107First Mansions, ch. i. 1. 108There are two kinds of contemplation: acquired or natural, and infused or supernatural. In their widest sense, including many remarkable phenomena of Natural religion, and, of course, the most wonderful manifestations recorded in the Old Testament, they form the system called Mysticism and are the proper object of Mystical theology. Natural or acquired contemplation is based upon an idealistic turn of mind which enables the soul to gaze upon the Godhead (simple gaze, as St.
Teresa calls it) without approaching Him by the laborious process of reasoning, and in so doing embraces Him with its affective powers; like a person who, devoid of technical skill, takes in and is enamoured by, the beauty of a painting. Infused contemplation is the highest act of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost of Knowledge and Wisdom. It is often impossible, nor is it always essential, to determine where acquired contemplation ends and infused contemplation begins. But it should be borne in mind that both the one and the other are operations and not merely a passive state or mere fruition.
Even the highest form of contemplation, the Beatific Vision, is a supernatural act of the soul, an operation of unending duration. A ship moved by a gentle breeze is rightly said to be actually sailing though the rowers are at rest. 109Life, ch. xii. 11. 110Life, ch. xvii. 7. 111Philippus a SS. Trinitate, Summa Tleologiæ Mysticæ, pars iii. tract. i. disc. iii. art. 2. Life, ch. xv. 11, xxii. 22, 23. Way of Perf. ch. xvi. 4, xli. 2. Concep. ch. v. 3. 112S.
Matt. xx. 15: ‘Aut non licet mihi quod volo facere?’ 113Way of Perf., ch. xix. 8. Castle, M. iv. ch. ii. 4. The first three mansions of the Interior Castle correspond with the ‘first water,’ or the prayer of Meditation, explained in ch. xi-xiii. of the Life; the fourth mansion, or the prayer of Quiet, with the ‘second water,’ Life, ch. xiv. and xv.; the fifth mansion, or the prayer of Union, with the ‘third water,’ Life, ch. xvi. and xvii.; and the sixth mansion, ecstasy, etc., with the ‘fourth water,’ Life, ch. xviii.-xxi. 114Ps. cxviii. 32.
Way of Perf. ch. xxviii. 11. 115Life, ch. iii. 1. 116Life, ch. xii. 2-4.. 117Found. ch. v. 2. Way of Perf. ch. xxxi. 6, 12. Life, ch. xv, 16, ch. XXX. 19. 118Life, ch. xv. 9, 10. 119Second Relation addressed to Fr. Rodrigo Alvarez. 120Way of Perf. ch. xxxiii. 8. Life, ch. xxi. S. Rel. ii. 12. 121According to Fr. Gracian the Saint here refers to Cant. viii. 1: ‘Et jam me nemo despiciat.’ 122Way of Perf. ch. xvii. 2. 123Way of Perf. ch, xxxi. 9. 124’A clear description of an attack of hysteria with the significant remark that she herself had never experienced anything of the kind’.
(Dr. Goix, quoted by P. Grégoire, La prétendue hystérie de Sainte Thérèse, Lyon, Vitte, 1895, p. 53.) 125Way of Perf. ch. xix. 5; also St. John of the Cross, Ascent of Mount Carmel, bk. ii, ch. xiv, 2, and xxi. 3. 126Life, ch. x. 2. 127Ps. cxviii. 32. Life, ch. xvii. 14, 128Life, ch. xiv. 9. Way of Perf. ch. xxviii. 11. 129Life, ch. xiv. 3: ‘The faculties are not lost, neither are they asleep; the will alone is occupied in such a way that without knowing how it has become a captive it gives a simple consent to become the prisoner of God.’
Ibid. § 4: ‘The other two faculties help the will that it may render itself capable of the fruition of so great a good; nevertheless, it occasionally happens even when the will is in union that they hinder it very much.’ See also Way of Perf. ch. xxxi. 8. 130Way of Perf. ch. xvi. i. Life, ch. xxii. 16. 131Philippus a SS. Trinitate, l.c. art. 3. 132Life, ch. xiv. 2. The Saint says in the second chapter of this mansion, § 5, and also in letters dated Dec. 7, 1577 (Vol.
II) and Jan. 14, 1580, that when writing the Interior Castle she had more experience in spiritual things than when she composed her former works. This is fully borne out by the present chapter. In the corresponding part of her Life she practically confounded the prayer of recollection with the prayer of quiet (the second state of the soul). Likewise, in the Way of Perfection, ch. xxviii., she speaks of but one kind of prayer of recollection and then passes on to the prayer of quiet.
Here, however, she mentions a second form of the prayer of recollection. See Philippus a SS. Trinitate, pars iii. tract. i, disc. iii. art. 1, ‘De oratione recollectionis’ (page 81 of the third vol. of the edition of 1874); ‘de secundo modo recollectionis’ (ibid. p. 82.); and art. 2: ‘De oratione quietis’ (ibid. p. 84.) Antonius a Spiritu Sancto, Direct. Mystic. tract. iv. n. 78: ‘Duo sunt hujus recollectionis modi, primus quidem activus [reference to the Way of Perfection, l.c.], secundus autem passivus, [reference to this chapter of the Fourth Mansion].’
The former is not supernatural, in the sense that with special grace from above it can be acquired; the second is altogether supernatural and more like gratuitous grace (ibid. no. 80 and 81). On the meaning of ‘Solitude,’ ‘Silence,’ etc., see Anton. a Sp. S. l.c., tract. i, n. 78-82. 133The edition of Burgos (vol. iv, P. 59) refers appropriately to the following passage in the Tercer Abecedario (See Life, ch. iv, 8) by the Franciscan friar Francisco de Osuna, a work which exercised a profound influence on St.
Teresa: ’Entering within oneself; and rising above oneself, are the two principal points in this exercise, those which, above all others, one ought to strive after, and which give the highest satisfaction to the soul. There is less labour in entering within oneself than in rising above oneself and therefore it appears to me that when the soul is ready and fit for either, you ought to do the former, because the other will follow without any effort, and will be all the more pure and spiritual; however, follow what course your soul prefers as this will bring you more grace and benefit,’ (Tr. ix, ch, viii). 134Some editors of the Interior Castle think that St.
Teresa refers to the following passage taken from the Confessions of St. Augustine: ‘Too late have I loved Thee, O Beauty, ever ancient yet ever new! too late have I loved Thee! And behold, Thou wert within me and I abroad, and there I searched for Thee, and, deformed as I was, I pursued the beauties that Thou hast made. Thou wert with me, but I was not with Thee. Those things kept me far from Thee, which, unless they were in Thee, could have had no being’ (St. Augustine’s Confessions, bk. x, ch. xxvii.).
The Confessions of St. Augustine were first translated into Spanish by Sebastian Toscano, a Portuguese Augustinian. This edition, which was published at Salamanca in 1554, was the one used by St. Teresa. However, it is more probable that here and elsewhere (Life, ch. xli. 10; Way of Perf. ch. xxviii. 2) St. Teresa quotes a passage which occurs in a pious book entitled Soliloquia, and erroneously attributed to St. Augustine: ‘I have gone about the streets and the broad ways of the city of this world seeking Thee, but have not found Thee for I was wrong in seeking without for what was within.’
(ch. xxxi.) This treatise which is also quoted by St. John of the Cross, Spiritual Canticle, stanza i. 7, Ascent of Mount Carmel, bk. i. ch. v. 1, appeared in a Spanish translation at Valladolid in 1515, at Medina del Campo in 1553, and at Toledo in 1565. 135Life, ch. xiv. 7, 8; 20. 136St. Teresa read this in the Tercer Abecedario of Francisco de Osuna (tr. vi, ch, iv): ‘This exercise concentrates the senses of man in the interior of the heart where dwells ‘the daughter of the king’; that is, the Catholic soul; thus recollected, man may well be compared to the tortoise or sea-urchin which rolls itself up and withdraws within itself, disregarding everything outside.’ 137Life. ch, xii. 8. 138Life, ch. xiv, 10. 139 A Golden Treatise of Mental Prayer by St.
Peter of Alcantara, translated by Rev. G. F. Bullock M.A. and edited by Rev. George Seymour Hollings S.S.J.E. London, Mowbray, 1905, p. 117.
Eighth Counsel. Let the last and chiefest counsel be that in this holy exercise we should endeavour to unite Meditation with Contemplation making of the one a ladder for attaining to the other. For this we must know that (p. 118) the very office of Meditation is to consider Divine things with studiousness and attention passing from one to another, to move our hearts to some affection and deep feeling for them, which is as though one should strike a flint to draw from it the spark.
For Contemplation is to have drawn forth this spark: I mean to have now found this affection and feeling which were sought for, and to be in peace and silence enjoying them; not with many discursive and intellectual speculations but with simple gaze upon the truth.
Wherefore, says a holy teacher, Meditation goes its way and brings forth fruit, with labour, but Contemplation bears fruit without labour.
The one seeketh, the other findeth; the one consumeth the food, the other enjoys it; the one discourseth, and maketh reflections, the other is contented with a simple gaze upon the things, for it hath in possession their love and joy. Lastly, the one is as the means, the other as the end; the one as the road and journeying along it, the other as the end of the road and of the journeying.
From this is to be inferred a very common thing, which all masters of the spiritual life teach, although it is little (p. 119) understood of those who learn it; which is this, that, as the means cease when the end has been attained, as the voyaging is over when the port has been touched, so when, through the working out of our Meditation, we have come to the repose and sweet savour of Contemplation, we ought then to cease from that pious and laborious searching; and being satisfied with the simple gaze upon, and thought of, God—as though we had Him there present before us—we should rest in the enjoyment of that affection then given, whether it be of love, or of admiration, or joy, or other like sentiment.
The reason why this counsel is given is this, that as the aim of this devotion is love and the affections of the will rather than the speculations of the understanding, when the will has been caught and taken by this affection, we should put away all those discursive and intellectual speculations, so far as we can, in order that our soul with all its forces may be fastened upon this affection without being diverted by the action of other influences. A learned teacher, therefore, counsels us that as soon as anyone feels himself fired by the love of God, he should first put aside (p. 120.) all these considerations and thoughts—however exalted they may seem—not because they are really not good in themselves, but because they are then hindrances to what is better. and more important. For this is nothing else than that, having come to the end and purpose of our work, we should stay therein, and leave Meditation for the love of Contemplation. This may especially be done at the end of any exercise, that is, after the petition for the Divine love of which we have spoken, for one reason, because then it is supposed that the labour of the exercise we have just gone through has produced some divine devotion and feeling, since, saith the wise man, ‘Better is the end of prayer than the beginning’: and for another reason, that, after the work of Prayer and Meditation, it is well that one should give his mind a little rest, and allow it to repose in the arms of Contemplation. At this point, then, we should put away all other thoughts that may present themselves, and, quieting the mind and stilling the memory, fix all upon our Lord; and remembering that we are then in His presence, no longer dwell upon the details of divine things.
Ibidem p. 121. And not only at the end of the exercise but in the midst of it, and at whatever part of it, this spiritual swoon should come upon us, when the intellect is laid to sleep, we should make this pause, and enjoy the blessing bestowed; and then, when we have finished the digestion of it, turn to the matter we have in hand, as the gardener does, when he waters his garden-bed; who, after giving it (p. 122) a sufficiency of water, holds back the stream, and lets it soak and spread itself through the depths of the earth; and then when this hath somewhat dried up, he turns down upon it again the flow of water that it may receive still more, and be well irrigated.’ 140Sap. viii. i: ‘Disponit omnia suaviter.’ 141Life, ch. xv. i. 142’The whole of the time in which our Lord communicates the simple, loving general attention of which I made mention before, or when the soul, assisted by grace, is established in that state, we must contrive to keep the understanding in repose, undisturbed by the intrusion of forms, figures, or particular knowledge, unless it were slightly and for an instant, and that with sweetness of love, to enkindle our souls the more. At other times, however, in all our acts of devotion and good works, we must make use of good recollections and meditations, so that we may feel an increase of profit and devotion; most especially applying ourselves to the life, passion, and death of Jesus Christ, our Lord, that our life and conduct may be an imitation of His.’ (St. John of the Cross, Ascent of Mount Carmel, bk. ii. ch. xxxii. 7.) 143Life, ch. xv. 2. 144Life, ch. xxiv. 2. 145Way of Perf. ch. xvi. 5. Castle, M. v. ch. i, 2, 3; ii. 4, 5; iii. 2, 6, 12. 146Way of Perf. ch. xxxi. 7. Concept. ch. iv. 6. 147Way of Perf. ch. xl. 3. 148Life, ch. xx. 31. 149Found. ch. vi. 150Found. ch. vi. 15. 151Life ch. xviii. 16, 17. 152Letter of Oct. 23, 1 376. Vol. II. 153Found. ch. viii. 7-8.
Source: Interior Castle (CCEL)