, at having delayed so long in realizing and recognizing this
invaluable treasure which was buried within herself;36 at not
having known how to converse lovingly with so amiable a com82 John 14:23.
83 See I John 4:16.
84 Gardeil, Gifts of the Holy Ghost in the Dominican Saints, p. 6: “The Holy
Ghost does not cause in us the love of God as an exterior agent which becomes
foreign as soon as it has finished operating. He produces it as an interior cause
dwelling in this love, for the Apostle says that ‘He has been given to us.’ His activity
is like that of a soul, ever present in that which it does and whose operation never
ceases. So long as the just soul loves God, it does not act alone; it has, deep in its
heart, the Spirit of God, and it is this Spirit that causes the soul to utter, with all
truth and efficacy, the name of filial love, ‘My Father!’ ”
So the law of Christ is to the Christian what the natural law is to man. It is not
an exterior imposition, but a condition within the being itself. It is not a yoke which
oppresses, but an interior norm of health and life which is necessary for normal
growth.
35 Way of Perfection, chap. 28.
38 St. Augustine, Soliloquies, chap. 31: “I wandered aimlessly like a lost sheep,
seeking Thee in exterior things, when all the time Thou wert in my very being. I
grew fatigued in looking all about me, while actually Thou wert within me, be­
cause I had a desire for Thee. I have walked through the streets and squares of the
cities of the world searching for Thee and I have not been able to find Thee, be­
cause I sought in vain outside myself for that which was within my soul.”

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panion and treating God as Father, Brother, Lord, and Spouse; and
of having been neglectful in preparing well this habitation of His
glory.
I. IGNORANCE OF THIS DOCTRINE

What must we say of the generality of Christians who have never
thought of this enchanting mystery? Perhaps many of them would
exclaim with the Ephesians: “We have not so much as heard whether
there be [within us] a Holy Ghost.” Actually it often happens that,
although the little ones desire the bread of doctrine, few there are
who impart it to them.37 Formerly even children knew that they
were living temples of the Holy Ghost and that they should live as
such, for that doctrine was inculcated in them with great insistence
in order to fashion them in the true spirit of Jesus Christ. Nowadays
very little is said about this dogma which is so fundamental in the
Christian life. As a consequence the spirit is quenched in many souls
who are ignorant of the words of eternal life.
In the beginning, as we have already pointed out, it was common
for Christians to call themselves by the name Christoforos, Theo­
doras, Agioforos, and so forth, that is, Christ-bearers, God-bearers,
or bearers of the Holy Ghost. But today even many ecclesiastics and
religious, when they read or hear that we are members of Jesus
Christ and that His Spirit dwells in us, take these expressions in a
figurative sense. As a result they pay no attention to the divine Guest
who inspires us and teaches us all truth and who seeks thereby to do
no less than deify us.38
87 Lam. 4:4.
88 Weiss, Apologie, Vol. IX, appendix 1: “When the Savior says that through
grace He Himself comes into our soul, together with the Father and the Holy
Ghost, and makes His abode in us (John 14:23), it is not to be understood in a
figurative sense, nor as if the Divinity worked in our hearts only by means of His
gifts. Instead, God Himself, not content with conferring His gifts, comes to dwell
m us in a singular manner. Formerly, youths and even children were found to be
so convinced of this indwelling of God that they considered it as something very
obvious, as is manifest from the lives of St. Lucy, St. Inez, and St. Agueda. But
now there are very few, even among the theologians, who understand this clearly.
When we read in the Apostle that ‘Jesus Christ is our Head and each one of us a
member of His body,’ we probably exclaim in admiration, ‘What a beautiful image!’
But for the servants of God this was the absolute truth.”
Weiss adds in appendix 2: “The Holy Ghost is the focal point, the center, the
origin, and the heart of supernatural thought and life. He manifests Himself at each
step as a guide to one who desires to penetrate the very depths of the supernatural.

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But this requires our loving cooperation, for, as St. Augustine says,
“He who created thee without thyself will not save thee without
thyself.” Much less will He make us perfect if we do not cooperate
with Him. Therefore, with much love He says to us: “My son, give
Me thy heart: and let thy eyes keep My ways.” 38 But we shall be
unable to correspond as we should with the, impulses of the Holy
Ghost if we do not love Him whole-heartedly and heed Him or if
we do not have a clear notion of His activity. As a result we shall
close our ears to His holy inspirations, and resist Him when He
sweetly leads us to solitude in order to speak to our hearts and, like
a loving mother, to feed us at the breast.40
With good reason, then, spiritual souls lament the lack of devotion
to the Holy Ghost, without whom it is impossible for true piety to
flourish. Since Leo XIII, in his encyclical Divinum illud, sought to
remedy this evil by calling the attention of theologians, apologists,
and preachers to a more zealous promulgation of this salutary and
necessary doctrine, the vital action of the divine Paraclete is becom­
ing better understood and one can hope for a great spiritual renewal.
2. THE BEAUTY OF THE HOUSE OF GOD

This special mission, this giving, indwelling, and vivification on
the part of the Holy Ghost, and that friendly and substantial pres­
ence or immanence of the entire Trinity within us cannot be caused,
certainly, through any change in God Himself, for He is immutable.
It is a change effected by Him in us when we are reborn, renewed,
justified, and sanctified. This change is productive of a supernatural
organism of which sanctifying grace is the essence, the substance,
which deifies us. The properties or faculties of this organism are the
virtues, the gifts, and the other powers which are infused in us after
the manner of habits, through which we are able to act divinely.
Finally, the graces gratis datae and various transitory inspirations are
classified as accidents in relation to this supernatural structure.
By these divine aids and the continual exercise of the Christian
And only he who familiarizes himself with Him can orientate himself in that sub­
lime world. Without a knowledge of His activity, a man sees in the supernatural
truths nothing more than disconnected and incomprehensible fragments. To him
alone who seeks to find the light of that beneficent sun, is disclosed a new world,
lofty and full of unity and life.”
88 Prov. 23:26.
Osee 2:14; Isa. 66:12.

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virtues we increase the talents which the Lord has entrusted to us.
We grow in His grace and knowledge. We contribute to the de­
velopment of the mystical body of the Savior and we ourselves are
fashioned into living and holy temples of God in the Holy Ghost.
The life of grace, the ardor of charity, and the splendor of all the
other virtues constitute the beauty of the house of God, and He
dwells there with so much the more delight as He sees it more deified
and more radiant with His eternal brilliance. When that divine
dwelling place, that new city of God, reaches the required perfec­
tion, there will shine forth in it no light other than that which
emanates from the wounds of the Lamb who takes away the sins of
the world.
The saints went into ecstasy and swooned away in contemplating
the inexpressible beauty of the house of God, which caused them to
exclaim: “How lovely arc Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!” 41
This divine beauty cannot be other than the grace of our Savior and
the communication of His Spirit whereby we are rendered pleasing
in the eyes of the Father, for when we are thus honored and deified
He sees Himself resplendent in us. How could we help but love and
seek to obtain what merits so much esteem from the omnipotent
God? Rather we should say with those souls who have a vivid expe­
rience of these truths: “I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of Thy
house and the place where Thy glory dwelleth.”
That happy place where we are able to enjoy God on earth is the
center of our hearts, the depth of our souls.42 Let us enter within
ourselves; let us close the doors of our senses to all earthly vanities;
let us heed the voice that calls us to this sweet retreat and we shall
find the kingdom of God and see His glory. God is there with His
41 Ps. 83:2.
42 This depth or center of the soul is called by various names: apex totius affectus
(St. Bonaventure); vertex mimae seu mentis (St. Thomas); fundus vel centrum
animae (Plotinus); intimus affectionis sinus, cordis intima, mentis summum, mentis
intimum, cubiculum vel secretum mentis (Richard of St. Victor) ; claustrum animae
(Hugo de Folieto).
Fr. Juan de los Angeles, Dialogos, I, 3, 4: “Blosius, Ruysbroek, Tauler, and others
say that this center of the soul is more intrinsic and more loftv than its three superior
faculties or powers, since it is the origin and principle of the others. . . . The
interior of the soul is its very essence, sealed with the image of God, which some
saints call the center; others, the interior; others, the apex; and still others, the mind.
St. Augustine calls it the height, but the moderns speak of it as the depth. . . . No
created thing can fill this inner chamber, but only the Creator with all His majesty
and grandeur; and there He has His peaceful abode as in heaven itself.”

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loving and glorious presence as long as we remain in true charity. I Ic
is inherent in our being and in our work as the beginning and im­
mediate end of our supernatural life and all its characteristic func­
tions. In the measure in which these are perfected and purged of the
vicious habits of the old man by the ceaseless increase of light and
the riddance of obstacles that impede our vision, we shall be truly
renewed in the Spirit and we shall find that God is “all in all.”
APPENDIX
The Kingdom

oe

God

within

Us

“Consider now what your Master says next: ‘Who art in the
Heavens.’ Do you suppose it matters little what Heaven is and where
you must seek your most holy Father? I assure you that for minds
which wander it is of great importance not only to have a right be­
lief about this but to try to learn it by experience. . . . Remember
how St. Augustine tells us about his seeking God in many places and
eventually finding Him within himself. Do you suppose it is of little
importance that a soul which is often distracted should come to
understand this truth and to find that, in order to speak to its Eternal
Father and to take its delight in Him, it has no need to go to Heaven
or to speak in a loud voice? However quietly we speak, He is so near
that He will hear us: we need no wings to go in search of Him but
have only to find a place where we can be alone and look upon Him
present within us. Nor need we feel strange in the presence of so
kind a Guest; we must talk to Him very humbly, as we should to
our father, ask Him for things as we should ask a father, tell Him
our troubles, beg Him to put them right, and yet realize that we are
not worthy to be called His children.
“Avoid being bashful with God, as some people are, in the belief
that they are being humble. ... A fine humility it would be if I
had the Emperor of Heaven and earth in my house, coming to it to
do me a favor and to delight in my company, and I were so humble
that I would not answer His questions, nor remain with Him, nor
accept what He gave me but left Him alone. . . . Remember how
important it is for you to have understood this truth—that the Lord
is within us and that we should be there with Him.
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“If one prays in this way, the prayer may be only vocal, but the
mind will be recollected much sooner; and this is a prayer which
brings with it many blessings. It is called recollection because the
soul collects together all the faculties and enters within itself to be
with its God. Its Divine Master comes more speedily to teach it, and
to grant it the Prayer of Quiet, than in any other way. . . .
“Those who are able to shut themselves up in this way within this
little Heaven of the soul, wherein dwells the Maker of Heaven and
earth, and who have formed the habit of looking at nothing and stay­
ing in no place which will distract these outward senses, may be sure
that they are walking on an excellent road, and will come without
fail to drink of the water of the fountain, for they will journey a
long way in a short time. . . .
“This may not be evident at first, if the recollection is not very
profound—for at this state it is sometimes more so and sometimes
less. . . . But if we cultivate the habit, make the necessary effort
and practice the exercises for several days, the benefits will reveal
themselves, and when we begin to pray we shall realize that the bees
arc coming to the hive and entering it to make the honey, and all
without any effort of ours. . . . When no hindrance comes to it
from outside, the soul remains alone with its God. . . .
“And now let us imagine that we have within us a palace of price­
less worth, built entirely of gold and precious stones—a palace, in
short, fit for so great a Lord. . . . Imagine that within the palace
dwells this great King, Who has vouchsafed to become your Father,
and Who is seated upon a throne of supreme price—namely, your
heart. ... If we took care always to remember what a Guest we
have within us, I think it would be impossible for us to abandon our­
selves to vanities and things of the world, for we should see how
worthless they are by comparison with those which we have within
us. . . .
“I think, if I had understood then, as I do now, how this great
King really dwells within this little palace of my soul, I should not
have left Him alone so often, but should have stayed with Him and
never have allowed His dwelling-place to get so dirty. . . . Being
the Lord, He has, of course, perfect freedom, and, as He loves us,
He fashions Himself to our measure. . . .
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“When a soul sets out upon this path, He does not reveal Himself
to it, lest it should feel dismayed at seeing that its littleness can con­
tain such greatness; but gradually He enlarges it to the extent requi­
site for what He has to set within it. It is for this reason that I say He
has perfect freedom, since He has power to make the whole of this
palace great. The important point is that we should be absolutely re­
solved to give it to Him for His own and should empty it so that
He may take out and put in just what He likes, as He would with
something of His own” (Way of Perfection, Bk. XXVIII, passim).
“Do not think that it is sufficient for you to think of Me for only
one hour each day. He who desires to hear interiorly My sweet
words and to understand the secrets and mysteries of My Wisdom
must be always with Me, always thinking of Me. ... Is it not
shameful to have the kingdom of God in one’s soul and to depart
from it in order to think of creatures?” (Eternal Wisdom, XV.)

ARTICLE V
Grace and Glory

We know that God is as intimate to us as is our very soul. Even
more, He is, according to the saints, the life of our soul and the soul
of our life.1 “For in Him we live and move and are” (Acts 17:28).
Deified by the vital communication of His Spirit and the participa­
tion in His divine nature, we can and should live and work divinely
as sons of the light.
Since operation follows nature, the mode of activity character­
istic of the just, so far as they possess God and are clothed in His
divine nature, is a knowledge and love which correspond to that
eternal life which is divine grace. Through this knowledge and love
just souls touch, embrace, and possess God Himself in His very sub­
stance and not merely by a remote and analogical representation,
which is the only way He can be possessed by natural knowledge
and natural love.2 Although the simple rational creature can know its
1 Denifle, in Das Geistliche Leben, chap, z, quotes Eckhart as saying: “He is very
close to us and we are far removed from Him. He dwells in the center of our soul,
and we on the very edge. He is our friend, but we treat Him like a stranger.”
2 St. Thomas, In 11 Cor. 6:16: “God is in the saints though the activity by which

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transcendent Maker only by induction, tracing the reflections of
His attributes in the marvels of nature without seeing the attributes
themselves, nevertheless, once it has been elevated to the divine order,
it can to some extent directly perceive the divine realities themselves.
Once we are deified and made sons of God, we can in one way or
another exercise the functions proper to eternal life which are due
to us as His sons, for with this participation in the divine nature, and
in proportion to it, there are communicated to us its characteristic
operations. Thus, it will not remain dormant nor shall we possess
it in vain; but rather, as the seed of glory, it will grow and fructify.
Therefore, in the measure that we physically and ontologically share
the divine nature, we also share its corresponding operation and,
since the former participation is real and formal, so also should be
the latter.
Eternal Life, Inchoate

and

Perfect

According to our imperfect mode of knowledge and expression,
the activities proper to God are to know’ and love Himself as He is
in Himself, in 1 lis absolute unity and His ineffable Trinity. So the
operations of the divine life as shared by us ought to tend propor­
tionately, as to their only worthy object, to the divine essence, not
as a sterile abstraction, but as it is in itself, touching the one and
triune God and reaching out to Him with those two powerful super­
natural arms of knowledge and love which He deigned to communi­
cate to us.
For us to grasp to some extent the supernatural truths which far
surpass our natural capacity, it is sufficient that we be illumined by
the light of faith which presents them to us, however dimly and
enigmatically, as incontestable facts. But worthily to appreciate these
truths, we need to penetrate them, to know and feel them by a liv­
ing faith which is accompanied by the gifts of understanding and
wisdom. This demands a high degree of purification.3
To supply as best we can for the irreplaceable experience of the
they attain to God and, in a sense, comprehend Him, which is to love Him and
know Him.” In 1 Sent., dist. 37, q. 1, a.2: “The creature attains to God in His very
substance when he adheres to the First Truth by Faith and to Perfect Goodness by
charity.”
8 See St. John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. Π, chap. 16.

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mystical states which is enjoyed through those most precious gifts
as a prelude to glory, we shall consider what faith and sound the­
ology teach us.4 For if we succeed in forming some approximate
idea of what the life of grace is in its complete development as it
is manifested in heaven, we can deduce what it ought to be during
this laborious period of growth which precedes glory.5
I. HAPPINESS OF THE SAINTS ON EARTH AND THE
BLESSED IN HEAVEN

The activity of eternal life consists in knowing and loving God
the Father and Jesus Christ whom He sent; that is, in contemplating
clearly the most august and most profound secrets of the divinity
and the ineffable mysteries of our redemption and deification. Such
is the everlasting activity of the blessed who enjoy the infinite treas­
ures of the paternal heritage, contemplate the bottomless abyss of
uncreated Beauty, and love the absolute Goodness. They are in a
perpetual ecstasy, submerged in the sea of divine delights, and amid
the most pleasant surprises that can be conceived, they discover at
each instant new and indescribable enchantments. They can find no
bottom or end to that unsounded ocean of wonders.
But the blessed are all this in the measure that they are deified.
They are eternally happy because they have been made gods, and
they are now at the terminus of their mystical growth, where is
brought to its complete and glorious expansion the mysterious seed
of eternal life which they received at their regeneration. They are
totally renewed and transformed from sons of Adam to sons of the
Most High through the power of the Spirit, who made them like to
the Word and like unto God.
Essential beatitude consists not only in activity but also, and even
more so, in being. The divine activity of the blessed is a necessary
and immediate consequence of the divine good which they now
possess in its due perfection.8 Truly deified, they possess the highest
Good and they are able to know Him, see Him, feel and enjoy Him
at will, loving and embracing Him as He is in Himself, yet always
in the proportion that they are deified. Intuitive vision, in which
4 Sauvé, Etats mystiques, p. 2.
6 Cf. Ila Ilae, q.24, a.3, ad zum: “Grace is nothing other than a beginning of glory
in us.”
6 See St. Dionysius, Eccles, hier., chap. 2.

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are simplified the acts of wisdom and knowledge, and the joyful love
which necessarily follows it, are the two functions characteristic
of eternal life in its plenitude. Lacking this love, the saints would be
happy without fully realizing that they were so, without taking de­
light in their happiness, and without reaping the benefits of the
good which they possess.7
The functions proper to life are its necessary complement. So,
although a person can possess God without realizing the fact very
clearly, owing to the many obstacles here on earth which prevent
his seeing it, these obstructions totally disappear when the soul,
freed from “the corruptible body which is a load upon the soul and
the earthly habitation which presseth down the mind,” 8 has attained
the total purification of the eyes of the intellect.
Even here on earth, the saints who are more deified are truly
happy in the midst of all their pains and bitterness, in their poverty,
tears, hunger, thirst, and persecutions. Although their consolations
and joys abound to such an extent that by comparison all pains are
to be reckoned as nothing, nevertheless these sufferings are sufficient
to prevent them from participating in a joy which is proportion­
ate to their sanctification. These souls can even now be equal to
or greater than many who dwell in heaven for they can surpass the
latter in charity, ar least radically, and therefore in grace also and
in the extent of their deification and essential union with God.® How­
ever, they do not have an equal joy because, not seeing God face to
face, as do the blessed, they cannot know Him in the measure that
they love and possess 1 lim. Hence follows that blind, instinctive,
and ineffable love which they experience to such a high degree that
it seems irresistible in its fiery vehemence. Such souls, as sorrowful
as they are happy, would a thousand times quit this life if they were
not sustained by Him who can do all things.
7 St. Thomas, Quaestiones disputatae, De •veritate, q. 29, a. 1 : “The first union
without the second does not suffice for beatitude, for even God Himself would not
be happy if He did not both know and love Himself, because He could not then
take delight in Himself, and this is required for beatitude.”
8 Wisd. 9:15.
®Cf. Ia, q. 117, a. 2, ad jum: “Certain men even in this state of life are greater
than certain angels, not actually, but virtually; forasmuch as they have such great
charity that they can merit a higher degree of beatitude than that possessed by
certain angels.”

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Thence comes the incredible value of all their actions, however
small and humble they may appear. Since they are saints, they sanc­
tify and ennoble the most natural and lowly deeds, just as the luke­
warm enervate and make base those acts of theirs which could be
very great.10 It also follows from this, as a great mystic points out,
that we ought not to be so much concerned with what we do as
with what we are, for the value of our deeds will depend upon
what we are in ourselves.11 Therefore St. Francis de Sales said
that a great saint can merit more in a lowly occupation than can
an imperfect man in the most noble and glorious works.12 Even
when sleeping, the true servants of God can love and merit more
than others who are praying or working for the good of souls,
because even during sleep their deified hearts keep vigil, praying and
loving intensely, although the saints themselves are not aware of it.
10 Spiritual masters unanimously teach that God measures our works principally
by the spirit or intention with which they are performed.
uTauler, Institutions, chap. 14: “Truly, men ought to consider, not what they
do, but what they are, for if they are interiorly good, so also will be their works.
If deep within their souls they are just and upright, their works will be just and
upright. Many measure their sanctity by their works, but that is not as it should
be. Sanctity consists and ought to consist in being. For however holy be our works,
they do not sanctify us as such; on the contrary, in the measure that we are holy
and our soul and intention are holy, we shall sanctify our works. All our efforts and
diligence, whatever we do or refrain from doing, should always be ordained to this
one thing: that God be magnified, that is, made great within us. The better we
achieve this, the greater and more divine will be our works.”
The Lord said to Father Hoyos (Vida, p. 97), “I desire the hearts of My humble
but generous servants. The surest sanctity is that which most resembles Mine. I
always deal with man as one among many, making Myself all to all, although I am
infinitely superior to all in works. Merit lies, not in doing much, but in loving much.
Sometimes much is done when it would have been better if there had been less
action and more love.”
Weiss, Apologie, IX, 12: “Everything does not depend upon austerity of life or
the number of exterior deeds. Otherwise factory workers would be far ahead of
us on the road to sanctity. Sanctity does not depend upon the number of pious
exercises, but upon the spirit and interior perfection with which they are per­
formed. Christians are told to walk according to the spirit (Gal. 5:16), because God
is spirit and therefore He desires true followers in spirit and in truth (John 4:23).
Life should be diffused from within, from the spirit, through good works. That is
how the saints proceeded, and in that way they obtained magnificent results. Why
did they live in continual silence? Why did they perpetually keep their eyes cast
down? Because their whole world, their relationships and their principal spheres of
activity, were all within themselves. There, within themselves, they have much to
do, not with themselves, but with the Holy Ghost who has made of them His
temple.”
12 Treatise on the Love of God, Bk. IX, chap. j.

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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION
The Spirit who animates them pleads for them with unspeakable
groanings.13 Since they are more closely united with God, they can­
not help but please Him more in all that they do.14
2. VISION OF GOD IN THE WORD THROUGH THE HOLY GHOST

We know for a certainty, since it is defined as a truth of faith,
that after death all the just who have completed their purgations
and are strengthened by the lumen gloriae will see God face to face;
that is, they will contemplate the divine essence intuitively and with­
out any obstacle or medium. The existence of that lumen gloriae was
declared in the Council of Vienna against the Beghards, but in what
that mysterious light consists and how the beatific vision is brought
about by it, is still disputed among theologians.
Nevertheless, all agree in this, that God is not seen by means of
any created species, image, or representation which objectively pre­
sents God to the intellect. Such an image would always be infinitely
removed from the reality; and therefore, as St. Thomas asserts, “to
say that God is seen through some likeness is to say that God is not
seen at all.” 15 Yet, since the human intellect cannot know anything
without a representing idea, in order to see God it is necessary that
the Divinity itself be united to the intellect so intimately that it serves
as an idea. So it is said that the divine essence itself takes the place
of the intelligible form.16
On the other hand, that our intellect may receive this divine idea,
its capacity must be vastly extended. Otherwise there would be
a disproportion and, according to the principle that whatever is re13 “A soul which is entirely united to God,” said our Lord to Blessed Henry Suso
(.Eternal Wisdom, chap. 28), “glorifies Me continuously. Whatever it is doing,
either interiorly or exteriorly, whether it meditates, prays, works, eats, sleeps, or
keeps a vigil: its smallest action is an act of praise that is pleasing to God.”
14 St. Francis de Sales, op. cit., Bk. VII, chap. 3: “Imagine that St. Paul, St. Dio­
nysius, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, St. Francis, St. Catherine of Genoa, or St. Cather­
ine of Siena were still on this earth and, fatigued with the many labors which they
had performed for the love of God, were asleep. Imagine, on the other hand, a good
soul, but one not so holy as these others, who is at the very same time engaged in the
prayer of union. Who do you think is more united, more closely bound to God,
those great saints who arc asleep or this soul which is at prayer? Those much loved
lovers, certainly, because they have more charity and their affections, although
dormant to a certain extent, are in a certain way inseparably abandoned to their
Master and fixed on Him. . . . The particular soul excels in the exercise of union;
the saints, in the union itself. . . .”
15 Cf. la, <j. 12, a. 2.
16 De veritate, q.8, a.i; Supplement, q.92, a.i, ad 8um.

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ceived is receded according to the mode of the recipient, the divine
reality would become disfigured and brought down to the level <»l
our capacity.
“Nothing can receive a higher form,” says St. Thomas, “unless it
be disposed thereto through its capacity being raised: because every
act is in its proper power. Now the divine essence is a higher form
than any created intellect. Wherefore, in order that the divine es­
sence become the intelligible species to a created intellect, which is
requisite in order that the divine substance be seen, the created intel­
lect needs to be raised for that purpose by some sublime disposition”
(Contra Gent., Bk. Ill, chap. 53).
What could this disposition be but the divine intellectual power
itself? Anything other than this, however lofty and noble it might
be, would not be superior to any created power and there would thus
remain the same disproportion. Says Terrien: “For the beatific
vision it is necessary that the created intellect be made to the likeness
of the uncreated by an assimilation which exceeds every other in­
tellectual light.” 17 An assimilation so perfect as to be adequate for the
vision of God Himself can be effected only by the infinite power of
His Spirit who animates us and deifies the soul and all its potencies.
We have received the Holy Spirit precisely “that we may know
the things that are given us from God,” 18 and by His gift of under­
standing He strengthens our intellect in such a way that it “searcheth
all things, yea, the deep things of God.” 18 Here, then, is the sov­
ereign power which disposes our hearts to “ascend by steps” and
carries us subjectively “from virtue to virtue” until we see God Him­
self.20
17 La grâce et la gloire, II, 164.
18 See I Cor. 2:12.
18 Ibid., 2:10.
20 See Ps. 83:6-8. In conformity with this, St. Thomas states (111 Sent., dist. 23,
q.r, a.3, ad 6um): “The vision which supplants faith pertains to the perfect gift of
understanding.” He adds (ibid., dist. 34, q. 1, a.4) : “In heaven, understanding, whose
function it is to apprehend spiritual things, attains to the divine essence through
facial vision.” In yet another place (Ila Ilae, q.8, a.7), St. Thomas says: “Again, the
sight of God is twofold. One is perfect, whereby God’s Essence is "seen; the other
is imperfect, whereby, though we see not what God is, yet we see what He is not.
. . . Each of these visions of God belongs to the gift of understanding; the first to
the gift of understanding in its state of perfection, as possessed in heaven; the sec­
ond, to the gift of understanding in its state of inchoation, as possessed by way­
farers.”
John of St. Thomas, In lam llae, q.68: “The gift of understanding is given by

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What, objectively, is this divine idea, this faithful expression of
the divine essence, but the very Word of God? What is the Word
but the most perfect and adequate image, the eternal idea, the living
word, the very face of God and His substantial manifestation? He
is the eternal splendor of the Father and the figure of His substance;
light of light, light of glory on whom the angels love to gaze, the
sole luminary in the city of God where none other is needed.
Hence the Word, to whose image souls are configured and who is
immediately united to their intellects, is the eternal light which ob­
jectively enlightens them, the true lumen gloriae in whom they see
the face of God. He is the absolute and adequate idea in whom they
see the divine essence faithfully and without any intermediary. But
that we may see the divine essence and receive such an idea, it is
necessary, we repeat, that our intellects be strengthened subjectively
and their capacity enlarged. Further, to perceive the divine essence
as it is and worthily to appreciate it, our very soul with all its facul­
ties must be deified.21 This cannot be effected through any created
power which would be of the same condition or incapacity as the
soul itself. It can be done only through divine power; that is, through
the loving Spirit who strengthens us from within and fortifies our
weakness.
Deified by the animation of the divine Paraclete, we can fix our
gaze on the Word of divine wisdom, who is intimately united with
pure and holy souls. In the Word of wisdom these souls see the divine
essence itself, and they see the eternal principles of all things. Seeing
the divine Word, they see the very face of God and they also see
the Holy Ghost to know and penetrate spiritual things through an experimental
knowledge of God and His mysteries. But the most excellent and clearest knowl­
edge is the vision of God.”
21 Monsabré, Conference iS: “The medium proportionate to the vision and pos­
session of the divine essence can be nothing other than the divine essence itself.
. . . If we are said to see and possess God and to be happy in and through Him, we
cannot achieve this without a transformation of our nature and a participation in
the nature and life of God. ... In order to be divinely happy, a transient help is
not sufficient but there is required a divine state which can produce a divine opera­
tion. . . . We must share in the divine power by which God possesses Himself im­
mediately and naturally and by means of which the creature is elevated, in a certain
manner, to the divine being and is made a participator in the divine nature in a
greater or less degree (St. Thomas, la Ilae, q.112, a. i). It is necessary that we bear
within us the life of God as the principle of a new being and that this life be in us
the root of all our supernatural operations as our rational nature is the root of all
our natural operations.”

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reflected there, as in an infinite and spotless mirror, all things else
more clearly than if they were to see the things in themselves. Thus,
in the eternal light of God they see the eternal God: In lumine tuo
videbimus lumen; and they see all in the Word: Omnia in Verbo
vident.22
When, therefore, our hearts are perfectly cleansed, through the
power of the Spirit of renewal and understanding, who purifies, il­
lumines, and vivifies them, we shall be able to see God face to face.
We shall see Him as He is, because we shall then be like unto Him,
and we shall be so united with Him that we shall become one with
Him. “We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like to Him,
because we shall see Him as He is.” 23
Such seems to be the true meaning of the holy Fathers who, as
Petau notes,24 never spoke of any type of created light to explain
the beatific vision.25 Their whole doctrine, according to Thomassin 26 is contained in these two statements: The intelligible idea, in
which the soul sees God, is the Word Himself; whence the current
expression: to see God in the Word. The interior power, which en­
ables the soul to see, is that of the Holy Ghost, intimately united to
the intellect and vivifying and strengthening it. “That,” he adds, “is
22 St. Augustine, Soliloquies, chap. 36: “Thou art that light in which we must see
the light; that is, we must see Thee in Thyself with the splendor of Thy counte­
nance. . . . To know Thy Trinity is to see Thee face to face. To know the power
of the Father, the wisdom of the Son, the clemency of the Holy Ghost, and the
one and indivisible essence of the same Trinity is to see the face of the living God.”
23 See I John 3:2. Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. II, chap. 20: “And, as we say, this
vision is the cause of the perfect likeness of the soul to God, for, as St. John says,
we know that we shall be like Him. Not because the soul will come to have the
capacity of God, for that is impossible; but because all that it is will become like
to God, for which cause it will be called, and will be, God by participation.”
“Filled with God,” says St. Augustine (Sermon 243 in die Pascb., 14, no. 5), “they
will see divinely.”
24 Theol. dogm., Vol. I, Bk. VII, chap. 8, no. 3.
26 la, q. 12, a. 5: “But when any created intellect sees the essence of God, the es­
sence of God itself becomes the intelligible form of the intellect. Hence it is neces­
sary . . . that the power of understanding should be aided by divine grace. Now
this increase of the intellectual powers is called the illumination of the intellect.
. . . And this is the light spoken of in the Apocalypse (xxi. 23). The glory of God
hath enlightened it—viz., the society of the blessed who see God. By this light the
blessed are made deiform—that is, like to God.”
Blosius, Inst, spir., chap. 12, no. 4: “So by a transcendent understanding the soul
flies back to its idea and to God, its principle, and there is effected the lumen in
lumine. . . . For when the uncreated light leaps up, the created light vanishes.
Therefore the created light of the soul is transformed into the light of eternity."
26 De Deo, Bk. VI, chap. 16.

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how they see God through God, for the Holy Ghost is the power by
which He is seen, and the Son is the species in which He is seen.”
In this way it is actually true that no one goes to the Father except
through the Son, who is the way, the truth, and the life; 27 nor can
anyone know Him save him to whom the Son deigns to manifest
Him.28 And Fie will manifest the Father by manifesting Himself
to all who love Him, for whoever sees the Son sees the Father.29
When souls are configured and united with the Word by the power
of the Holy Ghost, Fie will give them the selfsame glory and delight
that He receives eternally from the Father, so that they may be ab­
sorbed in unity as are the three divine Persons.30 United to God in
this manner, they will possess the same Spirit that He possesses, and
God will be their “all in all.”
3.

UNION OF BEATIFIC LOVE

Speaking of the actual union of love between God and the soul in
heaven, Frogct says: “ There we shall see Him in Whom we have
believed; we shall possess I lim in Whom we have hoped and Whom
we sought after while in this world; we shall at last enjoy fully, with­
out fear of loss, and for all eternity, 1 lim Who is the supreme Good.
Then will the work of our deification be complete; then shall we be
perfectly like unto God, imbued through and through with Him—
divinized.” 81
Thus, God Himself in I lis very essence will reside in the inner­
most recess of our mind. In an ineffable manner, which we would
seek in vain to try to explain, 1 le will contribute to the production
of that act which is vital par excellence, and intense and intimate to
the highest degree: the beatific vision. I le will be at once the begin­
ning and the immediate terminus of our activity. Could there be
conceived a presence more intimate and more real than that of God
in our intellect? With what great reason could we say that we touch
Him, we communicate with Him, we embrace Him sweetly in His
very essence; and He, in turn, compcnetrates us with Himself in
that happy act of the beatific vision!
27 John 14:6.
28 Matt. 10:27.
29 John 14:9-21.
80 John 17:21-26.
81 The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, p. 76.

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Yet even greater is the union produced by love. For this union not
only corresponds to the plenitude of knowledge but of itself it is
more unifying than is knowledge.32 And so the soul, inflamed with
the fire of divine love, is totally imbued and inundated and it sweetly
perishes in the immense sea of the divinity. And since the joyful love
of heaven implies the absolute lack of all evil and the full and unend­
ing possession of the Sovereign Good loved with the whole heart,
the blessed in heaven sing without the least hesitation: “I found him
whom my soul loveth: I held him: and I will not let him go” (Cant.
3:4)·
Our wise and beloved brother and good friend, Father Gardeil,
has this to say of the plenitude of the supernatural life:
Here God is all in all—not the God of the Philosopher, the First
Cause, the Perfect Being—but God as He is in Himself, God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Ghost. The blessed behold the wonderful
spectacle of the Father begetting the Son through all eternity. . . .
They see the Holy Ghost, the mutual love of the Father and the Son.
. . . The blessed behold the inmost essence of the Divinity, see in their
first origin all those perfections of the creature which enchant us. . . .
This is but a feeble notion of what the blessed see face to face, without
comprehending its immensity, since it is boundless. There is nothing
which touches, draws, or enchants us upon this earth, nothing of the
good and the beautiful, which is not found in the ocean of the Divinity—
though infinitely enlarged, infinitely more beautiful and more consoling.
In the presence of this spectacle, the eye and the heart are open wide
and the Infinite penetrates them without difficulty. Just as we allow
ourselves, without resistance, to be penetrated by the good things of
this world, the scholar by truth, the artist by harmony, the friend by
the thought of his friend, giving them a permanent home in the depths
of our very selves, so that they dwell and remain intimately and pro­
foundly there, in a way as true as that offered by material dwelling to­
gether, just so does God penetrate into the inmost recesses of the blessed.
There He dwells and remains. It is a spiritual habitation of which lively
thought and love form the foundation, the roof, and the walls. It is the
only dwelling in which can live the incorporeal Being, the Pure Spirit,
the Subsistent Thought and Love who is God. Such is the supernatural
life when achieved, the life eternal in heaven.”
82 Cf. la Ilae, q. 28, a. 1, ad 311m.
8S The Gifts of the Holy Ghost in the Dominican Saints, pp. 24-26.
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Identity of the Life of Glory and the Life of Grace

What is said of that intimate communication of God in glory can
be applied in a lesser degree to the communication of God through
grace, for the latter is the seed of the former. To be manifested in its
plenitude it does not require any essential change, but only that it
complete the development of its latent power and manifest clearly
what it already is. At its basis, the supernatural life is identically the
same in this exile as it is in heaven. The union with God which is
communicated through grace to the essence of the soul, will re­
main the same for all eternity as it is at the end of life, for from that
moment on it cannot be augmented. The union of charity is also
identical, for this virtue is not destroyed as are faith and hope; but it
will remain as an eternal bond of union, without diminishing or in­
creasing the least bit after death.
i.

union of faith, hope, and charity augmented
BY THE GIFTS

So it is that there can be souls on earth in a higher degree of grace
and charity and, therefore, more intimately united with God than
many of the souls who are now in glory. Glory merely manifests
what we were and permits the full enjoyment of the Good pos­
sessed, and that without any obstacles. Only the union of knowledge
here on earth is less; and so also, the joy consequent upon that knowl­
edge. For faith, together with hope, although it goes straight to God
in His reality, shows Him to us from afar off and in shadows and
enigmas. When perfected by the gift of understanding, it penetrates,
even here on earth, into the profundity of God and partly removes
the shadows. When further perfected by the gift of wisdom and
the various forms of the sensus Christi, which are expansions of this
precious gift, we can in a certain sense feel, touch, see, and taste
God in Himself.34 With the development of the Christian life the
knowledge of faith tends to be perfected by these two gifts and
the other gifts and spiritual senses.
84 Cf. John of St. Thomas, In lam Ilae, q.68, disp. 18, a.i.

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2. PRESENT GLORY OF THE SONS OF GOD

Let us soften the brightness of the mysterious picture of the life
of glory and we shall then have the picture of the life of the sons of
God on earth. Father Gardeil explains this beautifully:
The life eternal is in the order of things accomplished what the present
supernatural life is in the order of things which have not yet reached
their conclusion though tending efficaciously toward that goal. Let me
explain. It is the same reality which lies at the root of heavenly life and
the supernatural life on earth; but, above, we possess it unveiled, never
to lose it; while, here below, we have it veiled and may unhappily lose
it. But, once more, apart from the difference between faith and sight, the
possession is just as real. God dwells in our hearts as really as in the hearts
of the blessed, since, in truth, we love Him and this love which we have
now will not change after our entry into heaven. “Charity never dies,”
says St. Paul. Thus, the just man, the saint on earth, performs now, in the
sight of God, the same triumphant act through which it will possess
God in heaven. God already dwells in his love. His heart is a veritable
heaven, although invisible and hidden from all eyes. Such, in its pro­
found reality, is the supernatural life on earth.
But, to go still deeper into the springs of this mysterious life, who has
been able to deposit this heavenly love in the heart of man, living in the
world? Of ourselves we cannot produce even a particle of love for God
as He is in Himself. First of all, we cannot naturally know God in such
a way: He must be revealed to us. But how can we love naturally what
we do not know naturally? Further, even after He has been revealed to
us, how dare we love Him? I mean with the love of friendship, a love
given and received, in a word, an efficacious love, not the false and dis­
couraging love which one has for an inaccessible being, a love which is
only a shadow of love. Yet it is with this given and efficacious love that
the blessed love God. God has stooped down to them and what they
could not do He has given them the power to do. He has made them
participants of the love wherewith He loves Himself. The divine act has
become, so far as it is possible, the act of the blessed. And as the Father
and the Son love one another through the Holy Ghost, so the blessed
love God through the Holy Ghost. But, since the love of the blessed for
God is already in us in a state of efficacious tendency, it follows that
God stoops down to us to make us participants of the love whereby
He loves Himself, to raise our small love to the loftiness of His Heart.
Thus it follows that the Holy Ghost, the consubstantial love of the
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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

Father and the Son should, in a certain way, be at the bottom of our love
of God. For, once more, we really love God, and it is by the Holy Ghost
alone that one can love God.
The Holy Spirit, then, dwells in us in an especial way, though the
whole Blessed Trinity dwells there as the object to which our faith and
our love efficaciously tend. The Holy Ghost adds aji especial way to this
already intimate way of living in a soul. He resides at the bottom of the
supernaturalized heart as the principle of the movement by which it
tends toward the Holy Trinity. He is, so to speak, the heart of our heart.
And, as the heart makes itself known in a man by an inclination which
induces it, by a bias which orients it and draws it powerfully toward the
good, so the Holy Ghost, as an inherent bias to our charity, orients us,
draws us, and carries us along toward the Holy Trinity, the common
center of the aspirations of the blessed in heaven and of the just on earth.
It is with the expansion of this force, hidden in the depths of our super­
naturalized heart, that the Gifts of the Holy Ghost are connected. They
arc one of the two ways, and the most divine one, by which the activity
of the Floly Ghost operates in the souls of the just.’5
3. THE DELIGHTS OF DIVINE FRIENDSHIP

So charity and a living faith, accompanied by the gifts of the Holy
Ghost, contract the substantial and loving presence of the Trinity in
our souls as in the souls of those in heaven. Actually, charity is a
love of intimate friendship between God and men, and such love
demands continual association and affective and disinterested com­
munication of pure and faithful benevolence. God our Lord, whose
love is to do good, treats us this way. He loves us not for selfish rea­
sons, but out of pure goodness and liberality, in order to lavish on
us His inexhaustible riches.36 If He asks for all our love and our
whole hearts,37 it is not to make us unhappy but that we may find
our rest and happiness in Him.38 If He takes His delight in us
35 The Gifts of the Holy Ghost in the Dominican Saints, pp. 26-28.
33 See la, q.44, a. 4, ad mm.
3T Prov. 23:26.
33 “O who shall grant me to rest in Thee,” exclaims St. Augustine (Confessions,
I, 5). “When shall 1 have the happiness of having Thee come into my heart to
possess it entirely and to inebriate it with Thy Spirit so that I shall forget all my
evil ways and embrace and be closely united to Thee who art my only good? What
am I to Thee that Thou shouldst command me to love Thee and if I love Thee not,
be angry at me and threaten me with greater woes? . . . Then tell my soul: I am
thy salvation. So speak that I may hear and hearing, let me come in haste to embrace
Thee.”

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(Prov. 8:31), it is because He sees that we share in His own good
ness.
Since friendship either presupposes Ekeness or creates it, God,
who desires to assimilate us to Himself as much as possible, com­
municates to us His inner life, His Spirit of love, so that we become
participators in His divinity.39 He establishes with us a friendship
as close and cordial as that of a father, spouse, and brother, and it is
so firm that on His part it would never be broken if we, unfor­
tunately, would not break it by sinning. As true friendship tends to
the presence of the beloved and the most intimate communication
possible, so the friendship of God, which incomparably exceeds hu­
man friendship, contracts that ineffable communication of the Spirit
of love, who pours forth in our souls divine charity that we may be
able to love God with the selfsame love with which He loves us and
with which the three adorable Persons love one another.40 There­
fore Scripture often repeats that if we love God He will abide in us
and we in Him, thereby entering into friendly association with the
sovereign Trinity.41 Since God can remove all the obstacles imped­
ing the union to which that friendship tends, it follows that on His
part He will take care to strengthen the communication and presence
of indwelling as much as possible. So charity, as the Angelic Doctor
89 St. Francis de Sales, The Love of God, Bk. Ill, chap. 13: “Love not finding us
equal, equalizes us; not finding us united, unites us.”
40 Blessed Henry Suso, Union, chap. 5: “The Holy Ghost is the spiritual love
who resides in the will as a bond and as a divine impetus which inspires and urges
us on; He is the Charity of God. ... In Him are transformed those who love
God and are attracted to the light, and this in so intimate a manner that it is neither
known nor understood except by experience. Come, then, to this God, One and
Three . . . but come without stain, without self-interest, and with a most pure
love. To sinners He is a terrible God; to those who serve Him in hope of a re­
ward He is a liberal God, omnipotent and majestic; but to those who banish servile
fear and love Him with a pure love, He is a tender and complacent friend, a brother
and a spouse. To be united with Him you must prepare your spirit and your body,
renouncing the flesh and sensuality, subjecting the senses, seeking after the things
of the spirit, and persevering in recollection and prayer. Such is the way to arrive
at the higher Spirit, who is God, and to be united with Him. Then you will feel
that this divine Spirit inspires you, calls you, invites you, and attracts you; . . .
When you find that you cannot perceive this, divest yourself of self. . . . Resign
yourself and abandon yourself wholeheartedly to God and His power. . . . Throw
yourself on Him with loving trust and remain buried in Him, forgetting yourself
and losing yourself quite completely, not as to your spirit but as to your sensu­
ality and the possession of your body and soul. And when you are thus elevated,
lost in the immensity of the divine essence, you will then be united and transformed
in the Spirit with God.”
41 John 14:23; I John 3:2-4; 4:12-16, etc.

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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

teaches,42 presupposes the possession of God already present in the
soul, for it is a communication so intimate that it makes Him dwell
in us and us in Him. By charity He resides in us as the soul of our
supernatural life and as the beginning and immediate end of that
vital act which does not cease, even at death, but will remain the
same for all eternity.
We possess Him as present to us even now in a certain manner
through the knowledge which a living faith and the intellectual gifts
permit us to have of Him. But if, as St. Augustine says, to know God
is to possess Him, this knowledge cannot be an indiscriminate kind;
it must be vital and, as it were, experimental. It is not enough to have
merely a cold and abstract speculative knowledge, which terminates
in a sterile idea, but there is required a knowledge so living and throb­
bing that it touches the reality itself.
So God dwells in Christian children, but not in the great pagan
philosophers; and I Ic might dwell with great pleasure in humble and
illiterate women, but not in famous theologians who are haughty in
their pompous dialectic and their arrogant science. If they do not
live in God and by God, they do not know Him as He is in Him­
self (I John 2:4; 4:9); nor can they converse amiably with Him or
be on friendly relations with Him.43 If they do not bind Him to
their hearts by charity, they cannot possess Him in truth, no matter
how much theological knowledge they possess. So it is that if God
is to abide in us and if we arc truly to possess Him, the acts of a dead
faith are not enough, even if they flow from a semi-vital impulse of
the Holy Ghost and are directed to God.44 We must above all live
in Him through grace, possess I lim as the inner and immanent prin­
ciple of action and life. Then through those same acts the indwelling
and possession of God will become more intimate and complete.45
The acts of a vital and ardent faith make one feel to some extent
the loving and adorable presence of the highest Truth, which we
possess even now. And in the measure that the gift of wisdom is de42 Contra Gent., Bk. IV, chap. 21. la Ilae, q.66, a. 6: “But the love of charity is of
that which is already possessed.”
43 St. Augustine, Manual, chap. 20: “He who would wish to possess knowledge
of God, should love Him and he will know Him. In vain does anyone attempt to
read, meditate, preach, or pray if he does not love God.”
44 John 1:5.
46 Cf. Ila Ilae, q.28, a. 1, ad mm: “Nevertheless, even in this life, He is present to
those who love Him, by the indwelling of His grace.”

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veloped or made manifest, together with the acts of this living fail h
and the loving presence of God, so also does one begin to taste and
see how sweet is the Lord, how delightful is His conversation, and
how intimate His fellowship, which does not cause us disgust or
bitterness, but joy and gladness.40
The Supernatural Life, the Kingdom of God on Earth

We have now to consider how the supernatural life is eternal life
and divine life and why it is called also the kingdom of heaven and
the kingdom of God on earth. “Life and kingdom,” says Father
Hugueny,47 “are a phase of that development which begins here in
time and will have its full expansion on the day of the coming of
Christ in glory and the renewal of the world.” This same thought
is contained in the words: “then is the kingdom of God come upon
you”; “the kingdom of God is within you”; “Come, ye blessed of
My Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you.” 48
The whole man participates in the supernatural life although it is
received into the soul. By it he enters into such an intimate union
with God that God’s life becomes his own.49 So it is that to those
who are risen are attributed thrones, rule, and the power to judge,
which are things proper to God. The symbols of the Apocalypse
(the fruit of the tree of life, the hidden manna, the new name which
is known only to him who receives it and which is the name of God
Himself) all paint for us the ineffable quality of eternal life which is
the very life of God Himself. If man enters this life so fully as to
share in the divine attributes, it is because he is truly made a son of
God. But the prerogatives which are peculiarly characteristic of the
Son are the knowledge and love of the Father. Therefore divine
filiation and the vision and love of God constitute the essence and
the activity of eternal life.
46 Wisd. 8:16.
47 “A quel bonheur sommes nous destinés,” Revue Thomiste, January, 1905.
48Matt. 12:28; 25:34; Luke 17:21.
49 Cf. Illa, q.2, a. 10, ad 2um: “Habitual grace is only in the soul; but the grace—
i.e., the free gift of God—of being united to the Divine Person belongs to the whole
human nature, which is composed of soul and body. And hence it is said that the
fulness of the Godhead dwelt corporeally in Christ because the Divine Nature is
united not merely to the soul, but to the body also.”

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I. MANIFESTATION OF THE DIVINE LIFE

St. Paul shows us the intimate and natural bond existing between
that eternal life and the life of a Christian. The life which the Chris­
tian will possess, when, in view of the whole world, he receives the
crown of justice, will not be entirely new. It will be the manifesta­
tion, the free and glorious expansion, of the divine life which now
works mysteriously in the souls of the just. The new life which the
believer received on that day when, after having been crucified and
buried with Christ through baptism, he rose again from the baptismal
waters, is the life of the risen Christ, a life entirely animated by the
Spirit of < iod, which is also the Spirit of Christ. But, however active
it might be at the beginning, this life does not attain its complete and
manifest development until much later.
At baptism the life of sin, of the flesh, and of the old man loses
its power of directing the activities of the faithful soul. In this sense
it is said to die, for a life which has lost the power of directing its
activity is no longer a true life, since it is no longer the first principle
of movement.'"' But the organism over which the new life presides
is still impregnated with the earthly tendencies of its carnal prin­
ciple, and it remains subject to the limitations and impotencies of
the world of corruption.01 Under these conditions, the divine life of
the faithful soul remains buried and hidden just as the life of Christ
Himself is hidden, working in a mysterious manner toward the
realization of His kingdom in this world and without manifesting
anything of the glory and splendor that belong to it. But there will
come a day of the great manifestation of the Son of Man, and then
the life of His faithful followers will receive its full development
and splendor. “When Christ shall appear, who is your life, then you
also shall appear with Him in glory” (Col. 3:4).
St. John teaches that eternal life begins in this world, as does the
•® “Actually,” says Bacuez {Manuel biblique, p. 388, no. 733), “the natural life is
not killed at baptism, but the Christian life ought to predominate in such a way
that it alone appears to exist.”
St. Francis de Sales, Love of God, Bk. VI, chap. 12: “As the stars without losing
their light do not shine in the presence of the sun, but the sun shines in them and
they are hidden in the light of the sun, so the soul, without losing her life, lives
not herself when mingled with God, but God lives in her.”
61 Rom. 6:3-20; 8:9-18; Gal. 2:20; 4:1-17.

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kingdom of God.52 We have passed from death to life by a spiritti.il
resurrection of which the true bodily resurrection at the end of
time will be a consequence and a manifestation. Meanwhile, although
lacking the privileges of glory, the Christian life is even now the
eternal life, for it contains the essential element of that life which
is divine filiation, and future glory will be a simple manifestation
of this filiation. For that reason “the expectation of the creature
waiteth for the revelation of the sons of God” (Rom. 8:19).
This divine filiation is not, then, a simple movement of loving trust
on the part of the creature in the Creator, nor is it the mere com­
munication of a gift superior to the natural condition and powers of
that creature. It is a communication of the very life of God under
the immediate action of His Spirit, who is the life of God and the
life of Christ (Rom. 8:14-16). The life received in this communica­
tion is so intimate a participation in the divine life that its production
is not called creation but generation.53
St. Paul affirms that this filiation is so intimate that it gives us, over
and above the gifts of God, the selfsame rights of the eternal Son:
we are “sons, heirs also; heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with
Christ.” 54
Among the goods reserved for the heirs of God, the most char­
acteristic and those which are so exclusive to the Son that they are
communicated only to those whom He wishes to have as sharers in
His privileges, are a knowledge and love of God such as the Father
has of the Son. “No one knoweth the Son but the Father; neither
doth anyone know the Father but the Son, and he to whom it shall
please the Son to reveal Him.” 55 This knowledge is an operation
characteristic of eternal life, just as divine filiation is its constitutive
element. “Now this is everlasting life, that they may know Thee, the
only true God” (John 17:3). The knowledge of God proper to a
son who is already in full exercise of his rights and in full possession
52 John 5:24-29; I John 5:11-13. Loisy, L’Evangile, p. 190: “St. John associates
the idea of life in God with that of life in the kingdom and he thus conceives the
eternal life as future and yet present. This idea is that of a deification of man . . .
effected through the partial communication of the divine Spirit whereby believers
are united to God in Christ as Christ Himself is united to the Father.”
53 John 1:13; 3:3-8; I John 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:4; 1 Pet. 1:3 f.; 2:2.
64 Rom. 8:17.
i5 Matt. 11:27.

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of his heritage is the intuitive vision of God Himself. We shall pos­
sess this vision when we shall be manifested as we are, when we are
like unto Him, seeing Him as He is and knowing Him as He knows
us.56 But now we know I lim through loving Him: “And everyone
that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not,
knoweth not God; for God is charity” (I John 4:7 f.).
Father Hugueny summarizes this doctrine as follows:
The love of the Father places us in immediate possession of life and
the dignity of the sons of God, but this life is not apparent to the eyes
of the world. On the day of the great revelation that likeness will be so
accentuated that there will redound to the body itself a life and a glory
which will make this likeness manifest. This external splendor is not the
essential element of out likeness to God for this likeness requires a more
elevated activity, an operation impossible to one who does not enter into
transcendent communication with the divine Being. We shall see Him
as He is, and therefore we must be like unto Him and share in His very
nature. Therefore the only ones who can know Him thus, that is, His
sons, cannot help being love, as I le is love. It is impossible for them to
continue as I lis sons if they do not love Him with a filial love, if they
do not have the desire to fulfill the will of the Father (John 4:32—34), if
they do not strive to become pure as He Himself is pure and if they do
not sacrifice for the salvation of their brethren with a love like that
which God had for us in giving us His Son (I John 3:3; 4:9-11). This
love is an activity characteristic of eternal life as is filial knowledge, that
is, faith or vision. As long as the Christian does not renounce that life,
there is nothing that can separate him from the charity of God, which
is in Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:38).
In order not to lose that life, but to protect and develop the divine
seed (John 3:9), we should gird our body with the mortification of Jesus
so that the life of Jesus will be manifest in our mortal flesh, knowing that
He who resurrected Christ will also resurrect us with Him. Therefore
we should not be dismayed, for although this outer man is weakened,
the interior man is strengthened from day to day. The momentary
and passing tribulation marvelously produces in us an eternity of glory.
We know that if our earthly dwelling place, this mere tent, is destroyed,
we have in heaven an eternal mansion which is the work of God. This
firm hope of a resurrection is what consoles us at the thought of our
temporal dissolution. Therefore do we weep because we desire to clothe
ourselves in our heavenly garment without removing, if it were possible,
••See I John 3:1-3; I Cor. 13:10-12.

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the earthly vesture. As long as we are in this earthly tabernacle we are
prostrate with weeping, because we do not wish to be despoiled, but
reclothed so that what is subject to death will be absorbed in life. . . .
As long as we are in the body, we walk apart from the Lord—for we
walk by the light of faith and not of vision—but we prefer to absent
ourselves from the body and to be present to the Lord (II Cor. 4:10-17;
5:1-8)."

2.

LONGINGS FOR DISSOLUTION AND UNION WITH GOD

This separation from the body is an evil; but, for the Apostle, it is
preferred to the loss of the vision of his Lord for whom he sighs ar­
dently. These longings increase in him, as in all the saints, growing
more and more, in the measure that he feels more keenly that the
fetters of the flesh hinder his ardent charity. So it is that he cries
out: “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” 58 But
also, in the measure that he identifies himself with Christ and lives the
life of Christ Himself, so much the more will he resign himself and
conform to His holy will, even though it means that he must con­
tinue to be separated from Him. Therefore he says to the Philippians:
“For to me, to live is Christ; and to die is gain. And if to live in the
flesh, this is to me the fruit of labor, and what I shall choose I know
not. But I am straitened between two: having a desire to be dissolved
and to be with Christ, a thing by far the better. But to abide still in
the flesh is needful for you.”
That is how, according to St. Irenaeus, spiritual men live for God,
for they have within them the Spirit of God who elevates them to a
divine life. St. Augustine says that the pure soul desires the coming
of its Spouse and yearns for His most pure embrace. No longer does
the soul have to struggle to say: “Thy kingdom come.” Formerly,
fear made the soul say these words with dread; but now it can say
with David (Ps. 6:4 f.): “But Thou, O Lord, how long? Turn to
me, O Lord, and deliver my soul.” There are many who die pa­
tiently; but he who is perfect continues to live patiently, when he
would be pleased to die. That is the way the Apostle endured life
patiently. But unless the soul truly desires the happy day of de­
liverance, it does not possess perfect charity. A soul inflamed with
5T Hugueny, op. cit., pp. 662-72, passim.
68 Rom. 7:24.
89 Phil. 1:21-24.

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the fire of divine love cannot help but yearn for the possession of
God, and it will even be necessary for Him to mitigate the ardor of
those desires.60
“To be born of God,” says Broglie,61 “and to become His sons, is
the origin of this sublime state. To live a divine life in God and with
God, is its development. And what will its completion be but to see
God and to be transformed in Him?”
ARTICLE VI
Familiar Relations

with the

Divine Persons

Faith enables us to know not only God’s attributes as reflected in
creatures but also I lis inner life: the gifts of understanding and wisdom give us the power to penetrate into the divine mysteries and to
taste them; charity places us in intimate communication with the
three divine Persons and permits us to know Them and converse
with Them as wc ought. From this it follows that through grace we
enter into a most singular relationship with each of these Persons
and not merely with the Trinity as a whole or with the simple unity
of the divine nature. But we could hardly be able to recognize each
Person in particular or communicate with Him unless there were
some contact with the proper activities by which each is distin­
guished.
Fellowship with God and Participation in His Life

The works of grace arc not like those of nature. The latter, as
realized ad extra, are referred to the absolute unity of the divine
omnipotence and are common to the three Persons, however much
they may be appropriated to one or other of them according to our
way of speaking. But the works of grace, since they make us enter
into the joy of the Lord, into the intimate and secret life of the Di­
vinity, and into friendly and familiar fellowship with the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, raise us to a participation in those ineffable
60 In Evang. Joan., Tr. 9.
61 Surnaturel, I, 34.

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i miiinunications which are effected ad intra, in the very bosom of
< khI. Thus some of these communications must be proper to one
Prison; and others, at least very singularly appropriated.
i. Proper Attribution

and

Appropriation

( Irdinary appropriation consists in attributing in a special manner
to one Person, actions or properties which in reality are common to
iill three, and the reason is that they possess a certain likeness or
iin.ilogy to the truly proper activities of that particular Person. Thus
w c attribute to the Father eternity, omnipotence, and justice; to the
Son, beauty, wisdom, and mercy; to the Holy Ghost, charity, good­
ness, peace, and joy. Yet actually these attributes are common to the
three Persons and are applied to a particular Person only by appro­
priation. They pertain, not to the hidden mystery of the personal
relations, but to the unity of the divine nature as known through
created things. The personal relationships are known to us only by
revelation; but unaided natural reason can, to some extent, trace and
recognize the common attributes through the works ad extra which
are common to the entire Trinity.
The following attributions are entirely proper to each Person, as
are the names Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: the eternal Father is
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and also our Father who is in
heaven; the Son is the Word of the Father, the eternal splendor of
His glory and the image of His substance, the uncreated Wisdom,
the Only-begotten who is in the bosom of the Father, the First-born
among many brethren and our Brother also; the Holy Ghost is per­
sonal Love, the subsisting Charity of God, the great gift of the Father
and the Son. The same thing is true in regard to many other titles
that are intimately connected with these and are attributed almost
continually by Scripture and tradition to one Person and not referred
to the others, except in a different manner or in a less proper sense.
So it is, we believe, when we call the Holy Ghost a sweet Guest,
the intimate Vivifier, Sanctifier, Director, and the Inspiration of the
soul.1
1 “Although the works of the most holy Trinity which are effected extrinsically
are common to the three Persons, yet many of them are properly attributed to the
Holy Ghost, so that we may understand that they redound to us through the im-

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Doubtless, in these continual appropriations there is something
very special which we are unable to define or even indicate; some­
thing so ineffable that it cannot be spoken, but something that serves
as the fundament for the singular relations which enable us to know
and converse lovingly with each one of the divine Persons with
whom we enter into that mysterious fellowship of eternal life, that
lift which was in the Father and which He manifested to us that we
might be associated with Him and Flis only-begotten Son. Thus, by
means of the illumined eyes of a heart inflamed with charity and by
means of the savory experience which the gift of wisdom gives to
them, the great saints see, feel, and know for certain—although they
cannot explain it—that each divine Person does His proper work in
the soul and influences our sanctification according to His personal
character.·’ I 'his happens to such an extent that in their deified hearts
the adorable mystery of the Blessed Trinity redounds and shines
forth.3
mense charily of God. ... It can be perceived that those effects which are re­
ferred properly to the 1 loly Ghost arise from the great love of God for us” (Roman
Catechism, I, a, 8, no, H).
“Sanctification," says Broglie (Surnaturel, I, 30), “is always attributed to the Holy
Ghost.”
“Although these effusions,” says Gay (Elévat. sur N.SJ.C., XII), “are the work
and gift of the entire I unity; nevertheless it is easy to see that each of them em­
bodies some characteristic proper to one of the three Persons in such a way that
it can and ought to be regularly appropriated. So it is in the Creed: creation is ap­
propriated to the Father, redemption to the Son, and sanctification to the Holy
Ghost.”
2 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled: of
the Word of life: for the life was manifested; and we have seen, and do bear
witness, and declare unto you the life eternal which was with the Father, and hath
appeared to us: that which we have seen and have heard, we declare unto you,
that . . . our fellowship may be with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ”
(I John 1:1-3).
Fervent souls who resign themselves totally to the hands of God and without
any desire other than that of pleasing Him “receive three signal favors from the
three Persons of the most holy Trinity; from the Father, a strength almost invincible
in action, in suffering, and in temptations; from the Son, rays and splendours of
truth, which shine without ceasing into their soul; from the Holy Spirit, a fervour,
a sweetness, and a consolation full of joy” (Lallemant, Spiritual Doctrine, Prin. II,
sect. 2. chap. 2).
8Tauler, Institutions, chap. 33: “God the Father will accomplish without ceasing
the generation of His Word in these souls and they will experience this ineffable
generation within themselves. Their spirit will undergo a certain alteration, eleva­
tion, and exaltation in the singular presence of a peaceful eternity and the departure
from creatures and perishable things. They will begin to consider all things taste­
less that do not proceed from this generation and they themselves will be changed

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Actually, deification establishes between the soul and God a multitude of marvelous relations. Although these relations cannot be por­
trayed adequately by any manner of expression, yet the Fathers
attempt to explain them by a variety of images which, if taken to­
gether, will give us a more approximate and true concept by which
wc can soar above all symbols to ponder and admire in silence what
cannot be expressed in words or represented by any kind of images.
Some of those terms used by the Fathers to help us recognize the
true character of each Person imply something proper to the par­
ticular Person, and others merely indicate an appropriation which
is more exclusive than ordinary appropriation.
Whereas the operations of the divine nature ad extra, since they
are common, are appropriated to one or another Person only by a
remote sort of analogy, the operations of grace, which are vital ac­
tivities, share in the life and communications ad intra. Further, since
these operations of grace are of a social nature, they are of themselves
either proper or especially appropriated to one Person and not to the
others nor to the unity of the divine nature.4
to conform to it. The soul and all its multiple activities will be reduced to a marvel­
ous unity.” See also Blosius, Spiritual Instructions, Appendix, chap, 2; St. Mary
Magdalen of Pazzi, Œuvres, I, chap. 28.
Blessed Henry Suso, Eternal Wisdom, chap. 32: “From the generation and filia­
tion of God proceeds the true interior and exterior abandonment of chosen souls.
Being sons of God, . . . they participate through grace in the divine nature and
divine activity, for God always produces a son like to Himself in nature and opera­
tions. The just man who delivers himself up to God triumphs over time and pos­
sesses a blessed life which is transformed in God. . . . Through perfect renuncia­
tion the soul is lost in God to its eternal gain; it is buried in the divine essence and
is no longer distinct from God, nor does it know Him through images, light, or
created forms, but in Himself. ... It is a marvelous exchange in which the soul,
in the abyss of the Divinity, is transformed into the unity of God in order to be
lost to itself and blended with Him, not, however, in regard to its nature, but in
regard to its life and faculties.”
“The life of grace,” writes Gay, (op. cit., 1, 67), “is the ineffable circulation of
divinity among the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”
4 St. Thomas, Contra Gent., IV, chap. 21: “It is fitting that all that God effects in
us should proceed at once from the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost as from
an efficient cause; but the word of wisdom by which we know God is properly
representative of the Son and, likewise, the love by which we love God is properly
representative of the Holy Ghost.”
“When the Holy Ghost is given,” says the same holy doctor (In I Sent., dist. 14,
q.2, a. 2, ad 311m), “there is effected in us a union with God according to the mode
which is proper to that Person, namely, through love. . . . Whence, this knowledge
is quasi-experimental.”
In la, q.43, a.5, ad 211m: “The soul is made like to God by grace. Hence for a
divine person to be sent to anyone by grace, there must be a likening of the soul

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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

We do not venture to say precisely which of these operations are
proper and which are appropriated, for not even those who could
have done so much better than we, have attempted it. Indeed, to
strive to define these things too accurately would be to run the risk
of falling into dangerous intellectualism. We shall be content to in­
dicate a few of the principal operations which the saints have in­
sisted on, so that souls who are beginning to understand the reality
of these awesome communications will recognize and better appre­
ciate the truth. Then they will not be frightened on seeing that what
astonishes them with its excellence and divinity is, through the good­
ness and wisdom of God, quite possible and even easy; that that
communication which seemed to them far beyond* their capabilities
and even impossible, is impressed on them with the indisputable evi­
dence of a fact.
2. ROLE OF EACH PERSON IN ADOPTION AND DEIFICATION

The basis for all these relations is adoptive filiation, which can be
said to be common to the three divine Persons so far as they all con­
tribute to this mysterious work, yet each in His own manner. This
filiation, like the subsequent deification, is not an instantaneous and
invariable thing, but it is continuous and progressive. We become
more and more properly sons of God as we conform ourselves more
and more to the Only-begotten, with whom we ought to be made
one.s In this continuous operation, apart from what is common to
to the divine person who is sent, by some gift of grace. Because the Holy Ghost is
Love, the soul is assimilated to the Holy Ghost by the gift of charity; hence the
mission of the Holy Ghost is according to the mode of charity. Whereas the Son
is the Word, not any sort of word, but one Who breathes forth Love. . . . Thus
the Son is sent not in accordance with every and any kind of intellectual perfection,
but according to the intellectual illumination, which breaks forth into the affection
of love. . . . Thus Augustine plainly says (De Trin., iv., 20) : The Son is sent when­
ever He is known and perceived by anyone. Now perception implies a certain ex­
perimental knowledge; and this is properly called wisdom {sapientia), as it were
a sweet knowledge (sapida scientia).”
In this way the entire Trinity is the efficient cause of the incarnation of the Word
“because the works of the Trinity are inseparable. Yet the Son alone assumed the
form of a slave in His own Person” (Symb. fidei, Cone. Tolet. XI). We could also
say that the entire Trinity is the efficient cause of our justification, although the
Son alone is the meritorious cause and the Holy Ghost alone the quasi-formal cause.
So it is that there are sins which directly offend the Father, the Son, or the Holy
Ghost, such as, respectively, lukewarmness, ignorance, or malice; and these are un­
pardonable as long as the spirit remains opposed to God (Matt. 12:31 f.; Luke 12:10).
5 See St. Augustine, De peccat, mer. et. rem., Bk. II, nos. 9 f.

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♦ hr I i inity as a work ad extra—which is to act upon a pure creature
mi ,r. to elevate it to the divine order—there is in the terminus of this
th \ ii ion something characteristic of each Person, since each of them,
In accordance with the popular expression of the mystics, performs
I I ι·ι special work in our continuous renewal and sanctification.
Although the making or producing of a natural effect in the creaI ni i is a work common to the entire Trinity,® our being made sons
n| ( i'od is not an effect of this type. Rather it is a deification whereby
lin n· is communicated to us that intimate participation in the di­
vinity itself through which we are created anew in Jesus Christ.
\\ i arc reborn, not from something extraneous to God, not from a
corruptible seed, but from an incorruptible one, the seed of the
demal Father. That mystical seed which abides in us and preserves
us from sin 7 can truly be said to be the vivifying Spirit Himself
who is communicated to us, according to the daring and energetic
expression of St. Irenaeus, as the living and vivifying seed of the
I' .ither. To the Father, therefore, is attributed this second creation
mid renewal.8
( )n receiving the divine participation through the regeneration of
water and the Holy Ghost and a rebirth in God Himself,9 we can,
through the power which Jesus Christ merited for us and granted to
us, become sons of God. That rebirth and transformation which we
experience on passing from being sons of Adam to the status of sons
of the Most High, does not entail any action on His part, but rather a
communication, so intimate and so vital that it becomes a true shar­
ing in the eternal generation. And this, properly speaking, is not to
make or effect a simple change in us in the way that God makes or
produces an effect in other creatures, but it is to engender us to the
image of His only-begotten Son. Therefore, although the Gospel
says (John 1:12) that we are made sons of God—“Dedit eis potesta­
te?/1 filios Dei fieri"—it is not to be understood in the sense that God
actually makes us such, but that He engenders us, adopts us or regen­
erates us through Jesus Christ.10 It is in this way that we are reborn
from an incorruptible seed through the word of God, for God has
• See Illa, q.23, a.2; In Ram. 8, lec. 3.
T See I John 3:9; 5:18.
• Ps. 103:30.
8 John 1:13; I John 3:9; 4:7; 5:1-18.
10 Deut. 32:18; Jas. 1:18; I John 5:1.

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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

engendered us in the Word of His truth. Hence adoptive filiation
becomes a participation in the eternal sonship of the Word, who is
engendered and not made.
Engendered from all eternity, the Word is most truly the Son and
the model of all other sons. As First-born among many brethren
(Rom. 8:29), He requires that these brethren must in some way,
like Himself, be engendered and not made. As in the work of the
Incarnation, in spite of its termination ad extra and the concurrence
in it of all the three divine Persons, the Word alone took on human
flesh, and the Father alone is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ even
as man. So, in the work of our adoption and regeneration, notwith­
standing its being a work ad extra, we must recognize something in
it that is proper to the eternal Father, from whom flows all paternity
in heaven and on earth. Again, in the anointing of Jesus Christ and
in our own, we must recognize another w'ork which is proper to the
Spirit, the consecrator and sanctifier.11
It is the Son by nature and excellence, our Savior and Model and
the true Mediator between God and man, who merited for us this
communication of the Holy Ghost. He shared in our nature that we
might be able to participate in His and thus enter into fellowship
with Him.12 So it is that He gives us the power to become sons of
God by being reborn in His Spirit. This rebirth will be in the meas­
ure that we are renewed in the Spirit of adoption and sanctification,
and this renewal will be in the measure that we despoil ourselves of
the earthly man.13
11 Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38; II Cor. 1:21; I John 2:20.
12 “If the Word became flesh and the eternal Son of the living God became a son
of man,” says St. Irenaeus (Haer., Bk. Ill, chap. 19, no. 1), “it was in order that
man, by entering into fellowship with the Word and receiving the status of adop­
tion, might become a son of God.”
13 John 1:12 f.; 3:5-8; Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:9 f. Ascent of Mount Carmel, Bk. II,
chap. 5: “And it is this that St. John desired to explain, when he said: Qui non ex
sanguinibus, neque ex voluntate carnis, neque ex voluntate viri, sed ex Deo nati sunt
(John 1:13). As though he had said: He gave power to be sons of God—that is, to
be transformed in God—only to those who are born, not of blood—that is, not of
natural constitution and temperament—neither of the will of the flesh—that is, of
the free will of natural capacity and ability—still less of the will of man—wherein
is included every way and manner of judging and comprehending with the under­
standing. He gave power to none of these to become sons of God, but only to those
that are born of God—that is, to those who being born again through grace, and
dying first of all to everything that is of the old man, are raised above themselves
to the supernatural, and receive from God this rebirth and adoption, which trans­
cends all that can be imagined. . . . He that is not born again in the Holy Spirit

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But it is the Father who more properly adopts us and constitutes
us His sons through Jesus Christ, for He it is who freely engendered
us through the Word of truth.14 This act of generation is proper to
the person of the Father 15 as also is the corresponding act of adop­
tion through the Son, through whom He has brought many sons
into glory.18 Thus He predestined us and adopted us and blessed us
through His Son, through whom we receive grace and charity in
the Spirit of sanctification.17
In brief, the Father regenerates us for eternal life 18 and makes us
share in His very own nature in order to make us like to the image
of His only-begotten Son;18 the Son gives us the power to become
sons of God and His own brothers and co-heirs; and both together
call us and translate us from death to life by communicating to us
their Spirit of love,20 who vivifies us with that life of grace which is
the seed of glory and imprints upon us the seal of Christ.21 So this
work is in a certain way common to the whole Trinity; and yet, as
will not be able to see this kingdom of God, which is the state of perfection; and
to be born again in the Holy Spirit in this life is to have a soul most like to God
in purity, having in itself no admixture of imperfection, so that pure transformation
can be wrought in it through participation of union, albeit not essentially.”
14Jas. i:i8.
15 Cf. Illa, q.23, a.2.
18 Heb. 2:10 f.
,TEph. 1:3-6: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ. As He chose us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted
in His sight in charity. Who hath predestinated us unto the adoption of children
through Jesus Christ unto Himself, according to the purpose of His will, unto the
praise of the glory of His grace, in which He hath graced us in His beloved Son.”
Eph. 2:18: “For bv Him we have access both in one Spirit to the Father.”
I Cor. 8:6: “Yet to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things,
and we unto Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by
I lim.”
18 See I Pet. 1:3 f.
19 Rom. 8:29.
20 See I John 3:14.
21 “The Son of God,” says St. Cyril of Alexandria (In Joan., I, 1), “came to give
us the power of being by grace what He is by nature and to make common what
is proper to Himself. Such is His kindness to men and such is His charity. . . . Made
participants in the Son through the Holy Ghost, we have received the stamp of His
likeness and we have been conformed to the divine image. . . . We are, then, sons
of God bv adoption and bv imitation; while He is so by nature and in the fullness
of truth. Here lies the difference: on the one hand there is a natural dignity; on
the other, a favor by grace. . . . We have received the power to become sons
of God, and we have received it from the Son; whence it is manifest that we
were born of God by adoption and through grace, whereas He is the Son by
nature.”

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the Angelic Doctor states (Illa, q. 23, a. 2, ad 3um), it is attributed
to the Father as author, to the Son as meritorious cause and model,
and to the Holy Ghost as vivifier and deifier, who imprints in us the
living image of the Word. Yet it is attributed particularly to the
Father since it is more intimately connected with His personal char­
acter.22
Hence, strictly, it seems that it should be said that our adoption is
proper to the Father through the Son, through whom we receive
grace—indeed, the grace par excellence which is the communication
to us of the Spirit of adoption. The Father “hath predestinated us
unto the adoption of children through Jesus Christ. ... In whom
we have redemption. ... In whom you were signed with the Holy
Spirit of promise: who is the pledge of our inheritance” (Eph. 1:513). Therefore we give thanks to the Father—ex quo omnia—to the
Son who is our older Brother, Head, and Mediator—per quern omnia
—and to the Holy Ghost, who is the common life of love—in quo
omnia.23

3.

DIVINE INDWELLING

If the right to call God by the name of Father is, as St. Leo main­
tains, the greatest of all gifts, it is because in it are epitomized all
things else and all things are ordained to this filiation. And if adop­
tion, although common, is not attributed equally to the three Persons,
we can say much the same of the consequent indwelling. The Father,
in union with the Son who is in His bosom, dwells in us as in His
temple, which is sanctified by the communication of His Spirit of
love who consecrates us by His unction 24 and rebuilds us by His
charity, thereby making us a fitting dwelling place of God.25 Thus
22 St. Thomas, In 111 Sent., dist. X, q.2, a. i, ad mm.
23 St. Augustine, Meditations, chap. 31: “I invoke Thee, O glorious Trinity, Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost: God, Lord and Consoler; fountain, river, and torrent; one
from whom all things proceed, one through whom all things were made, and one
in whom all things have their being; living life, life from the living, and vivifier of
the living; one of Himself, one of the other, and one from the other two . . . from
whom, through whom, and in whom all things are blessed.”
Ibid., chap. 33: “Glory be to the Father who created us; glory be to the Son who
redeemed us; glory be to the Holy Ghost who sanctified us; glory be to the most
high and undivided Trinity whose works are inseparable.”
24 St. Thomas, Comm, in 11 Cor. 6:16: “A temple is a place dedicated to God for
His indwelling.”
28Eph. 2:21 f.

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do we become like so many living stones in this temple so far as wr
are like so many other gods deified by the eternal One.2®
Likewise the loving Consoler and Sanctifier of souls (cf. I Pet. 1:2)
contracts with souls a union which is most singular, as the better in­
formed and more experienced theologians are beginning to admit,
cither implicitly or explicitly.27 However, it is not accurate to say
that it is impossible there should be any type of union with a divine
Person other than the hypostatic union. For, since these ineffable
realities do not fall within the scope of our weak intellects, neither
do they admit of our customary distinctions. Consequently no one
can declare such things impossible, and, if we would wish to appre­
ciate them adequately, we must adhere, not to what appears to us
more reasonable and less astonishing, but to the testimony of Sacred
Scripture and the Fathers and to the inner experience of holy Church.
We shall find that they always present the Holy Ghost to us as the
consecrator and vivifier who dwells in us as the life of our soul and
the soul of our life.28
This union, which is so intimate that it makes us one with Christ
and united in the Spirit in God, is not hypostatic, as neither was the
union of the Holy Ghost with Christ, in whom He resided fully and
from whom He redounds to all the living members of the mystical
body. If we can have, as we undoubtedly do, so singular a mystical
union with the incarnate Word as that of members with the Head; if
the sacramental union which we enjoy when we receive the Holy
Eucharist worthily is a real and immediate contact with His Person,
and yet these are not hypostatic; why then can we not have with His
Spirit, which is the divine soul of the Church, a union or relation
which is similar to that between the members of the body and its
soul?
This mystical union with God which enables us to receive and feel
His vital influx; this loving indwelling and sweet cohabitation of
20 St. Augustine, Enchiridion, chap. 56: “The temple of God is constructed of
gods made by the uncreated God.”
27 Cf. Ramière, Gay, Broglie, Bellamy, Prat, Weiss, Gardeil, Hugueny, etc. Pope
I.co XIII teaches that “although the indwelling is effected by the presence of the
entire Trinity . . . yet it is peculiarly ascribed to the Holy Ghost” (Divinum illud
munus}.
28Gardeil, The Gifts of the Holy Ghost, p. 15: “The supernatural order is
gratuitous in all its degrees, and the greatest arguments of fitness are not comparable
in value to a single word spoken by God.”

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God with souls, which places us in familiar relationship with the
entire Trinity and gives us a fellowship with the Father and His true
Son through the communication of the Holy Ghost: all these make
it possible for us to share in the divine life, action, and power. There­
fore the functions characteristic of the life of the sons of God, which
are to know and love Him as He is in Himself, have for their object
not only the unity of the divine nature or the Trinity in common,
but also each one of the divine Persons. “Now this is eternal life:
that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom Thou has sent” (John 17:3). “But you shall know Him [the
Paraclete], because He shall abide with you, and shall be in you”
(ibid., 14:17). This sweet knowledge, which is not from hearing
but is much like intuitive knowledge and intimate experience, en­
tails very special relations.29
4.

DIVINE PATERNITY

The eternal Father is our true Father—ex quo omnis -paternitas in
coelo et in terra nominatur—whom we all ought to salute by saying:
Our Father, who art in heaven, reign in our hearts in such a way that
we shall always do Thy holy will, and Thy Name will be sanctified
in us. This kingdom of God which is within our very selves is the
communication of His Spirit,30 and the daily bread which we ask
is the bread of life which He sends us from heaven and which we
truly consume.
The Savior and His apostles teach us to bestow on Him always
that loving name of Father as is seen in these examples: “Go to My
brethren and say to them: ‘I ascend to My Father and to your
Father’” (John 20:17). “Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy hath regen­
erated us” (I Pet. 1:3). “Behold what manner of charity the Father
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called and should be the
sons of God” (I John 3:1). “And because you are sons, God hath
sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father”
(Gal. 4:6). “Grace be to you, and peace from God the Father, and
from the Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 1:2).
For that reason the Church always invokes God by that sweet
29 Cf. Interior Castle, seventh mansions, chap. i.
80 See la Ilae, q.69, a.z, ad 311m.

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name through His only-begotten Son and the power of His Spirit
For no one can go to the Father except through the Son; nor yet, as
St. Irenaeus says, can he know the Son save through the Holy Ghost,
rhe Spirit of truth and charity who gives testimony of Him. More­
over, neither to the Son nor to the Holy Ghost, as such, is given
the name of Father except rarely and then in a less proper sense.
This name “Father” is given to the loving Paraclete only once by
the Church, in the Sequence for the feast of Pentecost, wherein He
is called the Father of the poor: Veni Pater pauperum. As the Con­
soler, the Holy Ghost acts rather in the role of a mother, who
caresses us and clasps us to His bosom to speak to our hearts.31 Again,
I le is like an eagle who protects us, warms us beneath His wings,
and teaches us how to fly.32 Moreover, it is well known that in
I Icbrew the expression for Spirit of God (ruaj-elohim) is femi­
nine.33
The Church never gives to the Son the title of Father, but that of
I ,ord and Savior. Yet, as the Spouse of the Church, He is the “Father
of the world to come” (Isa. 9:6) and the Father of all faithful Chris1 ians, even though they are not in grace, just as the Church is the true
mother of the just and of sinners. With the Church He regenerates
us in the waters of baptism through the power of His vivifying
Spirit.
But the Father sent to us and still gives us His only-begotten Son
to redeem us, to bring us to life together with Himself, and to adopt
us.31 So the Son is the one sent from God, the Messias, Redeemer,
Mediator, Savior, Master, Model, the Way, the Truth, and the Life,
Shepherd of our souls, Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the
world, Head of the mystical body of the Church, Cornerstone of
the house of God, etc.
The glorified Son sent us and still gives us, in union with the
I .ither, the Spirit which proceeds from both of Them.38 So the Holy
“1 Isa. 6ό: 11 f.; Osee 2:14.
“a Ps. 16:8; 35:8; 56:2; 60:5; 62:8; Deut. 32:11.
"· In a certain sense, we have been born of the Holy Ghost as is seen in the state­
ment of the Lord: “Amen, amen, I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water
mid the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born
ni (he flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ... So is everyone
I hut is born of the Spirit” (John 3:5-8).
"‘John 3:16 f.; Gal. 4:4 f.; Eph. 1:5; 2:jf.
■•John 14:15-18; 15:26f.; Rom. 8:15; I Cor. 6:19; Gal. 4:6.

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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

Ghost is the great Gift of God and the perpetual Consoler whom
the Father and the Son have given and sent that He might nourish
and vivify us and inspire us and teach us all truth.
Relations

with the

Word

If from the eternal Father is derived and denominated all paternity
in heaven and on earth, then from His only-begotten Son, the divine
Word, is derived and denominated all filiation by reason of His
eternal filiation. Indeed His sonship, since it is a natural one, is the
prototype of ours, which is adoptive. “Wherefore, as by the work of
creation,” says St. Thomas, “the Divine goodness is communicated
to all creatures in a certain likeness, so by the work of adoption the
likeness of natural sonship is communicated to men.” 36 Our filia­
tion is attributed to the Son as its exemplar, according to the words
of the Apostle: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to
be made conformable to the image of His Son, that He might be the
first-born amongst many brethren” (Rom. 8:29).
I. CHRIST AS OUR BROTHER

His filiation is infinitely more excellent than ours, for His is eter­
nal, natural, and necessary, whereas ours is temporal, gratuitous, and
free, and He is God by nature whereas we are but men deified by
grace. Nevertheless He who by reason of His infinite superiority is
the only-begotten,37 desired to be also the first-born, not disdaining
to accept us and recognize us as His brothers.38 “He who calls the
Father of Jesus Christ ‘our Father,’ ” says St. Augustine {In Joan.,
no. 3), “what can he call Christ but ‘our Brother’?” This most noble
fraternity with Jesus Christ obliges us to be His faithful imitators
and to participate in His glorious actions so that we may thereby
glorify the common Father.39 Therefore wre should make ourselves
like to Him as our true exemplar, adjusting our life and conduct to
86 Cf. Illa, q. 23, a. i, ad zum.
87 John 1:14.
88 Heb. 1:6; 2:11; John 20:17.
89 “He desired to be our Brother and when we say Our Father to God, this is
made manifest in us. For he who says Our Father to God, says Brother to Christ.
Therefore he who has God for his Father and Christ for his Brother need not fear
the dreadful day” (St. Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. 48).

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I lis, until we faithfully copy in ourselves His divine image and re
produce within ourselves all His sacred mysteries.40
By reason of His eternal filiation, Christ is the elder Brother of
dll the sons of God, whether men or angels. By reason of His
h mporal filiation, in which He assumed our human nature and not
i liai of an angel, He became our Brother in a twofold sense and thus
I lc tightened the bonds of this fraternity in a loving manner when
I l<· appeared entirely like unto us.41
I his self-abasement of the Son of God, which so confounded the
pi ide of Lucifer, who refused to adore Him in human form, ought
to fill us with a noble pride and prompt us to eternal gratitude and
a most faithful cooperation with such a dignity. St. Augustine says:
"I lc lowered Himself that we might be exalted; and retaining His
own nature, He made Himself a sharer in ours that we might be
made sharers in His. He did not lessen Himself by descending, but
we better ourselves by ascending.” 42 “Just as the Lord,” says St.
Athanasius, “became man by putting on a human body, so we men
ate deified by putting on the Word of God.” 43
·" Blessed Henry Suso, Eternal Wisdom, chap. 30: “He who wishes to turn to
God and become a son of the Eternal Father must abandon self and be entirely
configured to Jesus Christ in order to arrive at the beatific vision. . . . Among My
i liosen souls I have some who live in complete forgetfulness of the world and self;
and they preserve a virtue that is as stable, as immutable and, as it were, as eternal
«>. God Himself. Through grace they are transformed into the image and unity of
llu ir principle, and so they neither think of nor love nor desire anything other
I linn God and His holy will.”
Bacuez, op. cit., p. 215, no. 587: “The perfection of the Christian consists in being
despoiled as much as possible of everything that he has received from the sinful
Adam and of being reclothed, animated, and filled with the virtues, gifts, and per­
teri ions which the Savior deigns to communicate to him. ... If all the faithful
would cooperate with their calling, Jesus Christ would live in them and reproduce
hi each one of them, together with His affections and virtues, the likeness of His
mysteries. Then it could be said of each member of the Savior that it is, like the
I lead and Model, crucified, dead to the world, risen, and glorified.”
<> Heb. 2:14-17.
Epist. 140 ad Honorat., chap. 4.
Sermo 4 contra Arian. St. Catherine of Genoa, Dialogues, III, 9: “O Lord, what
dost Thou call souls that are dear to Thee? ‘I say to them: You are gods and sons
of the Most High’ (Ps. 81). O Love! By this word Thou dost destroy whatever is
railhly in those who love Thee and Thou dost lift them to Thyself. Man disappears
and only Thou livest. ... Be eternally blessed, my God, who hast thus divinized
us. . . . And since Thy name is the Omnipotent (Exod. 6), Thou dost fulfill in us
also the prophecy which was spoken of Christ: that He should have no will but that
id His Father (Isa. 53). Yes, Lord, since we have been called by Thee to follow
aller Christ, to be other Christs, we must strive to do nothing but what Thou dost

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The Incarnation, effected in the womb of the most pure Virgin
through the working of the Holy Ghost, is the reason and basis of
our regeneration, which is realized through the operation of the
same Spirit and under the protection of the same Virgin in the womb
of the Church, which symbolizes a second Eve and is the mother of
all true believers. Therefore the most holy Virgin, as also the holy
mother Church, had to receive a most copious communication from
the Holy Ghost so that it might redound to us.44 And since the
Father predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son so
that Christ might be the first-born among many brethren, He also
“predestinated us unto the adoption of children through Jesus Christ
. . . to re-establish all things in Christ.” 45 And so He sent His Son
to us through the woman, to redeem us and to give us the adoption
of sons.46
In this way we receive from the incarnate Word the power to be­
come sons of God, being reborn in His sacrament of regeneration
through the power of the vivifying Spirit, who remains eternally in
His Church.47 Therefore in order to be justified and defied we must
be reborn in Him and live in the bosom of the Church. So the Coun­
cil of Trent teaches (Sess. VI, no. 3): “Unless they be reborn in
Christ they cannot be justified, for by that rebirth through the merits
of His passion, the grace which justifies them is given them.” St.
Paul teaches the same thing: “For you are all the children of God by
faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized in
Christ, have put on Christ.” 48
wish. O how wonderful is the power of this love which changes a poor and weak
creature into a god! How beautiful is this servitude of love which reigns in sweet­
ness and grace to free us from the slavery of corruption and to make us enter into
the liberty of His glory (Rom. 8), to be reclothed in His power, grandeur, and
majesty, and to make us share His happiness, to live His life in a certain sense, and
to shine with Him like stars in a glorious eternity.”
44 Mary of Agrcda, Mystical City of God, Bk. I, chap. 13: “If these gifts existed
in Christ, our Redeemer and Lord, as in their fountainhead, they were in Mary as
in a lake or ocean, from whence they are distributed over all creation: for from her
superabundance they overflow into the whole Church. This is referred to by
Solomon in the book of Proverbs, when Wisdom is made to say that she builds for
herself a house on seven pillars, etc. and in it she prepares the table, mixes the wine
and invites the little ones and the uninstructed, drawing and raising them up from
their childhood to teach them prudence” (Prov. 9:1-2).
45 Eph. 1:5, 10.
46 Gal. 4:4 f.
4TJohn 1:11; 3:5 f.; 6:64; 14:16-18.
48 Gal. 3:26 f.

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Thus, through baptism we are engrafted on Jesus as on the true
tree of life so that by means of the divine vigor we can produce fruits
of virtue and glory.48 Incorporated in Him, our souls are espoused
to Him in faith and charity in such wise that they are one with Him
and animated and impressed with His very Spirit.
But since the communication of the Holy Ghost can and ought
to be increased incessantly, when the Savior—now glorious since
I lis passion and absent from us in order to test our faith—sees us
longing for Him and desirous of imitating Him, He sends the Holy
Ghost to us anew and even more fully in order to transfigure and
glorify us. For this reason, when taking leave of His disciples, He
said to them: “But I tell you the truth: it is expedient to you that
1 go. For if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go,
1 will send Flim to you. . . . But when He, the Spirit of truth, is
come, He will teach you all truth. . . . He shall glorify Me.” 49
50
And so to whomsoever truly believes and lives in Him, Christ
promises the communication of His Spirit in such plenitude that
“out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” 51
2. CHRIST, THE GOOD SHEPHERD AND CORNERSTONE

As the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep, He
lets us hear His soft voice and loving call, which beckons us to the
shelter of contemplation. There He feeds us with the living words
which proceed from the mouth of the Father, and He manifests
I limself to us and gives us eternal life, for He came that we might
have life and have it more abundantly.52 He is at once the shepherd
and the gate through which we enter into the sheepfold, that is, the
49 Rom. 6:5; 11:24; John ij:j.
"John 16:7-14.
91 John 7:38. Lallemant, Spiritual Doctrine, Prin. IV, chap, 2, a.4: “It was neces«ary that the Incarnate Word should enter into glory, before He sent the Holy
Spirit as Comforter. The interior comfort which the Holy Spirit bestows is much
more profitable than the bodily presence of the Son would have been. Therefore
I Ic said to His disciples, It is expedient to you that 1 go. . . . The unction which He
pours into souls animates them, fortifies them, aids them to win the victory; it
sweetens their troubles, and makes them find their delight in crosses.”
“One small portion of divine consolation,” says Richard of St. Victor, “can do
more than all the pleasures of the world. These latter never satisfy the heart, but
one small drop of the interior sweetness which the Holy Ghost infuses into the soul
will cast it into ecstasy and cause in it a holy inebriation.”
92 John 10:10-28.

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house of God. I le is the pasture on which we graze; the bread of life
which descended from heaven; the way, the light, and the life.
I le is likewise the basis for our strength and the cornerstone of
the living temple of God. By His own blood and the charity of His
Spirit He joins and unites all the stones of this temple, ourselves, if
in Him we grow in sanctification. In the words of the Apostle: You
are “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus
Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. In whom all the build­
ing, being framed together, groweth up into a holy temple in the
Lord. In whom you also are built together into a habitation of God
in the Spirit.” 53

3.

CHRIST AS SPOUSE OF OUR SOULS

He is espoused with our souls and, by the full communication of
the Holy Ghost, He ratifies this mystic espousal and changes it into
a marvelous spiritual marriage so that our souls desire nothing ex­
cept what He desires. He unites them so entirely to Himself and so
transfigures them to His divine image that they become one thing
with Him.
Thus He is not only espoused to our souls, but we are incorpor­
ated with Him as intimately as are the leafy branches with the vine.
He makes us I lis living members, in which He Himself lives and acts.
He is, in truth, the head of the whole mystical body of the Church,
“head over all the Church, which is His body, and the fullness of
Him who is filled all in all.” 54
Although we are many Christians, we are one body in Jesus Christ
and members, one of another.55 Living in this way, we are perfected
in unity, He in us and we in Him, and we are loved by the Father
with that selfsame love with which the Father loves His Son. We
are able to give to the world testimony of the truth;56 for we have
been changed into Christ Himself, He being the Head and we His
members. “Behold, we have become Christ,” exclaims St. Augustine,
63 Eph. 2:20-22. See St. Catherine of Siena, Letters, no. 34; St. Mary Magdalen of
Pazzi, Œuvres, III, chap. 2, sec. 3.
64 Eph. 1:22 t.
55 Rom. 12:5; I Cor. 10:17; 11:12-17.
ee John 17:23.

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“for He is the Head and we the members and the whole comprises
the living body, both He and ourselves.” 5T
4· CHRIST, THE HEAD OF THE MYSTICAL BODY

From Him as the trunk, the shoot from the root of Jesse, in whom
we are engrafted, comes to us all the sap that nourishes and vivifies
us, flowing from the vine to the branches. From Him as Head come
all the holy impulses and inspirations, thoughts, movements, and in­
stincts, which foster the development of the Christian life. From
Him proceed all the mysterious influxes which His Spirit communi­
cates to us. From Him flows all the power of the sacraments, which
are the transmitting organs of that divine blood which washes us,
purifies us, vivifies us, heals us, fortifies us, resuscitates us, renews
and comforts us, feeds us and makes us advance in deification
through a growth that is of God.58 We are flesh of His flesh and
bone of His bone and, finally, one with Him.
The Church is His true and holy spouse, since it is His mystical
body and Fie is her Bridegroom and the Bridegroom of all just souls,
for He is the Head which governs and gives life. “The Bridegroom
is the head,” says St. Augustine, “and the bride is the body,” and to­
gether they constitute but one organism. So this union with Him is
so intimate that we become one Spirit and one body and this to such
an extent that where He is, there also are His members and serv­
ants 59 and whatever we do it is He who does it through us.
Although the simple union which is His as the Bridegroom might
seem but slightly intimate to the worldly-minded, who do not feel
or suspect or even attempt to believe the ineffable communications
of His most tender love, the union portrayed by the symbol of an
organism forces us to recognize a union superior to any other that
could be imagined. For if this union of espousal incomparably ex­
ceeds, as we shall see, that of human espousals, then that union which
is Christ’s as Head of the mystical body is also, in a certain way, more
intimate than the natural union of our head with our body. He is
the true “head over all the Church, which is His body, and the
tT In Joan., no. 9.
” Col. 1:19.
” John 11:16.

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fullness of Him who is filled all in all.” 60 He is the fountain of grace
and life,01 and from His fullness we have all received the measure of
life and energies which is suitable to us.62
Although Christ possesses that capital and fontal grace, He does
not actuate and manifest it in Himself and for Himself alone as
Head, but He diffuses it throughout His whole body. He manifests
it in divers ways, according to the exigencies of time and place and
the needs of the various members who are continually appearing,
under the perpetual influence of the Spirit of renewal,63 and in
whom He is formed anew.64
Therefore all those new organs through which Christ acts and
suffers what He could not suffer in His own Person are properly
His body and His fullness, for it is He who acts and suffers in them
so far as they are Christians. He gives them their being, their ac­
tivity, and their suffering. Hence the Apostle completed in his flesh
whatever was wanting to the sufferings of Christ, and he did this for
the good of the Church. We should all do likewise so that the greater
prosperity and progressive increase of the mystical body may not be
impeded. “Although the sufferings of Christ as the Head were com­
plete,” says St. Augustine, “the sufferings of His body were want­
ing.” 65 We are that body of Christ and we are His members. “The
plenitude of Jesus Christ consists in the Head and all the mem­
bers.” 06
“The Church,” says Bossuet, “is Jesus Christ extended and com­
municated, Jesus Christ entirely, Jesus Christ perfect man, Jesus
Christ in His plenitude.” 67 Therefore His faithful are part of Him-

•
!
i

60 Eph. 1:22 f.
61 Ps. 35:10.
62 John 1:16.
68 Wisd. 7:27.
84 Terrien, op. cit., I, 300: “When we are born into the divine life and grow in
it, it is Jesus Christ who is reborn and grows in our souls. ‘My little children,’ says
the Apostle (Gal. 4:19), ‘of whom I am in labor again, until Christ be formed in
y°u·’ ”
“Each one of us is formed in Christ,” says St. Cyril of Alexandria (bi Is., IV),
“through our participation in the Holy Ghost. . . . He it is who forms Christ in
us when, through sanctification and justification, He impresses the divine image on
us. So it is that the character of the substance of God the Father shines forth in
our souls through the Spirit, whose sanctifying power refashions us according to
the divine Model.”
85 F.narr. in Pr. 86, no. 5.
88 St. Augustine, Tract. 21 in Joan., nos. 8 f.
87 Lettre a tine dem. de Metz.

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self, part of His body, and deserving of the name of Christ. "I low
grand is the excellency of the Christian!” says St. Anselm. “He c.m
make such progress in Christ that he bears His very name.” 08
But the good Christian is not only another Christ; he is Jesus Christ
I limself. For there is only one Christ, and to bear His name worthily
is to be a living member of His body which, with the Head, forms
the one Christ. “For the Head in union with the body,” says St.
Augustine, “forms one Christ.” 68
The body of the Church and all its members receive from Jesus
Christ the divine life which they possess, the life of grace, the
communication of the Holy Ghost with the charity of God, and all
the supernatural forces and energies by which they work and suffer.
Since they are what they are through Him and they do and merit
through Him whatever they merit and do, it follows that the divine
head is more essential to them, more influential, more intimate, than
that which is proper to the human body, for the human head is not
the principle of the natural organism as Christ is of the mystical
body. All that we are or can be as Christians, as sons of God and
members of the Church, we are through our Savior. Through Him
we are perfected in unity and, though many and diverse, we form
but one living body,70 just as He is one with the Father.71
So much does Christ desire to strengthen this union that He is
ceaselessly working to this end, dwelling in our hearts through a
living faith and giving us more and more fully the communication
of His Spirit.72 If we follow His sweet inspirations and do not re­
sist His grace, we shall be united with Him to the point of being
flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone and we shall possess the same
Spirit as He Himself possesses.73 Even more, through the continual
68 Meditations, I, no. 6.
89 Semio 14 de verbis Domini.
10 Rom. 12:5.
71 John 17:21-23.
72 Eph. 3:17.
73 “From this marvelous benefaction by which all the justified are made living
members of Christ,” says Ven. Louis of Granada (Sinner's Guide, Bk. I, chap. 5),
“it follows that the Son of God loves them as such. . . . He has a tender solicitude
for them . . . and constantly infuses into them the power which flows from the
Head to the members. Finally, the Eternal Father looks upon them with loving eyes
because He sees them as living members of His oniv-begotten Son, united and in ­
corporated in Him through the communication of His Spirit. Therefore, their
works are pleasing to Him and meritorious, because they are the works of the living
members of His Son, who works all good in them. Possessing such great dignity »»

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activity of this vivifying Spirit, who imprints the divine image on
us and makes ns more and more clearly like to Christ, we shall ulti­
mately be transformed in Him and become one with Him.74
Thus Jesus Christ is continually formed in us and we are renewed
in Him. Through Him we are despoiled of self and reclothed in Him
until we become but a simple expansion or continuation of Him­
self.73 Thus do we become one thing with Him and form that
marvelous union so sublimely enunciated by His sacred lips in the
sermon in the supper room (John 17).
From this union flows a prodigious communication of life, works,
treasures, and merits, for all that is His He has communicated to us,
and whatever we have is His. He came into the world and lived and
died for us; and we live, work, and die for and in Him.76 As His
members, we participate with Him in the same vivifying Spirit who
is the distributor of graces.
From this most loving union follows the enormity of the crime of
heresy or schism which despoils the body of our Savior and dis­
locates His members. St. Augustine says that whoever thus separates
the faithful of the Church, tears, not the seamless garment, but the
very flesh of our Lord. Hence, this sin is greater than that of homi­
cide, for it spills the blood of souls and tears off members from the
body of Jesus Christ.
The Divine Spouse

There is nothing that can so fill us with admiration and astonish­
ment and at the same time inflame us with the throbbing desire of
corresponding with divine love as these awesome mysteries of union
they do, it follows that when these souls ask favors of God, they do so with very
great confidence, for they realize that they ask not for themselves alone but also
for the Son of God Himself, who is honored in them and with them. . . . The good
that is done to the members is done also to the Head.”
74 See II Cor. 3:18.
75 Gal. 2:20; 3:27; 4:19; Rom. 6:3-11. Gay, De la vie et des vertus chrétiennes, I,
60, 64: “In each soul is reproduced in miniature the mystery of Christ, the absolute
type of which Christian souls are so many faithful copies.” So it is that the entire
Trinity “forms Christ in us and fashions us into Christ, or rather, makes of us true
Christs, for it desires that each Christian soul as such should become a member and
a miniature image of the absolute and sovereign Christ, who is the unique object of
its pleasure, the sole basis of all its works, and the one medium of all the operations
of God.”
7e Rom. 14:7 f.

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with God. It seems that He finds such delight in dwelling with the
children of men (Prov. 8:31) that He wishes to contract with us all
the relations possible and even the most cordial and intimate that
can be imagined. Not content with being a most merciful Father, a
most faithful Friend, and a most tender and loving Brother, FIc de­
sires also to be the sweet Spouse of souls. He espouses them to Him­
self forever in faith and justice so that they may know Him and
love Him with a most pure love and thus cooperate in His work of
mercy and goodness.77 Once they are purified of all earthly affec­
tion and of all stain, He pours out on them the riches of His most
exquisite love and He floods them with the torrents of divine de­
lights.78
The various relations which exist among men are inadequate to
express the relationship which God desires to contract with us.
Therefore, He is not content with calling the soul daughter, sister,
spouse, guest, tabernacle, living temple, etc. He wishes to form one
body with us so that we may truly be “members of His body, made
from His flesh and from His bones” (Eph. 5:30). He desires to be
TT Osee 2:19F. “Our Lord,” says St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi (.Œuvres, II, chap.
13), “is at the right hand of the Father as God and as man. He is in our souls as
Spouse, King, Father, and Brother according to the purity, love, and particular dis­
positions which Fie finds in each soul.”
“The soul,” observes Massoulié (Traité de l'amour de Dieu, II, chap. 14), “some­
times regards God as a Father who is preparing the eternal heritage for it, and it
directs itself to Him with confidence, asking Him to bestow Flis kingdom on it.
When it finds itself separated from Him, it complains lovingly and asks Him not
■to abandon it, but to comfort and protect it. At other times, the soul considers the
■eternal Word a faithful friend and seeks to learn from Him the laws of true friend­
ship. Again, it regards Flim as a spouse and consecrates its most tender affections to
Him and swears eternal fidelity to Him. Yearning to possess Flim completely, with
Magdalen it casts itself at Flis feet and kisses them, embraces them, and washes
them with its tears, and asks pardon of all its infidelities. Then, with perfect con­
fidence in Him and mindful of the mercies received, it kisses the generous hand
which has lavished such blessings upon it. And as its love and affections increase
from day to dav it even glares to ask Him that Fie refuse not a still greater testimony
of His love and that He be so intimately united with it that it will never more be
separated from Him. In the attempt to be assimilated to Flim completely, it re­
nounces all vanities, and it has a dread of pleasure, and it strives more and more to
imitate His humility, His meekness, and His patience, knowing that this perfect
conformity will make of it a true spouse. When it has no will other than that of
the divine Bridegroom, it is actually one spirit with Him.”
T8 Ezech. 16:8-10: “And I swore to thee, and I entered into a covenant with thee,
saith the Lord God: and thou becamest Mine. And I washed thee with water, and
cleansed away thy blood from thee; and 1 annointed thee with oil . . . and I
clothed thee with fine garments.”

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our head, our life, our light, and our very food, fully entering into
us to be our delight, to be our all, and all ours.
I. ESPOUSAL OF THE WORD WITH JUST SOULS

But if God wished to be called the spouse of souls, this sweet title
is especially befitting the Son, who hypostatically united Himself to
human nature in order to unite us to the divinity.79 Hence, our union
with the Word is very often compared to that of matrimony, and
in the mystical states the spiritual espousal represents the supreme
grade of union with Jesus Christ and the most complete transforma­
tion in God which is possible in this life.
The greatest of the prophets was the first to give the Savior the
name of spouse. “St. John the Baptist,” says Bossuet, “discloses to
us a new characteristic of Jesus Christ which is the most tender and
the most sweet: that of the Spouse. . . . Christ is espoused with
holy souls, bestowing on them gifts and chaste delights. He is en­
joyed by them and He enters into them, giving them not only all
that He has but all that He is.” 80 In another place, where Christ is
given that title, He is compared to the son of a king who has come
to the world to be espoused with souls.81 Finally, the beloved disciple
sings of the eternal nuptials of the Lamb which are begun in grace
and consummated in glory.82
Scripture is so filled with this subject that one book is dedicated
to singing the mutual love of Jesus and the holy soul. “Consider,”
says Bellamy, “those inspired pages of the Canticle of Canticles.
When you perceive the ardent effusions of a love that is not of this
world, then you will understand something of the mysterious union
by means of which the just soul lives the life of Jesus Christ. . . .
At its basis it is an allegorical poem of sanctifying grace.” 88
This mystical union of Jesus Christ with souls, which is sym­
bolized by human matrimony, is incomparably more intimate and
“He who becomes the true spouse of souls,” says Ribet (Mystique, I, 311), “is
the Word, clothed in our humanity. This union of the incarnate Word with souls
is the expansion and completion of His union with human nature. For He united
Himself to the flesh only to be united with souls, to make them share in His life,
and through them and with them to draw all creation to His Father.”
80 Elév. sur les myst., sent., 24, no. 1.
81 Matt. 9:15; 22:2.
82 Apoc. 19:7.
83 Op. cit., p. 219.

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loving than that to which it is compared because it works, not with
a human love, but a divine love. Human matrimony makes two to
be one flesh; this divine love makes many to be one spirit.84*Thus Si.
Paul says to the Ephesians: “This is a great sacrament: but 1 speak
in Christ and in the Church” (5:32). Again, in the Second Epistle to
the Corinthians, he says: “For I espoused you to one husband that 1
may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (11:2).
Thus St. Augustine says that all just souls and all the particular
Churches, which are the delight of the King of glory, constitute
but one kingdom, for He loves them all with an undivided love as
He loves Elis own body.86 As the mystics experienced with astonish­
ment, He loves each particular soul as if there existed no other in the
world, and He is ready to shed His blood for it.86 Although there are
many sisters and spouses who wound His heart (Cant. 4:9), one
alone is His immaculate dove (ibid., 6:8).
“The spouse,” says St. Bernard, “is the enamored soul.” 87 In an­
other place he says: “All of us have been called to these spiritual
nuptials in which Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom and we ourselves
the bride. All together we are that bride, and each soul in particular
is also a bride. The bride is very inferior to the Bridegroom; never­
theless, through love of her, the Son of the eternal King descended
from His glory and gave up His life. . . . Whence comes to you
such honor that you should become espoused with Him whom the
angels love to contemplate and whose beauty is reflected in the sun
and the moon? What will you render to the Lord for that inesti­
mable benefit of being associated at His table, His kingdom, and His
84 In the words “one spirit” we have, as Bellamy points out, “the precise formula
of our relationship with Jesus Christ, under a daring symbol. This union is so inti­
mate that it in some way approaches the hypostatic” (op. cit., p. 221).
88 Enarr. in Ps. 44, n. 23.
88 Blessed Henry Suso, Eternal Wisdom, chap. 7: “I am Infinite Love which is
not limited by its unity nor dissipated by its multiplicity. I love each soul in partic­
ular as if it were the only one. 1 love thee and concern Myself with thee as if 1
loved no others and you were the only one in the world.”
St. John of the Cross, The Living Flame, stanza 2, no. 32: “For the soul now feels
God to be so solicitous in granting it favours and to be magnifying it with such
precious and delicate and endearing words, and granting it favour upon favour, that
It believes that there is no other soul in the world whom He thus favours, nor aught
else wherewith He occupies Himself, but that He is wholly for itself alone. And,
when it feels this, it confesses its feeling in the words of the Songs: My Beloved is
mine and I am His (Canticles ii, 16).”
87 Sert.no 7 in Cant., n. 3.

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couch? With what arms of reciprocal charity ought you to love and
bind yourself to one who so loved you that He refashioned you in
1 lis side when I le slept the sleep of death on the cross?” 88
’ I he love of human spouses is as nothing when compared with this
love that is built, not on the flesh, which profits nothing, but on the
spirit which vivifies all things.89 So intimate is its union that it estab­
lishes a most perfect communication of life and merits.
“In I lis immense desire to unite Himself more closely with us,”
writes Terrien, “the divine Word clothed Himself in our nature for
the purpose of celebrating these mysterious nuptials. And that the
spouse might not be too unworthy of Him, He formed her from His
side—from His heart, which was opened on the cross. Thence she
came forth, vivified after her birth in the blood of the Bridegroom.
From that source she received all that makes her what she is: glorious,
holy, immaculate, flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone. Whence
she is the spouse; the body of Christ; a spouse because she is His very
body.” 80
2. CHARACTERISTICS, INTIMACY, AND FRUITS OF THIS UNION

St. Bernard says that Christ took the name of spouse because there
was no other title more fitting to indicate the sweetness of His love
and the mutual affection of that union in which all things are com­
mon.91 But we do not think of anything earthly when we discuss
this love which is entirely spiritual and divine. It is as pure as the
very charity of God Himself, and its fruits are fruits of honor and
riches, for they are the fruits of the Holy Ghost, who is the bond of
this union.
It was this love that animated the admirable virgin, Inez, who at
the age of thirteen disdained the seductions of this world and ex­
claimed joyfully in the face of her persecutors: “I have another
Lover who gave me His ring as a pledge of His faith and adorned
me with the most costly jewels. I am espoused to Him whom the
88 Sermo 2, Oom. 1 post oct. Epiph., n. 2.
89 John 6:64.
80 La grâce et la gloire, I, 338.
91 St. Bernard, In Cant. Serm. 7, no. 2: “There have never been found such tender
names by which the sweet affections between the Word and the soul can be ex­
pressed as those of bridegroom and bride, wherein everything is common and
nothing is proper or divided. The one heritage for both, the one dwelling place, the
one table, the one couch, and even the one flesh.”
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angels serve. Loving Him, I am chaste; touching Him, I am pun
possessing Him, I am a virgin. . . . To expect me to submit would
lie to injure my Spouse. He first loved me, and I am His. Why do
you wait, O sword? Let this body perish which can be desired by
carnal eyes!”
In this union of Jesus Christ with souls, as Bellamy says (op. oil.,
pp. 230-33), are found the principal characteristics of matrimony.
' I he Savior gives us the three essential gifts which every bridegroom
bestows upon his bride: his name, his goods, and his own person.
From Christ we receive the name of Christian and, on making us
Christians, as St. Augustine states, He also makes us Himself, for in
I lim we are at once men of Christ and Christ Himself, since the
complete Jesus Christ is made up of Head and members.92 There­
fore, as Le Camus points out, “Christians form the illustrious family,
the living image, and the indefinite expansion of Christ across the
ages. Christianus alter Christus.” 83
Together with His name, Christ gives us His rich gifts: all the
fruits of His redemption. These gifts are so precious that, as St. Peter
teaches, through them we are made participators in the divine nature.
We receive them all in common as an undivided inheritance that
each soul can dispose of as mistress; yet not in the same degree for
each soul, but in the measure of the giving on the part of Christ. If
we do not derive from them the corresponding fruit, the fault is
ours. Whenever we respond to His generosity with ingratitude and
indifference; whenever we do not strive to cultivate the gifts re­
ceived and do not contribute to the common good as we have the
power to do, then we loosen the loving bonds by which Jesus unites
us to Himself.
But “He is not content with giving us His goods; He gives us
Himself also. In grace He gives us His divinity; in the Eucharist,
which is the crowning of grace, He gives us His holy humanity also;
that is, His entire sacred Person with the natures in which it resides.
Here is the perfection of love, and St. John Chrysostom (In Hcbr.,
92 St. Augustine, In Joan. XXI: “Admire and rejoioe; behold we have become
Christ. He is the Head, and we the members; together a complete man, He mid
ourselves.” Enarr. Il in Ps. 26: “We appear as the body of Christ, for we are .dl
united in Him. We are of Christ and we are Christ because in a certain sense die
complete Christ is both Head and body.”
w Œuvre des apôtres, chap. 12.

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Homily 6) is correct in calling it a type of consubstantiality which,
although it undoubtedly maintains the distinction of persons and
natures, makes this union as close as is possible. Could we ever dream
here below of anything more intimate than this mysterious alliance
in which, according to the beautiful expression of St. Paul (Gal.
2:20), it is not now the Christian who lives, but Jesus Christ in
him?” 84
Thus the three goods of Christian matrimony (fides, proles et
sacramentum) are found exalted to an almost incredible degree in
the marriage between Christ and just souls. Faith, the first of these
goods, cannot weaken on the part of Him who, far from breaking or
loosening the bond, is ever ready to retie it or tighten it more. He
welcomes back the faithless spouse who recognizes her errors; He
confers caresses on her; and she begins to serve Him again with
greater fervor. On the part of the bride, if she strives to correspond
with this divine love, not even death can break this sweet chain
which binds, but it will be strong enough to endure for all eternity.
Almost the same effects follow from the mystical death as from the
corporal death. Souls that have died completely to the world and
to themselves and that have merited to contract the indissoluble mar­
riage, receive, as we shall see, the firm assurance of remaining united
forever with their divine Spouse.
Procreation or fructification does not kill, spoil, or weaken that
mutual affection or cause it to be lost. Rather it augments and
strengthens it in such a way that it increases the vigor of the bride
and gives her new enchantments so that she ever retains her youth
and gains even greater fertility. The more fruitful the soul in good
works and the more it fructifies for God, the more vigorous and
beautiful and radiant in glory does it become and the more pleasing
it is to the divine Spouse. The more that love flourishes in fruits of
84 Bellamy, loc. cit. St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, Œuvres, IV, chap. 5: “O beloved
Spouse, it is necessary that I feed on Thy body and Thy blood for that is the bond
of union which unites us. Oh, union, union! Who could ever understand it? The
mere idea of a union in which the perfect is united to the imperfect to make it like
to itself would fill the heavenly choirs with wonder. . . . O sweet union by which
the soul becomes another Thee through a participation in Thy divinity! This union
makes two things one and yet preserves each in its proper nature. . . . When the
soul finally discovers these marvelous operations, it cannot cease lamenting that it
has known and admired them so little.”

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glory, so much the more vital and vehement will be the rccipioi.il
affection and so much the more will this mutual union be strength
ened and consolidated until the soul hears these tender word·.
“Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee. Come
from Libanus, my spouse . . . thou shalt be crowned. . . . Thou
hast wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse” (Cant. 4:7-9). The
soul is called “sister” inasmuch as she is now the worthy daughter of
the eternal Father; being deified, she can aspire to the kiss of the
Word of God.
When, having placed Him as a seal in her heart and on her arm,
her love is made as strong as death, so that the many waters of
tribulation, far from quenching it, enliven it (Cant. 8:6 f.) ; then, in­
flamed with zeal for the glory of her Spouse, she will not refuse
labors and sacrifices by which she may gain souls in whom He can
find divine pleasure. Indeed she will gladly endure tribulation in
order to give Him new sons and new brides who will conscientiously
serve Him, bless Him, adore Him, praise Flim, and love Him.
Instead of wishing to be unique in His love, she will greatly
lament that not all hearts of creatures are capable of loving the su­
preme goodness of the Spouse as He deserves. The new brides do not
cause any envy nor do they deprive her in the least of the affection
of the Beloved. Rather the reciprocal love increases on both sides.
She is so much the more loved, honored, and glorified as the more
numerous and better are the associates whom she attracts to bring
in her wake to the presence of the heavenly King (Ps. 44:15 f.). Her
love burns the more brightly as other hearts are more and more in­
flamed, in which there shines forth nothing but the adored image
of the common Spouse. Thus does charity increase in intensity with
the extension of the beloved object.85
This union, then, merits the name of matrimony by which it is
so often represented, except that it exceeds matrimony as the reality
exceeds the symbol. According to the teaching of St. Thomas:
95 St. Teresa, Exclamations, II: “O powerful love of God, how different are Thy
fruits from those produced by love of the world! For love of the world desires
no companions, thinking that they may take from it what it possesses. But love for
my God increases more and more as it learns that more and more souls love H im.
. . . And thus the soul seeks means of finding companionship and is glad to abandon
its own enjoyment, thinking that this may help others in some degree to strive to
attain it.”

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Just as the thing signified exceeds the sign, so does the love and union
of God in souls excel the love of bridegroom for bride. ... In this
union faith is more inviolate, the indissolubility greater, the fruit more
profitable. . . . Great is the fidelity of God to the soul, as is said in Osee:
“And I will espouse thee to me in faith”; and in the Canticles: “My
beloved to me, and I to him.” He is more faithful than any spouse for He
is even with the soul that lacks faith. . . . And so, just as the species is
not diminished because many individuals share in it, so, O my soul, God
loves you in such a marvelous manner as if all His love were reserved for
you. ... In human marriage, a separation eventually comes, at least,
at death; but in that marriage which God celebrates with you in Baptism,
ratified by a holy life and consummated in glory, there is no separation.
You ought, then, to say with the Apostle: “Who will separate us from
the charity of Christ?” And to rapt and unitive souls, he addresses the
folloxving: “I am certain that there is nothing that can separate us from
that charity.” The offspring also, which is good works, is more profit­
able and varied. This offspring proceeds from God and the soul to­
gether—from grace and free will and not from either of them alone. . . .
This is the offspring which, far from causing injury to the mother, ob­
tains for her eternal life.0®
This mysterious union of espousal with the divine Word is as
real as it is ineffable. In the mystical life it is experienced with in­
describable delights which are not to be measured, but only to be
admired in silence, for they escape human language. The soul dis­
covers the infinite enchantments of her heavenly Spouse and recog­
nizes the treasures of life and glory with which He enriches her. She
is aware of the intimacy of this union and communication and she
enjoys the sweetness of love with which she is favored.
“The soul and Jesus,” says Gay, “are two in one spirit and they
form a perfect union. The whole undiminished life of the Spouse is
transferred to that of the bride, with all its states, all its mysteries,
all its titles, all its excellencies, virtues, and actions, with all its suf­
ferings and merits. From all this is made a type of matrimonial goods,
of property common to both the spouses, although the bride does not
dispose of them without the permission of the Spouse. This is pre06 Opusc. 61, chap. 13. We ought to note that, although this work is listed among
those of the Angelic Doctor, it seems not to be authentic. Yet it carries authority,
since it is based on his doctrine.

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cisely the hidden meaning of the divine words: Ί will . . . sup
with him, and he with Me’ ” (Apoc. 3:2o).9T
3. SINGULAR DIGNITY OF CONSECRATED VIRGINS

Though all just souls are truly spouses of Christ, yet the Catholic
Church reserves this sweet name especially for the holy virgins, who
are its most perfect symbol, and even more especially for those con­
secrated to God by the vows of religion, which are like three loving
bonds which unite them still more closely with the Redeemer. Cruci­
fied with Him, they contract a most singular union, which can be
rightly appreciated only by the inflamed and illumined hearts that
feel keenly the excellence of these mysteries.
Therefore these consecrated souls delight in frequently renewing
their sacred promises with all possible solemnity in order thus to
tighten and consolidate the chains of love. They know how much
this rededication pleases their divine Spouse, and they realize the
benefits that accrue to them when they offer themselves anew to
God as a holocaust.88
Since souls thus consecrated are the blessing of the world and the
delight and pleasure of that heavenly Lover who grazes among the
lilies, it is not strange that they should be despised by the wicked and
highly esteemed by the good. Following in the blood-stained foot­
prints of the Crucified, they cannot help but share in His affections
and hates. He who despises such souls is already judged, and who­
ever loves them loves Jesus Christ in them. Therefore holy Church
97 Op. cit., p. 58.
08 Uriarte, Vida del P. Hoyos, p. 99: “The soul receives inexplicable benefits from
this renewal of vows. All the virtues are augmented; grace is increased in proportion
to the disposition of the individual; charity attains to new perfections; and the union
is strengthened beyond that which the soul formerly possessed. It is, moreover, a
great glory to the Most Holy Trinity and extremely pleasing to the three divine
Persons, since by the three vows the soul enjoys a union with God which bears a
resemblance to that existing between the three divine Persons. It is united to each
Person by each of the vows and in a manner that cannot be explained. The most
sacred humanity of Christ is pleased and overjoyed to see the soul follow in His
footsteps. The holy Virgin receives accidental glory and rejoices as if her own vow
of virginity were renewed.”
Tauler, Institutions, chap. 13: “Whoever considers obedience as tedious or diffi­
cult shows that he has not arrived at an understanding of what obedience is. As
divine delight far exceeds all natural delight, so is obedience far more pleasant than
all self-will, for God gives Himself as the reward for all things that are done or
omitted for His. sake.”
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has always regarded the virgins of the Lord as the children of His
predilection, and she celebrates their religious consecration, which
is a figure of the eternal nuptials of the Lamb, with a solemnity rival­
ing the consecration of her priests as the dispensing ministers of the
divine mysteries.89
*98*Hence it is that from the time of St. Dionysius 100
to that of St. Peter Damian,101 religious profession, which is today
so much despised by those who are Christian in name only, was con­
sidered a sort of sacrament or a quasi-sacrament.
The faithful fulfillment of the obligations which that profession
implies, in addition to the continual practice of the ordinary virtues
of the Christian life, leads to a perfect union of conformity with the
divine will. Then the most loving Spouse of souls, seeing that they
are now fully animated with His Spirit and, as true daughters of God,
are docile to His loving impulses, begins to manifest to them more
clearly the mysteries of that intimate union which they have con­
tracted with Him. Further, that they may better understand these
mysteries, He deigns to celebrate, before the heavenly court, the
symbolic ceremonies of the mystical espousal in a visible manner and
with a solemnity which is not proper to earth.
To reach that happy state, they must attain a high degree of purity
and be completely divested of the old man in order to reclothe them­
selves splendidly with the likeness of the heavenly and divine Man.
They must die to self in order to live only for God. As long as they
have not accomplished this, the Lord will visit them as a physician to
heal their wounds and to cure their diseases and feebleness or, at
most, as a loving father, to console and encourage them, but He will
not yet bestow on them those ineffable communications which are
reserved for the faithful spouse.102 No soul can hope to enjoy the
89 In the ceremony of the consecration of virgins, as found in the Pontificale
Romanum, the Bishop addresses them as follows: “I espouse you with Jesus Christ,
the Son of the eternal Father. . . . Receive this ring as the symbol of the Holy
Ghost so that, remaining faithful to your heavenly Spouse, you may receive the
eternal crown.” And the virgins sing: “I am espoused to Him whom the angels
serve. . . . My Lord Jesus Christ has given me His ring as a pledge of His love
and with His crown has adorned me as His spouse.”
io» De Eccl. hier., chap. 6.
i®1 Sermo 69.
102 St. Bernard, Sermo 32 in Cant.: “The Word visits certain souls as a physician
bringing salves and salutary ointments, and such souls are as yet imperfect. Other
souls He visits as a loving spouse, kissing and embracing them and binding them to
Himself by the splendor and tenderness of His ineffable unifying love; and such

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consolations of the espousal without first being made like to Him
who is the true Spouse of blood (Exod. 4:25). But that soul which
i·, resolved to refuse Him nothing, cost what it may, will persevere
him and confident that its hopes will not be frustrated.

APPENDIX
Excellency

of

This Union

Fray Luis de Leon, Nombres de Cristo, II, 4: “It is well worth­
while to consider the exceedingly great tenderness with which Christ
has treated men. He is our father, our head, and He rules us as a
shepherd and cures us as a physician. He is united to us and joins us
to Himself by many other titles of intimate friendship. Yet, not con­
tent with all those, He adds still another bond or tie and desires to
he called and to be our spouse. As a bond, He is the closest possible
bond; as a delight, the most pleasant and sweet; as a unity of life,
that of the greatest intimacy; as a conformity of wills, the greatest
union; as love, the most ardent and burning of all loves. Not only
in words, but in very deed is He our spouse. The intimacy of love
and fellowship and the unity of body which characterize the union
of a man and a woman, are but frigidity and pure indifference when
compared to the union in which this spouse is united to our soul. In
a human union there is no communication of spirit, but in that union
with Christ the very Spirit of Christ is given and communicated to
i he just soul. . . . In the human espousal, one body does not receive
life from the other; in the spiritual espousal our flesh lives through
its union with the flesh of Christ. . . . He instills in us His operative power and, if we let ourselves be directed by it and offer no re­
sistance, then He works in us and we work with and through Him.
We then produce whatever is befitting His being, which has been
placed within us, and whatever is due the exalted qualities and noble
mills are more perfect souls. These souls feel that in this embrace of the Spouse they
are totally permeated with the sweetness of His holy love. . . . That soul alone
enjoys the kisses and embraces of the Spouse which seeks the Spouse with many
vigils and prayers, with much labor and tears. Yet, once He is found and when
you think that you possess Him, He suddenly steals away; but if you return once
again to your prayers and tears. He willingly suffers Himself to be possessed again.
Yet he is never held for a long time, but He slips through your hands, as it were.
However, be constant in your groanings, and you can surely expect His return."

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birth that we have received from Him. Having become another
Christ, or rather, having been transformed into Him, all operation
flow's from Him and from us as from one principle, so that it is fit­
tingly called a work of Christ. . . . This same flesh and body which
He took from us, He unites to the body of the Church and to all
her members who worthily receive Him in the Sacrament of the
Altar, drawing His flesh to their own and making it as much as pos­
sible one with their own.”
Froget, The Indwelling of the Holy Ghost, pp. 155 f.: “In Holy
Scripture this union is compared to that of the husband and wife,
and mystical writers speak of it as a spiritual espousal or marriage.
This shows how intimate, sweet and fruitful it is.
“It is indeed a close, intimate, and profound union far greater than
that which exists between man and woman, for nature at its best
is but the shadow of grace. In marriage we have bodily union, here
we have the compénétration of the soul by God. And if it is true
to say of married persons that they are two in one flesh, the Apostle
declares that ‘he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit’ (I Cor. 6:17).
“How sweet and chaste this union is! When placed side by side
with it the marriage union seems cold and full of sorrows. The joys
of the marriage state are fleeting, the pleasures in themselves of the
lower grade; here everything is noble, lofty, and lasting; glory,
purity, love, and other ineffable delights, which baffle all description
and which fill the human heart to overflowing.
“Lastly, this is a fruitful union, whence are born holy thoughts,
generous affections, bold and daring enterprises, and that whole
series of works of perfection known as beatitudes and gifts of the
Holy Ghost.
“This blessed union, begun on earth, will be consummated only
in heaven. Although, as St. Paul remarks, the soul is already be­
trothed to Christ; it is already the spouse of the Holy Ghost. The
Third Person of the Trinity has already given to the soul its faith
and troth, as it were, the wedding ring of the union. He has clothed
it with the gold-embroidered robes of grace and charity; He has
adorned it with the precious stones of His gifts and of the infused
virtues; and He has given Himself to it, although in an obscure man­
ner, as the pledge of the eternal bliss of heaven. Yet this divine Spirit
must complete His work in paradise by granting to the soul that rich
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dowry known as vision, as comprehension, and as fruition; vision,
which is to take the place of faith; comprehension, which will cn
able the soul to grasp the Sovereign Good, the object of its const am
desires here below; and fruition, which will perfect and consummate
its happiness.
“The work of supernatural transformation which is going on
throughout the Christian’s life, will then come to an end, for our
assimilation with God will be henceforth perfect. Already deified
on earth in its essence by grace, it will in heaven be deified in its in­
telligence by the light of glory, and in its will by perfect charity;
the soul in heaven will be admitted to a face-to-face contemplation
of God, and will possess in the fullness of joy Him who is Sovereign,
subsistent Truth and sovereign Good.”
Relations with the Holy Ghost

From what has already been said, we can understand to some ex­
tent how numerous are the ineffable relations which the just soul
contracts with the divine Spirit, whose mysterious work cannot be
explained in words, because it does not fall within any human con­
cepts. It can be deduced or conjectured only partially and imper­
fectly from the unique titles that He Himself, through the mouth
of His prophets, continually attributes to Himself.
Fie is personal Love; the Charity of God; the Peace of the Lord
that ought always to be with us; the hypostatic Sanctity and Sancti­
fier; the uncreated Grace; the divine Unction; the Seal of Jesus
Christ; the Spirit of adoption and revelation; the Creator, Renewer,
Regenerator, Vivifier, Illuminator, Consoler, Director, and Transformer of souls. Fie is the great Gift par excellence.
I. THE HOLY GHOST AS THE SPIRIT OF LOVE

He is personal Love because God is charity as well as wisdom, and
personified charity is the Holy Ghost, as personified wisdom is the
Son of God, the eternal Word of the divine intelligence. But the
Son is not merely any kind of word, says St. Thomas.103 He is not
an empty, cold, and abstract word as the word of human reason
often is, but Fie is the Word that breathes forth love. For the Father
103 Cf. la, q.43, a.5, ad 2um.

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and the Son, knowing each other infinitely, cannot do less than love
each other with an infinite love. “Emitting,” says St. Francis de
Sales, “with the same will and the same impetus, . . . one breathing
or spirit of love, they produce and express a breath which is the Holy
Ghost.” 104
So this sovereign Spirit is the eternal expression of the mutual love
of the Father and the Son, the perfect fruition of Their love. He is
the close embrace which unites Them eternally, the ineffable kiss
of love which They eternally give to each other. “The Savior com­
municated the Spirit to His disciples,” says St. Bernard, “in the form
of a breathing, which was equivalent to His kiss, so that we might
understand that the Spirit comes from the Father and the Son as a
true mutual kiss.” 105
This, then, is the most sweet kiss of His mouth which the enam­
ored soul seeks with such ardor from the divine Spouse. The soul is
lovingly united with Him through that ineffable communication of
His Spirit in which are contained all the wonders of the charity of
God.106
From this notion springs the ancient custom of the Church of giv­
ing to the faithful the Pax Dei in the form of the kiss of peace, which
represents the mutual communication of the Holy Ghost. It is the
Holy Ghost who will perfect our unity as members of that Church
in the likeness of the divine Persons.107
The Holy Ghost, as Spirit of Love, is symbolized by the dove, the
emblem of faithful, pure, simple, and fruitful love. The Spouse calls
the holy soul “My dove” because Fie sees that it is radiant and filled
104 Sermon for Pentecost.
106 In Cant. Serm. 8, no. 2.
106 Juan de los Angeles, Trhtnfos, II, chap. 14: “Surely the soul is blessed, a thou­
sand times blessed, in that kiss of God by which He joins the soul to Himself with­
out any medium. It is transformed and deified, and, dying to itself and to all that
is not God, it lives only for God. . . . Many souls have been carried away by the
sweetness of the kiss of God and in this ecstasy have been deified."
107 Luis de Leon, op. cit., II, chap. 4: “So, as in the Divinity the Holy Ghost, who
is spirated by the persons of the Father and the Son jointly, is love and is, as we
say, the sweet and strong bond of both, so also the Holy Ghost, infused into the
Church and united to all her just members dwells in them, vivifies them, inflames
them, excites their love, delights them, and makes them one with Himself.”
Sr. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, Œuvres, IV, chap. 9: “Charity is like a chain of gold
which unites Ale to souls and unites them to others in Me with a union like that of
the three divine Persons. This is the grace which My Word so fervently begged
of Me for them in His last discourse on charity: ‘That they may be one as We are
one.’ ”

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with the love of the Spirit. This is that affection for God spoken of
by St. Irenaeus 108 which leads us to the Father by means of the
Word. Through the Holy Ghost we ascend to the Son, and through
the Son to the Father.108 The Spirit is that love as strong as death,
whose lamps are lamps of divine fire and flames.110 How vividly
those souls feel this who are inflamed by the Spirit! 111

2.

GIFT OF GOD AND FOUNT OF LIVING WATER

“That Love which is of God and which is God,” says St. Augus­
tine, “is the Holy Ghost Himself, through whom is poured forth
in our hearts the charity of God which makes us guests and temples
of the Trinity. Hence it is that the Holy Ghost is also rightly called
the Gift of God. And what is this Gift but the charity which leads
us to God and without which no other gift could lead us to
Him?”112 So this loving Spirit, who makes us exclaim “Father!”
is that Gift par excellence in which are contained all divine gifts. If
we could know the Gift of God, how could we help but appreciate
it above all earthly treasures?
If we but understood it well, it is certain that we would whole­
heartedly desire to satiate ourselves in that fount of living water
which takes away all earthly thirst and gives life eternal. Surely we
would ask God to give us this mysterious water and we would ob­
tain it. This vital and vivifying water, which the Lord speaks of, not
10e Haeres., IV, chap. 2.
109 Ibid., V, chap. 36.
110 Cant. 8:6.
111 St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, op. cit., I, chap. 33: “Through this Spirit, O Lord,
Thou dost transform souls into Thyself in such a way that they are no longer con­
tained in themselves, so to speak. Rather, since love has transformed them into
Thee and Thee into them, thev have become identical in Spirit with Thee. O the
grandeur of the Word! O privilege of the creature! O ineffable grace of the Holy
Ghost! If this grace were but known, it would excite the admiration of all, and all
would desire to be thus united with Thee.”
St. Catherine of Genoa, Dialogues, III, 11 : “O holy Love! Thou dost inflame us in
the fire of Thy love until we are consumed. Who could believe it? What liberality!
We are now nothing more than love in Thee; but we are unable to give an account
of this superhuman, sublime, and totally divine work. We were earthly, but we
became heavenly . . . (cf. I Cor. 15). We lost the nature which we received from
Adam and now we have no other life than that of Jesus Christ. . . . We are spiritual,
as is this divine Savior; and since the Spirit is of Himself indivisible, man finds him
self united to God in such a way that he need not know whence this union proceed·,
or where it leads while he yet remains in this earthly pilgrimage. It is sufficient f<n
him to be submerged in the ardors of charity which impel him (II Cor. j).”
112 De Trinitate, Bk. XV, chap. 32.
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only to the more advanced, but even to the Samaritan woman,118 is
the Spirit, who gives us unending life. Therefore, Christ adds, ad­
dressing His words to all the world: “If any man thirst, let him come
to Me and drink. He that believeth in Me, as the Scripture saith, Out
of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’ Now this He said of the
Spirit which they should receive, who believed in Him.” 113
114
This Spirit is called living water because He satiates, refreshes,
washes, purifies, renews, and gives life, vigor, and robustness. The
Apostle considers Him as living water when he says: “In one Spirit
we have all been made to drink.” 115116
He is called the Gift of God, the
Gift of the Most High, or simply, the Gift, as is evident from the
words of St. Peter: “You shall receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost.” 118 According to His personal character, as St. Thomas says,
it is fitting that He should be given and that He should be the Gift
par excellence. “Actually, He proceeds,” states St. Augustine, “not
as one born, but as one given, and for that reason He is not called son,
because His origin was not a birth but a giving.” 117118
And because He
is the first “giving,” which contains all others, the primitive Church
used to designate Him by that name alone. “In His goodness,” writes
St. Irenaeus, “God has given us a Gift; and this Gift, superior to all
gifts because He contains them all, is the Holy Ghost.” 118 Thus, to
the original Gift and to the Spirit of Love are attributed all other
gifts—graces, charismata, inspirations, divine impulses, lights, fervor,
conversion, pardon, regeneration, renewal, sanctification, and, in
brief, the adoption and indwelling, with all its works of love and its
goodness in general.119
113 John 4:10-14.
114 Ibid., 7:37-39.
116 See I Cor. 12:13.
116 Acts 2:38.
117 De Trinitate, Bk. V, chap. 14.
118 Haer., IV, 33.
118 See Terrien, La grâce et la gloire, I, p. 408. Froget, The Indwelling of the Holy
Spirit, pp. 125 f.: “The Holy Ghost comes to act, God being essentially active, or
as theologians phrase it, Pure Act. Far from being unfruitful, the presence of this
sanctifying Spirit of our soul bears abundant fruit. The purpose of His mission, the
great work that He comes to perform and that He will succeed in performing if
we are docile to His inspirations and do not refuse Him our cooperation without
which nothing can be done, is to wrest us from the empire of darkness and translate
us into the kingdom of light; to create a new being within us and transform our
entire soul by clothing it with justice and holiness; to infuse into us, together with
His grace, a life infinitely superior to the natural life; to render us partakers of the

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3.

SOURCE OF ALL SANCTITY

As personal Charity, He is the hypostatic sanctifying Holiness,
and for that reason is He called the Holy Ghost.*120 “He is denomi­
nated as holy,” teaches Leo XIII, “because, being supreme Love, He
directs souls to true sanctity, which consists precisely in the love of
God.” 121 Says St. Basil: Because He is holy by essence, He is the
source of all sanctity. Whether it pertains to angels, archangels, or
all the heavenly powers, all are sanctified by the Spirit who has
sanctity by nature and not by grace. Hence He alone bears the name
Holy.122
When He sanctifies us, He purifies us and gives light to the eyes
of our hearts so that they may gaze upon divine truth. Thus, as the
same doctor adds: “The road to the knowledge of God passes from
the Spirit alone, through the Son alone, to the Father alone. In an
inverse order, natural goodness and essential sanctity are derived
from the Father, through His only Son, and finally through the Holy
Ghost.” 123 Therefore St. Cyril of Alexandria calls Him “the sanc­
tifying power which, proceeding naturally from the Father, gives
perfection to the imperfect.” 124
Thus is He manifested to us, transforming us and impressing on
us the outline of the Word of the Father and the living image of the
divine essence.125 In this way He is the vivifier, renewer, and illumidivine nature, children of God and heirs of His kingdom; to strengthen our native
powers by endowing us with new energies; to bestow His gifts upon us; and to
render us capable of performing acts that will be meritorious of eternal life. In a
word. His mission consists in laboring efficaciously, incessantly, and lovingly in the
work of our sanctification.”
120 Petau (De Trinitate, Bk. VIII, chap. 6, no. 7) says that the most celebrated of
the Greek fathers considered the sanctifying or vivifying quality as something just
as personal to the Holy Ghost as is filiation to the Son and paternity to the Father.
121 Divinum illud munus.
122 Epist. 8, no. 10; Epist. 159, no. 1.
123 De Spiritu Sancto, no. 47.
124 Thes. Patrum Qraecorum, LXXV, 597.
125 St. Cyril of Alexandria, In Joan. 17: “Transforming souls into Himself in a
certain manner, the Spirit of God imprints on them a divine image and traces in
them the likeness of the supreme substance.”
Further, to configure us the better with Him who is our Head and Model, the
Holy Ghost wishes to form us, like Christ, in union with the most holy Virgin. So,
St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort (True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin) says:
“God the Holy Ghost being barren in God—that is to say, not producing another
divine Person—is become fruitful bv Mary, whom He has espoused. It is with her,
in her, and of her, that He has produced His Masterpiece, which is a God made

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nator. I k is tin- life of our souls, as St. Augustine 126 and St. Basil127
call I liin, for when I le animates souls with the grace of His com­
munication, I le refashions their very form, or rather He bestows on
them .1 superior and divine soul which is the grace of His sanctifica­
tion. I It is the life which was in the beginning in the Word and
which is the light of men 128 and the source of all supernatural ac­
tion. St. Athanasius says: “We are made partakers in the Word by
the I loly < ihost, through whom we participate in the divine nature
and through whom we are renewed.” 129
I lie I loly Ghost imparts the regenerative power to the waters of
bapt ism anil there He creates us anew in God. He gives us the divine
form of grace and causes us to be reborn to eternal life.180
1 hat we may enter into the kingdom of God, or that this kingdom
may enter into us, we must be reborn of water and the Holy
CIhost.181 The liturgy clearly states this fact on Holy Saturday when
it says: “O almighty and eternal God, . . . send forth the spirit of
adoption to regenerate the new people, whom the font of baptism
Man, and whom He goes on producing in the persons of His members daily to the
end of the world. The predestined are the members of that adorable Head. This is
the reason why He, the Holy Ghost, the more He finds Mary, His dear and in­
separable spouse, in any soul, becomes the more active and mighty in producing
Jesus Christ in that soul, and that soul in Jesus Christ.
“It is not that we may say that our Blessed Lady gives the Holy Ghost His fruit­
fulness, as if He had it not Himself. For inasmuch as He is God He has the same
fruitfulness or capacity of producing as the Father and the Son, only that He does
not bring it into action, as He does not produce another divine Person. But what we
want to say is, that the Holy Ghost chose to make use of our Blessed Lady, though
Fie had no absolute need of her, to bring His fruitfulness into action, by producing
in her and by her Jesus Christ in His members.”
126 Servi. 156, chap. 6, no. 6.
12T De Spiritu Sancto, chap. 16.
128 John i.
129 Epist. 1 ad Serap., nos. 22-24.
180 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Il In Joan.: “It is the Holy Ghost who calls us from
nothingness to being. . . . He restores the image of God when He impresses His
lines in our souls and transforms them, so to speak, with His own proper quality.”
The same saint says in another place (In Is., chap. 44): “Jesus Christ is formed in us
by virtue of a divine form which the Holy Ghost infuses in us through sanctifica­
tion.”
In this way do souls who are filled with the Holy Ghost, inflamed with zeal for
the glory of God, and who work for the conversion of sinners contribute to that
spiritual creation or formation of Jesus Christ. Therefore St. Mary Magdalen of
Pazzi said (Œuvres, I, chap. 6) that every zealous soul re-creates God in those who
have lost Him, because the return of these souls to God is like a new creation of
God within them.
181 John 3:5 f.

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THE DIVINE LIFE OF GRACE
brings forth; . . . Graciously behold the face of Thy Church, ami
multiply in it the number of the regenerate . . . that by command
of Thy majesty it may receive the grace of Thy only Son from the
I loly Ghost. . . . May He by a secret admixture of His divine
power render this water fruitful for the regeneration of men, to the
end that a heavenly offspring, conceived in sanctification, may
emerge from the immaculate womb of the divine font, reborn new
creatures: and that all, however distinguished either by sex in body
or by age in time, may be brought forth to the same infancy by
grace, their spiritual mother. . . . May the power of the Holy
Ghost descend into all the water of this font and make the whole
substance of this water fruitful for regeneration . . . that all who
receive this sacrament of regeneration, may be born again new chil­
dren of true innocence.” 132
Thus it is He who fecundates the baptismal waters and communi­
cates to the Church the power of regeneration, as is evident from this
precious inscription which was placed by order of Sixtus III in the
baptistery of St. John Lateran:

Gens sacranda polis hic semine nascitur almo
Quam foecundantis Spiritus edit aquis.
Virgineo foetu genetrix Ecclesia natos
Quos, spirante Deo, concipit amne parit.
Fons hic est vitae qui totum diluit orbem,
Sumens de Christi vulnere principium.

St. Irenaeus (Haer., IV, 31) dares to call the Holy Ghost “the
living and vivifying seed of the Father” because He causes us to be
reborn of the Father and by His communication He makes us true
sons of God.133 Also, according to the expression of St. Augustine,
152 Prayer at the blessing of the font. Terrien, La grâce, I, 24: “There is nothing
so instructive as the formulas and symbols which the Church has used since the
beginning to portray the spiritual rebirth of her children. Baptism is called a re­
generation. The baptized, of whatever age they may be, are to the Church infants
newly born, ‘as newborn babes’ (I Pet. 2:2). In Christian inscriptions we see this
expression applied to men of thirty or forty years (cf. Mabillon, De re diplom.,
Suppl. 5; Martigny, Antiq. chrét., baptême, III). In certain places, immediately »ftcr
baptism, they were given honey mixed with milk, the food of infants. . . . Th·
instructions which the Bishop addressed to them were sermons ‘to children’: Ad
infantes."
183 St. Thomas, In Rom. 8:14, lect. 3: “It must be considered how those who nr<·
acted upon by the Holy Ghost are sons of God. And this is evident from their simili
tude to carnal children, who are generated by the seed which proceeds from th*

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we are reborn from the same Spirit as was Christ. St. Leo says that
the baptismal font is to us what the virginal womb was to the
Savior.13*
4. SPIRIT OF ADOPTION AND MYSTICAL UNCTION

Since the Holy Ghost gives us that divine form which makes us
sons of God (for sonship consists in being animated by Him), He
is also the Spirit of adoption which makes us call God by the name
of “Father.” *135 “He is,” says Terrien, “the one who, forming us in
the image of the Word, makes us adopted sons of the Father. . . .
He it is who, when united to our souls, enables us to work as sons
of God; who, by His intimate presence and operations, gives us
testimony that we do not bear that glorious title in vain. The posses­
sion of Him makes us realize that we abide in God and that God
dwells in us.” 136
He is the living seal of Christ which, when imprinted on our souls,
makes us living images of God. He is also the mystical unction which
permeates us with the divine life and transforms our hearts into
so many other sanctuaries of the divinity. Thus do we become living
temples of God wherein the Holy Ghost dwells as in His proper
dwelling place and where “with Him and through Him the Father
and the Son come to dwell.” 137 “Know you not,” asks the Apostle,
“that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth
in you? . . . Or know you not that your members are the temple
father. But the spiritual seed proceeding from the Father is the Holy Ghost. There­
fore through this seed some men are generated into sons of God. Whoever is born
of God cannot sin, because the seed of God abides in him (1 John 3).”
184 Serm. in Nativ. Dom., 5: “The Son became a man like us in order that we
might become consorts in His divinity. The origin which He had in the womb of
the Virgin, He placed in the baptismal font; . . . The power of the most High and
the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost which was given Mary that she might bring
forth the Savior, was given to the water that it might regenerate believers.”
135 Rom. 8:14-16; Gal. 4:6-7.
St. Thomas says (Ila Ilae, q.45, a.6, ad turn): “Likewise the Holy Ghost is called
the Spirit of adoption in so far as we receive from Him the likeness of the natural
Son, Who is the Begotten Wisdom.”
136 Op. cit., I, 388. See also 1 John 4:13. St. Thomas savs that both holiness and
adoptive filiation must be attributed to the Holy Ghost (Illa, q.32, a.i): “For bv
Him men are made to be sons of God. . . . Again, He is the Spirit of sanctification,
according to Rom. i. 4. Therefore, just as other men arc sanctified spiritually by the
Holy Ghost, so as to be the adopted sons of God, so was Christ conceived in sanctity
by the Holy Ghost, so as to be the natural Son of God.”
1st Terrien, op. cit., I, 408.

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of the Holy Ghost?”138 This unction and consecration soften,
purify, illumine, and inflame our hearts. They preserve us from error,
manifest the truth to us,139 and make us docile and willing to hear it
and practice it.
J. INFLUENCE OF THE HOLY GHOST ON CHRIST AND
THE FAITHFUL

To the Holy Ghost is necessarily attributed, as Terrien says, all
I he gifts of grace and whatever pertains to our sanctification. He
makes God approach to us and makes us come closer to God, as is
evident from the activity of the Spirit in Christ, the Head, and in the
faithful, who are His members. Speaking of this influence of the
I loly Ghost on the Head and members of the mystical body, Ter­
rien continues (loc. cit.}:
It is remarkable to see with what minute care the Gospel portrays the
influence of the divine Spirit on the mission of the Savior. He formed
< hrist in the immaculate womb of the Virgin; through Elizabeth, Anna,
and Simeon, He announced Christ as the lonff-awaited King;140 He
descended visibly at the baptism in order to give official testimony before
the precursor and the people.141 He led Christ into the desert to prepare
Him for the great work of His apostolate;142 and through this same
Spirit, the God-man worked His miracles so that to resist them with
obstinacy is to sin against the Holy Ghost.143 Even more, if Jesus Christ
is offered for us as a bloody victim, it is through the Holy Ghost;144
and if He continues His work of redemption in the world by the testi­
mony of the apostles, it is the Holy Ghost who provides this testimony.145
I .astly, if the Church remains to perpetuate the mission of Christ until the
end of time, it is through the Spirit that Christ establishes it, fashions it,
preserves it, and renders it everlastingly fruitful.14® Thus, from be­
ginning to end, the Holy Ghost reigns in Christ for the realization of
I lis work of grace, of love, of restoration, and of health. And if He
influences the Head in this way, can He not do likewise in regard to
188 See I Cor. 3:16; 6:19.
189 See I John 2:20, 27.
140 Luke 1:35-68; 2:25.
141 Matt. 3:16; John 1:29-34.
142 Luke 4:1.
148 Matt. 12:28; Luke 11:20.
144 Heb. 9:14.
145 John 15:26.
146 Acts i, 2, etc.

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i lie members? Even before God has taken possession of a soul, it per­
tains to the Holy Ghost to prepare it for His entrance. To this are
ordained all those interior illuminations and impulses, called prevenient
graces, with which He touches hearts.117
But His actions and blessings do not cease here. In all that infinite
variety of graces which divine goodness so liberally bestows on us, there
is not one which is not from the Holy Ghost.118 When, after being made
sons of God, we are transformed from glory to glory, He it is who
works this wonder.119 The unutterable groanings with which we plead
for mercy and by which we touch the heart of God;150 all the salutary
acts which cause merit; charity, joy, peace, benignity; all sanctity, piety,
meekness: 151 these are so many effects and fruits of His presence in the
very essence of our souls. Residing in us, He renews us entirely,152 acti­
vates our spiritual life, assists us in our weakness, consoles us in our
afflictions, and is saddened by our infidelities. He is within us as the
beginning and pledge of our future happiness.158

All the tradition of the East and the West is in accord in attributing
the divine indwelling to the Holy Ghost in a very singular manner
and in affirming that in Him and through Him the Father and the
Son are united to souls through His abiding in them.104 “Through
147 Cone. Trid., Scss. VI, can. j.
148 See I Cor. 12; Hcb. 2:4.
149 See II Cor. 3:18.
169 Rom. 8:26.
181 Gal. 5:22-23.
182 Titus 3:5.
153 Rom. 8:14-26; Acts 9:31; Eph. 4:30; II Cor. 7:22. Ven. Louis of Granada, The
Sinner's Guide, Bk. I, chap. 5: “What could be more priceless or more desirable than
to have within oneself such a guest, such a governor, such a guide, such a companion,
tutor, and helper? Yet, He who is all things, works all things in the souls in which
He dwells. First of all, as a fire He enlightens our understanding, inflames our will,
and raises us from earth to heaven. Then as the dove, He makes us simple, meek,
docile, and friends, one to another. ... As a cloud, He protects us from the heat
of the flesh. ... As a moving wind He drives and inclines our will totally to the
good and separates and disinclines it from evil. . . . All our goods and all our
benefits ought to be derived from this divine Spirit. If wc are separated from evil,
it is He who delivers us and if we do good, we do so through Him. If we persevere,
it is because of Him and if we receive any reward for the good that we do, it is He
who gives it to us.”
154 St. Augustine, Meditations, chap. 9: “O Divine Love of the supreme Deity,
holy communication of the omnipotent Father and His most blessed Son ... I be­
lieve that in whomever Thou dost deign to dwell, Thou dost also make that one
the temple and habitation of the Father and the Son. Blessed is he who merits to
lodge Thee! since through Thee the Father and the Son also make him their man­
sion. Come, then, most benign Consoler of the afflicted soul. . . . Come, Sanctifier
of sinners and Healer of our wounds. Come, Master of the lowly, Destroyer of the
proud . . . and singular glory of all the living.”

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the Holy Ghost,” says St. Athanasius, “we participate in the Wool
and we enter into communication with God the Father. . . . Aim I
so it is evident that the unction and the seal which are in us are not
anything created, but they are of the same nature as the Son because
it is the Son who unites us to the Father through the Holy Ghost
who resides in Him.” 155 “When we possess the Holy Ghost,” he
says in another place, “who is the Spirit of God, we are truly in God
and God dwells in us.” 150
As St. Basil affirms, “union is effected through the Holy Ghost,
for God sent into our hearts the Spirit of His Son whereby we cry
Abba, Father.” 157 St. Augustine, in turn, says: “Through the Holy
Ghost the Trinity dwells in us. . . . For this Spirit who has been
given us, makes us dwell in God and God in us. . . . Also He is
the Charity of God, and he who perseveres in charity remains in
God and God in Him.” 158
The Holy Ghost anoints us by Flis communication and thus con­
verts us into anointed ones of the Lord, and true Christs. He stamps
us invisibly with the impress of the Word, the true light of life, and
imprints it on the sensitive plate of our hearts. Then, little by little,
as the active agent of the sufferings of Christ causes us to die with
Him that we may rise gloriously with Him, we lose the image of
the earthly man and carry within us the likeness of a heavenly man,
resplendent with divine brilliancy.159
1M Epist. ad Scrap, t, nos. 23 f.
150 Qrat. 3, contra Arian., no. 23.
1ST De Spiritu Sancto, chap. 19.
188 De Trinitate, Bk. XV, chap. 18. St. Cyril of Alexandria, In Joan, Bk. XII, 17:
“The Savior effects our return to God by means of sanctification and a participation
in His Spirit. For it is the Spirit who unites us with God, and to receive Him is to
become sharers in the divine nature. And we receive Him through the Son, and in
the Son we receive the Father.”
St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, Œuvres, IV, chap. 2: “Thou art wonderful, O divine
Word, in the Holy Spirit whom Thou dost send to the soul and by means of whom
the soul is united to God, knows God, tastes God, and finds delight in God alone.
This effusion of the Holy Spirit is so necessary to the soul that without it the soul
would be a devil; it would feed in the pasture of the demon and would enjoy what
he enjovs. O how numerous are these demons who expose Thy servants to such
great dangers! . . . Pour forth in all hearts this effusion of Thy Spirit; and if it is
necessary that there always be evil ones in the world to test the good, then grant
that those evil ones be also tested by others and that their adversity lead them back
to Thee.”
n’Rom. 6:3-11; I Cor. 15:45-49; II Cor. 3:18; 4:10-14; Col. 2:2; Eph. 4:23 f.;
Phil. 3:10 f.

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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION
So this sovereign Spirit who, by His vivifying substance, anoints
us and impresses on us the mystic seal and gradually manifests it
more and more, is a preservative against corruption. He is the germ
of immortality, the pledge and dowry of glory, and the cause of
our future resurrection. “And if the Spirit of Him who raised up
Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Jesus Christ from
the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies because of His Spirit
that dwclleth in you.” 180
At the same time that He is the unction and living seal, the Holy
Ghost is also the secure pledge. And as the beginning and seed of
a glorious immortality, He constitutes the dowry of eternal life and
everlasting heritage.1®1 For the dowry is substantially a part of what
is promised and pledged. “Now He that confirmeth us with you
in Christ and that hath anointed us, is God; who also hath sealed us
and given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts.” 160
162
161
Dwelling in holy souls, the Spirit makes them “friends of God
and prophets”;163164
165
and remaining in Himself the same, He renews
all things. He makes them friends because He is the charity of God
and this charity He pours forth in their hearts in such a manner that
they can love God with the same love as that with which He loves
them: the love of true friendship. So it is that they abide in God and
He in them.
Since friendship is a love of benevolence, there proceed from it,
on the one hand, pardon; and on the other, adoption, which is at­
tributed to the Holy Ghost, by whose power the offenses committed
against God are forgiven,104 and through whose communication we
are adopted as sons of God. The Spirit Himself testifies to this: “You
have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba
(Father). For the Spirit Himself giveth testimony to our spirit that
we are the sons of God.” 105
The faithful friend communicates his secrets and permits the shar­
ing of all his own goods. So it is that the Spirit of love should be
160 Rom. 8: ii.
161 St. Basil, Adv. Eunom., Bk. V: “When the Spirit of God enters into a soul, He
pours forth in it life, immortality, and holiness.”
162 See II Cor. 1:21 f.
163 Wisd. 7:27. See also II Cor. 5:17.
164 John 20:20-23.
165 Rom. 8: i j f.

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the revealer of the divine mysteries,138 the pledge of the heritage ol
< i'od,18T and the dispenser of all graces 188 through which I Ic re­
news all things.188 Hence we are commanded to “be strengthened by
I lis Spirit with might unto the inward man” and to “be renewed in
the spirit of your mind; and put on the new man.” 170 Then shall
we be filled with spiritual powers with which we can work divinely,
subjugating our passions and enjoying the glorious liberty of the sons
of God.171
Owing to this renewal by the Holy Ghost, even the tongues of
children are apt for uttering the great mysteries; or better, He Him­
self utters them through the mouth of His prophets. “By the Spirit
he speaketh mysteries.” 172 “For it is not you that speak, but the
Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you,” 173 “who spoke by the
prophets.” 174
As distributor of all the graces and gifts of Christ, He communi­
cates to each of the faithful, according to the measure of the giving
of the Flead, divine life, power, and strength. Thus He organizes
and develops the mystical body of the Church, of which Fie is the
soul, as St. Augustine says: “What the soul is to the body, the Holy
< «host is to the body of Christ, which is the Church.” 175 And since
100 See I Cor. 2:10; Eph. 1:17-19.
1.7 Rom. 8:17; Eph. 1:14.
1.8 See I Cor. 12.
100 Ps. 103:32; Wisd. 7:27.
170 Eph. 3:16; 4:23 f.
171 Rom. 8:21; II Cor. 3:17. Grou, Manuel, p. 36: “When anyone has succeeded
in dominating his passions, he finds himself actually freed from all that is not God,
and he sweetly enjoys the liberty of God’s sons. He feels pity for the miserable
slaves of the world, and he congratulates himself that he is freed from his bondage.
Si anding peacefully on the shore, he sees others who arc tossed about by the waves
of the sea of iniquity, driven by a thousand contrary winds, and always at the point
of perishing in the tempest. He, however, enjoys a profound calm; he is master of
his desires and actions, and he does what he desires to do. No ambition, no covetous­
ness, no sensuality seduce him; no human respect restrains him. Neither the opin­
ions of men nor their criticisms, mockery, or sneers are able to deter him one jot
from the right path. Adversities, sufferings, humiliations, and all manner of crosses,
whatever they may be, have nothing of fear or terror for him. In brief, he is one
who has been raised above this world with its errors, its attractions, and its terrors.
What does it mean to be free, if not precisely this? Even more, it is a freedom in re­
spect to oneself, for not being influenced by imagination or inconstancy, he remains
firm in his perfect resolutions.”
172 See I Cor. 14:2.
173 Matt. 10:20.
174 Nicene Creed. See St. Thomas, Contra Gent., IV, chap. 21.
173 Sermo 266 in Pent., chap. 4.
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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

He is the true soul of this marvelous organism and the higher and
divine life of each of its members who are not in sin, in Him is found
all the power of the vital functions, both common and particular, of
the body as a whole and each organ in particular. Therefore it is the
Holy Ghost who effects the entire wonderful work of our justifica­
tion, sanctification, and deification, from beginning to end.178 By
holy inspirations, He disposes us to receive the life of grace. He it
is who introduces it, preserves it, develops it, and gradually makes
it manifest in the measure that He transforms us from glory to
glory.177
Thus, considering the adorable mystery of the Most Blessed
Trinity, we see that the primordial origin of life is in the eternal
Father,—ex quo omnia—for in Him is the fount of life. From the
Father, it passes through the Son—per quern omnia—in whom it is
the selfsame fife. Finally, it proceeds entirely to the Holy Ghost—
in quo omnia—and He it is who diffuses this life into our souls, makes
them participants in the divine nature, and pours into our hearts the
very charity of God.178 In this way we enter into communication
with the inner life of the entire Trinity and into relation with each
one of the three adorable Persons.
But that divine life which the Spirit of love infuses in us needs a
subject, a human-divine organism, with organs and arteries which
will distribute this life and perform the required vital functions. That
subject or organism is Jesus Christ in union with His Church, and
the arteries of life are the sacraments.
The Holy Ghost began His sanctifying mission in the incarna­
tion of our Lord. Fie was an active principle in the formation of the
176 St. Magdalen of Pazzi, Œuvres, I, chap. 28: “O Lord, Thy divine Spirit pro­
duces no effect in the world more wonderful than when He renews it and gives it
new life. He has exalted Thee by entering into the hearts of Thy chosen ones. By
uniting Himself to them, He makes them do Thy works, and in this way art Thou
exalted in them as much as is possible. In them Thou dost come to be another self,
thanks to the union which they enjoy with this divine Spirit. Thou art particularly
glorified in all Thy priests, who possess this Spirit, for each priest has become as
another god in Thee, as another Word (Ps. 81:6). Although there is but one God
by essence, there are thousands of gods through communication, participation, and
union.”
177 See II Cor. 3:18.
its St. Athanasius, Epist. ad Serap. 1, no. 19: "The Father is the fount, the Son the
river, and the Holy Ghost that from which we drink. But by drinking the Holy
Ghost, we also drink Christ.” See also St. Augustine, Meditations, chap. 31.

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sacred body and its union with the soul, as well as the infusion ol
capital or fontal graces, for it is admitted that the mystery of ih<
Incarnation was effected in the womb of the holy Virgin through
the operation of the Holy Ghost. But besides the fashioning of the
natural body of Christ, the Holy Ghost formed, in the likeness of
( Jirist, the mystical body which is the Church. In this mystical body,
of which He is the soul, He exercises all the vital functions which
arc necessary to reproduce in the various members whatever will
integrate the whole series of mysteries of the life, passion, death, and
resurrection of the Savior.170
Fhe natural body of Christ, when it reached its plenitude and
finished its proper work, ascended gloriously into heaven, but the
mystical body yet remains and will remain as long as the world en­
dures. It is still in the process of growth and must perfect itself in
the pattern of Jesus Christ through the power of His Spirit of
love.180
So both of them, the divine Word and His Spirit, immediately
and directly influence the progressive development of the union, in­
corporation, vivification, purification, illumination, sanctification,
and deification of each one of the members and living organs of the
holy Catholic Church. Yet, even here, each one acts according to
l lis own manner: Christ as the Head of the mystical body, and the
I loly Ghost as its soul.

APPENDIX
The Marvelous Work of the Holy Ghost

We have come across a manuscript written by an unlettered per­
son who was very experienced in the things of God. Many things
1T9 Sr. Leo, Sermo in Nativitate Domini, 6: “The generation of Christ is the origin
of the Christian people. . . . All the sons of the Church are distinct by succession
of time, but since all the faithful by being born at the baptismal font, were crucified
in the passion of Christ, resurrected in His rising, placed at the right hand of the
Father through His ascension, so also, were they generated in His nativity. . . .
For whoever has been regenerated in Christ and has lost the traces of his former
origin, becomes a new man through that rebirth, not now through the generation
by a carnal father, but through the seed of the Savior. Therefore He became the
Son of Man that we might become sons of God.”
180 Eph. 4:7-24.

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coni aincd herein, if correctly interpreted, will clarify some of the
points we have already indicated. For that reason we reproduce it
in part.
“I am going to speak of the great debt we owe to the Holy Ghost,
the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, the least loved and
the least known. ... It would have availed us little that the Father
created us and preserved us in existence; and that the divine Word
redeemed us and freed us from slavery, obtained for us the pardon
of our sins, opened for us the gates of heaven, . . . and willed to
elevate us to the dignity of sons of God, if the Holy Ghost had not
come and will continue to come until the end of the world to vivify
and sanctify us with His grace and His gifts.1
“This great work, greater in its beginning than the whole of
creation, was begun by the Father and continued by the Son, who
devoted every moment of His life to it from the instant of His
incarnation: all the fatigue, labor, and privation of His public life;
all the contempt, abuse, contumely, sorrow, and agony of His pas­
sion; the abandonment by His Father, and the death itself which He
suffered. We creatures cannot understand suffering such as this; not
even the most privileged intellects can comprehend it. It surpasses
all other suffering even as the bottomless oceans surpass the little
streams that run through the meadows. Those souls which arrive at
a most intimate union with God are the only ones that have a cer­
tain and clear idea of what this suffering is. Yet for all that Jesus
Christ suffered for our good, it would have availed little had not the
divine Spirit come to teach us with His light, to animate us with His
grace, and to communicate His gifts to us. By these means He sanc­
tifies us and places on us the seal of predestination which we have
forfeited through sin. Through the merits of our adorable Redeemer,
it is given to us anew.
1 Weiss, Apologie, Vol. IX, conf. 3, app. 1 and 2: “Alas, that we must suffer the
derision with which Renan (using a phrase of Feuerbach) pities that divine Person
who is so forgotten by His worshipers. ... If we reminded ourselves more often
of the Holy Ghost, we would find ourselves repaid quickly with such spiritual
progress as none of them ever fancied. . . . He who does not close his eyes to the
light, will understand that all the power of the Church, her heart and blood and
vital energy and all the manifestations of her life, are nothing other than the Holy
Ghost working in her. He it is who lives and works in the sacraments, which are
channels of life, instruments of grace, and means of salvation and sanctification.
. . . The spiritual life will never be able to flourish until the Holy Ghost is better
known and loved.”

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“All divine works are performed by the three divine Persons of i hr
august Trinity. They are begun by the Father, continued by the
Son (Word), and perfected by the Holy Ghost. . . . Therefore
Jesus said to His disciples: ‘It is expedient to you that I go.’ He knew
well that in spite of all the works performed for the instruction of
men, in spite of all the means used to make them understand the
truth and love it, they would never bear fruit until the divine Spirit
should descend upon them. Christ desired to go to His Father so
that the Holy Ghost might come and conquer for Him those men
whose intellects were so darkened and whose hearts were so sensate.
. . . And so it happened, for although they saw Him resurrected
by His own power and saw Him ascend into heaven, they remained
in ignorance and obscurity until the promised Comforter came upon
t hem. And it could not be otherwise, since it is the Holy Ghost who
proceeds from the other two and is, as it were, the very essence of
I iivinity; 2 who is (I speak thus in order to make myself understood)
the chest wherein are buried all the treasures of God. Since He is
the steward of the riches contained in the divine essence, Jesus Christ
was eager to sit at the right hand of the Father so that this divine
Spirit who proceeds from the two Persons might descend as soon
as possible to conclude and perfect the work which is continued but
not consummated by Christ. This activity is reserved for the Holy
Ghost as something proper to Him.
“It is sad to see a mighty work begun and pursued with great
effort, fatigue, and privation and then not brought to fruition. This
is the reason why the Redeemer desired to be bathed in the baptism
of blood. He wished to be lifted up on the holy wood of the cross
so that from it He might be able to win for us, not heaven, which
had been given to us antecedently through His redemption, but to
win for us something far greater than heaven. To redeem us, one
rear shed in favor of man, or one sigh from that loving heart was
sufficient. Why, then, was He lifted up on the cross to suffer such
torments, were it not that we were to imitate Him in this? And fur­
ther, if He submitted to the crucifixion, why did He prolong His
life for three hours, in each one of which He suffered more than
I le did during the whole of the thirty-three years He spent on earth?
. . . O greatest Good and immense Wisdom! . . . Fie was lifted
2 Actually He is the charity of God, and God is charity.

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up on rhe cross ro effect our elevation from our fallen state and that
to our great advantage. . . . He remained there for three hours until
He obtained from His eternal Father that we should no longer be
looked upon as creatures descended from Adam, but that He should
adopt us as sons, treat us as sons of adoption. This was effected with­
out delay.
“But that loving heart, thirsting for our good, while He was in the
midst of those terrible agonies just before He died, cried out: Ί
thirst.’ . . . The Blessed Mother well knew that it was not a bodily
thirst which her Son desired to quench. It was a divine thirst to do
good to man by raising him to the greatest dignity that any creature
could possess. . . . She understood very clearly, through a com­
munication from the Word, exactly what her Son desired and peti­
tioned. At the foot of the cross, her eyes fixed on Him, her hands
joined in prayer, and her heart filled with courage, she united with
her blessed Son in praying for man and effecting what her Son de­
sired. And what could be granted us that is greater than to become
sons of God by adoption?
“That ardent love desired above all that it should possess man; it
desired that we should be gods by grace, something that we could
not acquire through our own nature. It desired that this grace should
fructify even in this life; that in this mortal life we might be able to
possess the chains of union with the divine essence and that this
might be communicated to us through the gifts of the Holy Ghost.
We have nothing by which we may merit such graces; on the con­
trary, we have many reasons for being abhorred by God. But Christ,
melting with love toward the human race, exclaims from the depths
of His blessed soul: ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do.’
“Forgetful of self in such terrible agony, He begs and urges His
eternal Father to grant what He seeks. But since He who suffered
was the incarnate Word, He could see that the justice of God was
opposed to the concession of this grace to all men because of the con­
tempt they had shown Him and the mockery they had manifested.
Then Jesus Christ turned His loving gaze to the few chosen ones and,
locking them all in Himself, that heart which hungers for the salva­
tion of men presented them to His Father, saying: ‘Let all these
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whom I present to Thee be assimilated to Me. Let them form one
body, with Me as the Head and our vivifying Spirit as the soul which
vivifies and animates them. And as many as with a good will associ­
ate themselves with this mystical body, give to them the power to
live our life in time and in eternity. To all men let there be affection­
ately granted that which I entreat of You. .My Father, place the at­
tribute of mercy which resides in Me, before that of justice which
resides in Thee. As long as mortal life endures, let My attribute work,
and after death let Thine work.’
“There, upon the holy wood of the cross, before Christ expired,
the holy Church was established and from that time on the Holy
( Ihost remained as the soul and life of that Church. 1 he Spirit would
impart to the Church His gifts whereby the faithful could produce
fruits by which the Church would become beautiful; Fie would im­
part to them His charity whereby might be bound in a most perfect
and intimate union all the souls gathered together in Him; Fie would
make them sharers in His riches without rule or measure.
“When all this was accomplished, the dying heart of Christ was
comforted by the strength of love, and He exclaimed: ‘It is con­
summated. Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.’ Fie mirac­
ulously prolonged His life until He could accomplish for men what
I le desired. He desired not only to redeem us; a sigh would have ac­
complished that. What He really desired was to make us gods by
grace, obtaining from the eternal Father that He send the divine
Spirit to us here on earth.
“When Fie had completed that work which belonged to God
made man for the love of man, He ascended to sit at the right hand
of His Father. It remained only for the Holy Ghost to perfect the
work.3 Without the Holy Ghost, this mystical body of the Church,
whose Head is our Redeemer, would not have life, because the Holy
Ghost is the soul and life of this body. The members would not be
able to go to Jesus Christ and be united to Him without the Holy
3 St. Augustine, Manual, chap. 26: “Moved by mercy, God sent His Son to this
world to redeem His servants. He also sent the Holy Ghost to adopt them as sons.
He gave His Son as the price of our ransom; the Holy Ghost, as a pledge of His
love. Finally, He gave Himself as the heritage of those men whom He adopted as
sons. ... 1 hat men might be born of God and might become His sons by adoption,
God first became man and took human nature.”

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Ghost, even though Christ is their Head. . . . Jesus said that we
could not go to the Father except through Him, and we cannot go
to Christ without the help of the Holy Ghost.
“So degenerate did the human race become through the sin of
our first parents! So weak and powerless! So obscure of intellect!
So dead was the beautiful life of the soul! We were rendered so in­
capable of doing good that our ruin was mortal and complete. Our
sins were pardoned through Jesus Christ. Through Him we were
once more heirs of glory. But the weakness into which we fell when
our first parents were despoiled of grace, . . . the power and
tyranny acquired by those passions which formerly were subjected
to reason, these are the spoils of Satan when we lost grace.
“Since this loss of grace was not owing to violence, that first state
of innocence is not given to us again. But does that mean that we
have no way of recovering it? O, holy and divine Spirit! You have
been given to us for this very purpose, and not only to recover that
former state, but one more glorifying to our heavenly Father and
more profitable to ourselves. By means of the grace and the gifts
which you deny to no child of Adam who seeks them whole­
heartedly and is disposed to receive them; by means of that grace
and those gifts by which we are united to the mystical body whose
Head is Christ,—a condition absolutely necessary for the attain­
ment of that state—you make it possible for us truly to aspire to
and achieve the celebration of our espousal and marriage with the
King of eternal glory, the only-begotten Son of the living God, who
is consubstantial with the Father and before whom all the powers
of heaven and earth are as if they were not.
“Although it is not ours by nature to be gods, we cannot aspire to
anything more grand, more glorious, more perfect. And all this—
the striving, the actual possession, the inamissibility—these are
within our power. He who wishes to attain it need only ask whole­
heartedly and persistently that the Holy Ghost come and be his Mas­
ter. Without a doubt it will be effected because the divine Spirit
hungers to do good for us.
“Anyone who begins to call upon Him from the heart, is not made
to wait; he is heard immediately. The teachings of the divine Spirit
are not such as lead us step by step along the ways of God, but His
charity is such that in a very short time it enables us to run or even
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fly. If we are docile in following His teachings, He enables us to
undertake the way of pure and disinterested love wherein the most
delicate of lovers, Jesus Christ, is immediately enamored and im
prisoned. He does not tire nor does He ever take His gaze from the
actions performed by souls in this way. However small the action
may be, it is like a magnet attracting this sweet Lover. Since He is
love, this is what He seeks, this is what He desires, this it is in which
I le is most glorified. He finds no action too small or without merit.
. . . He does not look at the greatness of the deed, nor the sacrifice
with which it is performed. The measure of the greatness of our
acts is not the great works we do for Him but the love with which
we do them and the love which, through them, we give to Him.
“We have stated that we can do nothing without the Holy Ghost.
We inherited from our first parents the sorrowful state of desolation
into which they were thrust after losing their innocence. Our intel­
lect, obscured and darkened, cannot now know or sufficiently grasp
truth. To see it, to distinguish it, and to understand it; to avoid the
confusion of errors and lies, we need the light of the Holy Ghost.
“In this state of ruin we have also inherited a great weakening of
the will so that we cannot of ourselves go to God unless carried by
the Holy Ghost. We are so prone to evil that if we are not instructed
by Him we know not how to do anything agreeable to God. We are
like children who never come to the point of calling upon our
heavenly Father nor of asking forgiveness for our sins and asking for
the things we need, unless the divine Comforter comes to our aid.
Were it not for Him, what great blunders we would perform in our
petitions! We would ever go into the presence of God like a tender
child who as yet does not know how to talk and, not knowing how
to ask or seek those things that are needed, we would suffer many
privations. . . .
“But if this child, so incapable of all things, is placed under the
care and solicitude of a tender mother, she will teach him to talk so
that soon he can ask for the things he needs. She holds him by the
arms and helps him to walk time after time. Later she is careful to
see that he walks always in her presence because, when she is not
present, he falls into many perils. When he cries, it is an annoyance
to all but the mother, and she interprets this crying as a sign of hun­
ger and thirst and she consoles him with a million caresses. She does
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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION
it with greater and greater pleasure, without ever tiring. When
the child is older, with what love she counsels him, speaking from
her heart and telling him the things he must seek and desire so that
they will be most profitable to him! . . . If a mother is so necessary
in the natural life, she is not less so in the spiritual life.
“The role of the mother in the spiritual life is that of the Holy
Ghost, and His solicitude and love for the members of the mystical
body surpasses that of all earthly mothers. And on the part of the
soul great docility is required just as it is necessary for the natural
child, so that the parents may receive the fruits of consolation for the
labors they have expended on their child.”

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CHAPTER III

Participation in the Divine Activity
■·'^V^sXSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsîSSsSSSsiSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsiSSsSSsSSSsSSSîSSSsSSS:

D

IVINE charity is not limited to the deification of our nature,
but this deification extends to all our faculties so that our operations
also may be divine. In this way we proceed, or are able to proceed,
in all things as worthy sons of the light, brothers and faithful imi­
tators of Christ, the Sun of justice. We are able to produce copious
fruits of eternal life and to shine forth in such a way that the heavenly
bather is glorified through our works.1
Whether the life of grace is communicated to us in all its defini­
tive plenitude or simply as a pledge of glory, we need only preserve
it in that state if we are to be deserving of the paternal heritage.
This is what happens to those Christians who die before they reach
the age of reason or, rather, to those who die in the very moment
that they are justified, without having had the opportunity to make
fruitful the grace they have received.
The Operation

of

Grace

Yet grace is given to us as a seed which is to be developed so that
we shall not only have life, but we shall have a life which is ever
more rich and abundant.2 But if, through our own fault, grace is not
developed, then we become unworthy of it and we are despoiled of
the divine talent which we have kept buried and dormant, when we
should have exerted ourselves to make it fruitful of divine things.3
As long as a man lives, he ought to perform actions which are in
1 Matt. 5:16; Col. 1:10.
2 John 10:10.
3 Matt. 25:24-30; Rom. 7:4.

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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

conformity with his nature and ordained to his ultimate end. Now,
grace is like a second nature, for it is the root principle of that higher
order of operations whose ultimate goal is eternal life.4 Hence the
inescapable obligation we have of working in all things for the good,
the supernatural good, as long as we have time.5 Hence also the
necessity of working out our salvation with fear and trembling,6
since we know that we can lose it through our indolence. Finally,
there follows the obligation of assuring our vocation and election by
means of good works, so that we may preserve ourselves from sin
and merit entrance into the kingdom of the Savior.7 We ought, then,
always to abound in the work of the Lord, knowing that our work
is not in vain in His presence,8 for each one will receive a reward
proportionate to his work.9
“Eternal life,” as the Council of Trent teaches, “is to be offered,
both as a grace mercifully promised to the sons of God through
Christ Jesus, and as a reward promised by God Himself, to be faith­
fully given to their good works and merits. For this is the crown of
justice which after his fight and course the Apostle declared was laid
up for him, to be rendered to him by the just Judge, and not only to
him, but also to all that love His coming.” 10 As St. Augustine says,
“He who created thee without thyself, will not save thee without
thyself.” 11
We are, then, obliged to cooperate in our justification and sancti­
fication because God wishes to reward our merits by crowning His
own grace, that is, the power which He communicates to us to per­
form good works. When we received the divine grace of His Son,
we received it as a most precious seed of life which we must foster
and not let perish. We began the life of grace in the status of new­
born babes who crave pure spiritual milk, that by it they may grow
to salvation,12 which is the status of perfect manhood. We must
‘ Gay, La vie et les vertus chrét., I, 65: “Grace is above all a principle of action.
It is life, and life is given us that we may live; it is a power, and power is given us
to be used; it is a seed, and this seed is given us that it may fructify.
6 Gal. 6:10.
•Phil. 2:12.
t See II Pet. 1:10 f.
• See I Cor. 15:58.
•Ibid., 3:8.
10 Sess. VI; can. 16.
11 De verb, apost., Serm. XV, chap. 11.
12 See I Pet. 2:2.

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PARTICIPATION IN THE DIVINE ACTIVITY

grow and develop in total conformity with Jesus Christ,13 and th.it
t<> such an extent that He Himself is formed anew in us.1415
*If, on the
other hand, we do not strive to grow, we shall perish, because wc
shall be contradicting the plans of divine Providence.
“It is part of the order of divine Providence,” says Terrien, “that
no being receives from the very first instant the final perfection
which it ought to achieve. In all things there must be growth, with
the concomitant tendency to a better state. Everything here below
is subject to this law. All things must pass from a less perfect to a
more perfect state, from incipient goodness to consummate good­
ness. This is true in the works of nature, the production of art, and
ihc wonderful works of grace itself. . . . This law of progress
governs all things that have come from the hand of God.” 19
I. NECESSITY OF INFUSED POWERS

But to progress in the divine life, we must perform divine operalions and realize divine functions. To do this we need in every case
facuities of that same order which actually are given to us in germ
with the divine life itself. In the natural order we possess the array
of cognoscitive and affective potencies or faculties, both rational and
sensitive, which flow from the very essence of the soul and are like
so many immediate principles of operation enabling us to fulfill the
functions of a properly human life. So also in the supernatural order,
we need another set of potencies which corresponds to the life of
grace and by which that life is manifested in such a way that we
work and advance as true sons of God and not merely as men.18
Hence, with the supernatural entity we receive a whole series of
new faculties which, in a certain manner, spring from grace itself as
potencies that not only perfect and ennoble the natural faculties, but
elevate, transform, and divinize them. They bestow on these natural
faculties an entirely new power and transcendental energy which
of ourselves we could never possess. Thus we are made capable of
performing operations far superior to the abilities of our own poor
13 Eph. 4:13-16.
14 Gal. 4.: 19.
15 Op. cit., I, 154.
18 “As from the essence of the soul flow its powers, which are the principles of
deeds, so likewise the virtues, whereby the powers are moved to act, flow into the
powers of the soul from grace” (la Ilae, q.uo, a.4, ad tum).

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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

nature or those of any nature whatever. The new powers and ener­
gies thus received are, together with actual graces and transitory in­
spirations, the infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy Ghost, w’hich
render us capable of working habitually as deified men and even as
vitalized organs of the Spirit of God.1T
Nor are these superior potencies merely virtual and latent powers
which are proper to nature; powers which nature itself possesses in
germ, only to be developed and manifested in time. No, they are
entirely new and so superior that only God could communicate
them to us. He it is who bestows them on us and manifests them in
us in the measure in which He renews us. “Behold, I make all things
new.” 17
18 Thus the functions and operations of grace develop in us
connaturally and ordain us to eternal beatitude, just as the natural
potencies develop our human functions and lead us to temporal hap­
piness.
It is certain that a transitory divine impulse would be sufficient to
stimulate and invigorate these natural faculties and powers and make
them produce an act in some way supernatural. Such an act would
not, however, be connatural or even truly vital, for, as a divine opera­
tion, it would not spring from that inner principle which is the life
of grace. Not flowing from the life of grace, it would not be able to
contribute to the increase of that life; nor would it be per se meritori­
ous of eternal life. No impulse that is forcibly impressed on us with­
out our assimilating it, can be called our own and hence it is not
meritorious. We must possess those higher potencies as something
proper and connatural to us so that the acts of such potencies will
be truly our own. At the same time they must be totally dependent
on grace so that they will be meritorious and give an increase of
glory.
Hence, although faith and hope are infused habits and connatural,
if they are dead they are incapable of any merit. Even when, through
a mysterious impulse of the Holy Ghost they produce acts disposing
17 Terrien, op. cit., p. 156: “The nature of the sons of God is not simply human.
... It is a nature elevated and transfigured by grace, a deiform nature which is
proper to a divinized being. . . . And the knowledge of a son of God ought to be
equivalent to the loftiness of being which he possesses through grace.”
St. Cyril, Thesaur., Bk. Π, chap. 2: “Since we possess the same activity as does
God, we must also share in His nature.”
18 Apoc. 21:5.

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the sinner to receive life anew, they still do not merit any glory, be
cause those are not vital acts and proper to the sons of God.18
2. NATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL POTENCIES

Grace docs not destroy nature nor oppose it, but rather perfects
it by being accommodated to it. Thus grace rectifies and completes
nature to the extent that it elevates and transforms it. So it is that
i hose supernatural energies, to be made manifest in all their splendor,
presuppose the necessary development of the natural functions to
which has been given a new luster and upon which have been im­
posed virtualities and greatly superior powers for accomplishing the
works of eternal life.
Eurther, since eternal life is compatible with natural life, the super­
natural potencies, energies, and powers are, in a certain sense,
analogous to those of nature. In the natural life, in addition to the
powers of growth, we have cognitive, affective, and operative faculI ies which are developed and perfected by right use and the subse­
quent acquisition of the habit of those virtues which are integrated
in the four cardinal virtues. Moreover, we have certain instincts
< ommunicated to us by the Author of nature for the realization of
I hose indispensable acts which could not be well directed by our
own proper knowledge.
So also, in the life of grace, serving a similar but far superior function, we have the three noble virtues which are called theological.
I’hese are the great faculties of the life of grace by which we are
directed and ordained to God, knowing Him in Himself, tending to
I lim, and desiring and loving Him with our whole heart. We have
also the four principal infused virtues which correspond to the
cardinal virtues, and these direct the progress of our life to the super­
natural end in regard to the means and our relation to our neighbor.20
10 If we wish to be divinely happy, we must do works that are worthy of God
(Col. 1:10), and we must work in a divine manner. But, according to the lofty
doctrine of St. Dionysius (Eccl. hier., chap. 2), to work divinely, a transitory aid is
not sufficient. There is needed a divine birth, a divine existence, and a divine state
which can produce a divine operation. It is necessary that we share in that divine
power through which God is possessed immediately. See Monsabré, Conf. 18.
20 Sauvé, Le culte du C. de ]., no. 25: “The virtues and gifts are faculties of the
new man and through them he lives in God, in whom he is rooted. . . . His faith
perceives Him as infinite Truth; on Him, as infinitely good and infinitely desirable,
he casts the anchor of his hope; and as the infinite goodness, charity embraces Him
and loves Him in Himself. . . . But since the soul in grace must continue to live in

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We have, finally, certain instincts by which God Himself moves us
and directs us to eternal life in regard to those things which could
not be well regulated by ourselves through the simple light of faith
and the norms of ordinary prudence, and these are the gifts of the
Holy Ghost whereby the work of the virtues is completed and the
communications of God and the marvelous effusions of His infinite
love are perfected.
The knowledge of this mechanism of the supernatural life should
fill us with admiration, astonishment, and enchantment. The study
of our organic and rational life is of vital interest to the physiologist.
What, then, should not the knowledge of the organs, functions,
phenomena, and, in brief, of all the means employed by the Holy
Ghost to cause and promote the sanctification of the soul, mean to
the Christian? *
21
But all this is more easily conjectured and surmised than explained,
because it is as indescribable as it is admirable and in no way can it
be expressed by words or even by human concepts. And if, because
of the imperious demands of our natural condition, we often appeal
to certain systems of thought, it is not done in an effort to confine
or restrict the divine to these systems, but only to aid in their ex­
planation. As St. Thomas says, we seek only “in our own weak way,
to declare the truth which the Catholic faith professes, while weed­
ing out contrary errors.” 22
For that reason we ought not to attend too much to the material
element of our expressions. The servile interpretation of the letter
which kills (II Cor. 3:6) is one of the causes responsible for the fact
that these enchanting mysteries are so poorly appreciated and re­
garded with such scant interest. Their vitalizing appeal cannot be
translated into words nor understood by systems of thought. They
can be perceived and appreciated with a certain degree of exactitude
only through the sacred symbols that divine revelation offers us, and
even then they are vague and tenuous. Revelation presents the sacred
mysteries to us in this manner for the precise purpose of preventing
us from adhering too closely to their material aspect and to help us
perceive something of the spirit which palpitates beneath them. This
nature and in society by means of the natural faculties, we have other virtues which
regulate and deifv our relations with men and with created things.”
21 Cf. Froget, The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, p. 193.
22 Contra Gent., Bk. I, chap. 2.
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PARTICIPATION IN THE DIVINE ACTIVITY

spirit is manifested to us more and more clearly in Christian experi­
ence under the internal direction of the divine Paraclete and the ex­
ternal direction of Holy Mother the Church.

3.

THE TWO SUPERNATURAL PRINCIPLES OF OPERATION

A consideration of the organic symbol will enable us to see how
our souls derive two immediate principles of operation from that
most loving Spirit who vivifies us. One of these principles consists
in the infused virtues that elevate and transform our natural potencies
and enable them to perform works deserving of eternal life. Although
i hey are supernatural, these virtues are, as it were, connaturalized, so
t hat they are exercised in a human manner, under the directive norm
of reason illumined by a living faith. Without this faith, the soul is
not able to perceive clearly the light, warmth, and energies which
the divine Spirit infuses into it through these virtues. Hidden in the
inner recesses of the soul, He does not disclose His sweet presence,
I mt He gives the soul full liberty of action in the exercise of these vir1 ues, as if they were something natural and proper to the soul itself.
I fence it appears to be one’s own reason which works, governs, and
directs all things.
There is yet another principle of activity that the Holy Ghost in­
fuses in us, and this consists in His most precious gifts, which are a
sort of divine instinct making us apt to receive and second His high­
est impulses. They make us docile in complying with His sweet sighs
and quick to follow and actuate His loving inspirations by which
I le manifests Himself to some degree. By means of the gifts, we
work in a superhuman manner, yet it is not ourselves who work, for
we do no more than follow His motion. He it is who works in us
and through us by communicating Himself to us in a singular and
divine way.23
aa Gardeil, The Gifts of the Holy Ghost, pp. 28-31: “Every superior force has
two modes of employing its action. First, it may raise up in the being subject to it­
self, fixed, permanent organs which divide among themselves, under its direction,
the various fields of activity which are necessary to attain the end which it purposes.
... It leaves each organ to act according to the laws which it has traced out for
it; it seems to adapt itself to each one’s mode of action. It is thus that the Holy
( I host, residing at the source of our entire activity by charity, creates for Itself the
fixed organs of Its operations in the infused virtues, in prudence, justice, fortitude,
temperance, and in all the lesser virtues which are like the secondary organs, the
I issues and cells of these supernatural organs. He contents Himself with unifying
I hem, leaving them to attain their functions according to their special modes of

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From the presence and animation of the Holy Ghost and from the
exercise of His gifts, together with the virtues, there result the twelve
delightful fruits which He produces in souls and which enable them
to recognize Him. Then, as a final touch and culmination of the
mature fruits, there come the eight beatitudes, which are, each of
them, the permanent and perfect possession of one of the principal
evangelical virtues together with the corresponding gifts and fruits.
Or they may be said to be so many different aspects of the happiness
which the sons of God enjoy in the midst of their pains and bitter­
ness. Such souls are happier and more animated as they appear more
wretched and dead in the eyes of the world, because in the blessed
action, analogous to those of the human moral virtues which bear the same names.
The direction of the Spirit is not lessened by the power which He leaves to these
ministers of His power, which hold from Him the vivifying impulse which forms
the basis of the life of the just, which performs, noiselessly and naturally, works of
a kind which are nonetheless divine since the Holy Ghost ceases not to be at their
deepest source.
“But if the vital force of the germ, essentially immersed in the matter to which
it gives life, is in some sort exhausted in its first activity, such is not the case with a
vital force which is independent and necessarily transcendent such as God is in re­
lation to His creatures. Ί he divine activity goes beyond the activity of all the organs
which He has been pleased to create in order to realize it. Just as the head of a state,
the absolute master of his realm, is not bound to act through subordinates in order
to work his pleasure in such and such a part of his government, although, ordinarily,
he allows them to act of themselves, so is the Divine Spirit who is the absolute
master of the government of souls in regard to a supernatural end, the possession
of the Trinity. We should expect, on His part, direct interventions, whether it be
to aid the infused virtues, the ordinary organs of His government, for example, in
certain extraordinary cases such as grave temptations which the ordinary virtue
cannot overcome, or, simply because, being able, He wishes to do so, or to promote,
here and there in our lives, works of an excellence which surpasses the common
measure.
"It is for these operations that the Gifts of the Holy Ghost serve as a base of opera­
tion. Of course, God could have justified us without our consent. He could have
entered at will into our supernatural organization, making use of us as mere instru­
ments for His work. ... It is with such operations that we connect prophecy, the
gift of miracles and all those graces which are given to man not for his own sanctifi­
cation but for that of others. But since He is concerned here with our personal
sanctification, God did not will that, even if He acted upon us directly, without
passing through the normal organs, we should be not only without merit but with­
out cooperation with His spontaneous inspirations. Hence this sanctifying germ
has caused the Gifts of the Holy Ghost to spring up in our hearts. By them our
supernatural organism is, as it were, doubled. The extraordinary, the divine and
spontaneous, is in some manner acclimated. . . .
“The Gifts of the Holy Ghost are not actual interventions of the Holy Ghost
in our life, but habitual dispositions placed in our soul which lead it easily to con­
sent to His inspirations.”

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shadow of the Cross of Christ they taste of the immortal fruits of
the tree of life.24
Who can describe the divine impulses which such souls continu­
ally experience and the vital energy and vigor which they receive
under the vivifynig breathing of the Holy Ghost? In his marvelous
work on the Christian life and the virtues, Bishop Gay describes the
effects of this activity of God on souls:
This active and beneficent irradiation of God in the creature in whom
He dwells is something ineffable. We call it an irradiation, and it actually
is such because His eminent gifts, emanating originally from the very
substance of God, are not only reflected, but also, in the expression of
the holy Fathers, impressed and engraven upon our souls. Such is the
mystery which is realized in us, in the inner core of our being . . .
where the kingdom of God resides. . . . This irradiation and divine
activity is effected especially in the essence of the soul. There it pours
forth the root grace which we call sanctifying. This grace, since it is
at once the condition and first effect of His supernatural presence,
authorizes and disposes us to receive all Elis other blessings. By means
of this grace He redeems the soul and frees it from the slavery of sin. He
reintegrates it, renews it, rejuvenates it, purifies it, and makes it docile to
all the inspirations with which He favors it and all the impulses which
He communicates to it. By this grace God takes, as it were, the roots
of the soul and engrafts them on Himself. He makes the soul capable
of being saturated with His most holy sap and of diffusing this sap
throughout all the marvelous faculties by which it is expanded, as the
trunk of a tree is by its branches These natural potencies, so numerous,
so varied, and now so marvelous, acquire a divine perfection through
that internal diffusion of vigor, according to the status, office, and proper
function of each potency. They all receive new superior qualities which
are essentially supernatural and which make them equally flexible and
energetic, docile and strong, transparent and focal points of radiation.
They bestow on the soul a greater passivity for the reception of God
and a greater activity in serving Him and fulfilling His wishes. Such are,
in the first place, those supreme virtues that we call theological . . . ,
which are the first reflection or immediate expansion of grace. Then
come the infused virtues, both intellectual and moral; then the gifts of
the Holy Ghost . . . which place the soul in a position to exercise the
virtues divinely, and which are converted into the fecund seeds of the
24 Cant. 2:3.

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fruits that God desires to gather in us. Although the sacrament of
confirmation alone communicates the plentitude of these sacred gifts, the
mere state of grace also implies their presence in the soul. Actually there
is no just soul that does not possess them more or less perfectly.25

“Merely to be in the state of grace, as is a little child after Baptism,”
says Father Froget, “is to possess all supernatural virtues in root and
essence, only awaiting the full use of reason for their development
according to the will of God in each particular case.” 26
The Supernatural Virtues

The virtues proper to the Christian life are called infused. They
are so called because we are totally incapable of acquiring them, in
spite of any efforts we may make. God Himself deigns to grant them
to us together with His grace, so that through them we may perform
divine works. Together with grace, they grow and develop. With
grace also they disappear, excepting faith and hope, which remain
in the sinner as the basic roots of ability to regain life and are lost
only by the grave sins which are directly opposed to them.
These virtues are called Christian because they are proper to the
members of Jesus Christ, and they are not manifested in all their
splendor except in perfect Christians. They are also called supernat­
ural because they surpass the needs and capabilities of our nature
and are implanted in us to elevate and transform our natural powers,
thus malting them able to produce fruits of life, or rather works de­
serving of unending glory.
“They are grafted on to the soul like scions or grafts of a better
and nobler tree grafted upon a wild stock,” says Father Froget. “In
passing through the graft the natural sap is purified of its defects, so
that the tree which before bore sour and wild fruits now yields sweet
and delicious fruits.” 27
So also our poor nature can be admired for producing such rich
and extraordinary fruits and delicate flowers without itself knowing
how it produces them. Although they are not natural, they are none­
theless proper to the soul so far as they proceed from it in some man25 Gay, op. cit., chap. z.
26 The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, p. 191.
27 Op. cit., p. 194.

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lier. Nature, in union with grace, forms a perfect whole and, as it
were, a single principle of action.28
I. DIVISION AND NUMBER OF SUPERNATURAL VIRTUES

These virtues are either theological, those which ordain us directly
to God; or moral, those which direct us in regard to the means of ar­
riving at our ultimate end through the faithful fulfillment of the ob­
ligations of our life. The former are: faith, by which, accepting di­
vine revelation, we know God in Himself as the principle and end
of our supernatural life; hope, by which we tend to Him as our ulti­
mate end and, confiding in His promises, strive to reach Him;
charity, by which we love Him above all things and cherish Him as
a loving Father in whom rests all our good. These virtues have for
their object, as has been said, the union and possession of God, and
they effect, as much as is possible in this life, the operations which
arc characteristic of eternity.
Charity ever remains the same. It is certain that faith presents God
to us, but remotely and in a veiled manner. It permits us to see Him
only enigmatically, through symbols and representations or human
analogies. Yet faith is perfected by the gifts of understanding,
science, and wisdom, by which the divine Reality is attained,
touched, and tasted. Hope, as a tendency to something still afar off,
disappears on the arrival at the goal and is exchanged for full joy and
possession, as faith is exchanged for the face-to-face vision. But for
the present, hope serves us as a firm anchor, cast into the interior of
heaven, so that the tempests of this life cannot separate us from
God.29
The moral virtues are reduced to the four cardinal virtues because
on them all the others hinge and in them all the others are contained.
“There are four virtues,” says St. Augustine, “which should direct
our life. . . . The first is called prudence, and it enables us to dis­
tinguish good from evil. The second is justice, by which we render
to each what is his due. The third, temperance, by which we restrain
28 Terrien, op. cit., I, 292: “The complete principle of operation is not grace
alone, nor nature alone, but nature transformed and vivified by grace. In a word,
it is the rational nature divinized. ‘Yet not I, but the grace of God with me’ (I Cor.
15:10).”
28 Heb. 6:19: “The hope . . . which we have, as an anchor of the soul, sure and
firm, and which entcreth in even within the veil.”

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our passions. The fourth, fortitude, which makes us capable of en­
during hardships. These virtues are given to us by God together
with grace in this vale of tears.” 80 So we have seven principal infused
virtues to which there corresponds a like number of gifts of the Holy
Ghost.
2. THE THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES

That the three theological virtues are divinely infused is indis­
putable, for the Council of Trent has so declared.81 Further, as St.
Thomas points out,82 in order to tend properly to our supernatural
end, we must know it, desire it, and love it. This desire implies the
firm confidence of obtaining it, a confidence founded on the divine
promises known to us by faith. Therefore, according to the Council
of Trent, faith is the principle and foundation of our salvation:
“Faith is the beginning of human salvation, the foundation and root
of all justification, without which it is impossible to please God and
to come to the fellowship of His sons.” 83 The Apostle calls faith
“the substance of things to be hoped for.” 84
Without the light of faith, the movement toward eternal life
would not be connatural to us, free, and autonomous, because we do
not rationally move except to that which is in some way known to
us. And since faith pertains to things that exceed our natural capacity,
it must be infused in us supernaturally as are also the firm con­
fidence with which we hope for those things and the invincible love
with which we strive for them. Yet, since that knowledge is made
connatural to us, it is expressed in a human manner; that is, through
images, representations, and analogies. It is enigmatic and not intui­
tive, as will be the knowledge in glory. Therefore faith will vanish
in heaven and give place to the face-to-face vision; yet here on earth
it is not so intimately bound up with grace that it cannot exist with­
out it. Faith remains in sinners, but it is a dead or unformed faith.
It is a weak light which cannot shine forth from within because it
lacks grace, which is its life-giving source. Its light is produced en•

80 tn Ps. 83, no. ii.
81 Sess. VI, can. 7.
82 De veritate in comm., a. 12.
83 Loc. cit., can. 8.
84 Heb. 11:1.
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tirely from without by the divine Spirit who, without dwelling in
t he soul and without inflaming the heart, continually enlightens the
intellect in order to direct it to the good and to establish the hope of
the recovery of grace and the practice of good works.
Thus these two supernatural virtues that remain in a sinner as
pledges of the goodness and mercy with which God invites him
anew to salvation, prepare him for the recovery of grace, if he does
not resist. But by these two virtues alone he cannot be saved, for the
simple reason that they are dead. Indeed, they give good grounds for
a terrible condemnation if the soul does not strive to revive them.
“And that servant who knew the will of his Lord, and prepared not
himself and did not according to his will, shall be beaten with many
stripes.” 35
This unformed faith presents God very remotely and not as the
internal principle of life. Yet at the same time it shows Him as the
greatest good, not only lovable and extremely desirable in Himself,
but attainable through His many helps. Thus it excites the soul to desire Him truly and to confide in His infinite goodness. If the errant
soul is docile to these promptings and adjusts its conduct to the
( iospel norms; if it does not resist grace (which God will not refuse
as long as the soul places no obstacle in the way), but pleads for it
as is fitting, then that grace will actually be infused and in such wise
that God will vivify those inclinations and make them efficacious by
t he heat of charity. Then, when charity inflames, impels, urges, and
attracts the soul forcibly to God as the only center of all its aspira­
tions, the soul will truly advance and even run toward glory.
Possessing charity, we are already in God and tie in us. There­
fore it is the greatest of all the virtues,38 because it makes us possess
God as the King of our hearts and unites us to Him in such a fashion
that this loving union will be eternal if we ourselves, through our
malice, do not destroy it.37 Even natural death, which breaks all
other bonds, cannot break the bond of charity. Rather it tightens
it, strengthens it, and makes it indissoluble. Charity of itself has
88 Luke 12:47.
86 See I Cor. 13.
87 See la llae, q.66, a. 6: “In this way charity is greater than the others. Because
the others, in their very nature, imply a certain distance from the object; since
faith is of what is not seen, and hope is of what is not possessed.”

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nothing of imperfection which can make it, like faith and hope, the
virtue of the wayfarers alone. It pertains both to the wayfarers and
to the blessed.
So it is that there can be in the world many souls, hidden and ob­
scure, who possess a deep charity, and because of that charity are
greater lovers of God and more loved by Him than many of the
angels and saints in heaven. However, these latter cannot now lose
charity because they have reached the fullness of their respective
evolution. But since they have reached their terminus, they can no
longer increase their charity. In us, on the other hand, charity can be
either lost or increased. Therefore we should increase it by ceaseless
use or else expose ourselves to losing it entirely.38
Charity is the measure of sanctity and grace and the focal point of
all spiritual activity that is meritorious of life.39 Since it is a sort of
emanation from uncreated love Himself in whom the divine Persons
are loved, charity is a virtue which is proper, not to men, but to
gods.40
88 St. Augustine, Trad. 5 in Epist. Joan.: “Charity is born to be perfected; there­
fore, as soon as it is born, it is nourished; when nourished, it is strengthened; when
it is strengthened, it is perfected; and when it reaches its perfection, what can be
said of it? ‘For me, to live is Christ; to die is gain.’ ”
38 Gardeil, op. cit., pp. 4-6: “In this word ‘charity’ we find our entire supernatural
psychology concentrated. . . . The theological virtue of charity is, as it were, the
point of penetration by which God, already dwelling in the essence of the soul,
spreads over its power, and from this center fie directs the operations of the infused
virtues. It is through the heart, where there is gathered all that is unfolded in the
activity of man, that God begins the deification of our intellect and will. . . . The
supernatural virtues, on the contrary, are established in our faculties at a single
stroke. God, infinitely powerful, dispenses with human activity which can do
nothing in this regard, and inserts these divine graftings on the pristine native stock
supplied by our nature. Sustained in being by the power from which it draws sap,
the infused virtue transforms its activity. . . . Charity, so far as it is the proper
effect of the Holy Ghost, surpasses all other virtues. ... In fact, the infused virtues,
as faith and hope, prudence and justice, fortitude and temperance, operate under
the influence of divine love. That is to say, that the Spirit of God, the soul of our
charity, finds in these virtues channels by which He may spread the love which
He inspires in the hearts of the just through all the parts of man, intellect or will,
and even the passions themselves.”
St. Augustine, De moribus Eccl., chap. 15: “Virtue is the order of love. . . .
Whence it is fitting to define temperance as the love of God keeping one entire
and incorrupt; fortitude as love readily enduring all things for God; justice, serving
God alone and thereby commanding well those things which pertain to men; pru­
dence, correctly discerning those things which will lead to God or impede progress
to Him.”
40 St. Thomas, Quaest. un. de carit., a. 2, ad 311m: “Charity is not a virtue of man
as man, but so far as he is God through participation in grace.”

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Through these three virtues which are called theological we arc
made participants in the vital activity of God, just as through grace
we are made participants in the divine Being.41 By them we are diI ccted with ease to our supernatural ultimate end and we are en­
abled to fulfill our principal obligations.
3.

THE MORAL VIRTUES

But here, as in all things else, we still need direction concerning the
means conducive to that ultimate end and the equipment for fulfill­
ing our other obligations toward our neighbors and ourselves. This
is effected by the moral virtues which guide the whole activity of
our life, and in a more special manner, this guidance comes from the
cardinal virtues, which are the nucleus of all the others. Thus, as the
ihree theological virtues direct our intellect and our heart to God,
Christian prudence directs us in regard to ourselves and our neigh­
bors, so that we may know in particular cases what is to be done or
omitted. We are thus able to treat others as God wishes them to be
treated. Justice induces us to give to each what is his due. Fortitude
and temperance enable us to triumph over the strategies of our three
enemies, the world and the flesh and the devil, and to overcome the
obstacles that would impede us from pursuing our journey toward
heaven.
To these four principal virtues are subordinated other partial or
secondary moral virtues which contribute, each in its own way, to
the regulation and sanctification of the more minute details of our
lives. Among these, the principal ones are piety and religion, which,
as parts of justice, teach us to deal with our neighbors as brothers and
to give to God, our Father and Lord, the worship due Him.42 But
all these virtues, in order to contribute to our sanctification, must be
supernatural and therefore infused. Otherwise they could not pro­
duce those fruits of life that surpass the powers of pure nature.

4.

NECESSITY OF ACQUIRED AND INFUSED MORAL VIRTUES

Because of the parallel between the moral virtues which direct the
supernatural life and the other virtues of the same name which regu41 See la Ilae, q. 110, a. 4.
42 Lallemant, Spiritual Doctrine, IV, chap. 5, art. 5: “Religion and piety both lead
us to the worship and service of God; but religion considers Him as Creator, and
piety as a Father: and in this the latter is more excellent than the former.”

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late human life and which can be acquired even by the pagans
through the simple repetition of acts, some theologians (Scotus, for
example) thought that it was not necessary for the Christian to be
infused with new virtues which seem to have the same objects as
the natural virtues. Such theologians maintained that it would suffice
that these natural virtues, even though acquired by our own efforts,
be informed by divine charity, which would then make their opera­
tions meritorious of eternal life.
Although charity does sanctify all our actions, however small, and
makes them meritorious, yet if these acts flow from a natural prin­
ciple, then they do not cease to be intrinsically natural. And, if nat­
ural, they are of themselves disproportionate to the supernatural end
and incapable of producing effects which are properly divine.
Therefore, although it is not contained in an express definition of
the Church, the doctrine generally admitted today is that, in addition
to the moral virtues naturally acquired, there are other infused vir­
tues which bear the same name. Although these virtues appear to
have the same objects materially, their objects are nevertheless
formally distinct, and therefore the infused virtues produce acts of
a transcendent order. So St. Augustine teaches in the passage already
quoted. So also does Scripture teach us, when speaking of the effects
of wisdom: “for she teacheth temperance and prudence and justice
and fortitude, which are such things as men can have nothing more
profitable in life.” 43 Similar indications can be found also in other
scriptural passages.44 The Catechism of St. Pius V, which is highly
esteemed in the Church, says that with grace the noble cortege of
the virtues is divinely infused into the soul.45
It is necessary, as St. Thomas states, that effects be proportionate
to their causes and that there be a harmony between the supernatural
and the natural. Therefore, just as the moral virtues naturally ac­
quired for the direction of our life are contained in germ in the
principles of our rational faculties, so also in the order of grace,
where, instead of natural principles, we have the infused theological
virtues, it is necessary that there be contained other infused habits
which have for their object the supernaturalizing of our whole moral
*’ Wisd. 8:7.
44 See Prov. 8:14; Gal. 5:22 f.; II Pet. 1:4-7.
46 Part II, De baptismo, no. 51.
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life and the production of acts intrinsically directed to eternal life.·"'
In other words, we need certain virtuous habits that will be to the
theological virtues what human habits are to the natural principles
from which they proceed. Only in this way can our entire moral
life be deified.
Since the human virtues are in no way proportionate to the the­
ological, Terrien states that any other explanation would result in
"the oddity of a man transfigured in his being and made deiform by
pi .ice and yet incompletely deified in his moral life. Man’s moral life
should also manifest the dignity of the sons of God, but in this in­
stance it would be excluded from that glorious transformation, for
i he immediate principles of the moral life would be purely natural,
.is happens in the case of sinners. ... If the sons of men have their
own proper virtues, should not a son of God also have virtues peculiar
to his new status? Being supernaturalized by faith, hope, and charity
in regard to his movement to the ultimate end, should he not also
In supernaturalized in regard to his movement to the proximate and
intermediate ends which are so indispensably connected with char­
ily? Reclothed as he is in a new entity which makes him a god, it is
necessary that man’s moral life correspond to that being and proceed
I l oin principles which transcend purely natural activity.” 4T
Since “by grace God gives us a new being by which we are reborn
to a new and divine life,” says Scaramelli, “He ought also to give us
not only the infused habits of the theological virtues, but also the
infused moral virtues. It is expedient that this supernaturalized nature
he equipped with the potencies and powers by which a man can
exercise connaturally, as it were, the acts that are proportionate to
the nobility of his being.” 48
'Therefore in the good Christian there must be two orders of the
moral virtues. First, those purely human virtues which are acquired
by the repetition of acts and which regulate his life in accordance
with the norm of reason alone; secondly, those virtues that are not
acquired but are supernatural and infused by God with grace. These
latter are also conserved and developed together with grace, but
when grace is lost, so are they also lost. The infused moral virtues44
*
44 Cf. la Ilae, q.63, a.3.
47 Terrien, op. cit., I, 163.
48 Direttorio mistico, I, no. 51.

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regulate the Christian life according to the norm of supernaturalized
reason, that is, the norm illuminated by faith and taught by the
Gospel.
These virtues, since they are infused, are not acquired by our own
efforts; nor do we cooperate in their reception save by the accept­
ance of them. Yet, since they are planted in us as a seed or in a
virtual state, it is our duty to cultivate and develop them by proper
use and by means of the watering of divine grace. We also root them
within ourselves more firmly by struggling against difficulties. Be­
ginning as they do in an embryonic stage, although they are even
more real than the other virtues, yet they do not exclude the opposite
habits or the difficulty entailed in their use. Therefore it is necessary
that they be organically formed through exercise and struggle; and
this is effected as the spirit more and more subjects the flesh and
builds up other virtuous habits which are incompatible with vicious
tendencies.
Although these infused virtues have the same material object as
the acquired virtues, they transfigure that object and give it a new
being by the very fact that they have an origin, end, power, and
mode of working that are very superior and of a distinct order. The
habits acquired by our own industry do not confer any new power
but merely give, with the contracted habit, a greater facility in doing
good in conformity with the order of reason. But the supernatural
virtues infused by God give us an entirely new power by which the
efficacy of our natural energies is increased and transformed. In this
way we are able to produce connaturally the fruits of eternal life.
To substantiate this fact, we need merely to point out the differ­
ence in the operations of these two classes of moral virtues. Human
prudence, so often associated with worldly prudence or prudence of
the flesh, leads to death, but Christian prudence is always united to
the Spirit, who is life and peace.48 Natural justice gives to each His
own; Christian justice gives good for evil or in double measure. Nat­
ural fortitude, attentive to human appraisals, seeks to overcome cer­
tain difficulties which impede the fulfillment of duty; Christian
fortitude, without any other appraisal than that of the glory of God,
enables one to perform the most difficult enterprises, and seeks thus
to triumph over all enemies, even that enemy which dissimulates
Rom. 8:6.

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most: self-love.50 Finally, human temperance tends to maintain the
i quilibrium of natural health and the necessary subordination of the
ippctitcs to reason. Christian temperance, as ordained to eternal sal­
vation, is not content with moderating the gross pleasures of the
iiniinal man, but repels and disdains them. It is not satisfied with gov­
erning the body; it castigates it and reduces it to servitude 51 until
proud reason has been subjugated and rendered docile to the Spirit.52
Speaking of Christian temperance, Terrien says that “its delights
arc found in the Cross and its object is angelic purity. To live in the
lit sh as if there were no flesh; this is the temperance of the sons of
( iod. Certain it is that to arrive at such renunciation, they must have
μ course to charity, for only souls possessed of divine love can per­
it mn such heroic acts. But, although love directs such acts, it is not
love alone that produces them, for each of the virtues has its proper
object.” 63
( Inly these virtues can teach souls that wisdom which is not over­
come by evil54 and which is not found in the land of them that live
in delights.65 They are proper only to just Christians, whereas the
11,11 ural virtues can be possessed by sinners and pagans. Indeed, it
■., < ins that sinners and pagans can practice the natural virtues with
even greater perfection or with less difficulty than do many of the
newly justified faithful or those who live lukewarmly. Whence it is
i Imi some impious persons glory in the fact that they possess cerι,ιίη human virtues in a more perfect degree, apparently, than many
good Catholics. This is sometimes the cause of pharasaical scandal
or “scandal of the little ones.”
1’he infused virtues neither replace nor supplant the natural vir­
tues, but they presuppose them or work to the acquisition of them
in order to perfect, complete, and transform them. Consequently
these infused virtues do not obviate the labor entailed in the acquisi­
tion of the natural moral virtues, a labor that is always painful; but
i hey impose it more forcefully at the same time that they give us the
"" St. Gregory, Moral., VII, chap. 9: “The fortitude of the just consists in govern,< !' the flesh, restraining self-will, extinguishing love of this world, and disdaining
ihc pleasures of the earth.”
»> See I Cor. 9:27.
See II Cor. 10:5; la Ilae, q.63, a.4.
"" Terrien, op. cit., I, 165.
M Wisd. 7:30.
"“Job 28:13.

1’3

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

strength to bear it. He who does not truly try to acquire and con­
solidate the natural virtues is much disposed to lose the supernatural
virtues, together with grace.50 Thus, hardened sinners, when they are
converted, receive the supernatural virtues by infusion, but not the
natural virtues. To develop and make fruitful the former (since they
are received only in seed), they must exert themselves to acquire the
latter by the laborious and continual repetition of acts. The acquired
moral virtues will then serve as a support and a defense for overcom­
ing difficulties and for destroying contrary vices.
So it is that some of the unfaithful can perform certain acts of hu­
man virtues with greater facility than many of the just who are but
little advanced and who have not as yet tried to uproot evil habits.
These habits are not rooted out except by the contrary acts by which
the virtues are acquired and strengthened. Those sou's, therefore,
who before their conversion received a good training in which they
cultivated many virtuous habits, find later on that they are able to
practice good with more facility than those who receive grace in a
coarse, base nature which is full of evil tendencies.
With grace and the infused virtues is given to us the power to con­
quer evil inclinations until we overwhelm and scatter them by force
of combat; but generally, even though they are deadened, they are
not entirely uprooted until we have resisted them for a long time.
They are completely destroyed only by the performance of the op­
posite good acts whereby the habit of the natural virtues is acquired
and the infused supernatural virtues are increased. Under these cir7
cumstances both the natural and the supernatural virtues increase at
the same time.
It follows from this that the greater part of one’s time, especially
in the beginning of the purgative way, must be spent in rooting out
vices and implanting the natural virtues in order to ensure progress
in the supernatural virtues. But the vices often reappear, even after
they seem to have been uprooted, and vitiated nature finds on all
sides new seeds of corruption. Also, human virtues can always be in­
creased and strengthened in order to work more perfectly and to
overcome greater difficulties. Therefore throughout one’s spiritual
life there is always need to correct the defects of nature and to
perfect it in its own order at the same time that it is elevated and
66 See Interior Castle, seventh mansions, chap. i.

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perfected by the supernatural virtues and is integrated and trans­
figured by the continual influxes of divine grace.
With the help of grace, a person can eventually re-establish him'.clf in his primitive integrity at the same time that he is enriched and
deified. Without grace the true perfection of natural virtue is absoliitely impossible, for only the divine Physician of souls can cure
i he wounds and restore full health to the poor nature of Adam, fallen
ns it is.
That is why there can be no more perfect men than there are
perfect Christians. As St. Augustine says,57 to live as perfect men, we
must be sons of God. The children of this world, however well and
easily they seem to practice certain virtues, always vitiate them with
hidden defects, usually presumption and vainglory. However good
and incorrupt they may seem to be, they are still whitened sepulchers.
I n the great conversions, as that of St. Augustine, the supernatural
virtues are communicated in a very high degree and with an
abundance of grace, so that they make easy and delightful the prac­
tice of good and the avoidance of evil. But, although the vices are
deadened and made to appear abominable, as was the case with St.
Augustine, they are not completely uprooted until one experiences
i he great struggles. These usually follow the first sensible fervors,
because inveterate vices, as we have said, are not usually destroyed
except by the repetition of contrary acts, which produce the corI csponding habit of the natural virtue. Also, since this habit of nat­
ural virtue can be acquired up to a certain point without grace, it is
not lost with the loss of grace as happens in the case of the super­
natural virtues.
Another consequence is that Christians somewhat advanced in
perfection, if they have the misfortune to fall into serious sin, on
recovering themselves and rising through penance, do not usually
find such difficulties in the practice of good as they felt in the begin­
ning of their spiritual life. In spite of their fall, they retain the good
natural habits which they have already acquired. Since these ac­
quired habits are closely united with the supernatural virtues (which
ought to inform them to such an extent that there seems to be one
principle of activity), it is often difficult for us to discern whether a
certain action is natural or supernatural; whether it is ordained
’T Epist. 2 contra Pelag., I, no. 5.

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simply to a human end and produced by a human principle, or
whether it is informed by some infused virtue and directed to some­
thing divine. All the Christian virtues, when connaturalized in us,
are exercised in a human manner under the rule of reason and with­
out our being conscious of the divine element. Yet this divine element must inform the rule of reason so that our actions may be
worthy of eternal life.
The Gifts of

the

Holy Ghost

So far as he is rational, man is master of his acts and, within his
own sphere of activity, can determine to do one thing or another.58
Therefore his actions have a moral aspect because they are free. But
free will is not of itself a sufficient guaranty to ensure his procedure
in all things with the desired rectitude. That a man’s faculties may
be directed to good in such a way that they can practice it promptly,
continually, and with facility, they must be perfected by the respec­
tive virtuous habits which make them docile to the rule of reason. In
the natural order, this is effected by the acquired virtues; in the
supernatural order, it is effected by the infused virtues. Thus reason,
either alone or illumined by faith and directed by Christian prudence,
is the mover and regulator of our moral life, whether that life is
purely human or whether it is Christain (in the ordinary sense and in
contradistinction to the spiritual or “pneumatic” life).
I. COMPARISON OF THE GIFTS AND THE VIRTUES

In the ordinary Christian life—“psychic” life as it is sometimes
called—the theological virtues direct us to God as our ultimate end.
Infused prudence enables us to regulate our particular acts accord­
ing to a just mean. The remaining infused virtues perfect, complete,
and transform the natural virtues so that, under the ceaseless influx
of grace, we can proceed in all rectitude, in peace with our brothers
and ourselves, overcoming all obstacles which impede our advance
to heaven.
In spite of the grace of God which inundates us from within and
without and which vivifies us and in spite of the many virtues and
e8 Cf. la Ilae, q.9, a. 4, ad 311m.

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divine powers or impulses which fortify us in the performance of
good, it is our reason that seems to control our progress, presiding as
mistress over the whole course of our life. God truly abides as a
loving Father and as King and Lord in the core of our souls, which
nie His living temples, and He vivifies them by His grace. But His
loving presence is hidden from the gaze of our consciousness just as
our own soul is hidden. Even His activity is concealed from us in the
infused virtues, which have been grafted upon our souls to be used as
our very own.
I lence, even when we are filled with life and divine energies, we
cannot, without a special revelation,58 know with certitude whether
we are deserving of love or hate;60 whether we are in the state of
11 race or at enmity with God. Man does not know this, but only the
Spirit who penetrates all things and can, if He pleases, give testimony
of this truth.61 We can have only moral certitude of this fact by
reason of our tranquillity of conscience, our horror of sin, our love
of virtue, sacrifice, and holy things, our conformity with the divine
will, our resignation to the dispositions of Providence, etc.62 But un­
less God divinely demonstrates it to us, we cannot know with cerlainty that we possess Him.
11c dwells in us not only as a hidden God (Isa. 45:15), but as a
( i'od who is the prisoner of love. We can make use of His gifts and
I limself, together with the graces and virtues which He communi­
cates to us, as if they were our own. According to the vital expres­
sion of St. Thomas, the Holy Ghost is given us in the very gift of
sanctifying grace so that we may freely enjoy His benefits.63 So it
is that we can use such treasures without adverting to the fact that
we possess them.
Speaking of this presence of the Holy Ghost within us with
sanctifying grace, Father Gardeil says:
•° Council of Trent, Sess. VI, can. 9. See la llae, q. 112, a. 5.
·" Eccles. 9: t.
·' See 1 Cor. 1:10-12; Rom. 8:16.
St. Thomas, Opusc. 60, De humanitate Christi, chap. 24: “The primary indica­
tion that one is in the grace of God is the testimony of conscience (II Cor. 1:12).
I he second is the hearing of the word of God, not merely to listen, but to do;
whence (John 8:47): ‘He that is of God, heareth the words of God.’ . . . The third
Mgn is an internal taste for divine wisdom which is a certain foretaste of future
happiness.”
08 Cf. la, q.43, a. 3.

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First, then, we must answer that charity and the infused virtues are
really and properly active virtues. Now, the active virtues essentially
appertain to the perfection of the active human powers; and the Holy
Ghost, dwelling within through charity, acts in us according to the man­
ner of the human virtues, adapting Himself to the mode of action of
our human faculties.
The just man, enriched with the supernatural virtues, remains the true
and principal author of his supernatural operations. He alone directs
the movements of his intellect and heart; his reason continues as the
head of his entire supernatural psychology. As a fire unconsciously
warming the heart, the Holy Ghost is strongly but sweetly spread abroad
in the faculties through the virtues, or as a hidden light, illuminating
without revealing its source. It is “the fountain of life, the fire, the
charity, and spiritual unction.” This changes nothing in the ordinary
functioning of our inner world, though everything is changed in regard
to the end toward which our activity tends and the vigor employed in
aspiring to it. Such is the role of the Holy Spirit inasfar as His actions
are performed by the virtues.64

If the Holy Ghost did not assist us with His gifts, He would not
be the immediate regulator of our supernatural life. From this arises
the obscurity of our faith and the imperfection of our charity which
is ruled by that obscure knowledge. So the Holy Ghost desires to be­
come a prisoner of the imperfections of our love. Father Gardeil
continues:
If the theological virtues are regulated by man’s narrow and limited
mode of comprehension, with more reason this should be true in regard
to the infused moral virtues. But the rational nature of man places the
perfection of morals in a just mean, equally removed from the extremes
of excess and default which may be found in the matter of his activity,
whether this activity be either exterior actions or interior passions.
The loftiness of the supernatural end can raise the level of this just mode.
It will not hinder it from consisting in the adaptation of human actions
and passions to the supernatural end, which adaptation requires the
reduction of the possible excesses of these human acts to the just pro­
portion which makes them apt to reach their end. To find this just mean
in relation to the divine end marked out by faith, desired by hope and
willed by charity, is the rule of infused Prudence. To realize the just
mean already determined by infused Prudence in the domain of volunThe Gifte of the Holy Ghost, pp. 7 f.

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i ii v acts or the passions will be the roles of the infused virtues of Justice,
f ortitude, and Temperance. Here again the Holy Ghost seems to sift
through a sieve the brilliance of His action. Our entire practical moral
order is governed by prudence as the order of conscience and the in­
tentions was regulated by faith.
Thus it is apparent that obscurity and the just mean are the human
veils under which the activity of the Holy Ghost is hidden.05

Yet, the Holy Ghost does not always hide His activity thus, for
charity frequently moves Him to manifest His generous hand and
even to disclose Elis divine face. Even when our poor reason pos­
sesses this noble assortment and glorious exercise of the supernatural
virtues, it is not sufficient to guide us securely to the port. Nor is it
sufficient to remove the most serious obstacles, to conquer extraor­
dinary difficulties, or to discover and avoid the hidden snares which
our astute enemies lay for us at all times. Much less is human reason
able to raise us up to the sublime summits of perfection where the
splendors of eternal light shine forth.
But the loving Consoler, who ordinarily dwells in us in a hidden
manner, vivifying us with Elis grace and inflaming us with Elis love,
is able and desires to remedy our inherent weakness, to supply for
our deficiencies and to correct our ignorance. All this He does by
inspiring, moving, prompting, advising, dissuading, nourishing, and
restraining us; by teaching us to pray and to work as we ought; by
pleading for us and working in and through us. And Ele does all
i his wherever and whenever He wishes throughout the course of
our spiritual life. We experience His sweet breathing and delicate
impulse without actually adverting to who it is that comes to us or
whence He leads us.
The Eloly Ghost can and sometimes does (when Ele so desires or
when circumstances demand) take the reins of our government di­
rectly into His own hands. At such times He supplants, with great
profit to us, the direction and norm of our reason. He manifests Him­
self more or less clearly, not now as imprisoned in our charity, but as
I le really is and as Holy Church acclaims Him, the true Lord and
Vivifier who desires to work through us as so many organs of Him­
self, just as Ele willed to speak through the holy prophets. He does
this with some earlier, with others later, all according to His divine
66 Op. cit., pp. 9 f.

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good pleasure. But we can safely say that He does so quasi-normally
when human direction, remaining faithful to Elis grace, has already
given of itself as much as it can give and has arrived as far as the
lights and divine forces which it has assimilated will enable it to go.
At that point there will be a certain degree of union, called the union
of conformity and, to arrive at greater perfection, it will be neces­
sary that He Himself move and direct the soul.ee
2. THE GIFTS AND THE MYSTICAL LIFE

When the soul arrives at that happy state in which it has broken
the bonds of its passions and all other earthly chains which bind it,
it begins to enjoy the sweet liberty of the sons of God. It then lives
entirely according to the Spirit and has no desire other than that of
divine things. Dead to self and completely submissive to God, it
realizes with happy surprise that it is now living a higher type of
life and that God, who deigns to accept the sincere and total aban­
donment which the soul has repeatedly made to Him, is now in
loving and absolute control and possession. In this state, the soul
experiences certain violent and sweet impulses, which carry it along
without its knowing where, but surely to some height for which ordiee Surin, Catéchisme spirit., I, chap, i : “The perfect man is he who, having
acquired great purity of heart and a true union and familiarity with God, faith­
fully follows the movements of grace and the direction of the Holy Ghost.”
St. John of the Cross (The Living Elame, stanza IV, no. 14) says: “Where He
dwells with the greatest content and most completely alone is in the soul wherein
dwell fewest desires and pleasures of its own; for here He is in His own house and
rules and governs it. And the more completely alone does He dwell in the soul, the
more secretly He dwells; and thus in this soul wherein dwells no desire, neither
any other image or form of aught that is created, the Beloved dwells most secretly,
with more intimate, more interior and closer embrace, according as the soul, as
we say, is the purer and more completely withdrawn from all save God. . . . But
this is not always so when these awakenings take place, for then it seems to the soul
that He is now awakening in its bosom, where aforetime He was, as it were, sleep­
ing; for, although it felt and enjoyed His presence, it experienced it as that of the
Beloved asleep in its bosom; . . . Oh, how happy is this soul that is ever conscious
of God resting and reposing within its breast! Oh, how well it is that it should
withdraw from all things, flee from business and live in boundless tranquillity, lest
anything, however small, or the slightest turmoil, should disturb or turn away the
bosom of the Beloved within it! He is there, habitually, as it were, asleep in this
embrace with the bride, in the substance of the soul; and of this the soul is quite
conscious, and habitually has fruition of Him, for, if He were forever awake within
it, communicating knowledge and love to it, it would be already living in glory.
... In other souls, that have not attained to this union, He dwells, secretly likewise;
and He is not displeased, since after all they are in grace, though they are not yet
perfectly prepared for union. Such souls are not as a rule conscious of His presence.”
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n.iry light, force, and direction are insufficient. It senses certain loving
inspirations which cut and sweetly wound the soul like so many
penetrating darts of divine fire, which heal and vivify at the same
ume that they burn, destroying by their heat whatever remains of
worldliness.
The soul then finds itself impelled to fly without even knowing
whether it has wings. In the straits and afflictions in which it finds
U self, it desires with a great anxiety, and understanding is given it.
I he soul calls out, and the Spirit of Wisdom hovers over it. PreferI ing 1 lim to all the kingdoms and riches of the world (Wisd. 7:7 f.),
i he soul soon perceives that this good Spirit of God will lead it to
the port of salvation (Ps. 142:10), and that He will vivify it and
teach it to do the divine will in all thino-s.
o
Where formerly the soul asked for wings of a dove to fly and be
it rest, it now perceives that there is given to it much more than was
isked, for it now discovers that it is filled with fortitude and is
equipped with other wings, even more vigorous, so that it rises like
in eagle to the lofty and serene regions of divine light and flies
higher and higher without tiring, living completely engulfed in the
ethereal region of infinite delights.®7
But to attain this, the soul must experience that mystical metamor­
phosis which is a transformation so prodigious that it entirely renews
the soul and penetrates its very depths. The soul is thus changed
I torn a creeping caterpillar, which moves so slowly and laboriously
.ind feeds on earthly things, into an agile butterfly, brilliant and airy,
which can be nourished by nothing but the most exquisite nectar of
i he virtues, for it is animated now by instincts that are entirely
celestial.®8
07 Isa. 40:31: “But they that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall
lake wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
118 Interior Castle, fifth mansions, chap. 2: “It sets no store by the things it did
when it was a worm—that is, by its gradual weaving of the cocoon. It has wings
now: how can it be content to crawl along slowly when it is able to fly? All that it
i in do for God seems to it slight by comparison with its desires. It even attaches
little importance to what the saints endured, knowing by experience how the Lord
helps and transforms a soul, so that it seems no longer to be itself, or even its own
likeness. For the weakness which it used to think it had when it came to doing
penance is now turned into strength. It is no longer bound by ties of relationship,
Iriendship, or property. Previously all its acts of will and resolutions and desires
were powerless to loosen these and seemed only to bind them the more firmly; now
it is grieved at having even to fulfill its obligations in these respects lest these should
cause it to sin against God. Everything wearies it, because it has proved that it can

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This beautiful comparison by St. Teresa helps us better to under­
stand the mystery effected in the soul which abandons, or through
some vital power finds itself forced to abandon, the norms of reason
for those of the Spirit. Such a soul is entirely made like to Christ and
exchanges the image of the earthly man for that of a heavenly one so
as to live entirely in accord with the latter and not at all with the
former.09
This renewal is prepared for in the night of the senses wherein
the senses are gradually subjected to the rule of reason, and the higher
impulses of the Holy Ghost are noted with greater frequency. But
when this divine breathing ceases (which happens often and some­
times for a long period), the soul, abandoned by the Spirit of God,
weakens and finds itself forced to return to its ordinary creeping life.
Once again it has to walk on foot, aided only by the virtues and di­
rected by the obscure light of faith and the rules of prudence. But
then the Spirit breathes again, and the soul finds itself created anew,
and the face of its heart is renewed.*68
70 When this renewal is complete,
find no true rest in the creatures. ... It is not surprising, then that, as this little
butterfly feels a stranger to things of the earth, it should be seeking a new resting
place. But where will the poor little creature go? . . . Ah, Lord! What trials begin
afresh for this soul! Who would think such a thing possible after it had received so
signal a favour? But, after all, we must bear crosses in one way or another for as
long as we live. And if anyone told me that after reaching this state he had enjoyed
continual rest and joy, I should say that he had not reached it at all. . . . Oh, the
greatness of God! Only a few years since—perhaps only a few days—this soul was
thinking of nothing but itself. Who has plunged it into such grievous anxieties?”
68 Surin, Catéchisme, I, chap. 7: “The soul which is transformed in Jesus Christ
presents an entirely new creature similar to the resurrected man, with his new
instincts and operations and the rehabilitation of all his faculties. God inundates all
the powers of such a soul, even the inferior ones, and He fills it with His gifts in
such wise that the body is, as it were, embalmed and the whole man lives a heavenly
life. The imagination is filled with supernatural phantasms; the appetites, with the
divine impulses which the Holy Ghost communicates. The intellect is radiant with
light; the memory is occupied with divine things; and the will is a burning brazier
which keeps the body agile and docile to the Spirit. Such is the condition of man in
this divine transformation. His virtues are clearly manifest; faith is elevated, hope
is vital, and charity is flaming; the moral virtues are divinized, and there is nothing
of earth in this man. . . . The principle of the divine operations thus effected in the
soul is the Holy Ghost, who works in it through His gifts. These gifts supplant the
natural instincts, which are, in a certain sense, annihilated by grace. The Spirit
impresses on them all their movements. The subjects of these operations are the
interior faculties, but, animated as they are by the Holy Ghost, they remain outside
themselves and under the complete control of the Spirit who moves and vivifies
them, using them as instruments, yet not dead ones, but living.”
T0Ps. 103:29!.

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i · happens after the passage through the great darkness, the sweet
breathing of the Holy Ghost refreshes the soul continually, and the
< 11 rient of the river of His living w’ater beautifies forever this city
of God wherein the Most High has sanctified His dwelling place,
never more to abandon it.71 As at the beginning of creation, so now
i he loving Spirit broods over the black chaos and makes the divine
light shine forth in the soul.
I'o realize in full this happy transit by which the soul passes to
such a new and happy life, it must withdraw, whether it wishes or
not, into the mystic cocoon which is woven in the obscure night of
the spirit, where, amid the most formidable darkness, the soul is
inert, immovable, and incapable of any self-initiative. There it dies
totally to self and revives to God. It is buried there with Jesus Christ
and, though it appears to be destroyed and to undergo a total dissolution, actually it is ceaselessly acquiring new divine energies. In the
measure in which it loses the traces of its earthly operations, it de­
velops new spiritual organs which must now be actuated continually
and led entirely and directed completely by the divine Spirit. Thus
i he soul, though it appears to be a slave, proceeds always with the
i rue liberty of the sons of God.
Those who arc thus actuated and guided by the Spirit of God, are
I lis faithful children.72 And in order that, under the holy impulses
of His prudence, they may not resist, even unwittingly, those im­
pulses of the Holy Ghost, they must be completely reduced to that
painful incapacity for all things. Thus, amid mortal agony they be­
come fully renewed and are made truly spiritual—pneumatics.
St. John of the Cross says:
Therefore, O spiritual soul, when thou seest thy desire obscured, thy
affections arid and constrained, and thy faculties bereft of their capacity
for any interior exercise, be not afflicted by this, but rather consider it
a great happiness, since God is freeing thee from thyself and taking the
work from thy hands. For with those hands, howsoever well they may
serve thee, thou wouldst never labor so effectively, so perfectly and so
securely (because of their clumsiness and uncleanness) as now, when
God takes thy hand and guides thee in the darkness, as though thou wert
71 Ps. 45:5 f.
72 Rom. 8:14-21.

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blind, to an end and by a way which thou knowest not. Nor couldst
thou ever hope to travel with the aid of thine own eyes and feet, how­
soever good thou mayest be as a walker.”

If we are to follow with docility the rule of Christian reason, we
must be equipped with the habits of the whole array of the moral
virtues, both acquired and infused. Moreover, in order not to oppose
but to accept worthily the motion and direction of the Holy Ghost,
we need, as St. Thomas states, other habits which are superior to
these and proportionate to the Spirit.74 Such are His gifts, which
dispose us to receive His ineffable impulses, inspirations, and
promptings and enable us to cooperate with them and put them into
practice.78

3.

NECESSITY OF THE MOTION AND PROMPTINGS

OF THE HOLY GHOST

Human reason alone, although it can often direct us and ordinarily
does, is not sufficient of itself to lead us securely to the gate of eternal
life. This is proved by the holy doctor from the fact that here and
now we do not possess eternal life in a perfect manner with its re­
spective principles of operation. Therefore we need a superior mo­
tion and direction which can supply for our deficiencies and carry
us with assurance to that happy goal which faith obscurely proposes
to us.
“But in matters directed to the supernatural end,” says St. Thomas,
“to which man’s reason moves him, according as it is, in a manner,
and imperfectly, actuated by the theological virtures, the motion of
reason does not suffice, unless it receives in addition the prompting
or motion of the Holy Ghost . . . because, to wit, none can re­
ceive the inheritance of that land of the Blessed, except he be moved
and led thither by the Holy Ghost. Therefore, in order to accomplish
this end, it is necessary for man to have the gift of the Holy
Ghost.” 70
Father Froget enlarges on this point in the following manner:
78 Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. II, chap. 16.
74 See la Ilae, q.68, a. 1.
78 Ibid., a. 3: “The gifts are perfections of man, whereby he becomes amenable
to the promptings of the Holy Ghost.”
78 Ibid., a. 2.

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In so far as he is informed by the theological virtues—although in
un imperfect way—he can accomplish, with the ordinary help of grace,
■j une meritorious acts; and he can begin to advance and push forward
to the eternal shores. But because he is powerless either to know all that
it is important to know, or to accomplish all that it will be useful or
necessary to do; and because, also, he has not the possession of the ac­
quired or the infused virtues in sufficient volume to furnish a remedy
ugainst the ignorance, the stupidity, the hardness of heart and the other
miseries of our nature—for all these reasons he is unequal to the task of
overcoming all the difficulties which may present themselves and to
proceed securely to heaven, without a special assistance, and, therefore,
without the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
I low many times in the course of his life, does a Christian find him­
self in the presence of certain serious crises, of important resolutions
i<> be taken (even of a choice of a state of life to be made), of adopting
a line of conduct to be followed in such and such grave circumstances,
in a word in need of knowing exactly what is expedient for his eternity!
It is, therefore, necessary that we be now and again specifically directed
mid protected by Him Who knows all, Who can direct all.77

So the gifts come to the aid of the virtues in difficult matters and
whenever it is necessary to act with divine heroism. They give a
superabundance where formerly the virtues were not sufficient for
i he task. Hence they exceed the virtues both in capacity and in the
manner of operation. They complete and perfect them, giving them
a divine luster. The gifts excel the moral virtues so far as they ordain
us directly to God and in a certain manner unite us with Him, though
77 The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, pp. 224 f. Blessed John of Avila, Trat. 4
del Espiritu Santo: “O joyful Consoler! O blessed breathing which guides our ships
l<> heaven! Treacherous indeed is this sea which we traverse, but with such a wind
and such a pilot, we sail securely. How many ships arc lost! How many contrary
winds and great dangers abound! But when this sweet Consoler blows, He directs
i he ships to a safe port. And who can count the benefits which He bestows on us
and the evils from which He protects us? This wind proceeds from and then returns
10 the Father and the Son. From Them He is spirated and through Them He is
infused in His friends; through Them He leads His friends and guides them and
lor Them He loves His friends. . . . Heaven and earth bless Thee, O Lord God
Almighty! What numerous witnesses we shall see on the last day whose boats were
on the verge of being lost and dashed to pieces and sunk, but who were saved by
I he blowing of Thy wind and who arrived at the peace and tranquillity of a safe
port! Many, who had lost all hope for their lives, Thy Spirit revived, gave them life
and new desires, and gladdened and strengthened them with new hope. And who
does all this? The Holy Ghost, who breathed on them and transported them to God
without difficulty.”

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not in the same way as do the theological virtues. The gifts supersede
these latter virtues in regard to the divine mode of their operation
since they constitute us living organs of the Holy Ghost. Thus they
give to the supernatural virtues a new splendor.78
Father Froget gives an accurate summary of the interplay be­
tween the gifts and the infused and acquired virtues:

Although inferior in quality to the theological virtues—which unite
us to God directly—the Gifts lend them a necessary cooperation: they
enliven our faith, hearten our hope, inflame our charity, give us the
savor of God and of Divine things. But, above all, they are the precious
auxiliaries of the natural and moral virtues, whose action they perfect,
supplying, when need be, for their inadequacy. Prudence receives from
the Gift of Counsel indispensable lights for its guidance; Justice gains
strength to render to each one his due; the soul often is perfected by the
Gift of Piety, which inspires us with sentiments of filial tenderness
towards God and bowels of mercy towards our brethren. The Gift of
Fortitude, as already said, makes us surmount bravely all the obstacles
«vhich deter us from good, strengthens us against the dread of dif­
ficulties, and inspires us with the necessary courage to undertake the
more formidable kind of tasks. Finally, the Gift of Fear strengthens
the virtues of temperance against the rude assaults of the rebellious flesh.
A more energetic action, more heroic efforts in the practice of virtue—
such are the effects of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost. By them the soul
easily mounts to much greater heights of perfection, the infused virtues
having placed it already in the possession of ordinary holiness, and ren­
dered it capable of accomplishing the ordinary works of the Christian
life.79 The masters of the spiritual life have compared the Gifts to the
wings of a bird, and again to the sails of a ship; the bird flies much more
swiftly than it walks; and while the boat equipped only with simple
oars advances with much labor and slowly, one whose sails are swelled
with the wind, is fleet upon the waves.80
78 See Ila Ilae, q.9, a. 1, ad jum: “Rather are all the gifts ordained to the perfection
of the theological virtues, as to their end.”
79 St. Thomas, De carit., q. unie., a. 2, ad lyum.
80 Lallemant, Spiritual Doctrine, IV, chap. 3, art. 2: “We who as yet do not par­
take so abundantly of the gifts of the Holy Spirit must labour and toil in the practice
of virtue. We are like those who make way by dint of rowing against wind and
tide; a day will come, if it please God, when, having received the gifts of the Holy
Spirit, we shall speed full-sail before the wind; for it is the Holy Spirit who by his
gifts disposes the soul to yield itself easily to his divine inspirations. With the as­
sistance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the saints reach such a height of perfection
as to accomplish without labour things of which we should not venture so much as

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It appears clearly evident that the Gifts of the Holy Ghost are truly
necessary, wherever the action of our native reason, though it be helped
l>\ the infused virtues, is vet insufficient; and that, therefore, a special
I livine impulse becomes imperative. Even with the assistance of the
( liristian infused virtues, human reason is incapable of surely leading us
i<> our last end, and of enabling us to surmount all the obstacles en­
countered upon the way, if it is not roused and aided by a particular
inspiration from on high, a kind of superior instinct of the Holy Ghost,
namely His Gifts.
We have need of that special Divine impulse, and consequently of the
( lifts, not indeed constantly, but from time to time, in the course of our
life, more or less frequently according to the difficulties which present
I hcmselves, or when lofty acts of virtue must be accomplished, a high
degree of perfection achieved, according to the good pleasure of the
Master of these Gifts who dispenses them as He pleases. There is no
period of life, no state, no human condition that can dispense with the
( lifts and their Divine influence.*
81

Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, I, Bk. 2, chap. 13: “As the
movements of a stone, if another impulse besides gravity is added,
are much accelerated; so the impulse of the will toward virtue is
st ronger and more excellent, if it is acted upon by the gifts. The gift
of wisdom communicates to the soul a certain kind of taste by which
it can distinguish the divine from the human without error, throw­
ing all its influence and weight in all things against those inclinations
which arise from human ignorance and folly; this gift is related to
charity. The gift of understanding serves to penetrate into the under­
standing of divine things and it gives a knowledge of them vastly
superior to the ignorance and the slowness of the natural intel­
lect; while that of knowledge searches the most obscure mysteries
and creates perfect teachers to oppose human ignorance; these two
gifts are related to faith. The gift of counsel guides, directs, and re­
strains man within the rules of prudence in his inconsiderate activity.
It is closely related to this, its own virtue. That of fortitude expels
disorderly fear and gives strength to human weakness; it is super­
added to the cardinal virtue of that name. Piety makes the heart kind,
takes away its hardness and softens it against its own impiety and
to think; the Holy Spirit smoothing away all their difficulties, and enabling them to
surmount every obstacle.”
81 Froget, op. cit., pp. 226 f.

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stubbornness; it is related to religion. The fear of God lovingly hu­
miliates the soul in opposition to pride, and is allied to humility.”
“By the theological and moral virtues,” says St. Thomas, “man is
not so perfected in respect of his last end, as not to stand in continual
need of being moved by the yet higher promptings of the Holy
Ghost.” 82 Indeed, without that motion, in greater or less degree, we
could never be true sons of God, for we are that to the extent that
we are animated, moved, and activated by these divine impulses.83
“Without them,” says St. Gregory, “one could not attain life, and
through them the divine Spirit always abides in His chosen ones.” 84
But He moves them in this way, as St. Augustine says, not that they
may become slothful and inert, but that He may make them work
with greater energy.85
Existence of

the

Gifts in All the Just

Scripture shows us that the Savior was not only filled with the
Holy Ghost, but that He was moved by Him, acted through Him,
and was led by Him.88 In the Acts of the Apostles are found innu­
merable examples of similar motions 87 by the Spirit, and they also
appear frequently in the lives of the saints and, in general, in the
lives of all souls that are filled with God. The divine Guest becomes,
when it so pleases Him or when the course of our life requires it, the
mover and immediate regulator of our actions. He fills the office of
our reason and supplies for its deficiencies and thus establishes a
norm of conduct which is far superior to any human norm.
That this action be connatural and vital, rather than violent, there
is required a proportion or adaptation between the mover and the
one moved. Hence, to receive this divine motion and direction connaturally and to use it with docility and facility, we need the proper
82 See la Ilae, q.68, a. 2, ad zum.
83 Rom. 8:24.
84 Moralia, Bk. II, chap. 28.
85 Cf. De corrept. et grat., chap. 2, no. 4.
88 Luke 4:1; Matt. 4:1. Lallemant, Spiritual Doctrine, IV, chap. 3, art. 2: “We
should do well to accustom ourselves to notice in the Gospel the gifts of the Holy
Spirit, and the actions which our Lord performed in accordance with these prin­
ciples. The parables belong to [the gift of] understanding. The discourse which
Jesus Christ addressed to his disciples after thé Last Supper belongs to the gift of
wisdom.”
87 Acts 8:39; 10:19;
>6:6 f.

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dispositions. These dispositions are certain infused qualities which
prepare and fit us to be governed, moved, and instructed by God
I limself, as it is written: “And they shall all be taught of God.” 88
Such are those precious gifts or “spirits” which comprise the mystic
septenary announced by Isaias (11:2) when He says that the seven­
fold Spirit will rest on the shoot from the tree of Jesse: “And the
spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom, and of
understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of
knowledge, and of godliness. And he shall be filled with the spirit
of the fear of the Lord.”
I. IMPORTANCE AND NATURE OF THE GIFTS

Engrafted as we are on Jesus Christ, we participate in the gifts
that repose fully in Him as the Head, and from Him they redound
to us according to the proportionate capability of each one and ac­
cording to the measure of intensity by which we live in Him and ad­
here to Him. For Christ is our archetype, to whom we ought to be
configured so that we may be as so many other Christs, other anointed
ones of the Holy Ghost, or, better still, that very Jesus Christ living
within us. Through these gifts we receive a living impression of His
image and we are transformed into Him in such a manner that, if we
offer no resistance, it is not now we who work, but rather He who
works all things through us as through His own true organs.89
Hence these gifts are so called not only by reason of the fact that
they are gratuitous but also by reason of their loftiness. They are
infused in us to make us prompt in following divine inspirations
whenever these inspirations come and not whenever we desire them.
So we regard them as borrowed, since we cannot use them at will,
as we can the infused virtues, but only when it pleases the Spirit to
put them into operation.
We can make use of ordinary prayer whenever we wish 90 (al­
though, perhaps, not always in the way we would desire) ; but to
use prayer perfectly, we need the theological virtues and the ordi­
nary helps of grace. So also we are unable to possess true infused
88 John 6:45; fc*· 54:I3·
89 St. Catherine of Siena, Life, I, chap, it: “I never cease to make you like unto
Myself, as long as you place no obstacle. I desire to renew in your soul that which
happened in My life.”
90 Ps. 41:9; 54:17!·

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contemplation if we have not been raised to it, for this is the work of
the gifts, and principally those of wisdom and understanding; and
the gifts act only when the Holy Ghost moves them.91 Whence it
follows that that state of prayer and, in general, all the states cor­
responding to the gifts are called supernatural par excellence.82
Although they are not actuated without a very special motion, the
gifts are not simply transient acts; they are habits, dispositions, and
permanent powers. The divine Spirit reposes and dwells with all His
gifts in the soul of the just. This soul must be always habituated and
acclimated to receive and follow with docility the divine impulses.
Thus the seven gifts make the soul apt for cooperating divinely with
the motion and direction of the Holy Ghost, just as the seven prin­
cipal virtues, theological and cardinal, enable it to follow in a human
way the evangelical precepts as known and proposed by Christian
reason.03 Therefore to each of those virtues there corresponds some
gift which elevates and perfects it. The same proportion is found to
91 Ecclus. 39:8-10. John of St. Thomas says that these gifts assist us in the con­
sideration of the mysteries of faith and of divine things. Through a certain hidden
impulse the Holy Ghost prompts us and unites us to Himself and enables us to
understand and judge rightly concerning those mysteries. So it is that mystical
theology is especially based on the exercise of these gifts so far as from the affection
or union of man with divine things there proceeds that knowledge which is quasiexperimental. By this interior illumination and the taste of divine things the affec­
tions are moved to tend to the objects of the virtues in a higher manner, which
exceeds that of the ordinary virtues (cf. In lam llae, q.68, dist. 18, a.2, no. 13).
92 Surin, Catéchisme, III, chap. 3: “The mystical or extraordinary supernatural
way is a state in which the soul no longer works of itself, but under the direction of
the Holy Ghost and with the special assistance of grace. It is called supernatural to
distinguish it from the ordinary way, wherein the operation of grace is not manifest.
. . . God calls the soul to this way when and how it pleases Him, and all that the
creature can do is to dispose itself by being faithful. . . . There are three progres­
sive stages in this way. The first is that in which the soul, prepared and directed by
the operation of the Holy Ghost, works entirely through His grace. The second
state is that in which the soul ceases its activity and seems to do nothing at all but
give itself over entirely to the working of the Holy Ghost. In the third stage the
soul receives a new life and is resurrected with Jesus Christ with more power than
ever before.”
98 Gardeil, The Gifts of the Holy Ghost, pp. 32 f.: “It is true that the Gifts of the
Holy Ghost are limited in number, for there are but seven. Still this number does
not exhaust the infinite resources of the divine bounty. Every time that the perfect
number seven is used in theology to designate the works of God, it expresses not
so much a limit as a plenitude. There are seven sacraments, seven virtues, theological
and moral. There are seven sacred orders. Examples could be multiplied. Every time
that the plenitude of the divine treasures are spread before us the number seven
appears. It is represented before the Ark of the Most High, of Jehovah, in the sevenbranched candlestick. We say, then, that there are seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost,

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exist between the gifts and the norm of the Spirit as between the
virtues and the norm of reason.
As a consequence, there follows the excellence which the gifts
have of themselves over the virtues, and this excellence is indicated
by the name “spirit” by which Scripture designates them. “Spirit”
in this sense means an inspiration, whereas “virtue” signifies an in­
terior power whose act proceeds manifestly from ourselves. Hence
i he gifts, as St. Thomas points out, are higher perfections whereby
man is disposed to be moved by God.04 So noble and so elevated are
these perfections that they convert us into organs or instruments of
the Holy Ghost Himself.05 Therefore they perfect or complete the
virtues, supplying their deficiencies, giving them an extraordinary
activity and vitality, and making them do what of themselves they
could in no way accomplish.06 At the same time that they dispose us
for the divine motion, they are in themselves powers and abilities
fear, fortitude, piety, counsel, knowledge, understanding and wisdom. Do not
painters represent the splendor which escapes from the sun by a finite number of
rays and do they not place some in relief ot which they form the center and binding
of each luminous sheaf? There are seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost, but the means
which God has of activating us in regard to our end are infinite.”
84 See la llae, q.68, a.i.
85 Ven. Mary of Agreda, City of God, I, Bk. Il, chap. 13: “My daughter, these
most noble and excellent gifts of the Holy Ghost, which thou hast come to under­
stand, are the emanations of the Divinity communicating themselves to and trans­
forming holy souls: on their own part they do not admit of any limitation but only
on the part of the subject on which they act. If the creatures would empty their
hearts of earthly love and affections, although their heart is limited, they would
participate without measure in the torrent of the infinite Godhead through the
inestimable gifts of the Holy Ghost. The virtues purify the creature from the ugli­
ness and guilt of its vices, and thereby they begin to restore the disconcerted order
of its faculties, which was first lost by original sin and afterwards increased by
actual sins; they add beauty to the soul, strength and joy in doing good. But the
gifts of the Holy Ghost raise these same virtues to a sublime perfection, adornment
and beauty, by which they dispose, beautify, and fill the soul with graces and intro­
duce it to the chamber of its Spouse, where it remains united with the Divinity in a
spiritual bond of eternal peace. From this most blessed condition it proceeds faith­
fully and truthfully to the practice of heroic virtues, and laden with them it returns
to the same source from which it issued forth, namely God Himself. In His shadow
it rests and is satiated, freed from the impetuous fury of the passions and disorderly
appetites.”
86 Medina, In lam llae, q.68, a.8: “Innumerable are the w'orks to which God moves
us through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and these works do not fall under
the scope of the infused virtues. . . . When a man acts under the impulse of the
Holy Ghost he is rather acted upon than acting; . . . but once motivated by the
Holy Ghost, he freely consents and effectively performs the work of wisdom,
understanding, etc.”

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which enable us to second and cooperate with this divine impulse.
Thus they render us at the same time passive and active to the highest
degree. We are moved and animated by a truly divine activity,
which, appearing to enslave us, actually gives us the most glorious
liberty, that liberty of the Spirit who makes us children of God.
“Our free will could do nothing better,” says St. Augustine, “than
to let itself be so constrained that it can never do evil.” 87
2. MODE OF OPERATION OF THE GIFTS

Since by means of the gifts we work as inspired, animated, and di­
rected by God Himself, our work is no longer human but super­
human and truly divine. Therefore St. Thomas adds (loc. cit., a.
8) that to be able to cooperate with that motion of the Holy Ghost,
we must be called to a higher grade of perfection. From this comes
that divine mode of operation which distinguishes the gifts from the
virtues. These latter perfect man in regard to the human mode of
operation, but the gifts enable him to work in a manner that is be­
yond the human mode.98
In exercising the virtues, then, we act in a connatural manner as
if that infused energy by which we work were entirely proper to
us. Thus our connatural mode of knowing spiritual and divine things
is to raise ourselves from the visible to the invisible through the use
of analogy, contemplating the divine in the mirror of material crea­
tures.99 Supernatural faith, which proposes to us the divine mysteries
to which the natural light of our reason could not attain, presents
them to us in such a way that we still know them only in the obscure
and enigmatic way that is natural to us. Faith broadens the field of
our knowledge but it does not elevate the manner of our knowing.
But with the gift of understanding, the veils begin to part and
the enigmas gradually disappear so that, up to a certain point, we
are able to see the truth uncovered. Thus this gift elevates us far be­
yond our connatural mode of perceiving divine things.100 It is this
gift of understanding that often communicates to innocent children
and unlettered persons who are docile to the Holy Ghost the re­
markable intuition of divine mysteries, the profound sense of faith,
8T De gestis Pelag., chap, j, no. 5.
88 See St. Thomas, In 111 Sent., dist. 34, q. 1, a. 1.
88 St. Thomas, loc. cit.
100 Ibid., a. 2.

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and the perspicacity by which at first glance they discover the poison
of error in expressions which might perhaps appear inoffensive to
the eyes of many theologians.101 Only by that gift could St. Jane
Erances de Chantal, at the age of five, disconcert and confound a
learned heretic who denied the truth of the Eucharist.102
In the practical order, the connatural mode of working which is
proper to the virtues, consists, with regard to prudence, for example,
in a close examination of things and circumstances according to the
light of reason; considering the pro and con for everything, judging
according to what is ordinarily done. But at times grave difficulties
arise. Sometimes there is need for a quick decision, and everything
seems uncertain. Even after consultation with prudent persons, the
perplexity remains. Therefore, seeing that the ordinary lights are
not sufficient, we should invoke wholeheartedly the Spirit of coun­
sel. Then, if we feel a sudden impulse to take an unforeseen pro­
cedure and we find that that proves feasible which, without that
superior impulse would have been foolish, then we shall be working
in a superhuman manner. We shall be led by the gift of counsel to
a most happy conclusion which we never would have dreamed of.103
Then the soul knows by experience that, as long as it is governed
by God, it will lack nothing (Ps. 22:1). Therefore the soul need not
deliberate about those things that are most fitting, for this is the task
of Him who governs. It is sufficient that the soul be assured that it
is truly moved by the Holy Ghost and that it is ready to follow Him
101 Ecclus. 37:17.
102 See also St. Thomas, Contra Gent., I, chap. 6.
103 St. Thomas, op. cit., q. i, a. z. Alvarez de Paz, De inquis, pacis, I, Part III, chap,
z: “This light [of the gifts] does not destroy the knowledge and purity of faith,
but it perfects it and marvelously augments the understanding of those things which
we ponder. Sometimes spiritual men understand divine things so accurately that
they seem to gaze upon the things themselves, and so savory is the knowledge they
acquire that it is like honey on the tongue. This is effected by the gift of wisdom.
Sometimes the dullness of the mind is completely dissipated, and a mystery is known
profoundly and almost completely comprehended; and this is the effect of the gift
of understanding. Again, they know what should be done in regard to a certain
matter and what omitted, or how to live with such great purity that all worldly
things are despised; and this pertains to the gift of knowledge. Also, one under­
stands how to proceed, not only in general but also in particular matters; and this
is governed by the gift of counsel. . . . Thus by means of these gifts the Spirit of
truth teaches the just, who are accustomed to prayer, a perfect knowledge of the
mysteries of faith and raises them to the loftiest wisdom. These gifts so incite and
impel the just that they advance in virtue with a vehement force, and they tear
themselves away completely from all human things.”

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with docility. “For those who are moved by Divine instinct, there
is no need to take counsel according to human reason, but only to
follow their inner promptings, since they are moved by a higher
principle than human reason.” 104
Therefore it is true that in the beginning, and even for some time
after, the divine impulses are not usually so clear that they dispel
prudent doubts. For that reason pious souls are accustomed to seek
advice from their directors with great care, in order not to believe
too readily in every spirit, but to prove that the spirit is from God.105
But as time passes, as the eyes of the heart are purified, then the
divine impulses become so evident that they are supported by sub­
jective testimony; and often they not only forestall all deliberation
but they give no room for reflection. The result is that, when the soul
takes an accounting, it finds that what the Holy Ghost has suggested
was done and done well.
In cases of this type, when a thing is urgent and there is no one
to consult and the glory of God is at stake in the prompt execution
of the matter, one should heed the sentence of the Savior: “But when
they shall deliver you up, take no thought how or what to speak; for
it shall be given you in that hour what to speak. For it is not you
that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you.” 108
This method of procedure is undoubtedly superhuman.
The virtue of fortitude consists in facing difficulties in the measure
in which our powers permit; to go further than that on our own
initiative is temerity. But if, raised by a supernatural instinct, we
attempt and realize a work that is manifestly beyond ourselves,
knowing that we could attain none of it except by divine power, then,
says St. Thomas, we shall be working in a superhuman manner.10’
The mean or norm of such activity is a divine power, not a natural
one.
Since the gifts exceed the virtues in their mode of operation, they
ought also to exceed them in the norm which regulates these opera­
tions. Virtue, by which one lives rightly according to the rule of
reason, has as its norm human reason illumined by faith. But the
gifts are more elevated perfections which God communicates “in
104 Cf. la Ilae, q.68, a. I.
105 See I John 4:1-6.
106 Matt. 10:19 f.
107 See In III Sent., dist. 34, q. 1, a. 2.

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i elation to His motion,” 108 and since they do not have human rea­
son as director or guide, they cannot have reason as their norm or
measure. The norm of the acts of the gifts is the ineffable wisdom of
I lim who prompts the acts.109
Thus human reason, even when aided by faith and infused
prudence, could never justify certain actions of the saints, which,
nevertheless, are justifiable. It is evident that they obey some other
sublime norm which we cannot help but praise and admire, the more
so as we are less able to understand it. Though these works surpass
the limits of our prudence, they do not on that account cease to be
good, and that with a superior goodness. Such works are not temer­
arious, for they have God Himself as their counsellor and support.
I hey can be justified because God is not, like ourselves, constrained
by the limits of our imperfections. For this reason they surpass the
limitations of the virtue of prudence.110 Though our prudence could
never authorize those acts, the prudence of the Holy Ghost com­
mands them. This divine Spirit of truth does not have to ask our
counsel or permission to move or inspire us, for He knows what is
best for us. Since His norm can never be erroneous, it is sufficient for
us to follow it faithfully and thus be led to a happy outcome. “Thy
good spirit shall lead me into the right land.” 111
Far from being subject to the regulation of human reason, this
motion of the gifts, says Father Froget, “anticipates our delibera­
tions, forestalls our judgments, and leads us in a kind of instinctive
way to perform works of which we had not dreamt, and which we
are justified in calling superhuman, whether because they exceed our
natural powers, or because they are accomplished outside the ordi­
nary modes and procedures of nature and of ordinary grace.” 112
This unique mode, which consists in the command and sovereign
efficacy with which the divine Guest moves and directs us as He
pleases, working and speaking through us as His own organs, is what
most distinguishes the gifts from the virtues. Even in the smallest
108 See la Ilae, q.68, a. i, ad jum.
109 St. Thomas, In 111 Sent., dist. 34, q. 1, a. 3: “Since the gifts are ordained to acts
that are superhuman, it is necessary that the operations of the gifts be measured by
some other rule of human virtue. This rule is the Divinity itself as participated by
man so that he acts, not now humanly, but as God through participation.”
110 See L’Ami du Clergé, 1892, p. 391.
111 Ps. 142:10.
112 Op. cit., p. 221.

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works the Holy Ghost can sometimes move us, since it is not the
excellence or heroism of an action but the superhuman mode of
operation which distinguishes in general the acts of the gifts from
those of the virtues.113
3.

RARE DISCRETION OF THE SAINTS

When the saints do things that are wholly extraordinary and that
not only militate against the domain of prudence but even seem con­
trary to health and life, and when, nevertheless, they seem to act well
and to please God much, evidently they work under superhuman
approval and direction. Says Father Froget:
In the same way when the Blessed Henry Suso, of the Order of St.
Dominic, traced in deep characters the name of Jesus on his breast, and
macerated his body in a way revolting to our self-indulgence. Again,
when St. Apollonia, threatened by the pagans with being burnt alive
if she did not renounce Christ Jesus, forestalled their plans and cast her­
self into the flames; when the Stylites, and so many other saints embraced
a state of life, which seemed to be a perpetual challenge to nature, can
we say that they acted according to the rules of Christian prudence?
Certainly not; yet countless miracles attest their holiness, proving that in
acting in this manner they were obeying a Divine impulse. All those
heroisms of faith, meekness, fortitude, patience and charity, so plentiful
in the lives of the Saints; all those extraordinary works undertaken for
the glory of God and the salvation of our neighbor—the highest mani­
festations of the spiritual life—are nothing else than effects of the Gifts
of the Holy Ghost. Emanating as they do from a principle superior to
that of even the infused virtues, why should we wonder that they so
far surpass the latter in brilliancy and edification? 114

One should not think that these extraordinary things occurred
only in the lives of the early saints. In the same way and with even
a more divine delicacy, they figure in the lives of modern saints.
They are reproduced among us and will continue to be reproduced
until the end of the world in all the great servants of God who are
truly filled and possessed of His Spirit. The act referred to in the case
of Blessed Henry Suso has been repeated by many holy souls who
113 See la Ilae, q.68, a.2, ad turn: “The gifts surpass the ordinary perfection of
the virtues, not as regards the kind of works . . . , but as regards the manner of
working, in respect of a man being moved by a higher principle.”
114 Op. cit., pp. 2t6f.

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were prompted by a superior impulse which they could not resist;
for example, St. Jane de Chantal and St. Margaret Mary. More re­
cently, in 1904, the angelic Mother Mary of the Queen of Apostles
was compelled to engrave deeply on her breast by means of fire the
anagram IHS surmounted by a cross and placed between the letters
M and R. The letters were as large as the palm of the hand and she
would renew the anagram whenever it began to heal. After her
death this anagram was seen to be so deeply imbedded in her flesh
that the bones were visible.
When asked by myself just before her death (I had the consola­
tion of hearing from her blessed lips the marvelous secrets of her
heart) why she had done this “foolishness,” she candidly answered
me: “I had to; our Lord demanded this sacrifice of me and I was
moved toward Him with such violence that I was overwhelmed. It
was impossible to resist. ... If the Mother Superior had delayed
longer in granting her permission, I believe I would have died in
that oppression.” And when next I asked her how she had summoned
the courage to trace those letters with a flaming stylus (for she was
formerly very sensitive and delicate), she said: “Believe me, Father,
I can tell you that I did not feel it. What I did feel was a great relief
and ease. That external pain was nothing compared to the internal
oppression which left me.” She also confided to me that it was only
on receiving permission to renew her terrifying penances that she
began to recover her health, and she lost it whenever she was pre­
vented from these mortifications. For that reason her superiors, on
seeing that she was in danger of death, felt obliged (as one of them
told me) to grant permission for the most extreme rigors. What for
others would have meant death, for Mother Mary was an only
remedy.
So it is seen how the norm of the Holy Ghost is justified in itself;
and how, in spite of that, perfect subordination to legitimate author­
ity is not excluded. For the Spirit of God is always submissive and
gentle,118 at the same time that He is efficient and imperious.116 One
sees also how faithful souls, even though they know clearly the
divine motion whenever it occurs, always seek advice regarding the
performance of the work and, above all, permission when their
115 See I Cor. 14:32-40; I John 4:6.
lie Wisd. 8:1.

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profession demands it.117 In this way they assure themselves that the
inspiration comes from God and that it is not prudent to resist it;
for, granting that it comes from such a height, there is no reason why
the poor human reason should interject itself as if it were desirous of
giving advice to the Holy Ghost. This would be to displease Him
and to deaden His vivifying impulses.118
Pneumatic Psychology

In Book VII of his Nicoinachean Ethics, Aristotle admits the ex­
istence of divine inspirations, to which reason ought to submit itself
and not try to judge what so far exceeds its capacity. Much less
should reason actually seek to assert itself in a norm of action which
is so superior to its own. Thus does Aristotle explain artistic inspira­
tions and the inspiration to perform certain heroic deeds which
transcend the rules of human prudence. Philosophy itself recognizes
the possibility and fittingness by which God, as “the reason of our
reason,” becomes the immediate rule of our conduct and the inspirer
of superhuman actions.
117 Lallemant, Spiritual Direction, IV, chap, i, art. 3: “The second objection is,
that it seems as if this interior guidance of the Holy Spirit were destructive of the
obedience which is due to superiors.
“We reply: 1. That as the interior inspiration of grace does not set aside the assent
which we give to the articles of faith, as they are externally proposed to us, but
contrariwise gently disposes the understanding to believe; in like manner, the guid­
ance which we receive from the gifts of the Holy Spirit, far from interfering with
obedience, aids and facilitates the practice of it. 2. That all this interior guidance,
and even divine revelations, must always be subordinate to obedience; and in speak­
ing of them, this tacit condition is ever implied, that obedience enjoins nothing
contrary thereto.
“For in the state of faith in which we live, we ought to make more account of
the commandment of our superior than of that which our Lord himself might have
given us by an immediate revelation, because we are assured that it is his will we
should act in this matter after the pattern of the saints, who by submitting to
obedience merited to be raised to a higher reward than they would have been had
they paid exclusive regard to the revelations they received.
“The only fear is lest superiors should sometimes follow too much the sugges­
tions of human prudence, and for want of discernment condemn the lights and
inspirations of the Holv Spirit, treating them as dreams and illusions, and prescribing
for those to whom God communicates himself by favours of this kind, as if they
were sick patients.
“In such case we must still obey; but in his own time God will know how to
correct the error of these rash persons, and teach them to their cost, not to condemn
his graces without understanding them, and without being competent to pronounce
upon them.”
118 Eph. 4:30;! Thcss. 5:19.

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I. LIFE-GIVING ACTION AND INSPIRATION OF THE HOLY GHOST;

DIABOLICAL POSSESSION AND SUGGESTION

For the pagan philosophers that divine intervention had to be
transitory, passing, and fortuitous. Therefore there was not required
in the soul any habitual disposition that would serve as a permanent
basis. These philosophers could in no way suspect that mysterious,
intimate, and constant vital communication of God with the just
soul. This loving indwelling—which is at the same time a continual
life-giving action, could be known to us only through faith and
supernatural experience. By these two means the Christian philos­
opher finds and recognizes a firm and permanent basis for receiving
those divine impulses which, in the eyes of pagans, seem to be rare
and fortuitous.
Speaking of the necessity of the gifts, Father Gardeil says:
It is here, apparently, that St. Thomas goes definitely beyond Aris­
totle. The latter had refused to recognize a permanent basis for the
special action of the Divinity in the nature of man. For him, the entire
foundation of Fortune rested on the particular and unceasing attentions
of the Divinity. But St. Thomas found himself confronted with a man
already possessed of the Divinity, one in whom the Divinity habitually
resides, whose soul, as it were, the Divinity is. It is the property of the
soul to cause in the being which it vivifies all the organs of which it has
need. Why, then, should not charity give rise to perfections and habits
analogous to those which make reason’s entrance into the moral world
so easy? Can charity in the supernatural order refuse to the just man
what nature grants to man in the natural order?

Whence follows the need for those divine habits which are called
gifts, spirits, instincts, or supernatural tendencies, which come to us
to facilitate the impulse and government by God and to enable us
to follow Him with docility.
Undoubtedly God does not need these points of contact in order to
activate my life. But for me it is necessary that He establish these con­
tacts if I am to be as perfect in the order of divine motions as in the
rational order. It is necessary that the inspirations of the Holy Ghost
be in me habitually just as the dictates of reason are in me as a habit. I
do not wish to give way violently and as if constrained to God who
encompasses my soul. I wish to give Elim place as the virtuous man yields
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to his reason—voluntarily, readily, with that ease habit alone can give.
I wish to be able to say with the prophet: “The Lord God opened my ear
and I did not resist; I have not gone back.”119 .. .
Truly this doctrine of the Angelic Doctor is admirable. For him, the
doctrine of the Gifts is contained in the two words, “spirit,” and “gift.”
As the breathings of the Holy Ghost, the Gifts postulate the autonomy
of their principle. As Gifts, the inspirations of the Holy Ghost have an
actual contact point in our souls. Actual grace, of course, is needed to
stir up the will to make use of the Gifts. Actual graces, however, are
the breath of the just and prayerful soul.120

So the vivifying Spirit always prevails as the permanent mainstay
of the activity and life in the souls of the just. When He, the seven­
fold Spirit, and the soul of an order more elevated and really divine
informs us, His possession is in no way an intrusion nor is His mo­
tion and direction in any sense an external and violent imposition.
In reality these influences of the Spirit are intimate, vivifying, and
autonomous, so that He who is the reason of our reason and the life
of our soul is more intimate to us than we are to ourselves. So it is
that under His action we feel more free and active than ever.
From all this we see how far this divine vivification and inspira­
tion is removed from diabolical possession and satanic suggestion.
If the demon enters into any unfortunate person, it is always to do
that person violence, to seduce him, to prompt him to evil, and to
harm him as much as he can. Since the devil is not the cause of the
soul, he cannot penetrate it; but he can paralyze it or disturb its ac­
tivity.121 In possession, he tyrannizes over the faculties and directs
them to his own taste, forcing, from within and without, the bodily
organs which these faculties need in order to function. In diabolical
suggestion, he bewitches from without, with illusory images, striv­
ing often to imitate the divine inspirations which come from within,
from the core of the soul where God reigns.
Knowing that the perfidious prevaricator disguises himself as an
angel of light, we cannot always and easily distinguish his evil instiga­
tions from holy inspirations except by the effects. Such discernment
will not be possible until the soul has already had much experience
and gradually senses more clearly and recognizes immediately the
119 Isa. 50
120 The Gifts of the Holy Ghost, pp. 17-19.
131 See St. Thomas, Contra Gent., IV, 18.

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voice of its own sweet Shepherd.122 Therefore it is always necessary
to test any spirit as long as doubts prevail, to see whether it conics
from God or from the enemy.
But when the soul has arrived at true union, then, as St. Teresa
says,123 it will be able to perceive clearly the most sweet touches of
the Beloved, and this will dissipate all doubts. The Spirit Himself
who dwells in the soul as in His chosen dwelling place and gives
testimony that she is the daughter of God, assures her that it is He
who inspires her, directs and moves her, without doing her any
violence. Rather, He causes extreme joy, suavity, and sweetness and
gives her all vigor and facility.
As the norm of our reason He subordinates it, without enslaving
it, through pure love and with infinite attractions. As the life of
our souls He reigns in them, giving them the most sweet liberty and
autonomy. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” 124
2. AWARENESS OF THE DIVINE INDWELLING

The soul follows the motion of God with indescribable pleasure
because all its pleasure is in following Him. It is aware of being pos­
sessed by Him to whom it has totally abandoned itself, and it knows
from experience that under His loving control nothing can be want­
ing to it, for He also communicates Himself without reserve.125 And
thus the soul comes to possess God Himself with His infinite treas­
ures. It possesses its God and its all, the God of its heart and its eternal
portion, in the measure in which it is possessed by Him.128
122 John 10:27 I·
123 Interior Castle, fifth mansions, chap. 1.
124 See II Cor. 3:17.
125 John of St. Thomas, In lam Uae, q.70, disp. 18, sec. 1, n.9: “Not content with
giving us His graces, the Lord, by means of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, takes pos­
session of us to enrich us with even greater graces. And this properly pertains to
the gifts of the Holy Ghost, in which God so gives and distributes His gifts to men
that He thereby subjects men to Himself and makes them docile to His Spirit.
Whereas other gifts are received from God by men, in these gifts God accepts men
themselves and in the men thus taken, God again takes to Himself both the men
and the gifts and makes them His own, after the fashion of money-lending and
usury.”
126 Through the virtues we have the Holy Ghost at our command; “we use the
Holy Ghost,” as the theologians graphically state. But through the gifts it is He
who disposes of us, possessing us at the same time that He is possessed. This recip­
rocal possession, since it is a work of love, perfectly harmonizes liberty with slavery,
and subordination with autonomy.
So it is that Father Gardeil says of the child of God: “Being passive in relation
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This awareness of the supernatural life and of the ineffable opera­
tions of God in the soul characterizes to a certain extent and better
permits us to recognize the mystical state which is so much discussed
today. It also enables us to realize how much in error are those who
speak of “pagan mysticism,” “Mohammedan mysticism,” and the
like. The true mystical state implies, together with the vivifying in­
dwelling of the Holy Ghost, His habitual movement and direction,
which supplant or complete the direction of supematuralized reason
enriched with the infused virtues. Without the gifts of the Holy
Ghost there is not nor can there be anything but the false appear­
ances of mysticism. Those who do not possess the grace of God and
especially those who lack even the light of the true faith cannot pos­
sess the Holy Ghost and cannot feel the influence of His gifts. The
gifts are a chief factor in the growth of the mystical life and, because
of the high degree in which they work when they are felt, they pre­
suppose an intense vivifying action.
The pagans could at times experience certain divine inspirations
when they were externally moved or illumined by the Holy Ghost
without enjoying His indwelling or without being vivified by
Him.*127 But since that type of motion or inspiration does not give
the vital awareness which constitutes the sense of Christ {sensus
Christi), it cannot be felt as it was by the true mystics, who were
filled with divine life and who understood the truth that frees. At
most, such motion from the Holy Ghost may be regarded as some­
thing similar to a mystical act, but never as the mystical state. Yet
even then, these sensations of the pagans are of a different type.
The just soul finds itself truly possessed and informed by the
sevenfold Spirit, who tends to make that soul like to the heavenly
man. He imprints on the soul of the just His own seal. He removes
from it the ugliness and stains of the earthly man and leads it from
glory to glory to the lofty regions of eternal life. And since, as St.
Thomas points out,128 there belongs to every form a proportionate
tendency or inclination, so from the indwelling of the Holy Ghost
to the Holy Ghost, he possesses Him and uses the influence of this Guest as both
slave and free. . . . Such is the strange antinomy of which the gifts appear to us
to be the divine solution” (op. cit., pp. 20 f.).
127 John 1:5: The divine “light shineth in darkness; and the darkness did not
comprehend it.”
128 See la, q.8o, a. 1.

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there result in us those divine instincts or impulses which we call
gifts. These are a sort of superhuman heritage, a divine blood which
courses through our veins and which, after the fashion of a noble
hereditary form, impels us to noble and heroic actions worthy of
t he children of God and communicates to us those heavenly instincts
proper to a divine race.129 This is the mystical heritage of the serv­
ants of God (Isa. 54:17) wherein Wisdom abides. “In all these I
sought rest, and I shall abide in the inheritance of the Lord” (Ecclus.
24:11). Yet how many there are who grossly reject this inheritance!

3.

LABORIOUS ACTIVITY OF MEDITATION; FRUITFUL PASSIVITY

OF CONTEMPLATION

The gifts begin to be manifested very soon, although obscurely,
and this takes place in the form of secret impulses which lead us
more and more forcibly to a point where reason is unable to direct
us. By purifying our souls so that they will not impede these impulses
but will follow them with docility, and by noting the wonderful
consequences of these impulses, it becomes more and more clear what
these impulses are, whence they come, and where they are leading
us.130
So those whose eyes of the heart are sufficiently cleansed and il­
lumined begin to see God 131 and are able to recognize the presence
and beneficent action of the finger of His right hand, the loving
Paraclete and most sweet Guest of the soul. He it is who works in
us and through us to remedy our weakness, to give a new splendor
to the very virtues He has infused in us. As a result we do with
facility and utmost perfection, by means of His inestimable gifts,
what we could in no way realize through the virtues alone, or only
to a limited extent and with extreme difficulty.
To convince ourselves of this truth we have only to read St.
Teresa, who shows how laboriously the soul works when it has only
the virtues at its disposal and how, through prolonged meditations,
129 Hugon, Revue Thomiste, September, 1906, p. 420: “When one bears in his
veins the blood of heroes, he rushes to the performance of great deeds as if by
instinct. The gifts of the Holy Ghost do that and much more. They prepare and
dispose us for the sublime. They are in us as a seed of which the flower must be
heroism.”
180 See The Living Flame, stanza 4.
isi Matt. 5:8; Eph. 1:18.

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it invigorates itself by drawing but a few drops of water from the
deep well of grace. But when the divine Spirit begins to aid the soul
in a hidden manner, the soul notes with surprise that it draws much
water with little effort, for then the virtues themselves work with
much greater facility and power under the secret motion of the gifts.
Later, when the gifts prevail, this mystical water of grace comes di­
rectly from the river, although the soul, with the help of the virtues,
still preserves the power of directing and distributing it. In the next
state the water comes directly from heaven and in great abundance,
and the soul needs to do nothing but drink of it and be satiated.
Finally, there is an end even to the effort of swallowing this water,
for the water itself finds its way alone into the heart and, both within
and without, it inundates, engulfs, and satiates it in the torrents of
divine delights. Then all proper initiative ceases; and when least
thinking of it and least striving for it, the soul becomes totally filled
with God, inundated and satiated in the ocean of living water. Hence
anything that the soul might seek through its own proper initiative
would do nothing but place obstacles in the way of the mysterious
action of the divine Spirit.132
The soul then should strive to cooperate with all its strength.
Though it appears to be in a period of sloth, in that state of passivity
it is found to be more engaged, more living, and more active than
ever. It abounds in vigor and divine energies.133
So also the spiritual director, if he is endowed with the light and
discretion which are required for this work, will be able to recog­
nize and test this state through these good effects and will be able
to reassure the individual soul when it is necessary to pacify it. But
if he judges only from appearances and according to human pru182 The Life, chaps. 11-20.
Oark Night of the Soul, Bk. I, chap. 9: “For in such a way does God bring the
soul into this state, and by so different a path does He lead it, that, if it desires to
work with its faculties, it hinders the work which God is doing in it rather than
aids it; whereas aforetime it was quite the contrary. The reason is that, in this state
of contemplation, which the soul enters when it forsakes meditation for the state
of the proficient, it is God Who is now working in the soul.”
138 St. Jane Frances de Chantal, Opuscula, III, 278: “In this state it is God who
directs and teaches, and the soul does nothing more than receive the spiritual goods
that are given it, which are successively, attention and divine love. . . . The soul,
then, ought to go to Him with a confident heart, without eliciting acts other than
those to which it feels itself moved. ... If it attempts to work and to depart from
this simple loving attention which God demands of it, it will merely impede the
benefits which accrue to it by means of this state.”

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dcnce, then instead of aiding the soul and setting it right, he will be
an obstacle and will do nothing but impede and misguide it. Anyone
who has the requisite knowledge and experience will note that if the
soul persists, as often happens, in working by itself in the accustomed
manner, it will not be able to advance at all, but will actually impede
the beneficent effects of the divine action. On the other hand, the
soul will advance most if it preserves a simple intuition or loving
gaze, heeding and consenting to the most delicate work which God
desires to accomplish in it.134
At this period the office of the director is reduced to the observa­
tion of the mysterious operations of the Holy Ghost. He should ad­
vise the soul to remain in this holy inactivity as long as it feels so
134 Living Flame of Love, stanza 3, pp. 94 f.: “For it [the soul] knows not how to
work save by means of sense, and thus, when God is pleased to bring it into that
emptiness and solitude where it can neither make use of its faculties nor perform any
acts, it sees that it is doing nothing, and strives to do something: in this way it be­
comes distracted and full of aridity and displeasure, whereas formerly it was re­
joicing in the rest of the spiritual silence and peace wherein God was secretly giving
it joy. And it may come to pass that God persists in keeping the soul in this silent
tranquillity, while the soul persists in crying out with its imagination and walking
with its understanding; even as children, whom their mothers carry in their arms
so that they may not have to walk, keep crying and striking out with their feet
because they are anxious to walk, and thus neither make any progress themselves nor
allow their mothers to do so. Or it is as when a painter is painting a portrait and his
subject will not allow him to do anything because he keeps moving.
“The soul in this state must bear in mind that, although it is not conscious of
making any progress, it is making much more than when it was walking on foot; for
it is because God is bearing it in His arms that it is not conscious of movement.
And although it is doing nothing, it is nevertheless accomplishing much more than
if it were working, since God is working within it.”
This is what directors should say to souls to reassure them and to encourage them
to persevere. But unfortunately this is precisely where many directors fail, through
lack of the proper spirit and holy science. They likewise cause others to fail be­
cause they augment the fears of the soul or they oblige it to be active and thus
impede the fruits of that prayer of quiet.
“As navigation ceases when the port is reached and as the means are unnecessary
when the end is attained,” says Molina (Oration, 11, chap. 6), “so when a man,
having passed through the labors of meditation, arrives at the rest and enjoyment of
contemplation, he ought then to put an end to discursive prayer and considerations.
Content with the simple gaze of God and His truths, he should be satisfied with
looking at Him, loving, admiring, and enjoying Him and exercising other affective
acts. . . . Whenever during prayer a man feels this interior recollection and his
will is inspired and moved by some affection, he ought not to reject it out of a desire
to pursue other considerations or points which he had prepared. He should remain
in that state of recollection as long as it lasts, even if it should be for the whole
period of the exercise. But when that light and affection pass and the soul feels
distressed or arid, then he should return to his meditation and the ordinary routine
of his exercises.”

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inclined, or he should set it right when it really becomes stultified to
such an extent that it does not reap any fruit. But as long as he sees
that the soul is moved by the good Spirit, he should not try to indi­
cate the road it should follow. For at such a time the soul already
has within itself One who will direct it and place it on the right path,
and any interruption will only impede or disturb that work which
is as prodigious as it is silent.
Such is the gradual and insensible transition from meditation to
contemplation, and such is its procedure. Such a transition could
never be effected by our own efforts alone, but it is freely granted
to all those who truly seek it with purity of heart and persevere in
asking for it.135 It begins in a marvelous manner and is developed
with great vigor and fruit under the motion of the Holy Ghost if
this motion is accepted and used. In the beginning the soul advances
painfully and laboriously to the port of salvation by hard rowing,
ever fearful of being enveloped by the furious waves of the tempestu­
ous sea of this world or of being wrecked on the hidden reefs or of
falling into the hands of pirates. Now, without effort and, we may
say, without danger, it sails rapidly and under full sail. It is driven
by the breath of the Holy Ghost, which guides it and preserves it
from misfortune at the same time that it pushes it on.
Formerly the soul had to walk on foot, sluggishly, like a flightless,
terrestial bird which is in danger of falling into the claws of the
hawk. Now it has developed strong wings by which it flies without
ever tiring and rises to the heavenly heights. But this transition of
the soul is realized only at the expense of great labor and after pass­
ing through the two “nights,” in which, fearing to find death, the
soul discovers renewal and life and thereby abandons human pro­
cedure to undertake a manner of working that is entirely heavenly
and divine.
APPENDIX
i. Conflicts of the Soul and the Happy Transition

“In poverty, and without protection and support in all the appre­
hensions of my soul—that is, in the darkness of my understanding
issEcclus. 6:18-37; Prov. 2:3-5; 8:17; Isa. 51:1-9; Matt. 11:25; Jas· I:5·

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and the constraint of my will, in affliction and anguish with respect
to memory, remaining in the dark in pure faith, ... I went forth
from myself—that is, from my low manner of understanding, from
my weak mode of loving and from my poor and limited manner of
experiencing God, without being hindered therein by sensuality or
i he devil. ... I went forth from my own human way and operation to the operation and way of God. That is to say, my under­
standing went forth from itself, turning from the human and nat­
ural to the Divine; for, when it is united with God by means of this
purgation, its understanding no longer comes through its natural
light and vigour, but through the Divine Wisdom wherewith it has
become united. And my will went forth from itself, becoming
1 )ivine; for, being united with Divine love, it no longer loves with
its natural strength after a lowly manner, but with strength and
purity from the Holy Spirit; and thus the will, which is now near
to God, acts not after a human manner, and similarly the memory
lias become transformed into eternal apprehensions of glory. And
finally, by means of this night and purgation of the old man, all the
energies and affections of the soul are wholly renewed into a Divine
temper and Divine delight” (Dark Night of the Soul, Bk. II,
chap. 4.).
1'hus, the life which is then begun to be enjoyed is so different and
so superior that the soul does not know itself and is filled with ad­
miration on seeing itself so happily changed. Describing the change
t hat is effected in the soul, St. Teresa says: “From this point onward,
I am speaking of another and a new book—I mean, of another and
a new life. Until now the life I was describing was my own; but the
life I have been living since I began to expound these matters con­
cerning prayer is the life which God has been living in me—or so
it has seemed to me. For I believe it to be impossible in so short a
time to escape from such wicked deeds and habits. Praised be the
Lord, Who has delivered me from myself! Now when I began to
avoid the occasions of sin and to devote myself more to prayer, the
I .ord began to bestow favours upon me and it looked as though He
were desirous that I should wish to receive them” (The Life,
chap.23).
“God imparts life to the soul in the state of abandonment by
means which seem more likely to destroy it. There is a time when
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God would be the life of the soul, and Himself accomplish its per­
fection in secret and unknown ways. Then all its own ideas, lights,
industries, examinations, and reasonings become sources of illusion.
After many experiences of the sad consequences of self-guidance,
the soul recognizing its uselessness, and finding that God has hidden
and confused all the issues, is forced to fly to Him to find life. Then,
convinced of its nothingness and of the harmfulness of all that it de­
rives from itself, it abandons itself to God to gain all from Him. It
is then that God becomes the source of its life, not by means of ideas,
lights, or reflexions, for all this is no longer anything to it but a
source of illusion; but in reality, and by His grace, which is hidden
under the strangest appearances.
“The divine operation, unknown to the soul, communicates its
virtue and substance by many circumstances that the soul believes
will be its destruction. There is no cure for this ignorance, it must be
allowed its course. God gives Himself therein, and with Himself, He
gives all things in the obscurity of faith. The soul is but a blind sub­
ject, or, in other words, it is like a sick person who knows nothing of
the properties of remedies and tastes only their bitterness. He often
imagines that what is given him will be his death; the pain and weak­
ness which result seem to justify his fears; nevertheless it is under
the semblance of death that his health is restored, and he takes the
medicines on the word of the physician. In the same way the sub­
missive soul is in no way pre-occupied about its infirmities, except
as regards obvious maladies which by their nature compel it to rest,
and to take suitable remedies. The languor and weakness of souls in
the state of abandonment are only illusory appearances which they
ought to defy with confidence. God sends them, or permits them
in order to give opportunities for the exercise of faith and abandon­
ment which are the true remedies. Without paying the least atten­
tion to them, these souls should generously pursue their way,
following by their actions and sufferings the order of God, making
use without hesitation of the body as though it were a horse on hire,
which is intended to be driven until it is worn out. This is better
than thinking of health so much as to harm the soul.
“A courageous spirit does much to maintain a feeble body, and
one year of a life spent in so noble and generous a manner is of more
value than would be a century of care-taking and nervous fears. One
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ought to be able to show outwardly that one is in a state of grace and
goodwill. What is there to be afraid of in fulfilling the divine will?
The conduct of one who is upheld and sustained by it should show
nothing exteriorly but what is heroic. The terrifying experiences that
have to be encountered are really nothing. They are only sent that
life may be adorned with more glorious victories. The divine will
involves the soul in troubles of every kind, where human prudence
can neither see nor imagine any outlet. It then feels all its weakness,
and, finding out its shortcomings, is confounded. The divine will
then asserts itself in all its power to those who give themselves to it
without reserve. It succours them more marvellously than the writers
of fiction, in the fertility of their imagination, unravel the intrigues
and perils of their imaginary heroes, and bring them to a happy end.
With a much more admirable skill, and much more happily, does the
divine will guide the soul through the deadly perils and monsters,
even through the fires of hell with their demons and sufferings. It
raises souls to the heights of heaven, and makes them subjects of his­
tories both real and mystical, more beautiful, and more extraordinary
than any invented by the vain imagination of man.
“On then, my soul, through perils and monsters, guided and sus­
tained by that mighty invisible hand of divine Providence. On, with­
out fear, to the end, in peace and joy, and make all the incidents of
life occasions of fresh victories. We march under His standard, to
fight and to conquer; ‘exivit vincens ut vinceret,’ ‘He went forth
conquering that he might conquer’ (Apoc. 6:2). . . .
“It is not to cause the loss of our souls that we have so much to
do, and to suffer; but that we may furnish matter for that holy
writing which is added to day by day” (Caussade, Abandonment to
Divine Providence, Bk. II, chap, 4, sect. 8).
2. The Direction of the Holy Ghost; Method of
Procedure in this State and of Preparation for
the Attainment of this Direction

“And, as all the operations which the soul can perform on its own
account naturally depend upon sense only, it follows that God is the
agent in this state and the soul is the recipient; for the soul behaves
only as one that receives and as one in whom these things are being
wrought; and God as one that gives and acts and as One that works
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these things in the soul, giving it spiritual blessings in contemplation,
which is Divine love and knowledge in one—that is, a loving knowl­
edge, wherein the soul has not to use its natural acts and meditations,
for it can no longer enter into them as before.
“It follows that at this time the soul must be led in a way entirely
contrary to the way wherein it was led at first. If formerly it was
given material for meditation, and practised meditation, this material
must now be taken from it and it must not meditate; for, as I say, it
will be unable to do so even though it would, and, instead of becom­
ing recollected, it will become distracted. And if formerly it sought
sweetness and love and fervour, and found it, now it must neither
seek it nor desire it, for not only will it be unable to find it through
its own diligence, but it will rather find aridity, for it turns from the
quiet and peaceful blessings which were secretly given to its spirit,
to the work that it desires to do with sense; and thus it will lose the
one and not obtain the other, since no blessings are now given to it
by means of sense as they were formerly. Wherefore in this state
the soul must never have meditation imposed upon it, nor must it
perform any acts, nor strive after sweetness or fervour; for this
would be to set an obstacle in the way of the principal agent, who, as
I say, is God. For God secretly and quietly infuses into the soul lov­
ing knowledge and wisdom without any intervention of specific acts,
although sometimes He specifically produces them in the soul for
some length of time. . . .
“And thus, if the soul at this time desires to work on its own ac­
count, and to do aught else than remain, quite passively and tran­
quilly, in the passive and loving awareness whereof we have spoken,
... it would place an effective impediment in the way of the bless­
ings which God is communicating to it supernaturally in loving
knowledge. This comes to pass first of all in the exercise of interior
purgation wherein, as we have said above, it suffers, and afterwards
in sweetness of love. . . . Therefore the soul must be attached to
nothing—to no exercise of meditation or reasoning; to no kind of
sweetness, whether it be of sense or spirit; and to no other kind of
apprehension. For the spirit needs to be so free and so completely
annihilated that any kind of thought or meditation or pleasure to
which the soul in this state may conceive an attachment would im­
pede and disturb it and would introduce noise into the deep silence
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which it is meet that the soul should observe, according both to sense
and to spirit, so that it may hear the deep and delicate voice in which
God speaks to the heart in this secret place, as He said through Hosea
(2:14), in the utmost peace and tranquillity, so that the soul may
listen and hear the words of the Lord God to it, as David says (Ps.
84:9), when in this secret place He speaks this peace.
“When, therefore, it comes to pass that the soul is conscious of
being led into silence, and hearkens, it must forget even the exercise
of that loving awareness of which I have spoken, so that it may re­
main free for that which is then desired of it; for it must exercise that
awareness only when it is not conscious of being brought into soli­
tude or interior rest or forgetfulness or attentiveness of the spirit,
which, in order that it may be understood, is always accompanied by
a certain peaceful tranquillity and interior absorption.
“Wherefore, whatever be the time or season, when once the soul
has begun to enter into this pure and restful state of contemplation,
which comes to pass when it can no longer meditate, and strives not
to do so, it must not seek to gather to itself meditations, neither must
it desire to find help in spiritual sweetness or delight, but it must stand
in complete detachment above all this and its spirit must be com­
pletely freed from it, as Habakkuk (2:1) said that he must needs do
in order to hear what the Lord should say to him. I will stand upon
my watch—he says—and I wall fix my step upon my munition, and
I will watch to see that which will be said unto me. This is as though
he had said: I will raise up my mind above all the operations and all
the knowledge that can be comprehended by my senses, and above
that which they can keep and retain within themselves: all this I will
leave below. And I will fix the step of the munition of my faculties,
not allowing them to advance a step as to their own operation, so
that through contemplation I may receive that which is communi­
cated to me from God. For we have already said that pure contem­
plation consists in receiving.
“It is not possible that this loftiest wisdom and language of God,
such as is contemplation, can be received save in a spirit that is silent
and detached from sweetness and discursive knowledge. For this is
what is said by Isaiah, in these words: Whom shall He teach knowl­
edge and whom shall He make to hear its voice? Them that are
weaned from the milk—that is, from sweetness and pleasures—and
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them that are detached from the breasts—that is, from particular ap­
prehensions and knowledge.
“Oh, spiritual soul, take away the motes and the hairs and the
mists, and cleanse thine eye, and the bright sun shall shine upon thee,
and thou shalt see clearly” (Living Flame of Love, stanza 3).
“When a soul has given itself up to the leading of the Holy Spirit,
he raises it little by little, and directs it. At the first it knows not
whither it is going; but gradually the interior light illuminates it, and
enables it to behold all its own actions, and the governance of God
therein, so that it has scarcely aught else to do than to let God work
in it and by it whatever he pleases; thus it makes wonderful progress”
(Lallemant, Spiritual Doctrine, IV, art. 1).
“The principal means by which we obtain this direction of the
Holy Spirit are the following:
“1. To obey faithfully God’s will so far as we know it; much of
it is hidden from us, for we are full of ignorance; but God will de­
mand an account at our hands only of the knowledge he has given
us; let us make good use of it, and he will give us more. . . .
“2. To renew often the good resolution of following in all things
the will of God, and strengthen ourselves in this determination as
much as possible.
“3. To ask continually of the Holy Spirit this light and this
strength to do the will of God, to bind ourselves to him, and remain
his prisoners like St. Paul, who said to the priests of Ephesus, Being
bound in the Spirit, I go to Jerusalem (Acts 20:22); above all, in
every important change of circumstances, to pray God to grant us
the illumination of the Holy Spirit, and sincerely protest that we de­
sire nothing else, but only to do his will. After which if he impart to
us no fresh light, we may act as heretofore we have been accustomed
to act, and as shall appear best for the time being. . . .
“4. Let us watch with care the different movements of our soul.
By such attention we shall come gradually to perceive what is of
God and what is not. That which proceeds from God in a soul which
is subjected to grace, is generally peaceable and calm. That which
comes from the devil is violent, and brings with it trouble and
anxiety” (ibid., art. 2).
To those who maintain that this interior guidance of the Holy
Ghost is destructive of obedience and prudence, Father Lallemant
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replies that “the guidance which we receive from the gifts of the
Holy Spirit, far from interfering with obedience, aids and facilitates
the practice of it” and that “the Holy Spirit teaches us to consult
enlightened persons and to follow the opinion of others.”
As to those who complain that they are unable to obtain this di­
rection or, even if they should receive it, they could not recognize it,
the same author continues:
“To them we reply, first, that the lights and inspirations of the
Holy Spirit which are necessary in order to do good and avoid evil,
are never wanting to them, particularly if they are in a state of grace.
Secondly, that being altogether exterior as they are, and scarcely ever
entering into themselves, examining their consciences only very
superficially, and looking only to the outward man, and the faults
which are manifest in the eyes of the world, without seeking to dis­
cover their secret roots and to become acquainted with their own
predominant passions and habits, without investigating the state and
disposition of their soul and the movements of their heart, it is no
wonder that they have nothing of the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
which is wholly interior. How should they know anything of it?
They do not even know their interior sins, which are their personal
acts produced by their own free will. But they will infallibly acquire
the knowledge, if only they bring the necessary dispositions.
“First, let them be faithful in following the light which is given
them; it will go on always increasing.
“Secondly, let them clear away the sins and imperfections which,
like so many clouds, hide the light from their eyes; they will see
more distinctly every day.
“Thirdly, let them not suffer their exterior senses to rove at will,
and be soiled by indulgence; God will then open to them their in­
terior senses.
“Fourthly, let them never quit their own interior, if it be possible,
or let them return as soon as may be; let them give attention to what
passes therein, and they will observe the working of the different
spirits by which we are actuated.
“Fifthly, let them lay bare the whole ground of their heart sin­
cerely to their superior or to their spiritual Father. A soul which
acts with this openness and simplicity can hardly fail of being
favoured with the direction of the Holy Spirit” (ibid., art. 3).
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“In every place, O Truth, Thou givest audience to such as consult
Thee, and at the same time dost Thou answer all their demands, be
they never so diverse. Thou givest them clear answers, but everyone
doth not clearly understand Thee. For all men consult Thee about
what they will, but they do not always hear what they will by way
of answer. He is Thy best servant, who endeavoreth not to hear that
from Thee which he desireth but rather desireth that which he
heareth from Thee” (St. Augustine, Confessiotts, Bk. X, chap. 26).
“The consolation of the Holy Ghost is very delicate, and the least
thing impedes it. It is not given to those who seek human consola­
tions. . . . With good reason does the Holy Ghost greatly desire
to be desired. ... You must realize in your heart that if you are
disconsolate and if you call upon the Holy Ghost and He does not
come, then it is because as yet you do not have the proper kind of
desire for the reception of such a guest. It is not that He is unwilling
to come; rather Fie wishes you to persevere in that desire and by per­
severing to make yourself deserving of Him, to open wide your
heart and to make it grow in confidence. I assure you that no one
who thus calls upon Him will be sent away empty of His consola­
tion. . . . Your thoughts, words, and works will call upon the Holy
Ghost, and He will come upon you without your knowing how, and
you will find that He has taken up His abode in your heart. You
will discover in your soul a great joy, a pleasure so wonderful and so
complete that you will be taken out of yourself. You will hear the
whisper of the Holy Ghost in your ear, and He will show you all
that you must do. . . . He whose office it is to console will also
exhort you, and that same One who comforts you will reprove you
when necessary. . . . The Holy Ghost is given through the merits
of Jesus Christ. Do not cease to ask for Him; do not cease to desire
Him with a great desire and be assured that He will come to your
soul. He will bring you such consolation as no one will be able to
take from you” (Trat. 1 del Espiritu Santo, B. Jaun de Avila).

3. Divine Motion

and

Inspiration

“The spiritual man is not only instructed by the Holy Ghost re­
garding what he should do, but also his heart is moved. . . . They
are said to be acted upon who are moved by some higher instinct.
. . . The spiritual man is inclined to act, not from any movement
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of his own will principally, but by an instinct from the Holy Ghost”
(St. Thomas Aquinas, In Rom. 8:14).
“It is most especially with regard to souls that abandon themselves
entirely to God that the words of St. John are applicable: ‘You have
no need that any man teach you, as His unction teacheth you of all
things’ (John 2:20). To know what God demands of them they
need only probe their own hearts, and listen to the inspirations of
this unction, which interpret the will of God according to circum­
stances.
“The divine action, concealed though it is, reveals its designs, not
through ideas, but intuitively. It shows them to the soul either neces­
sarily, by not permitting any other thing to be chosen but what is
actually present, or else by a sudden impulse, a sort of supernatural
feeling that impels the soul to act without premeditation; or, in fine,
by some kind of inclination or aversion which, while leaving it com­
plete liberty, yet none the less leads it to take or refuse what is pre­
sented to it. If one were to judge by appearances, it seems as if it
would be a great want of virtue to be swayed and influenced in this
manner; and if one were to judge by ordinary rules, there appears
a want of regulation and method in such conduct; but in reality it
is the highest degree of virtue, and only after having practised it for
a long time does one succeed. The virtue in this state is pure virtue;
it is, in fact, perfection itself. One is like a musician who combines
a perfect knowledge of music with technical skill; he would be so
full of his art that, without thinking, all that he performed within
its compass would be perfect; and if his compositions were examined
afterwards, they would be found in perfect conformity with the
prescribed rules. One would then become convinced that he would
never succeed better than when, free from the rules that keep genius
in fetters when too scrupulously followed, he acted without con­
straint; and that his impromptus would be admired as chef d’oeuvres
by all connoisseurs. Thus the soul, trained for a long time in the
science and practice of perfection under the influence of reasonings
and methods of which it made use to assist grace, forms for itself a
habit of acting in all things by the instincts implanted by God. It
then knows that it can do nothing better than what first presents
itself, without all those arguments of which it had need formerly.
The only thing to be done is to act at random when unable to trust
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in anything but the workings of grace which cannot mislead it. The
effects of grace, visible to watchful eyes, and intelligent minds, are
nothing short of marvellous.
“Without method, yet most exact; without rule, yet most orderly;
without reflexion, yet most profound; without skill, yet thoroughly
well constructed; without effort, yet everything accomplished”
(Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence, Bk. II, chap. 4,
sect. 3).

4. The Ascetical

and

Mystical State

“In the ascetical state it can be said that the soul works alone, al­
though in reality God always works with it. Otherwise the soul
could do nothing in the supernatural order, not even pronounce the
name of Our Lord. In the mystical state, on the contrary, it seems as
if God works alone, but actually the soul abandoned to His activity
works better and is more powerful than ever. Some particular action
of God causes the gifts of the Holy Ghost to irradiate from the spirit
and the heart and He even infuses in the soul new ideas which en­
able it, if it is faithful, to transfigure its life more rapidly and more
perfectly. . . .
“It can be said that in the ordinary states, God is at the mercy of
man; that is, at the mercy of poverty and weakness. Therefore, in
spite of His omnipotence, how poor, weak, and imperfect are the
acts which are performed! . . . But in the mystical states, through
His love, the roles are reversed. And the more perfect these mystical
states, so much the more freely does the creature place itself under
the will of God and, as a consequence, so much the more perfectly
does it act, since in this staçe the action is that of God Himself. The
soul freely placed under the will of God: this is what constitutes the
mystical state. The more the soul disposes itself by recollection,
mortification, and fidelity in the practice of the virtues for the re­
ception of the divine activity, the better will God unfold His opera­
tion in it. How many errors there are concerning contemplatives!
They are the ones who do the most because they are the ones who
are freely actuated by God. They are His true sons because they are
animated by His Spirit (Rom. 8:14). That means that the more we
abandon ourselves to the divine activity, so much the more truly
active and free shall we be” (Sauvé, Le culte du C. de J., élév. 26).
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Special Work

of

Each

of the

Gifts

The gift of wisdom enables us to feel and to taste with ineffable de­
light the sublime truths which faith presents to us veiled in enigmas
and which usually appear arid and obscure to the sinner. Happy the
soul that is filled with this gift, because by it the soul will be divinely
wise and will possess the sum total of all goods, enjoying even now
an anticipated glory.136 Through the gift of wisdom the soul ac­
quires an experimental knowledge of the things of God that is so
positive and so secure that these things are impressed on it with the
evidence of a tangible fact.137 But what the soul thus knows and feels
is so sublime that ordinarily it must remain mute, must adore in
silence, and not profane this gift with human language.
The gift of understanding enables us to penetrate with the eyes of
an illumined heart into the august secrets of the Divinity.138 By it
is removed to some extent the veil of enigmas; and the divine truth
is disclosed in all its adorable enchantments, which cannot be de­
scribed. Through this gift are heard the secret words which it is not
permitted to man to speak and which are known only by those who
receive them.139
“Through the gift of understanding,” says Father Juan de los
Angeles, “men acquire a knowledge so exalted, celestial, and divine
and they experience sensations so profound that no doctor can ever
attain them by research and his own study. The things by which the
human mind is thus illuminated are ineffable. And there is yet more
in it: many times the human intellect is so enriched by this knowl­
edge that the soul receives as many hidden and profound meanings
ise Wisd. 7:7-14.
1S7John of St. Thomas, In lam llae, q.68-70, disp. 18, a.4: “Since the gift of
wisdom is not any kind of wisdom, but the wisdom of the Spirit; that is, proceeding
from the affection, the spirit, and the giving itself which we experience in our­
selves, which is the good will of God . . . , the formal reason by which the gift
of wisdom attains ... to the divine cause is that very knowledge which is had
experimentally of God, so far as He is united to us, penetrates us, and gives Him­
self to us. ... As a result of this union the soul is, as it were, connaturalized with
divine things and discerns them by tasting them.”
138 Lallemant, Spiritual Doctrine, IV, chap. 4, art. 2: “That which faith makes us
simply believe, the gift of understanding enables us to penetrate more clearly, and
in such a manner as, although the obscurity of faith still remains, appears to render
evident what faith teaches; so that he who possesses it marvels that some refuse to
believe the articles of our belief, or that they can doubt of them.”
189 Apoc. 2:17.

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in Sacred Scriptures as there are words, and in as many ways. All
these the soul directs and ordains to feed the divine love. . . . The
gift of understanding . . . seeks the interior man, the man who is
dead to the senses and to all sense images, totally dead to nature and
living in the spirit.” 140
The gift of counsel makes us act in a wonderful manner which dis­
avows the narrow views of human prudence. It makes us triumph,
without knowing how, over the cleverness of our enemies and, by
means which are least deliberated, it leads us easily and swiftly to
the port of salvation.141
The gift of fortitude moves us to execute valiantly what counsel
dictates and not to spurn works and sacrifices that contribute to the
glory of God and the good of souls. To that end, souls will attempt
to perform difficult and dangerous enterprises which manifestly sur­
pass their ordinary powers and can be realized only by divine
power.142
The gift of knowledge enables us to see the hand of God and His
140 Vida perfecta, IV, 6. “The gift of understanding,” says Alvarez de Paz (De
inquisitione pacis, V, II, 4), “is added to human understanding so that thereby it
subtly apprehends the things of faith and penetrates them thoroughly. ... By
means of this gift the just man knows himself intimately and is led to contempt of
self. He knows God and divine things more purely and more profoundly and is
aroused to admiration and love. . . . He sees the perfection of the divine com­
mands and with a mind purged of all error, he discloses the most secret meanings
of Scripture. Therefore, in accordance with the verse in the psalm, Cantate Domino
cantictnn novum, one could repeat the same psalm a thousand times, for new
mysteries are always revealed to us and thus it is as if we chanted a new psalm each
time.”
141 Lallemant, op. cit., IV, chap. 4, a. 4: “What faith, wisdom, and knowledge
teach in general, the gift of counsel applies to particular cases. . . . The vice that
is opposed to the gift of counsel is precipitation. . . . Slowness is a fault which is
also opposed to the gift of counsel. We ought to employ mature deliberation; but
when once our resolution is taken in accordance with the light of the Holy Spirit,
we ought to proceed promptly to its execution by the movement of the same Spirit,
because if we delay, circumstances change, and opportunities are lost.”
Alvarez de Paz, loc. cit., chap. 4, a.4: “The gift of counsel perfects the gift of
understanding that it may hold itself amenable to the dictates of God. . . .In re­
gard to particular cases, God teaches the just man and gives him great certitude
and much satisfaction. . . . Whence Bonaventure says (De donis Spiritus Sancti,
chap. 2): ‘The counsels of God are most perfect; they suffice for overcoming every
evil and for the most perfect attainment of every good, and therefore they lead by
the most direct paths.’ . . . Perfect men, strongly moved by the impulses of love,
welcome these things so that what is loved and believed and sought mav be more
perfectly and more speedily attained. Therefore God, who knows all things best,
openly and clearly counsels us in all things pertinent to perfection and provides us
with the power to fulfill them.”
142 Terrien, op. cit., I, p. 98: “By the gift of fortitude, the soul, aided by the Holy

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loving providence even in the most ordinary events. It discovers in
nil things the hidden divine meaning which they have in the super­
natural order. It makes us rise above the merely human viewpoint
and earthly evaluations of those who are insensible, unable to recog­
nize the divine mission which God confides to all things. Further,
i he gift of knowledge enables us to fulfill our own divine mission.
I le who possesses this gift in a high degree readily rises from the
creature to the Creator, seeing the divine stamp on all the works of
( lod.*143 At the same time he is able to manifest in a fitting manner,
by means of symbols and analogies, the supernatural truths, adapt­
ing them to all intellects and capabilities and vanquishing almost in­
stinctively any objections that enemies raise against him. This gift
characterizes the holy doctors and preachers, who must explain and
define accurately the things of faith and distinguish them from things
that are not of faith.144 When united to the gift of counsel, it char­
acterizes the true directors of souls.145*
Of this gift Father Lallemant says:
The gift of knowledge enables us to see readily and clearly everything
that regards our own conduct and that of others. ... By this gift a
preacher knows what he ought to say to his hearers, and what he ought
to urge upon them. A director knows the state of the souls he has under
his guidance, their spiritual needs, the remedies for their faults, the
obstacles they put in the way of their perfection, the shortest and the
Ghost, faces with invincible confidence labors, punishments, and even death itself
when the glory of God so demands.”
143 See Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence, Bk. II, chap. i.
144 See Ila llae, q.9, a.2, ad tuin: “Hence to know what one ought to believe, be­
longs to the gift of knowledge, but to know in themselves thé very things we be­
lieve, by a kind of union with them, belongs to the gift of wisdom.”
145 Alvarez de Paz, op. cit., II, chap. 4: “The gift of knowledge is necessary for
understanding: 1. that one may understand the things of faith through creatures
by reason of the proportionate likenesses and yet, not adhering to them, may
transcend to the contemplation of God; 2. that one may know the greatest perfec­
tion of each virtue, may hold all the virtues and their acts in high esteem, and never
cease to practice them interiorly and to beg for them. This knowledge does not
puff up, but edifies, because it is not different from charity. . . . Whence Rupert,
explaining the text, ‘Knowledge puffeth up; but charity edifieth’ (I Cor. 8:1), says:
‘He did not wish his statement to be understood in the sense that he opposes knowl­
edge to charity, but that he adds it to charity. For knowledge (without charity)
puffs up; but charity (with knowledge) edifies.’ So it is that knowledge ... of holy
things is given to the just that they may the more perfectly know what things are
to be done and what avoided and thus day by day they may live more holily and
more perfectly.”

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surest road by which to conduct them safely; how he must console or
mortify them, what God is working in them, and what they ought to do
on their part in order to cooperate with God and fulfill his designs. A
superior knows in what way he ought to govern his inferiors.
They who have the largest share of this gift are the most enlightened
in all knowledge of this kind. Wonderful things are disclosed to them
with respect to the practice of the virtues. They discover therein de­
grees of perfection unknown to others. They perceive at a glance
whether actions are inspired by God and conformable to his designs;
let them deviate ever so little from the ways of God, they discern it at
once. They remark imperfections where others cannot see them; they
are not liable to be deceived in their opinions, neither are they apt to let
themselves be surprised by illusions with which the w’hole world is
filled. If a scrupulous soul applies to them, they know what to say to
remove its scruples. If they have to make an exhortation, whether to
monks or to nuns, thoughts will occur to them suited both to the
spiritual needs of the religious themselves, and to the spirit of their
order. If difficulties of conscience are proposed to them, they will give
an admirable solution. Ask them for the reason of their reply, they can­
not tell you, because they know it without reasoning, by a light superior
to all reason.148
The gift of piety prompts us to consider the things of God or the
things that lead us to God with that same interest and affection with
which we look upon things of the family. It teaches us to treat God
with the filial and childlike affection, confidence, and simplicity of
a most loving child for the sweetest of fathers; or of a bride for her
beloved. This is the gift that suggests to enamored souls those sweet
liberties and noble audacities which are foreign to the WOrldly and
which please God the more because they are prompted by His Spirit
of adoption.147
148 Op. cit., IV, chap. 4, art. 3. This is the gift which was so admirable in St.
Teresa as a teacher and director of souls. This is the gift that enabled her to recog­
nize and make known the wavs of the spirit and to adapt them to the capacity of
all. Other great souls, like St. Catherine of Siena, Blessed Angela of Foligno, and St.
John of the Cross, are especially renowned for the gifts of wisdom and understand­
ing. by which they soar to such great heights that they are lost from view. And so
it is that, though they are more admirable, thev are often less admired.
147 Gardeil, The Gifts of the Holy Ghost, p. 53: “Filial piety toward God is one
of the characteristic traits of Christianity. . . . Paganism and philosophy have
honored the Creator, the Judge, Providence. We adore the consubstantial Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is also, by adoption, our Father; and we call Him
in all truth. Our Father who art in Heaven.’ ”

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The gift of fear of the Lord, the beginning of heavenly wisdom,
is ignored by the mundane and never found in the slothful and the
luxury loving. It leads to the practice of great austerities for the pur­
pose of completely rooting out evil inclinations and of avoiding
whatever may be even slightly offensive in the eyes of the heavenly
Father.148 The soul possessing this gift seeks at all cost to destroy
immediately the body of sin and to live ever protected by the
mortification of Jesus Christ so that even the mortal flesh manifests
the life of the Savior.149 Therefore, with great fervor it seeks to be
crucified and transfixed with the nails of holy fear, that it may not
be the victim of the divine wrath. “Pierce Thou my flesh with fear:
for I am afraid of Thy judgments” (Ps. 118:120).
I. MANIFESTATION OF THE GIFTS

The most precious gifts thus enumerated by Isaias in the order of
descending perfection and appropriately attributed to the Savior, are
usually manifested in us in the reverse order, according to the greater
practical importance or necessity which they have in the Christian
life. They begin with fear, which inspires an aversion to evil in order
to ensure a better practice of the good. Fear causes a detestation of
arrogance, pride, and deceit (Prov. 8:13), in order to establish, on
i he basis of humility and evangelical simplicity, the sublime science
of self-knowledge, which leads directly to God and the faithful prac­
tice of all the Christian virtues (ibid., 14). Knowing well our own
nothingness, we shall know how to despise it as we ought and to ap­
preciate better the divine Allness. We shall desire to root out of
ourselves whatever separates us from God, our highest Good, and
to purify ourselves entirely, to practice the divine commandments,
148 This holy fear is not destroyed by perfect charity, but it is increased and per
fected by it. The saints trembled and were horrified at the sight of sin, or even at
the mere idea or mention of it, for this monster, this destroyer of holiness, is in open
conflict with the divine attributes. The more the saints were deified, the more they
understood and knew from experience the great aversion which God has for sin.
This it is that made them tremble, struck them with horror, and impelled them to
seek reparations on seeing in themselves or their neighbor the slightest thing which
might drag them down or cause a division between themselves and the highest
Good.
“When I hear anyone speaking of sins,” said Ven. Olier (Esprit., I, 206), “I feel
certain reactions which crush and annihilate me and which it is impossible to ex­
press.”
149 Rom. 6:6; 8:13; II Cor. 4:10.

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and thus be able to attain a happy union with the God of all holi­
ness and justice.
Then the gift of piety suggests the means most efficacious, the de­
votions most tender and fruitful to please the heavenly Father, the
divine Spouse, and the sweet Guest and Consoler of the soul.
The gift of knowledge teaches the science of the saints, which con­
sists in conforming ourselves entirely to the divine will and whole­
heartedly venerating the dispositions of Providence, by which all
things are directed for our benefit. It shows us the true path of wis­
dom and leads us by the path of justice so that when we run we shall
not meet a stumbling block.150
The gift of fortitude prompts the soul to overcome the greatest
difficulties, so that it will not refrain from works or hardships when
the charity of Christ urges them.151 It ignites the flame of zeal for
the glory of God and the salvation of souls. It is this gift which
prompts missioners to propagate the kingdom of God and His justice
in spite of all perils. It likewise prompts devoted souls to persevere in
the way of prayer in spite of aridity and difficulties and the counsels
of worldly prudence, false humility, and cowardice.152
15° prov. 4: U f.
101 See II Cor. 5:14.
152 Lallemant, op. cit., IV, chap. 4, art. 6: “λΥε must be courageous, then, and
fearless in the service of God, that we may advance in perfection and become
capable of doing great things. Without the gift of fortitude no notable progress can
be made in the spiritual life. Mortification and prayer, which are its principal ex­
ercises, demand a generous determination to overcome all the difficulties to be
encountered in the way of the spirit, which is so opposed to our natural inclinations.
... As the gift of counsel accompanies that of fortitude and directs it, leading us
to undertake great things, so also human prudence and timidity keep each other
company, mutually supporting one another, and suggesting reasons in self-justification.
“They who are guided only by human prudence are timid beyond measure. This
fault is very common in superiors, and makes them, through fear of committing
mistakes, fail in doing half the good they might do
“A thousand apprehensions hinder us every moment, and prevent our advancing
in the way of God, and doing a vast amount of good we should do if we followed
the light of the gift of counsel, and possessed the courage which springs from the
gift of fortitude; but there is too much in us of human views, and everything alarms
us.”
To this timidity is joined false humility, which closes one’s eyes to the divine
benefits and thus leads one to ingratitude, imprudence, and cowardice. True pru­
dence, on the other hand, is generous, discreet, and magnanimous. “We may think
it humility,” says St. Teresa (Life, chap. 10), “not to realize that the Lord is be­
stowing gifts upon us. Let us understand very, very clearly how this matter stands.
God gives us these gifts for no merit of ours. Let us be grateful to His Majesty
for them, for unless we recognize that we are receiving them, we shall not be

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The gift of counsel inspires us with the means of realizing great
enterprises in a divine manner and teaches us how to proceed with
superhuman facility and prudence. Finally, when we have chosen,
so far as our state and condition permit, the “better part” or the
whole (the contemplative life or the fullness of the apostolic life),
and when the eyes of the heart have been purified and the spiritual
senses have been refined, then we shall begin to discover the divine
secrets and taste the infinite sweetness of God through the two sub­
lime gifts of understanding and wisdom.*153
2. EXCELLENCE OF THE GIFTS

The gifts of the Holy Ghost exceed the infused virtues both on
the part of the principal mover and director and on the part of the
mode and norm of activity. They are for man, in his relations with
aroused to love Him. And it is a most certain thing that, if we remember all the time
that we are poor, the richer we find ourselves, the greater will be the profit that
comes to us and the more genuine our humility. Another mistake is for the soul
to be afraid, thinking itself incapable of receiving great blessings, with the result
that, when the Lord begins to grant them, it grows fearful, thinking that it is sin­
ning through vainglory.”
In another place (chap. 13) the saint adds: “His Majesty desires and loves coura­
geous souls if they have no confidence in themselves but walk in humility; and I
have never seen any such person hanging back on this road, nor any soul that, under
the guise of humility, acted like a coward, go as far in many years as the courageous
soul can in a few. I am astounded at how much can be done on this road if one has
the courage to attempt great things; . . . He (the devil) tries at once to persuade
us that all these habits of devotion will kill us, or ruin our health; he even makes us
afraid that if we weep we shall go blind. ... As my own health is so bad, I was
always impeded by my fears, and my devotion was of no value at all until I re­
solved not to worry any more about my body or my health; and now I trouble
about them very little. For it pleased God to reveal to me this device of the devil;
. . . and since I have been less self-regarding and indulgent my health has been very
much better.”
153 Lallemant, op. cit., IV, chap. 4, art. 1: “The gift of wisdom is such knowledge
of God, His attributes, and mysteries, as is full of savour. The understanding only
conceives and penetrates. Wisdom judges and compares; it enables us to see causes,
reasons, fitnesses; it represents to us God, His greatness, His beauty, His perfections,
His mysteries, as infinitely adorable and worthy of love; and from this knowledge
there results a delicious taste, which sometimes even extends to the body. . . . Thus
it is to the gift of wisdom that spiritual sweetnesses and consolations and sensible
graces belong. . . . This taste of wisdom is sometimes so perfect that a person who
is possessed of it, on hearing two propositions, the one formed by reasoning, the
other inspired by God, will at once distinguish between the two. ... At first,
divine things are insipid, and it is with difficulty that we can relish them, but in
course of time they become sweet, and so full of delicious flavour, that we taste
them with pleasure^ even to the extent of feeling nothing but disgust for everything
else. On the other hand, the things of earth, which flatter the senses, are at first
pleasant and delicious, but in the end we find only bitterness in them.”
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the divine Paraclete, what the moral virtues are to the will with re­
spect to natural reason, and what the infused virtues are to the same
reason illumined by faith.
In regard to the simple virtues, whether acquired or infused, rea­
son itself, guided by its own lights or aided by those of the Gospel,
is the regulating norm of all things. It directs and orientates even
those lights and energies which the Holy Ghost secretly imparts.
But with the gifts the divine Spirit Himself is constituted as the
sweet Master of the soul with all its faculties, forces, and virtues.
He becomes the supreme Director who subordinates and governs
reason itself, illumined now with infused prudence, so that without
any human considerations to disconcert it, it rises in its flight to the
serene regions of eternal light.
Even when supernaturalized by grace and the virtues, the soul
cannot perfectly attain to the life of glory, since it does not yet
fully possess the divine status. To arrive at this life, it is necessary,
at least from time to time, that the Spirit of God be constituted as
director and governor of the soul. He must communicate to us cer­
tain instincts or divine impulses with their corresponding energies
and powers, to the end that we may be able to cooperate divinely
with His activity.
Hence the imponderable excellence of the gifts over the virtues.
They far surpass the virtues and perfect them. They even enrich,
evaluate, and direct charity itself, which never dies but is always
aflame with the brightness of the Holy Ghost, who pours it into our
hearts.154 When holy souls are introduced to the mystical wine
cellar and inebriated with the infinite sweetness of eternal Wisdom,
then they see how charity is “set in order.” 155
1B4 Gardeil, op. cit., p. 21: “We now see what charity is with the Gifts. It is not
that gentle warmth, that fervor of the virtues which secretly insinuates itself into
our moral organism and which takes the human forms of our reason and love. It is
the blazing center, making its envelope glow, radiant as the sun. It is the light of the
Face of our God resplendent in the sevenfold ray which is His own. Truly it is
beautiful! It is the very brilliance of Thy countenance, O Holy Spirit! This light
rests upon us. ‘There is signed above us the light of your countenance, O Lord!’
Not yet lighting our forehead, nor fascinating our gaze as in the Beatific Vision, it
envelops our heart. Like a sun whose rays come from it ceaselessly, our heart is
actuated and renewed by the action of the Holy Ghost, who enlightens our whole
interior world, our truth, love, hope, justice, passions, all, that God may reign over
all, directly and according to His own method. ‘That God may be all in all things.’ ”
155 Cant. 2:4.

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If the gifts enable us to perform divinely heroic works, they also
enable us to do with greater perfection and zeal even the most or­
dinary and lowly tasks. The gifts empower us to perform other
works also, for which, absolutely speaking, the virtues alone would
suffice although in that case they would not be done under such cir­
cumstances or in such a manner as is proper to the children of God,
which consists in being moved by His Spirit. He alone can lead us
happily to the port of salvation, to full union and the deifying trans­
formation. Therefore this transformation will not be realized in us
unless we enter fully into the mystical state. Then it is that “we all
beholding the glory of the Lord with open face, are transformed
into the same very image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of
the Lord.” 156
Together with the infused virtues the Holy Ghost secretly gives
us the power to work out our salvation by performing acts worthy
of eternal life; but even though He moves us to work, yet we work
in our own manner and as if through our own initiative, deliberating
and pondering the various motives in order to proceed prudently.
Through His gifts, He anticipates our deliberation; and with Him
directing us, we work with greater perfection and facility and even
at times without clearly adverting to what we are doing, but pro­
ceeding as if by the intuition of instinct.157 Through the virtues we
connaturally perform salutary actions and we work as good “ordi­
nary” Christians or children; but through the gifts we receive and
connaturally follow the divine impulses or movements, and then we
work as “spiritual” Christians or adults. “The spiritual man,” says
St. Thomas, “is inclined to a thing not so much from a movement
of his own will principally, but from an impulse of the Holy
Ghost.” 158
So we see that with simple Christian prudence man still acts as the
principal cause and in a manner almost always predominantly hu­
man. Although he has assimilated this virtue and uses it as his own,
yet it fails him because of his. own defects and it becomes vitiated
by the evil inclinations of his nature and his flesh. But in the gift
of counsel it is the Holy Ghost who moves and directs without
156 See II Cor. 3:18.
167 Rom. 8:26 f.
iss [n Rom. 8:14; lect. 3.

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taking account of human considerations. Then it is that a man
works divinely, carried on by an inspiration or impulse from
God.
To understand and follow to advantage the lofty explanations of
a truly learned professor, a greater intellectual preparation is neces­
sary than for understanding an ordinary teacher. In much the same
way, if we are to be profitable disciples of this sovereign Spirit of
truth, we need a divine preparation that will be adequate to His
operations. We must be made truly spiritual, pneumatic, if we are
to understand His mysterious language and hear those very delicate
whisperings by which, with divine unction, He illumines us and
teaches us all truth.158
This preparation, which will enable us to say with the Psalmist,
“I shall hear what the Lord, my God, says to me,” consists in recol­
lection, guarding of the senses, vigilance in procuring perfect purity
of heart, and the alienation of every sort of delight and consolation.
In this way a person acquires the science of the saints and becomes
facile in the use of those mystical gifts by which he becomes truly
spiritual and divine in his manner of working, knowing, loving,
and appraising all things.159
160 Then with this increasing facility and
the ability to experience the motions and inspirations of God,
the faculties are given to us whereby we can put them into ef­
fect.
The carnal man and even the purely rational man will not be able
to understand these things. They will appear enigmatic and foolish
to such men, as does the most profound explanation of higher mathe159 John 14:26; 16:13; I John 2:zo, 27· Caussade, op. cit., II, chap. 8: “We are not
well instructed save by means of the words which God expressly pronounces to
us. The knowledge of God is not learned in books. . . . What He teaches us is that
which is taking place within us at each instant. . . . What is known perfectly is
that which is learned from experience in suffering and action. This is the school of
the Holy Ghost who speaks words of life to the soul and from this fount we must
draw whatever we have to give to others. Only bv virtue of this experience is what
we read and see converted into true divine knowledge. ... In order to be learned
in this theology of the heart, which is entirely practical and empirical, we must
carefully attend to what God tells us at each moment. We must not heed what
others say, but let us heed what is taking place within ourselves.”
160 Isa. 28:9: “Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to
understand the hearing? them that are weaned from the milk, that are drawn away
from the breasts.”

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matics to a school boy. They understand nothing and can appréciait
nothing. They consider these things so much folly because they kick
the necessary understanding to perceive them.161
But the spiritual man understands and worthily appreciates the
things of the Spirit because he has the sense for perceiving and in
vestigating them. So it is that he is severely judged by those who arc
not also spiritual men.102 Therefore we find certain superiors who,
though prudent according to worldly standards, do not strive to
“put on Jesus Christ” so that they may understand and judge thin;.1',
according to Elim. Instead of encouraging and guiding their more
fervent subjects, they do whatever they can to paralyze and mislead
them. They foolishly contradict these fervent souls in order to force
them to resist what actually are vital impulses of the divine Consoler.
Not otherwise can they do who, ignorant of the science of God's
ways, seek to judge everything from the viewpoint of human pru­
dence.103
But those who have ears to hear, hear what the Spirit says to the
Churches.104 The faithful sheep of Christ know His voice and fol­
low Him and receive from Him eternal life, even in spite of the
mercenary shepherds who abandon them or do not know how to
guard and instruct them.103
J. PNEUMATIC PSYCHOLOGY AND THE ORGANISM OF THE CHURCH

An understanding of this mysterious supernatural psychology is
of the greatest importance to pastors and directors of souls. There
fore, that we may examine the imperceptible transition which takes
place between the phase of the beginner (the purely rational man,
who acts entirely according to the norms of human reason) and the
definitive and perfect state of the totally spiritual man (the pneu­
matic, who proceeds divinely according to the norms and direction
of the Holy Ghost), it is well for us to consider again the symbol
wherein the Church is presented as an organism. In this symbol each
161 Ps. 917: “The senseless man shall not know: nor will the fool understand these
things.”
1,2 See I Cor. 2:12-16.
1,8 Apoc. 3:22.
164 See Lallemant, Spiritual Doctrine, IV, chap. 1, art. 3.
165 John 10:1-28.

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of the faithful is represented as an elementary organ with its own
autonombus life, yet subordinated to the higher life of the whole
body from which it receives, as it were, a sort of new existence of
a superior and divine order.
Each organic cell in a body maintains a certain autonomy in the
type of life proper to itself with the functions indispensable to its
growth and conservation. Yet it is not thereby prevented from be­
ing subordinated to the higher life of the organism as a whole. The
whole organic life of the animal is subordinated to the sensitive life,
whereas in man, both must be subjected to the rational life under
penalty of serious conflicts. The same subjection takes place in re­
gard to the rational life proper to each of the faithful when they are
incorporated with Jesus Christ and receive the superior life of His
Spirit, who is the soul of the Church in which the faithful are as so
many organic cells.
When any of the cells breaks away from its neighbors and attends
to its own proper activities, or when it takes to itself too much initia­
tive and refuses to accept the influence of the higher directive organs
and the superior life of the whole organism, then a lack of balance
ensues and the cell gradually loses that higher life and soon dies of
anemia.
On the other hand, if properly subordinated, it shares fully in the
integral life. Although it must sacrifice some things for the others,
it is by that very fact the gainer, for it will receive benefits in the
proportion that it makes those sacrifices. Thus, the more closely it
is correlated and the more faithfully it follows the promptings of
that higher life, so much the more life does it enjoy and so much the
more vigorous does it become.
Something similar takes place in the faithful who live as members
of Christ. The more unselfishly they sacrifice themselves for their
neighbors and the more they deny themselves and their own inclina­
tions in order to follow the impulses of the Holy Ghost, the more
intensely they live the divine life and the more happiness they find
in that sweetness and peace which they enjoy in union with the
Spirit. However enslaved they may appear, living, as they do, bound
by the sweet chains of the love of God, they know that they have
recovered their true liberty, which consists in breaking asunder the
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bonds of the vices and passions which dominate and assault them.11’1’
But when they try to work with false independence, following their
own inclinations, or when they are guided by the narrow outlook of
human prudence, they cut off the flow of sweet impulses from the
Holy Ghost. By afflicting and resisting Him, they gradually ex­
tinguish the life they have received from Him.
Together with that life, the Holy Ghost gives them the necessary
faculties and powers to preserve and increase it by its corresponding
acts. These faculties and powers are the virtues and graces which
strengthen and perfect the natural potencies so as to raise them to
the supernatural order and to constitute both together as one prin­
ciple of action. Nevertheless it is still human reason which directs
all activity, and the soul has no clear realization that it is producing
acts of another order and that it is animated by a higher principle.
Such is the “spiritual childhood” in which we live by the Holy
Ghost without noting His vivifying presence or without being con­
scious of the life we are living. This life will remain imperfect as
long as it is lived in that human manner. But if the soul makes good
use of the faculties and powers it has received, if it observes the com­
mandments faithfully, if it endeavors to practice the virtues with all
possible perfection, and is solicitous to preserve the union of the
Spirit in the bonds of peace, as faith teaches, then it will begin to
grow spiritually. The cognitive potencies of the spiritual life will
begin to develop; and, once it has arrived at the “age of reason” and
has been renewed in the spirit of its mind, the soul will acquire a
consciousness of what it is and the life it is living.
Thus, working in accord with faith and the other infused virtues,
one grows in all things according to Jesus Christ. The gradual purifi­
cation of the heart fosters the good use of the gifts of the Holy Ghost
which formerly were imprisoned, as it were, under the imperfections
lee Lallemant, op. cit., IV, chap. 3, art. 2: “It is by the gifts of the Holy Spirit
that the saints succeed at last in freeing themselves from the slavery of creatures;
the plenteous effusion of these heavenly gifts effacing from the mind the esteem, the
remembrance, the thought of earthly things, and banishing from the heart all affec­
tion and desire for them, so that they think as it were, only of what they will, and
are affected only by what they will, and in such degree as they will. They feel no
longer the importunity of distractions, nor that disquietude and excitement which
troubled them before; and all their powers being perfectly regulated, they enjoy a
sovereign peace and the liberty of the children of God.”

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of self-initiative, just as the rational life of an infant is restricted, so
to speak, by the imperfections of organic and sensitive life. By the
time the soul arrives at “spiritual maturity,” where the things of the
Spirit are tasted, experienced, and recognized,167 the gifts have al­
ready attained a development sufficient to permit the soul to experi­
ence within itself what Christ felt168 and to proceed in all things
as one of His worthy members. That is to say, it will then be a
“spiritual” man and not carnal; it will no longer be an infant in
Christ, requiring the milk of consolation and sensible fervors be­
cause as yet it is incapable of higher things.168
Accustomed as they are to be guided by their own taste, opinions,
or caprices, the “infants” must be drawn to God through the de­
lights which the Spirit of piety and wisdom grants to them and ac­
commodates to their delicate palate. Although these sensible fervors
proceed from the gifts, the souls themselves must frequently
moderate such consolations because as long as these souls remain “in­
fants” they will follow the defective norm of reason and the direc­
tion of simple Christian prudence.
So the gifts first appear after the manner of hidden instincts or
blind impulses that must be well regulated and tested. Later, by use
and development, they are changed into clear intuitions, and then
it is clearly manifest from whom they come and whither they are
leading.176 Then, when the heart has been purified by the fire of
charity and cleansed of all vices and attachments that would impede
the right use of the gifts, the Holy Ghost begins to take in His own
hands the reins of interior self-government. He then constitutes Him­
self the director, master, and regulator of our spiritual life; and, that
the soul may not resist Him, He gives clear testimony to it, as a
child of God, that He Himself animates, rules, teaches, moves, and
leads it surely to the glory of the Father. “Blessed is the man whom
Thou shalt instruct, O Lord: and shalt teach him out of Thy law”
(Ps. 93:12).
This it is that properly constitutes the mystical state. On the
other hand, that state is spiritual childhood wherein the virtues work
187 Rom. 8:5; I Cor. 2:12-16; Col. 3:2.
188 Phil. 2:5.
189 See I Cor. 3:1 f.; 13:11; Heb. 5:12-15.
170 See Ila Ilae, q. 171, a. 5.

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principally but as yet very imperfectly. The manner of working is
entirely connatural or aided only by incipient gifts. These latter be
gin to work as such under our own guidance. In the ascetical state
the Spirit is still held in restraint.171
Through our own fault, the majority of us Christians never leave
this spiritual childhood, if we ever even enter into it. We have the
obligation of growing in all things through Him who is the Head,
Christ; but we remain inert. We have buried His precious talents,
which are the gifts of the Holy Ghost. These talents have been given
to us so that by their use we may be able to produce glorious fruits of
life. Therefore, if we do not throttle them with selfish affections, de­
fects, and evil inclinations, they will continue to multiply and secretly
prompt us to undertake a better life in which the divine Spirit will
be our guide and master.172
If they truly seek God alone with fervent prayer and purity of
heart, with quieted passions and appetites, all those who, with the
aid of ordinary grace, have purified their faculties and senses and
have been able to exercise and consolidate the Christian virtues, will
experience, if not the voice of God, which speaks to the heart in a
mysterious tongue, then at least the hidden impulses of the Spirit,
who sweetly calls them to a more perfect interior life. He will make
them thirst to drink at the fountain of living water and eager to ap­
pear before the face of God (Ps. 41:3). And if they do not resist or
displease Him, they will surely be able to enter into the place of the
wonderful tabernacle {ibid., 5). “Who shall ascend into the moun­
tain of the Lord: or who shall stand in His holy place? The innocent
171 Juan de los Angeles, Dialogos, X, sect, it: “Beginners in virtue and recollec­
tion are like infants to God who dwells in them as the soul within their souls. They
are like babies securely held in the arms and wrapped tightly in swaddling-clothes
and blankets. Yet as the soul gradually grows and begins to give itself entirely to
the divine Spouse, He also is increased, grows, and takes complete control of the
soul. He is the soul of the soul, the spirit of the spirit, and the life of the life; and
soon there is verified that statement of St. Paul that Christ lived more in him than
he himself did.”
172 Isa. 63:14. Lallemant, op. cit., IV, chap. 3, art. 1 : “The gifts do not subsist in the
soul without charity; and in proportion as grace increases, they increase also. Hence
it is that they are so very rare, and that they never attain a high degree of excellence
without a fervent and perfect charity; venial sins and the slightest imperfections
keeping them, as it were, bound down and preventing them from acting. Thus the
way to excel in prayer is to excel in these gifts; and indeed the most sublime con­
templation is scarcely anything different, for it is by penetrating deeply into super­
natural knowledge that the soul falls into ecstasy and swoons away.”

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in hands, and clean of heart. . . . He shall receive a blessing from
the Lord, and mercy from God his Savior.” 173
That they may more completely abandon themselves to Him and
more faithfully follow these divine impulses and not suppress them,
even unwittingly, the Holy Spirit deprives more advanced souls of
the ordinary lights. Then, in this terrifying obscurity and barren­
ness in which they find themselves during the painful night of the
senses, they see and realize their absolute inability to direct them­
selves as is necessary. As a result they deliver themselves without re­
serve to His direction and government.
Those who are thus animated and acted upon by the divine Spirit
are the true children of God, the children of the Spirit, as Blessed
Angela de Foligno calls them.174 Those who in no way possess Him
are strangers to God, for they are not of Jesus Christ.173 And those
who, though they possess the Spirit of filial adoption, keep Him im­
prisoned within themselves and use Him according to their own de­
sires without ever letting themselves be guided and governed by
Him, live by the Spirit, but they do not walk according to the
Spirit.170 They are still children in virtue, infants in Christ, who must
be treated with a certain delicacy. They are as yet carnal and not
spiritual for they are still filled with human considerations, passions,
and miseries.177 As yet they do not know or feel or taste the things
of the Spirit and they are much exposed to peril, for they mind the
things of the flesh.178 Their delicate stomachs seek sensible consola­
tions which are like the milk of infancy. They cannot tolerate, nor
do they even try to digest, the solid food of perfect manhood: total
abandonment to the hands of the Father, to be treated by Him as
was His Son, who said: “I have meat to eat, which you know not.
173 Ps. 23:2-5. Says St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi (op. cit., I, chap. 33): “Sin pre­
vents the soul from hearing Thy voice, O Lord, and closes the doors of faith. . . .
We receive Thy true knowledge from the Spirit of purity who cleanses souls. . . .
As soon as they are purified from their vices, not only do they hear Thy words,
but they even anticipate Thy wishes and instinctively know what Thou dost desire
them to do in atonement for past offenses. They hear Thy voice say to their hearts:
Cleanse thyself; be pure.”
174 See “Angela de Foligno,” by Paul Doncœur, Dictionnaire de spiritualité, (Paris,
«937)·
173 Rom. 8:9-14.
178 Gai. 5:25.
177 See I Cor. 3:1 f.; Heb. 5:12-14. See also St. Catherine of Siena, Letter 106.
i’3 Rom. 8:5 f.

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. . . Aly meat is to do the will of Him that sent Ale, that I may
perfect His work.” 178 Since they do not understand the hidden de­
lights of the Cross of Christ, they cannot fully enjoy that true peace
and felicity which spiritual souls enjoy in the shadow of this new
tree of life. If we live in the Spirit, we shall strive to proceed entirely
according to the Spirit, and we shall enjoy His most precious gifts,
living as men freed from the law of sin.180
Fruits

of the

Holy Ghost and

the

Beatitudes

From grace, as from a divine seed sown in the soil of our souls,
proceeds the glorious tree of our sanctification, which gives fruits
of eternal life. A just man is like a tree planted near a stream of run­
ning waters. He is mystically irrigated by the continual influence,
manifest or hidden, of the vivifying Spirit, the true fountain of liv­
ing water who, springing up in our hearts, invigorates the soul and
all its faculties. From Him, as the principle of life, and from His
sanctifying grace through which we are renewed, justified, and
deified, the virtues and gifts burst forth, according to St. Bona­
venture, like so many branches which proceed from the same trunk.
These virtues and gifts vivify, transfigure, and deify all our faculties
so that they may produce fruits of true justice, works worthy of the
children of God. Such are the precious fruits of the Holy Ghost.
Our Lord Jesus Christ has chosen us and placed us in the mystical
body of Flis Church that we may prosper and bear fruit and that
our fruit may remain.181 In thtse few words is contained the whole
of the spiritual life, which should be ever increasing, developing,
progressing, and made more copious. Only thus can we produce
more abundant and exquisite fruits of life that will be at once a
pledge and a prelude of eternal happiness.
“But the path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forward and increaseth even to perfect day.” 182 He who does not grow, becomes
paralyzed and degenerated. He who never bears fruit is like the
barren fig tree which, although it bore leaves before its time, was
cursed by the Savior. He whose fruits do not ripen, but always re179 John 4:32, 34.
180 Gal. 5:16-23.
181 John 15:16.
182 Prov. 4:18.

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main unpalatable, never reaches the point where God finds delight
in him; and for that reason he will not enjoy true happiness.
On the other hand, “Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the
counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in
the chair of pestilence. But his will is in the law of the Lord, and on
His law he shall meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree
which is planted near the running waters; which shall bring forth
its fruit in due season. And his leaf shall not fall off: and all whatso­
ever he shall do shall prosper.” 183 “Blessed is the man that shall
continue in wisdom, and that shall meditate in His justice, and in his
mind shall think of the all seeing eye of God. He that considereth
her ways in his heart and hath understanding in her secrets.” 184
Blessed is the man “that is found without blemish: and that hath
not gone after gold, nor put his trust in money nor in treasures. . . .
Therefore are his goods established in the Lord.” 185 In a word, the
man who fears to displease God in the slightest matter and is im­
pelled with a strong eagerness to fulfill the divine will in all things is
happily on his way to the fatherland. Since this holy fear is already
the beginning of true wisdom, which accomplishes all things, he who
possesses it will produce copious fruits of blessing and will live full
of glory and spiritual riches.186
The fruits of life and pledges of blessing and happiness are in­
numerable. Therefore we ought to bear the fruit of good works in
every way so that we may walk worthily of God and please Him in
all things. Thus we shall grow in divine knowledge 187 and become
blessed and immaculate, walking according to the law of God and
seeking Him with our whole heart.188 These fruits can all be re­
duced to the twelve principal ones which the Apostle enumerates:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity,
goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chas­
tity.” 189
By means of the fruits the salutary influence of the Spirit of God
183 Ps. i : 1-4.
184 Ecclus. 14:22-27.
185 Ibid., 31:8-11.
188Ps. 111:1-3; n8:if.; Prov. 1:7; Ecclus. 1:16; Wisd. 7:11.
187 Col. 1:10.
188 Ps. 118: i f.
189 Gal. 3:22 f.

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is discernible in onr actions. They also enable us to distinguish true
from false spirits, to distinguish the faithful servants sent by Jesus
Christ from the hypocritical impostors who come in sheeps’ garments
but are wolves beneath. “By their fruits you will know them.” 180
So it is that St. John firmly admonishes us not to give credence too
readily to any spirit, inspiration, or impulse we may feel, but to
prove it to see whether it comes from God. These things are proved
or tested by the fruits they produce. If they cause turbulence, envy,
discord, insubordination, disquiet, death-producing sorrow,181182
de­
jection, harshness, immodest volubility, and the like, then they are
in reality carnal, mundane, or diabolical, and not divine.
The breathing and the moisture of the Holy Ghost make the just
man produce all his mystical fruits. “And he showed me a river of
water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God
and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street thereof and on both sides
of the river, was the tree of life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its
fruits every month, and the leaves of the tree [symbol of the vigor
and luxuriance which the spirit of prayer communicates] were for
the healing of the nations.” 192 These fruits, says St. Thomas, are
“any virtuous deeds in which one delights.” 183184
Just as in the sensible order, the flowers of a tree, however beauti­
ful they may be, would be useless if they were not converted into
fruit, so in the spiritual order, the same can be said of the beautiful
flowers of the virtues and holy desires that are not ultimately con­
verted into the fruits of good works. It is only then that the mystical
bride truly consecrates her whole heart to the divine Spouse.194 So,
although the Apostle seems to enumerate the virtues of charity,
peace, meekness, and so on, among the fruits, yet he understands by
them their perfect exercise and the works of life which they produce.
If these works are so perfect, abundant, and permanent that one is
found to be in the state of producing them with facility and perfec­
tion, then they are so joyful and delightful that they constitute, as
180 Matt. 7:15.
181 See II Cor. 7:10.
182 Apoc. 22:1 f.
183 See la Ilae, q.70, a.2.
184 Cant. 7:12 f.: “Let us see if the vineyard flourish, if the flowers be ready to
bring forth fruits, . . . there will I give thee my breasts. ... In our gates are all
fruits: the new and the old, my beloved, I have kept for thee.”

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it were, a prelude to eternal happiness. Although they may be per­
formed at the cost of annoyance and tribulation, yet they produce
in us an ineffable joy to which nothing in this life can be compared.
They are truly comparable to the joys of heaven. “For that which is
at present momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for us
above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory.” 195
The permanent sweetness of the most exquisite fruits of the vir­
tues and gifts constitutes the various states of true happiness obtain­
able on earth, and these states are rightly called the beatitudes. The
beatitudes are most precious fruits in regard to this life, and incom­
parable flowers which presage the life of glory.198
I. COMPARISON OF THE GIFTS WITH THE FRUITS AND BEATITUDES

The fruits of good works can be bitter, especially when they are
not ripe; but in the measure that they develop and mature, they be­
come so delightful that the labor spent in producing them is scarcely
noticed. There is then no reckoning of the sweat and tears that they
cost, because everything contributes to their greater sweetness. In
the beginning, therefore, heavenly wisdom seems difficult (as is
usually the case with the worldly), and for that reason the foolish do
not persevere. But if it is seriously cultivated, in a short time its
tasty fruits are recognized and it is changed into pleasure and en­
chantment and is the beauty of life.197
Says Lallemant:
When we have long exercised ourselves with fervour in the practice
of the virtues, we acquire a facility in producing acts of them. We no
longer feel the repugnances we experienced at first. We have no longer
to combat and do violence to ourselves. We do with pleasure what
before we did only with difficulty. The same thing happens to virtues
as to trees. As the latter bear fruits which, when they are ripe, lose their
sharpness, and are sweet and pleasant to the taste; so when the acts of
the virtues have attained a certain maturity, we perform them with
pleasure, and find in them a delicious flavour. At this stage, these acts
1,6 See II Cor. 4:17.
188 See la Ilae, q.70, a. 1, ad mm: “And so our works, in so far as they are produced
by the Holy Ghost working in us, are fruits; but in so far as they are referred to
the end, which is eternal life, they should rather be called flowers: hence it is
written (Ecclus. xxiv. 13): My fruits are the flowers of honour and riches."
187 Ecclus. 6:19-31.

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PARTICIPATION IN THE DIVINE ACTIVITY
of virtue inspired by the Holy Spirit are called fruits of the Holy Spirit;
and certain virtues produce them in such perfection and sweetness, that
they are called beatitudes, because they cause the soul to be wholly
filled with God. Now the more God possesses a soul, the more He
sanctifies it; and the more holy it is, the nearer it approaches to that
happy state in which nature being healed of its corruption, the virtues
become, as it were, natural.198

“The world,” says Father Froget, “comprehends nothing of these
delights. As St. Bernard says, it sees the cross, but not its unction.
The anguish of the flesh, the mortification of the senses, the works of
penance, these do not attract its attention, except painfully; and
looking upon them all in horror, it misses the consolations of the
Floly Spirit. Pious souls, on the contrary, gladly cry out with the
spouse in the Canticle: ‘I sat down in the shade of Him whom I have
desired, and His fruit is sweet to my palate’ (Cant. 2:3).” 199
In the blessed shadow of the tree of the Cross, the just souls find
that happiness and repose which the world cannot know and which
increase daily with their works. In the midst of their labors they
superabound in joy and divine consolations, so that they can say
with the Apostle: “I am filled with comfort; I exceedingly abound
with joy in all our tribulation.” 200 Each type of work produces
a special kind of consolation, and the principal virtue under whose
influence it is undertaken constitutes, as it were, a partial state of
happiness; that is, one of the beatitudes. For the beatitudes are those
states in which there is a copious and continual production of the
exquisite fruits which give one a foretaste of glory.
This happiness is felt by the soul even in the midst of its pains.
Indeed, the soul glories in its tribulations, for as soon as the perfect
fruits begin to manifest themselves, the soul begins to enjoy this prel­
ude to eternal happiness.201 But the soul can in no sense be called
blessed until, after the manner of the mystical spouse, it enjoys these
fruits as it sits in the shadow of the Beloved (Cant. 2:3). Nor can it
198 Spiritual Doctrine, V, chap. 5, art. 1.
180 The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, p. 232.
200 See II Cor. 7:4.
201 See la Ilae, q.69, a. 2: “In order to make the matter clear we must take note
that hope of future happiness may be in us for two reasons. First, by reason of our
having a preparation for, or a disposition to, future happiness; and this is by way
of merit; secondly, by a kind of imperfect inchoation of future happiness in holy
men, even in this life. For it is one thing to hope that the tree will bear fruit, when
the leaves begin to appear, and another, when we see the first signs of the fruit.”

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be called perfect until it enjoys more or less each and every one of
the beatitudes, for all of them pertain to the perfection of the spiritual
life 202 and for that reason they can be merited de condigno.203
Therefore not all the fruits are beatitudes, because the beatitudes
presuppose perfection in the fruits and an excellence and certain
stability in their possession and enjoyment. Inasmuch as they pertain
to the fruits that are perfect, copious, and permanent, the beatitudes
correspond to the gifts of the Holy Ghost more aptly than to the
virtues.204 Hence he who is content with the ordinary and method­
ical practice of the virtues, and does not purify or deny himself so
as to become totally governed and led by God through His mystical
gifts, cannot share in the delights of true happiness.205
Each of the gifts, when well developed, makes us taste and enjoy
202 See Ila llae, q. 19, a. 12, ad lum: “Since a beatitude is an act of perfect virtue,
all the beatitudes belong to the perfection of the spiritual life.”
203 See la llae, q.69, a.2. “The goods which are granted to just men through a
special act of God’s providence, that they may proceed from virtue to virtue until
they see God in Sion, fall under merit de condigno” (Medina, /22 lam llae, q. 114,
a. 10).
204 See la llae, q.70, a. 3. “Fruits of the Spirit are called acts of the virtues,” says
St. Thomas in another place (In Gal. V, lect. 6), “so far as they possess a certain
suavity and sweetness and also because they are a certain ultimate act produced ac­
cording to the mode of the gifts. . . . But there is this difference between the gifts,
the beatitudes, the virtues, and the fruits: A virtue may be considered as a habit
and as an act. The habit of the virtue perfects one for acting well and when it gives
this perfection of operation in a human manner, it is called a virtue. But if it per­
fects one to operate above the human mode, it is called a gift. Whence the Philoso­
pher places above the common virtues other virtues which he calls heroic. . . .
But the act of a virtue is either a perfecting act, and then it is called beatitude; or
it is an act which gives delight, and then it is called a fruit.”
200 Lallemant, op. cit., IV, chap. 5, art. 1 : “They who strive after perfection by
the way of systematic practices and acts, without abandoning themselves completely
to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, never have this sweetness and, as it were, ripe­
ness of virtue; they always feel difficulty and repugnances, they have always to
coinbat, and are often vanquished, and commit faults; instead of which, they who
proceed from the direction of the Holy Spirit, in the wav of simple recollection,
practice what is good with a fervour and a joy worthy of the Holy Spirit, and win
glorious victories without a struggle, or if they do have to combat, they do so with
pleasure.
“Whence it follows, that tepid souls have twice as much trouble in the practice
of virtue as the fervent, who devote themselves to it in earnest and without reserve;
because the latter possess the joy of the Holy Spirit, which renders everything easy
to them; whereas the former have their passions to fight against, and experience
the weaknesses and infirmities of nature, which counteract the sweetness of virtue,
and render its acts difficult and imperfect.”
Rightly did Mother Mary of the Queen of the Apostles say: “He who gives only
half of himself to God is the one who has the most difficulties.”

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a partial aspect of glory. As a person excels in the fruits proper to
one gift or another, so will he enjoy pre-eminently the correspond­
ing beatitude which comes to him even in this valley of life. But in
heaven, when all these partial aspects, these transitory states of in­
cipient happiness, are united and perfected, they will come to full
f tuition and will lose every trace of bitterness and flatness and the
soul will enjoy a full, inamissible, and eternal beatitude. Then it is
that the soul, deified and completely purified, will enter into the com­
plete joy of God and be totally immersed in the torrent of divine de­
lights. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. And
death shall be no more, nor mourning nor crying shall be any more,
for the former things are passed away.” 206
For the present, however, the life of the just must be a mixture of
pain and joy; not to weaken that life, but to make it meritorious.
The tears which the fear of the Lord causes to flow are filled with
such consolation that the soul would not exchange them for all the
pleasures in the world. The servants of God, even when weeping,
are happy because they have within themselves the divine Com­
forter.
The piety which this most sweet Guest inspires in them and by
which they cordially and lovingly treat God as a Father and their
neighbors as brothers, produces in them abundant fruits of charity,
peace, joy, benignity, goodness, and the patience by which they will
possess their souls.207 Preserving the unity of the Spirit under the
bonds of peace, these peacemakers enjoy the liberty of the children
of God.208
The gift of knowledge teaches souls how to recognize and pre­
pare the way of the Lord and to disdain the world in order to do
the divine will in all things. With faith and continence they seek,
not their own interests, but those of God: His kingdom and Elis
justice. Thus those who hunger and thirst after justice receive their
206 Apoc. 21:4.
20T Luke 21:19.
208 Juan de Jesus Maria, Escuela de oration, IX, 6: “To the gift of piety are at­
tributed many extraordinary things which the saints did for the honor of the divine
Majesty, for they could not permit that the honor which belongs to God and our
Father should be given to idols, nor could they permit anyone to refuse the homage
which was owing to sacred images and other holy things. For that reason they even
publicly reprimanded the heretical persecutors.”

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fill with ineffable joy at the fountain of the Savior who, together
with His kingdom, gives them all other things besides.209
The Spirit of fortitude enables them to endure not only patiently,
but even with joy and magnanimity, every kind of labor for the
glory of God. By means of this gift they triumph over all their
enemies and especially the greatest of them, which is self-love. Once
self-love has been vanquished by continual self-abnegation, modesty,
continency, mildness, patience, and longanimity, then the truly meek
and humble, imitating the divine Lamb, enjoy the fruit of their hardwon victory: complete mastery of self and all their passions. Thus
they conquer the mystical kingdom and possess the earth.210
The gift of counsel, together with that of piety, moves us, on the
one hand, to do unto our brethren, particularly in time of their mis­
fortune, as we would have them do unto us; and on the other hand,
to flee from association with evil and impious men. It teaches us to
seek the company of the good and the perfect and to honor in a
fitting way the saintly friends of God and to invoke them as our pro­
tectors and intercessors. In this way do the merciful and pious re­
ceive the consolation of obtaining the divine mercy.
The Spirit of understanding enlightens and purifies the eyes of the
heart. Perfect purification, though painful, does away with the
obstacles that impede the vision of the radiant Sun of justice and en­
ables us to see in some small measure the light of His glory. Those
who are truly clean of heart, then, are illumined to the point of
seeing God and penetrating His most august mysteries.211
The gift of wisdom, which makes us evaluate things in a fitting
manner, lifts us up to true poverty of spirit, to disparagement and
forgetfulness of self, to the total surrender of anything that is not
of God or does not lead to Him, and to a complete indifference to
spiritual consolations. Yet to anyone who abandons himself to God
with this wise disinterestedness, God delivers and communicates
Himself without reserve.212 The truly poor in spirit enjoy an antic209 Matt. 6:34; Luke 12:31.
210 In this way are fulfilled the words of Prov. 16:32: “The patient man is better
than the valiant: and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh cities.”
211 See la Ilae. q.69, a.2, ad 3um: “All these rewards will be fully consummated in
the life to come: but meanwhile they are, in a manner, begun, even in this life. . . .
Again the (mind’s) eye being cleansed by the gift of understanding, we can, so
to speak, see God.”
Imitation of Christ, Bk. II, chap. 1: “He who tastes life as it really is, and not

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ipated glory and even now possess the kingdom of heaven.
To suffer persecutions for Jesus Christ, in which beatitude all
seven are contained, is the greatest glory and happiness that His
faithful followers can have in this life. So far as the beatitudes have
the aspect of merit, they are flowers of glory, but covered with
thorns; and so far as they have the aspect of a reward, adds St.
Thomas,213 they are glory already begun. The divine Master
enunciated the beatitudes at the very beginning of His preaching
because in them is contained the end of the New Law and in them
are gathered together for all eternity the most precious fruits of the
evangelical life. “You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you,
and have appointed you that you should go and should bring forth
fruit, and your fruit should remain; that whatsoever you shall ask of
the Father in My name, He may give it you” (John 15:16).
Besides being permanent fruits, the beatitudes indicate various
states of perfection in which those delicious fruits abound, the pos­
session and enjoyment of which constitute a beginning of the life of
glory, in which God is all in all and satisfies all.214215
To these various
states of perfection Christ invited His disciples and all His hearers.
He desired that each one, following the impulse of Flis Spirit in ac­
cordance with his particular vocation, should imitate Him more ex­
actly in some one phase of His life. In this way all His followers
taken together would be able to reproduce vividly His divine image
and perpetuate His precious life, so full of the fruits of benediction.
2. THE WORKING OF THE HOLY GHOST IN SOULS

Thus does the Spirit of Jesus Christ bear fruit in the just soul.213
He enters therein to dwell in union with the Word and with the
as men say or think it is, is indeed wise with the wisdom of God rather than of men.”
218 Loc. cit.
214 Juan de Jcsùs Maria, op. cit., IX, 12: “The state of those whom Christ calls
‘blessed’ is such that, with that poverty of spirit which is humility, . . . they per­
form certain acts of the greatest contempt of self and in this self-contempt they
experience the kingdom of heaven. ... It must not be understood that the fruits
and beatitudes are strictly acts, because they also possess certain heavenly qualities
characteristic of celestial happiness, which accompany and follow the acts them­
selves; for example, peace, among the fruits, and purity of heart, among the beati­
tudes.”
215 Ibid., no. 13: “The understanding and consideration of the beatitudes and of
the fruits should serve as a solace for spiritual persons who know the inestimable
benefits which the Lord communicates to His friends even in this life. They should,
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Father. He, the Gift par excellence, gives Himself entirely to the
soul and adorns that living temple of His with the splendor of His
grace, virtues, and gifts. In this way does He purify, justify, trans­
form, and renew the soul until it is deified and made an object
worthy of His divine pleasure. With the divine life which He com­
municates, He also bestows divine activities by which the soul can
live and work as a child of God. These are the infused virtues and
the gifts of that same Holy Ghost. They are the fecund seeds of
the fruits which God desires to implant in us and the possession of
which makes us happy even during this life.
Heed, then, O Christian souls, the voice of the Holy Ghost. Fol­
low His inspirations and “bud forth like the rose planted by the
brooks of waters. Give ye a sweet odor as frankincense. Send forth
flowers, as the lily, and yield a smell, and bring forth leaves in grace,
and praise with canticles, and bless the Lord in His works.” 216
218
217
To arrive with certainty at our heavenly goal, we must follow the
impulse of the Spirit, who pours forth His charity on us for the
purpose of inflaming us with the love of God and His holy desires.
He excites and moves and consoles us with His gifts, that we may fly
to the object of our love. Once again we turn to the pages of Father
Froget’s inspiring work:
Who will count all the holy thoughts He arouses in us, the good
impulses He imparts, the salutary inspirations of which He is the source?
Why is it that obstacles too frequently come to more or less paralyze
His bénéficient activity and to hinder His purpose? This is why so many
Christians in the possession of habitual grace and of the Divine energies
which accompany it, remain, nevertheless, so feeble and so sluggish in
God’s service, so little zealous for their perfection, so inclined to earth,
so forgetful of the things of heaven, so easily fascinated by evil. This
is why the Apostle exhorts us to “grieve not the holy Spirit of God:
whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption,” 217 and, above all,
“to extinguish not the Spirit.” 218
There is another reason which finally explains why a seed so prolific
of holiness produces oftentimes so sorry a harvest. It is this: that knowtherefore, impel themselves to work and to travel along the road of Christian per­
fection.”
216 Ecclus. 39:17-19.
217 Eph. 4:30.
218 See I Thess. 5:19.

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ing but very imperfectly the treasure of which they are the guardians, a
number of Christians form only a faint estimate of it and put themselves
to little pains to make it yield fruit. Yet what power, what generosity,
what respect for self, what watchfulness and what consolation and joy,
■would not this thought , if constantly held before the mind and piously
meditated upon, inspire: The Holy Ghost dwells in my heart! He is
there, a powerful Protector, always ready to defend me against my
enemies, to sustain me in my combats, to assure me the victory. A
Faithful Friend, He is always disposed to give me a hearing, and, far
from being a source of sadness and weariness, His conversation brings
gladness and joy: it “hath no bitterness nor His company any tedious­
ness, but joy and gladness.”219 He is there the ever present witness of
my efforts and sacrifices, counting every one of my steps in order to
reward them some day, following my whole course, forgetful of nothing
that I do for His love and His glory.
The Holy Spirit dwells in my heart! I am His temple, essentially the
temple of holiness; I must, therefore, sanctify myself, since the first
characteristic of God’s house is holiness: “Holiness becometh Thy
house, O Lord, unto length of days.” 220 1 will, therefore, proclaim again
with the Psalmist, more by my conduct than by my words: “I have loved,
O Lord, the beauty of Thy house, and the place where Thy glory
dwelleth.” 221
What is more efficacious than these reflections, to move us to live ac­
cording to the word of St. Paul: “That you may walk worthy of God,
in all things pleasing; being fruitful in every good work, and increasing
in the knowledge of God”?222

Let us attend, then, to the sweet voice of the Spirit who is whis­
pering to us all truth and, like a tender mother, says to us: “Let thy
heart receive my words, keep my commandments, and thou shalt
live. ... I will show thee the way of wisdom, I will lead thee by
the paths of equity: which when thou shalt have entered, thy steps
shall not be straightened, and when thou runnest thou shalt not meet
a stumbling block. Take hold on instruction, leave it not: keep it,
because it is thy life.” 223
219 Wisd. 8: ιό.
229 Ps. 92:5.
221 Ps. 25:8.
222 Col. 1:10. The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, pp. 238 f.
223 Prov. 4:4-13.

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APPENDIX
i. Why Do Not

the

Gifts Fructify in Many Souls?

“How can we explain the fact that all those who are in the state of
grace possess the gift of wisdom, but nevertheless there are very few
who possess the gift of contemplation? I answer that there can be
various reasons for this sterility: a low degree of purity of life, the
frequent commission of venial sins, excessive activity, too little re­
gard for the divine communication, and other similar things. . . .
It must be noted that the gift of wisdom aids all the just whenever
this help is necessary for salvation. . . . But there are very few who
keep such a watch over their heart that they arrive at true divine con­
templation and enjoy that most sweet communication of God our
Lord which is the beginning of the happiness of glory. Yet it is true
that there are more souls who do arrive at other lower grades of con­
templation” (Juan de Jesûs Maria, Escuelade Oration, tr. 8, dist. 12).
“If anyone desires the precious gift of contemplation, let him strive
to pray as he ought. Let him lead a life of mortification and humility
and refrain from those things which impede interior quiet and the
divine communication. This doctrine ought greatly to prompt spir­
itual persons to live with great mortification and not to spurn any
work that will lead them to some degree of contemplation. . . .
They should desire contemplation, not so much for the interior con­
solation it gives, but for the perfection of life which is thereby at­
tained and the pleasure which the divine Majesty receives through
His intimate communication with men” {ibid., dist. 13).
2. The Training and Doctrine Which the Holy Ghost
Gives to Each Soul That Seeks His Instruction
Wholeheartedly and Strives Earnestly
After That Perfect State Which Our
First Parents Lost

“The divine Spirit, who knows perfectly the way God works
(since He is truly God, as are the Father and the Word), leads and
directs us ... so that we may act in accordance with the will of
God. God always begins to provide a remedy for the radical cause
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PARTICIPATION IN THE DIVINE ACTIVITY
of the evils which come to us. Since evil came to the entire human
race through disobedience, pride, and intemperance, this most wise
Master, by means of the great work of justification and sanctifica­
tion, begins to rid us of those three great obstacles which remain in
us even after our redemption. As long as we have those obstacles,
not even God Himself can complete the work of our justification.
The work begun by the Father is continued by the Son and will be
perfected by the Holy Ghost. One can understand clearly why that
privileged intellect [St. Augustine] cried out: ‘He who created thee
without thyself, will not save thee without thyself.’
“Without our cooperation the Holy Ghost cannot of Himself
remove those three great obstacles which impede our sanctification.
But how can we prepare, that He may dispose of them? By docility;
doing what He advises us to do, believing all that Fie teaches us,
rooting out of our hearts everything that He forbids us to have.
What could be more fitting than that God should ask us and demand
of us that we place His remedy at the root of our evil, ruin, and
death? It is especially fitting, since it results in the subjection of our
passions to reason. If this is not done, our passions will be the prin­
cipal cause of our ruin.
“By fasting and penance, performed in a manner dictated by the
divine Spirit, we shall succeed not only in putting our passions under
control, but we shall truly die to self. . . . The merit of fasting
does not lie in that very act, but in doing it under the conditions
necessary to make it pleasing to God and profitable to ourselves. It
must be undertaken for the purpose which the Holy Ghost proposes.
Not every fast is pleasing to God, nor every act of penance. Because
of the deep roots of our passions, we often do not seek God in all
things, but we seek self. In this regard we are like little children who
do not know how to do anything of profit to themselves.
“To avoid this, the action of the Holy Ghost comes to our aid. He
guides and protects us as a tender mother does her child when, taking
him by the hand, she leads him along the path lest he make a misstep
and fall.
“How can the soul do many of the things that are necessary for
it in the spiritual life? The soul in this life is like a traveler who de­
sires to return to the land of his fathers, but since he himself was
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born in a strange land, he is ignorant of the road he must take. What
would happen to him if, unaware of the great danger of being lost
on the way, he set out alone on his journey?
“He could avoid all danger of this if he would take with him as
an experienced guide a native of that beloved country which he de­
sires to reach. Even in this case, if the traveler heeds his timidity and
natural cowardice, he will be unwilling to traverse the narrow paths
along which he must travel. He will become frightened and say: Ί
will not walk along this path where there are scarcely any fellow
travelers. I wish to walk where there are many happy and delightful
people. Here everything is painful. There are anxieties, privations,
darkness, wild animals, and tempests. I see nothing but dangerous
crags and I know not what lies ahead. I wish to walk where the road
is level and broad.’
“Then the guide, with all tenderness, will try to encourage him
and quiet his apprehensions. He will earnestly assure him that he
need not fear the wild beasts or anything else. And the path that
now seems so narrow, will become easy, straight, and secure. The
wild beasts fear the valiant travelers and attack only those who are
careless and slothful; those who, forgetful of their journey, amuse
themselves by gathering flowers along the way or listening to the
songs of strange birds which seek to enchant the unwary so that they
will not proceed on their journey. But if the careless traveler stops
to listen, he will be torn to pieces by a wild beast. . . .
“If, in spite of all the efforts of the guide, the traveler is still un­
willing to go by the path that leads straight to his father’s country,
. . . but stays behind to pick the flowers . . . , he will ultimately
fall into those very dangers that were pointed out to him. What,
then, is the fault, but his own temerity?
“What will the prudent and wise and those who pass by say of
him? Will they not say that he is entirely responsible for following
his own whims and desires and that he freely placed his life in dan­
ger? . . .
“The same thing happens to the members of the mystical body of
the Church who disavow or ignore the Holy Ghost. He is the wisest
Guide that they could ever have. . . . This terrible fate happens to
some because they do not know the Holy Ghost; to others, because
they do not call upon Him, although they do know Him. He has
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PARTICIPATION IN THE DIVINE ACTIVI I Y
said that He wishes to give us His graces, but tie wishes us to r I.
for them.
“How is it that, although all the members of the mystical body
have been selected by God to be temples of the Holy Ghost, there
are so few who succeed in raising this temple with perfection? How
is it that the Blessed Trinity dwells in so few souls in the manner
that has been promised? It is because this divine Spirit is not known
by all. . . . They know that Jesus is the way, but they are ignorant
of the fact that man alone cannot travel by this way. They must be
led by the Holy Ghost.1
“O members of the mystical body whose Head is Christ! If, as we
recognize Jesus, we would also recognize and acknowledge His
Spirit as the master and guide of our souls! How many living temples
would there then be in this Church militant wherein the Blessed
Trinity could dwell as it dwells in the Church triumphant!
“Through an act of infinite goodness, the Trinity desires that there
should be but one thing which differentiates the Church militant
from the Church triumphant: that our activity is through faith and
hope. . . . Those who belong to the Church triumphant . . . live
now without faith and hope and will enjoy forever the God in whom
they believed and hoped. And in the measure that they believed and
hoped, so much more do they enjoy the eternal possession of God.
“Yet the substantial enjoyment of God which is theirs in heaven
. . . can be enjoyed even here on earth. . . . This greatest Good
loves the soul with an infinite love and with the fullness with which
God alone can love. It seems, indeed, that He loves each soul as if
there were no other thing to love (from manuscript cited).
“Divine contemplation in souls changes them wonderfully and
above all possible description in human language. . . . One quarter
of an hour of contemplation can make more impression on a soul
than many years of ordinary prayer. The soul which but once enjoys
this favor ... is so enamored of the divine beauty that it disdains
all the lovable things of earth. It resolutely practices mortifications
1 Blessed Juan de Avila, Trat. i del Espiritu Santo: “Although it is true that heaven
was opened at the death of Christ and hell was closed, what will it profit vou if
you do not receive the Holy Ghost? Without the grace of God, how much will
anything else profit vou? But if you receive the Holy Ghost in your heart, He will
make all things profitable for you and He will give you consolation. . . . Oh, if
I could but inflame your hearts with devotion to the Holy Ghost!”

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of the flesh, it abases itself, and devotes itself to those things that
will give greater glory to God. It cares not about life or death, or
anything at all, except the divine Majesty” (Juan de Jesus Maria,
Escuela de Oraciôn, tr. 8, no. 12).

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CHAPTER IV

Spiritual Growth
SSSsSSSsS$SsSSSsSSSsSSSs5SSs5SSsSSSs5SSsSSSsSSSsSSSs5SSsSSSsSSSs5SSsSSSsSSSsSSSsS$SsSSSs5SSsSSSs5S&sSS:

SlNCE we are reborn to God as we were born to the world, that
is, in the status of infants, we must “grow in grace and knowledge of
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ” 1 until we reach the state of per­
fect manhood. This state is not attained fully until glory. If we do
not grow, we shall perish like feeble children. Therefore, as new­
born babes, we should crave the spiritual milk, that by it we may
grow to salvation 2 until Christ is formed in us.3 So the Apostle
charges us frequently to grow in the knowledge of God, in charity,
in the fruit of good works, and in all things according to Jesus Christ,
that we may be filled with the plenitude of God.4
Necessity of Growth in God as Individuals and as
Members of the Church

“Growth is a law,” says Father Terrien, “to which the children of
God are subject as long as they have not yet arrived at the perfect
state of the fullness of Christ. In the spiritual order we find ourselves
in the way of formation. . . . Therefore the Church is always our
mother, because in baptism she gave us the life of grace and because
she has been commanded by Jesus Christ, her divine Spouse, to
watch over our growth, to foster and direct it. The same phenom­
enon occurs in the supernatural life as happens in the natural life:
1 See II Pet. 3:18.
2 See I Pet. 2:2.
8 Gal. 4:19.
* Col. 1:9 f.; Eph. 4:12-16.

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at the beginning we receive the constitutive principles of our being,
but these take time to be developed.” 5
Jesus Christ Himself, says St. Luke, “advanced in wisdom and age
and grace with God and men.” 6 We ought to grow in worthiness
to become the sons of God, for the Savior Himself said to His
disciples: “Love your enemies; do good to them that hate you;
and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you: that you
may be the children of your Father who is in heaven.” 1 But the
disciples were already sons of God, for they could say “Our Father.”
Nevertheless, says Father Terrien, “it was necessary that they also
become so through love of their enemies. What does this signify,
except that a son of God can always progress to a higher degree in
the measure that he performs works more worthy of his Father and
becomes more and more like the divine goodness? Since sanctifying
grace can and should increase always, the indwelling of God in souls
is ever becoming more intimate; and by that fact the union between
the Father and His adopted sons becomes closer.” 8
Hence there is nothing to excuse or impede continual growth in
all things according to Jesus Christ by unceasingly aspiring and pro­
gressing to ever greater perfection. Neither grace itself, which is
eternal life and the participation in the divine life; nor the subject
of grace, which, the more grace it receives, the more apt is it to re­
ceive more; neither the physical cause, which is the communication
of the Holy Ghost; nor the meritorious cause, which is the passion
of Jesus Christ: none of these things is opposed to an indefinite
growth which will cease only at the end of our earthly course.
I. GROWTH AND MERIT

The Savior desired that we should all aspire to be perfect as the
heavenly Father is perfect and that we should have life and have
it more abundantly. Indeed, we shall have it if we do not place
obstacles in the way of its development, for each vital act we
perform increases this new life, instead of exhausting it. The super­
natural knowledge and love which we can attain in this life do not
satiate us; rather they increase our capacity and dispose us to receive
8 Op. cit., II.
eLuke 2:52.
7 Matt. 5:44 f.
• Loc. cit. See also Ila Ilae, q.24, a. 7.

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more light and more divine fire. Hence one grace is ever invoking
another new grace, and he who is not disposed to receive more is
exposed to lose what he has already received.9 So the Apostle for­
gets what is behind and presses on to that which yet remains,10 be­
cause not to advance is to regress.11
We have been given the divine talents of spiritual powers, that
is, the infused virtues and the gifts, that they may increase and not
be sterile. Only by making them productive can we enter into the
joy of the Lord.13 The evil servant, slothful and profitless, is
despoiled of his talents and cast into exterior darkness.13 On the
other hand, all the vital powers by which we strive to increase the
divine treasure produce an increase of life and are meritorious of
glory.14
8 The divine blessings are pledges of new favors. Says St. Augustine: Beneficia Dei,
beneficia et pignora. St. Paul exhorts us: “We entreat you not to receive the grace
of God in vain” (II Cor. 6:1 f.). See also The City of God, II, Bk. I, chap. 20.
10 Phil. 3:13 f.
11 Interior Castle, seventh mansions, chap. 4: “Unless you strive after the virtues
and practice them, you will never grow to be more than dwarfs. God grant that
nothing worse than this may happen—for, as you know, anyone who fails to go for­
ward begins to go back, and love, I believe, can never be content to stay for long
where it is.” See also Rodriguez, Ejercicio de perfection, I, Bk. 1, chaps. 6f.
12 Matt. 25:21-23.
18 Ibid., 26-30.
14 Turinaz, Vida divina, chap. 5: “The obligation to strive after perfection binds
all Christians. The divine precepts which impose this obligation admit of no ex­
ceptions. They are universal, absolute, and without restriction or reservation. Even
the Old Law, which was but a preparation for the Gospel, states: Thou shalt be
perfect, and without spot before the Lord thy God (Deut. 18:13) and Walk before
Me, and be perfect. St. Paul tells us: Brethren, rejoice, be perfected (II Cor. 13:11);
Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be
holy and without blemish in His sight in love (Eph. 1:4). This great obligation is
also indicated in the following statement: The path of the just, as a shining light,
goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect day (Prov. 4:18), and in the general
command to perfect the saints for a work of ministry, for building up the body of
Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the deep knowledge of
the Son of God, to perfect manhood, to the mature measure of the fullness of Christ
(Eph. 4:12-14).
“But how is it that progress and advancement in the Christian life do not corre­
spond to these aspirations to greatness, perfection, and infinity, which God arouses
in our hearts? Is not all this a proof of the gratitude we ought to show Him for all
the benefits received? Without this sense of gratitude, all the gifts destined for our
sanctification would be useless. Are not the friends and children of God obliged
to manifest the excellence of their dignity through good works? Does not the divine
life itself, which has been communicated to us and which unites us intimately with
the God of all sanctity, impose on us the obligation of striving for perfection?”
St. Augustine, Sermo 47, De divers., chap. 7: “It must not be thought that those
words of Jesus Christ, Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, were directed

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The Council of Trent teaches *
15 that the faithful of Christ, “hav­
ing been thus justified and made the friends and domestics of God,
advancing from virtue to virtue, are renewed day by day ... by
the observance of the commandments of God and the Church. They
grow in the justice they have received and they are further justified.
For it is written: He who is justified, let him be justified still; and,
in another place, Do not fear to progress in justice, even until death.
. . . The Church begs this increase of God when she prays: Grant
us, O Lord, an increase of faith, hope, and charity?'16 In the same
session, an anathema is proclaimed against those who dare to main­
tain that “justice is not preserved or increased by good works; but
that these latter are only fruits and not causes of the increase” or
that “they are not truly meritorious ... of an increase of grace and
glory.”
Thus every act of a son of God, as such, is meritorious of eternal
life,17 for there are not in him any voluntary actions which can be
to virgins alone and not to the married; to widows, but not to wives; to religious,
but not to those who have families; to clerics, but not to the laity. The entire
Church must follow Jesus Christ, and all the members of the Church, after the ex­
ample of the Master, must carry the cross and practice His teachings.”
This obligation of striving for perfection is fulfilled by embracing our crosses and
following the Savior in the accomplishment of the will of the Father. He desires
above all things our sanctification (1 Thess. 4:3), which consists in being completely
animated and directed by the Holy Ghost. We shall sanctify ourselves in truth, as
the Savior requested at the Last Supper, if we faithfully endeavor to fulfill all the
precepts, both grave and light, all the duties of our state in life, and if we follow
with complete docility those internal inspirations which mark out at each step of
the way what it is that God desires of us. Without this, we could hardly fulfill
the commandment to love God with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole
mind, and with all our strength, in spite of all the gifts and graces received. To
acquire this, we must hold in great esteem the evangelical counsels and all the other
means of sanctification and apply them as our state in life permits or requires. “It
is a great sin,” says St. Francis de Sales (The Love of God, Bk. VIII, chap. 8), “to
contemn the striving after Christian perfection, and a still greater sin to contemn
the invitation by which our Savior calls us to it; and it is insupportable impiety to
contemn the counsels and means which our Savior offers us for arriving at that per­
fection.”
15 Sess. VI, can. 10.
16 St. Augustine, De natura et gratia, chap. 13: “The beginning of charity is the
beginning of justification; progress in charity is progress in justification; and perfect
charity is perfect justification.”
1T Con. Trid., Sess. VI, can. 16: “Christ continually pours out His grace, as the
head to the members and as the vine to the branches. This grace always precedes,
accompanies, and follows their good works; and without it they could not in any
manner be pleasing and meritorious before God.”

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indifferent. Those acts which do not merit are by that very fact evil,
because the just man who does not act in conformity with the “new
man,” ever meriting an increase, works according to the “old man,”
and falls and loses merit. For an act to be meritorious it must be in­
formed by grace and charity. The former gives it life and makes
it a vital act; that is, proper to a son of God. The latter expressly and
directly ordains the work to God as the ultimate end whose rule
should characterize all our works that they may be entirely good.
Inasmuch as they are separated from or forced out of that order, they
are evil and disordered, even though they may be basically good as
vital acts.1819
The greater the life of grace and the directive power and im­
pulsive fervor of charity, the more meritorious our actions become.
For grace and charity are the two principal sources of merit. But it
is not necessary that an explicit act of charity inform and direct our
good works. It suffices for their merit that we have a general
orientation by virtue of a previous act of charity which perseveres
virtually in all our Christian actions, although an explicit renewal
of the act of charity will make those actions more pure and
meritorious.
The supernatural life is increased, then, even by the most in­
significant act, however natural and however lowly, as long as it is
performed in grace and directed by charity or, at least, subordinated
to a supernatural end.18 Since each meritorious act produces an in­
crease of grace, and the greater the grace the more meritorious the
18 Ila Ilae, q.23, a.8: “Now it is evident, in accordance with what has been said
(a.7), that it is charity which directs the acts of all other virtues to the last end,
and which, consequently, also gives the form to all other acts of virtue.”
19 Sauvé, Le culte, no. 27: “No one can gain heaven and merit the vision and pos­
session of God without being deified. But from the moment the soul is engrafted on
God through sanctifying grace and charity, like branches on that vine of which
Christ is the life-giving sap, it naturally produces divine fruits as long as its acts
are not evil acts.”
St. Francis de Sales, op. cit., Bk. XI, chap. 2: “Since the just man is planted in the
house of God, his leaves, his flowers, and his fruit grow therein and are dedicated
to the service of the divine Majesty.”
St. Thomas, In II Sent., dist. 27, q. 1, a. 5, ad ;um: “As long as a man lacks sanctify­
ing grace, his works have no proportion to the supernatural good which he should
strive to merit, because as yet he does not share in the divine being. But as soon as
he receives this divine being through grace, his actions attain a dignity sufficient
to merit an increase and the perfection of grace.”

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work, it can be seen that merit and grace increase alternately.20 A
happy consequence of this truth is that by doing all for the love of
God and with an upright conscience (and this in even a most ordi­
nary life, occupied almost entirely with lowly and menial tasks)
the faithful soul can arrive at a very high degree of sanctity, solely
by offering to God whatever it docs and by renewing frequently
its purity of intention. This applies to all the necessary duties of
human life, even those which may seem to be far removed from
evangelical perfection. The lives of the saints bear witness to this
fact and no one can be excused from not doing likewise. Thus, ex­
ercising the truth in charity, that is, exercising all the virtues proper
to our state in life, we can grow in all things in Jesus Christ, our
Head, by the ceaseless influx of His grace, until we are assimilated
with Him ami united to Him as much as possible.
2. SPIRITUAL GROWTH OF THE INDIVIDUAL

Evidently rhe spiritual life grows in a twofold manner. On the one
hand, it receives new vital influxes, new increases of that grace which
proceeds from Jesus Christ as Head and is continually circulating
through the ordinary channels, to be distributed throughout the en­
tire organism. This grace is communicated to all the members who
offer no resistance although they do not advert to the vitality which
they are receiving. On the other hand, the spiritual life grows by
the positive exercise of the virtues and the gifts so that they may be
developed to the point of producing such fruits of life as place us in
a state of perfection and incipient blessedness. So it is that we ad­
vance and fructify, and our fruit remains, and we attain to a life
that is more and more abundant.
The means of developing and augmenting the spiritual life, then,
are all those things which in one way or another, directly or in­
directly, contribute to the fostering of those divine outpourings or
the activation of our use of them. Thus we arouse the powers al­
ready received so that they may bear fruit and we facilitate or pre­
pare for the communication of new ones or for the removal of the
impediments that oppose one or other of them. Thus we are able
20Turinaz, op. eit., chap. 4, sect. 2: “When a soul is more holy, it is more capable
of loving God. T hrough this greater and more ardent love, it is rendered capable
of greater sanctity; and this sanctity, in turn, leads to a more intense love.”

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to strengthen more and more the union contracted with Christ, our
divine Head, and to grow in all things according to Him. But if we
do not purify ourselves by getting rid of the obstacles which impede
His action, or if we do not strive to cooperate with Him so far as
we are able, then we shall always live, weak and withered up, with­
out producing any fruits of life.21
3. GROWTH OF MEMBERS OF THE MYSTICAL BODY

We are able to grow in Christ as His brothers and disciples by
imitating Him through the unceasing exercise of His virtues and His
gifts. We can grow as living members of His mystical body by
participating in the functions necessary for the life of that organism
as a whole. If this is done, each member will work in perfect har­
mony and in the union of charity, and the unity of the Spirit will be
preserved through the bond of peace.
The mystical body of the Church has as its vital functions the
sacraments, which emanate from the Head and are activated through
the power of the Holy Ghost who works through those organs
which are signed and consecrated for the performance of those par­
ticular functions. These consecrated organs are able to incorporate
new members, strengthen them, heal them, feed them, and make
them grow by the visible distribution of the sacramental graces. (In
addition to the visible distribution of the sacramental graces, there
is an invisible distribution of the charisms by which the Holy Ghost
consecrates many souls for special functions which are as important
as they are hidden.) Finally, those consecrated organs dispose souls
for the passage to a better life by destroying the last vestiges of the
worldly man.
If no resistance is offered and if each member fully cooperates and
responds as best he can to these vital functions, to these channels of
life and grace, then each one receives life and grace ex opere operato.
If he does not already possess them, he receives them; or if he does
possess them, they are increased. The reception or increase of life
21 Father Lallemant (op. cit., V, chap. 3, art. 1), points out that dissipation and
negligence in regulating our interior life have very serious consequences: “It is this
living out of ourselves, and this carelessness in ordering our interior, which is the
reason that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are almost without effect in us, and that the
•.acramental graces which are given us by reason of the sacraments we have received,
or are frequenting, remain without profit.”
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and grace through the sacraments is something over and above the
life and grace which each member merits ex opere operantis through
the good use of his own particular activity.
However, to function in this way, even as individuals, as sons of
God and living members of Jesus Christ, and to merit anything in
the order of grace, it is necessary that they have not only life, but
also the faculties, powers, and divine energies that will enable them
to produce supernatural acts and fruits of eternal life. Those energies
and faculties by which they can of themselves live and increase in
merit (apart from the influx which they receive from the collective
or sacramental functions) are the actual and habitual graces, the
infused virtues, and the gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to the
measure in which they are communicated to each one. So it is that
there are functions peculiar to the collective life, and others proper
to individual life. The former produce grace ex opere operato; the
latter, ex opere operantis.
St. Thomas points out22 that the spiritual life bears a certain like­
ness to the natural life in which there are social functions and indi­
vidual functions. The latter are directly ordained to the good of the
individual, either by way of perfecting him or of freeing him from
the obstacles which impede that perfection. The former are or­
dained to the common good by contributing to the good order of
society, its propagation, and conservation. So also in the Christian
life, there are found spiritual birth, growth, signs of maturity,
nourishment, medicine for the sickness of the soul, and means of
convalescence. There is, in addition, a hierarchical social order; and
even natural propagation, as ordained to the worship and glory of
God, is sanctified by the Church.
For each of these principal functions of the Christian life, both
private and collective, there is a sacrament. We are reborn through
baptism; we are nourished and we grow through the Eucharist; we
are strengthened by the character of virility and become soldiers of
Christ through confirmation; our spiritual infirmities are cured, and
we even recover life anew through penance; we purge the remnants
of evil which penance did not erase, and we dispose ourselves to ap­
pear before the Supreme Judge by means of extreme unction. By
holy orders spiritual government is provided as well as the continued
22 Illa, q.65, a.I.

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dispensing of the divine mysteries, and by matrimony there is pro­
vided the sanctified propagation of Christian people.23
Since these social functions require a certain degree of coopera­
tion, they are always collective and for that reason they require a
proper sacrament. But the other functions can be realized by each
individual in particular, and in performing these functions he merits
ex opere operantis. Nevertheless he could perform these same func­
tions better by means of a manifest dependence on the collectivity,
so that he could at the same time merit ex opere operato, through the
power of the sacraments. Any particular individual can be reborn,
can grow and be healthy, and can even regain life through charity
and grace when, unable to receive the sacraments, he has a firm
resolution to receive them as soon as he can. But all these functions
would be much better and more fully realized by the actual reception
of the sacraments, because then he would fully and visibly communi­
cate in the life of the whole mystical body, and he would receive
this life in abundance as long as he placed no obstacle. For this life
is received from Jesus Christ as the source, and it passes through
those channels which are like the arteries of His mystical body con­
veying His precious blood to all the organs of that body, to reani­
mate, renew, and purify them.
Each of the sacraments has a special object, whether to regenerate
the soul, to nourish it, to purify it, or to stamp it with the seal of the
militia of Jesus Christ, the ministerial character, or the grace of the
state of life proper to matrimony, or to impart to it the final remedy
against our weaknesses. But of all the sacraments, the Eucharist, the
food of the soul, which is ordained directly to spiritual growth and
the increase of union with Christ; and penance, which purifies and
heals us and even, when necessary, resurrects us, are of the greatest
importance in the development of the supernatural life. Since Chris28 Council of Florence, Decret, pro Armen.: “Through matrimony the Church
is corporally increased.”
Hettinger, Apologetica, conf. 31: “We can say that matrimony is a Church of
the flesh and that fathers and mothers have a special priestly mission—to give sons
and daughters to the Body of Christ, to propagate the kingdom of redemption in
coming generations and to work toward the building of the great city of God on
earth. As the fathers are members of Christ, so also ought their sons be. In a certain
sense, these sons are already saints because before their birth they were separated
from the pagans. So the conjugal union rests on the Head of the Church and is
rooted in a supernatural foundation.”

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tian progress consists in growing in grace and expurgating the old
ferment just as ordinary life consists in proper assimilation and
elimination, so it is that these two sacraments arc the most powerful
means for fostering spiritual growth.
In this way wc live and grow, united to God in our being and our
work, and in our cooperation with I lis mystical activity. In our
being we are united by sanctifying grace; in our work, by the in­
fused virtues and especially the theological virtues; in our coopera­
tion, by the gifts of the I loly Ghost. The moral virtues in general
perfect the will and the appetites so that they will obey the norms
of Christian reason; the intellectual virtues perfect and direct reason
itself; and both together, with the gifts, make us docile to the move­
ments and inspirations of the I loly Ghost.
Now wc can understand, or at least faintly perceive, the inesti­
mable dignity of the Christian who is thus deified in his being, his
faculties, his actions, his goal, and in all things. 1 le has in his heart
the sovereign Trinity. I le is a true son of the eternal Father, a
brother and member of the incarnate W ord, and a living temple of
the Holy Ghost, who animates and vivifies him as his soul docs his
body. In him as a member of Jesus Christ, Christ Himself is per­
petuated through that real bond which is the life of grace; and this
bond is strengthened through good works and the use of the sacra­
ments, which cause the blood of the Redeemer to circulate in his
veins. How sublime is the consideration of this type of life, which
conies forth from the bosom of the Father, through the merits of
the Son, and the power of His Spirit to vivify, renew, purify, and
deify us! And what a consolation to behold the way this life is com­
municated to us through the sacraments, from baptism, which makes
us sons of God, to extreme unction, which prepares us to enter into
the glory of God the Father!
Individual Growth and Particular Functions

By the theological virtues we are united directly to God; through
their use we share in the operations characteristic of eternal life and
grow in grace and sanctity. These virtues are completed and en­
riched by the respective gifts which also direct us to God and
strengthen that mystical union. We have already seen that the exer298

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cise of these gifts does not depend on us unless the Holy Ghost makes
us feel His impulses, although we must dispose ourselves to hear 1 lis
voice and not sadden Him by being deaf to His inspirations. This re­
quires great purity of heart and soul and much recollection.
I.

RECOLLECTION IN GOD

But the exercise of the virtues is within our power. Hence with
ordinary grace we can practice them as much as we wish; and we
shall practice them as is fitting if we strive to have our conversations
in heaven, to walk always in the presence of God, and to meditate
on Him at all times with a lively faith. More particularly, within our
own hearts, which are His living temples, we can at all times and in
all places, even amid the clamor of creatures and the performance of
our duties, converse with Him, give Him thanks, ask His mercy, and
direct to Him loving affections and tender supplications. Such a prac­
tice, instead of being a waste of time, as many suppose, will give
us new strength and facility in all things, for godliness is profitable
in all respects.24
In this way we renew our purity of intention, which is so essential
for us that our good works may reap all their merit. Otherwise, by
forgetting the supernatural end to which our works should be sub­
ordinated, we might vitiate them with earthly views, to the extent
that our Lord will say to us: “You have already received your re­
ward.”
These frequent introspections, accompanied by fervent aspirations
and ejaculations, are as darts of celestial fire which sweetly wound the
divine heart and then reflect back to our own hearts to fill them
with graces.25
24 See I Tim. 4:8. “It must not be believed,” says Father Grou (Manuel, p. 70),
“that the obligations of our state, whether domestic duties, the dispositions of Prov­
idence, or social obligations and amenities, can of themselves be prejudicial to
recollection. Recollection can and must be observed in the midst of all things. And
after a person has, with some effort, trained himself to preserve it, it becomes so
natural to him that he maintains this recollection without even being aware of the
effort and this to such a degree that he hardly ever departs from it.”
Lallemant, op. cit., II, sect. 2, chap. 4, art. 1: “For then our Lord, in the course of
one single meditation, will endow a soul with some particular virtue, and even with
many virtues in a far higher degree than would be acquired in several years by these
external acts.”
25 The following words of the Canticle of Canticles show how much joy the
Lord finds in converse with pure souls and in hearing the expression of their ardent
desires, their sighs and prayers: “Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come: my

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I he saints recommend these introspections as most efficacious
means for arriving swiftly and surely at a high degree of perfection.
They supply for the defects of prayer and even for its involuntary
brevity. They dispose the soul for an awareness of the touch of the
Holy Ghost and the entrance into infused contemplation. They ex­
cite the ardor of charity so that it enriches all our works and enables
us to contract, little by little, the habit of the presence of God. By
this last-mentioned habit, we accomplish what the Apostle enjoins,
to pray everywhere and continually, giving thanks to God in all
things.-7 The Savior Himself has said that we must pray always and
not lose heart.28
2. PRAYER

That we may not lose heart in the practice of interior recollection,
we must ar determined hours also recollect ourselves exteriorly. In
this way we can more effectively practice prayer, and rid ourselves
of the obstacles which usually distract us.29 We can also occupy our­
selves solely in conversing with God and meditating on His holy
Jaw and thus reanimate our fervor and inflame ourselves with the
ardor of charity."0 This type of prayer is made by raising our mind
and all its faculties to the Lord, through acts of faith, love, trust,
gratitude, praise, adoration, and the like. Thus we render to I lim a
most fitting interior worship, which ought always to animate the
exterior. We give thanks for benefits received and we ask favors,
lights, and powers which we need to serve Him faithfully and to
dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow place of the wall, show me thy face,
let thv voice sound in my cars: for thy voice is sweet, and thy face comely” (2:13 f.).
!,i Sec 1 l im. 2:8.
See I Thcss. 5:17 f.
28 Luke 18:1. ‘‘Perfect men,” says Taulcr (Institutions, chap. 26), “never depart
from this interior conversation, except when the weakness of human nature or the
alterations of time demand, and even then only for the briefest time. For as soon
as they advert to it, they disregard these things and are again recollected in this
worthy and essential practice. All their powers arc spent in this activity, without
seeking or desiring anything other than to give place to the loving impulses of the
Divinité and to prepare themselves for God so that He may complete in them His
most joyful operation. Without any other medium, the heavenly Father can speak
and produce the paternal Word engendered by Him ab aeterno and can bring His
divine will to fruition in every place, time, and manner.” See also Blosius, Institutio
Spiritualis, chaps. 3-5.
2(1 Col. 4:2.
an Ps. 38:4: “Alv heart grew hot within me: and in my meditation a fire shall
flame out.”

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carry out the holy resolutions we have made during our exterior
recollection.31
If our prayer is to be fruitful, it must be humble, trusting, per­
severing, and fervent. It must come forth from the depths of the
heart. It must be made with the whole soul and, as Blessed Angela de
Foligno says, “it must come from one’s very bowels.” 32 But if we
pray with vacillation, we can expect nothing,33 and if we deliberately
dispose ourselves to pray with our lips only, then that is not pray­
ing, but merely provoking God by our irreverence.
There is no true vocal prayer which is not in some way accom­
panied by mental prayer; but this latter can be even more fervent
and efficacious without the former, when we strive to concentrate
fully all our soul’s energy in the heart.34 Mental prayer best disposes
the soul for an entrance into that mystical tranquillity to which we
are all called. Many do not try to converse with God, but utter all
their feelings with the mouth alone, so that, if they close their lips,
it seems that all their interior fire is thereby extinguished. Yet, as
St. Teresa says, if they faithfully persevere in their vocal prayers,
they can be raised suddenly to a high degree of contemplation, should
the Lord take them at their word and lift them up to do His divine
work.35
81 Godinez, Teologia Mistica, Bk. I, chap. 6: “They prosper more in the spiritual
life who make more resolutions in their mental prayer and then strive to fulfill them.
Such souls can, in a short time, arrive at a high degree of sanctity. . . . But purely
speculative mental prayer neither uproots vices nor plants virtues.”
82 Op. cit., chap. 62. “In these times,” says Blessed Henry Suso (.Disc. Espir., II),
“there are many who, in order that they may be useful to others, are so occupied in
external works that they have scarcely a free moment for rest. Such individuals
should follow my advice: As soon as they have a free hour in the midst of their
labors, they should go immediately to God, entering into Him completely and
hiding themselves in His heart. During these times they should, by their zeal and
fervor, attempt to atone for all the years spent in the life of the senses and wasted
on worldly interests. Let them direct themselves to God, not with studied phrases,
but from the very core of their heart and with all the energy of their heart, speak­
ing to Him soul to soul and thus adoring Him, as the Lord commands, in spirit and
in truth.”
88 Jas. 1:6 f.
84 “I will pray with the spirit, I will pray also with the understanding; I will
sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the understanding” (I Cor. 14:15).
88 Way of Perfection, chap. 25: “In case you should think there is little gain to
be derived from practising vocal prayer perfectly, I must tell you that, while you
are repeating the Pater noster or some other vocal prayer, it is quite possible for the
Lord to grant you perfect contemplation. In this way His Majesty shows that He
is listening to the person who is addressing Him, and that, in His greatness, He is

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As long ns they are not incapacitated or in a passive state, all can
remedy rhe distractions and even the aridity which they involuntarily
suffer if they have recourse to the repetition of short and fervent
aspirations and supplications, in which the essence of prayer consists.
This is the powerful means by which at all times we dispose our­
selves to improve our life and to increase divine grace. Our Lord tells
us: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock,
and it shall be opened to you.” 36
The saints compare the Christian without prayer to a soldier with­
out weapons, unable to resist the enemy.37 It is necessary to watch
and pray that we may not enter into temptation.3” Prayer is the
shield and weapons of our militia, by which we repel and confuse
the tempter and attain to the eternal crown. No matter how arid our
prayer, as long as it is accompanied by a sincere desire to please God,
it will be so much the more efficacious and meritorious. Devotion
does not consist in sensible fervor, but in promptness and firmness
of will.
addressing her, by suspending the understanding, putting a stop to all thought, and,
as we say, taking the words out of her mouth, so that even if she wishes to speak she
cannot do so, or at any rate not without great difficulty.
“Such a person understands that, without any sounds of words, she is being taught
by this Divine Master, Who is suspending her faculties, which, if they were to work,
would be causing her harm rather than profit. The faculties rejoice without know­
ing how they rejoice; the soul is enkindled in love without understanding how it
loves; it knows that it is rejoicing in the object of its love, yet it does not know how
it is rejoicing in it. It is well aware that this is not a joy that can be attained by
the understanding; the will embiaces it without understanding how; but, in so far
as it can understand anything, it perceives that this is a blessing which could not be
gained by the merits of all the trials suffered on earth put together. It is a gift of
the Lord of earth and Heaven, Who gives it like the God He is. ... In the con­
templation which I have just described we can do nothing. It is His Majesty Who
does everything; the work is His alone and far transcends human nature.”
Molina, Excelcncia, proveebo y necesidad de la oracion, Introd., chap. 2: “By
the exercise of praver a person arrives at perfect contemplation and the union of
the soul with God. He is made one in spirit with Ilim, is totally deified and possessed
by Him, is transformed into Him in such a manner that he becomes entirely spiritual
and divine. ... It is the greatest happiness that anyone can attain in this life; it
is like a novitiate to the glory of heaven.” In another place (II, chap. 6) he adds,
“I hold for certain that it ίcontemplation] will not be denied to anyone who con­
tinues to do all in his power to realize it.”
3,1 Matt. 7:7; Luke 11:8.
87 See Molina, op. cit., Introd, v; Granada, Oracion y consideration, I, chap. 1;
Rodriguez, Practice of Christian Perfection, I, chap. 2.
88 Matt. 26:41.

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3.

EXTERIOR WORKS

Merit is also increased, and with it the life of grace, by the faith
ful practice of the Christian virtues which, informed with charity,
direct us in our relationships with our neighbors and aid us in doing
what is most conducive to our goal. Thus in all things we observe
the correct mean of prudence, the norm of justice, the valor of forti­
tude, and the moderation of temperance.39 In this way we are able
to fulfill our duties faithfully. By the virtue of religion, which is a
part of justice, we give appropriate worship to God and, through
love of Him, we practice the works of charity and mercy, besides
giving to each what is his due. Meanwhile, by temperance and forti­
tude we strive to conquer self and to sacrifice self for God and our
neighbor. We dominate our passions so that they do not contradict
reason, and we moderate reason itself so that it is subject to the
spirit. Thus we strengthen ourselves by overcoming the difficulties
and conquering the obstacles opposed to our spiritual renewal and
interior perfection to which we must ordain all our conduct.
Some pious persons, prompted by an indiscreet zeal and perhaps
also by a certain measure of vanity, are absorbed in exterior works.
They are convinced that by that means alone they can accumulate
merits and rapidly advance in Christian perfection. But perfection
resides, as we have said, in the interior being rather than exterior
activity. The value and merit of our works correspond to the degree
of renewal and sanctification of our souls. If we are very holy and
always act under the impulse of divine charity, then all our works
will be great, valuable, and efficacious in the eyes of God, although
outwardly they may appear humble and contemptible. On the other
hand, those works that proceed from a heart lacking in generosity
are niggardly, even though they may appear grandiose and full of
glory.40
Therefore, if our perfection is nullified, owing to our death to
89 la Ilae, q.62, a. 1: “Man is perfected by virtue, for those actions whereby he is
directed to happiness.”
40Huby, Maxhnes, no. 12: “There are some souls that diminish everything be­
cause they themselves arc small. They diminish the greatest actions because they
perform them with a poor heart. ... To perform some great work with little will
is to perform only a small work, and to do a small work with greatness of will is
equivalent to performing a great work. What makes our works little or great in
the eyes of God is the will with which they are performed.”

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the life of grace, then the most excellent works which we perform
can avail nothing before God. However ostentatious they may be,
they are dead and without avail.41 The more alive we are in Jesus
Christ and the more we are filled with His Spirit, the more properly
are we the children of God and the more meritorious and divine will
our actions be. As St. Thomas says, “an act is so much the more
meritorious when the grace that informs it is greater.” 42 And when,
in conformity with that grace, our works are more and more in­
formed by actual charity, then they are also more pure and vital,
more free from the dust of earth and capable of increasing grace and
glory. “It may come to pass,” says St. Francis de Sales, “that a very
small virtue may be of greater value in a soul where sacred love
reigns, than martyrdom itself in a soul where love is languid, feeble,
and dull.” 43
Thus the holy soul aflame with charity sweetly wounds the heart
of the divine Spouse to whom she delivers herself without reserve.
“Thou hast wounded my heart, my sister, my spouse, thou hast
wounded my heart with one of thy eyes, and with one hair of thy
neck. . . ,44 My beloved to me, and I to him who feedeth among the
lilies.” 45*Though such a soul be engaged in lowly tasks, her hands
distil a precious myrrh 48 because such works are the fruits of charity
and self-abnegation. Even when sleeping, her heart keeps vigil. She
is so pleasing to the Spouse that Fie repeatedly warns the daughters
of Jerusalem: “I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir
not up nor awake my love till she please.” 47
Finally, the more lofty and noble the virtue which is more and
more informed by charity, the more meritorious and excellent are
its acts. Hence the virtue of religion surpasses all the other moral
virtues, and those of the interior or contemplative life avail more
than external virtues. Yet all are necessary in their own right and all
41 See St. Thomas, In II Sent., dist. 27. q. i, a.5, ad 30m.
42 Ibid., dist. 29, q. 1, a.4.
43 Treatise on the Love of God, XI, chap. 5.
44 Cant. 4:9. St. John of the Cross, Spiritual Canticle, stanza 30: “This hair of
hers is her will and the love which she has for the Beloved. . . . She says ‘one hair’
of her head, and not many hairs, in order to convey the fact that her will is now
alone, detached from all other hairs, which are strange affections for others.”
45 Cant. 2:16.
43 Ibid., 5:;.
47 Ibid., 2:7; 3:5; 8:4.

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mutually assist one another. Complete perfection lies in knowing
how to harmonize them.
But the interior is of value in itself, whereas the exterior without
the interior is sterile and dead. Of little value before God arc the
many external works performed without a right intention and purity
of heart, both of which wash away the dust of earth. Of little value
are works performed without the spirit of prayer, which irrigates
the soul with the rain of grace and the ardor of charity; nor does the
world’s esteem for such prayers alter the situation. Indeed, such
works can become utterly useless and even harmful if they so ab­
sorb the soul that they drain the source of its energies and serve only
as a pabulum for self-love and an inducement to vanity.48*
The many persons who are prompted by worthy intentions and
devote themselves excessively to external activity, would do better
to dedicate half the time thus consumed to the care of their own souls
and the renewal of their spirit. Then in the other half of the time,
say all the great spiritual masters with John of the Cross,48 they
would produce double the fruit with much less effort.50
Nevertheless fervor and devotion are themselves increased, espe­
cially in beginners, by outward good works and the pious practices
that have been approved by the Church if the faithful soul strives to
perform them according to the time at his disposal and the special
attraction he feels for a certain practice under the impulse of the
Holy Ghost. But in these pious practices he must take care to avoid
any sentimental emptiness and Protestant taste, as well as to shun
the many routine devotions that are readily introduced but that are
48 Lallemant, op. cit., V, chap. 3, art. 2: “Let us be thoroughly convinced that we
shall gain fruit in our ministrations only in proportion to our union w'ith God and
detachment from all self-interest. . . . To labour profitably for the salvation of
others, we must have made great progress in our own perfection. Until we have
acquired perfect virtue, we ought to practice very little exterior action. But if
superiors lay too much upon us, we may trust that Providence will so dispose things
that the burden will soon be diminished, and all will turn out to the greater good
of inferiors, if they are good men.”
48 Spiritual Canticle, annotation for stanza 29.
50 Lallemant, op. cit., IV, chap. 2, art. 1: “And yet the principal point in the
spiritual life so entirely consists in disposing ourselves to grace by purity of life, that
if two persons were to consecrate themselves to the service of God at the same
time, and one were to devote himslf wholly to good works, and the other to apply
himself altogether to the purifying of his heart and to rooting out whatever within
him was opposed to grace, the latter would attain to perfection twice as soon as the
former.”

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opposed to the Christian spirit and the mind of the Church. The
Church desires that these things serve as a preparation for and not
as an obstacle to divine inspiration.51
4·

MORTIFICATION AND HUMILITY

For true progress in prayer and devotion, these must be aided by
an unceasing mortification of the senses and passions.52 The fastid­
ious and delicate soul is unable to know the way of divine Wisdom.
If it does not mortify its senses and hold its passions in check and
even reduce them to silence, it will not be able to hear the soft voice
of the Spirit, who wishes to speak words of peace to its heart. Nor
will it be able to feel the delicate movements and impulses by which
the Spirit suggests and teaches all truth and guides the soul along the
paths of justice and life. For that reason the saints are unanimous in
saying that without a deep appreciation of austerities a true spirit of
prayer is impossible because this latter requires a great purity of soul
and body and therefore a long series of purifications. The more one
progresses in these purifications, so much the more is the work of the
divine Spirit facilitated and augmented, and hence so much the more
does the soul progress in illumination, union, and renewal.
Exterior purity is acquired by the virtue of temperance, which
regulates the senses and bodily passions so that they never deviate
from reason. To this end it appeals, when necessary, to great rigors
and hardships, chastising the body and bringing it into subjection.53
Interior purity is achieved by the practice of humility, abnegation
and penance, and unremitting vigilance over one’s secret desires,
movements, and affections. This is done to annihilate all that is dis­
pleasing to God.
Humility, by making us recognize the futility of our own noth­
ingness, disposes us to receive divine grace, which is given to the
humble and denied to the proud. By means of the grace thus re­
ceived, the soul remains subject to reason in such a way that it never
61 Lallemant, ibid., “Some exercise themselves in many commendable practices
and perform a number of exterior acts of virtue; thus their attention is wholly given
to material action. This is well enough for beginners, but it belongs to a far higher
perfection to follow the interior attraction of the Holy Spirit and be guided by
H is direction.”
52 See Rodriguez, op. cit., II, I, chap. 1.
•s See I Cor. 9:27.

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presumes anything of itself, but denies itself and renounces its own
good pleasures and desires. It becomes docile to the Holy Ghost and
in a brief time is able to arrive at an untrammeled perfection.04

5.

GENERAL AND PARTICULAR EXAMINATION

Penance makes us bitterly regret our faults and seek the means of
obtaining pardon, reparation for evil, satisfaction for the offenses
against God and neighbors, and amendment of our lives in the future.
Pardon will be obtained immediately through perfect contrition,
which places the soul wholly in the hands of God. Reparation and
satisfaction are made by means of austerities, prayers, and sacrifices,
and by works of piety and mercy. Self-correction is accomplished
by frequent examination of conscience, wherein we seek the causes
of our defects and internal and external faults, in order to avoid or
correct them and thus to rid ourselves of such faults and put away
every occasion of evil.
Usually, however, those defects are numerous. If we regard them
as a whole, we shall never succeed in rooting them out. Hence the
necessity of the particular examination of our dominant fault; this
examination ought to accompany our general examination and make
it more fruitful. If we particularly stress one fault, we can properly
begin to correct it. If it happens to be a dominant fault, then with it
many others are rooted out.55 So it is that in a short time the soul be­
comes much improved and more perfect if it keeps watch over itself
so as not to offer resistance or place obstacles to the mysterious re­
newing action of the divine Spirit.58

6.

NEED FOR MODERATION AND DIRECTION

Persistent self-abnegation, or rather the interior mortification of
the senses and passions, does not offer any danger; rather the greater
84 Blessed Henry Suso, Union, “The profound submission of a holy humility,
the disdain of self, and the awareness of our own baseness do not debase us, but
rather they enable us to fly to the height of perfect union with God.”
88 Imitation of Christ, Bk. I, chap. 11 : “If we were to uproot only one vice a year,
we should soon become perfect.”
88 Lallemant, op. cit., V, chap. 3; art. 1: “Without performing extraordinary
mortifications, or any of those exterior actions which might be the occasion of
vanity to us, by simple attention in watching our own interior, we perform excellent
acts of virtue and make prodigious advances in perfection; whereas, on the con­
trary, by neglecting our interior we incur incalculable losses.”

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it is, the better. Bodily mortification, on the contrary, which has
merit only when subjected to the former, ought always to be
moderated so that it will not harm the health nor impede us from
exercising the virtues instead of fostering their use. So we see that
there are some persons who live with much exterior austerity and
place all their attention on great bodily rigors, as if by those things
alone they could attain a high degree of perfection and thus win
sanctity by force of their own efforts. The fact of the matter is that
they spend their time uselessly and are incapacitated for the per­
formance of their duties. They are filled with pride and presumption
and dominated by their passions, because actually they are not seek­
ing to conquer self, but to gain worldly acclaim by those vain ap­
pearances of sanctity.
In order to guard against such disorders, to overthrow self-love,
to deny our own will, and to avoid the snares of self-complacency,
it is necessary that we have a good spiritual director to whom we
subject ourselves with docility in all things so that he may teach us
how to exercise ourselves in prayer and the good practice of all the
virtues. Although virtue should observe the just mean of prudence,
no one is a worthy judge of his own case. A good director will help
us to overcome our difficulties and to conquer obstacles, and will
preserve us from the wiles of our enemies.
When a person is so far advanced in virtue that he has begun to
feel the impulses of the Spirit, who moves him with His gifts to a
new mode of prayer and of life, then human direction is not useless,
but is all the more needed. In the beginning of contemplation, when
the difficulties which appear are so new and so numerous, they dis­
concert the soul and leave it perplexed. The soul at this early stage
does not yet know how to distinguish the divine motions from those
that are not divine. It will find itself tempted to resist the good and
grow languid or even follow a false course if it has no one to aid,
counsel, and free it from error. Then it is that the soul needs a di­
rector who knows how to test its spirit and sustain it in the midst of
its abasements, pains, and aridities, and to enlighten it in the midst
of so many obscurities and desolations.

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7. QUALIFICATIONS OF A SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR

St. John of the Cross57 points out the great difficulty of finding a
spiritual guide, for such a one should be at once wise, zealous, dis­
creet, and experienced, or at least well versed in the science of the
ways of the Lord. Otherwise, like one blind man leading another,
they both fall into the ditch.58 Inexperienced and ignorant directors
do more damage than good to souls. Judging as unlikely even such
things as are very ordinary in certain states of the soul, and being
incapable of understanding the light which God finds in His faithful
servants, they terrify the soul. They may even attempt to lead all
souls along the one path which they themselves know. As a matter
of fact, He who leads the soul at this stage is the divine Spirit, who
moves each according to His pleasure, and to such an extent that
there can scarcely be found two souls who proceed in identically the
same way.59
Therefore, when the Holy Ghost begins to take the reins, desiring
to be the only guide, He renders the soul unable to follow the ordi67 Ascent of Mount Carmel, Prologue; Bk. II, chap. 18; Living Flame of Love,
stanza 3.
88 Matt. 15:14; Luke 6:39.
08 Gratian, Itinerario, chap. 7: “We call those masters or guides of the spirit, even
though they be not confessors, who can direct the soul in the best method of pro­
cedure. . . . Some very spiritual and devout but unlettered men have done great
harm in the Church of God because they wish to lead all by the same path which
they themselves travel. Yet this way is not understood well by learning alone, for
learned men lacking in devotion have also caused great damage and havoc by dis­
daining the great benefits which God usually bestows on humble souls and by brand­
ing as a fault, a fraud, or a scruple what is actually very real and helpful.”
For that reason Godinez (op. cit., Bk. VIII, chap. 13) says that “the great scholastic
doctors, if they are not spiritual or if they have no experience in these things, are
not usually good spiritual directors.”
St. Teresa, Life, chap. 34: “We are wrong if we think that in the course of years
we are bound to understand things that cannot possibly be attained without experi­
ence, and thus, as I have said, many are mistaken if they think they can learn to
discern spirits without being spiritual themselves. I do not mean that, if a man is
learned but not spiritual, he may not direct a person of spirituality. But in both
outward and inward matters which depend upon the course of nature, his direction
will of course be of an intellectual kind, while in supernatural matters he will see
that it is in conformity with Holy Scripture. In other matters he must not worry
himself to death, or think he understands what he does not, or quench the spirits,
for these souls are being directed by another Master, greater than he, so that they
are not without anyone over them, tie must not be astonished at this or think such
things are impossible: everything is possible to the Lord. He must strive to
strengthen his faith and humble himself, because the Lord is perhaps making some
old woman better versed in this science than himself, even though he be a very
learned man.”
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nary norms of prudence or rhe special methods which the director
persists in proposing. He gives the soul a facility for nothing but to
remain with a certain loving attention, heeding as one enraptured,
but not stupefied, what He intimately suggests or makes the soul feel.
If, in spite of this, the soul endeavors to meditate as formerly, it will
attempt the impossible and will effect nothing but the strangling of
this interior motion, becoming more and more confused, and thus be
rendered incapable of doing anything at all. It is here that bad direc­
tors fail, because they are not familiar with the ways of the Holy
Ghost, or they cause those souls to fail which are not sufficiently
courageous or docile to the interior voice. Thinking that such souls
are slothful, when actually they are secretly receiving the inactivity
and direction from the I loly Ghost, these bad directors oblige them
to resist Him, or they impede what He is so lovingly working in
them.
If the soul seeks God resolutely and with disinterestedness, all will
work out to its greater advantage, for God will know how to lift
it up in spite of the director and its own feeble efforts, and He will
do this according to the method of prayer which I lc infuses in it.00
But if the soul is not sufficiently generous, it will fall away little by
little. It will eventually abandon that interior life in which it finds
such obscurities and difficulties and will busy itself with other prac­
tices more in conformity with its own taste and that of its imprudent
director.
These directors, if they were what they should be, would strive to
discern exactly whether or not the soul’s quiet or sloth is a work of
the good Spirit. Knowing this (which is not so difficult to do by
means of the fruits of this state), they would refrain from imposing
useless laws or impediments to divine inspiration. It is not for the
human director to point out the ways by which God must elevate
the soul, but only to watch that rhe soul docs not lose itself, is not
carried on by its own private judgment, or is not held back by vain
timidity. The director must hold back the soul when he secs that it
eo “When God captivates the faculties,” says an anonymous writer quoted by
Sauvé (Etats niyst., p. 74), “the desire to resist I lint is a struggle which ordinarily
ends in triumph for God. If, by obedience to the confessor, the sold resists, it is at
the cost of greatest sufferings; but God rewards the soul, now by raising it to a state
of mystical ravishment, now by laying aside the body, as happens in the case of
ecstasy.”

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is impulsive. When he finds the soul is indolent, he should stimulait·
it. But when the soul is advancing as it should, then he must be con
tent to encourage, pacify, and preserve it in humility. To try to go
into detail and to decide precisely which way the soul must follow
is to restrict it in such a way that it wantonly resists the Holy
Ghost.61 Once it is manifest that the soul is moved by the Holy
Ghost, the director must not repeatedly demand proofs, unless very
serious doubts occur, for these serve only to harm and disconcert the
soul. For confirmation of this, one might turn to the Didache of the
first century.
When the soul realizes that its director impedes its progress, it
ought to seek a better one or at least consult with one who is more
learned and more discreet, if such a one is to be found. Only thus can
it do all in its power to proceed with certainty. And if the soul does
not find what it seeks, let it not forget what St. Teresa said: that it
is better for the soul to be without a director than to be badly di­
rected. In any case the soul should sincerely invoke the Father of
lights, who gives wisdom in abundance to all who seek it.62 It should
have confidence in His divine Spirit, who knows how to supply to
great advantage for the lack or deficiencies of human direction and
to make even imprudent actions redound to greater profit for the
faithful soul which wholeheartedly seeks the light and remains stead­
fast in trials.
But if the soul finds a good director, it should strive to follow him
with all docility. The only exceptions are those cases where it might
be better to follow the advice of one who is better; but never should
a person consult many, only finally to follow his own caprice. By the
obedience given to the director the soul sacrifices its judgment and
el La Figuera, Sttma espirit., Ill, dial. 7: “ ‘My call is more irresistible than theirs,’
said our Lord to a certain soul, speaking of spiritual directors, ‘and so, although
they call souls by a certain way, it is of no avail if I, meanwhile, call them by an­
other. Rather, such a situation brings them wretchedness and torment. For they de­
sire that these souls follow their doctrine humbly and obediently while the souls
themselves are unable to resist My Spirit, which places them on another road. This
is the reason why, after such directors have exerted every effort to lead souls through
fear, in the end the soul always works through love. Therefore it is useless for the
director to call the soul to a consideration of the last things when I am calling that
same soul through love, and it is futile for the director to insist on the meditation
of My humanity, while I consume and inflame that soul with the fire of My
divinity.’ ”
82 Jas. 1:5.

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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

will and sanctifies all its actions, which then become as so many other
victories which the obedient man wins over himself. The least thing
done out of obedience, say the holy doctors, avails more in the eyes
of God than the most lofty and glorious enterprise done by self-will,
even though it be the evangelization of the whole world.®3
8. THE RELIGIOUS VOWS

This sacrifice or self-abnegation reaches the point of heroism when
it is done for a lifetime and is sanctified by the vow of obedience,
which is the most important of the three constituting the religious
state. In this state the soul promises solemnly to observe, together
with the precepts, the principal evangelical counsels. Hence, not
content with any kind of life, it aspires always to ever greater per­
fection and unceasingly follows in the bloody footprints of the
Crucified. By the three vows the soul entirely renounces the three
great concupiscences that dominate the world.64 The soul of the
religious is consecrated entirely to God. It lives crucified with Christ
and is united to Him in a special manner by these three indissoluble
chains. The holy doctors compare the merit of the vows to that of
martyrdom, and the souls that experience the things of God well
know the worth of this loving union which is thus contracted with
Him. Therefore they reap a great profit by renewing their vows,
for they know how pleasing to God is the ratification of an act so
heroic that it could be suggested only by the Spirit of fortitude.
To each vow there corresponds at least one of the principal beati­
tudes. The pure of heart shall see God; to those who abandon all
things for Christ, is given the privilege of sitting with Him on thrones
of glory to judge the world; to the poor in spirit, who renounce all
attachment to creatures and even their own judgment and will, be68 Tauler, Institutions, chap. 12: “By reason of the resignation of obedience, all
one’s works abound in grace. On the other hand, in those works which a virtuous
man perforins through self-will, it is difficult to discern whether they come from
grace or from nature. . . . The road to hell is closed to him who has renounced
his own will, for, as St. Bernard says, the fuel of hell’s fire is self-will. . . . When a
man rids himself of self, then God enters. How many religious are martyrs without
fruit or merit! Full of self-will, they are their own guides and in their great works
they merit little or no grace. If they would but give themselves to obedient resigna­
tion, they could become great saints.”
64 See I John 2:16.
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longs the kingdom of heaven where the obedient man celebrates his
victories.
Thence the great importance in the Church of those souls that arc
consecrated to God. Holy virgins have always been looked upon as
perfect images of the Church itself and esteemed as its very eves and
a principal part of its heart. From among them are recruited the
majority of souls that are truly contemplative and that soar in their
flicfht
to the sublime spheres of uncreated light.
or
t>
9. PIOUS CONVERSATIONS AND SPIRITUAL READING

To converse with these souls, that are fervent and filled with God
and that are the salt of the earth and the light of the world; to hear
their heavenly conversation and see their example is a powerful
means of inflaming hearts with holy and divine love. To participate
in the communication of such souls is to share in their lights and
even in the ardor of their charity. Their words are words of eternal
life, words of God Himself, who deigns to speak through their lips.
The good odor of Christ which their virtues exhale preserves many
from the corruption of the world.68
Since the Savior Himself promised to be in the midst of those
who are gathered together in His name, these holy conversations
and pious friendships have a fruitful influence in animating and
mutually illuminating the servants of God. Today, when the poison
of impious propaganda is widespread and the ill effects of worldly
or satanic influences have infiltrated from all sides, this is one of the
most efficacious means for attracting anew many wandering souls
to God. This it is that will inflame the weak with Flis love and will
preserve good and fervent souls from timidity and many dangers.
This can even supply in particular cases for the want or absence
of the word of God when there are few who preach it with the true
spirit. On the other hand, if the preacher is filled with holy zeal and
evangelical unction, his mission will give new richness and vigor to
65 See St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, op. cit., Ill, chap. 5, and Prologue.
Blessed Raymond of Capua writes of St. Catherine of Siena that “her words were
like flaming darts, and there was no one who, on hearing her burning speech, would
not feel is effects. . . . All who came to hear her, even those who came with the
intention of scoffing at her, would leave with a feeling of compunction and correc­
tion.”
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his words. Therefore the ministry of preaching is a powerful means
and is even indispensable in the Church for general improvement.
But souls desirous of perfection can, to a certain extent, supply
the lack of this holy word, whether ministerial or charismatic, by
pious reading, which breathes forth unction and sanctity. Here they
will learn the right road, discover the snares of the tempter, and
recognize their own faults and negligences. At the same time they
will be filled with holy thoughts which preserve them from such
thoughts as are vain and dangerous. They likewise receive the lights
and inspirations which complete those obtained in prayer and medi­
tation. Thus prayer and spiritual reading are mutual aids, one to the
other, and are as two wings by which the soul can rise to God.
APPENDIX
i. Brief Rules of Perfection

“Attend to these few words in which is contained the rule for a
pure and perfect life: Keep yourself separated from all mankind;
renounce all knowledge of human and worldly affairs; keep a watch
over your heart; subdue your affections; raise yourself above the
pains and distractions of the world, the flesh, and nature. Direct
your spirit to holy contemplation in which I shall be the constant
object of your thoughts; ordain to this end all your spiritual exer­
cises, vigils, fasts, poverty, austerities of life, mortifications of the
body and the senses. Use these things only when they will aid you
in attaining this end and that they may excite in you an awareness
of the presence of God.
“In this way will you arrive at a perfection which not one out of
a thousand attains because most Christians believe that all perfection
consists in external practices. Year after year they exert their efforts
in this way but they ever remain in the same state and never reach
true perfection. . . .
“I tell you this so that you at least will be aided in arriving at that
continual presence of God, that you may desire it and make it the
norm of your conduct, consecrating your heart and mind to it. And
when you notice that you have departed from this goal by lack of
attention to this contemplation, understand that you thus deprive
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yourself of happiness. Return as quickly as possible to that goal. . . .
But if you cannot remain constantly engaged in the contemplation of
My divinity, return to it repeatedly through recollection and
prayer. . . .
“My son, place all your cares on your God and take care never to
forget your interior life. Keep yourself pure and free from all oc­
cupations that are not necessary. Lift your thoughts to heaven, fix
them on God, and you will become more and more enlightened and
you will know the sovereign Good” (Blessed Henry Suso, Eternal
Wisdom, chap. 22).
“Perfection consists in doing the will of God, and not in under­
standing His designs. The designs of God, the good pleasure of God,
the will of God, the operation of God and the gift of His grace are
all one and the same thing in the spiritual life. It is God working in
the soul to make it like unto Himself. Perfection is neither more nor
less than the faithful cooperation of the soul with this work of God,
and is begun, grows, and is consummated in the soul unperceived and
in secret” (Caussade, Abandonment to Divine Providence, Bk. I,
chap. 4).
“Our whole science consists in recognizing the designs of God for
the present moment. All reading not intended for us by God is dan­
gerous. . . . What was best for the moment that has passed is so no
longer because it is no longer the will of God which, becoming ap­
parent through other circumstances, brings to light the duty of the
present moment. ... If, by the divine will, it is a present duty to
read, then reading will produce the destined effect in the soul. If it
is the divine will that reading be relinquished for contemplation,
then this will perform the work of God in the soul and reading would
become useless and prejudicial. Should the divine will withdraw the
soul from contemplation for the hearing of confessions, etc., and that
even for some considerable time, this duty becomes the means of
uniting the soul with Jesus Christ and all the sweetness of contempla­
tion would only serve to destroy this union. Our moments are made
fruitful by our fulfilment of the will of God. This is presented to us
in countless different ways by the present duty which forms, in­
creases, and consummates in us the new man until we attain the
plenitude destined for us by the divine wisdom. . . . This fruit, as
we have already said, is produced, nourished, and increased by the
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performance of those duties which become successively present, and
which are made fruitful by the same divine will. In fulfilling these
duties we are always sure of possessing the ‘better part’ because this
holy will is itself the better part, it only requires to be allowed to act
and that we should abandon ourselves blindly to it with perfect con­
fidence. ... It is the will of God which bestows through these
things, no matter what they may be, an efficacious grace by which
the image of Jesus Christ is renewed in our souls” (ibid., chap. 5).
“When God requires action, sanctity is to be found in activity. Be­
sides the duties imposed on everyone by their state in life God may
require certain actions which are not included in these duties, al­
though they may not be in any way opposed to them. An attraction
and inspiration are then the signs of the divine approval. Souls con­
ducted by God in this way will find a greater perfection in adding
the things inspired to those that are commanded. . . . Duties im­
posed by the state of life and by divine Providence are common to
all the saints and arc what God arranges for all in general. ... As
there are souls whose whole duty is defined by exterior laws, and
who should not go beyond them because restricted by the will of
God; so also there are others who, besides exterior duties, are obliged
to carry out faithfully that interior rule imprinted on their hearts”
{ibid., chap. 8).
2. Spiritual Direction

and the

Freedom

of the

Sons of God

“Set the soul in peace, and draw it away and free it from the yoke
and slavery of the weak operation of its own capacity, which is the
captivity of Egypt, . . . and guide it, oh, spiritual director, to the
promised land flowing with milk and honey, remembering that it is
to give the soul this freedom and holy rest which belongs to His
sons that God calls it into the wilderness. . . . Endeavor, then,
when the soul is nearing this state, to detach it from all coveting of
spiritual sweetness, pleasure, delight and meditation, and disturb it
not with care and solicitude of any kind for higher things, still less
for lower things, but bring it into the greatest possible degree of
solitude and withdrawal. For the more the soul attains of all this, and
the sooner it reaches this restful tranquillity, the more abundantly
does it become infused with the spirit of Divine Wisdom, which
is the loving, tranquil, lonely, peaceful, sweet inebriator of the spirit.
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Hereby the soul feels itself to be gently and tenderly wounded and
ravished, knowing not by whom, nor whence, nor how. And the
reason of this is that the Spirit communicates Himself without any
act on the part of the soul. . . .
“These blessings, with the greatest facility, by no more than the
slightest act which the soul may desire to make on its own account,
. . . are disturbed or hindered in the soul, which is a grave evil and
a great shame and pity. . . .
“Although this evil is so great and serious that it cannot be exag­
gerated, it is so common and frequent that there will hardly be found
a single spiritual director who does not inflict it upon souls whom
God is beginning to draw nearer to Himself in this kind of contem­
plation. For, whenever God is anointing the contemplative soul with
some most delicate unction of loving knowledge—serene, peaceful,
lonely and very far removed from sense and from all that has to do
with thought—so that the soul cannot meditate or think of aught
soever or find pleasure in aught, . . . there will come some spiritual
director who has no knowledge save of hammering souls and pound­
ing them with the faculties like a blacksmith, and, because his only
teaching is of that kind, and he knows of naught save meditation, he
will say: ‘Come now, leave these periods of inactivity, for you are
only living in idleness and wasting your time. Get to work, meditate
and make interior acts, for it is right that you should do for your­
self that which in you lies, for these other things are the practices of
Illuminists and fools.’
“And thus, since such persons have no understanding of the de­
grees of prayer or the ways of the spirit, they cannot see that those
acts which they counsel the soul to perform, and those attempts to
walk in meditation, have been done already, for such a soul as we
have been describing . . . has reached the way of the spirit, which
is contemplation, wherein ceases the operation of sense and of the
soul’s own discursive reasoning, and God alone is the agent and it is
I le that now speaks secretly to the solitary soul, while the soul keeps
silence. And if, now that the spirit has achieved this in the way that
we have described, such directors attempt to make the soul continue
to walk in sense, it cannot but go backward and become distracted.
For if one that has reached his goal begins to set out again for it, he
is doing a ridiculous thing, for he can do nothing but walk away
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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

from it. . . . And the worst result is that, through the exercise of
its natural operation, the soul loses its interior recollection and soli­
tude and consequently spoils the wondrous work that God was
painting in it. It is thus as if the director were merely striking an
anvil; and the soul loses in one respect and gains nothing in the other.
“Let such guides of the soul as these take heed and remember that
the principal agent and guide and mover of souls in this matter is
not the director, but the Holy Spirit, Who never loses His care for
them; and that they themselves are only instruments to lead souls in
the way of perfection by the faith and the law of God, according to
the spirituality that God is giving to each one. Let them not, there­
fore, merely aim at guiding these souls according to their own way
and the manner suitable to themselves, but let them see if they know
the way by which God is leading the soul, and, if they know it not,
let them leave the soul in peace and not disturb it. And, in con­
formity with the way and the spirit by which God is leading these
souls, let them ever seek to lead them into greater solitude, tran­
quillity and liberty of spirit and to give them a certain freedom so
that the spiritual and bodily senses may not be bound to any par­
ticular thing, either interior or exterior, when God leads them by
this way of solitude, and let them not worry or grieve, thinking that
the soul is doing nothing; for though the soul is not working at that
time, God is working in it. . . .
“God, like the sun, is above our souls and ready to communicate
Himself to them. Let those who guide them be content with prepar­
ing the soul for this according to evangelical perfection, which is
detachment and emptiness of sense and of spirit; and let them not
seek to go beyond this in the building up of the soul, for that work
belongs only to the Father of lights, from Whom comes down every
good gift and perfect boon” (Living Flame of Love, stanza 3).
Collective Growth

and the

Sacramental Functions

Apart from the above-mentioned means for acquiring an increase
of grace, an increase that is in the measure of the spirit of charity
with which they are used and by which we are placed in direct com­
munication with God, the Church possesses other means for diffusing
life among the members of Christ and for making that life flow from
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the divine Head through the hierarchical organs. These means
either confer grace or increase it, not only by reason of the spirit
with which they are used, but by reason of the very work done,
ex opere operato, even when, through involuntary causes, devotion
is lacking or the intention is not actual. Such are the sacraments,
those divine-human vital channels or arteries through which the
blood of the Redeemer circulates, under the impulse of the charity
of the Holy Ghost, to animate, purify, invigorate, heal, or revivify
the members that offer no resistance. The sacramental functions con­
secrate and sanctify both the individual life and the social life of good
Christians.
I. THE ROLE OF EACH SACRAMENT

Of all the sacraments, those most indispensable for each of the
faithful in particular are baptism, which begins the spiritual life, and
the Eucharist, which perfects and completes it, as the Angelic Doctor
teaches.®6 The former has for its direct object the giving of life, not
its increase. Its function is to make us be born, rather than to make
us grow; to establish the bonds uniting us to Jesus Christ, but not
to strengthen them, although, per accidens, when conferred on a
catechumen who is already in the state of grace, it does increase that
grace. The Eucharist has as its proper object the conservation of
grace and its increase. Therefore, if we do not receive this spiritual
food wherein we eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God,
we cannot live spiritually.67
Lamentable it is that many Christians wait years and years to re­
ceive the Eucharist or receive it rarely, although without it one can­
not long conserve spiritual life. Indeed, it is more or less the practice
to consider the first Communion of a child as the crowning point of
its entire religious education and formation. Actually it ought to be
but the beginning and the means best suited to promote that religious
formation. The first Communion ceremony is surrounded with great
solemnity, but it is given a signification far different from what it
actually possesses. Instead of being the introduction to a new life,
entirely divine, it has become the presentation of the child to so­
ciety, its debut into the life of the world where he will soon forget
66 Illa, q.79, a. I.
87 John 6:54.

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the few religious practices which he had performed up to that time.88
The most indispensable sacrament, after baptism, is the Eucharist.
Even penance, although very profitable, is not absolutely necessary
to one who has not committed grave faults. Confirmation, which
seals us as soldiers of Christ and enables us to confess in the name of
the Church, is not of strict necessity as long as extraordinary dan­
gers do not threaten, in spite of the importance of the charisms
which accompany this mystical seal. But nourishment for life and
growth is certainly necessary. The sacrament of confirmation, once
received, impresses us with a military character that will last for­
ever, but spiritual nourishment must be continual and, we might
add, more and more abundant. So it is true that both of these sacra­
ments strengthen us, but not in the same way. Thus St. Thomas states
that in confirmation “grace is increased and perfected for resisting
the outward assaults of Christ’s enemies”; but that by the Eucharist
“grace receives increase, and the spiritual life is perfected, so that
man may stand perfect in himself by union with God.” 89
Each of the other sacraments also confer a special grace. In pen­
ance it is reparative, curative, medicinal, or revivifying; in extreme
unction, the final and supreme remedy against spiritual sorrows and
weaknesses, it soothes and comforts at the same time that it purifies.
But in Communion the grace is of itself augmentative and unitive.
The other two sacraments are ordained to the social life of the
Church: matrimony confers on the contracting parties the graces
necessary to make their union faithful, holy, fruitful, in imitation
of that between Christ and His Church. Holy orders consecrates
the ministers of God as dispensing organs of His sacred mysteries
and distributors of His graces,70 thus ensuring the perpetuity of
these functions in the mystical body and conferring a special grace
on the ordinands, that they may perform their duties worthily and
holily.
The sacrament of holy orders cannot be repeated, because it im­
prints a character. Nor can matrimony be repeated as long as the
bond is not broken by the death of one of the contracting parties.
«8 Father Arintero is referring, of course, to the practice prevalent in many Latin
countries. (Tr.)
69 Illa, q.79, a. i, ad turn.
70 See I Cor. 4:1.

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Extreme unction may not be received again unless a new serious ill
ness occurs or an extraordinary danger develops in the same illness.
Only penance and the Eucharist can be repeated at our good pleas­
ure. They are the two sacraments directly ordained to our spiritual
progress and the two most efficacious means of furthering it, owing
to the special graces which they confer: the one purifying and heal­
ing, the other nourishing, fortifying, and increasing charity and the
deifying union.71
2. IMPORTANCE OF THE EUCHARIST AND PENANCE

“The Eucharist,” says Suarez, “has a proper characteristic which
is not found in any of the other sacraments: it is directly ordained
to the nourishment of charity that it may grow and unite us more
closely with God. Each of the other sacraments has a special func­
tion in virtue of which it confers particular helps with an increase
of grace, but the Eucharist is ordained directly to the perfection of
the union of the faithful soul with Christ and I lis mystical body.” 72
“It is,” says St. Bonaventure, “the sacrament of union. Its first
effect is to unite; not that it produces the first union, but it fortifies
that which is already contracted.” 73 The Council of Florence teaches
that “the effect of the Eucharist is to unite men to Jesus Christ; and,
71 Lallemant, op. cit., V, chap. 3, art. 1: “Bv sacramental grace is meant the right
which each sacrament gives us before God, of receiving from Him certain succours
which preserve within us the effect that sacrament has wrought in our soul. 1 hus
the sacramental grace of baptism is a right which baptism gives us to receive lights
and inspirations to lead a supernatural life, as members of J esus Christ, animated by
His Spirit. The sacramental grace of confirmation is a right to receive strength and
constancy to combat against our enemies, as soldiers of Jesus Christ, and to win
glorious victories over them. The sacramental grace of confession is a right to re­
ceive an increase of purity of heart. That of communion is a right to receive more
abundant and efficacious succours to unite us to God by the fervour of His love.
Each time we confess and communicate in a good state, these sacramental graces
and the gifts of the Holy Spirit increase in us; and yet we do not perceive their
effects in our daily life. Whence comes this? From our unmortified passions, our
attachments and disorderly affections, and our habitual faults. We allow these
vicious principles to have more dominion over us than sacramental graces and the
gifts of the Holy Spirit, so that the former keep the latter, as it were, bound and
captive, without the power of producing their proper effects. And why do we let
sin and the vicious principles of corrupt nature usurp this despotic empire over the
divine principles of grace and the Spirit of God? It is for want of entering often
into ourselves. If we did so, we should discover the state of our interior and correct
its disorders.”
72 De Eucharistia, D.63, sect. 1.
73 In IV, dist. 12, a. 1, q.i.

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since it is grace that incorporates us in Him and unites us to His
other members, so it is that this sacrament produces in us an increase
of grace and the virtues.” 74
So, then, the life of grace is received in baptism, strengthened in
confirmation, and preserved by the Eucharist as well as developed
and perfected. For that reason St. Thomas says that the Eucharist is
the perfection of the spiritual life. And since the Eucharist is the
bread of the divine life, all the effects which ordinary bread pro­
duces in the natural life—nourishment, growth, restoration, and de­
light—will be produced by this sacrament in the spiritual life, as the
Council of Florence teaches, in conformity with the Angelic Doctor.
Nor is this figure of bread a strange one, for the Savior Himself
conclusively affirmed it when He said: “My flesh is meat indeed; and
My blood is drink indeed.” It is worthy of note that this sacrament
alone is expressly designated in the Gospel as the sacrament of life,
and this with an insistence that cannot be void of meaning: “I am
the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of
this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is My
flesh for the life of the world. . . . Amen, amen, I say unto you:
Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you
shall not have life in you. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My
blood hath everlasting life; and I will raise him up in the last day.
For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. . . .
As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, so he
that eateth Me, the same also shall live by Me.” 75
“The whole genesis of the supernatural life,” says Bellamy, “is
contained in these final words, which are amazingly profound. God
the Father, who is life par excellence, Pater vivens, is the infinite
mainstay of this life. He communicates it in its sovereign plenitude
to the Word and, through Him, to the Holy Ghost, both of whom
eternally live the same life as the Father. In the Incarnation the divine
life pours out, so to speak, from the breast of the adorable Trinity
to be diffused in the humanity of Jesus Christ in all possible pleni­
tude: Et ego vivo propter Patrem. It is from this august font, who
proceeds from the Infinite, that the torrents of supernatural life
burst forth in our souls when we receive Communion. Qui manducat
Decret, pro Armenis.
Te John 6:j2-j8.
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me, et ipse vivet propter me. So it is that the life of grace comes to
us in a direct line from the inaccessible heights of the most holy
Trinity through the incarnate Word ever present in the Eucharist.
Communion is, therefore, the sacrament of life, the life proper to
God, mysteriously communicated to the human soul.” 76
The Eucharist, then, has the special power of communicating di­
vine life to us. It is certain that this life is identical in whatever way
we receive it, for it always consists in a participation of the divine
nature and an assimilation to God. Since through reception of the
Eucharist the soul approaches to the divine Model in such an intimate
manner, it is correct to conclude that the soul receives in the very
depth of its being a clearer impression of the Divinity. The very
same life that we received in baptism, by which we were reborn in
God, is augmented in the Eucharist because in both of these sacra­
ments God communicates to us somethin? of His own nature. There
is this difference however: Baptism is the beginning of that life
whereas the Eucharist is its growth. In the first, it is the life of the
infant; in the second, that of the mature man. And this life is destined
to increase continually because of itself it knows neither decline nor
languor. As the eternal font of youth and maturity, the Eucharist is
the crowning point of the supernatural life.77
The involuntary privation of sacramental Communion or the in­
ability to receive it as often as we might wish to is supplanted to a
great extent by spiritual Communion. This can be renewed at all
times and, depending upon the love with which it is made and the
intensity of desire which it manifests for a real reception of the
bread of life, it produces a great increase of grace.
Not only must we grow in the spiritual life, but we arc obliged
to renew ourselves from day to day by purifying ourselves of our
imperfections, washing away whatever stains we have contracted,
76 Bellamy, op. cit., pp. 260 ff. Maldonatus, In Joan. 6:58: “That eternal and divine
life which God has by nature, Christ had as man, through the hypostatic union with
the Divinity, so that whatever was in God was shared by His human nature. But
we, through the conjunction which is effected in the reception of the body and
blood of Christ, are united to Him in a real sense. As the life of Christ’s human
nature was made divine and happily immortal through the hypostatic union, so
also is ours through our union with His body.”
77 “The first act of the spiritual life is given through baptism . . . but in the
Eucharist is given the perfection of the spiritual life” (St. Thomas, In IV Sent., dist.
8, q. I, a.2; q. j, a.2).

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curing our spiritual languor, and immediately revivifying ourselves
if we have the sad misfortune to lose the life of grace. All this is ac­
complished by the sacrament of penance. No one, without a singular
privilege such as that enjoyed by the Blessed Virgin, can pass
through this life without having the earthly dust cling to him and
without being stained by many small defects, at least involuntary
ones.
Hence the importance of this sacrament which, after Communion,
is the principal means that souls can employ to foster their spiritual
progress either directly or indirectly. By it we rid ourselves of the
obstacles to grace and even increase that grace, at least in its medicinal
aspect. This grace, in turn, prevents us in some measure from falling
into new faults and makes us more vigorous in rooting out the seeds
of sin. When received by a soul in grace, sacramental absolution in­
creases life at the same time that it cures, purifies, and invigorates it.
It is true that this sacrament can be supplanted in great measure
by frequent reception of the Eucharist and the virtue of penance, as
happened in the early centuries of the Church when the discipline
of public confession was in force. Indeed the virtue of penance is
always absolutely essential so that we may correct our faults as soon
as we are aware of them, without waiting for the reception of sacra­
mental absolution. Yet absolution corrects the deficiencies of the vir­
tue of penance, and thus simple attrition is converted into contrition,
and satisfaction itself acquires a much greater value, because of the
efficacy of the sacrament.
Therefore devout souls are not content with the general examina­
tion of conscience and the particular examination on the dominant
fault which they are seeking to correct. Nor do they stop at the
voluntary imposition of penances and privations as works of satis­
faction by which they endeavor to chastise and correct themselves,
although all these things are powerful means for advancement. If a
confessor is available, these souls purify themselves at least once a
week by sacramental confession. It may be noted here that, since
the confessor is frequently also the director and regulator of private
penances, it is necessary that he himself be well versed in the science
of the ways of God.78
When spiritual souls are unable to find a worthy priest who knows
78 See St. Alphonsus Liguori, Practica del Conf., IV.

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how to give them, in addition to absolution, the bread of salutary
doctrine, in his capacity as an official minister of the Church, then
they will do well to seek it from any person in whom they find it,
whatever his state or condition. For in persons of all states, sexes, and
ages, great souls and even learned theologians and notable prelates
have found an excellent direction which they could not find else­
where. This truth is evident in the lives of St. Catherine of Siena, St.
Brigid, St. Catherine de Ricci, St. Teresa, Blessed Angela de Foligno,
Blessed Osanna of Mantua, Venerable Mary of Agreda, Venerable
Marina de Escobar, Venerable Micaela Aguirre, and many others.
3.

THE SACRAMENTALS

After the sacraments come the sacramentals, which ordain and
prepare for the sacraments themselves. The sacramentals are all those
things which the Church consecrates to increase Christian piety, to
help in the sanctification and purification of the faithful, and to make
more intimate the bond of union among the members of the “three
Churches.” Among these sacramentals we may note the following:
the devotional use of holy water, which, when received with the
right spirit, is helpful in purifying us and preserving us from dia­
bolical annoyances; the recitation of the Our Father; general con­
fession; the blessing of priests; the listening to the preaching of the
divine word; indulgences; the cult of the saints; suffrages for the
souls in purgatory, and approved devotions (among which, because
of its efficacy and universality, the Rosary deserves special mention).
Finally and especially, after the Most Holy Sacrifice, which is offered
for the living and the dead, we mention the Office which, because of
its excellence, is called divine, for it is proper to the angels and the
sons of God to be engaged in the perpetual worship of the heavenly
Father, Jesus Christ our Redeemer, and the vivifying Spirit.
The Church, animated as it is by this divine Spirit, desires that
day and night there should be consecrated souls blessing and prais­
ing the Father of mercies and the Savior of men. Consequently at
all times there is someone officially praying for those who are indif­
ferent to their eternal salvation and forgetful of the divine benefits.
Woe to them if there were no one to assist them by ceaseless prayer!
The proper function and principal obligation of those chosen souls
is to be occupied in the divine praises. That they may not be molested
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by other cares and affairs, they receive from the faithful the alms
necessary for their daily sustenance so that they, in turn, may spir­
itually sustain the faithful by prayer and sacrifice.
To these consecrated souls, who pray in an official capacity and
in the name of the Church, are closely associated all the faithful of
good spirit who, as often as their occupations permit, take part in
the public worship by assisting at the Divine Office. Such pious souls
prefer the liturgy to their own private devotions, which easily de­
generate into vain sentimentality.
The sacramentals also include devotion to the saints, w'hom we
should honor and venerate as friends of God that are already deified
and glorified along with Jesus Christ. We ought to make them our
intercessors, especially when we see other avenues closed, because
the Savior Himself desires it for their honor and our profit. “Where
I am,” says Christ, “there also shall My minister be. If any man min­
ister to Me, him will My Father honor.” 78
79 Therefore the saints share
in the glory which Fie receives from the Father.80

4.

DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN

In this cult of the saints that of the glorious Mother of God and
our Mother, the Mother of grace and mercy, surpasses all others and
is indispensable for the faithful. As the coredemptrix, associated with
the Redeemer from the Incarnation to the Ascension, from the crib
to Calvary, she is the channel of all graces and the dispenser of all the
divine treasures.81 As the faithful Spouse of the Holy Ghost, she co­
operates with Him in the entire work of our renewal and sanctifica­
tion. “In her is all grace of the way and of the truth, in her is all hope
of life, and of virtue. He that shall find her, shall find life, and he
shall have salvation from the Lord. But he that shall sin against her,
shall hurt his own soul. All that hate her, love death.” 82 She is the
78 John 12:26.
80 Illa, q.25, a.6: “Now it is manifest that we should show honor to the saints of
God, as being members of Christ, the children and friends of God, and our inter­
cessors. Wherefore, in memory of them we ought to honor any relics of theirs in
a fitting manner: principally their bodies, which were temples, and organs of the
Holy Ghost dwelling and operating in them, and are destined to be likened to the
body of Christ by the glory of the Resurrection.”
81 “Hear me, my sons, and believe me,” said St. Philip Neri, “I know that there is
no more powerful means for obtaining God’s grace than the Blessed Virgin.”
82Ecclus. 24:25; Prov. 8:35 f.

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Seat of Wisdom and is full of grace and she can give us a share <>(
her plenitude. Therefore devotion to the Blessed Virgin, which con
sists in honoring her from the heart and imitating her in truth, is one
of the surest signs of predestination.83 Without her mediation it is
most difficult, if not impossible, to be saved, for in the mystical body
of the Church, Mary unites the Head with the rest of the members
and enables them to receive the divine impulses.84
So it is that the greatest saints were renowned for their filial devo­
tion to the most holy Virgin. No soul proceeds securely along the
paths of virtue and arrives at the mystical union without being under
the protection of Mary Immaculate, behind whom all the virgins
walk to be presented to the King of Glory.
In addition to these indispensable helps, the sanctifying power of
the Church manifests itself in the numerous other means which she
has for fostering the general progress of the mystical body as a whole,
and of each organ in particular. The Church is ever renewing and
adapting these various channels of power in order to make use of
those which are more opportune according to the condition of the
times or the needs of souls. Thus the Church is ever singing to God
83 Ecclus. 24:31.
84 Therefore, in a complete exposition of Christian perfection, observes Father
Weiss (Apologie, X, 22, 3), it is almost as indispensable to speak of Mary as it is
to speak of Christ, because, like Him, she is for us “much more than a perfect model
of all the virtues. Since she is the Mother of the Source of all graces, she is truly,
as the litanies call her, the Mother of divine grace. As without her we never would
have possessed the Giver of all grace, so also we do not receive any grace except
through her. We deliberately say through her, and not without her; for not only
does she procure grace for us by her intercession, but it is actually through her
hands that we receive all the graces which the Redeemer merited for us. So, as she
was the channel through which Jesus Christ came to us in human form to effect
the work of our redemption, so is she the way by which the fruits of that work
come to us (St. Albert the Great, De laudibus B. Mariae, IX, 15; St. Bernard,
Nativitas Mariae, no. 4; Petrus Cellens, De panibus, chap. 12). Mary is the mistress
and dispenser of everything that pertains to the divine family. She holds the key
to all the treasures of the house of God (St. Bernard, Annuntiatio, III, 7; St. Albert,
loc. cit., X, 17). Further, those treasures consist of graces, but they were not given
to her for her own enjoyment alone. If she is full of grace, it is also for our behalf.
Therefore, as a bridegroom takes pleasure in honoring his bride by letting pass
through her hands the benefits which he desires to dispense, so also does the Holy
Ghost, the distributor of graces and her immaculate Spouse, do in regard to Mary.
. . . Jesus Christ is the fountainhead of grace, Mary is the ocean to which the Holv
Ghost directs the rivulets which flow from the wounds of the Savior so that all
may drink thereof (Agrcda, The City of God, I, no. 603). Therefore he who seeks
graces from God ought to turn to Mary, because it is through her that we obtain
whatever we receive from Him (St. Bernard, Nativ. Mariae, nos. 7 f.).”

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a new canticle. In another work 85 we have treated the development
of devotions in the Church. We shall now dwell upon the Eucharist,
whose efficacy is always new and whose importance in the spiritual
life ever increases instead of diminishing.
Singular Importance

of the

Eucharist

In the Eucharist, the sacrament of sacraments, we are nourished
by Jesus Christ, we grow in Him, we live His very life, and we are
united to Him to the point of being identified and transformed in
Him.
If we are to grow as sons of God, we need a divine food. Actually,
were it not for our innate weakness, this food could very well con­
sist in simply doing the will of the Father in order to perfect His
work.88 But since we arc so weak and remiss in doing the Father’s
will, we must reinforce our weakness and repair our losses by being
invigorated with the strength of the Word. This we do by eating His
flesh and drinking His blood, without which we are unable to main­
tain life.87 This divine food so invigorates us that we are able to climb
the holy mountain of God and live eternally. In receiving His body,
we receive at the same time His blood, His soul, His divinity; in a
word, Jesus Christ entirely, as He is in Himself. Thus we are com­
pletely transformed. “We eat and drink true God and true man,”
says St. Ephrem, “and in Him we are absorbed so that we live in
Him.”
Since it is the food of the soul, the Eucharist presupposes spiritual
life. The dead do not eat, and any food inserted in them, instead of
vivifying them, would serve only to hasten corruption. The same
thing happens to one who dares to receive the Eucharist in sin. Yet,
if such a person is in good faith, thinking himself to be in the state of
grace, and if he has sorrow for all his faults, then this sacrament of
love, not finding any obstacles by reason of an affection for sin,
85 Evolution Organica, chap. 2.
88 John 4:34.
8T John 6:54. “The Word,” exclaims St. Clement of Alexandria (Pedagog., I, chap.
6), “is all things to the infant which He has engendered: He is father, mother,
teacher, and nurse. Eat My flesh, He says, and drink My blood. The Lord offers us
a food that is adapted to our condition, so that nothing is wanting to us for our
growth. . . . He alone dispenses to the children the milk of love. A thousand times
blessed is he who is suckled at these divine breasts.”

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will turn his attrition into contrition and will produce a true filial
love and with it life. Therefore, although destined to cause an increase of grace, the Eucharist can also produce grace itself, per
accidens.
That this is a sacrament of life, ordained directly to the conserva­
tion and increase of that life, is evident from its very institution,
where it is presented as the living bread sent from heaven to give
eternal life.88 With such insistence does the Savior thus represent
this sacrament that He never wearies of repeating this basic notion
as that which is most proper to this sacrament. If the other sacra­
ments can also maintain and increase grace, they do so in an indirect
manner, but this sacrament has as its primary object the increase of
life and the fostering of our interior growth. “The blood of Jesus
Christ,” says St. Cyril, “is not only vital, but vivifying.” 89 It is the
fountainhead of life; by being physically united to it, we receive the
torrents of its plenitude.90 It is in this sacrament that we shall “draw
waters with joy out of the savior’s fountains.” 91
I. EUCHARISTIC UNION AND THE MYSTICAL MARRIAGE

An increase in the life of grace causes an increase in charity and
union with God. It also binds more tightly the bonds which attach
us to our divine Head and the other members of the mystical body
in the unity of the Spirit. The sacraments effect what they signify.
The sacrament of the Eucharist is offered to us in the form of food
and it symbolizes the union of the faithful. Therefore it produces
this union, but in an analogous manner and in an inverse order to
that of ordinary food, which is converted into our own substance.92
“He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood,” says the Savior,
88 John 6:48-58.
80 Contra Nestor., Bk. IV.
811 Weiss, op. cit., X, 16: “If all the sacraments are fonts of grace, the most sub­
lime of all is, without any doubt, that one which contains the Author and Giver of
grace. Through this sacrament we are changed into one body with Him (Cyril of
Jer., Cat., 22; Chrysos., Herb, horn., 6,2). In this intimate communication He courses
through our hearts like a fiery torrent, not to be eventually exhausted and extin
guished, but to draw us to Himself and to transform us into Himself (St. Gert ,
Leg. div. piet., 3, 26). We do not change this food into ourselves, as happens with
ordinary food, but He changes us into Himself.”
81 Isa. 12:3.
82Father Arintero is here referring to the words of St. Paul in his First fplslh

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“abideth in Me, and I in him.” 93 “The indication that a man truly
eats of the body of the Savior,” says St. Augustine, “is whether he
abides and dwells in Christ and Christ in Him.” 94 Although the
corporal union and the indwelling of the Eucharist is transitory, the
spiritual indwelling, to which it is ordained, ought to be perpetual.
Bossuet says that Jesus comes to our bodies that He may be united to
our souls.95 What He seeks above all is the hearts of men; and when
men do not give their hearts completely to Him, they do Him
violence,9® and He is obliged to hold back the impetuous river of
graces with which He desires to inundate them.
The sacrament of the Eucharist is the work of that prodigious love
with which Jesus loved us till the end and by which He draws all
things to Himself in order to divinize them.97 As St. Dionysius says,
love is essentially unitive.98 Hence, in the discourse at the Last Supto the Corinthians, 10:16-18: “The chalice of benediction which we bless, is it not
the communion of the blood of Christ? And the bread which we break, is it not the
partaking of the body of the Lord? For we, being many, are one bread, one body,
all that partake of one bread.”
This would not be the case if the Eucharistic bread were any kind of bread, for
natural food is changed into the substance of him who partakes of it, and therefore
the many who eat of the same natural bread are not made one body. But, by re­
ceiving the bread which is the body and blood of Christ, all those who partake of
that bread are transformed spiritually into Christ and more intimately united with
one another. (Tr.)
83 John 6:57.
Joan., XXVII, no. 1.
85 Sermo I, Nativ. S.V.
86 “They do violence to the body and blood,” says St. Cyprian, Lib. de laps.
87 Hettinger, Apologie des Christentbums, p. 32: “The Word of God, by becom­
ing man and taking His place in creation, has glorified and deified all creatures.
... In man, matter has been raised to the life of the spirit; in Christ, all creation
has been elevated to the life of God, and humanity has been set upon a divine
throne. What was effected in the Head through the Incarnation, must be continued,
completed, and extended through the sacred banquet, to embrace all the members of
the body in an ever-widening circle so that all will turn to God through this
Mediator, be united with Him, and share in His glory. Christ was united to human
nature in a most intimate manner, which only His wisdom was able to invent, only
His love was able to desire, and only His power was able to effect. But now, in
the mystery of the Eucharist, He is united with each member of the Church in a
manner so perfect that only He could have conceived the idea of such a union.
This union, this mutual penetration, this fusion of man with Jesus Christ, is so
intimate, so sublime, that it can be compared only to the union of the eternal Father
with His only-begotten Son, as is seen from the words of the Lord Himself. . . .
In the Incarnation, Christ raised the whole human race to God; in the sacred
banquet, He takes possession of each man individually in order to transport him
to the bosom of God.”
88 De divin, nomin., chap. 4.

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per the Savior prayed for and demanded with great insistence the
perfect union of the faithful among themselves and with Him.00
St. Paul voices this same thought when he says: “We, being many,
are one bread, one body, all that partake of one bread.” 100 There­
fore the Council of Trent calls the Eucharist “the emblem of the
union of the mystical body, the sign of unity, the bond of charity,
and the symbol of peace and concord.” 101
The Eucharist is a banquet of most familiar union where only the
close friends take part. “Eat, O friends, and drink, and be inebriated,
my dearly beloved.” 102 Those first invited were the Apostles, for
they had merited the name of friends and tasters of the secrets of
God.103 The Savior even deigned to wash their feet, as if to show
them what purity of heart this banquet requires. No one, under pain
of condemnation, can present himself at this banquet unless he has
on the wedding garment of charity.104 Those who are soiled are ex­
cluded from the banquet of the nuptials of the Lamb.105 But those
who, clean in heart and clothed in virtue, frequently partake of this
divine feast, grow to a marked extent in the union of charity. As
long as the first disciples “were persevering in the doctrine of the
apostles and in the communication of the breaking of bread and in
prayers,” as St. Luke says, they had “but one heart and one soul.” 100
Not content with producing that union of conformity, the
Eucharist gradually effects a total transformation of souls in Jesus
Christ. For it is precisely to bring about this transformation that
He comes to us in the form of food. However, there is this differ­
ence, that He, being divine and more powerful than we, transforms
us into Himself instead of being changed into our own substance.
"John 17:10-23.
100 See I Cor. io: 17.
101 Session XIII, can. 8. Hettinger, loc. cit.: “The Most Blessed Sacrament is the
divine-human bond, visible and invisible, which unites all the members of the Church
with Jesus Christ and among themselves. It is, in the body of the Church, the heart,
which gives the impulse to the supernatural life and makes the currents of salvation
circulate through all the members.”
102 Cant. 5:1.
103 “You are My friends if you do the things that I command you. I will not now
call you servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doth. But I have called
you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard of My Father, I have made
known to you” (John 15:14 f.).
104 Matt. 22:11-13.
105 Apoc. 19:9; 22:15.
ioe Acts 2:42-46; 4:32.

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This is precisely what He promised to St. Augustine when He said:
“I am the food of grown men: grow and you shall eat Me. And you
shall not change Me into yourself as bodily food, but into Me you
shall be changed.” 107
“Since the power of this heavenly bread incomparably exceeds
that of those who receive it,” says St. Albert the Great, “it changes
them into itself.” 108 “The partaking of the body and blood of
Christ,” St. Leo teaches, “effects nothing other than that we become
what we receive.” 109 St. Dionysius declares: “If anyone approaches
the divine banquet with purity, he is transformed into the Divinity
as a result of this participation.” 110 St. Thomas states that “the
proper effect of this sacrament is the conversion of man into Jesus
Christ, in such a way that he can truly say: / live, now not I, but
Christ liveth in me'' 111 In one of the opuscula attributed to the same
holy doctor, we read: “The Lord makes the faithful soul that
worthily receives Him a member of His body. He incorporates such
a one in the union of charity and assimilates him to the image of
His sovereign goodness. . . . And so, as a drop of water which falls
into a vat of wine is transformed into wine ... so the immensity of
the sweetness and power of Christ, in taking possession of our poor
heart, transforms it so that in thought, word, and deed we manifest
ourselves no longer as worldly men, or even as ourselves, but as
Jesus Christ.” 112 Thus we see that the holy doctors attribute to the
107 Confessions, Bk. VII, chap. io.
108 In IV, dist. 9, a.4, ad turn.
ii» Sermo 62 de Pass., 12, chap. 7.
110 Eccl. hier., chap. 3, sect. 1.
111 In IV Sent., dist. 12, q.z, a.i, ad mm.
112 De Sacramento Altissimo, chap. 20. “Thou hast left to the soul Thy body and
blood,” says St. Magdalen of Pazzi (op. cit., I, chap. it), “so that it might continu­
ally abide in Thee and see itself, in a sense, deified and transformed bv this continual
communication and union. What delightful colloquies the soul has with Thee when
it leans on Thy heart and Thou on its heart, however little the love it has! How
can it help but be inflamed with the ardent flames of Thy charity and in the furnace
of love which Thou dost set afire within it when Thou dost enter its breast in so
wonderful and loving a fashion? . . . What dost Thou do there? Thou dost intro­
duce thoughts in us which I cannot call anything but thoughts of love, and those
who receive Thee share, up to a certain point, in Thy capacity and Thy divine
communications. . . . Thou art that new way of which the Apostle speaks: We
have confidence to enter the Holies in virtue of the blood of Christ, a new and
living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil (that is, his flesh). . . .
As the waters which fall into the sea immediately lose their identity and proper
existence, so when we enter into this ocean of the Divinity . . . what happens?
/ have said: You are gods and all of you the sons of the most High (Ps. 81:6). But

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Eucharist in a singular manner the power of transforming Christians
into Christ Himself and of perfectly incorporating them in Himself.
Through this loving union and transformation the mystical mar­
riage of the Word with the soul is culminated in the body. Formerly
they were spouses in a certain manner through grace, but through
the Eucharist they become “two in one flesh” and sharers in the
same goods.113 They enjoy and possess Him at the same time that
they are possessed by Him and are able to say: “My beloved to me,
and I to him who feedeth among the lilies.” 114 Therefore St. Ephrem
could rightly say that “in the divine mystery there is effected a union
between souls and the immortal Spouse.” 115*The fruits of this sweet
union overflow into our very bodies, which also participate in the
purity, the holiness, the glory and incorruptibility of the body of
Jesus Christ.118
he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit [with Him) (I Cor. 6:17). Moreover, in
this union the Spouse comes to us to take part in this banquet and to regulate charity
in us. Then it is that there takes place those pure and chaste embraces which can
be likened to those which the divine Persons exchange in the unity of the essence
of the Trinity and of which the former are no more than an image or figure. How
sweet are the delights we experience in the joy of the union of the three divine
Persons!”
St. John Damascene (De fide orthod., IV, chap. 14), compares this sacrament to
the burning coal which Isaias saw (Isa. 6:6): “For as that coal was aflame with fire,
this vivifying bread brings with itself the Divinity so that in receiving it we are
not only inflamed, but deified.” For that reason St. T homas Aquinas says that, in
addition to being a pledge, this sacrament is, in a sense, the attainment of glory,
Pignus aeternae gloriae (Office of the Blessed Sacrament). Again in the Summa
(Illa, q.79, q.z) he says: “It belongs to this sacrament to cause the attainment of
eternal life.”
lls St. Cyril of Alexandria, Contra Nestor., IV: “For what reason do we receive
the sacred banquet save that Jesus Christ may dwell in us bodily? The Apostle,
writing to the Ephesians, divinely told them that they had become joint heirs, fellow
members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Jesus Christ. And how
do they become members of the same body except through the mystical banquet?”
114 Cant. 2:16.
115 De extr. jud. et compunct.
110 St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, op. cit., I, chap, 33: “To each of the souls that
receive Thee, can be said what the Church says to Mary: Thou hast received into
thy womb Him whom the heavens cannot contain. As Mary, in St. John’s vision,
showed herself clothed in the sun, so does the soul which receives Thee become
clothed in the Sun of Justice, which is Thyself. I would say even more: the soul
is then clothed to a certain point in the sun of Thy vision, although this vision is
veiled by a cloud which conceals a great part of Thy divine glory. The soul can­
not enjoy that vision to the extent of the blessed in heaven, but only as enjoyed
by privileged souls on earth; that is, by means of a partial light which I know not
how to define and which cannot be understood except by Him who gives it and
from whom it is received.”

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“If there is any one of the sacraments which merits the name of
spiritual espousal,” says Bellamy, “it is surely the Eucharist, wherein
is consummated here below our union with the Savior. What ac­
tually constitutes matrimony is the mutual personal giving of the
two spouses, and in the supernatural order it is the Eucharist that
effects this same mutual giving, for Jesus Christ communicates Him­
self to us entirely and without reserve.” 11T Christ delivers Himself
to souls that they may likewise deliver themselves to Him and thus
find in Him all their sustenance, to live only for Him and in Him,
with so Christlike a life that they are transformed into Jesus Christ,
since it is now He who lives in them. The Eucharist, then, is “the
knot of the matrimonial bond which unites us to the incarnate Word
and thus gives us vastly more than do the other sacraments since it
obtains for us, if not a more abundant participation in the divine
nature, at least a special union with the humanity of our Lord.” 118
“His body,” says Bossuet, “is not now His, but ours; and our body
is no longer our own, but Jesus Christ’s. This is the mystery of joy,
the mystery of the Spouse and the bride, for it is written: ‘The hus­
band also hath not power over his body, but the wife.’119 O holy
Church, chaste bride of the Savior! O Christian soul, which has been
selected by the Spouse in baptism, in faith, and in mutual promises!
Here you possess the sacred body of your Spouse; here you see it
on the holy table where it has just been consecrated. It is not in I lis
power, but in yours. ‘Take it,’ He says, ‘for it is yours.’ ‘This is .My
body which is given for you.’120 So you have a real right over His
body. But also your own body is no longer yours. Jesus desires to
possess it. In this way will you become united, body to body, and
you will be two in one flesh, which is the right of the bride and the
perfect culmination of this chaste and divine marriage.” 121
It is not to be wondered at, then, that the saints who had the
most exalted idea of this divine union were also distinguished for
their ardent love of the Most Blessed Sacrament and for their intense
desire to receive it daily, to be fortified with this heavenly bread, to
be reanimated and renewed in that fountain of life, and to be in117 Op. tit., pp. 268 f.
«» Ibid.
119 See I Cor. 7:4.
120Sec Luke 22:19.
121 Médit, sur l’Evang., La Cène, 24.

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ebriated with the delights of divine love.122 The most remarkable fact
in the histories of the great friends of God is that of their devotion to
the Blessed Sacrament.123 “As if by instinct, or a sort of infallible
intuition,” says Bellamy, “they understood that the entire supernat­
ural world gravitates around the sun of the Eucharist, which is the
universal center of attraction for souls desiring to live in grace. So it
is that, without neglecting the other sacraments, they sought in Holy
Communion the secret of that likeness and that union which con­
stitute the very essence of the supernatural life. Desirous especially
of imitating Jesus Christ and of engraving His image on the very
core of their souls, the saints rightly believed that the best means
of arriving at the reproduction of this divine Exemplar was to ap­
proach Him in the sacrament of His love in order to be more directly
formed by the hand and heart of the divine Artist.” 124125
It is not
strange, then, that the saints appear as so many copies of the divine
Exemplar, for He Himself came in person to imprint His divine
image on them.12®
2. MORE INTIMATE UNION WITH THE FATHER, HOLY GHOST,

AND BLESSED VIRGIN

When, in the sacrament of love, the bonds uniting us to the Son
are strengthened, those bonds are also tightened which unite us to
122 Illa, q.79, a. i, ad :um: “Hence it is that the soul is spiritually nourished
through the power of this sacrament, by being spiritually gladdened, and as it were
inebriated with the sweetness of the Divine goodness, according to Cant. v. i.: Eat,
O friends, and drink, and be inebriated, my dearly beloved." Therefore those who
love much and are much loved are inebriated with divine delights which are merely
tasted by those who are only friends.
123 Father Arnold, the confessor of Blessed Angela of Foligno, says of her: “She
never received Communion without receiving some wonderful grace, and each
time she received a new grace.” So also, Father Hoyos once heard the angels say,
immediately after he had received the Eucharist, “This is the happiest moment in the
life of a mortal.”
124 Op. cit., p. 271.
125 Lallemant, op. cit., IV, chap. 5, art. 1: “Frequent communion is an excellent
means of perfecting virtues in us, and acquiring the fruits of the Holy Spirit; for
our Lord, uniting his Body to our body and his Soul to our soul, bums and consumes
within us the seeds of our vices, and communicates to us by degrees his own divine
temperament and perfections, according as we are disposed and suffer him to operate
in us.” Speaking of the fire which she experienced during a two hour rapture after
Holy Communion, St. Teresa says: “It seems to consume the old man, with his faults,
his lukewarmness and his misery. . . . Even so is the soul transformed into another,
with its fresh desires and its great fortitude. It seems not to be the same as before,
but begins to walk in the way of the Lord with a new purity” (.The Life, chap. 39).

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the Father and the Holy Ghost. Holy love is at once the daughter of
God the Father, the spouse of the Son, and the temple of the Holy
Ghost. Therefore in the measure in which one of these relations is
strengthened, so also are the others. By a greater participation in the
image of the Word and in the fullness of life which resides in Him,
there is a greater participation in the nature of the Father, and con­
sequently the more are we His sons. Likewise it follows that there
is a greater participation in the love, grace, holiness, and communica­
tion of the Spirit, who resides in souls as the immediate principle of
life and sanctification.
“Therefore,” adds Bellamy, “our divine filiation does not reach its
plenitude except through the sacrament that gives the fullness of life.
It was indeed fitting that this filiation should receive its most perfect
expression from Jesus Christ because, as the Son of God by nature,
His is the prerogative of seeing modeled in Flis own likeness all those
who are made children of God through grace.” 128 Therefore St.
Cyril of Alexandria says: “We could not become adopted sons of
God without Him who, being the true Son by nature, serves as the
exemplar according to which we are fashioned in His likeness.” It
is in this sacrament that the incarnate Word directly communicates
to the just soul something of His double nature, since He enables
it to participate in His divine nature at the same time that it receives
His human nature. It is certain that the sacred humanity also operates
through the other sacraments; but, as Bellamy continues, “the
Eucharist closely joins Christ to the Christian, adjusts the copy to
the model, and unites, without any intermediary, the human soul
with the body and blood of the Savior. As a result our soul, since it
is then more perfectly possessed by the divine Spouse, receives in
this mysterious and ineffably intimate union a new manifestation of
its divine filiation, for it is thereby more directly marked with the
effigy of Christ.” 127
Since every increase of grace is accompanied by a greater effusion
of the divine Spirit, evidently with every increase of the life of grace
the communication of the vivifying Spirit ought to increase propor­
tionately. This Holy Spirit dwells in all His plenitude in the sacred
humanity of Christ as in His select dwelling place wherein He takes
128 Op. cit., pp. 266-68.
22’ Ibid.

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His pleasure. But there “He waits, nevertheless, to complete the woil
of love, which is to unite the Head with the members, Christ with
the Christian. Thus, by partaking of the body and blood of the
Savior, we doubly strengthen the bonds uniting us to the I loly
Ghost, for our participation in the Eucharist is a realization of all
His desires at the same time that it is a means of uniting us to 1 lis
divine Person which is eternally established in the humanity of
Jesus.” 128129
Yet another notable relation is remarkably strengthened and made
more intimate by means of this admirable sacrament: the relation we
have with the Holy Virgin, the Mother of fair love and Mother of
divine grace. If love is perfected according as grace is increased, so
much the more will that take place when grace is communicated to
us directly through the sacred flesh which was taken from this
Blessed Lady. And this it is which is peculiar to the Eucharist: that
it enables us to share in the divine nature by means of the flesh and
blood of the Savior. For the direct vehicle of divine life in this sacra­
ment is not the soul of Jesus Christ, but His adorable body and His
precious blood, as the liturgy clearly states: “May the body of our
Lord Jesus Christ preserve your soul to life everlasting.”
The Son of God desires to save lost and corrupt human flesh
through the immolation of His own most sacred flesh on the altar,
as He did upon the cross.128 “One of the mysterious characteristics
of the Eucharist is precisely this transmission of life through death,
for here the divine life is communicated to us through the adorable
body of Christ which we receive in the condition of a victim.” 130
Therefore the Holy Virgin cannot be alien to this increase of life
which we receive through the Eucharist, since it was she who gave
to us, in the double mystery of the crib and the Cross, the body and
blood of Christ. “Is it not through her that wTe obtain the marvelous
instruments of divine life? For the Eucharist is her natural possession,
128 Bellamy, op. cit., pp. 170 f.
129 Monsabré, Meditations on the Rosary, p. 258: “Everything that happened on
Calvary is continually repeated on the altar. Each day the altar is the mount of sor­
rows, of blood, of sacrifice, and of redemption.” Thus we see with what great
reverence and love we ought to assist at the Holy Sacrifice wherein is perpetuated
the work of our redemption. We see also with what sincere affection we ought to
unite ourselves there with the Savior so that His blood will prove profitable to us
and to all. See Catherine Emmerich, Life of Jesus Christ, Introd.
180 Bellamy, loc. cit.

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and over it this incomparable Mother has all the rights. It can be said,
in a certain sense, that it is she who gives this divine food to our
souls. Certainly in her position as Mother she is ever ready to com­
municate the life of grace to her children by adoption. Through the
Son of her womb, she feeds her adopted children; certain it is that
she was made the Mother of God that she might also become the
Mother of men. In the reception of Communion we see more clearly
than in any of the other sacraments how closely associated this holy
Virgin is with the great work of the supernatural life.” 131
It is not to be wondered at that all those heretics who deny the
dogma of the Eucharist should greatly despise this Blessed Lady,
whereas all the souls that delight in Communion love her and rever­
ence her as a most tender Mother. Love for the most holy Sacrament
runs parallel with love for the most pure Virgin. One who dis­
tinguishes himself in either of these loves, excels in the other also. If
the most signal favors of the mystical life are usually received during
Communion, in almost all of them the Virgin intervenes as a pious
Mother to whom true mystics hasten in all their needs, difficulties,
and obscurities. Even if she did not bear the honored titles which
the Church gives her (Seat of wisdom, Mother of grace, Mother of
mercy), there would still remain to her that title which the Evange­
lists bestow on her: “Mother of the Lord,” or Mother par excellence;
and hers would still be that title which illumined souls use when they
cry: “Mother of fair love and holy hope.”

3.

FRUITS OF THE EUCHARIST

The principal fruit which the Eucharist, the masterpiece of the
Savior’s charity, produces in well-disposed souls is a great increase
of charity, not only habitual but actual. Actual charity, in turn,
produces an intimate union and transformation and the subsequent
secondary fruits. These secondary fruits are the remission of venial
sin (and sometimes, per accidens, of mortal sin), the correction of
faults and imperfections, and the remission of temporal punishment.
Also listed among these secondary fruits are fervor, joy, sweetness,
purity, moderation of concupiscence, promptness for good, and the
arousing of holy desires, all of which follow the stimulation of char­
ity. Therefore it is very important that we dispose ourselves for the
>81 Ibid.

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reception of this adorable Sacrament with all possible purity and love,
so as not to impede, but rather to encourage, the production of such
rich fruits.132 If these fruits result but rarely, it is a sign that our dis
positions are defective.133
The fruits which the Eucharist produces in the body can be noted
in the lives of the saints who were most visibly configured with Jesus
Christ, from whose flesh there emanates and redounds in us a power
that heals our infirmities and remedies our weaknesses.134 If in the
saints that power is translated into certain divine splendors and
heavenly aromas, the ordinary effect in the rest of us is to restrain
our concupiscence. This result is accomplished either by the increase
of charity which governs our lives, or by the energies which it gives
for conquering concupiscence. For it makes us breathe the atmos­
phere of heaven, which gradually smothers the fire of concupis­
cence.138
132 Cardinal Bona, Tractatus asceticus de Missa, chap. 6: “The effects of the
Eucharist are: preservation from sin, increase of grace, hatred of all earthly things,
love of all things eternal; illumination of the intellect, inflaming of the affections,
purity of soul and body, peace and joy of conscience, and inseparable union with
God. . . . The soul must be purged of all delights of the flesh and the senses, of
tepidity, of all affection for creatures, so that the divine Sacrament may work its
effects in us.”
St. Augustine, Manual, chap, it: “The powers of my soul are augmented in the
sweetness of Thy presence. . . . O fire which ever illumines and love which ever
burns, O sweet and good Jesus! . . . Sanctify me that I may worthily receive Thee;
remove all malice from my heart and fill it with Thy grace . . . that I may eat the
food of Thy flesh to the salvation of my soul so that, being nourished by Thee, I
may live in Thee, walk according to Thee, unite myself to Thee, and find my rest
in Thee.”
133 St. Bonaventure, De preparation ad Missain: “If after Holy Communion you
do not feel a certain spiritual refreshment, it is no small indication of spiritual sick­
ness or death. What if you apply fire to wood and it does not ignite? What if you
have honey on your tongue, and yet you do not taste its sweetness? Then do not
doubt that this is a most certain sign of ill health.”
134 Surin, Catéch. spirit., VII, 8: “At times, after the reception of the Eucharist,
the soul feels Jesus Christ diffusing Himself in it and communicating His own life
so that the soul will be able to work in all things through Him. ... It is aware of
this communication of life in its speech, its work, its prayer, and in all things, and
it seems that even the natural acts of the soul are animated and aided by Him.”
Blessed Raymond writes of St. Catherine of Siena that she felt the desire for Com­
munion in such an extraordinary manner that she not only desired to unite her soul
to her Spouse, but also to unite her body to the divine body which gives nourish­
ment to everyone that receives it.
135 St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, op. cit., I, chap. 9: “The souls that worthily re­
ceive Thee see fall before Thee, by reason of Thy presence, all the evil desires and
disordered habits of their past life. In place of these idols, before which they wor­
shiped with their sins, they raise up so many other altars to adore Thee with each
of their faculties.”

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“Who is able to resist the monster of concupiscence?” asks St.
Bernard. “Be confident, for you have the help of grace. And to give
us greater security, God has placed at our disposal the body and
blood of the Lord which produces in us two wonderful effects: in
the lesser attacks of concupiscence it diminishes feeling; in the
stronger attacks it removes consent entirely.” 138 “The Sacred
Eulogy,” says St. Cyril, “which delivers us from death, is also an
efficacious remedy against our infirmities. When Jesus Christ is
within us, He quiets in our members the law of the flesh. He mortifies
the turbulent passions, He vivifies our love of God, and He cures all
our evils.” 13T Therefore with good reason is the Eucharist called
the medicine for our wounds and “wine springing forth virgins.” 138
Since it purifies, rectifies, and heals our flesh, the Eucharist is a
preservative from corruption and the seed or living pledge of resur­
rection.139 Participation in this admirable sacrament imparts to the
human body a divine splendor that will remain eternally and will
bestow a singular glory on the just who receive it with the greater
frequency.140
136 Sermo de Coena Domini, no. 3.
13r Lib. 4 in Joan., 6:57.
138 Zach. 9:17.
138 “Nourished with the body and blood of the Lord,” says St. Irenaeus, “our
flesh is made incorruptible; it shares in His life and obtains the hope of the resurrec­
tion.”
110 St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, op. cit., I, chap, zi : “One of the admirable opera­
tions of Wisdom is the glorification and exaltation of so many souls transformed in
God through their intimate union with the Word in the most holy Sacrament of the
Altar. ... By this union the Savior wished to deify the flesh of man, in a certain
sense, in the person of all those Christians who would worthily receive His sacred
flesh. He wished also to communicate His grace to souls and to resurrected bodies,
a power which would make them share in the brilliance of His own glorious body.
But understand well that those who have frequently and worthily received this
divine food will enjoy in their resurrected flesh a greater accidental glory than those
who were not worthy to receive this sacrament so frequently, even though they
be equal in merit in all other respects. . . . No one could ever have imagined such
a work; namely, that God would become a creature, and a creature would become
God in this ineffable manner and by this double communication.”
Tauler, institutions, chap. 38: “Through this sacrament we are transformed into
God and we join with Him in a most happy union so that all His goods are ours
and His body and heart are one with ours. ... He who frequently receives the
Eucharist will be as intimately united with God as is a drop of water thrown in a
jug of wine, in such a way that no creature could find any distinction or distance
between God and the soul. ... If there be found two souls equally holy in their
lives, the one who receives this sacrament with more worthy dispositions is by that
rcceptiôn made more perfect and, as a resplendent sun, he will shine forever more
brightly than the other and will be united with God in a more wonderful union.”

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Therefore we ought to exert ourselves to receive Communion
daily and with the greatest possible fervor and purity, since the in­
crease of health and strength, of charity, graces, and fruits of life is
proportionate to the dispositions and frequency with which it is re­
ceived. In this way we shall succeed in truly living in Christ. Wc
shall realize how profitable it is to be incorporated in Him and we
shall be consumed with the desire to arrive as soon as possible at the
fullest union and possession.141
“The faithful know the body of Christ,” says St. Augustine, “as
long as they do not disdain to belong to Him. Let them become the
body of Christ if they desire to live in the Spirit of Christ, because no
one lives in His Spirit if he does not form part of His body.” 142 In
another place he says: “Whoever wishes to live, has the wherewithal
to live. Let him approach; let him believe; let him be incorporated
in order to be vivified. Let him not disdain the union of the mem­
bers; let him not be corrupt or contrary lest he merit to be cut off
or serve as a confusion for the others. Let him be beautiful and well
proportioned; let him adhere to the body and live in God for
God.” 143
141 Massoulié, Tr. ennour de Dieu, III, chap. 7: “Is it possible that the delights
which the soul enjoys in this Sacrament, the precious pledge which it receives, and
this hidden and veiled possession will not make the soul yearn for the full and
manifest possession? Faith makes the soul look at Christ through the species which
conceal Him. Like the spouse in the Canticle (2:9), it sees the divine Spouse behind
a wall, where He is hidden and does not permit Himself to be seen and whence He
looks at the soul through the lattices. It is, as one of the Fathers says, an artifice of
His love. He makes Himself present so that He can be possessed; and He hides Him­
self that He may be desired. He is present to assuage the sorrow at His absence; He
is as it were absent to cause a desire for His presence.”
142 Tr. 36 in Joan., no. 13. Monsabrc, op. cit., pp. 272-79: “Since he who eats of
this bread will have eternal life, he who eats of it frequently will advance far in
perfection. For spiritual progress is the increase of the divine life, and perfection
is the superabundance of this life. . . . Every intimate union with Christ places us
in relation with Flis Spirit. . . . The great works of the Christian life, ... to what
must thev be attributed but to this mysterious breathing of Jesus Christ? Wherever
we see this breathing suspended or weakened, we see great works fall away and
vanish. The sects that have suppressed the Eucharist, since thev lack now the active
principle of the spiritual life, have only vulgar works of beneficence which are
purely natural, without expansion, and condemned to sterility.”
Nor does it suffice to receive this divine food only now and then for the preserva­
tion and increase of life. As no one can carry on without corporal food, so
ordinarily, no one can carry on for long without spiritual food. Therefore ought we
to ask of God this “daily bread.” “Can it be called such,” asks St. Augustine, “if it
is eaten only once a year? Receive it every day, for every day it can profit you,"
143 Tr. 26 in Joan.

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This sacrament of love, the center of holy hearts and the focus
of divine blessings, calls out for all our love, all our gratitude, and
our continual adoration and reparation.144 But the love for the sacra­
mental Jesus ought to be like the love He Himself shows for us in
that sacrament: a love not beatific, but suffering, mortified, and cruci­
fied, for He is there in the form of a victim and not as the glorious
victor. So He demands of us and produces in us a love full of sacrifice
by which we are associated with His own love.145 This love is meri­
torious to the highest degree since in the Eucharist are united the two
richest sources of merit, the two great causes of spiritual growth:
divine food and a love which sacrifices itself to accomplish the will
of God.
By these means principally, although aided by the others also,
the mystical body of Christ grows and its various members are sanc­
tified and perfected by developing the seed of eternal life which they
receive on being incorporated in it.
144 In order to remedy as much as possible the abandonment of the King of heaven
by bad Christians and to atone for the continual offenses committed against Him,
the holy Baroness de Hoogvorst was inspired to found that admirable order of Mary
Reparatrix, charged with performing before the tabernacle the office of Mary at
the foot of the cross so that there would always be souls, pure and inflamed with
charity, who, like the seraphim, would keep the court of the Lord. “This Order,”
she said, “intends to repair as much as possible the offenses against the divine Majesty
and to remedy the evils caused to man by sin. In this it will strive to follow the foot­
steps of the most holy Virgin, coredemptrix of the human race through Jesus
Christ.”
ns With good reason did the Baroness de Hoogvorst (Mother Mary of Jesus)
say that “the good Reparatrix nun must have a heart that belongs entirely to Our
Lord; a generosity so great and loving that it refuses no sacrifices or sufferings; most
profound humility before God and His representatives; a total abandonment to the
divine will; an obedience that makes her die to self in order to enjoy true lib­
erty ... ; in such a way that the sweetness and charity of Jesus is ever found on
her lips and in her heart. She must understand that the Reparatrix nun is a victim;
and victims do not restrain or save themselves, but they sacrifice themselves.”
Hettinger, Apologie, Conf. 32; “The life of the Church is a sacrificial life, whose
sacrifice is united to that of the spotless Victim. . . . The immolation of the true
body of Christ calls for that of the mystical body also. The real sacrifice of the
Head serves as the norm and model for the mystical sacrifice of the members.”
Ila, q.73, a. 3, ad 3um: “The Eucharist is the sacrament of Christ’s Passion accord­
ing as a man is made perfect in union with Christ Who suffered.”

34*

SPIRITUAL GROWTH
APPENDIX
i. Frequent Communion

“Thou shouldst receive Me worthily and with humility, as befits
My divinity. Keep Me in thy heart without ever losing sight of My
presence. Look upon Me and embrace Me as the Spouse of thy heart.
Spiritual hunger for this heavenly food must impel thee to receive
it frequently. The soul that wishes to give Me the hospitality of a
secluded life and to enjoy the sweet effusions of My intimacy must
be pure, free from all useless preoccupation, dead to self and all at­
tachments, adorned with virtue, ornamented with the red roses of
charity, the fragrant violets of profound humility, and the white
lilies of inviolable purity. . . . Sing to Me the song of Sion to cele­
brate Aly goodness in this great sacrament and let thy praises be the
pulsations of love.
“For My part, I will give thee love for love; I will make thee
enjoy true peace, the clear vision of Myself, happiness without alloy,
an ineffable sweetness, a prelude to eternal bliss. But these graces are
granted only to those of My friends who, in the midst of this rap­
ture, exclaim: ‘Verily Thou art a hidden God’ (Isa. 45:15). . . .
“What have I better than Myself? When anyone is united to the
object of his love, what else has he to seek? And he who gives him­
self, what can he refuse? In this sacrament I give Myself to thee and
take thee from thyself. Thou findest Me and losest thyself to be­
come absorbed in Me. . . . I am a good which is so much the greater
as it is more secret and hidden. Things grow, but you do not note
their progress until it is fully accomplished. My virtue is secret, My
grace hidden, and My gifts are received without being noted or seen.
I am the bread of life to well-disposed souls; a useless bread to those
who are negligent; a temporal plague and eternal ruin to those who
are unworthy. ... If thou feelest within thyself the increase of
grace and a desire for this divine food, thou oughtest to receive it
frequently. If thou sense no advance but feel dryness, coldness, or in­
difference, be not disturbed. Prepare thyself as well as possible and
do not stay away from Communion, for the more thou art united to
Me, the sooner wilt thou improve. It is better to communicate
through love than to abstain through fear. The salvation of the soul
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is often accomplished in the simplicity of faith, spiritual dryness, and
interior pains rather than in spiritual sweetness and delight” (Blessed
Henry Suso, Eternal Wisdom, chaps. 26 f.).
One day, at the time of Communion, the Venerable Mariana of
Jesus, being unusually aware of her lowliness and unworthiness, said
to her Lord: “My Lord, the tabernacle in which Thou art is much
more clean and beautiful.” Christ answered her: “But it cannot love
Me.” “From this,” said the holy nun, “I understood how much more
Christ prefers to reside in our souls than in gold or silver or precious
jewels which are inanimate creatures incapable of love.”
2. Marvels

of

This Sacrament

“This is the noblest sacrament in which God is received corporally,
not that He may be transformed into men, but that men may be
transformed into Him. As by the power of the words of consecra­
tion, what was bread is converted into the very substance of Christ,
so by virtue of Holy Communion he who was man is, in a marvelous
manner, transformed spiritually into God. O wonderful Sacrament!
. . . Thou art the life of our souls, the medicine for our wounds, the
consolation for our labors, a memorial of Jesus Christ, a testimony of
His love, a legacy of His last will, the companion of our journey, the
joy of our exile, the burning coal which ignites the fire of divine
love, the medium of grace, pledge of the happiness and treasure of
the Christian life. By this food the soul is united with its Spouse, the
understanding is enlightened, the memory is enlivened, the will is
aroused, the interior taste is delighted, devotion is increased, the heart
melts, the fountains of tears are opened, the passions are quieted,
good desires are awakened, weakness is fortified, and one receives
the vigor to travel to the mountain of God” (Louis of Granada,
Oration y Consideration, I, chap. 10).

3. The Eucharist,

a

Fount of Blessings

“The Blessed Sacrament is the complement of the work of re­
demption, of the work of love. By His birth the Word of God be­
came our companion and our guide; by His death He is the expiatory
victim sacrificed for our sins; and by His sacramental presence He is
our comfort, our nourishment, our delight, our heaven on earth.
. . . This sacrament is not only a grace, but it is the origin and
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source of grace; the road to glory and true glory in itself. . . . Near
this fount grow the lilies of virginity which are united exclusively
and forever to Jesus Christ. There they are infused with the strength
to become poor for Jesus Christ; there they learn to love their
brethren as He loves them. . . . There all wounds are healed and
great resolutions are intensified; thence come all the acts of heroism
and the victory over the world. The faithful soul never departs from
there without having heard a voice full of mystery, without having
been enriched with a supernatural power, without bearing in his
heart a devout and profound desire of returning again to visit the
place of His repose” (Venerable Mother Sacramento, foundress of
the Adoratrices).
4. The Eternal Heritage

and the

Power

of the

Precious Blood

These are the words of the eternal Father to St. Magdalen of
Pazzi: “The heritage which I bequeath to the soul which possesses
My incarnate Word and the Holy Ghost is Myself. Here the soul
can find assurance and security in this world and glory and eternity
in the next. The glory of this heritage is such that only the Trinity
can comprehend it. . . . This heritage is gained through the power
of the incarnate Word and the merits of His precious blood which
was shed upon the cross. . . . Now that He sits at My right hand,
that same precious blood flows to you through the channels of the
sacraments . . . which bring you the grace that the Word has
merited for you. This infusion of grace produces various effects. It
causes a germination, a nourishment, an inebriation, a transformation
and glorification. . . . He infuses in His spouses an ardent love and
continually pours into their hearts the power of His blood, which
makes them die completely to self. They become so submerged in
this precious blood that they do not see or know or taste anything
but blood. They live only in Me and for Me and in all their works
they seek only My glory and the salvation of souls. . . . Like in­
nocent doves, they repeatedly bathe themselves, these pure souls, to
purify themselves even more. With the ceaseless use of that bath they
acquire a radiant purity, which makes them lovable in the eyes of
the Spouse, and an ardent charity, the fire of which inflames other
creatures and attracts them to Me. By these two virtues they bc345

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

come like unto Me in a special way, for as I contain all things in My­
self, so through charity these select souls carry in their hearts all
other creatures.
“After germinating the lilies of purity, the blood of the Word
nourishes the soul with the substance of His divinity, that is, with
the knowledge and love of the divine essence which communicates
delightful pleasures to the soul and unites it to Me in so intimate a
manner that it can say with St. Paul, ‘Who will separate me from the
charity of Christ?’ . . . Then follows the transformation of the
soul into the object loved, and this transformation is effected by My­
self. ... I transformed Myself into you at the Incarnation, when
My Word assumed the form of a slave for love of you, and from this
there follows the transformation of you into Myself. This is caused
principally through the union of the soul with My Word in the
sacrament of the Eucharist . . . wherein the soul receives a new
quality and a divine being that makes it appear other than it was. The
iron which comes forth from the furnace shines, sparkles, and burns
like a fire, . . . and the same thing happens to the soul in this oven
of love wherein it is united to My Word who is the fire which in­
flames, and who came to cast fire upon the earth in order to enkindle
all hearts. Within this furnace, where the breathing of the Holy
Ghost makes the fire burn ever more fiercely, the soul is so consumed
by this fire that, instead of being human, it becomes wholly divine,
transformed into Me and made one thing with Me through charity.
It then becomes more perfect in its works, more lofty in its concepts,
more ardent in its love, so that we need only to glance at that soul to
see that it belongs to Me and to recognize in it the Author of its
transformation. . . . Let a soul change itself into what it wishes, but
it will never recover the primitive perfection of its being except by
being transformed into Me. Only then will it conform to the idea
which I had when I created it” {Œuvres, IV, chap. 19).

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CHAPTER V

Summary and Conclusions
SSSsSSSsSS&sS&ÎSSsSSSssS&sSSsSSSsSSSsSSSsSSSssS&sSSssSSsSSSssSSssSSsSSssSSsSSSsiS&sSSsSSSÿSSSisss

ReVIEWING at this point all the doctrine thus far set forth, we
shall state briefly in what the supernatural life consists. We shall re­
state its elements and conditions, its inner nature, its properties and
characteristic functions. Finally, we shall recall the manner in which
the supernatural life reaches its final and complete manifestation in
souls.
The supernatural life, as Broglie observes, presupposes divine
adoption, regeneration, a new birth, and the formation of a new man
possessing the dignity and title of a son of God and endowed with
the right to eternal inheritance. To this is added the indwelling of
God in the heart of man, the intimate presence of the divine Persons,
fellowship with the Father and the Son, and a participation in the
divine nature. Lastly, as a terminus of this marvelous progressive
state, there are the vision and possession of God and a transforma­
tion into Him.
“To be born anew is to receive a second nature. To be created in
Jesus Christ, when we already exist, is to receive a higher life, a
second life superimposed on the natural life. But of whom is the re­
generated man a son? From whom does he receive this principle of a
new existence?” 1 Not from flesh and blood, nor from human will,
but from God, who desires that we should all be called His sons and
that we should truly be such.
Concept

of the

Life of Grace

The term “sons of God” is correlative to the term “regenerated";
and it expresses a reality, as does the latter. Therefore this expression
1 Broglie, Surnaturel, pp. 14-24.

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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

is not simply a metaphor nor does it signify mere adoption. Earthly
adoption is nothing more than a moral union. It confers new rights,
but it docs not change the nature of the one adopted nor does it com­
municate anything to him from the adopting father. Divine adop­
tion, on the other hand, not only implies the name, but also the
reality of filiation: “that we should be called and should be the sons
of God.” 3
St. John is not content with this term, nor with saying that we
have been born of God, but he uses another term which is even more
poignant and expressive: the divine seed. “Whosoever is born of
God committeth not sin; for His seed abideth in him.” 3 St. Peter says
the same thing: “being bom again not of corruptible seed, but in­
corruptible, by the word of God who liveth and remaineth for­
ever.” 4 “Of His own will,” says St. James, “hath He begotten us by
the word of truth, that we might be some beginning of His créature.” 5 It is a new birth by means of the infusion of divine life,
which makes us true sons of God, though always adoptive, because
this new life is superadded to our own natural life.
By nature we are only servants, but by grace we are elevated to
the dignity of friends of God and sharers of His most intimate
secrets.® What is more, we are even raised to the dignity of true sons,7
regenerated in His Spirit and possessing the right to the eternal
heritage.8 As a guaranty of this heritage we receive the unction, seal,
and pledge of the Spirit Himself in our hearts.9
The idea of generation implies some sort of likeness between father
and son, and therefore St. John says that, when our manifestation as
sons of God shall be perfect, then we shall be like unto Him.10 This
is an entirely spiritual birth, “a renewal which the Holy Ghost
2 Sec I John j:i.
8 See I John 3:9.
* Sec I Pet. 1:23.
“Jas. 1:18.
“John 15:15: “I will not now call you servants; for the servant knoweth not
what his lord doth. But I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I
have heard of My Father, I have made known to you.”
7 Broglie, op. cit., II, 50: “The gulf between nature and grace is the gulf between
the creature who trembles before his absolute Lord, and the son who familiarly ap­
proaches his father.”
8 “ Those who are creatures by nature,” says St. Athanasius, “cannot become sons
of God unless they receive the Spirit of Him who is the Son of God by nature.”
9 See 11 Cor. 1:21 f.; Eph. 1:13 t.
10 Sec I John 3:2.

348

SUMMARY
produces within the soul, and yet it is a birth as real as is that from
the womb into the world.” Since the eternal Father is the exemplar
of all paternity,11 “the new birth of the sons of God is more similar
to the eternal generation than is our first or natural birth. For this
reason the Holy Ghost speaks of the new birth of the sons of Got!
in language which is so absolute and so pointed. He says always that
those who are regenerated are really and truly sons of God.” This
new life of the sons of God entails “an intimate relation, not only
with the one divine Essence, but also with each of the three divine
Persons, because the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost enter the just
soul.” 12
By nature, a creature can know, and this by analogy, only the
essential unity of God as the sovereign Author of the universe, the
absolute Lord who transcends all creation and before whom all men
are less than the vilest slaves, ever trembling in fear. But through
God’s grace and infinite liberality we have been raised to no less than
the dignity of His sons and therefore, with love and filial confidence,
we can converse with Him as our Father of mercies. Having been
made like unto Him, through the merits of His only-begotten Son,
we penetrate into the secrets of His inner life through the power of
His Spirit. Thus are we admitted to the society of the three adorable
Persons, who communicate in the unity of the divine essence. We
thereby contract those ineffable relations that bind us in particular
to each of Them and also to the Trinity as a whole. Only through
this admirable grace can we arrive at an understanding of the august
mystery of the Trinity.
This is precisely what constitutes the supernatural order, the mani
festation of eternal life: entrance into fellowship or familiar and
friendly relationship with God by sharing in the communication of
His life and His intimate secrets. The supernatural order is not, then,
anything that our reason can trace out by analogy with the natural
order. Nor is it a superior order which has been “naturalized” so
as to fit our mode of being. It is not simply “an order which exceeds
all the natural exigencies of creatures, whether existing or purely pos
sible,” as others have defined it. Such an order is still in some way a
projection of the natural; it could easily be a superadded perfection
11 Eph. 3:15: “Of whom all paternity in heaven and earth is named.”
12 Broglie, op. cit., pp. 21-32.

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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION
or gratuitous complement to the natural order, without transub­
stantiating or deifying it.
The true supernatural order, that unique order which actually
exists in union with the natural order, is much more than this. It not
only exceeds natural exigencies, but it transcends all suppositions and
rational aspirations. It is an order which no one could ever know by
analogy, nor suspect, nor even dream of, if God Himself, when He
raised us to it, had not deigned to make it known. “Eye hath not seen
nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what
things God hath prepared for them that love Him.” 18
It is the great hidden mystery which no one could surmise if the
Spirit of God had not made it known. Nor is it something incompre­
hensible in itself, whose existence is known through natural reason.
It is the adorable secret of the goodness, wisdom, and munificence of
God. By a free disposition of His holy will, He decided to elevate us
to that inconceivable participation in His own life and His infinite
happiness. In doing so, He lowered Himself and, as it were, “nat­
uralized” Himself in order to raise us up, to supernaturalize us, and to
make us His equals to a certain extent so that we would be able to
enter into friendly association with Him.
This familiarity with the divine Persons constitutes the very
foundation of the supernatural life and supernatural order. For this
was God made man: to make men gods and to take His delight in
them. He takes them to Himself so that they share in His happiness
and glory, and He treats them, not as servants, because the servant
is ignorant of the secrets of his master, but as friends who receive
His intimate confidences. He deals with them, not as simple crea­
tures who share only in the works ad extra, but as true sons, con­
figured with His Word and signed with His own Spirit. They enter
into the joy of their Lord to participate in the mysterious impulses
of each of the divine Persons in the secret operations ad intra.
This is the marvel of all possible marvels. God so loved the world
that Fie gave His only-begotten Son, so that all those who believe in
Him may have eternal life. This life is the intimate life of the sacro­
sanct Trinity in the ineffable communications of the three Persons
because all three, and each of them in His own way, contribute to
the work of our deificaiton. Therefore, whenever we speak of adopu See I Cor. 2:9; Isa. 64:4.

35°

SUMMARY

tion, regeneration, sanctification, indwelling of God in the souls, and
so on, express mention is made of the divine Persons. It is the Father
who adopts us; the Son who makes us His brother and co-heirs; the
Holy Ghost who consecrates and sanctifies us and makes us living
temples of God, coming to dwell in us together with the Father and
the Son.
From the fact that certain privileged creatures are called by grace
to penetrate the divine secrets, “to know the divine mystery, to con­
verse familiarly with the divine Persons, to be associated with the
Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, and with the Holy Ghost,” says
Broglie, “it follows that they already see the splendors of the super­
natural order. Hence we can understand why these privileged beings
who are called to be sons of God and are initiated in the secrets of
the Father, no longer merit the name of servants, but that of friends,
for they have entered into fellowship with the divine nature.” 14 It
will also be understood why St. John promised the faithful that
eternal life which was from the beginning with the Father and which
was manifested to us so that our fellowship might be with Him and
with His Son; that sovereign life whose exercise consists in knowing
the one true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Finally, we
14 Surnaturel, II, 59. “The only-begotten Son of God, desiring that we should be
participants in His divinity, assumed our nature: ut homines deos faceret, factus
homo” (St. Thomas, Opusculum 57). From this beautiful text, which the Church
uses in the Office for Corpus Christi, can clearly be deduced that, even if there were
no sins for which to atone, the deification of the creature would nevertheless re­
quire the incarnation of the Word, to serve as the basis for the supernatural order.
For He is the first-born of all the sons of God and in Him and through Him both
men and angels are constituted in that divine dignity and receive grace, truth, and
glory. All things must be created in Christ, who is before all and on whom all de­
pend as the true Head and principle of the whole Church, that He may have
primacy in all things. In Him dwells the fullness of the divinity and only from Him
and through Him can it redound to others (Col. 1:15-19; John i:i6f.). So it is that
all spiritual blessings come to us through Him and from Him. In Him we have been
elected before the foundation of the world (and therefore before the Fall) to be
saints in charity, being predestined to adoption through Jesus Christ and to con­
formity with the divine image by means of the grace by which we have been favored
in Him, so that He might be the first-born among many brethren (Eph. 1:3-6;
Rom. 8:29).
This is a verification of the teaching of St. Thomas (In Joan. 1:16): that all the
graces bv which the angels were enriched flow, as do those of men, from the in­
carnate Word, who is their common Head. “The plenitude of grace which is in
Christ, is the cause of all graces which are in all intellectual creatures.” For that
reason, all creatures have always had to believe in the mystery of the Incarnation
as the only way of salvation, but they had to believe in the mystery of the Passion
only after the state of sin (Ila llae, q.2, a.7).

35’

THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

can understand why, “knowing and loving God intimately and thus
being closely associated with those two infinite and fruitful acts
which the divine Persons produce, the soul is elevated above itself,
united to God, and made God through grace, according to the ex­
pression of the fathers.” 15
The Christian transition from the finite to the infinite is not, then,
as in the Gnostic systems, a fall or degeneration of the infinite. Nor
is it, as in modern pantheism, an absurd production of the infinite
by the finite. It is a free union of the infinite with the finite: an eleva­
tion of the creature who, without the loss of essence or personality,
approaches to the Creator and is united to Him so intimately that
he becomes deified.
The true interpretation of deification is clearly expounded by
Bainvel:
If God teaches us that He comes to our aid with His grace in order
to make us capable henceforth of producing supernatural and divine
acts, that He places in our nature something that transforms it to His
image and divinizes it, we shall understand that this transformation does
not change our nature and that this marvelous communication of God
to our soul is not the impossible and absurd fusion of divine nature with
human nature. . . .
In the ordinary states we do not experience what this participation is,
and the mystics who seemed to feel it in some measure, cannot describe
it without analogies and comparisons which they consider very im­
perfect. Such are those employed by the fathers, of the iron converted
somehow into fire without ceasing to be iron; of the crystal penetrated
by the rays of the sun and made luminous and like to the sun. But
there is nothing which could give so high an idea of this marvelous
elevation as that which is found in texts of Scripture itself. We are
adopted sons of God, but by an adoption that touches the very core
of our nature, transforming it in such wise that we have within us a
divine seed and are made sons of God not in name only but in very
truth. We share in the divine nature to the extent of being ca
performing divine operations which, in turn, perfect our likeness to God
until we reach that final transformation in which we shall be entirely
like Him and shall see Him as He is; brothers, finally, and co-heirs of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
What more can be said, and how better express these divine realities
16 Broglie, loc. cit.

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SUMMARY
than by the word “deification”? This does not in any way destroy the
distinction of natures nor the infinite distance which separates the
Creator from the creature. . . . What deification really means, we shall
know when we see God face to face. Meanwhile, we must be content
with knowing that it is so. If, in addition to this, we strive to form some
concept of deification, using the data of Revelation, clarifying them
by the analogies of faith (and in particular with that of the union of
the divine nature and the human nature in the person of Jesus Christ)
and availing ourselves of the comparisons which the saints offer us, then
we shall still have to say that the reality is infinitely more beautiful and
more sublime than anything we could possibly conceive.10

Patristic tradition, far from diminishing the sublime words of
Scripture, accentuates them the more, for in translating the various
Scriptural expressions it gives &<οσκ for divinization; θιοττοιήσα for
deification; ίνωσκ πρός θΐόν for unity with God; and finally,
χατά
χάριν to signify that man is made God through grace.
Nature, Function, and Growth of the Supernatural Life

Our elevation to the supernatural order enables us to know the
eternal Father, the one true God, together with the Word sent for
our salvation and the sanctifying Spirit. Knowing Them, we enter
into their fellowship and thus we pass from the sorrowful status of
servants to that of friends and, what is more, of guests, sons, brothers,
mothers, spouses, and living members. Thus we share not only in the
goods but also in the intimate life, happiness, and operations of God,
being like unto Him and knowing Him, loving Him, trusting in Him,
as His familiars, by the light, charity, and pious security which He
infuses into us.
Hence the essence of the supernatural life consists in deification:
being in some way like unto God and, as His true sons, increasing in
this likeness as the bonds of divine filiation are more and more
tightened. When we receive from the incarnate Word the power to
become sons of God, the precious seed of the supernatural life begins
to develop within us.
The functions and essential or characteristic operations of this life
are a divine love and knowledge caused in us by the Spirit who pene16 Bainvel,

op. cit., pp. 80-83.
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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

trates the unfathomable mysteries of the divinity and whose charity
floods our hearts that we may love God with that same love with
which Jesus loves us and with which the divine Persons love one an­
other. As directed to the Father, this love should be a filial love; as
directed to the Son, it should be fraternal, marital, and even organic,
vital, for He is the first-born, the Spouse of our souls, and the Head of
the mystical body of the Church. Finally, as directed to the Holy
Ghost, that love must be a love of affectionate friendship and, so to
speak, an experimental and vital love, full of sentiment and life and
intimate affections, for the Holy Ghost is our guest, tutor, master,
director, mover, governor, consoler, sanctifier, and vivifier.
The knowledge which accompanies this love must not be an ab­
stract knowledge but one that is concrete and ever more experi­
mental, because it treats of an admirable and incomprehensible fact
that can be realized only by living and experiencing it. For that, we
have the light, the knowledge, and the life of Christ, which reveal
to us the secrets of the Father and communicate to us that Spirit of
love which searches into everything, even the most hidden mys­
teries.17 “Neither doth anyone know the Father but the Son, and he
to whom it shall please the Son to reveal Him.” 18 “Whosoever
denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. He that confesseth the
Son, hath the Father also.” 18
The light of faith is perfected by the gifts of the Holy Ghost.
Then, when the supernatural life comes to its full expansion and
manifestation, faith will be replaced by the lumen gloriae which will
clearly reveal what we are. In the brilliancy of this supernatural
light we shall be entirely like unto God and therefore we shall be
able to see Him as He is. At present, by faith, we see only through
clouds, enigmas, and obscurities, and from afar off. That is why we
sigh for Him and seek Him with holy hope. Yet, to a certain extent,
we see and feel with the mind of Christ20 these sublime realities by
which we live. Therefore they do not cause in us that amazement
and seeming contradiction which so terrify the incredulous. Rather
they appear full of harmony, and it seems to us most natural and easy
to admit them because they are in reality vital facts. But in the belTSee I Cor. 2:10-16.
18 Matt. 11:27. Cf. John i :8.
19 See I John 2:23; 5:12-20; John 14:6-20.
20 See I John 5:20; I Cor. 2:16.

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SUMMARY
ginning we live and experience them unconsciously, without taking
any account of them and without even noting that we see and feel
them supernaturally, for faith works in a connatural or human man­
ner.
But when, by the faithful exercise of the virtues, one arrives at the
possession of the gifts of wisdom and understanding in a high degree
(gifts by which one works knowingly in a superhuman manner),21
then the privileged soul tastes and experiences those truths as some­
thing wholly divine. It then possesses not only the knowledge, but
also at times a vivid awareness that it is experiencing and enjoying
that prodigious life which God, as the life of souls, communicates to
it, as well as the loving and delicate touches of the Consoler who
dwells in it. At this state the Holy Ghost Himself gives vivid testi­
mony to the soul’s consciousness that it is a son of God.22 So it is
that this divine experimental knowledge, which constitutes the mys­
tical state, becomes a kind of middle ground between simple faith
and the true light of glory through which the hidden glory of the
sons of God is manifested. This experimental knowledge is continu­
ally increased in the measure that one completes the painful purga­
tion of the soul and advances along the glorious ways of illumination
and union.
In the last steps of this marvelous progress which leads to deifica­
tion, w’hich is the most perfect possible assimilation, union, and trans­
formation in God, the soul seems to enjoy certain preludes to eternal
glory which are truly an anticipated glory. As the sacred veils are
thrust aside and the august mysteries of the kingdom of God are
made manifest, the light by which the soul sees these mysteries is
more like that of heaven than that which faith gives.
So it is that the mystics can offer us such sublime, dazzling, and
precise ideas of that prodigious life of God in just souls, of those in­
effable mysteries of the kingdom which are accomplished within
themselves, and especially of that most wonderful process of deifica­
tion. Such are the ideas which come from many simple and ap­
parently ignorant persons, and yet they leave the most eminent
speculative theologians astonished and overwhelmed. Such also are
the concepts by which the cold speculations of abstract theology are
al See St. Thomas, In II Sent., dist. 34, q.z, a.3.
“ Rom. 8:16.

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THE MYSTICAL EVOLUTION

clarified, perfected, defined, vitalized, and closely examined through
contact with the living reality. It is not strange that those lofty con­
cepts are often possessed by many souls that appear to be rude and
uncultured. God hides the august mysteries of the kingdom from the
wise who presume on their science and prudence, and reveals them
only to the little ones, the humble, the simple, and the pure of heart.
It is not to be wondered at that these happy souls, although lacking in
human instruction, should speak of God and His most profound mys­
teries with certitude, precision, and amazing exactness. For, accord­
ing to the expression of St. Teresa, they speak of those things, not
as things known through hearing alone—that is, not as something
studied or read about—but as experienced facts, intimately realized
in all their sublime reality. Hence their testimony, founded as it is
on their own inner experience, is most useful to us in evaluating and
making known to others as best we can the ineffable nature of the
supernatural life and the mysterious process of its evolution and ex­
pansion.23
Therefore we can say with Broglie: “The supernatural is a
gratuitous elevation of the creature far beyond his proper nature,
in virtue of which he shares in the intimate life of God. He is made
like to God and he enters into fellowship with the three divine Per­
sons of the most holy Trinity and is called to enjoy the intuitive
vision of God and His own happiness.” 24
We grow in the divine life by fulfilling the will of the heavenly
Father, by exercising faithfully the infused virtues and the gifts and
23Bainvel, op. cit., p. 77: “The unity of the supernatural life and especially the
identity of the mystical life with the life of grace has greatly influenced the concept
of the supernatural. The mystics have a certain experience of the supernatural
realities which we possess through grace, of the ineffable love of the three divine
Persons and of their special indwelling in the soul of the just. It is precisely in this
experience of the supernatural that the mystical states seem to consist. So it happens
that, in order to describe these things, the mystics use expressions which, if they
are less exact, at least they are more vital and more concrete than the theological
formulas. They discover analogies and images which, although imperfect, are most
apt and are the closest substitute for the experience itself. This is of great help to
theology, for in this way the theologian comes in contact with reality. So a word
from St. Bernard or an unknown monk on the silence of the soul in the presence of
God, on the divine touch in the very depth of the soul, on God’s mysterious passage
like a lightning flash in the dead of night, make us glimpse these things better than
abstract formulas would do and in a singular manner they serve to vivify these same
formulas.”
24 Op. cit., II, 62.

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SUMMARY

charisms of the Holy Ghost, and by receiving the vital influxes of
the Savior through His sacraments.
Such is the essence and such are the functions of the supernatural
life, the divine life, the eternal life, and the kingdom of God in souls.
The way it is developed to full expansion and glorious manifestation
is something somber, sad, and extremely painful, until the soul is
stripped of the old man and clothed in the new; created, according to
God, in true sanctity and justice. But after the soul has tasted the
living water, then the more it drinks, the more thirsty it becomes. It
discovers that with this water come all blessings and an indescribable
purity. He who finds the living water, finds life and drinks the salva­
tion of the Lord; those who hate it, love death and hate themselves.
The soul then sees that it has within itself the fount of eternal life
and it begins to live a life hidden from those who are worldly. Then
are disclosed horizons undreamed of, where all is light and fragrance
and where the delights of the glory of God are already enjoyed.
The process of deification is admirably summarized in the beauti­
ful words of Monsignor Meric:
We know with what art the Holy Ghost prepares and molds and
transfigures those who are predestined. The first hour is sad and bloody.
Whether they live in the cloister like St. Teresa, or in the world like
St. Rose of Lima, they must invariably pass through the same desperate
but glorious crises of the purgative way. Even today, across the cen­
turies, we can hear the echoes of their infinite groanings. They will be
oppressed; they will be tormented by temptations, fears, despair, and
terrible abandonments by Him who denies them even the slightest mani­
festation of His divine tenderness. They will experience afflictions which
crucify the body and torments which oppress the soul. From the heights
of the cross reddened by their blood, they will implore pity; they will
ask a drop of water to appease their devouring thirst in that cruel hour
in which they believe themselves to be abandoned by God and men.
Sitio! But it is in this martyrdom that the new man bursts forth.
And indeed it is a new creature which has just been born. Master
over self, unswerving in its resolutions, dead to the concupiscences of
the world, it has passed through the terrible ordeal of the purgative way.
Henceforth it is prepared to taste the joys of the illuminative and the
unitive ways which are the crown. But these joys will be interrupted
again by the sufferings which preserve and perfect the likeness of the

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soul to Jesus Christ. The new creature will never lose the love of volun­
tary mortification and bloody immolation. Yet, in the midst of these
sufferings so ardently desired, the soul now sees clearly where God
wishes to lead it and it experiences joys so profound that they are in­
describable. Its vision embraces the boundless horizon of the realities
which do not pass away and this horizon is strengthened and enlarged
with heavenly splendors. The soul, thus united to God by grace, hears
His voice, perceives His living and moving image, participates in a
certain way in His fife with a marvelous familiarity: familiaritas stupenda
nimis. This familiarity disconcerts the mystics themselves who try to
explain in human words this divine fellowship. It also elevates humanity
to incomparable heights. . . . Thus we see how, over and above the
known laws which govern earthly things, there are other laws as yet
unknown which govern the harmony of divine things. These laws are
the singular expression of the wisdom and tenderness of God.25
Since the process of spiritual renewal is so admirable in itself and
so deserving of being known by all the faithful, and in particular by
directors of souls, it is now necessary for us to examine it closely and
in detail. To do this, we must attend to what we are taught by expe­
rienced souls who have themselves attained the great heights of the
mystical life. These souls, as Father Monsabré says, can in some
measure “tell us what they see, what they feel, and what they enjoy.
Let us ask them; let us read their writings; and they will tell us how
the veil of nature was rent to disclose to them the mysterious perfec­
tions of the divinity ... ; how they arrived at the science of holy
truth; how their hearts were inflamed with divine love; how, after
they cut themselves off from servitude to the life of the senses, God
has taken them in His arms to let them taste the sweetness of a union
which has no name in human language.” 26
28 Manuel de théol. my st., pp. 6-8.
26 Op. cit., V, 3.

358

NOTES

ΓΗΕ

MYSTICaL
EVOLUTION

in the Development
and Vital ity of the Church

By Fr. John G Arintero, O.P
There is no other book quite like The Mystical
Evolution. Not only does it explain in profound
and intimate detail the nature of the
supernatural life in all its glorious
ramifications for Christi ms in general, but it
also recites a lived and tamiliar lexicon of the
sometimes torturous steps of the spiritual life,
as the individual sees it, while progressing
through the famous three ways. The Mystical
Evolution is unique because it is thorough and
because it is written by one who both knows
intellectually whereof he sneaks, but at the
same time has experienced the subject of his
writing over a long perioa. (In fact, Father
Arintero’s san tity has led to promotion of his
cause.) Unlike most writers of sp’rituality, the
author quotes copiously from the Bible, the
Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and from
all the great mystics and spiritual writers of
the Church, making this virtually a mystical
encyclopedia. The magnitude of the book is
exhaustive, its discussion minutely informative,
and its style common, so that anyone can
understand. The spiritually oriented reader will
dweii long and with rich reward in the pages
and amidst the bought of Father John
Arintero.

The cover art is an enlarged,
impressionistic picture of the author.