HKB
live than have to eat any other food; for all food but this has no other effect than to take away the sweet savour which this good food leaves behind.
Further, the conversation of good people does not profit us in one day as much as it does in many; and we may converse with them long enough to become like them, by the grace of God. In short, the whole matter is as His Majesty wills. He gives His grace to whom He pleases; but much depends on this: he who begins to receive this grace must make a firm resolution to detach himself from all things, and esteem this grace according to reason.
It seems also to me as if His Majesty were going about to try those who love Him,--now one, now another,--revealing Himself in supreme joy, so as to quicken our belief, if it should be dead, in what He will give us, saying, Behold! this is but a drop of the immense sea of blessings; for He leaves nothing undone for those He loves; and as He sees them receive it, so He gives, and He gives Himself. He loves those who love Him. Oh, how dear He is!--how good a Friend! O my soul's Lord, who can find words to describe what Thou givest to those who trust in Thee, and what they lose who come to this state, and yet dwell in themselves! Oh, let not this be so, O my Lord! for Thou doest more than this when Thou comest to a lodging so mean as mine. Blessed be Thou for ever and ever!
I now humbly ask you, my father, if you mean to discuss what I have written on prayer with spiritual persons, to see that they are so really; for if they be persons who know only one way, or who have stood still midway, they will not be able to understand the matter. There are also some whom God leads at once by the highest way; these think that others might advance in the same manner--quiet the understanding, and make bodily objects none of their means; but these people will remain dry as a stick. Others, also, there are who, having for a moment attained to the prayer of quiet, think forthwith that, as they have had the one, so they may have the other. These instead of advancing, go back, as I said before. [25] So, throughout, experience and discretion are necessary. May our Lord, of His goodness, bestow them on us!
See Inner Fortress, vi. 7, § 4.
This opinion is supposed to be justified by the words of St. Thomas, 3 Sent. dist. 22, qu. 3, art. 1, ad quintum. "Corporalis præsentia Christi in duobus poterat esse nociva. Primo, quantum ad fidem, quia videntes Eum in forma in qua erat minor Patre, non ita de facili crederent Eum æqualem Patri, ut dicit glossa super Joannem. Secundo, quantum ad dilectionem, quia Eum non solum spiritualiter, sed etiam carnaliter diligeremus, conversantes cum Ipso corporaliter, et hoc est de imperfectione dilectionis."
St. John xvi. 7: "Expedit vobis ut Ego vadam; si enim non abiero, Paracletus non veniet ad vos."
This sentence is in the margin of the original MS., not in the text, but in the handwriting of the Saint (De la Fuente).
"I mean by lately . . . and visions" is in the margin of the MS., but in the handwriting of the Saint (De la Fuente).
Ch. xxviii. § 4.
St. Matt. iii. 17: "Hic est Filius Meus dilectus, in quo Mihi complacui."
St. John x. 7, 9: "Ego sum ostium."
See St. John of the Cross, Mount Carmel, bk. iii. ch. i. p. 212.
Ch. xii. §§ 5, 7.
Ch. xv. § 21.
Ch. xx. § 2.
St. Luke v. 8: "Exi a me, quia homo peccator sum, Domine."
Ch. xii. § 6.
Ch. xxviii.
Psalm lxxii. 22: "Et ego ad nihilum redactus sum, et nescivi."
Isaias liii. 3: "Virum dolorum, et scientem infirmitatem."